St Peter is generally recognised as the mother church of Bristol, first mentioned in 1106. The
building that can be seen today dates from the 14th century. After narrowly escaping destruction
during the Civil War, St Peter was gutted in a bombing raid on 24th November 1940 and is now an
empty shell standing in the middle of Castle Park. Alderman Thomas Underwood, Bristol's Lord
Mayor during the blitz, later wrote that, "The City of Churches had in one night become the city of
ruins." Behind the church once stood St Peter's Hospital, a medieval timbered and gabled mansion
which served as a workhouse for the city's poor and which also housed the Bristol Mint for
a short time. The Hospital was completely destroyed in the same air raid.