Bristol is South West England’s most populous city, and here you will find all of the cultural and leisure opportunities that you’d expect in a major city. Attractions include the Bristol Old Vic Theatre, the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, the Cabot Circus Shopping Centre, the Downs parkland area and much more.
Located close to the heart of Bristol city centre, this gallery has a good reputation for exhibiting some of the finest collections of art that are to be seen in...
A huge bronze beetle guards the entrance to Wildwalk, part of Bristol’s award-winning family attraction. Hands-on discovery is the keynote of @Bristol. Child-friendly interactive exhibits focus on the animal kingdom...
Once Britain was dotted with monasteries, each enclosed behind high walls with strong gates. The bigger the abbey, the more magnificent its gatehouse would be. Bristol has one of the...
This house was built for the pleasure of Henry VIII when he visited this area of the world. Designed by Nicholas Poyntz, one of the most eminent architects of...
Shopping malls are nothing new. It all began with the first shopping arcade in late eighteenth-century Paris. A covered pedestrian alley provided comfortable, stylish and safe shopping away from the...
Anyone fascinated by buildings should feel at home here. The Bristol Centre for the Advancement of Architecture was founded in 1996. An 18th-century warehouse beside the Floating Harbour was converted...
One of Europe’s leading centres for the contemporary arts, it has been housed since 1975 in Bush House, a former tea warehouse. Arnolfini’s international artistic programme presents progressive and experimental...
Two miles from Bristol city centre is this historic country house and park. Once the home of a family of wealthy Bristol merchants, it is now owned by Bristol City...
This railway is a real experience for the casual user or the train enthusiast. It offers a six mile journey through this beautiful area of the countryside, bringing visitors...
Berthold Lubetkin was born in Georgia and studied architecture in Moscow and Leningrad where he witnessed first hand the Russian Revolution unfold. It is thought that much of his...
These are the only surviving friary buildings in Bristol. The Order of Friars Preachers (Dominicans) were evangelists with a mission to towns. They were known as black friars from their...
The 650-acre Blaise Castle Estate has been a public pleasure-ground since it was bought by Bristol Council. Paths wind along wooded slopes and beside brooks. The house was built in...
These enchanting cottages around a green were built c.1811 for retired employees of John Scandrett Harford, who owned Blaise Castle House. Each of the nine cottages has its own character....
Brandon Hill is Bristol’s oldest park. Granted to the city corporation by the Earl of Gloucester in 1174, for centuries it was let to farmers, but from 1625 it has...
The celebrated Bristol Blue Glass has been made in the city for centuries. Glassmaking died out in Bristol soon after the Second World War, but was revived in 1988 by...
The University of Bristol Botanic Gardens are located off Durdham Down in one of the most attractive parts of the city. The gardens contains an internationally important collection of...
After Henry VIII closed England’s monasteries, he found a new use for Bristol’s great Abbey of St Augustine. In 1542 it became the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided...
The idea of the Cultural Development Centre is to offer ways for the people of the city and surrounding area to develop their cultural talents in partnership with the authorities....
The West End comes to Bristol here. The theatre is large enough to house big national productions - touring musicals, ballet and opera. Locally-produced shows are staged here too, such...
Bristol’s rink opened in 1966, to the delight of young Bristolian Robin Cousins, who had a yen to skate. The future Olympic gold medallist trained here for seven years. In...
The main library in the heart of Bristol is housed in a fantastic and beautifully preserved building. It is filled with a massive archive of texts, audio and visual...
Bristol Record Office is home to a massive archive that relates to the long and fascinating history of the city of Bristol. From the very earliest settlements on the...
Civil registration has literally taken over from the church here. In 1670 the Quakers of Bristol built the first meeting house on this site. William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, married...
Located on the edge of Clifton village in the city, overlooking the great gorge and the Clifton Suspension Bridge, this site was originally that of the great pump rooms in...
Established in 1951, Bristol University Theatre Collection is housed within the Department of Drama, the first dedicated department of its type in a UK university. The collection is rich...
