Bristol
—  Unitary, City, Ceremonial county  —
View of the city from a tethered helium balloon
Official logo of Bristol Coat of Arms of the City Council
Motto: "Virtute et Industria" "By Virtue and Industry"
Coordinates: 51°27′N 2°35′W / 51.45°N 2.583°W / 51.45; -2.583
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	South West England
Ceremonial county	Bristol (County corporate)
Admin HQ	Bristol
Royal Charter	1155
County status	1373
Government
• Type	Unitary authority, City
• Governing body	Bristol City Council
• Leadership	Leader & Cabinet
• Executive	Liberal Democrat (council NOC)
• MPs	Chris Skidmore (C) Kerry McCarthy (L) Charlotte Leslie (C) Dawn Primarolo (L) Stephen Williams (LD)
Area
• Unitary, City, Ceremonial county	40 sq mi (110 km2)
Elevation[1]	36 ft (11 m)
Population (2010 est.)
• Unitary, City, Ceremonial county	441,300 (Ranked 7th amongst English Districts / 43rd amongst Ceremonial Counties)
• Density	9,420/sq mi (3,639/km2)
• Urban	587,400 (2,006 ONS estimate)
• Metro	1,006,600 (LUZ2,009)
• Ethnicity[2]	86.5% White (80.6% White British) 5.2% S. Asian 3.4% Black 2.4% Mixed Race 2.6% E. Asian or Other
Time zone	GMT (UTC0)
Postcode	BS
Area code(s)	0117
ISO 3166 code	GB-BST
ONS code	00HB
OS grid reference	ST595726
NUTS 3	UKK11
Website	bristol.gov.uk/

Bristol ⁱ/ˈbrɪstəl/ is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009,^[3] and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007.^[4] It is England's sixth and the United Kingdom's eighth most populous city,^[5] one of the group of English Core Cities and the most populous city in South West England.

Historically within Gloucestershire, the city received a Royal Charter in 1155 and was granted County status in 1373. From the 13th century, for half a millennium, it ranked amongst the top three English cities after London, alongside York and Norwich, on the basis of tax receipts,^[6] until the rapid rise of Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester during the Industrial Revolution in the latter part of the 18th century. It borders the counties of Somerset and Gloucestershire, and is also located near the historic cities of Bath to the south east and Gloucester to the north. The city is built around the River Avon, and it also has a short coastline on the Severn Estuary, which flows into the Bristol Channel.

Bristol is the largest centre of culture, employment and education in the region. Its prosperity has been linked with the sea since its earliest days. The commercial Port of Bristol was originally in the city centre before being moved to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth; Royal Portbury Dock is on the western edge of the city boundary. In more recent years the economy has depended on the creative media, electronics and aerospace industries, and the city centre docks have been regenerated as a centre of heritage and culture.^[7] There are 34 other populated places on Earth named Bristol, most in the United States, but also in Peru, Canada, Jamaica, Barbados,^[8][9] and Costa Rica, all presumably commemorating the original.^[10][11]

People from Bristol are termed Bristolians.^[12]

History[link]

Robert Ricart's map of Bristol, drawn when he became the common clerk of the town in 1478. His drawing was the first such plan of an English town.^[13]

Archaeological finds believed to be 60,000 years old, discovered at Shirehampton and St Annes, provide "evidence of human activity" in the Bristol area from the Palaeolithic era.^[14] Iron Age hill forts near the city are at Leigh Woods and Clifton Down on the side of the Avon Gorge, and on Kingsweston Hill, near Henbury.^[15] During the Roman era there was a settlement, Abona,^[16] at what is now Sea Mills, connected to Bath by a Roman road, and another at the present-day Inns Court. There were also isolated Roman villas and small Roman forts and settlements throughout the area.^[17]

The town of Brycgstow (Old English, "the place at the bridge")^[18] appears to have been founded in c.1000 and by c.1020 was an important enough trading centre to possess its own mint, producing silver pennies bearing the town's name.^[19] By 1067 the town was clearly a well fortified burh that proved capable of resisting an invasion force sent from Ireland by Harold's sons.^[20] Under Norman rule the town acquired one of the strongest castles in southern England.^[21]

Bristol Bridge seen across the harbour

The area around the original junction of the River Frome with the River Avon, adjacent to the original Bristol Bridge and just outside the town walls, was where the port began to develop in the 11th century.^[22] By the 12th century Bristol was an important port, handling much of England's trade with Ireland, including slaves. In 1247 a new stone bridge was built, which was replaced by the current Bristol Bridge in the 1760s,^[23] and the town was extended to incorporate neighbouring suburbs, becoming in 1373 a county in its own right.^[24][25] During this period Bristol also became a centre of shipbuilding and manufacturing.^[26] By the 14th century Bristol was one of England's three largest medieval towns after London, along with York and Norwich, and it has been suggested that between a third and half of the population were lost during the Black Death of 1348–49.^[27] The plague resulted in 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.

