Bristol

City
City of Bristol transcription(s)
	Coat of arms
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Region	South West
Royal Charter	1155
County status	1373
Status	City, county and unitary authority
Government
• Type	Unitary authority
• Governing body	Bristol City Council
Area
• City and county	110 km2 (40 sq mi)
Elevation	11 m (36 ft)
Population (2017)
• City and county	463,400 (Ranked 10th district and 43rd ceremonial county)
• Density	3,892/km2 (10,080/sq mi)
• Urban	724,000
• Metro	1,006,600 (LUZ 2,009)
• Ethnicity	84.0% white (77.9% white British); 6.0% black; 5.5% Asian; 3.6% mixed-race; 0.3% Arab; 0.6% other;
Time zone	UTC+1 (GMT (UTC))
• Summer (DST)	BST
Postcode	BS
ISO 3166 code	GB-BST
Website	www.bristol.gov.uk

Bristol is a city and ceremonial county in England. It is home to nearly 430,000 people. The River Avon runs through it to the Severn estuary.

Geography

It is between the counties of Gloucestershire and Somerset. In 1373, King Edward III ordered that it should be a county itself forever. However, it lost county status in 1974, the year after its 600-year celebrations. It became the largest district within the new Avon county. Avon was never popular and was abolished in 1996, when county status returned to Bristol, which became a unitary council.

History

The Bristol name means "the place where the bridge is" in Old English. It has been a port for 800 years. Now, ships are too big to reach it. It has a new seaport at Avonmouth.

Historical sites

It has many historic churches and other buildings. The Clifton Suspension Bridge crosses high above the river. The University of Bristol is also in Clifton.

Bristol was a centre for the slave trade.^[2]^[3] During the 2020 George Floyd protests, a crowd pushed down the statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston and threw it in the harbour.^[4]

Bristol was badly damaged during World War II. It now has many new factories and offices. The Concorde supersonic airliner was made here.

It is also the birthplace of the music genre trip hop,^[5] with 3 trip hop bands originating there: Massive Attack, Portishead (named after a North Somerset town) and Tricky.^[6]

Notable people

Some of the most notable people who are currently living, or who are from the city include:

Banksy - graffiti artist ^[7]^[8]^[9]
Stephen Merchant - writer and comedian
Russell Howard - comedian and television presenter

Bristol Media

West front of Bristol Cathedral
The 17th-century Old Dutch House, High Street, Bristol, before destruction in the Blitz, 1940
An 1873 engraving showing Colston Hall, the port and cathedral of Bristol
Black-and-white etching showing the towers of St Stephen's Church, St Augustine the Less Church and Bristol Cathedral, published c. 1850
Map of Bristol from 1946. Scale 1 inch to the mile 600DPI Sheet 156
St Mary le Port Church, destroyed on 24 November 1940
Ambrose Road, in the Cliftonwood neighbourhood