Voted Zoo of the Year 2004 by the Good Britain Guide, Bristol Zoo Gardens has something for everyone from the smallest and rarest tortoise in the world, to the largest...
There is a long and proud history of industry in Bristol, and of course was the home and popular building site for industrial engineer Isambar Kingdom Brunel, responsible for the...
This award-winning museum presents the extraordinary story of Britain’s former empire and its continuing impact. It offers sixteen galleries, special exhibitions, a cafe and a shop, not to mention its...
This handsome structure was once a landmark in hotel planning. It was the first hotel built especially for railway passengers. Isambard Kingdom Brunel planned a terminus for his Great Western...
The former Brunswick Congregational Chapel dominates the square. It was designed by William Armstrong in 1834. The huge Ionic columns of the portico hint of Greek and Roman temples, but...
Despite being housed in an imposing mock gothic church building, this church is actually renowned as one of the friendliest and welcoming in the Clifton area. Home to a...
CREATE is an environment centre that has been established in Bristol to highlight the many issues that are associated with the way the world is developing under the somewhat flawed...
Opened in 2001, the Carling Academy Bristol has a capaciy of 1,900 for club nights or 1,600 for gigs. This popular music venue has entertained the likes of Basement...
From the ashes of disaster sprang this green lung for the city centre. Once a great Norman castle stood here and a quarter of the medieval town. Oliver Cromwell had...
Cheek by jowl with the Norman Abbey Gatehouse is one of the masterpieces of the early Modern Movement. Designed by Charles Holden in 1906, the Municipal Library beautifully echoes and...
The Quarter Jacks of Christ Church still ring out the quarter hour. Carved in 1728, the Jacks were made for the medieval church of Holy Trinity which stood on this...
This quaint corner of Bristol is like a time capsule. Climbing the steps you pass reminders of every age from medieval to modern. The lampposts recall Victorian gaslights. Tiny shops...
This old church is a patchwork of styles. It has Norman pillars at the west end, while the east end is 15th-century. The most striking feature though is its elegant...
First mentioned in 1174 as St Jacobus-in-the-market, the church changed its dedication to St Philip and now has both saints as patrons, affectionately known as Pip ’n Jay. The present...
This unusual church was built into the old town wall, with its tower over the north gate. Chapels over town gates were not uncommon. But a church across the whole...
Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral after he had defended the rights of the Church against the Crown. Europe reeled in shock and Thomas was rapidly declared a...
Bristol’s major museum has a splendid Edwardian Baroque showcase. The building was a gift to the city by tobacco baron Sir William Henry Wills. Its opulent design by his cousin...
This boldly modern Roman Catholic Cathedral was consecrated in 1973. Commissioned from the Percy Thomas Partnership just as the Second Vatican Council was meeting, the cathedral’s design was among the...
"There’s a breathless hush in the close tonight." Poet Sir Henry Newbolt’s memorable line recalls his schooldays at Clifton College. Opened in 1862 in emulation of the old-established public schools,...
The Downs are a huge open space beside the Avon Gorge. Grassland ideal for football and kite-flying is interspersed with woodland and wild flowers. The deep gorge is a unique...
Clifton Downs are an area situated to the north of the village of Clifton in Bristol. They represent a large area that has been left fallow by the local...
Clifton Library is a large public library at the heart of Clifton village in Bristol. The facility has a large collection of both fiction and non-fiction books available for...
This camera obscura is superbly placed. High above the Avon Gorge, it provides panoramic views of the dramatic scenery. The observatory was originally a windmill. After a fire in 1777...
This railway gives local people and visitors to the area the chance to experience the great experience of a traditional and historic funicular railway. The railway gives some fantastic...
For over 100 years the Clifton Suspension Bridge, spanning the beautiful Avon Gorge, has been as much the symbol of Bristol as the Eiffel Tower of Paris or the Opera...
Bristol’s largest concert venue is run by the city council. It takes its name from the school that once stood on the site, founded by Edward Colston. The first concert...
Gracious ranges are grouped around the courtyard of this almshouse built in 1691. The clock and belfry mark its barrel-vaulted chapel. It was founded for the poor by Bristol merchant...
