An Introduction to Bristol

John Cabot sailed from Bristol in 1497 on his historic voyage to North America.  Situated at the mouth of the Avon, Bristol became the main British port for transatlantic trade, pioneering the era of the ocean-going steam liner with the construction of SS Great Britain. The city flourished as a major trading centre, growing rich on the import and export of wine, tobacco and more notoriously in the slave trade in the 17 century. During the second world war, the city was bombed because of its strategic importance and the city centre has been redeveloped by post-war planners. The docks have been moved to deeper waters at Avonmouth and the old dock area has been transformed, taking on new life, with trendy waterside cafes, shops and arc galleries.  Bristol is a vibrant young harbour city, with a bustling high-tech business centre and strong entrepreneurial spirit. It is a city which effortlessly mixes historic and new, from the historical quayside to the lively modern development that is Harbourside, with its buzzing night-scene and bar culture.

With a strong creative identity and friendly student culture, Bristol has one of the best universities in the land, and is fast being recognised for its diverse qualities. Indeed, the city itself is very confident of its increasing appeal to outside visitors, as it has applied to be considered for the European Capital of Culture accolade in 2008. Bristol has incidentally been short listed from an original twelve cities, to be named as one of the six contenders for the prestigious Award.

The City has a thriving industrial area, with a historical port which has seen thousands of years of sea trading history. Bristol was also involved in the slave trade, and regularly received imports from Spain, Portugal, as well as receiving shipments of cane sugar, tobacco, rum and cocoa. It was Bristol’s position on the rivers Frome and Avon, which made it an ideally situated to city to have a port.

Bristol is the largest city in the South West of England and and played an important role in England’s history. It was once the country’s second city, and although not without west coast rivals, it was second only to London for many years in the amount of trade which passed through it. The warehouses and tall cranes on the quayside are symbols of a past when the harbour was packed with ships while in the yards new vessels were being constructed.

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