Exploratory Hands-on Science Centre

The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum (grid reference ST597725) was a museum in Bristol, England, exploring the history of the British Empire and the effect of British colonial rule on the rest of the world. The museum opened in 2002 and entered voluntary liquidation in 2013. The museum opened in 2002 in Bristol's historic old railway station, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, following renovation and conversion costing £8 million. It was completed in 1840 and includes the passenger shed and the adjoining former engine and carriage shed. It is over 220 ft long (67 m) with timber and iron roof spans of 72 ft (22 m), this Grade I listed building has been nominated as part of a World Heritage Site.The museum had a flourishing publications department, producing books on aspects of colonial life such as the history of the Northern Rhodesia Police, and a register of titles of the regiments of the Honourable East India Company and East Indian Armies. The museum also held the collection of artefacts of the Commonwealth Institute; extensive photograph stills, paper, film and oral history archives, and a costume collection. These are now in the care of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives (apart from loans which were returned to their owners).The museum was also the home of the New World Tapestry.Unlike many national museums in Britain, the BECM was not publicly funded, but owned and operated by a charitable trust; consequently an admission charge was in place.

The Second Siege of Bristol of the First English Civil War lasted from 23 August 1645 until 10 September 1645, when the Royalist commander Prince Rupert surrendered the city that he had captured from the Parliamentarians on 26 July 1643. The commander of the Parliamentarian New Model Army forces besieging Bristol was Lord Fairfax.

Gromit Unleashed was a public charity art trail led by Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal and Aardman Animations, in which 80 giant artist-decorated fibreglass sculptures of Gromit were displayed on the streets of Bristol and the surrounding area between 1 July and 8 September 2013. At the end of the art trail, the sculptures were auctioned to raise funds for Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal, the Bristol Children's Hospital Charity. The Grand Appeal pledged to raise £3.5 million for state-of-the-art equipment for Bristol Children's Hospital, including an intraoperative MRI scanner, family facilities and child-friendly artwork to help save the lives of sick children at the hospital. All funds raised by Gromit Unleashed contributed towards this. The project follows the concept of the "Land in Sicht", the original Swiss project by artistic director Walter Knapp which inspired the subsequent worldwide exhibition "CowParade" and similar exhibitions in other cities, including Wow! Gorillas which took place in Bristol in 2011. To date Gromit Unleashed has raised over £5 million for Bristol Children's Hospital.

Wow! Gorillas was a project organised by Bristol Zoo in 2011 that displayed 61 decorated life-sized fibreglass gorilla sculptures on the streets of Bristol, England.The project followed the concept of the “Land in Sicht” the original Swiss project by artistic director Walter Knapp, which has inspired the subsequent worldwide exhibition "CowParade" and similar exhibitions in other cities. A final gorilla was put on display outside Dunkley's Chartered Accountants in Bradley Stoke. Painted by Eloise Dunkley.

Bristol, the largest city in South West England, has an eclectic combination of architectural styles, ranging from the medieval to 20th century brutalism and beyond. During the mid-19th century, Bristol Byzantine, an architectural style unique to the city, was developed, and several examples have survived. Buildings from most of the architectural periods of the United Kingdom can be seen throughout Bristol. Parts of the fortified city and castle date back to the medieval era, as do some churches dating from the 12th century onwards. Outside the historical city centre there are several large Tudor mansions built for wealthy merchants. Almshouses and public houses of the same period survive, intermingled with areas of more recent development. Several Georgian-era squares were laid out for the enjoyment of the middle class. As the city grew, it merged with its surrounding villages, each with its own character and centre, often clustered around a parish church. The construction of the city's Floating Harbour, taking in the wharves on the River Avon and Frome, provided a focus for industrial development and the growth of the local transport infrastructure. Key elements of which include the Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed Clifton Suspension Bridge and Temple Meads terminus; the latter served from 2002 to 2009 as the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, but is now closed.The 20th century saw further expansion of the city, the growth of the University of Bristol and the arrival of the aircraft industry. During World War II, the city centre was extensively bombed in the Bristol Blitz. The redevelopment of shopping centres, office buildings, and the harbourside continues to this day.

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Bristol, England.

Austin Friary was an Augustinian friary in Bristol, England. It was established in 1313, when Simon de Montecute gave 100 square feet (9.3 m2) of land within the Temple Gate of Bristol. Further gifts of land were made by William de Montecute and Thomas of Berkeley during the next thirty years.The monks constructed a pipe to supply themselves with water from a reservoir on the west bank of the Avon. This reservoir was fed from a spring, Ravenswell, in the cliff rising to Totterdown from the Avon. The pipe remained in use for water supply to the Temple district until the nineteenth century.The prior and six remaining friars surrendered the friary and the remaining furniture and vestments to commissioner Richard Yngworth in 1538, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.No traces of the buildings survive today. The area has been extensively redeveloped since the eighteenth century and is now occupied by the headquarters of Bristol & West, a commercial bank which is a subsidiary of the Bank of Ireland.

Temple Quay is an area of mixed-use development in central Bristol, England. The project was initiated by Bristol Development Corporation in 1989, under the name Quay Point until 1995. In that year it was handed over to English Partnerships, under whom development eventually started in 1998. It is bounded by Temple Way (the A4044) to the west and Bristol Temple Meads railway station to the southeast; to the northeast the development was bounded by Bristol Floating Harbour until 2002, when development of Temple Quay North started on the harbour's other side. In 2012 the whole area became part of Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone. Temple Quay includes a significant amount of office accommodation occupied by UK Government departments and agencies including Homes England, The Planning Inspectorate, Insolvency Service, Care Quality Commission, Ofsted and English Heritage.

Eremites Friary was a friary in Bristol, England. The Brothers Eremites of St. Augustine kept a small convent near Temple Gate, founded by Sir Simon and Sir William Montacute in 1320. No trace of it remains today.

Bristol Temple Meads is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol, England. It is located 118 miles 31 chains (118.39 mi; 190.5 km) away from London Paddington. It is an important transport hub for public transport in the city; there are bus services to many parts of the city and surrounding districts, with a ferry to the city centre. Bristol's other major station, Bristol Parkway, is a more recent station on the northern outskirts of the conurbation. Temple Meads was opened on 31 August 1840, as the western terminus of the Great Western Railway. The railway, including Temple Meads, was the first to be designed by the British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Soon, the station was also used by the Bristol and Exeter Railway, the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, the Bristol Harbour Railway and the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway. To accommodate the increasing number of trains, the station was expanded in the 1870s by Francis Fox and again between 1930 and 1935 by Percy Emerson Culverhouse. Brunel's terminus is no longer part of the operational station. The historical significance of the station has been noted and most of the site is Grade I listed. In Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations by Simon Jenkins, the station was one of only ten to be awarded five stars.Thirteen platforms are in use, numbered between 1 and 15, but passenger trains are confined to just eight tracks. Most platforms are numbered separately at each end, with odd numbers at the east end and even numbers at the west. Platform 2 is a bay platform at the west end which not used by passenger trains and there is no platform 14.Temple Meads is managed by Network Rail. Most services are operated by the present-day Great Western Railway, with others by CrossCountry.

Banana Bridge, officially Langton Street Bridge, is a footbridge in Bristol, England which crosses the New Cut. It is Grade II listed.When constructed in 1883 between Langton Street and St. Luke's Road, the bridge was said to be a temporary route while the nearby Bedminster Bridge was rebuilt. Langton Street has since been lost to bombings in WW2.

Meads Reach Bridge is a footbridge in Bristol, England.