Bristol - the old city

Bristol has a rich history that goes back to the Norman era. It became a city in 1542 and trade across the Atlantic developed. During the 17th and 18th centuries the transatlantic slave trade and the Industrial Revolution brought prosperity. Edmund Burke, MP for Bristol supported the American Revolution and free trade. Prominent reformers such as Mary Carpenter and Hannah More campaigned against the slave trade.

As the city expanded the city walls were demolished and new buildings replaced old. With the exception of the churches, most of the older buildings in the Old City are Georgian or Victorian. Many of these were banks and grand civic buildings such as the former Corn Exchange, now St Nicholas Market.

We loved walking around the Old City in Bristol. We started with the Christmas Steps as it was one of the sites I remembered from our previous visit.

Today, there are independent shops on either side of the steps as they climb higher and higher

Unfortunately, scaffolding on large parts of the steps ruined the effect of looking up or down at them

An old almshouse, founded in 1483, at the top of the steps

We went down a different set of steps

Street art

We walked through the arch of this church

on to Broad Street

A hotel

The Palestine Museum. We decided we would visit the next day, which was a mistake as the next day the museum was closed. 

The Bank of England and a unicorn

We then entered Corn Street and found ourselves in the middle of a market.

Today trade is still the key part of the Old City. The streets and alleys around this area hold a whole array of street markets and events, from a weekly farmers market, to book markets, arts markets.

We arrived at one of the many entrances to St Nicks market,

 a thriving market housing Bristol's largest collection of independent traders, named as one of the ten best markets in the UK.

 

Unfortunately I had an accident with some of the photographs and lost them in the process, and a lot of them included photos of the St Nicks market.

There are a lot of bars, cafes and restaurants around St Nicks market and generally around this area and they always seemed to be busy

This city is just so vibrant

Another street market here, a small one this time