A major port, Bristol was a starting place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. On a ship out of Bristol in 1497, John Cabot, a Venetian, became the first European to land on mainland North America. In 1499, William Weston, a Bristol merchant, was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America. At the height of the Bristol slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, more than 2,000 slave ships carried an estimated 500,000 people from Africa to slavery in the Americas. The Port of Bristol has since moved from Bristol Harbour in the city centre to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Dock.
Early recorded place names in the Bristol area include the Roman-era British CelticAbona (derived from the name of the Avon) and the archaic WelshCaer Odor ('fort on the chasm'), which may have been calqued as the modern English Clifton.[9][10]
The current name "Bristol" derives from the Old English form Brycgstow, which is typically etymologised as 'place at the bridge'.[11] It has also been suggested that Brycgstow means "the place called Bridge by the place called Stow", the Stow in question referring to an early religious meeting place at what is now College Green.[12] However, other derivations have been proposed.[13] It appears that the form Bricstow prevailed until 1204,[14] and the Bristolian 'L' (the tendency for the local dialect to add the sound "L" to many words ending in a neutral vowel) is what eventually changed the name to Bristol.[15] The original form of the name survives as the surname Bristow, which is derived from the city.[16]
Robert Ricart's map of Bristol, drawn when he became common clerk of the town in 1478. At the centre, it shows the High Cross.[24]
The port developed in the 11th century around the confluence of the Rivers Frome and Avon, adjacent to Bristol Bridge just outside the town walls.[25] By the 12th century, there was an important Jewish community in Bristol which survived through to the late 13th century when all Jews were expelled from England.[26] The stone bridge built in 1247 was replaced by the current bridge during the 1760s.[27] The town incorporated neighbouring suburbs and became a county in 1373,[28] the first town in England to be given this status.[29][30][31] During this period, Bristol became a shipbuilding and manufacturing centre.[32] By the 14th century, Bristol, York and Norwich were England's largest medieval towns after London.[33] One-third to one-half of the population died in the Black Death of 1348–49,[34] which checked population growth, and its population remained between 10,000 and 12,000 for most of the 15th and 16th centuries.[35]
During the 15th century, Bristol was the second most important port in the country, trading with Ireland,[36] Iceland[37] and Gascony.[32] It was the starting point for many voyages, including Robert Sturmy's (1457–58) unsuccessful attempt to break the Italian monopoly of Eastern Mediterranean trade.[38] New exploration voyages were launched by Venetian John Cabot, who in 1497 made landfall in North America.[39] A 1499 voyage, led by merchant William Weston of Bristol, was the first expedition commanded by an Englishman to North America.[40] During the first decade of the 16th century Bristol's merchants undertook a series of exploration voyages to North America and even founded a commercial organisation, 'The Company Adventurers to the New Found Land', to assist their endeavours.[41] However, they seem to have lost interest in North America after 1509, having incurred great expenses and made little profit.
During the 16th century, Bristol merchants concentrated on developing trade with Spain and its American colonies.[42] This included the smuggling of prohibited goods, such as food and guns, to Iberia[43] during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604).[44] Bristol's illicit trade grew enormously after 1558, becoming integral to its economy.[45]
The 17th-century Old Dutch House, High Street, Bristol, before destruction in the Blitz, 1940
Fishermen from Bristol, who had fished the Grand Banks of Newfoundland since the 16th century,[50] began settling Newfoundland permanently in larger numbers during the 17th century, establishing colonies at Bristol's Hope and Cuper's Cove. Growth of the city and trade came with the rise of England's American colonies in the 17th century. Bristol's location on the west side of Great Britain gave its ships an advantage in sailing to and from the New World, and the city's merchants made the most of it, with the city becoming one of the two leading outports in all of England by the middle of the 18th century.[51] Bristol was the slave capital of England: In 1755, it had the largest number of slave traders in the country with 237, as against London's 147.[52] It was a major supplier of slaves to South Carolina before 1750.[53]
An 1873 engraving showing Colston Hall, the port and cathedral of Bristol
The 18th century saw an expansion of Bristol's population (45,000 in 1750)[54] and its role in the Atlantic trade in Africans taken for slavery to the Americas. Bristol and later Liverpool became centres of the Triangular Trade.[55] Manufactured goods were shipped to West Africa and exchanged for Africans; the enslaved captives were transported across the Atlantic to the Americas in the Middle Passage under brutal conditions.[56] Plantation goods such as sugar, tobacco, rum, rice, cotton and a few slaves (sold to the aristocracy as house servants) returned across the Atlantic to England.[56] Some household slaves were baptised in the hope this would lead them to be freed. The Somersett Case of 1772 clarified that slavery was illegal in England.[57] At the height of the Bristol slave trade from 1700 to 1807, more than 2,000 slave ships carried a conservatively estimated 500,000 people from Africa to slavery in the Americas.[58]
Wesley published a pamphlet on slavery, titled Thoughts Upon Slavery, in 1774[62] and the Society of Friends began lobbying against slavery in Bristol in 1783. The city's scions remained nonetheless strongly anti-abolitionist. Thomas Clarkson came to Bristol to study the slave trade and gained access to the Society of Merchant Venturers records.[63] One of his contacts was the owner of the Seven Starspublic house, who boarded sailors Clarkson sought to meet. Through these sailors he was able to observe how slaver captains and first mates "plied and stupefied seamen with drink" to sign them up.[63][64] Other informants included ship surgeons and seamen seeking redress. When William Wilberforce began his parliamentary abolition campaign on 12 May 1788, he recalled the history of the Irish slave trade from Bristol, which he provocatively claimed continued into the reign of Henry VII.[63]Hannah More, originally from Bristol, and a good friend of both Wilberforce and Clarkson, published "Slavery, A Poem" in 1788, just as Wilberforce began his parliamentary campaign.[65] His major speech on 2 April 1792 likewise described the Bristol slave trade specifically, and led to the arrest, trial and subsequent acquittal of a local slaver captain named Kimber.[63]
19th century
The city was associated with Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who designed the Great Western Railway between Bristol and London Paddington, two pioneering Bristol-built oceangoing steamships (SS Great Britain and SS Great Western), and the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The new railway replaced the Kennet and Avon Canal, which had fully opened in 1810 as the main route for the transport of goods between Bristol and London.[66] Competition from Liverpool (beginning around 1760), disruptions of maritime commerce due to war with France (1793) and the abolition of the slave trade (1807) contributed to Bristol's failure to keep pace with the newer manufacturing centres of Northern England and the West Midlands. The tidal Avon Gorge, which had secured the port during the Middle Ages, had become a liability. An 1804–09 plan to improve the city's port with a floating harbour designed by William Jessop was a costly error, requiring high harbour fees.[67]
During the 19th century, Samuel Plimsoll, known as "the sailor's friend," campaigned to make the seas safer; shocked by overloaded vessels, he successfully fought for a compulsory load line on ships.[68]
By 1867, ships were getting larger and the meanders in the river Avon prevented boats over 300 feet (90 m) from reaching the harbour, resulting in falling trade.[69] The port facilities were migrating downstream to Avonmouth and new industrial complexes were founded there.[70] Some of the traditional industries including copper and brass manufacture went into decline,[71] but the import and processing of tobacco flourished with the expansion of the W.D. & H.O. Wills business.[72]
Supported by new industry and growing commerce, Bristol's population (66,000 in 1801), quintupled during the 19th century,[73] resulting in the creation of new suburbs such as Clifton and Cotham. These provide architectural examples from the Georgian to the Regency style, with many fine terraces and villas facing the road, and at right angles to it. In the early 19th century, the romantic medievalgothic style appeared, partially as a reaction against the symmetry of Palladianism, and can be seen in buildings such as the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery,[74] the Royal West of England Academy,[75] and The Victoria Rooms.[76]Riots broke out in 1793[77] and 1831; the first over the renewal of tolls on Bristol Bridge, and the second against the rejection of the second Reform Bill by the House of Lords.[78] The population by 1841 had reached 140,158.[79]
The Diocese of Bristol had undergone several boundary changes by 1897 when it was "reconstituted" into the configuration which has lasted into the 21st century.[80]
20th century
A 1946 map of Bristol
From a population of about 330,000 in 1901, Bristol grew steadily during the 20th century, peaking at 428,089 in 1971.[81] Its Avonmouth docklands were enlarged during the early 1900s by the Royal Edward Dock.[82] Another new dock, the Royal Portbury Dock, opened across the river from Avonmouth during the 1970s.[83] As air travel grew in the first half of the century, aircraft manufacturers built factories.[84] The unsuccessful Bristol International Exhibition was held on Ashton Meadows in the Bower Ashton area in 1914.[85] After the premature closure of the exhibition the site was used, until 1919, as barracks for the Gloucestershire Regiment during World War I.[86][87]
St Mary le Port Church, destroyed on 24 November 1940
The 20th-century relocation of the docks to Avonmouth Docks and Royal Portbury Dock, 7 miles (11 km) downstream from the city centre, has allowed the redevelopment of the old dock area (the Floating Harbour).[96] Although the docks' existence was once in jeopardy (since the area was seen as a derelict industrial site), the inaugural 1996 International Festival of the Sea held in and around the docks affirmed the area as a leisure asset of the city.[97]
21st century
From 2018, there were lively discussions about a new explicative plaque under a commemorative statue of one of the city's major benefactors in the 17th and 18th centuries. The plaque was meant to replace an original which made no reference to Edward Colston's past with the Royal Africa Company and the Bristol Slave Trade.[98] On 7 June 2020 a statue of Colston was pulled down from its plinth by protestors and pushed into Bristol Harbour.[99] The statue was recovered on 11 June and has become a museum exhibit.[100]
Bristol City council consists of 70 councillors representing 35 wards,[101] with between one and three per ward serving four-year terms. Councillors are elected in thirds, with elections held in three years out of every four-year period. Thus, since wards do not have both councillors up for election at the same time, two-thirds of the wards participate in each election.[102] Although the council was long dominated by the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats have grown strong in the city and (as the largest party) took minority control of the council after the 2005 United Kingdom general election. In 2007, Labour and the Conservatives united to defeat the Liberal Democrat administration; Labour ruled the council as a minority administration, with Helen Holland as council leader.[103]
In February 2009, the Labour group resigned and the Liberal Democrats re-entered office with a minority administration.[104] In the June 2009 council elections the Liberal Democrats gained four seats and, for the first time, overall control of the city council.[105] In 2010 they increased their representation to 38 seats, giving them a majority of 6.[106] In 2011, they lost their majority; leading to a hung council. In the 2013 local elections, in which a third of the city's wards were up for election, Labour gained 7seats and the Green Party doubled their seats from 2to 4. The Liberal Democrats lost 10 seats.[107]
These trends were continued into the next election in May 2014, in which Labour gained three seats to take their total to 31, the Green Party won two more seats, the Conservative party gained one seat, and UKIP won their first-ever seat on the council. The Liberal Democrats lost a further seven seats.[108]
On 3 May 2012, Bristol held a referendum on the question of a directly elected mayor replacing one elected by the council. There were 41,032 votes in favour of a directly elected mayor and 35,880 votes against, with a 24% turnout. An election for the new post was held on 15 November 2012, and Independent candidate George Ferguson became Mayor of Bristol.[109] In May 2022 the city voted to abolish the position in a referendum, replacing it with a committee system. Marvin Rees, mayor in 2022, will hold the post until 2024.[110]
The Lord Mayor of Bristol, not to be confused with the Mayor of Bristol, is a figurehead elected each May by the city council. Councillor Faruk Choudhury was selected by his fellow councillors for the position in 2013. At 38, he was the youngest person to serve as Lord Mayor of Bristol and the first Muslim elected to the office.[111] The current Lord Mayor is Councillor Paula O'Rourke.
