Bristol - riverside

Bristol was a major port, a starting place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. At the height of the Bristol slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, more than 2,000 slave ships carried an estimated 50,000 people from Africa to slavery in the Americas. On June 2020, a statue of Edward Colston was pulled down from its city centre plinth by protestors and pushed into the harbour, an acknowledgement of the city's shameful history.

In the 20th century the port of Bristol was moved from Bristol Harbour in the city centre to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Dock. This has allowed the redevelopment of the old dock area, turning the area into a leisure asset of the city.

This is a wonderful part of the city

We got to this spot and my heart started aching for Amsterdam - the cobbles, the water, the railings, the bikes. It was like being back in that wonderful city, which I have not visited for too long a time. I must remedy this and go there again soon.

Just like Amsterdam, except that the buildings are more beautiful there, as Ken pointed out.

As I said earlier, the riverside has become a real pleasure centre for the city

Just amazing, the numbers of people sitting here at this pub

at all times of the day

day and night, except for early morning, when they would hose down the tables and benches.

An endless stream to people having a good time

We ate here, at the Granary, 

during our first evening

and then walked around

this wonderful city, soaking up the atmosphere.

M Shed, the museum that explores life and work in the city.

On our last day we walked a long stretch along the riverside up to Brunel's SS Great Britain, but unfortunately I have lost all of the last day's photographes. I was furious about it, but there you go...

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