Everything about Bristol totally explained
Bristol (; ) is a
city,
unitary authority and
ceremonial county in
South West England, west of
London, and east of
Cardiff.
With an approximate population of 410,950, and
urban area of 550,200, it's England's sixth, and the
United Kingdom's ninth most populous city, one of England's
core cities and the most populous city in South West England. It received a
royal charter in
1155 and was granted county status in 1373. For half a millennium it was the second or third largest English city, until the rapid rise of
Liverpool,
Birmingham and
Manchester in the
Industrial Revolution in the later part of the
18th century. It borders on the
Counties of
Somerset, and
Gloucestershire, between the cities of
Bath,
Gloucester and
Newport, and has a short coastline on the estuary of the
River Severn, which flows into the
Bristol Channel.
Bristol is one of the centres of culture, employment and education in the region. From its earliest days, its prosperity has been linked to that of the
Port of Bristol, the commercial
port, which was in the city centre but has now moved to the Severn estuary coast at
Avonmouth and
Portbury. In more recent years the economy has been built on the
aerospace industry, and the city centre docks have been regenerated as a centre of heritage and culture.
Boundaries
There are a number of different ways in which Bristol's boundaries are defined, depending on whether the boundaries attempt to define the city, the built-up area, or the wider "
Greater Bristol". The narrowest definition of the city is the
city council boundary; although this definition does include a large portion of the
Severn Estuary, west as far as the islands of
Steep Holm and
Flat Holm. A slightly less narrow definition is used by the
Office for National Statistics; this includes built-up areas which adjoin Bristol but are not within the city council boundary, such as
Whitchurch village,
Filton,
Patchway,
Bradley Stoke, and excludes non-built-up areas within the city council boundary. The ONS has also defined an area which it calls the "Bristol Urban Area" which includes
Kingswood,
Mangotsfield,
Stoke Gifford,
Winterbourne,
Frampton Cotterell,
Almondsbury and
Easton-in-Gordano. The term "Greater Bristol" (used for example by the Government Office of the South West is most usually used to refer to the area covered by the city and its three neighbouring local authorities.
History
60,000-year-old
archaeological finds at
Shirehampton and
St Annes provide evidence of settlement in the Bristol area from the
palaeolithic era.
There are
Iron Age hill forts near the city, at
Leigh Woods and
Clifton Down on the side of the
Avon Gorge, and on
Kingsweston Hill, near
Henbury..
During the
Roman era there was a settlement,
Abona, at what is now
Sea Mills, connected to
Bath by
Roman road, and another settlement at what is now
Inns Court. There were also isolated
Roman villas and small
Roman forts and settlements throughout the area.
The town of
Brycgstow (
Old English, "the place at the bridge")
was in existence by the beginning of the
11th century, and under
Norman rule acquired one of the strongest
castles in southern England.
The
River Avon in the
city centre has evolved into
Bristol Harbour, and from the
12th century the harbour was an important port, handling much of England's trade with
Ireland. In 1247 a new bridge was built, which was replaced by the current
Bristol Bridge in the 1760s,
and the town was extended to incorporate neighbouring suburbs, becoming in 1373 a
county in its own right. During this period Bristol also became a centre of shipbuilding and manufacturing. Bristol was the starting point for many important voyages, notably
John Cabot's 1497 voyage of exploration to
North America.
By the
14th century Bristol was England's third-largest
medieval town (after
London and
York), with perhaps 15,000–20,000 inhabitants on the eve of the
Black Death of 1348–49.
The Plague inflicted a prolonged pause in the growth of Bristol's population, with numbers remaining at 10,000–12,000 through most of the
15th and
16th centuries. The
Diocese of Bristol was founded in 1542,
with the former
Abbey of
St. Augustine becoming
Bristol Cathedral. Traditionally this is equivalent to the town being granted
city status. During the
1640s Civil War the city was occupied by Royalist military, after they overran
Royal Fort, the last Parliamentarian stronghold in the city.
