The Burning of the Mansion House, Queen Square, Bristol

The Bristol Riots were the most destructive and bloodiest civil uprising that England experienced in the nineteenth-century. Muller, then at the start of his career, witnessed the mob in action between October 29 and 31, 1831, then created art works to record key moments. Here he depicts the burning of the mayor's office in Queen Square on the second evening, with foreground figures watching flames and smoke consume substantial masonry structures. The intensely bright flames emit white and orange particles between the central buildings and shoots missile-like embers over a distant crowd. Parliament’s failure to pass anticipated reform in 1831 had sparked this uprising which began when members of a disorderly crowd of protestors were bludgeoned and arrested. Parliament would pass the Great Reform Act in 1832, but it took Bristol eighty years to rebuild.