The merchants of late Georgian Bristol wanted somewhere exclusive to meet. So they built themselves this elegant club in 1810. Impressed by the Lyceum at Liverpool, the committee commissioned London...
Sadly the greatest innovation in commercial flight, Concorde, is a plane that is no longer seen in the skies of Britain or anywhere in the world. This is a...
Bristol’s largest neo-Georgian building dominates College Green. The massive sweep of the Council House curves around the west side of the green and vies with the cathedral beside it in...
The Geology Museum is part of the Department of Earth Sciences at The University of Bristol and is one of the primary reference and research points on the subject in...
Colston (1636-1721) was a man of contradictions. Much of his wealth was founded on the slave trade. He was an ardent supporter of the Tory party and the established church,...
This remarkable Art Nouveau façade was designed in 1900 for the printing works of Edward Everard. Either side are Johann Gutenberg, father of printing, and William Morris, reviver of craftsmanship....
The Exchange is considered the finest Georgian building in Bristol. It was the work of Bath architect John Wood the Elder and opened in 1743. Wood was asked to design...
Bristol grew wealthy on trade through its harbour. Yet for centuries strong tides left vessels half buried in mud at low water. The problem was solved in the early 19th...
Frenchay Museum is a small but fascinating place of history to visit, charting the growth and development of this suburb of Bristol. Although once an independent and quite isolated...
Step inside an 18th-century town house decorated and furnished in the style of the time. It was once the home of John Pinney, a merchant with estates in the West...
Gertrude Hermes lived a significant amount of time in this charming old house on the edge of Clifton village in Bristol, close to the suspension bridge. Hermes was one...
The Glenside Hospital Museum is filled with interesting artefacts and historical documents that help visitors to understand the history of this hospital, and the way that medicine has progressed throughout...
The Granary was once exactly that - a humble grain store. Yet it is one of the most admired buildings in Bristol. It is the masterpiece of the Bristol Byzantine...
The Greyhound was once a bustling coaching inn. It was built about 1620, but refronted in the 18th century. Coaches left the Greyhound for Chippenham and points east. The stage...
The oldest pub in Bristol has been licensed since 1606. The tall gabled section is the original inn. Houses on either side were damaged in the Blitz and rebuilt as...
Bristol’s High Cross once marked the town centre. It stood at the junction of High Street, Wine Street, Corn Street and Broad Street. Now the original is at Stourhead and...
Here is the famous engineer in his most famous pose. He was caught on camera in the mid 1850s standing before the massive chains of the Great Eastern, almost dwarfed...
Jesus Green is situated at the heart of Clifton village in Bristol. It is a large open expanse of public land that is popular with local people and visitors....
John Addington Symonds was born and bred in Bristol. He lived throughout the 19th Century and was known as one of the best and outspoken poets and literary critics...
Cabot gazes out on the Floating Harbour. It was from Bristol that he set sail in 1497 for the New World. The Italian-born mariner was christened Giovanni Caboto. Convinced that...
Salt merchant John Foster founded this almshouse when he was Mayor of Bristol in 1481. It has been rebuilt several times. Oddly enough the present Victorian building - in a...
The oldest Methodist building in the world. John Wesley’s headquarters when he began open air preaching in Bristol in 1739. This extraordinary building enables visitors to sense the atmosphere of...
Bristol Blue glass is famous. Bristol became a centre for glass making in the 17th century, but the industry died out in the city in the early 20th century. Today...
Architect Sir John Vanbrugh, famed for the palatial Blenheim and Castle Howard, designed this more compact country house for Sir Edward Southall, Queen Anne’s Secretary of State for Ireland. Fine...
A Roman villa was a country house, usually the centre of an estate. This one was discovered during the construction of Lawrence Weston housing estate in 1947. Remains of the...
LOT is housed in a 25000 square foot site over three levels, and comprises an artist-led collaborative art project in Bristol. The main exhibition spaces are naturally lit, offering...
The first shot tower in the world was built on Redcliffe Hill by plumber William Watts. In 1782 he invented a way to make perfectly round lead shot by pouring...