Renewed growth came with the
17th century rise of England's
American colonies and the rapid
18th century expansion of England's part in the
Atlantic trade in Africans taken for
slavery in the
Americas. Bristol, along with
Liverpool, became a centre for the slave trade although few slaves were brought to Britain. During the height of the slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, more than 2,000 slaving ships were fitted out at Bristol, carrying a (conservatively) estimated half a million people from Africa to the Americas and slavery.
Still standing in Bristol is the Seven Stars pub, where
abolitionist Thomas Clarkson collected information regarding the slave trade.
Fishermen who left Bristol were long part of the migratory fishery to the
Grand Banks of
Newfoundland and began settling that island permanently in larger numbers around this time. Bristol's strong nautical ties meant that maritime safety was an important issue in the city, in the
19th century Samuel Plimsoll, "the sailor's friend", campaigned to make the seas safer. He was shocked by the overloaded cargoes and successfully fought for a compulsory
load line on ships.
Competition from
Liverpool from c. 1760, the disruption of maritime commerce through wars with
France (1793) and the abolition of the slave trade (1807) contributed to the city's failure to keep pace with the newer manufacturing centres of the
North of England and the
West Midlands. The passage up the heavily
tidal Avon Gorge, which had made the port highly secure during the
Middle Ages, had become a liability which the construction of a new "
Floating Harbour" (designed by
William Jessop) in 1804–9 failed to overcome. Nevertheless, Bristol's population (66,000 in 1801) quintupled during the 19th century, supported by new industries and growing commerce.
It was particularly associated with the
Victorian era engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who designed the
Great Western Railway between Bristol and
London Paddington, two pioneering Bristol-built ocean going
steamships, the
SS Great Britain and
SS Great Western, and the
Clifton Suspension Bridge.
John Wesley founded the very first
Methodist Chapel, called the
New Room, in Bristol in 1739.
Riots occurred in 1793 and 1831, the first beginning as a protest at renewal of an act levying
tolls on Bristol Bridge, and the latter after the rejection of the second
Reform Bill.
Bristol's city centre suffered severe damage from
Luftwaffe bombing during the
Bristol Blitz of
World War II. The original central shopping area, near the bridge and castle, is now a park containing two bombed out churches and some tiny fragments of the castle. A third bombed church nearby,
St Nicholas, has been restored and has been made into a museum which houses a
triptych by
William Hogarth, painted for the high altar of
St Mary Redcliffe in 1756. The museum also contains statues moved from
Arno's Court Triumphal Arch, of
King Edward I and
King Edward III taken from Lawfords' Gate of the city walls when they were demolished around 1760 and
13th century figures from Bristol's Newgate representing Robert, the builder of
Bristol Castle, and
Geoffrey de Montbray, Bishop of Coutances, builder of the fortified walls of the city.
The rebuilding of
Bristol city centre was characterised by large, cheap
1960s tower blocks,
brutalist architecture and expansion of roads. Since the 1980s another trend has emerged with the closure of some main roads, the restoration of the
Georgian period Queen Square and
Portland Square, the demolition and rebuilding of the
Broadmead Shopping Centre (at 2007 in progress) and the demolition of the city centre's tallest post-war blocks.
The removal of the docks to
Avonmouth, downstream from the city centre has also allowed redevelopment of the old central dock area (the "
Floating Harbour") in recent decades, although at one time the continued existence of the docks was in jeopardy as it was viewed as a derelict industrial site rather than an asset. However the holding, in 1996, of the first
International Festival of the Sea in and around the docks, affirmed the dockside area in its new leisure role as a key feature of the city.
Economy and industry
As a major seaport, Bristol has a long history of trading commodities, particularly
tobacco; deals were frequently struck on a personal basis in the former trading area around Corn Street, and in particular, over metal trading tables, known as "The Nails". This is the origin of the expression "cash on the nail", meaning immediate payment.
As well as Bristol's nautical connections, the city's economy is reliant on the
aerospace industry, the media, information technology and financial services sectors and tourism. In 2004 Bristol's
GDP was £9.439 billion
GBP, and the combined GDP of Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and North Somerset was £44.098 billion. The GDP per head was £23,962 (US$47,738, €35,124) making the city more affluent than the UK as a whole, at 40% above the national average. This makes it the third-highest per-capita GDP of any
English city, after
London and
Nottingham, and the fifth highest GDP per capita of any city in the United Kingdom, behind London,
Edinburgh,
Belfast and Nottingham. In December 2005, Bristol's
unemployment rate was 5.2%, compared with 3.6% for the south west and 4.8% for the United Kingdom.