Bristol constituencies in the House of Commons also included parts of other local authority areas until the 2010 general election, when their boundaries were aligned with the county boundary. The city is divided into Bristol West, East, South and North West.[112] At the 2017 general election, Labour won all four of the Bristol constituencies, gaining the Bristol North West seat, seven years after losing it to the Conservatives.[113]
Bristol is both a city and a county, since King Edward III granted it a county charter in 1373.[28] The county was expanded in 1835 to include suburbs such as Clifton, and it was named a county borough in 1889 when that designation was introduced.[30]
On 1 April 1974, Bristol became a local government district of the county of Avon.[120] On 1 April 1996, Avon was abolished and Bristol became a unitary authority.[121]
The North Fringe of Bristol, a developed area between the Bristol city boundary and the M4, M5 and M32 motorways (now in South Gloucestershire) was so named as part of a 1987 plan prepared by the Northavon District Council of Avon county.[123]
The West of England Combined Authority was created on 9 February 2017.[124] Covering Bristol and the rest of the old Avon county with the exception of North Somerset, the new combined authority has responsibility for regional planning, roads, and local transport, and to a lesser extent, education and business investment. The authority's first mayor, Tim Bowles, was elected in May 2017.[125] One of the first actions of the new authority was the announcement of a new train station to be built at Portway.[126]
Bristol's boundaries can be defined in several ways, including those of the city itself, the developed area, or Greater Bristol.
The city council boundary is the narrowest definition of the city itself. However, it unusually includes a large, roughly rectangular section of the western Severn Estuary ending at (but not including) the islands of Flat Holm (in Cardiff, Wales) and Steep Holm.[127] This "seaward extension" can be traced back to the original boundary of the County of Bristol laid out in the charter granted to the city by Edward III in 1373.[128]
Bristol lies within a limestone area running from the Mendip Hills in the south to the Cotswolds in the northeast.[130] The rivers Avon and Frome cut through the limestone to the underlying clay, creating Bristol's characteristically hilly landscape. The Avon flows from Bath in the east, through flood plains and areas which were marshes before the city's growth. To the west the Avon cuts through the limestone to form the Avon Gorge, formed largely by glacial meltwater after the last ice age.[131]
The gorge, which helped protect Bristol Harbour, has been quarried for stone to build the city, and its surrounding land has been protected from development as The Downs and Leigh Woods. The Avon estuary and the gorge form the county boundary with North Somerset, and the river flows into the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth. A smaller gorge, cut by the Hazel Brook which flows into the River Trym, crosses the Blaise Castle estate in northern Bristol.[131]
Bristol is sometimes described, by its inhabitants, as being built on seven hills. From 18th century guidebooks, these 7 hills were known as simply Bristol (the Old Town), Castle Hill, College Green, Kingsdown, St Michaels Hill, Brandon Hill and Redcliffe Hill.[132] Other local hills include Red Lion Hill, Barton Hill, Lawrence Hill, Black Boy Hill, Constitution Hill, Staple Hill, Windmill Hill, Malborough Hill, Nine Tree Hill, Talbot, Brook Hill and Granby Hill.
Bristol is 106 miles (171 km) west of London, 77 miles (124 km) south-southwest of Birmingham and 26 miles (42 km) east of the Welsh capital Cardiff. Areas adjoining the city fall within a loosely defined area known as Greater Bristol. Bath is located 11 miles (18 km) south east of the city centre, Weston-super-Mare is 18 miles (29 km) to the south west, and the Welsh city of Newport is 19 miles (31 km) to the north west.
Climate
The climate is oceanic (Köppen: Cfb), milder than most places in England and United Kingdom.[133][134] Located in southern England, Bristol is one of the warmest cities in the UK with a mean annual temperature of approximately 10.5 °C (50.9 °F).[135][136] It is among the sunniest, with 1,541–1,885hours of sunshine per year.[137] Although the city is partially sheltered by the Mendip Hills, it is exposed to the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel. Annual rainfall increases from north to south, with totals north of the Avon in the 600–900 mm (24–35 in) range and 900–1,200 mm (35–47 in) south of the river.[138] Rain is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, with autumn and winter the wetter seasons. The Atlantic Ocean influences Bristol's weather, keeping its average temperature above freezing throughout the year, but winter frosts are frequent and snow occasionally falls from early November to late April. Summers are warm and drier, with variable sunshine, rain and clouds, and spring weather is unsettled.[139]
The weather stations nearest Bristol for which long-term climate data are available are Long Ashton (about 5 miles (8 km) south west of the city centre) and Bristol Weather Station, in the city centre. Data collection at these locations ended in 2002 and 2001, respectively, and Filton Airfield is currently the nearest weather station to the city.[140] Temperatures at Long Ashton from 1959 to 2002 ranged from 33.5 °C (92.3 °F) in July 1976[141] to −14.4 °C (6.1 °F) in January 1982.[142] Monthly high temperatures since 2002 at Filton exceeding those recorded at Long Ashton include 25.7 °C (78.3 °F) in April 2003,[143] 34.5 °C (94.1 °F) in July 2006[144] and 26.8 °C (80.2 °F) in October 2011.[145] The lowest recent temperature at Filton was −10.1 °C (13.8 °F) in December 2010.[146] Although large cities in general experience an urban heat island effect, with warmer temperatures than their surrounding rural areas, this phenomenon is minimal in Bristol.[147]
Climate data for Filton,[a] elevation: 48 m (157 ft), 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1958–present[b]
Bristol was ranked as Britain's most sustainable city (based on its environmental performance, quality of life, future-proofing and approaches to climate change, recycling and biodiversity), topping environmental charity Forum for the Future's 2008 Sustainable Cities Index.[150][151] Local initiatives include Sustrans (creators of the National Cycle Network, founded as Cyclebag in 1977)[152] and Resourcesaver, a non-profit business established in 1988 by Avon Friends of the Earth.[153] In 2014 The Sunday Times named it as the best city in Britain in which to live.[154] The city received the 2015 European Green Capital Award, becoming the first UK city to receive this award.[155]
In 2019 Bristol City Council voted in favour of banning all privately owned diesel cars from the city centre.[156] Since then, the plans have been revised in favour of a clean air zone whereby older and more polluting vehicles will be charged to drive through the city centre. The Clean Air Zone is currently due to come into effect in Summer 2022.[157]
The city has green belt mainly along its southern fringes, taking in small areas within the Ashton Court Estate, South Bristol crematorium and cemetery, High Ridge common and Whitchurch, with a further area around Frenchay Farm. The belt extends outside the city boundaries into surrounding counties and districts, for several miles in places, to afford a protection from urban sprawl to surrounding villages and towns.
According to the 2011 census, 84% of the population was White (77.9% White British, 0.9% White Irish, 0.1% Gypsy or Irish Travellers and 5.1% Other White); 3.6% mixed-race (1.7% white-and-black Caribbean, 0.4% white-and-black African, 0.8% white and Asian and 0.7% other mixed); 5.5% Asian (1.6% Pakistani, 1.5% Indian, 0.9% Chinese, 0.5% Bangladeshi, and 1% other Asian); 6% Black (2.8% African, 1.6% Caribbean, 1.6% Other Black), 0.3% Arab and 0.6% with other heritage. Bristol is unusual among major British towns and cities in its larger black than Asian population.[165] These statistics apply to the Bristol Unitary Authority area, excluding areas of the urban area (2006 estimated population 587,400) in South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) and North Somerset—such as Kingswood, Mangotsfield, Filton and Warmley.[81] 56.2% of the 209,995 Bristol residents who are employed commute to work using either a car, van, motorbike or taxi, 2.2% commute by rail and 9.8% by bus, while 19.6% walk.[166]
Inequality
The Runnymede Trust found in 2017 that Bristol "ranked 7th out of the 348 districts of England & Wales (1=worst) on the Index of Multiple Inequality."[167] In terms of employment, the report found that "ethnic minorities are disadvantaged compared to white British people nationally, but this is to a greater extent in Bristol, particularly for black groups." Black people in Bristol experience the 3rd highest level of educational inequality in England and Wales.[167]
Bristol conurbation
The population of Bristol's contiguous urban area was put at 551,066 by the ONS based on Census 2001 data.[168] In 2006 the ONS estimated Bristol's urban-area population at 587,400,[169] making it England's sixth-most populous city and tenth-most populous urban area.[168] At 3,599 inhabitants per square kilometre (9,321/sq mi) it has the seventh-highest population density of any English district.[170] According to data from 2019, the urban area has the 11th-largest population in the UK with a population of 670,000.[171]
Two of the four Nails (bronze tables used for conducting business) in Corn Street
Bristol has a long history of trade, originally exporting wool cloth and importing fish, wine, grain and dairy products;[173] later imports were tobacco, tropical fruits and plantation goods. Major imports are motor vehicles, grain, timber, produce and petroleum products.[174] Since the 13th century, the rivers have been modified for docks; during the 1240s, the Frome was diverted into a deep, man-made channel (known as Saint Augustine's Reach) which flowed into the River Avon.[175][176]
Ships occasionally departed Bristol for Iceland as early as 1420, and speculation exists that sailors (fishermen who landed on the Canadian coast to salt/ smoke their catch) from Bristol made landfall in the Americas before Christopher Columbus or John Cabot.[25] Beginning in the early 1480s, the Bristol Society of Merchant Venturers sponsored exploration of the North Atlantic in search of trading opportunities.[25] In 1552, Edward VI granted a royal charter to the Merchant Venturers to manage the port. Among explorers to depart from the port after Cabot were Martin Frobisher, Thomas James, after whom James Bay, on southern coast of Hudson Bay is named, and Martin Pring, who discovered Cape Cod and the southern New England coast in 1603.[177]
By 1670 the city had 6,000tons of shipping (of which half was imported tobacco), and by the late 17th and early 18th centuries shipping played a significant role in the slave trade.[25] During the 18th century, Bristol was Britain's second-busiest port;[178] business was conducted in the trading area around The Exchange in Corn Street over bronze tables known as Nails. Although the Nails are cited as originating the phrase "cash on the nail" (immediate payment), the phrase was probably in use before their installation.[179]
The city's economy also relies on the aerospace, defence, media, information technology, financial services and tourism industries.[180][181] The Ministry of Defence (MoD)'s Procurement Executive, later known as the Defence Procurement Agency and Defence Equipment and Support, moved to its headquarters to Abbey Wood, Filton, in 1995. This organisation, with a staff of 12,000 to 13,000, procures and supports MoD equipment.[182] One of the UK's most popular tourist destinations, Bristol was selected in 2009 as one of the world's top-ten cities by international travel publishers Dorling Kindersley in their Eyewitness guides for young adults.[183]
Bristol is one of the eight-largest regional English cities that make up the Core Cities Group, and is ranked as a Gamma level global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, the fourth-highest-ranked English city.[184] In 2017 Bristol's gross domestic product was £88.448billion.[185][186] Its per capita GDP was £46,000 ($65,106, €57,794), which was some 65% above the national average, the third-highest of any English city (after London and Nottingham) and the sixth-highest of any city in the United Kingdom (behind London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast and Nottingham).[185] According to the 2011 census, Bristol's unemployment rate (claiming Jobseeker's Allowance) was three per cent, compared with two per cent for South West England and the national average of four per cent.[187]
Although Bristol's economy no longer relies upon its port, which was moved to docks at Avonmouth during the 1870s[188] and to the Royal Portbury Dock in 1977 as ship size increased, it is the largest importer of cars to the UK. Until 1991, the port was publicly owned; it is leased, with £330million invested and its annual tonnage increasing from 3.9million long tons (4million tonnes) to 11.8million (12million).[189] Tobacco importing and cigarette manufacturing have ceased, but the importation of wine and spirits continues.[190]
The financial services sector employs 59,000 in the city,[191] and 50 micro-electronics and silicon design companies employ about 5,000. In 1983 Hewlett-Packard opened its national research laboratory in Bristol.[192][193] In 2014 the city was ranked seventh in the "top 10 UK destinations" by TripAdvisor.[194]
During the 20th century, Bristol's manufacturing activities expanded to include aircraft production at Filton by the Bristol Aeroplane Company and aircraft-engine manufacturing by Bristol Aero Engines (later Rolls-Royce) at Patchway. Bristol Aeroplane was known for their World War I Bristol Fighter[195] and World War II Blenheim and Beaufighter planes.[195] During the 1950s they were a major English manufacturer of civilian aircraft, known for the Freighter, Britannia and Brabazon. The company diversified into automobile manufacturing during the 1940s, producing hand-built, luxuryBristol Cars at their factory in Filton, and the Bristol Cars company was spun off in 1960.[196] The city also gave its name to Bristol buses, which were manufactured in the city from 1908 to 1983: by Bristol Tramways until 1955, and from 1955 to 1983 by Bristol Commercial Vehicles.[197]
Final Concorde flight on 26 November 2003, shortly before landing on the Filton runway
Filton played a key role in the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner project during the 1960s. The British Concorde prototype made its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford on 9 April 1969, five weeks after the French test flight.[198] In 2003 British Airways and Air France decided to discontinue Concorde flights, retiring the aircraft to locations (primarily museums) worldwide. On 26 November 2003 Concorde 216 made the final Concorde flight, returning to Bristol Filton Airport as the centrepiece of a proposed air museum which is planned to include the existing Bristol Aero collection (including a Bristol Britannia).[199]
The aerospace industry remains a major sector of the local economy.[200] Major aerospace companies in Bristol include BAE Systems, a merger of Marconi Electronic Systems and BAe (the latter a merger of BAC, Hawker Siddeley and Scottish Aviation). Airbus[201] and Rolls-Royce are also based at Filton, and aerospace engineering is an area of research at the University of the West of England. Another aviation company in the city is Cameron Balloons, who manufacture hot air balloons;[202] each August the city hosts the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, one of Europe's largest hot-air balloon festivals.[203]
In 2005 Bristol was named by the UK government one of England's six science cities.[204][205] A £500million shopping centre, Cabot Circus, opened in 2008 amidst predictions by developers and politicians that the city would become one of England's top ten retail destinations.[206] The Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone, focused on creative, high-tech and low-carbon industries around Bristol Temple Meads railway station,[207] was announced in 2011[208] and launched the following year.[207] The 70-hectare (170-acre) Urban Enterprise Zone has streamlined planning procedures and reduced business rates. Rates generated by the zone are channelled to five other designated enterprise areas in the region:[209] Avonmouth, Bath, Bristol and Bath Science Park in Emersons Green, Filton, and Weston-super-Mare. Bristol is the only big city whose wealth per capita is higher than that of Britain as a whole. With a highly skilled workforce drawn from its universities, Bristol claims to have the largest cluster of computer chip designers and manufacturers outside Silicon Valley[citation needed]. The wider region has one of the biggest aerospace hubs in the UK, centred on Airbus, Rolls-Royce and GKN at Filton airfield.[210]
Well Hung Lover, one of many Banksy artworks in the city, which has since been vandalised with blue paint (partially cleaned by the city council)
Bristol has a thriving current and historical arts scene. Some of the modern venues and modern digital production companies have merged with legacy production companies based in old buildings around the city. In 2008 the city was a finalist for the 2008 European Capital of Culture, although the title was awarded to Liverpool.[211] The city was designated "City of Film" by UNESCO in 2017 and has been a member of the Creative Cities Network since then.[212]
The Bristol Old Vic, founded in 1946 as an offshoot of The Old Vic in London, occupies the 1766 Theatre Royal (607 seats) on King Street; the 150-seat New Vic (a studio-type theatre), and a foyer and bar in the adjacent Coopers' Hall (built in 1743). The Theatre Royal, a grade I listed building,[213][214] is the oldest continuously operating theatre in England.[215] The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (which originated in King Street) is a separate company, and the Bristol Hippodrome is a 1,951-seat theatre for national touring productions. Other smaller theatres include the Tobacco Factory, QEH, the Redgrave Theatre at Clifton College, The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol Improv Theatre, and the Alma Tavern. Bristol's theatre scene features several companies as well as the Old Vic, including Show of Strength, Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory and Travelling Light. Theatre Bristol is a partnership between the city council, Arts Council England and local residents to develop the city's theatre industry.[216] Several organisations support Bristol theatre; the Residence (an artist-led community) provides office, social and rehearsal space for theatre and performance companies,[217] and Equity has a branch in the city.[218]
The author John Betjeman wrote a poem called "Bristol". [245] It begins:
Green upon the flooded Avon shone the after-storm-wet-sky, Quick the struggling withy branches let the leaves of autumn fly, And a star shone over Bristol, wonderfully far and high.
