Bristol was home to an estimated 430,000 residents back in 2009 making it Britain’s sixth most populous city.
Archaeologists claim to have evidence of human activity in the Bristol area over 60,000 years ago.
Bristol was named Britain’s first ‘Cycling City’ in 2008 thanks to its efforts to accommodate and encourage cycling.
The dog on the HMV logo, Nipper, was born and bred in Bristol. Nipper was made famous by his appearance on the HMV logo, was owned by an employee at the former Prince’s Theatre on Park Row. He is commemorated there by a blue plaque, thought to be the only blue plaque in the UK devoted to an animal.
The city was crowned the best in the UK and Ireland by the Academy of Urbanism in 2008.
Bristol became the first city to twin with a German partner following the second war when it twinned with Hanover in 1947
Bristol was recently voted for by NME readers as the best location for night clubbing as well as having the ‘fittest girls’
Many natives from Bristol like to use the word ‘to’ instead of the word ‘at.’
Psychologists recently concluded that Bristol was the smiliest city in the UK by smiling at residents of every UK city and measuring how many smiled back.
The Theatre Royal Bristol is the oldest continuously working theatre in Britain
The world’s first commercially produced chocolate bar was created in Bristol
Little Britain character Vicky Pollard was inspired by a youngster that Matt Lucas and David Williams met in Bristol
Bristol Harbour Festival is thought to be the largest free city-based festival in Europe
The notorious pirate, Blackbeard, was believed to have been born in Bristol.
Gloucester Road in Bristol contains to the longest stretch of independent shops in Europe.
Bristol Zoo is the world’s oldest provincial zoo.
There are tours today up to the top of the Wills Memorial Building. Started in 1915 but due to the First World War only completed in 1925, it stands at 68m (215 ft) high, making it twice as tall as the nearby Cabot Tower. Designed by George Herbert Oatley, it is constructed from Bath and Clipsham stone.
Just up the road from the Wills Tower, what is now Browns restaurant used to be the university refectory. It is modelled on the Doge’s Palace in Venice.
Ribena was invented at the National Fruit & Cider Institute in Long Ashton. As sources of vitamin C dwindled during World War II, Bristol researchers found blackcurrants were the best alternative to oranges and Ribena was born.
The Downs Tea Rooms are former Victorian toilets. On the toilets the other side of the water tower, a blue plaque commemorates attendant Victoria Hughes, who in the 1920s befriended prostitutes, making her workplace a safe haven for working girls.
St Mary Redcliffe is Bristol’s tallest building at 89m. But by virtue of Clifton’s lofted elevation, Christ Church is the city’s highest structure above sea level.
The Bristol Post Boy of August 12, 1704, is the earliest surviving copy of a provincial newspaper in the UK.
The Clifton Suspension Bridge is three feet lower on the Leigh Woods side than on the Clifton side in order to counteract an optical illusion.
In medieval times, the Christmas Steps was called Queene Street, later becoming known as Knyfesmyth Street after its specialist traders. At its foot for centuries was a statue of the Madonna and child, rubbed smooth by generations of people for luck. The beheaded statue can still be seen just inside the entrance to St Bartholomew’s Court.
The star-shaped light in the ceiling of St George’s marks the point where an incendiary bomb, thankfully failing to ignite, crashed through the roof during the Blitz.
Bristol is the only city outside London to have a State Coach