Throughout the 1900s, the Christmas Meat Show was the occasion for the local butchers to put on a grand show in their shop window. This photograph shows Alfred Collard's shop in Bedminster 'decorated' with sides of beef, whole carcasses and many turkeys. Without a freezer or refridgerator at home, most people bought the meat for their Christmas dinner - beef, ham and turkey - only a day or two before, so the Christmas Meat Show started only in the week before Christmas Day.

Much of the meat is hung on the outside of the shop, in the street. Food hygiene regulations were less strict in the Victorian period.

Collard's began with one shop in Bedminster in the 1850s, which expanded into a chain of shops in Bedminster, Clifton, Old Market and Redcliffe. Four generations of Collards worked as butchers before the original shop closed in the 1980s.