Bristol has 51 Grade I,[214] 500 Grade II* and over 3,800 Grade II listedbuildings[246] in a variety of architectural styles, from medieval to modern. During the mid-19th century Bristol Byzantine, a style unique to the city, was developed, and several examples have survived. Buildings from most architectural periods of the United Kingdom can be seen in the city. Surviving elements of the fortifications and castle date to the medieval period,[247] and the Church of St James dates back to the 12th century.[248]
The oldest Grade I listed buildings in Bristol are religious. St James' Priory was founded in 1129 as a Benedictine priory by Earl Robert of Gloucester, the illegitimate son of Henry I.[249] The second-oldest is Bristol Cathedral and its associated Great Gatehouse.[250] Founded in 1140, the church became the seat of the bishop and cathedral of the new Diocese of Bristol in 1542. Most of the medieval stonework, particularly the Elder Lady Chapel, is made from limestone taken from quarries around Dundry and Felton with Bath stone being used in other areas.[251] Amongst the other churches included in the list is the 12th-century St Mary Redcliffe which is the tallest building in Bristol. The church was described by Queen Elizabeth I as "the fairest, goodliest, and most famous parish church in England."[252]
Secular buildings include The Red Lodge, built in 1580 for John Yonge as a lodge for a larger house that once stood on the site of the present Bristol Beacon (previously known as Colston Hall). It was subsequently added to in Georgian times and restored in the early 20th century.[253]St Bartholomew's Hospital is a 12th-century town house which was incorporated into a monastery hospital founded in 1240 by Sir John la Warr, 2nd Baron De La Warr (c. 1277–1347), and became Bristol Grammar School from 1532 to 1767, and then Queen Elizabeth's Hospital 1767–1847. The round piers predate the hospital, and may come from an aisled hall, the earliest remains of domestic architecture in the city, which was then adapted to form the hospital chapel.[254] Three 17th-century town houses which were attached to the hospital were incorporated into model workers' flats in 1865, and converted to offices in 1978. St Nicholas's Almshouses were built in 1652[255] to provide care for the poor. Several public houses were also built in this period, including the Llandoger Trow[256] on King Street and the Hatchet Inn.[257]
Manor houses include Goldney Hall, where the highly decorated Grotto dates from 1739.[258] Commercial buildings such as the Exchange[259] and Old Post Office[260] from the 1740s are also included in the list. Residential buildings include the Georgian Portland Square[261] and the complex of small cottages around a green at Blaise Hamlet, which was built around 1811 for retired employees of Quakerbanker and philanthropistJohn Scandrett Harford, who owned Blaise Castle House.[262] The 18th-century Kings Weston House, in northern Bristol, was designed by John Vanbrugh and is the only Vanbrugh building in any UK city outside London. Almshouses[263] and pubs from the same period[264] intermingle with modern development. Several Georgian squares were designed for the middle class as prosperity increased during the 18th century.[265] During World War II, the city centre was heavily bombed during the Bristol Blitz.[266] The central shopping area near Wine Street and Castle Street was particularly hard-hit, and the Dutch House and St Peter's Hospital were destroyed. Nevertheless, in 1961 John Betjeman called Bristol "the most beautiful, interesting and distinguished city in England".[267]
The two Football League clubs are Bristol City and Bristol Rovers—the former being the only club from the city to play in the precursor to the Premier League. Non-league clubs include Bristol Manor Farm, Hengrove Athletic, Brislington, Roman Glass St George and Bristol Telephones. Bristol City, formed in 1894, were Division One runners-up in 1907 and lost the FA Cup final in 1909. In the First Division in 1976, they then sank to the bottom professional tier before reforming after a 1982 bankruptcy. 28 October 2000 is a date of significance in the city as it is the last time Bristol Rovers were above Bristol City in the Football league. Bristol City were promoted to the second tier of English football in 2007, losing to Hull City in the playoff for promotion to the Premier League that season.[268]Bristol City Women are based at Twerton Park.[269]
Bristol Rovers, the oldest professional football team in the city, were formed in 1883 and promoted back into the football league in 2015. They were third-tier champions twice (Division Three South in 1952–53 and Division Three in 1989–90), Watney Cup Winners (1972) and runners-up for the Johnstone's Paint Trophy (2006–07) although have never played in England's top Division. The club has planning permission for a new 21,700-capacity all-seater stadium at the University of the West of England's Frenchay campus. Construction was due to begin in mid-2014, but in March 2015 the sale of the Memorial Stadium site (needed to finance the new stadium) was in jeopardy.[270][271]
The city is also home to Bristol Bears,[274] formed in 1888 as Bristol Football Club by the merger of the Carlton club with rival Redland Park. Westbury Park declined the merger and folded, with many of its players joining what was then Bristol Rugby.[275] Bristol Rugby has often competed at the highest level of the sport since its formation in 1888.[276] The club played at the Memorial Ground, which it shared with Bristol Rovers from 1996. Although Bristol Rugby owned the stadium when the football club arrived, a decline in the rugby club's fortunes led to a transfer of ownership to Bristol Rovers. In 2014 Bristol Rugby moved to their new home, Ashton Gate Stadium (home to Bristol Rovers' rivals Bristol City), for the 2014–15 season.[277][278] They changed their name from Bristol Rugby to Bristol Bears to coincide with their return to Premiership Rugby in 2018–19.
The first-class cricket club Gloucestershire County Cricket Club[281] has its headquarters and plays the majority of its home games at the Bristol County Ground, the only major international sports venue in the south-west of England. It was formed by the family of W. G. Grace.[282] The club is arguably Bristol's most successful, achieving a period of success between 1999 and 2006 when it won nine trophies and became the most formidable one-day outfit in England, including winning a "double double" in 1999 and 2000 (both the Benson and Hedges Cup and the C&G Trophy), and the Sunday League in 2000. Gloucestershire CCC also won the Royal London One-Day Cup in 2015.
A dialect of English (West Country English), known as Bristolian, is spoken by longtime residents, who are known as Bristolians.[290] Bristol natives have a rhotic accent, in which the post-vocalic r in car and card is pronounced (unlike in Received Pronunciation). The unique feature of this accent is the 'Bristol (or terminal) l', in which l is appended to words ending in a or o.[291] Whether this is a broad l or a w is a subject of debate,[292] with area pronounced 'areal' or 'areaw'. The ending of Bristol is another example of the Bristol l. Bristolians pronounce -a and -o at the end of a word as -aw (cinemaw). To non-natives, the pronunciation suggests an l after the vowel.[293][294]
Until recently,[when?] Bristolese was characterised by retention of the second-person singular, as in the doggerel "Cassn't see what bist looking at? Cassn't see as well as couldst, casst? And if couldst, 'ouldn't, 'ouldst?" The West Saxon bist is used for the English art,[295] and children were admonished with "Thee and thou, the Welshman's cow". In Bristolian, as in French and German, the second-person singular was not used when speaking to a superior (except by the egalitarian Quakers). The pronoun thee is also used in the subject position ("What bist thee doing?"), and I or he in the object position ("Give he to I.").[296] Linguist Stanley Ellis, who found that many dialect words in the Filton area were linked to aerospace work, described Bristolian as "a cranky, crazy, crab-apple tree of language and with the sharpest, juiciest flavour that I've heard for a long time".[297]
Religion
In the 2011 United Kingdom census, 46.8% of Bristol's population identified as Christian and 37.4% said they were not religious; the English averages were 59.4% and 24.7%, respectively. Islam is observed by 5.1% of the population, Buddhism by 0.6%, Hinduism by 0.6%, Sikhism by 0.5%, Judaism by 0.2% and other religions by 0.7%; 8.1% did not identify with a religion.[298]
Bristol has been awarded Purple Flag status[309] on many of its districts, which shows that it meets or surpasses the standards of excellence in managing the evening and night-time economy.
DJ Mag's top 100 club list ranked Motion as the 19th-best club in the world in 2016.[310] This is up 5 spots from 2015.[310] Motion is host to some of the world's top DJs, and leading producers. Motion is a complex made up of different rooms, outdoor space and a terrace that looks over the river Avon.[311] In 2011, Motion was transformed from a skate park into the rave spot it is today.[312] In:Motion is an annual series which takes place each autumn and delivers 12 weeks of music and dancing.[312] The club, on Avon Street, behind Temple Meads train station,[313] does not limit itself to playing one genre of music. Party-goers can hear everything from disco, house, techno, grime, drum and bass or hip hop, depending on the night.[311] In 2020 and 2021, Motion adapted many of its indoor events into outdoor events. Some of these included Bingo Lingdo.[314] Other famous clubs in the city include Lakota and Thekla.
The Attic Bar is a venue located in Stokes Croft.[315] Equipped with a sound system and stage which are used every weekend for gigs of every genre, the bar and the connected Full Moon Pub were rated by The Guardian, a British daily paper, as one of the top ten clubs in the UK.[316] Located by Bristol's harbourside, The Apple is a cider bar which opened in 2004, in a converted Dutch barge, offering a range of 40 different ciders.[317] In 2014, the Great British Pub Awards ranked The Apple as the best cider bar in the UK.[318] Bristol is also home to the pie chain Pieminster started in the Stokes Croft area of the city.