In the 15th century, Bristol was certainly the second most important port in the country, trading to Ireland,^[28] Iceland,^[29] and Gascony.^[30] Bristol was the starting point for many important voyages, including that led by Robert Sturmy (1457/8) to try to break the Italian monopoly over trade to the Eastern Mediterranean.^[31] Having been rebuffed in the east, Bristol merchants turned west, being involved in expeditions into the Atlantic, in search of the Isle of Hy-Brazil, by at least 1480. These Atlantic voyages were to culminate in John Cabot's 1497 voyage of exploration to North America and the subsequent expeditions undertaken by Bristol merchants to the new world up to 1508.^[32][33] These include one led by William Weston of Bristol in 1499, which was the first English-led expedition to North America.^[34] In the sixteenth century, however, Bristol merchants concentrated on developing their trade to Spain and its American colonies.^[35] This included the smuggling of 'prohibited' wares, such as foodstuffs and iron ordnance, to Iberia,^[36] even during the Anglo-Spanish war of 1585–1604.^[37]

The west front of Bristol Cathedral

The Diocese of Bristol was founded in 1542,^[38] with the former Abbey of St. Augustine, founded by Robert Fitzharding in 1140,^[39] becoming Bristol Cathedral. Traditionally this is equivalent to the town being granted city status. During the 1640s English Civil War the city was occupied by Royalist military, and they built the Royal Fort on the site of a earlier Parliamentarian stronghold.^[40]

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 Triangular trade. In the first stage of this trade manufactured goods were taken to West Africa and exchanged for Africans who were then, in the second stage or middle passage, transported across the Atlantic in brutal conditions.^[41] The third leg of the triangle brought plantation goods such as sugar, tobacco, rum, rice and cotton^[41] and also a small number of slaves who were sold to the aristocracy as house servants, some eventually buying their freedom.^[42] 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.^[43] The Seven Stars public house,^[44] where abolitionist Thomas Clarkson collected information on the slave trade, still exists.

An 1873 engraving showing sights around Bristol

Fishermen from Bristol had fished the Grand Banks of Newfoundland since the 15th century^[45] and began settling Newfoundland permanently in larger numbers in the 17th century establishing colonies at Bristol's Hope and Cuper's Cove. Bristol's strong nautical ties meant that maritime safety was an important issue in the city. During 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.^[46]

Competition from Liverpool from c. 1760, the disruption of maritime commerce caused by 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, as the great cost of the scheme led to excessive harbour dues.^[47] Nevertheless, Bristol's population (66,000 in 1801) quintupled during the 19th century, supported by new industries and growing commerce.^[48] It was particularly associated with the noted Victorian 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^[49] 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.^[50]

A map of Bristol from 1946

By 1901, some 330,000 people were living in Bristol and the city would grow steadily as the 20th century progressed. The city's docklands were enhanced in the early 1900s with the opening of Royal Edward Dock.^[51] Another new dock – Royal Portbury Dock – was opened in the 1970s.^[52]

Its education system received a major boost in 1909 with the formation of the University of Bristol,^[53] though it really took off in 1925 when its main building was opened.^[54] A polytechnic was opened in 1969 to give the city a second higher education institute, which would become the University of the West of England in 1992.^[55] With the advent of air travel, aircraft manufacturers set up base at new factories in the city during the first half of the 20th century.^[56]

Bristol suffered badly from Luftwaffe air raids in World War II, claiming some 1,300 lives of people living and working in the city, with nearly 100,000 buildings being damaged, at least 3,000 of them beyond repair.^[57][58] The original central shopping area, near the bridge and castle, is now a park containing two bombed out churches and some 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.^[59]

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 regeneration of the Broadmead shopping area, and the demolition of one of the city centre's tallest post-war blocks.^[60]

Bristol's road infrastructure was altered dramatically in the 1960s and 1970s with the development of the M4 and M5 motorways, which meet at an interchange just north of the city and give the city direct motorway links with London (M4 eastbound), Cardiff (M4 westbound across the Estuary of the River Severn), Exeter (M5 southbound) and Birmingham (M5 northbound).

The removal of the docks to Avonmouth Docks and Royal Portbury Dock, 7 miles (11.3 km) downstream from the city centre during the 20th century 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.^[61]

On the sporting scene, Bristol Rugby union club has frequently competed at the highest level in the sport since its formation in 1888.^[62] Its home is the Memorial Ground, which it has shared with Bristol Rovers Football Club since 1996. Although the rugby club was landlord when the football club arrived at the stadium as tenants, a decline in the rugby club's fortunes shortly afterwards led to the football club becoming landlord and the rugby club becoming the stadium's tenants. Bristol Rovers had spent the previous 10 years playing their home games outside the city following the closure of their Eastville stadium in 1986, before returning to the city to play at the Memorial Ground.^[63]

However, Bristol Rovers have generally been overshadowed by their local rivals Bristol City in terms of footballing success. Unlike Rovers, City have enjoyed top flight football. Their first spell in the Football League First Division began in 1906, and they ended their first season among the elite in fine form by finishing second and only narrowly missing out on league title glory. Two years later, they were on the losing side in the final of the FA Cup, and were relegated back to the Football League Second Division a year later. It would be another 65 years before First Division status was regained, in 1976. This time they spent four years among the elite before being relegated in 1980 – the first of a then unique third successive relegations which led to them slipping into the Fourth Division in 1982. Although promotion was secured in 1984, City enjoyed their third spell in the league's third tier until 2007 when they were promoted to the second tier, narrowly missing out on top flight promotion in their first season (Playoff final defeat against Hull City) English football. Since 1900 their home games have been played at Ashton Gate,^[64] though in recent years a number of schemes have been mooted to relocate the club to a new, larger stadium.^[65]

Government[link]

The Council House, the seat of local government

St Mary Redcliffe church and the Floating Harbour, Bristol.