While Bristol's economy is no longer reliant upon its port, the city is the largest importer of cars to the UK. Since the port was leased in 1991, £330 million has been invested and the annual tonnage throughput has increased from 4 million tonnes to 12 million tonnes. The financial services sector employs 40,000 in the city, and the hi-tech sector is important, with 400 micro-electronics and silicon design companies, as well as the
Hewlett-Packard national research laboratories. Bristol is the UK's seventh most popular destination for foreign tourists, and the city receives nine million visitors each year.
In the 20th century, Bristol's manufacturing activities expanded to include aircraft production at
Filton, by the
Bristol Aeroplane Company, and aero-engine manufacture by
Bristol Aero Engines (later
Rolls-Royce) at
Patchway. The aeroplane company became famous for the
World War I Bristol Fighter, and
Second World War Blenheim and
Beaufighter aircraft. In the 1950s it became one of the country's major manufacturers of civil aircraft, with the
Bristol Freighter and
Britannia and the huge
Brabazon airliner. The
Bristol Aeroplane Company diversified into car manufacturing in the 1940s, producing hand-built
luxury cars at their factory in
Filton, under the name
Bristol Cars, which became independent from the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1960. The city also gave its name to the Bristol make of buses, manufactured in the city from 1908 to 1983, first by the local bus operating company,
Bristol Tramways, and from 1955 by
Bristol Commercial Vehicles.
In the 1960s Filton played a key role in the Anglo-French
Concorde supersonic airliner project. Concorde components were manufactured in British and French factories and shipped to the two final assembly plants, in
Toulouse and Filton. The French manufactured the centre fuselage and centre wing and the British the nose, rear fuselage, fin and wingtips, while the
Olympus 593 engine's manufacture was split between
Rolls-Royce (Filton) and
SNECMA (
Paris). The British Concorde prototype made its maiden flight from Filton to
RAF Fairford on
9 April 1969, five weeks after the French test flight. In 2003
British Airways and
Air France decided to cease flying the aircraft and to retire them to locations (mostly museums) around the world. On
26 November 2003 Concorde 216 made the final Concorde flight, returning to Filton airfield to be kept there permanently as the centrepiece of a projected air museum. This museum will include the existing Bristol Aero Collection, which includes a
Bristol Britannia aircraft.
The aerospace industry remains a major segment of the local economy The major aerospace companies in Bristol now are
BAE Systems,
Airbus and Rolls-Royce, all based at Filton, and aerospace engineering is a prominent research area at nearby
UWE. Another important
aviation company in the city is
Cameron Balloons, a manufacturer of
hot air balloons. Each August the city is host to the
Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, one of Europe's largest hot air balloon events.
Culture
Arts
The city is famous for its music and film industries, and was a finalist for the 2008
European Capital of Culture.
The city's principal theatre company, the
Bristol Old Vic, was founded in 1946 as an offshoot of the
Old Vic company in London. Its premises on
King Street consist of the 1766 Theatre Royal (400 seats), a modern studio theatre called the New Vic (150 seats), and foyer and bar areas in the adjacent
Coopers' Hall (built 1743). The Theatre Royal is a grade I
listed building and was the oldest continuously operating theatre in England. The
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which had originated in King street is now a separate company. The
Bristol Hippodrome is a larger theatre (1981 seats) which hosts national touring productions, while the 2000-seat
Colston Hall, named after
Edward Colston, is the city's main concert venue. Other theatres include the
Tobacco Factory,
QEH and Redgrave Theatre (at
Clifton College). Bristol's theatre scene includes a large variety of theatre companies, an organisation called Theatre Bristol runs a website which aims to develop the theatre industry in Bristol, this website lists 82 different theatre companies operating within the city. There are also a number of organisation within the city which act to support theatre makers, for example Equity, the actors union, has a General Branch based in the city and there's an organisation called Residence which provides office, social and rehearsal space for several Bristol based theatre and performance companies.
