THE CITY OF BRISTOL
The city of Bristol
Introducing the city
What's it like to be in Bristol? Well, it feels a bit like this. Watch this short film and get a sense of the place.
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The most beautiful, interesting and distinguished city in England.
- John Betjeman, former poet laureate
Alive and well and kicking like a can-can girl.
- The Sunday Telegraph
Bristol is a multicultural city of balloons and kites, clubs and DJs, festivals and carnivals, architecture and park land, business and new technology, theatres and museums, artists and animators, music and film. It has been officially designated a 'Centre of Culture' and a 'Science City' by the Government. In 2008, Bristol was given the European City of the Year Award by the Academy of Urbanism.
Its name comes from the Old English Brycgstow, meaning the place at the bridge. That's still a good description, and not just because of Brunel's renowned Clifton Suspension Bridge. Bristol is a bridge to culture, experiences, landscapes, careers – and the future.
Bristol has a history of innovation, creativity, exploration and risk taking:
- John Cabot sailed from here in 1497 on his historic voyage to Newfoundland.
- Isambard Kingdom Brunel built the Great Western Railway from London to Bristol in the 1830s.
- The foundations of solid-state physics were laid here in the 1930s by Nevill Mott and his team.
- The first public performance of the first stage work by Harold Pinter (The Room) was held here in 1957.
- The band Portishead recorded the groundbreaking Dummy album here (parts of it were recorded in the Music Department's Victoria Rooms) in 1993.
- Banksy, the Bristol-born renowned street artist and 'trickster', began his career here.
- The Internet Movie Database is largely run from here by its co-founder and managing director, Col Needham.