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.^[66] 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. In 2007, Labour and the Conservatives joined forces to vote down the Liberal Democrat administration, and as a result, Labour ruled the council under a minority administration, with Helen Holland as the council leader.^[67] In February 2009, the Labour group resigned, and the Liberal Democrats took office with their own minority administration.^[68] At the council elections on 4 June 2009 the Liberal Democrats gained four seats and, for the first time, overall control of the City Council.^[69] The Lord Mayor is Councillor Geoffrey Gollop.^[70]

Bristol 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. In the recent 2010 General Election in May, the boundaries were changed to coincide with the county boundary. There are two Labour Members of Parliament (MPs), one Liberal Democrat and one Conservative.^[71]

After the 2010 British election in Bristol, the new political representation the city was composed of two Labour MPs, and one MP each for the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. The Conservatives gained Bristol North-West from the Labour Party.

Bristol has a tradition of local political activism, and has been home to many important political figures. 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. The women's rights campaigner Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence (1867–1954) was born in Bristol. Tony Benn, a veteran left-wing politician, was MP for Bristol South East from 1950 until 1983. In 1963, there was a boycott of the city's buses after the Bristol Omnibus Company 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.^[72] The city was the scene of the first of the 1980s riots. In St. Paul's, a number of largely Afro-Caribbean people rose up against racism, police harassment and mounting dissatisfaction 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.^[73]

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.^[25] However, on 1 April 1974, it became a local government district of the short-lived county of Avon.^[74] On 1 April 1996, it regained its independence and county status, when the county of Avon was abolished and Bristol became a Unitary Authority.^[75]

Geography and environment[link]

Boundaries[link]

Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge.

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, which takes in a large section of the Severn Estuary west as far as, but not including, the islands of Steep Holm and Flat Holm.^[76] A slightly less narrow definition is used by the Office for National Statistics (ONS); 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.^[77] The ONS has also defined an area called the "Bristol Urban Area," which includes Kingswood, Mangotsfield, Stoke Gifford, Winterbourne, Frampton Cotterell, Almondsbury and Easton-in-Gordano.^[78] The term "Greater Bristol", used for example by the Government Office of the South West,^[79] usually refers to the area occupied by the city and parts of the three neighbouring local authorities (Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire), an area sometimes also known as the "former Avon area" or the "West of England".^[80]

The Avon Gorge, home to several unique plant species.

Physical geography[link]

Bristol is in a limestone area, which runs from the Mendip Hills to the south and the Cotswolds to the north east.^[81] 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.^[82] The gorge helped to protect 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 Severn Estuary at Avonmouth. There is another gorge in the city, in the Blaise Castle estate to the north.^[82]

Climate[link]

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).^[83] It is also amongst the sunniest, with 1,541–1,885 hours sunshine per year.^[84] The city is partially sheltered by the Mendip Hills, but exposed to the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel. Rainfall increases towards the south of the area, with annual totals north of the Avon River in the 600-900 mm (35 in) range, up to the 900-1,200 mm (47 in) range South of it.^[85] Rain falls all year round, but autumn and winter are the wettest seasons.

The Atlantic strongly influences Bristol's weather, maintaining average temperatures above freezing throughout the year, although cold spells in winter often bring frosts. Snow can fall at any time from early November through to late April, but it is an infrequent occurrence. Summers are drier and quite warm with variable amounts of sunshine, rain and cloud. Spring is unsettled and changeable, and has brought spells of winter snow as well as summer sunshine.^[86]

The nearest weather stations to Bristol for which long term climate data are available are Long Ashton (about 5 miles South West of the city centre) and Bristol Weather Station (Within the city centre). However, data collection at these locations ceased in 2002 and 2001 respectively, and Filton Airfield is now the closest Weather Station.^[87] The temperature range at Long Ashton for the period 1959-2002 has spanned from 33.5 °C (92.3 °F) during July 1976,^[88] down to −14.4 °C (6.1 °F) in January 1982.^[89] Monthly Temperature extremes at Filton (since 2002) exceeding those recorded at Long Ashton include 25.7 °C (78.3 °F) during April 2003,^[90] 34.5 °C (94.1 °F) during July 2006^[91] and 26.8 °C (80.2 °F) in October 2011.^[92] The lowest temperature recorded in recent years at Filton was −10.1 °C (13.8 °F) during December 2010.^[93]

As can be seen from the charts below, like many large cities, Bristol experiences an urban heat island effect, with night time averages at Bristol Weather Centre, in the city centre generally being just under 2°C milder than Long Ashton, just outside the urban area.