Since the late 1970s, the city has been home to bands combining punk, funk, dub and political consciousness, the most celebrated being
The Pop Group. Ten years later, Bristol was the birthplace of a type of English
hip-hop music called
trip hop or the "Bristol Sound", from artists such as
Tricky,
Portishead,
Smith & Mighty and
Massive Attack. It is also a stronghold of
drum & bass with notable artists such as the
Mercury Prize winning
Roni Size/
Reprazent as well as the pioneering
DJ Krust and
More Rockers. This music is part of the wider Bristol urban culture scene which received international media attention in the 1990s. Bristol is home to many live music venues, including Fiddlers,
Victoria Rooms, St George's and a range of pubs from the jazz orientated
The Old Duke to rock at the Fleece and Firkin and indie bands at the Louisiana.
The
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery houses a collection of
natural history,
archaeology, local glassware, Chinese ceramics and art. The
Bristol Industrial Museum, featuring preserved dock machinery, closed in October 2006 for complete renovation and plans to reopen in 2009 as the Museum of Bristol The City Museum also runs three preserved historic houses: the
Tudor Red Lodge, the
Georgian House, and
Blaise Castle House. The
Watershed Media Centre and
Arnolfini gallery, both in disused dockside warehouses, exhibit contemporary art, photography and cinema, while the city's oldest gallery is at the
Royal West of England Academy in Clifton.
Stop frame animation films and commercials produced by
Aardman Animations and television series focusing on the natural world have also brought fame and artistic credit to the city. The city is home to the regional headquarters of
BBC West, and the
BBC Natural History Unit. Locations in and around Bristol often feature in the BBC's natural history programmes, including the children's television programme
Animal Magic, filmed at
Bristol Zoo.
In literature Bristol is noted as the birth place of the 18th century poet
Thomas Chatterton, and the poets
Robert Southey, who was born in Wine Street, Bristol in 1774, and
Samuel Taylor Coleridge married the Bristol Fricker sisters; and
William Wordsworth spent time in the city where
Joseph Cottle first published
Lyrical Ballads in 1798.
The 18th and 19th century portrait painter Sir
Thomas Lawrence and 19th century architect
Francis Greenway, designer of many of
Sydney's first buildings, came from the city, and more recently the
graffiti artist
Banksy. Some famous comedians are locals, including
Justin Lee Collins,
Lee Evans, and writer/comedian
Stephen Merchant.
Bristol University graduates include the satirist
Chris Morris,
Simon Pegg and
Nick Frost of
Spaced,
Shaun of the Dead and
Hot Fuzz, and
Matt Lucas and
David Walliams of
Little Britain fame. Hollywood actor
Cary Grant was born in the city,
Patrick Stewart,
Jane Lapotaire,
Pete Postlethwaite,
Jeremy Irons,
Greta Scacchi,
Miranda Richardson,
Helen Baxendale,
Daniel Day-Lewis and
Gene Wilder are amongst the many actors who learnt their craft at the
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, opened by
Sir Laurence Olivier in 1946;
Hugo Weaving (
Agent Smith,
The Matrix) studied at
Queen Elizabeth's Hospital School and
Dave Prowse (
Darth Vader,
Star Wars) attended
Bristol Grammar School.
Sport and leisure
The city has two
League football clubs:
Bristol City and
Bristol Rovers, as well as a
number of non-league clubs, most notably
Bristol Manor Farm. Bristol City are the more successful football team in the city, having been promoted to the second tier of English football in 2007. City are close to the top of the second tier, the Championship. In early 2008, City announced plans for a new 30,000 all seater stadium to replace their home, Ashton Gate.
Bristol Rovers, are the oldest professional football team in Bristol, formed in 1883. Rovers are just below mid-table in League One, and reached the Quarter-Final stage of the
FA Cup. During their history, Rovers have been Champions of the
(old) division Three (1952/53, 1989/90),
Watney Cup Winners (1972, 2006/07), and runners-up in the
Johnstone's Paint Trophy. The Club have planning permission to re-develop the
Memorial Stadium into an 18,500 All-seater Stadium to be completed by December 2010.
