Merchant's Quarter in Bristol

deSade · 21 Apr 2006 at 20:05

Hi Guys

It's recently been announced that a new £500m redevelopment of Bristol city centre's retail area is to be renamed, because of possible connotations it has with the slave trade. From BBC Bristol:

A council leader claims a controversial name for a £500m redevelopment in Bristol is to be changed.

Some groups had complained the name, Merchants' Quarter, was offensive because it glorified the city's historic slave trading past.

But Bristol Alliance - behind the project - said merchants had played a crucial role in the story of the city.

Barbara Janke, Leader of Bristol City Council, told the BBC: "I have been told the name has been dropped."

The Bristol Alliance refused to comment on the possible name change and said it would release a statement on Thursday.

The debate over the controversial renaming of the revamped area has raged for several months.

I know that this is a touchy subject, but was wondering what your views were on this - Sensitive & understanding people management, or political correctness go a bit too far?

TheMagicPirate · 21 Apr 2006 at 20:13

PC gone too far.

Past is past IMO (in most cases)

Bunka · 21 Apr 2006 at 20:14

Yup, the city was founded on that history hundreds of years ago, why feel ashamed about it.

deSade · 21 Apr 2006 at 20:20

Those are my feelings on the subject as well. Also, to take one word - 'Merchant' and damn it because of just one thing it was associated with seems crazy to me.

ClearChaos · 21 Apr 2006 at 20:26

id go for "broadmead 2 the revenge of the chavs" but im guessing they are going to stick with broadmead as a large proportion of bristols teenage chav breeders cant pronounce words with that many T's in it

merchans quarer... wheres tha then init !!!

deSade · 21 Apr 2006 at 20:41

ClearChaos said:
id go for "broadmead 2 the revenge of the chavs" but im guessing they are going to stick with broadmead as a large proportion of bristols teenage chav breeders cant pronounce words with that many T's in it

merchans quarer... wheres tha then init !!!

LOL - Imagine all the Chav's hanging around the new Harvey Nicholls when it's built!