Media
BBC Broadcasting House as seen from Whiteladies Road
Bristol is home to the regional headquarters of BBC West and the BBC Natural History Unit based at Broadcasting House, which produces television, radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme. These include nature documentaries, including The Blue Planet and Planet Earth. The city has a long association with David Attenborough's authored documentaries, including Life on Earth.[319] It was made public in 2021 that the BBC was moving the production of many of its programmes from Broadcasting House to Bridgewater House in Finzels Reach in Bristol City Centre.[320]
Bristol has two daily newspapers, the Western Daily Press and the Bristol Post, (both owned by Reach plc); and a Bristol edition of the free Metro newspaper (owned by DMGT). The Bristol Cable specialises in investigative journalism with a quarterly print edition and website.
The city has several radio stations, including BBC Radio Bristol. Bristol's television productions include Points West for BBC West, Endemol productions such as Deal or No Deal, The Crystal Maze, and ITV News West Country for ITV West Country. The hospital drama Casualty, formerly filmed in Bristol, moved to Cardiff in 2012.[321] In October 2018, Channel 4 announced that Bristol would be home to one of its 'Creative Hubs', as part of their move to produce more content outside of London.[322]
Publishers in the city have included 18th-century Bristolian Joseph Cottle, who helped introduce Romanticism by publishing the works of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.[323] During the 19th century, J.W. Arrowsmith published the Victorian comedies Three Men in a Boat (by Jerome K. Jerome) and The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith.[324] The contemporary Redcliffe Press has published over 200 books covering all aspects of the city.[325] Bristol is home to YouTube video developers and stylists The Yogscast, with founders Simon Lane and Lewis Brindley moving their operations from Reading to Bristol in 2012.[326]
Education
The Victoria Rooms, owned by the University of Bristol
The city has produced a number of scientists, including 19th-century chemist Humphry Davy[336] (who worked in Hotwells). Physicist Paul Dirac (from Bishopston) received the 1933 Nobel Prize for his contributions to quantum mechanics.[337]Cecil Frank Powell was the Melvill Wills Professor of Physics at the University of Bristol when he received the 1950 Nobel Prize for, among other discoveries, his photographic method of studying nuclear processes. Colin Pillinger[338] was the planetary scientist behind the Beagle 2 project, and neuropsychologist Richard Gregory founded the Exploratory (a hands-on science centre which was the predecessor of At-Bristol/We The Curious).[339]
Initiatives such as the Flying Start Challenge encourage an interest in science and engineering in Bristol secondary-school pupils; links with aerospace companies impart technical information and advance student understanding of design.[340] The Bloodhound SSC project to break the land speed record is based at the Bloodhound Technology Centre on the city's harbourside.[341]
bristol, this, article, about, city, england, other, uses, disambiguation, listen, city, ceremonial, county, unitary, authority, england, situated, river, avon, bordered, ceremonial, counties, gloucestershire, north, somerset, south, most, populous, city, sout. This article is about the city in England For other uses see Bristol disambiguation Bristol ˈ b r ɪ s t el listen is a city ceremonial county and unitary authority in England 7 Situated on the River Avon it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south Bristol is the most populous city in South West England 8 The wider Bristol Built up Area is the eleventh most populous urban area in the United Kingdom 5 BristolCity county and unitary authorityClockwise from top Bristol skyline Wills Memorial Building Bristol Cathedral Bristol Museum amp Art Gallery Victoria Rooms the City Hall and Clifton Suspension BridgeCoat of armsMotto s Virtute et industria With courage and industry BristolLocation within the United KingdomShow map of the United KingdomBristolLocation of city centre within countyShow map of BristolBristolLocation within EnglandShow map of EnglandBristolLocation in EuropeShow map of EuropeCoordinates 51 27 N 2 35 W 51 450 N 2 583 W 51 450 2 583Sovereign stateUnited KingdomCountryEnglandRegionSouth WestRoyal charter1155 1 County corporate1373City status by diocese creation1542Ceremonial county1996StatusCity county and unitary authorityGovernment TypeUnitary authority Governing bodyBristol City Council Admin HQCity Hall College Green ExecutiveLabour MayorMarvin Rees L MPsThangam Debbonaire L Kerry McCarthy L Darren Jones L Karin Smyth L Area 2 3 City and county110 km2 40 sq mi Elevation 4 11 m 36 ft Population 2020 5 City and county465 866 Ranked 10th district and 43rd ceremonial county Density4 248 km2 11 000 sq mi Ethnicity 6 84 0 white 77 9 white British 6 0 black 5 5 Asian 3 6 mixed race 0 3 Arab 0 6 otherDemonymBristolianTime zoneGMT UTC Summer DST UTC 1 BST PostcodeBSArea codes0117 01275ISO 3166 codeGB BSTGVA2017 Total 21 2bn 26 9bn 4th Growth1 6 Per capita 33 700 42 800 4th Growth3 1 Websitebristol gov ukClick the map for an interactive fullscreen viewIron Age hillforts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon Around the beginning of the 11th century the settlement was known as Brycgstow Old English the place at the bridge Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373 when it became a county corporate From the 13th to the 18th century Bristol was among the top three English cities after London in tax receipts A major port Bristol was a starting place for early voyages of exploration to the New World On a ship out of Bristol in 1497 John Cabot a Venetian became the first European to land on mainland North America In 1499 William Weston a Bristol merchant was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America At the height of the Bristol slave trade from 1700 to 1807 more than 2 000 slave ships carried an estimated 500 000 people from Africa to slavery in the Americas The Port of Bristol has since moved from Bristol Harbour in the city centre to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Dock Bristol s modern economy is built on the creative media electronics and aerospace industries the city centre docks have been redeveloped as centres of heritage and culture The city has the largest circulating community currency in the UK the Bristol Pound which is pegged to the pound sterling The city has two universities the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England UWE Bristol There are a variety of artistic and sporting organisations and venues including the Royal West of England Academy the Arnolfini Spike Island Ashton Gate and the Memorial Stadium It is connected to London and other major UK cities by road and rail and to the world by sea and air road by the M5 and M4 which connect to the city centre by the Portway and M32 rail via Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway mainline rail stations and Bristol Airport Bristol was named the best city in Britain in which to live in 2014 and 2017 it won the European Green Capital Award in 2015 Contents 1 Toponymy 2 History 2 1 Middle Ages 2 2 15th and 16th centuries 2 3 17th and 18th centuries 2 4 19th century 2 5 20th century 2 6 21st century 3 Government 3 1 Former county of Avon 3 2 West of England Combined Authority 4 Geography and environment 4 1 Boundaries 4 2 Geography 4 3 Climate 4 4 Environment 4 5 Green belt 5 Demographics 5 1 Inequality 5 2 Bristol conurbation 6 Economy 7 Culture 7 1 Arts 7 2 Architecture 8 Sport 9 Dialect 10 Religion 11 Bars and nightlife 12 Media 13 Education 14 Transport 14 1 Rail 14 2 Roads 14 3 Public transport 14 4 Cycling 14 5 Air 15 International relations 16 Freedom of the City 17 See also 18 References 19 Bibliography 20 External linksToponymy EditEarly recorded place names in the Bristol area include the Roman era British Celtic Abona derived from the name of the Avon and the archaic Welsh Caer Odor fort on the chasm which may have been calqued as the modern English Clifton 9 10 The current name Bristol derives from the Old English form Brycgstow which is typically etymologised as place at the bridge 11 It has also been suggested that Brycgstow means the place called Bridge by the place called Stow the Stow in question referring to an early religious meeting place at what is now College Green 12 However other derivations have been proposed 13 It appears that the form Bricstow prevailed until 1204 14 and the Bristolian L the tendency for the local dialect to add the sound L to many words ending in a neutral vowel is what eventually changed the name to Bristol 15 The original form of the name survives as the surname Bristow which is derived from the city 16 History EditMain articles History of Bristol and Timeline of Bristol Archaeological finds including flint tools believed to be between 300 000 and 126 000 years old made with the Levallois technique indicate the presence of Neanderthals in the Shirehampton and St Annes areas of Bristol during the Middle Palaeolithic 17 Iron Age hill forts near the city are at Leigh Woods and Clifton Down on the side of the Avon Gorge and on Kings Weston Hill near Henbury 18 A Roman settlement Abona 19 existed at what is now Sea Mills connected to Bath by a Roman road another was at the present day Inns Court Isolated Roman villas and small forts and settlements were also scattered throughout the area 20 Middle Ages Edit Bristol was founded by 1000 by about 1020 it was a trading centre with a mint producing silver pennies bearing its name 21 By 1067 Brycgstow was a well fortified burh and that year the townsmen beat back a raiding party from Ireland led by three of Harold Godwinson s sons 21 Under Norman rule the town had one of the strongest castles in southern England 22 Bristol was the place of exile for Diarmait Mac Murchada the Irish king of Leinster after being overthrown The Bristol merchants subsequently played a prominent role in funding Richard Strongbow de Clare and the Norman invasion of Ireland 23 Robert Ricart s map of Bristol drawn when he became common clerk of the town in 1478 At the centre it shows the High Cross 24 The port developed in the 11th century around the confluence of the Rivers Frome and Avon adjacent to Bristol Bridge just outside the town walls 25 By the 12th century there was an important Jewish community in Bristol which survived through to the late 13th century when all Jews were expelled from England 26 The stone bridge built in 1247 was replaced by the current bridge during the 1760s 27 The town incorporated neighbouring suburbs and became a county in 1373 28 the first town in England to be given this status 29 30 31 During this period Bristol became a shipbuilding and manufacturing centre 32 By the 14th century Bristol York and Norwich were England s largest medieval towns after London 33 One third to one half of the population died in the Black Death of 1348 49 34 which checked population growth and its population remained between 10 000 and 12 000 for most of the 15th and 16th centuries 35 15th and 16th centuries Edit West front of Bristol Cathedral During the 15th century Bristol was the second most important port in the country trading with Ireland 36 Iceland 37 and Gascony 32 It was the starting point for many voyages including Robert Sturmy s 1457 58 unsuccessful attempt to break the Italian monopoly of Eastern Mediterranean trade 38 New exploration voyages were launched by Venetian John Cabot who in 1497 made landfall in North America 39 A 1499 voyage led by merchant William Weston of Bristol was the first expedition commanded by an Englishman to North America 40 During the first decade of the 16th century Bristol s merchants undertook a series of exploration voyages to North America and even founded a commercial organisation The Company Adventurers to the New Found Land to assist their endeavours 41 However they seem to have lost interest in North America after 1509 having incurred great expenses and made little profit During the 16th century Bristol merchants concentrated on developing trade with Spain and its American colonies 42 This included the smuggling of prohibited goods such as food and guns to Iberia 43 during the Anglo Spanish War 1585 1604 44 Bristol s illicit trade grew enormously after 1558 becoming integral to its economy 45 The original Diocese of Bristol was founded in 1542 46 when the former Abbey of St Augustine founded by Robert Fitzharding four hundred years earlier 47 became Bristol Cathedral Bristol also gained city status that year 48 During the English Civil War in the 1640s the city was occupied by Royalists who built the Royal Fort House on the site of an earlier Parliamentarian stronghold 49 17th and 18th centuries Edit The 17th century Old Dutch House High Street Bristol before destruction in the Blitz 1940 Fishermen from Bristol who had fished the Grand Banks of Newfoundland since the 16th century 50 began settling Newfoundland permanently in larger numbers during the 17th century establishing colonies at Bristol s Hope and Cuper s Cove Growth of the city and trade came with the rise of England s American colonies in the 17th century Bristol s location on the west side of Great Britain gave its ships an advantage in sailing to and from the New World and the city s merchants made the most of it with the city becoming one of the two leading outports in all of England by the middle of the 18th century 51 Bristol was the slave capital of England In 1755 it had the largest number of slave traders in the country with 237 as against London s 147 52 It was a major supplier of slaves to South Carolina before 1750 53 An 1873 engraving showing Colston Hall the port and cathedral of BristolThe 18th century saw an expansion of Bristol s population 45 000 in 1750 54 and its role in the Atlantic trade in Africans taken for slavery to the Americas Bristol and later Liverpool became centres of the Triangular Trade 55 Manufactured goods were shipped to West Africa and exchanged for Africans the enslaved captives were transported across the Atlantic to