Leigh Woods is a characteristic British woodland habitat that has changed for many hundreds of years. Situated on the edge of Bristol, the National Trust has protected the woods...
King Street was built up outside the city wall in the reign of Charles II and named after him. Still today many of its 17th-century buildings survive. The most spectacular...
This building begs to be noticed. The astonishingly opulent façade was modelled on that of the sumptuous Sansovino Library in Venice. Two tiers of arcades are decorated with a mass...
This little church is all that remains of St Mark’s Hospital, founded c.1220 to feed 100 of the city’s poor. They were to be given one meal a day of...
Mall Gardens are a beautiful set of public gardens at the very heart of Clifton, close to the suspension bridge in Bristol. The gardens are well maintained by the...
This is a full-scale replica of the ship on which John Cabot sailed to America in 1497. She was built in Bristol to celebrate the 500th anniversary of his discovery...
The guilds of Bristol looked after those in want among their members. The elderly who could no longer work, or their widows, could find a home in a guild almshouse....
The powerful Society of Merchant Venturers controlled the seaborne trade of Bristol for centuries. It first provided for impoverished sailors - the elderly or injured - at an almshouse in...
William Tyndale sits on a bench, translating the New Testament. We expect to see statues commemorating local worthies in our city centres, but Bristol’s latest square gives the tradition a...
The National Electronic and Video Archive of the Crafts is one of the most unique collections of its type anywhere in the world, and is a fascinating place to visit...
Neptune, god of the sea, presides over maritime Bristol. The lead statue was cast in 1722 by John Randall to dignify the Temple Conduit. It stood there for over a...
This innovative footbridge opened in 1999 to link the waterfront leisure facilities on either side of St Augustine’s Reach. In an unusual collaboration, Irish artist Eilís O’Connell worked on the...
Picture This is a well-respected and innovative moving arts gallery that commissions and exhibits a great deal of diverse and interesting works throughout the year. The collection is designed...
This Norman church is Bristol’s earliest surviving building. The priory was founded in 1129 by Robert, Earl of Gloucester, who also built a great stone castle for Bristol. When the...
Spacious Queen Square has become a popular venue for outdoor events. It was the first residential square outside London. Bristol Corporation planned it as an elegant enclave for the wealthy....
Bristol Corporation commissioned this marble statue to mark Victoria’s Jubilee in 1887. The artist selected was Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, sculptor to the queen, who designed the coinage for the...
Located at the very heart of the great city of Bristol, ROOM provides a first class artist run artspace and gallery. Operating since 2003, the gallery has quickly developed...
Here stands a man far ahead of his time. Born in Bengal in 1772 to a Brahmin family, Roy became a scholar and reformer. He campaigned against child marriage and...
Behind this Georgian front beats an Elizabethan heart. This historic house began life as a lodge to the Great House where Queen Elizabeth I once stayed. Its magnificent Great Oak...
Not many schools can boast their own purpose-built theatre. The Redgrave Theatre belongs to the successful public school Clifton College. It was named after Old Cliftonian Sir Michael Redgrave, who...
The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust was established by a small group of workers and enthusiasts in 1981, and on a small patch at the Bristol factory, the trust has developed a...
This elegant Georgian house has outstanding rococo plasterwork. Thomas Stocking created the vines that curl up the stairwell, with birds pecking the grapes and this fox looking hungrily on. The...
This was Bristol’s first art gallery, built in 1858. The Bristol Society of Artists argued among themselves over its design. Should the style be Greek or Italian? The winner was...
Is this the longest crescent in Europe? It is claimed to be. Magnificently set on a south-facing slope, its sun-drenched ironwork balconies take full advantage of the views. In an...
Launched in 1843, the SS Great Britain was the world’s first iron-hulled, steam-powered, ocean-going ship. Her designer was the inventive genius Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Intended for the trans-Atlantic luxury passenger...
General Sir Abraham Roberts loved living in Clifton. Although he was often abroad during his younger years in active service, he always considered this large house in the centre...
