Sights in Bristol
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SS Great Britain
Bristol's pride and joy is the mighty steamship SS Great Britain, designed by the genius engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1843. Built from iron and driven by a revolutionary screw propeller, this massive vessel was one of the largest and most technologically advanced steamships ever built, measuring a mighty 322ft (98m) from stern to tip, and capable of completing the transatlantic crossing between Bristol and New York in just 14 days. It served as a luxury liner until 1886, but enormous running costs and mounting debts eventually led it towards an ignominious end: it was sold off and served variously as a troop vessel, quarantine ship, emigration transport and…
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British Empire & Commonwealth Museum
Bristol's slave-trading past is thoughtfully explored at the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum. Dealing with the history and consequences of British colonial conquest, the 16 galleries range over 500 years of British trade, exploration and exploitation, and while there's a conscious attempt at perspective, it's hard not to be moved by the stories of subjugation that underpinned Britain's imperial rise.
Highlights include sepia-toned films from the Empire's heyday and a collection of outfits worn by colonial administrators, Indian viceroys and tribal chiefs. Breaking the Chains, marking the bicentenary of the Abolition of Slavery Act in 1807, interweaves film, music and…
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Clifton Suspension Bridge
Clifton's most famous (and photographed) landmark is a Brunel masterpiece, the 76m-high Clifton Suspension Bridge, which spans the Avon Gorge from Clifton over to Leigh Woods in northern Somerset. Construction began in 1836, but sadly Brunel died before the bridge's completion in 1864. It was mainly designed to carry light horse-drawn traffic and foot passengers, but these days around 12,000 cars cross it every day – testament to the quality of the construction and the vision of Brunel's design.
It's free to walk or cycle across the bridge; car drivers pay a 50p toll. There's a visitor information point near the tower on the Leigh Woods side. Free guided tours (£3) of…
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Blaise Castle House Museum
In the northern suburb of Henbury is this late-18th-century house and social-history museum. Displays include vintage toys, costumes and other Victorian ephemera. Bus 42/42A (45 minutes, every 15 minutes) passes the castle from Colston Ave; bus 1 (20 minutes, every 10 minutes) from the station and St Augustine's Pde doesn't stop quite as close, but is quicker.
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Georgian House
This 18th-century house provides an evocative illustration of aristocratic life in Bristol during the Georgian era. The six-storeyed house belonged to West India merchant John Pinney, along with his slave Pero (after whom Pero's Bridge across the harbour is named). It's decorated throughout in period style, typified by the huge kitchen (complete with cast-iron roasting spit), the book-lined library and the grand drawing rooms. Look out for Pinney's cold-water plunge-pool in the basement.
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St Mary Redcliffe
Described as 'the fairest, goodliest and most famous parish church in England' by Queen Elizabeth I, St Mary Redcliffe is a stunning piece of perpendicular architecture with a soaring 89m-high spire, a grand hexagonal porch that easily outdoes Bristol cathedral in splendour, and a vaulted ceiling decorated with fine gilt bosses. The 14th-century south porch is carved with intricate birds and animals.
At the entrance to the America Chapel there is a whale rib presented to the church by John Cabot as a souvenir of his pioneering trip to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in 1497.
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Bristol Cathedral
Originally founded as a 12th-century monastery church, Bristol Cathedral was heavily remodelled during the 19th century. It's one of Britain's best examples of a 'Hall Church' (meaning the nave, chapels and choir are the same height). Although the nave and west towers are Victorian, parts of the choir are medieval, and the south transept contains a rare Saxon carving of the Harrowing of Hell, discovered under the chapter-house floor after a 19th-century fire.
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Red Lodge
Built in 1590 but remodelled in 1730, this red-brick house is a mix of Elizabethan, Stuart and Georgian architecture. The highlight is the Great Oak Room, which still features its original Elizabethan oak panelling, plasterwork ceiling and carved chimneypiece.
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City Museum & Art Gallery
Housed in a stunning Edwardian building near the university. There's a collection of British and French art on the 1st floor, along with galleries dedicated to ceramics and decorative arts. Look out for the 'Bristol Boxkite' above reception, a pioneering canvas aeroplane built in Bristol and made famous in the 1965 film Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. On the ground floor is the archaeological, geological and natural history wings, as well as the refurbished Egyptian Gallery.
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Explore-At-Bristol
On Bristol's revived harbourside is one of the country's leading science centres, Explore-At-Bristol. It's crammed with hundreds of hands-on exhibits demonstrating the everyday applications of science, with zones spanning ingenious inventions, optical illusions, outer-space technology and the human brain. Strum on a virtual harp, freeze your shadow, become a virtual sperm or journey across the solar system in the amazing domed Planetarium.
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Bristol Zoo
The city's award-winning zoo occupies a huge site on the north side of Clifton. Highlights include gorilla and gibbon islands, a reptile and bug house, a butterfly forest, a lion enclosure, a monkey jungle and the new Zooropia (adult/child £7.70/6.70), a treetop adventure park strung with net ramps, rope bridges, hanging logs and a zipline. There's a 10% discount for tickets purchased online.
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Cabot Tower
Built in 1897 to commemorate four hundred years since Cabot's voyage to Newfoundland, the 150m-high Cabot Tower stands in the small park on Brandon Hill and can be seen from across the city. Built in red sandstone and pale-cream Bath stone, the tower offers wonderful views from the top of its spiral staircase, but be warned - it's a long, puff-powered climb to the top.
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Maritime Heritage Centre
The Maritime Heritage Centre houses various exhibits relating to the SS Great Britain and her illustrious history. East along the river is Prince's Wharf, formerly the site of Bristol's main dock and the city's Industrial Museum.
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Pero's Bridge
Look out for Pero's Bridge, which spans the river across to the Arnolfini Arts Centre, and was named after the African-born slave who served the Bristolian merchant John Pinney. On nearby Millennium Sq is a statue to Cary Grant, aka Brizzle boy Archibald Leach.
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Camera Obscura
The grassy parks of Clifton Down and Durdham Down (locally known as The Downs) make a fine picnic spot. Nearby, a scruffy observatory houses England's only Camera Obscura, which offers incredible views of the suspension bridge.
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Arnolfini
The city's avant-garde art gallery occupies a hulking red-brick warehouse by the river, and remains the top venue in town for modern art, as well as occasional exhibitions of dance, film and photography.
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Spike Island
Culture vultures can visit Spike Island, a centre for contemporary visual arts that's recently reopened after an around £3 million revamp, with artists' studios, a light-drenched gallery and a great café.
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Ashton Court Estate
Two miles from the city centre, this huge estate is Bristol's 'green lung', with 850 sprawling acres of oak woodland, trails and public park. It hosts many of Bristol's key events, including the Balloon and Kite festivals. There are also 6.5km of bike trails, two 18-hole golf courses and a miniature railway – and if you're really lucky, you might even spot a roe or fallow deer.
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M Shed
It's taken four years and £27m to build, but Bristol's brand-new museum is finally open – and it's really rather brilliant. Lodged in a massive old warehouse overlooking the docks, it's a treasure trove of weird-and-wonderful memorabilia rummaging through the city's past. The 3000-odd exhibits are divided into three sections (People, Place and Life), and provide a panoramic overview of Bristol's history – from slaves' possessions and vintage double-decker buses to Wallace and Gromit figurines and a set of bright-pink decks once used by Massive Attack. Multimedia displays and background panels make everything enormously accessible, and you're absolutely guaranteed to…
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Tyntesfield
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Temple Church
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Giant's Cave
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Banksy's Love Triangle Stencil
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