The city is also home to
Bristol Rugby rugby union club, a
first-class cricket side,
Gloucestershire C.C.C. and a
Rugby League Conference side, the
Bristol Sonics. The city also stages an annual
half marathon, and in 2001 played host to the
World Half Marathon Championships. There are several athletics clubs in Bristol, including Bristol and West AC, Bitton Road Runners and Westbury Harriers. Speedway racing was staged, with breaks, at the Knowle Stadium from 1928 to 1960, when it was closed and the site redeveloped. The sport briefly returned to the City in the 1970s when the Bulldogs raced at
Eastville Stadium.
In summer the grounds of
Ashton Court to the west of the city play host to the
Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, a major event for
hot-air ballooning in the UK. The Fiesta draws a substantial crowd even for the early morning lift that typically begins at about 6.30 am. Events and a fairground entertain the crowds during the day. A second mass ascent is then made in the early evening, again taking advantage of lower wind speeds. Ashton Court also plays host to the
Ashton Court festival each summer, an outdoors music festival which used to be known as the Bristol Community Festival.
Media
Bristol has a daily morning newspaper, the
Western Daily Press; an evening paper, the
Evening Post; a weekly free newspaper, the
Bristol Observer; and a Bristol edition of the free
Metro newspaper. The local weekly
listings magazine,
Venue, covers the city's music, theatre and arts scenes. All of these papers are owned by the
Northcliffe Group. The city has several local radio stations, including
BBC Radio Bristol,
GWR FM (previously known as Radio West),
Classic Gold 1260,
Kiss 101,
Star 107.2, BCfm (a community radio station launched March 2007),
Original 106 (starting summer 2007)
and The Hub (a student radio station).
Dialect
A dialect of
English is spoken by some Bristol inhabitants, known colloquially as
Bristolian. Bristol is the only large English city with a
rhotic accent, in which the
r in words like
car is pronounced. The unusual feature of this dialect, unique to Bristol, is the
Bristol L (or
terminal L), in which an
L sound is appended to words that end in an 'a' or 'o'.
Thus "area" becomes "areal", etc. This is believed to be how the city's name evolved from Brycgstow to have a final 'L' sound: Bristol. Further Bristolian linguistic features are the addition of a superfluous "to" in questions relating to direction or orientation (a feature also common to the coastal towns of
South Wales), or using "to" instead of "at"; and using male
pronouns "he", "him" instead of "it". For example, "Where's that?" would be phrased as "Where's he to?", a structure exported to
Newfoundland English.
Stanley Ellis, a dialect researcher, found that many of the dialect words in the Filton area were linked to work in the aerospace industry. He described this as "a cranky, crazy, crab-apple tree of language and with the sharpest, juiciest flavour that I've heard for a long time".
A (slightly
tongue in cheek) guide to Bristol's dialect is at
(External Link
)
Politics and government
Bristol City Council consists of 70 councillors representing 35 wards. They are elected in thirds with two councillors per ward, each serving a four-year term. Wards never have both councillors up for election at the same time, so effectively two-thirds of the wards are up each election.
The Council has long been dominated by the
Labour Party, but recently the
Liberal Democrats have grown strong in the city and as the largest party took minority control of the Council at the 2005 election. They are no longer in control following Labour and the Conservatives vetoing the Liberal Democrats' preferred candidate, Steve Comer, in 2007. As a result, Labour rule the council under a minority administration, and the council leader is Helen Holland.
The Lord Mayor is Labour Councillor Royston Griffey.
Bristol's constituencies in the
House of Commons cross the borders with neighbouring authorities, and the city is divided into Bristol
West,
East,
South and
North-west and
Kingswood.
Northavon also covers some of the suburbs, but none of the administrative county. At the next General Election, the boundaries will be changed to coincide with the county boundary. Kingswood will no longer cover any of the county, and a new
Filton and Bradley Stoke constituency will include the suburbs in South Gloucestershire. There are four
Labour and one Liberal Democrat
Members of Parliament.