the Americas in the Middle Passage under brutal conditions 56 Plantation goods such as sugar tobacco rum rice cotton and a few slaves sold to the aristocracy as house servants returned across the Atlantic to England 56 Some household slaves were baptised in the hope this would lead them to be freed The Somersett Case of 1772 clarified that slavery was illegal in England 57 At the height of the Bristol slave trade from 1700 to 1807 more than 2 000 slave ships carried a conservatively estimated 500 000 people from Africa to slavery in the Americas 58 In 1739 John Wesley founded the first Methodist chapel the New Room in Bristol 59 Wesley along with his brother Charles Wesley and George Whitefield preached to large congregations in Bristol and the neighbouring village of Kingswood often in the open air 60 61 Wesley published a pamphlet on slavery titled Thoughts Upon Slavery in 1774 62 and the Society of Friends began lobbying against slavery in Bristol in 1783 The city s scions remained nonetheless strongly anti abolitionist Thomas Clarkson came to Bristol to study the slave trade and gained access to the Society of Merchant Venturers records 63 One of his contacts was the owner of the Seven Stars public house who boarded sailors Clarkson sought to meet Through these sailors he was able to observe how slaver captains and first mates plied and stupefied seamen with drink to sign them up 63 64 Other informants included ship surgeons and seamen seeking redress When William Wilberforce began his parliamentary abolition campaign on 12 May 1788 he recalled the history of the Irish slave trade from Bristol which he provocatively claimed continued into the reign of Henry VII 63 Hannah More originally from Bristol and a good friend of both Wilberforce and Clarkson published Slavery A Poem in 1788 just as Wilberforce began his parliamentary campaign 65 His major speech on 2 April 1792 likewise described the Bristol slave trade specifically and led to the arrest trial and subsequent acquittal of a local slaver captain named Kimber 63 19th century Edit The city was associated with Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel who designed the Great Western Railway between Bristol and London Paddington two pioneering Bristol built oceangoing steamships SS Great Britain and SS Great Western and the Clifton Suspension Bridge The new railway replaced the Kennet and Avon Canal which had fully opened in 1810 as the main route for the transport of goods between Bristol and London 66 Competition from Liverpool beginning around 1760 disruptions of maritime commerce due to war with France 1793 and the abolition of the slave trade 1807 contributed to Bristol s failure to keep pace with the newer manufacturing centres of Northern England and the West Midlands The tidal Avon Gorge which had secured the port during the Middle Ages had become a liability An 1804 09 plan to improve the city s port with a floating harbour designed by William Jessop was a costly error requiring high harbour fees 67 Black and white etching showing the towers of St Stephen s Church St Augustine the Less Church and Bristol Cathedral published c 1850 During the 19th century Samuel Plimsoll known as the sailor s friend campaigned to make the seas safer shocked by overloaded vessels he successfully fought for a compulsory load line on ships 68 By 1867 ships were getting larger and the meanders in the river Avon prevented boats over 300 feet 90 m from reaching the harbour resulting in falling trade 69 The port facilities were migrating downstream to Avonmouth and new industrial complexes were founded there 70 Some of the traditional industries including copper and brass manufacture went into decline 71 but the import and processing of tobacco flourished with the expansion of the W D amp H O Wills business 72 Supported by new industry and growing commerce Bristol s population 66 000 in 1801 quintupled during the 19th century 73 resulting in the creation of new suburbs such as Clifton and Cotham These provide architectural examples from the Georgian to the Regency style with many fine terraces and villas facing the road and at right angles to it In the early 19th century the romantic medieval gothic style appeared partially as a reaction against the symmetry of Palladianism and can be seen in buildings such as the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery 74 the Royal West of England Academy 75 and The Victoria Rooms 76 Riots broke out in 1793 77 and 1831 the first over the renewal of tolls on Bristol Bridge and the second against the rejection of the second Reform Bill by the House of Lords 78 The population by 1841 had reached 140 158 79 The Diocese of Bristol had undergone several boundary changes by 1897 when it was reconstituted into the configuration which has lasted into the 21st century 80 20th century Edit A 1946 map of Bristol From a population of about 330 000 in 1901 Bristol grew steadily during the 20th century peaking at 428 089 in 1971 81 Its Avonmouth docklands were enlarged during the early 1900s by the Royal Edward Dock 82 Another new dock the Royal Portbury Dock opened across the river from Avonmouth during the 1970s 83 As air travel grew in the first half of the century aircraft manufacturers built factories 84 The unsuccessful Bristol International Exhibition was held on Ashton Meadows in the Bower Ashton area in 1914 85 After the premature closure of the exhibition the site was used until 1919 as barracks for the Gloucestershire Regiment during World War I 86 87 St Mary le Port Church destroyed on 24 November 1940 Bristol was heavily damaged by Luftwaffe raids during World War II about 1 300 people living or working in the city were killed and nearly 100 000 buildings were damaged at least 3 000 beyond repair 88 89 The original central shopping area near the bridge and castle is now a park containing two bombed churches and fragments of the castle A third bomb damaged church nearby St Nicholas was restored and after a period as a museum has now re opened as a church 90 It houses a 1756 William Hogarth triptych painted for the high altar of St Mary Redcliffe The church also has statues of King Edward I moved from Arno s Court Triumphal Arch and King Edward III taken from Lawfords Gate in the city walls when they were demolished about 1760 and 13th century statues of Robert 1st Earl of Gloucester builder of Bristol Castle 91 and Geoffrey de Montbray who built the city s walls from Bristol s Newgate 92 Ambrose Road in the Cliftonwood neighbourhood The rebuilding of Bristol city centre was characterised by 1960s and 1970s skyscrapers mid century modern architecture and road building Beginning in the 1980s some main roads were closed the Georgian era Queen Square and Portland Square were restored the Broadmead shopping area regenerated and one of the city centre s tallest mid century towers was demolished 93 Bristol s road infrastructure changed dramatically during the 1960s and 1970s with the development of the M4 and M5 motorways which meet at the Almondsbury Interchange just north of the city and link Bristol with London M4 eastbound Swansea M4 westbound across the Severn Estuary Exeter M5 southbound and Birmingham M5 northbound 94 Bristol was bombed twice by the IRA in 1974 and again in 1978 95 The 20th century relocation of the docks to Avonmouth Docks and Royal Portbury Dock 7 miles 11 km downstream from the city centre has allowed the redevelopment of the old dock area the Floating Harbour 96 Although the docks existence was once in jeopardy since the area was seen as a derelict industrial site the inaugural 1996 International Festival of the Sea held in and around the docks affirmed the area as a leisure asset of the city 97 21st century Edit From 2018 there were lively discussions about a new explicative plaque under a commemorative statue of one of the city s major benefactors in the 17th and 18th centuries The plaque was meant to replace an original which made no reference to Edward Colston s past with the Royal Africa Company and the Bristol Slave Trade 98 On 7 June 2020 a statue of Colston was pulled down from its plinth by protestors and pushed into Bristol Harbour 99 The statue was recovered on 11 June and has become a museum exhibit 100 Government Edit City Hall the seat of local government St Mary Redcliffe church and the Floating Harbour Bristol Main article Politics of Bristol Bristol City council consists of 70 councillors representing 35 wards 101 with between one and three per ward serving four year terms Councillors are elected in thirds with elections held in three years out of every four year period Thus since wards do not have both councillors up for election at the same time two thirds of the wards participate in each election 102 Although the council was long dominated by the Labour Party the Liberal Democrats have grown strong in the city and as the largest party took minority control of the council after the 2005 United Kingdom general election In 2007 Labour and the Conservatives united to defeat the Liberal Democrat administration Labour ruled the council as a minority administration with Helen Holland as council leader 103 In February 2009 the Labour group resigned and the Liberal Democrats re entered office with a minority administration 104 In the June 2009 council elections the Liberal Democrats gained four seats and for the first time overall control of the city council 105 In 2010 they increased their representation to 38 seats giving them a majority of 6 106 In 2011 they lost their majority leading to a hung council In the 2013 local elections in which a third of the city s wards were up for election Labour gained 7 seats and the Green Party doubled their seats from 2 to 4 The Liberal Democrats lost 10 seats 107 These trends were continued into the next election in May 2014 in which Labour gained three seats to take their total to 31 the Green Party won two more seats the Conservative party gained one seat and UKIP won their first ever seat on the council The Liberal Democrats lost a further seven seats 108 On 3 May 2012 Bristol held a referendum on the question of a directly elected mayor replacing one elected by the council There were 41 032 votes in favour of a directly elected mayor and 35 880 votes against with a 24 turnout An election for the new post was held on 15 November 2012 and Independent candidate George Ferguson became Mayor of Bristol 109 In May 2022 the city voted to abolish the position in a referendum replacing it with a committee system Marvin Rees mayor in 2022 will hold the post until 2024 110 The Lord Mayor of Bristol not to be confused with the Mayor of Bristol is a figurehead elected each May by the city council Councillor Faruk Choudhury was selected by his fellow councillors for the position in 2013 At 38 he was the youngest person to serve as Lord Mayor of Bristol and the first Muslim elected to the office 111 The current Lord Mayor is Councillor Paula O Rourke Bristol constituencies in the House of Commons also included parts of other local authority areas until the 2010 general election when their boundaries were aligned with the county boundary The city is divided into Bristol West East South and North West 112 At the 2017 general election Labour won all four of the Bristol constituencies gaining the Bristol North West seat seven years after losing it to the Conservatives 113 The city has a tradition of political activism Edmund Burke MP for the Bristol constituency for six years beginning in 1774 insisted that he was a Member of Parliament first and a representative of his constituents interests second 114 115 Women s rights advocate Emmeline Pethick Lawrence 1867 1954 was born in Bristol 116 and the left winger Tony Benn served as MP for Bristol South East in 1950 1960 and again from 1963 to 1983 117 In 1963 the Bristol Bus Boycott following the Bristol Omnibus Company s refusal to hire black drivers and conductors drove the passage of the UK s 1965 Race Relations Act 118 The 1980 St Pauls riot protested against racism and police harassment and showed mounting dissatisfaction with the socioeconomic circumstances of the city s Afro Caribbean residents Local support of fair trade was recognised in 2005 when Bristol became a fairtrade zone 119 Bristol is both a city and a county since King Edward III granted it a county charter in 1373 28 The county was expanded in 1835 to include suburbs such as Clifton and it was named a county borough in 1889 when that designation was introduced 30 Former county of Avon Edit Main article Avon county On 1 April 1974 Bristol became a local government district of the county of Avon 120 On 1 April 1996 Avon was abolished and Bristol became a unitary authority 121 The former Avon area called Greater Bristol by the Government Office of the South West now abolished and others 122 refers to the city and the three neighbouring local authorities Bath and North East Somerset North Somerset and South Gloucestershire previously in Avon The North Fringe of Bristol a developed area between the Bristol city boundary and the M4 M5 and M32 motorways now in South Gloucestershire was so named as part of a 1987 plan prepared by the Northavon District Council of Avon county 123 West of England Combined Authority Edit Main article West of England Combined Authority The West of England Combined Authority was created on 9 February 2017 124 Covering Bristol and the rest of the old Avon county with the exception of North Somerset the new combined authority has responsibility for regional planning roads and local transport and to a lesser extent education and business investment The authority s first mayor Tim Bowles was elected in May 2017 125 One of the first actions of the new authority was the announcement of a new train station to be built at Portway 126 Geography and environment EditBoundaries Edit See also Subdivisions of Bristol Brunel s Clifton Suspension Bridge Bristol s boundaries can be defined in several ways including those of the city itself the developed area or Greater Bristol The city council boundary is the narrowest definition of the city itself However it unusually includes a large roughly rectangular section of the western Severn Estuary ending at but not including the islands of Flat Holm in Cardiff Wales and Steep Holm 