Portal:Bristol

Topics

Culture

Geography

Health

History

Mathematics

Nature

People

Philosophy

Religion

Society

Technology

100px

Bristol (ⁱ/ˈbrɪstəl/) is a city, unitary authority and county in South West England with an estimated population of 437,500 in 2014. People from the city are known as Bristolians. It is England's sixth and the United Kingdom's eighth most populous city, and the second most populous city in Southern England after London.

Iron Age hill forts and Roman villas were built in the area around the confluence of the Rivers Frome and Avon, and it became known as Brycgstow (Old English "the place at the bridge") around the beginning of the 11th century. Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was part of Gloucestershire until 1373, when it became a county. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities after London (with York and Norwich) in tax receipts. Bristol was eclipsed by the rapid rise of Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham during the Industrial Revolution. It borders the counties of Somerset and Gloucestershire, with the historic cities of Bath and Gloucester to the southeast and northeast, respectively. The city has a short coastline on the Severn Estuary (which flows into the Bristol Channel).

Bristol's prosperity has been linked with the sea since its earliest days. Around 1500, it was the base for voyages of exploration to the New World: on a ship out of Bristol, John Cabot was the first European, since the Vikings 500 years earlier, to land in North America in 1497; and William Weston, a Bristol merchant, was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America, in 1499. The Port of Bristol was originally in the city centre before commercial shipping moved from Bristol Harbour to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth. Royal Portbury Dock is on the western edge of the city. Its economy has recently depended on the creative media, electronics and aerospace industries, and the city-centre docks have been redeveloped as centres of heritage and culture. The city has two universities and a variety of artistic and sporting organisations and venues. In 2005, Bristol was named by the UK government one of England's six science cities. It is connected with the surrounding region and the rest of the country by road and rail, including the M5 and M4 (which connect to the city centre by the M32 motorway and Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway railway stations). Bristol, which was named England's first cycling city in 2008, won the European Green Capital Award in 2015. more about Bristol... Template:/box-footer

Bristol Old Vic is a British theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. The present company was established in 1946 as an offshoot of the Old Vic in London. It is associated with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which became a financially independent organisation in the 1990s. Bristol Old Vic runs a popular, and highly successful Young Company for young people aged 7–25.

The Theatre Royal, the oldest continually-operating theatre in England, was built during 1764–66 on King Street in Bristol. The Coopers' Hall, built 1743–44, was incorporated as the theatre's foyer during 1970–72. Together, they are designated a Grade I listed building by Historic England.

In 2012 the theatre complex completed the first phase of a £19 million refurbishment, increasing seating capacity and providing up to ten flexible performance spaces. Besides the main Theatre Royal auditorium, the complex includes the Studio theatre and the Side Stage, Paint Shop and Basement performance areas. Whilst the theatre was closed, the company continued to present work in the Studio and Basement spaces, as well as at other sites around Bristol. The Theatre Royal re-opened in autumn 2012 with Wild Oats.

The nave of Bristol Cathedral.

The nave of Bristol Cathedral.

Portrait photograph of Mary Carpenter in later life. Mary Carpenter B. (1807-04-03)3 April 1807 – d.  Mary Carpenter was an English educational and social reformer. The daughter of a Unitarian minister, she founded a ragged school and reformatories, bringing previously unavailable educational opportunities to poor children and young offenders in Bristol. She published articles and books on her work and her lobbying was instrumental in the passage of several educational acts in the mid-nineteenth century. She was the first woman to have a paper published by the Statistical Society of London. She was active in the anti-slavery movement; she also visited India, visiting schools and prisons and working to improve female education, establish reformatory schools and improve prison conditions. In later years she visited Europe and America, carrying on her campaigns of penal and educational reform. Carpenter publicly supported women's suffrage in her later years and also campaigned for female access to higher education. She is buried in Arnos Vale Cemetery and has a memorial in the North transept of Bristol Cathedral.

From Wikipedia's "Did You Know" archives:

• ... that the altarpiece triptych Sealing the Tomb (pictured) was William Hogarth's only commission from the Church of England?
• ... that the National Nautical School was originally based on HMS Formidable?
• ... that Horseshoe Bend, Shirehampton, a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Bristol, contains the largest population of True Service-trees in England?
• ... that blinded Bristol boxer Dixie Brown was visited during World War II by African American soldiers, who respected him as "a much admired character"?
• ... that in the storming of Bristol in 1643, Royalist invaders used "fire-pikes"—rudimentary flamethrowers—against the defending Parliamentarians?

	Related Portals
Somerset	England	United Kingdom

Template:/box-header To display further subcategories, click on the arrow symbols

• WikiProject Bristol

Template:/box-header {{Wikipedia:WikiProject Bristol/to do}} Template:/box-footer

Featured articles

2

Former featured articles

2

Featured lists

2

Good articles

2

Former good articles

2

Did you know? articles

2

In the News articles

2

• St Mary Redcliffe was described by Queen Elizabeth I as "the fairest, goodliest, and most famous parish church in England."
• Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a member of parliament.-Edmund Burke in his Speech to the Electors of Bristol (1774-11-03)

The following Wikimedia sister projects provide more on this subject:

• What are portals?
• List of portals
• Featured portals