The Port of Bristol comprises the commercial, and former commercial, docks situated in and near the city of Bristol in England. The Port of Bristol Authority was the commercial title of the Bristol City, Avonmouth, Portishead and Royal Portbury Docks when they were operated by Bristol City Council, which ceased trade when the Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Docks were leased to The Bristol Port Company in 1991.

For more information on the history of the different dock complexes, see Bristol Harbour, Avonmouth Docks, Portishead and Royal Portbury Dock.

The Port of Bristol grew up on the banks of the Rivers Avon and Frome, at their confluence upstream of the Avon Gorge which connects the city with the Bristol Channel. This part of the port was known as the Bristol City Docks, and is now more usually known as Bristol Harbour. The Avon and Frome are small, shallow rivers incapable in themselves of accommodating ocean-going ships, even those of the age of sail, as can still be seen by inspecting the branch of the Avon known as the New Cut at low tide. The harbour depended on the extreme tides (14 metres) experienced in the Bristol Channel. Ships that wished to enter the harbour waited for the tide to begin to rise and floated up the river, through the Avon Gorge, and into the harbour on the tide. Ships leaving the harbour set out at the high tide, and floated down to the sea with the ebbing tide. In the 1800s the harbour was enclosed by locks, together with a diversion of the River Avon, resulting in its alternative name of the Floating Harbour, taken from the fact that the ships were able to float at all times, rather than resting in the mud at low tide, as had previously been the case.

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, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007. It is England's sixth and the United Kingdom's eighth most populous city, 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, 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.

Christopher Murray Paul-Huhne, commonly known as Chris Huhne (English spelling pronunciation /ˈhjuːn/, born 2 July 1954) is a British politician and former cabinet minister, who is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for the Eastleigh constituency in Hampshire. He was appointed Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in the coalition government following the 2010 general election. In February 2012 he became the first Cabinet minister in history to be forced from office by a criminal prosecution when he was charged with perverting the course of justice over a 2003 speeding case. Huhne has twice stood unsuccessfully for election as leader of the Liberal Democrats. In the 2006 election he came second to Sir Menzies Campbell and in the 2007 election he narrowly lost to Nick Clegg.

Huhne was born in an affluent section of West London to businessman Peter Paul-Huhne and actress Ann Murray, who had been the voice of the speaking clock. He was educated at the fee-paying Westminster School. His family name was Paul-Huhne and he was known all through his school years as Christopher Paul-Huhne. At Oxford, he simplified his name to "Chris Huhne".