Bristol has a tradition of local political activism, and has been home to many important political figures.
Tony Benn, a veteran left-wing politician, was Member of Parliament (MP) for
Bristol South East from 1950 to 1983.
Edmund Burke, MP for the
Bristol constituency for six years from 1774, famously insisted that he was a Member of Parliament first, rather than a representative of his constituents' interests. In 1963, there was a boycott of the city's buses after the Bristol Omnibus Co. refused to employ black drivers and conductors. The boycott is known to have influenced the creation of the UK's
Race Relations Act in 1965.
The women's rights campaigner
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence (1867–1954) was born in Bristol. The city was the scene of the first of the 1980s riots or uprisings. In St. Paul's, a number of largely African-Caribbean people rose up against racism, police harassment and mounting disatifisfaction with their social and economic circumstances before similar disturbances followed across the UK. Local support of
fair trade issues was recognised in 2005 when Bristol was granted
Fairtrade City status.
Bristol is unusual in having been a city with county status since medieval times. The county was expanded to include suburbs such as
Clifton in 1835, and it was named a
county borough in 1889, when the term was first introduced.
Using
Census 2001 data the ONS estimated the population of the contiguous built-up area to be 441,556,
and that of the
metropolitan area to be 551,066.
This makes the city England's sixth most populous city, and ninth most populous metropolitan area.
According to 2005 estimates, 89.3% of the population were described as white, 3.9% as Asian or Asian British, 2.8% as black or black British, 2.2% as mixed race, 1.2% as Chinese and 0.6% other. National averages for England were 89.1%, 5.3%, 2.7%, 1.6%, 0.7% and 0.6% for the same groups.
60% of Bristol's population registered their religion as
Christianity, and 25% as not religious in the 2001 census, compared with 72% and 15% nationally. 2% of the population follow
Islam (3% nationally), with no other religion above one percent.
Bristol had the ninth highest proportion of people refer to their religion in the last census as '
Jedi'.
Physical geography
Bristol is in a
limestone area, which runs from the
Mendip Hills to the south and the
Cotswolds to the north east.
The rivers
Avon and
Frome cut through this limestone to the underlying clays, creating Bristol's characteristic hilly landscape. The Avon flows from Bath in the east, through
flood plains and areas which were marshy before the growth of the city. To the west the Avon has cut through the limestone to form the
Avon Gorge, partly aided by glacial meltwater after the last
ice age. The gorge aided in the protection of Bristol Harbour, and has been quarried for stone to build the city. The land surrounding the gorge has been protected from development, as
The Downs and
Leigh Woods. The gorge and
estuary of the Avon form the county's boundary with North Somerset, and the river flows into the
Bristol Channel at
Avonmouth at the mouth of the
River Severn. There is another gorge in the city, in the
Blaise Castle estate to the north.
Situated in the south of the country, Bristol is one of the warmest cities in the UK, with a mean annual temperature of 10.2-12 °
C (50-54°F).
It is also amongst the sunniest, with 1541-1885 hours sunshine per year.
The city is partially sheltered by
Exmoor and the
Mendip Hills, but exposed from the
Bristol Channel, and annual rainfall is similar to the national average, at 741-1,060
mm (29.2–41.7 in).
Education, science and technology
Bristol is home to two major institutions of higher education: the
University of Bristol, a "
redbrick" chartered in 1909, and the
University of the West of England, formerly Bristol Polytechnic, which gained university status in 1992. The city also has two dedicated
further education institutions,
City of Bristol College and
Filton College, and three
theological colleges,
Trinity College, Bristol,
Wesley College, Bristol &
Bristol Baptist College. The city has 129 infant, junior and primary schools,
17 secondary schools,
and three city learning centres. It has the country's second highest concentration of independent school places, after an exclusive corner of north London. The independent schools in the city include
Colston's School,
Clifton College,
Clifton High School,
Badminton School,
Bristol Cathedral School,
Bristol Grammar School,
Redland High School,
Queen Elizabeth's Hospital (the only all-boys school) and
Red Maids' School, which is the oldest girls' school in England and was founded in 1634 by John Whitson.
