Struggles over the symbolic ownership of Bristol's open spaces were often influenced by association with conflicts between mercantile elites and ‘the people’ over the definition and nature of civic identity. Shifting political and cultural readings of Brandon Hill and Queen Square are here identified and contrasted, offering a fresh interpretation of controversies over ‘improvement’ and gentrification via the fluid appropriation of these sites for the representation of radicalism, citizenship, liberty, respectability or commercialism.