Around Phoenix Wharf, beside the Ostrich Inn, there are three openings built into the red, sandstone cliffs which give Redcliffe its name - each guarded by a metal gate.
Peering through to the darkness beyond it may be difficult to realise just what an important piece of Bristol history is hidden away and out of sight.
These are the Redcliffe Caves, a series of tunnels which to this day are shrouded in rumour and mystery.
Despite the name, the Redcliffe Caves are actually mines, as the entire system was carved by hand with the purpose of accessing the fine sand within the cliffs that was perfect for making glass.
It’s not known exactly when mining began here but it was likely sometime during the later Middle Ages when Bristol was making a name for itself in the manufacturing of glassware.
From the 17th and into the early 19th century the network of tunnels was expanded greatly as glass products from Bristol became a vitally important commodity to the Atlantic triangular slave trade, where they would be exchanged for captured slaves in west Africa, who would in turn be bartered for tobacco and sugar which would be brought back to England.
Rumours persist that around this time the Redcliffe Caves were used to keep slaves chained to walls but there’s very little evidence to support this.
However, it is believed slaves may have been held in the basement of houses on nearby Guinea Street.
It has also been claimed that French prisoners of war were imprisoned here, which probably did happen.
Other rumours include that a secret passage from the vaults of St Mary Redcliffe church leads into the complex, and also that they are haunted by the ghosts of either slaves, or sailors - or both.
Perhaps the biggest and most surprising mystery about the Redcliffe Caves is that we don’t really have any idea how far they actually go on for.
Strange as it may seem, only a fraction of the mined tunnels has actually been mapped out, as during World War II a large bomb detonated in Redcliffe, causing a massive cave-in which permanently blocked what is thought to be the majority of the complex.
With no records or maps known to survive of the caves, it is astonishing to think that there may be a vast web of tunnels weaving beneath the streets of Redcliffe, trapped away - possibly permanently in the darkness.
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