127 This seaward extension can be traced back to the original boundary of the County of Bristol laid out in the charter granted to the city by Edward III in 1373 128 The Office for National Statistics ONS has defined a Bristol Urban Area which includes developed areas adjoining Bristol but outside the city council boundary such as Kingswood Mangotsfield Stoke Gifford Winterbourne Almondsbury Easton in Gordano Whitchurch village Filton Patchway and Bradley Stoke but excludes undeveloped areas within that boundary 129 Avon Gorge and Clifton Suspension Bridge looking towards the city of Bristol Geography Edit Bristol lies within a limestone area running from the Mendip Hills in the south to the Cotswolds in the northeast 130 The rivers Avon and Frome cut through the limestone to the underlying clay creating Bristol s characteristically hilly landscape The Avon flows from Bath in the east through flood plains and areas which were marshes before the city s growth To the west the Avon cuts through the limestone to form the Avon Gorge formed largely by glacial meltwater after the last ice age 131 The gorge which helped protect Bristol Harbour has been quarried for stone to build the city and its surrounding land has been protected from development as The Downs and Leigh Woods The Avon estuary and the gorge form the county boundary with North Somerset and the river flows into the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth A smaller gorge cut by the Hazel Brook which flows into the River Trym crosses the Blaise Castle estate in northern Bristol 131 Bristol is sometimes described by its inhabitants as being built on seven hills From 18th century guidebooks these 7 hills were known as simply Bristol the Old Town Castle Hill College Green Kingsdown St Michaels Hill Brandon Hill and Redcliffe Hill 132 Other local hills include Red Lion Hill Barton Hill Lawrence Hill Black Boy Hill Constitution Hill Staple Hill Windmill Hill Malborough Hill Nine Tree Hill Talbot Brook Hill and Granby Hill Bristol is 106 miles 171 km west of London 77 miles 124 km south southwest of Birmingham and 26 miles 42 km east of the Welsh capital Cardiff Areas adjoining the city fall within a loosely defined area known as Greater Bristol Bath is located 11 miles 18 km south east of the city centre Weston super Mare is 18 miles 29 km to the south west and the Welsh city of Newport is 19 miles 31 km to the north west Climate Edit The climate is oceanic Koppen Cfb milder than most places in England and United Kingdom 133 134 Located in southern England Bristol is one of the warmest cities in the UK with a mean annual temperature of approximately 10 5 C 50 9 F 135 136 It is among the sunniest with 1 541 1 885 hours of sunshine per year 137 Although the city is partially sheltered by the Mendip Hills it is exposed to the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel Annual rainfall increases from north to south with totals north of the Avon in the 600 900 mm 24 35 in range and 900 1 200 mm 35 47 in south of the river 138 Rain is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year with autumn and winter the wetter seasons The Atlantic Ocean influences Bristol s weather keeping its average temperature above freezing throughout the year but winter frosts are frequent and snow occasionally falls from early November to late April Summers are warm and drier with variable sunshine rain and clouds and spring weather is unsettled 139 The weather stations nearest Bristol for which long term climate data are available are Long Ashton about 5 miles 8 km south west of the city centre and Bristol Weather Station in the city centre Data collection at these locations ended in 2002 and 2001 respectively and Filton Airfield is currently the nearest weather station to the city 140 Temperatures at Long Ashton from 1959 to 2002 ranged from 33 5 C 92 3 F in July 1976 141 to 14 4 C 6 1 F in January 1982 142 Monthly high temperatures since 2002 at Filton exceeding those recorded at Long Ashton include 25 7 C 78 3 F in April 2003 143 34 5 C 94 1 F in July 2006 144 and 26 8 C 80 2 F in October 2011 145 The lowest recent temperature at Filton was 10 1 C 13 8 F in December 2010 146 Although large cities in general experience an urban heat island effect with warmer temperatures than their surrounding rural areas this phenomenon is minimal in Bristol 147 Climate data for Filton a elevation 48 m 157 ft 1991 2020 normals extremes 1958 present b Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec YearRecord high C F 14 2 57 6 18 3 64 9 21 7 71 1 25 7 78 3 27 4 81 3 32 5 90 5 34 5 94 1 33 3 91 9 28 3 82 9 26 8 80 2 17 5 63 5 15 8 60 4 34 5 94 1 Average high C F 8 1 46 6 8 5 47 3 10 8 51 4 13 8 56 8 17 0 62 6 19 8 67 6 21 7 71 1 21 3 70 3 18 8 65 8 14 8 58 6 11 0 51 8 8 4 47 1 14 5 58 1 Daily mean C F 5 3 41 5 5 5 41 9 7 3 45 1 9 7 49 5 12 7 54 9 15 6 60 1 17 6 63 7 17 2 63 0 14 9 58 8 11 6 52 9 8 0 46 4 5 6 42 1 10 9 51 6 Average low C F 2 4 36 3 2 4 36 3 3 7 38 7 5 5 41 9 8 4 47 1 11 4 52 5 13 4 56 1 13 2 55 8 11 0 51 8 8 3 46 9 5 1 41 2 2 8 37 0 7 3 45 1 Record low C F 14 4 6 1 9 7 14 5 8 3 17 1 4 7 23 5 2 0 28 4 0 6 33 1 4 7 40 5 3 9 39 0 0 6 33 1 3 2 26 2 6 5 20 3 11 9 10 6 14 4 6 1 Average precipitation mm inches 82 9 3 26 57 9 2 28 53 3 2 10 47 9 1 89 57 8 2 28 56 3 2 22 58 7 2 31 75 1 2 96 64 3 2 53 85 5 3 37 90 0 3 54 89 9 3 54 819 0 32 24 Average precipitation days 1 0 mm 13 1 10 4 10 4 9 9 10 3 9 7 9 8 11 0 10 4 12 8 14 6 13 5 135 8Mean monthly sunshine hours 61 2 78 0 122 6 174 1 206 7 219 2 220 5 189 6 153 4 107 8 68 4 56 9 1 658 3Source 1 Met Office 148 Source 2 KNMI 149 Weather station is located 5 miles 8 km from the Bristol city centre From 1958 2002 extremes were recorded at Long Ashton Since 2002 extremes were recorded at Filton Environment Edit Main article Environment in Bristol Bristol was ranked as Britain s most sustainable city based on its environmental performance quality of life future proofing and approaches to climate change recycling and biodiversity topping environmental charity Forum for the Future s 2008 Sustainable Cities Index 150 151 Local initiatives include Sustrans creators of the National Cycle Network founded as Cyclebag in 1977 152 and Resourcesaver a non profit business established in 1988 by Avon Friends of the Earth 153 In 2014 The Sunday Times named it as the best city in Britain in which to live 154 The city received the 2015 European Green Capital Award becoming the first UK city to receive this award 155 In 2019 Bristol City Council voted in favour of banning all privately owned diesel cars from the city centre 156 Since then the plans have been revised in favour of a clean air zone whereby older and more polluting vehicles will be charged to drive through the city centre The Clean Air Zone is currently due to come into effect in Summer 2022 157 Green belt Edit Main article Avon Green Belt The city has green belt mainly along its southern fringes taking in small areas within the Ashton Court Estate South Bristol crematorium and cemetery High Ridge common and Whitchurch with a further area around Frenchay Farm The belt extends outside the city boundaries into surrounding counties and districts for several miles in places to afford a protection from urban sprawl to surrounding villages and towns Demographics EditMain article Demography of Bristol Bristol population data Year Population Year Population1377 9 518 158 1901 323 698 81 1607 10 549 159 1911 352 178 81 1700 20 000 81 1921 367 831 81 1801 68 944 81 1931 384 204 81 1811 83 922 81 1941 402 839 81 1821 99 151 81 1951 422 399 81 1831 120 789 81 1961 425 214 81 1841 144 803 81 1971 428 089 81 1851 159 945 81 1981 384 883 81 1861 194 229 81 1991 396 559 81 1871 228 513 81 2001 380 615 81 1881 262 797 81 2012 432 500 160 1891 297 525 81 2017 459 300 161 In 2014 the Office for National Statistics estimated the Bristol unitary authority s population at 442 474 162 163 making it the 43rd largest ceremonial county in England 163 The ONS using Census 2001 data estimated the city s population at 441 556 164 According to the 2011 census 84 of the population was White 77 9 White British 0 9 White Irish 0 1 Gypsy or Irish Travellers and 5 1 Other White 3 6 mixed race 1 7 white and black Caribbean 0 4 white and black African 0 8 white and Asian and 0 7 other mixed 5 5 Asian 1 6 Pakistani 1 5 Indian 0 9 Chinese 0 5 Bangladeshi and 1 other Asian 6 Black 2 8 African 1 6 Caribbean 1 6 Other Black 0 3 Arab and 0 6 with other heritage Bristol is unusual among major British towns and cities in its larger black than Asian population 165 These statistics apply to the Bristol Unitary Authority area excluding areas of the urban area 2006 estimated population 587 400 in South Gloucestershire Bath and North East Somerset BANES and North Somerset such as Kingswood Mangotsfield Filton and Warmley 81 56 2 of the 209 995 Bristol residents who are employed commute to work using either a car van motorbike or taxi 2 2 commute by rail and 9 8 by bus while 19 6 walk 166 Inequality Edit The Runnymede Trust found in 2017 that Bristol ranked 7th out of the 348 districts of England amp Wales 1 worst on the Index of Multiple Inequality 167 In terms of employment the report found that ethnic minorities are disadvantaged compared to white British people nationally but this is to a greater extent in Bristol particularly for black groups Black people in Bristol experience the 3rd highest level of educational inequality in England and Wales 167 Bristol conurbation Edit The population of Bristol s contiguous urban area was put at 551 066 by the ONS based on Census 2001 data 168 In 2006 the ONS estimated Bristol s urban area population at 587 400 169 making it England s sixth most populous city and tenth most populous urban area 168 At 3 599 inhabitants per square kilometre 9 321 sq mi it has the seventh highest population density of any English district 170 According to data from 2019 the urban area has the 11th largest population in the UK with a population of 670 000 171 In 2007 the European Spatial Planning Observation Network ESPON defined Bristol s functional urban area as including Weston super Mare Bath and Clevedon with a total population of 1 04 million the twelfth largest of the UK 172 Economy EditMain article Economy of Bristol Two of the four Nails bronze tables used for conducting business in Corn Street Bristol has a long history of trade originally exporting wool cloth and importing fish wine grain and dairy products 173 later imports were tobacco tropical fruits and plantation goods Major imports are motor vehicles grain timber produce and petroleum products 174 Since the 13th century the rivers have been modified for docks during the 1240s the Frome was diverted into a deep man made channel known as Saint Augustine s Reach which flowed into the River Avon 175 176 Ships occasionally departed Bristol for Iceland as early as 1420 and speculation exists that sailors fishermen who landed on the Canadian coast to salt smoke their catch from Bristol made landfall in the Americas before Christopher Columbus or John Cabot 25 Beginning in the early 1480s the Bristol Society of Merchant Venturers sponsored exploration of the North Atlantic in search of trading opportunities 25 In 1552 Edward VI granted a royal charter to the Merchant Venturers to manage the port Among explorers to depart from the port after Cabot were Martin Frobisher Thomas James after whom James Bay on southern coast of Hudson Bay is named and Martin Pring who discovered Cape Cod and the southern New England coast in 1603 177 By 1670 the city had 6 000 tons of shipping of which half was imported tobacco and by the late 17th and early 18th centuries shipping played a significant role in the slave trade 25 During the 18th century Bristol was Britain s second busiest port 178 business was conducted in the trading area around The Exchange in Corn Street over bronze tables known as Nails Although the Nails are cited as originating the phrase cash on the nail immediate payment the phrase was probably in use before their installation 179 The city s economy also relies on the aerospace defence media information technology financial services and tourism industries 180 181 The Ministry of Defence MoD s Procurement Executive later known as the Defence Procurement Agency and Defence Equipment and Support moved to its headquarters to Abbey Wood Filton in 1995 This organisation with a staff of 12 000 to 13 000 procures and supports MoD equipment 182 One of the UK s most popular tourist destinations Bristol was selected in 2009 as one of the world s top ten cities by international travel publishers Dorling Kindersley in their Eyewitness guides for young adults 183 Bristol is one of the eight largest regional English cities that make up the Core Cities Group and is ranked as a Gamma level global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network the fourth highest ranked English city 184 In 2017 Bristol s gross domestic product was 88 448 billion 185 186 Its per capita GDP was 46 000 65 106 57 794 which was some 65 above the national average the third highest of any English city after London and Nottingham and the sixth highest of any city in the United Kingdom behind London Edinburgh Glasgow Belfast and Nottingham 185 According to the 2011 census Bristol s unemployment rate claiming Jobseeker s Allowance was three per cent compared with two per cent for South West England and the national average of four per cent 187 Although Bristol s economy no longer relies upon its port which was moved to docks at Avonmouth during the 1870s 188 and to the Royal Portbury Dock in 1977 as ship size increased it is the largest importer of cars to the UK Until 1991 the port was publicly owned it is leased with 330 million invested and its annual tonnage increasing from 3 9 million long tons 4 million tonnes to 11 8 million 12 million 189 Tobacco importing and cigarette manufacturing have ceased but the importation of wine and spirits continues 190 The financial services sector employs 59 000 in the city 191 and 50 micro electronics and silicon design companies employ about 5 000 In 1983 Hewlett Packard opened its national research laboratory in Bristol 192 193 In 2014 the city was ranked seventh in the top 10 UK destinations by TripAdvisor 194 