Spike Island has gained a reputation across the region and throughout the nation as one of the foremost venues for contemporary art anywhere in the Bristol area. The project...
Clifton was once a village served by the medieval Church of St Andrew. The small church could not cope with increasing numbers and was rebuilt, only to be lost in...
Old houses hide a yet earlier history. Here stood the medieval St Bartholomew’s Hospital. After it was converted into a school in 1532, it seems that plots along the street...
The large churchyard of St James’s Priory became a public garden in 1882. A stone cross with a drinking fountain was donated, which has now lost its head. Part of...
Medieval Bristol was well-supplied with fresh water, piped from springs on nearby hills to public conduits dotted about the city. Water still gushes from a mossy lion’s mouth in the...
This is the one remaining city gate of Bristol. It was rebuilt by Bristol merchant Walter Frampton around 1380 along with the church of St John the Baptist beside it....
St Mary Redcliffe is a parish church the size of a cathedral. Such splendour speaks of Bristol’s wealth. The city’s merchants could rival the resources of a diocese. There was...
Only ruins remain of this old church. The Blitz destroyed all but its tower. The crumbling fragments of the rest were left on view as a reminder of war’s destructive...
This imposing church with its massive Corinthian portico stood on the waterfront when it was completed in 1840, hence the name. The River Frome in front of it was later...
Once much of Bristol looked like this - though perhaps not as brightly painted. The seventeenth-century city centre was a mass of tightly-packed timber-framed houses, their upper stories jettied out...
The almshouse was one of the first buildings in King Street, a new development then outside the city wall. It was built in 1652-6 beside the Back Street Gate. The...
The church beside Bristol Bridge is dedicated to the patron saint of sailors. It was built into the town wall, with its chancel over St Nicholas Gate. When the bridge...
As late Georgian Bristol grew with a burst of squares and crescents, the new districts needed churches. In fact the residents of Brunswick and Portland Squares demanded a church of...
Castle Park is dominated by the ruined shell of St. Peter’s. It was among the Bristol churches gutted by bombs in the Blitz. Sadly it was one of the oldest....
This area was a marsh outside the town wall until the River Frome was diverted in 1247. St Stephen’s parish was built up on reclaimed land. Bristol mayor John Shipward...
Sugar and tobacco were imported from the New World through Bristol. So where better to refine sugar? It was an important industry in the city for two centuries. Bristol had...
This fine door hood has the coat of arms of the Merchant Tailors Guild. It protects the entrance to their one time guild hall, built in 1740-1. The tailors were...
Temple Church was founded c.1147 by Robert of Gloucester, the powerful illegitimate son of Henry I, who held Bristol Castle and great estates in the area. He granted land to...
During the early Victorian railway rush companies sprang up to build railway lines across Britain. Bristol was the meeting point of the Great Western Railway and the Bristol and Exeter...
Bristol has long been at the forefront of provincial theatre. Support for drama in the city encouraged the building of the Theatre Royal in 1764-6. The design was based on...
Victoria Square Gardens stand at the centre of the beautiful residential area of Victoria Square at the heart of Clifton in Bristol. The gardens are well maintained and offer...
William Gilbert Grace was better known by his initials WG and is arguably one of the most famous names in English cricket. A pioneer of the game and one...
Watershed was Britain’s first Media Centre. It opened in 1982 in an intriguing building. E Shed was a simple, utilitarian dock transit shed, yet it has a staggeringly ornate façade,...
Watershed is the leading digital media centre in the south west of England, providing a unique opportunity for visitors to create, learn and be educated in many forms of moving...
Christianity goes back a long way in Westbury. There was a religious settlement here by 715. It declined, but St Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, sent 12 monks to make fresh...
Bishop Carpenter built a new quadrangle in the 15th century for Westbury’s college (community) of priests. It was like a miniature castle, with a turret at each corner and a...
This historic pub stands on the site of the gatehouse of St James Priory. Its vaulted cellars apparently date to the medieval period. The inn was first granted a license...
England’s greatest dramatist is honoured in quite a few pub names. This house was built only 20 years after Shakespeare’s death, if we accept the credible date of 1636 on...
