‘My main impression of those days are poverty. Everybody was poor.’ Mr West, describing growing up in Bedminster in the 1930s In 1919 there was a shortfall of 5,000 homes in Bristol. The council built 15,000 homes between 1919 and 1939, mainly new estates in Knowle, Sea Mills, Fishponds, Bedminster, Horfield and Southmead. This still wasn’t enough, and as not everyone could afford the rent for the new houses, some people still had to live in slums.