During the 20th century Bristol s manufacturing activities expanded to include aircraft production at Filton by the Bristol Aeroplane Company and aircraft engine manufacturing by Bristol Aero Engines later Rolls Royce at Patchway Bristol Aeroplane was known for their World War I Bristol Fighter 195 and World War II Blenheim and Beaufighter planes 195 During the 1950s they were a major English manufacturer of civilian aircraft known for the Freighter Britannia and Brabazon The company diversified into automobile manufacturing during the 1940s producing hand built luxury Bristol Cars at their factory in Filton and the Bristol Cars company was spun off in 1960 196 The city also gave its name to Bristol buses which were manufactured in the city from 1908 to 1983 by Bristol Tramways until 1955 and from 1955 to 1983 by Bristol Commercial Vehicles 197 Final Concorde flight on 26 November 2003 shortly before landing on the Filton runway Filton played a key role in the Anglo French Concorde supersonic airliner project during the 1960s The British Concorde prototype made its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford on 9 April 1969 five weeks after the French test flight 198 In 2003 British Airways and Air France decided to discontinue Concorde flights retiring the aircraft to locations primarily museums worldwide On 26 November 2003 Concorde 216 made the final Concorde flight returning to Bristol Filton Airport as the centrepiece of a proposed air museum which is planned to include the existing Bristol Aero collection including a Bristol Britannia 199 The aerospace industry remains a major sector of the local economy 200 Major aerospace companies in Bristol include BAE Systems a merger of Marconi Electronic Systems and BAe the latter a merger of BAC Hawker Siddeley and Scottish Aviation Airbus 201 and Rolls Royce are also based at Filton and aerospace engineering is an area of research at the University of the West of England Another aviation company in the city is Cameron Balloons who manufacture hot air balloons 202 each August the city hosts the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta one of Europe s largest hot air balloon festivals 203 In 2005 Bristol was named by the UK government one of England s six science cities 204 205 A 500 million shopping centre Cabot Circus opened in 2008 amidst predictions by developers and politicians that the city would become one of England s top ten retail destinations 206 The Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone focused on creative high tech and low carbon industries around Bristol Temple Meads railway station 207 was announced in 2011 208 and launched the following year 207 The 70 hectare 170 acre Urban Enterprise Zone has streamlined planning procedures and reduced business rates Rates generated by the zone are channelled to five other designated enterprise areas in the region 209 Avonmouth Bath Bristol and Bath Science Park in Emersons Green Filton and Weston super Mare Bristol is the only big city whose wealth per capita is higher than that of Britain as a whole With a highly skilled workforce drawn from its universities Bristol claims to have the largest cluster of computer chip designers and manufacturers outside Silicon Valley citation needed The wider region has one of the biggest aerospace hubs in the UK centred on Airbus Rolls Royce and GKN at Filton airfield 210 Panorama of Bristol in 2004Culture EditMain article Culture of Bristol Arts Edit The Coopers Hall entrance to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Royal complex Site of the former Bristol Industrial Museum now the M Shed Well Hung Lover one of many Banksy artworks in the city which has since been vandalised with blue paint partially cleaned by the city council Bristol has a thriving current and historical arts scene Some of the modern venues and modern digital production companies have merged with legacy production companies based in old buildings around the city In 2008 the city was a finalist for the 2008 European Capital of Culture although the title was awarded to Liverpool 211 The city was designated City of Film by UNESCO in 2017 and has been a member of the Creative Cities Network since then 212 The Bristol Old Vic founded in 1946 as an offshoot of The Old Vic in London occupies the 1766 Theatre Royal 607 seats on King Street the 150 seat New Vic a studio type theatre and a foyer and bar in the adjacent Coopers Hall built in 1743 The Theatre Royal a grade I listed building 213 214 is the oldest continuously operating theatre in England 215 The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School which originated in King Street is a separate company and the Bristol Hippodrome is a 1 951 seat theatre for national touring productions Other smaller theatres include the Tobacco Factory QEH the Redgrave Theatre at Clifton College The Wardrobe Theatre Bristol Improv Theatre and the Alma Tavern Bristol s theatre scene features several companies as well as the Old Vic including Show of Strength Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory and Travelling Light Theatre Bristol is a partnership between the city council Arts Council England and local residents to develop the city s theatre industry 216 Several organisations support Bristol theatre the Residence an artist led community provides office social and rehearsal space for theatre and performance companies 217 and Equity has a branch in the city 218 The city has many venues for live music its largest the 2 000 seat Bristol Beacon previously Colston Hall named after Edward Colston Others include the Bristol Academy The Fleece The Croft the Exchange Fiddlers the Victoria Rooms Rough Trade Trinity Centre St George s Bristol and several pubs from the jazz oriented The Old Duke to rock at the Fleece and indie bands at the Louisiana 219 220 In 2010 PRS for Music called Bristol the UK s most musical city based on the number of its members born there relative to the city s population 221 Since the late 1970s Bristol has been home to bands combining punk funk dub and political consciousness With trip hop and Bristol Sound artists such as Tricky 222 Portishead 223 and Massive Attack 224 the list of bands from Bristol is extensive The city is a stronghold of drum and bass with artists such as Roni Size s Mercury Prize winning Reprazent 225 as DJ Krust 226 More Rockers 227 and TC 228 Trip hop and drum amp bass music in particular is part of the Bristol urban culture scene which received international media attention during the 1990s 229 The Downs Festival is also a yearly occurrence where both local and well known bands play Since its inception in 2016 it has become a major event in the city The Bristol Museum and Art Gallery houses a collection encompassing natural history archaeology local glassware Chinese ceramics and art The M Shed museum opened in 2011 on the site of the former Bristol Industrial Museum 230 Both are operated by Bristol Culture and Creative Industries which also runs three historic houses the Tudor Red Lodge the Georgian House and Blaise Castle House and Bristol Archives 231 The 18th and 19th century portrait painter Thomas Lawrence 19th century architect Francis Greenway designer of many of Sydney s first buildings were born in the city The graffiti artist Banksy is believed to be from Bristol and many of his works are on display in the city The Watershed Media Centre and Arnolfini gallery both in dockside warehouses exhibit contemporary art photography and cinema and the city s oldest gallery is at the Royal West of England Academy in Clifton 232 The nomadic Antlers Gallery opened in 2010 moving into empty spaces on Park Street on Whiteladies Road and in the Purifier House on Bristol s Harbourside 233 Stop motion animation films and commercials produced by Aardman Animations are made in Bristol 234 Robert Newton Bobby Driscoll and other cast members of the 1950 Walt Disney film Treasure Island some scenes were filmed along the harbourside were visitors to the city along with Walt Disney himself Bristol is home to the regional headquarters of BBC West and the BBC Natural History Unit 235 Locations in and around Bristol have featured in the BBC s natural history programmes including Animal Magic filmed at Bristol Zoo 236 Bristol is the birthplace of 18th century poets Robert Southey 237 and Thomas Chatterton 238 Southey born on Wine Street in 1774 and his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge married the Fricker sisters from the city 239 William Wordsworth spent time in Bristol 240 where Joseph Cottle published Lyrical Ballads in 1798 Actor Cary Grant was born in Bristol and comedians from the city include Justin Lee Collins 241 Lee Evans 242 Russell Howard 243 and writer comedian Stephen Merchant 244 The author John Betjeman wrote a poem called Bristol 245 It begins Green upon the flooded Avon shone the after storm wet sky Quick the struggling withy branches let the leaves of autumn fly And a star shone over Bristol wonderfully far and high Architecture Edit Main article Buildings and architecture of Bristol Garden front of John Vanbrugh s Kings Weston House Bristol The Llandoger Trow a historic Bristol pub Bristol has 51 Grade I 214 500 Grade II and over 3 800 Grade II listed buildings 246 in a variety of architectural styles from medieval to modern During the mid 19th century Bristol Byzantine a style unique to the city was developed and several examples have survived Buildings from most architectural periods of the United Kingdom can be seen in the city Surviving elements of the fortifications and castle date to the medieval period 247 and the Church of St James dates back to the 12th century 248 The oldest Grade I listed buildings in Bristol are religious St James Priory was founded in 1129 as a Benedictine priory by Earl Robert of Gloucester the illegitimate son of Henry I 249 The second oldest is Bristol Cathedral and its associated Great Gatehouse 250 Founded in 1140 the church became the seat of the bishop and cathedral of the new Diocese of Bristol in 1542 Most of the medieval stonework particularly the Elder Lady Chapel is made from limestone taken from quarries around Dundry and Felton with Bath stone being used in other areas 251 Amongst the other churches included in the list is the 12th century St Mary Redcliffe which is the tallest building in Bristol The church was described by Queen Elizabeth I as the fairest goodliest and most famous parish church in England 252 Secular buildings include The Red Lodge built in 1580 for John Yonge as a lodge for a larger house that once stood on the site of the present Bristol Beacon previously known as Colston Hall It was subsequently added to in Georgian times and restored in the early 20th century 253 St Bartholomew s Hospital is a 12th century town house which was incorporated into a monastery hospital founded in 1240 by Sir John la Warr 2nd Baron De La Warr c 1277 1347 and became Bristol Grammar School from 1532 to 1767 and then Queen Elizabeth s Hospital 1767 1847 The round piers predate the hospital and may come from an aisled hall the earliest remains of domestic architecture in the city which was then adapted to form the hospital chapel 254 Three 17th century town houses which were attached to the hospital were incorporated into model workers flats in 1865 and converted to offices in 1978 St Nicholas s Almshouses were built in 1652 255 to provide care for the poor Several public houses were also built in this period including the Llandoger Trow 256 on King Street and the Hatchet Inn 257 Manor houses include Goldney Hall where the highly decorated Grotto dates from 1739 258 Commercial buildings such as the Exchange 259 and Old Post Office 260 from the 1740s are also included in the list Residential buildings include the Georgian Portland Square 261 and the complex of small cottages around a green at Blaise Hamlet which was built around 1811 for retired employees of Quaker banker and philanthropist John Scandrett Harford who owned Blaise Castle House 262 The 18th century Kings Weston House in northern Bristol was designed by John Vanbrugh and is the only Vanbrugh building in any UK city outside London Almshouses 263 and pubs from the same period 264 intermingle with modern development Several Georgian squares were designed for the middle class as prosperity increased during the 18th century 265 During World War II the city centre was heavily bombed during the Bristol Blitz 266 The central shopping area near Wine Street and Castle Street was particularly hard hit and the Dutch House and St Peter s Hospital were destroyed Nevertheless in 1961 John Betjeman called Bristol the most beautiful interesting and distinguished city in England 267 Sport EditMain article Sport in Bristol Bristol is represented by professional teams in all the major national sports Bristol City and Bristol Rovers are the city s main football clubs Bristol Bears rugby union and Gloucestershire County Cricket Club are also based in the city The two Football League clubs are Bristol City and Bristol Rovers the former being the only club from the city to play in the precursor to the Premier League Non league clubs include Bristol Manor Farm Hengrove Athletic Brislington Roman Glass St George and Bristol Telephones Bristol City formed in 1894 were Division One runners up in 1907 and lost the FA Cup final in 1909 In the First Division in 1976 they then sank to the bottom professional tier before reforming after a 1982 bankruptcy 28 October 2000 is a date of significance in the city as it is the last time Bristol Rovers were above Bristol City in the Football league Bristol City were promoted to the second tier of English football in 2007 losing to Hull City in the playoff for promotion to the Premier League that season 268 Bristol City Women are based at Twerton Park 269 Ashton Gate Stadium with the Clifton Suspension Bridge over the Avon Gorge in the background The Memorial Stadium home of Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers the oldest professional football team in the city were formed in 1883 and promoted back into the football league in 2015 They were third tier champions twice Division Three South in 1952 53 and Division Three in 1989 90 Watney Cup Winners 1972 and runners up for the Johnstone s Paint