In 2005, the then
Chancellor of the Exchequer recognised Bristol's ties to science and technology by naming it one of three "science cities", and promising funding for further development of science in the city,
with a £300 million "Science Park" planned at
Emerson's Green.
As well as research at the two universities and
Southmead Hospital, science education is important in the city, with
At-Bristol,
Bristol Zoo,
Bristol Festival of Nature and the
Create Centre being prominent local institutions involved in science communication. The city has a history of scientific achievement, including Sir
Humphry Davy, the 19th century scientist who worked in
Hotwells and discovered
laughing gas.
Bishopston has given the world two
Nobel Prize winning physicists:
Paul Dirac for crucial contributions to
quantum mechanics in 1933, and
Cecil Frank Powell, for a photographic method of studying nuclear processes and associated discoveries in 1950. The city was birth place of
Colin Pillinger, planetary scientist behind the
Beagle 2 Mars lander project, and is home to
Adam Hart-Davis, presenter of various science related television programmes, and the psychologists
Susan Blackmore and
Richard Gregory.
Transport
There are two principal
railway stations in Bristol.
Bristol Parkway is located to the north of the city and
Bristol Temple Meads located in the centre. Both stations offer direct services to many UK destinations. Principal operators are
First Great Western and
CrossCountry. There is also a limited service to
London Waterloo from Bristol Temple Meads, operated by
South West Trains. The main service to London is by First Great Western to
Paddington station.
There are scheduled coach links to most major UK cities. The city is connected by road on an east–west axis from
London to
Wales by the
M4 motorway, and on a north–southwest axis from
Birmingham to
Exeter by the
M5 motorway. Also within the county is the
M49 motorway, a shortcut between the M5 in the south and M4
Severn Crossing in the west. The
M32 motorway is a spur from the M4 to the city centre. The city is also served by its own airport,
Bristol International (BRS), at
Lulsgate, which has seen substantial investments in its runway, terminal and other facilities since 2001.
Public transport in the city consists largely of its bus network, provided by
First Group, formerly the
Bristol Omnibus Company. Buses in the city have been widely criticised for being unreliable and expensive, and in 2005 First was fined for delays and safety violations.
Use of private cars in Bristol is high, and the city suffers from congestion, which costs an estimated £350 million per year.
Bristol is a
motorcycle friendly city. The city recognises that motorcycle use eases congestion and encourages this allow motorcycles to use most of the city's bus lanes, as well as providing secure free parking.
Since 2000 the city council has included a
light rail system in its
Local Transport Plan, but has so far been unable to fund the project. The city was offered
European Union funding for the system, but the
Department for Transport didn't provide the required additional funding.
As well as support for public transport, there are several road building schemes supported by the local council, including re-routing and improving the
South Bristol Ring Road.
There are also three
park and ride sites serving the city, supported by the local council.
The central part of the city has water-based transport, operated as the
Bristol Ferry Boat, which provides both leisure and commuter services on the harbour.
Bristol was never well served by suburban railways, though the
Severn Beach Line to Avonmouth and
Severn Beach survived the
Beeching Axe and is still in operation. The
Portishead Railway was closed to passengers under the Beeching Axe, but was relaid in 2000-2002 as far as the
Royal Portbury Dock with a
Strategic Rail Authority rail-freight grant. Plans to relay a further three miles of track to
Portishead, a largely
dormitory town with only one connecting road, have been discussed but there's insufficient funding to rebuild stations.
Despite being hilly, Bristol is one of the prominent cycling cities of England, and is home to the national cycle campaigning group
Sustrans. It has a number of urban cycle routes, as well as links to
National Cycle Network routes to Bath and London, to Gloucester and Wales, and to the south-western peninsula of England. Cycling has grown rapidly in the city, with a 21% increase in journeys between 2001 and 2005.
- Hannover, Germany, since 1947
- Bordeaux, France, since 1947
- Porto, Portugal, since 1984
- Tbilisi, Georgia, since 1988
- Puerto Morazan, Nicaragua, since 1989
- Beira, Mozambique, since 1990
- Guangzhou, China, since 2001
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