Trophy 2006 07 although have never played in England s top Division The club has planning permission for a new 21 700 capacity all seater stadium at the University of the West of England s Frenchay campus Construction was due to begin in mid 2014 but in March 2015 the sale of the Memorial Stadium site needed to finance the new stadium was in jeopardy 270 271 Bristol Manor Farm are the highest ranked non league club within the city boundaries They play their games at The Creek Sea Mills 272 in the north of Bristol Formed in 1960 the club currently play in the Southern League Division One South having finished the 2016 17 Western League season as champions They reached the quarter finals of the FA Vase in 2015 16 273 The city is also home to Bristol Bears 274 formed in 1888 as Bristol Football Club by the merger of the Carlton club with rival Redland Park Westbury Park declined the merger and folded with many of its players joining what was then Bristol Rugby 275 Bristol Rugby has often competed at the highest level of the sport since its formation in 1888 276 The club played at the Memorial Ground which it shared with Bristol Rovers from 1996 Although Bristol Rugby owned the stadium when the football club arrived a decline in the rugby club s fortunes led to a transfer of ownership to Bristol Rovers In 2014 Bristol Rugby moved to their new home Ashton Gate Stadium home to Bristol Rovers rivals Bristol City for the 2014 15 season 277 278 They changed their name from Bristol Rugby to Bristol Bears to coincide with their return to Premiership Rugby in 2018 19 Dating from 1901 the Bristol Combination and its 53 clubs promote rugby union in the city and help support Bristol Bears 279 The most prominent of Bristol s smaller rugby clubs include Clifton Rugby Dings Crusaders and Cleve Rugby league is represented in Bristol by the Bristol Sonics 280 The first class cricket club Gloucestershire County Cricket Club 281 has its headquarters and plays the majority of its home games at the Bristol County Ground the only major international sports venue in the south west of England It was formed by the family of W G Grace 282 The club is arguably Bristol s most successful achieving a period of success between 1999 and 2006 when it won nine trophies and became the most formidable one day outfit in England including winning a double double in 1999 and 2000 both the Benson and Hedges Cup and the C amp G Trophy and the Sunday League in 2000 Gloucestershire CCC also won the Royal London One Day Cup in 2015 The Bristol Flyers basketball team have competed in the British Basketball League the UK s premier professional basketball league since 2014 283 Bristol Aztecs play in Britain s premier American football competition the BAFA National Leagues 284 In 2009 ice hockey returned to Bristol after a 17 year absence with the Bristol Pitbulls playing at Bristol Ice Rink after its closure it shared a venue with Oxford City Stars 285 Bristol sponsors an annual half marathon and hosted the 2001 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships 286 Athletic clubs in Bristol include Bristol and West AC Bitton Road Runners and Westbury Harriers Bristol has staged finishes and starts of the Tour of Britain cycle race 287 and facilities in the city were used as training camps for the 2012 London Olympics 288 The Bristol International Balloon Fiesta a major UK hot air ballooning event is held each summer at Ashton Court 289 Bristol International Balloon FiestaDialect Edit Cabot Tower seen from the Brandon Hill park A dialect of English West Country English known as Bristolian is spoken by longtime residents who are known as Bristolians 290 Bristol natives have a rhotic accent in which the post vocalic r in car and card is pronounced unlike in Received Pronunciation The unique feature of this accent is the Bristol or terminal l in which l is appended to words ending in a or o 291 Whether this is a broad l or a w is a subject of debate 292 with area pronounced areal or areaw The ending of Bristol is another example of the Bristol l Bristolians pronounce a and o at the end of a word as aw cinemaw To non natives the pronunciation suggests an l after the vowel 293 294 Until recently when Bristolese was characterised by retention of the second person singular as in the doggerel Cassn t see what bist looking at Cassn t see as well as couldst casst And if couldst ouldn t ouldst The West Saxon bist is used for the English art 295 and children were admonished with Thee and thou the Welshman s cow In Bristolian as in French and German the second person singular was not used when speaking to a superior except by the egalitarian Quakers The pronoun thee is also used in the subject position What bist thee doing and I or he in the object position Give he to I 296 Linguist Stanley Ellis who found that many dialect words in the Filton area were linked to aerospace work described Bristolian as a cranky crazy crab apple tree of language and with the sharpest juiciest flavour that I ve heard for a long time 297 Religion EditIn the 2011 United Kingdom census 46 8 of Bristol s population identified as Christian and 37 4 said they were not religious the English averages were 59 4 and 24 7 respectively Islam is observed by 5 1 of the population Buddhism by 0 6 Hinduism by 0 6 Sikhism by 0 5 Judaism by 0 2 and other religions by 0 7 8 1 did not identify with a religion 298 Among the notable Christian churches are the Anglican Bristol Cathedral and St Mary Redcliffe and the Roman Catholic Clifton Cathedral Nonconformist chapels include Buckingham Baptist Chapel and John Wesley s New Room in Broadmead 299 After St James Presbyterian Church was bombed on 24 November 1940 it was never again used as a church 300 although its bell tower remains its nave was converted into offices 301 The city has eleven mosques 302 several Buddhist meditation centres 303 a Hindu temple 304 Reform and Orthodox Jewish synagogues 305 and four Sikh temples 306 307 308 Bars and nightlife EditBristol has been awarded Purple Flag status 309 on many of its districts which shows that it meets or surpasses the standards of excellence in managing the evening and night time economy DJ Mag s top 100 club list ranked Motion as the 19th best club in the world in 2016 310 This is up 5 spots from 2015 310 Motion is host to some of the world s top DJs and leading producers Motion is a complex made up of different rooms outdoor space and a terrace that looks over the river Avon 311 In 2011 Motion was transformed from a skate park into the rave spot it is today 312 In Motion is an annual series which takes place each autumn and delivers 12 weeks of music and dancing 312 The club on Avon Street behind Temple Meads train station 313 does not limit itself to playing one genre of music Party goers can hear everything from disco house techno grime drum and bass or hip hop depending on the night 311 In 2020 and 2021 Motion adapted many of its indoor events into outdoor events Some of these included Bingo Lingdo 314 Other famous clubs in the city include Lakota and Thekla The Attic Bar is a venue located in Stokes Croft 315 Equipped with a sound system and stage which are used every weekend for gigs of every genre the bar and the connected Full Moon Pub were rated by The Guardian a British daily paper as one of the top ten clubs in the UK 316 Located by Bristol s harbourside The Apple is a cider bar which opened in 2004 in a converted Dutch barge offering a range of 40 different ciders 317 In 2014 the Great British Pub Awards ranked The Apple as the best cider bar in the UK 318 Bristol is also home to the pie chain Pieminster started in the Stokes Croft area of the city Media Edit BBC Broadcasting House as seen from Whiteladies Road Main article Media in Bristol Bristol is home to the regional headquarters of BBC West and the BBC Natural History Unit based at Broadcasting House which produces television radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme These include nature documentaries including The Blue Planet and Planet Earth The city has a long association with David Attenborough s authored documentaries including Life on Earth 319 It was made public in 2021 that the BBC was moving the production of many of its programmes from Broadcasting House to Bridgewater House in Finzels Reach in Bristol City Centre 320 Bristol has two daily newspapers the Western Daily Press and the Bristol Post both owned by Reach plc and a Bristol edition of the free Metro newspaper owned by DMGT The Bristol Cable specialises in investigative journalism with a quarterly print edition and website Aardman Animations is an Oscar winning animation studio founded and still based in Bristol They created famous characters such as Wallace and Gromit and Morph Its films include Chicken Run 2000 Early Man 2018 shorts such as Creature Comforts and Adam and TV series like Shaun the Sheep and Timmy Time The city has several radio stations including BBC Radio Bristol Bristol s television productions include Points West for BBC West Endemol productions such as Deal or No Deal The Crystal Maze and ITV News West Country for ITV West Country The hospital drama Casualty formerly filmed in Bristol moved to Cardiff in 2012 321 In October 2018 Channel 4 announced that Bristol would be home to one of its Creative Hubs as part of their move to produce more content outside of London 322 Publishers in the city have included 18th century Bristolian Joseph Cottle who helped introduce Romanticism by publishing the works of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge 323 During the 19th century J W Arrowsmith published the Victorian comedies Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome and The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith 324 The contemporary Redcliffe Press has published over 200 books covering all aspects of the city 325 Bristol is home to YouTube video developers and stylists The Yogscast with founders Simon Lane and Lewis Brindley moving their operations from Reading to Bristol in 2012 326 Education Edit The Victoria Rooms owned by the University of Bristol Main article Education in Bristol Bristol has two major institutions of higher education the University of Bristol a redbrick chartered in 1909 327 and the University of the West of England opened as Bristol Polytechnic in 1969 which became a university in 1992 328 The University of Law also has a campus in the city Bristol has two further education institutions City of Bristol College and South Gloucestershire and Stroud College and two theological colleges Trinity College and Bristol Baptist College The city has 129 infant junior and primary schools 329 17 secondary schools 330 and three learning centres After a section of north London Bristol has England s second highest number of independent school places 331 Independent schools in the city include Clifton College Clifton High School Badminton School Bristol Grammar School Queen Elizabeth s Hospital the only all boys school and the Redmaids School founded in 1634 by John Whitson which claims to be England s oldest girls school 332 The Wills Memorial Building on Park Street part of the university In 2005 Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown named Bristol one of six English science cities 333 and a 300 million science park was planned at Emersons Green 334 Research is conducted at the two universities the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Southmead Hospital and science outreach is practised at We The Curious the Bristol Zoo the Bristol Festival of Nature and the CREATE Centre 335 The city has produced a number of scientists including 19th century chemist Humphry Davy 336 who worked in Hotwells Physicist Paul Dirac from Bishopston received the 1933 Nobel Prize for his contributions to quantum mechanics 337 Cecil Frank Powell was the Melvill Wills Professor of Physics at the University of Bristol when he received the 1950 Nobel Prize for among other discoveries his photographic method of studying nuclear processes Colin Pillinger 338 was the planetary scientist behind the Beagle 2 project and neuropsychologist Richard Gregory founded the Exploratory a hands on science centre which was the predecessor of At Bristol We The Curious 339 Initiatives such as the Flying Start Challenge encourage an interest in science and engineering in Bristol secondary school pupils links with aerospace companies impart technical information and advance student understanding of design 340 The Bloodhound SSC project to break the land speed record is based at the Bloodhound Technology Centre on the city s harbourside 341 Transport EditMain article Transport in Bristol Rail Edit vteRailways in the Bristol areaLegend Cross Country Route Thornbury branch lineYate South Wales Main LineNew Passage Pier Westerleigh JunctionNew Passage Halt Cross Hands HaltSouth Wales Main Line PilningSevern Beach Coalpit HeathSevern ViewIndustrial Park WinterbourneChitteningIndustrial Estate Bristol Parkway PatchwaySmoke LaneIndustrial Estate Ram Hill Colliery Chittening Platform Hallen HaltAvonmouth Docks HenburySt Andrews Road Charlton HaltAvonmouth BPR amp P North Filton Platform Stoke Gifford depotAvonmouth Royal Edward Westerleigh Goods DepotAvonmouth Docks Avonmouth Filton JunctionAvonmouth Light Railway FiltonAvonmouth Docks Filton Abbey WoodShirehampton HorfieldSea Mills Ashley HillClifton Down Tunnel Mangotsfield 1845 1869 Clifton Down Mangotsfield 1869 1966 Redland Staple HillMontpelier FishpondsHotwells Halt WarmleyHotwells Narroways Hill Junction Stapleton Road sidingsGrey line represents Stapleton Roadboundary of Bristol Oldland Commonunitary authority area Avon Valley Railway Lawrence HillWaste depot BittonBristol St Philip s Barton Hill DepotSt Mary Redcliffe tunnel Avon RiversideBristol Temple Meads Bristol Temple Meads Princes Wharf KelstonBristol Harbour Railway St Philip s Marsh T amp RSMDSS Great Britain East DepotBristol Docks North BedminsterBristol Docks South Parson StreetCREATE Centre Mangotsfield branch line South Liberty Lane DepotAshton Gate St Anne s ParkClifton Bridge BrislingtonNightingale Valley Halt Long AshtonHam Green Halt Bristol Exeter linePill Whitchurch HaltPortbury shipyard KeynshamRoyal Portbury Dock img, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,