Bristol Cenotaph

Bristol ( (listen)) is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in South West England. The wider Bristol Built-up Area is the eleventh most populous urban area in the United Kingdom.Iron Age hillforts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon. Around the beginning of the 11th century, the settlement was known as Brycgstow (Old English: 'the place at the bridge'). Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373 when it became a county corporate. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities, after London, in tax receipts. A major port, Bristol was a starting place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. On a ship out of Bristol in 1497, John Cabot, a Venetian, became the first European to land on mainland North America. In 1499, William Weston, a Bristol merchant, was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America. At the height of the Bristol slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, more than 2,000 slave ships carried an estimated 500,000 people from Africa to slavery in the Americas. The Port of Bristol has since moved from Bristol Harbour in the city centre to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Dock. Bristol's modern economy is built on the creative media, electronics and aerospace industries; the city-centre docks have been redeveloped as centres of heritage and culture. The city has the largest circulating community currency in the UK, the Bristol Pound, which is pegged to the pound sterling. The city has two universities: the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol). There are a variety of artistic and sporting organisations and venues including the Royal West of England Academy, the Arnolfini, Spike Island, Ashton Gate and the Memorial Stadium. It is connected to London and other major UK cities by road and rail, and to the world by sea and air: road, by the M5 and M4 (which connect to the city centre by the Portway and M32); rail, via Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway mainline rail stations; and Bristol Airport. Bristol was named the best city in Britain in which to live in 2014 and 2017; it won the European Green Capital Award in 2015.

A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020 is a 2020 black resin sculpture, sculpted by Marc Quinn and modelled on Jen Reid; both Quinn and Reid are credited as artists. It depicts Reid, a black female protester, raising her arm in a Black Power salute. It was erected surreptitiously in the city centre of Bristol, England, in the early morning of 15 July 2020. It was placed on the empty plinth from which a 19th-century statue of Edward Colston, who had been involved in the Atlantic slave trade, had been toppled, defaced and pushed into the city's harbour by George Floyd protesters the previous month. The statue was removed by Bristol City Council the day after it was installed.

The Centre is a public open space in the central area of Bristol, England, created by covering over the River Frome. The northern end of The Centre, known as Magpie Park, is skirted on its western edge by Colston Avenue; the southern end is a larger paved area bounded by St Augustine's Parade to the west, Broad Quay the east, and St Augustine's Reach (part of the Floating Harbour) to the south, and bisected by the 2016 extension of Baldwin Street. The Centre is managed by Bristol City Council. The name 'The Centre' (or 'The City Centre') appears to have been applied to the area from the mid-twentieth century; before that, from 1893 when the upper part of St Augustine's reach was covered, it was known as the Tramways Centre and Magpie Park.The Centre is not the historic or civic centre of Bristol, nor is it a major shopping area. It is, however, an important local transport interchange and cultural destination. Many local bus services terminate at or pass through here, and it is also served by ferry services to Hotwells and Bristol Temple Meads station, and has busy taxi ranks. The Centre has been altered on a number of occasions, originally to ease traffic flow but latterly to try to strike a balance between its use as both public open space and an important traffic corridor. In 2017, alterations to accommodate the MetroBus bus rapid transit scheme were completed.

St Mary on the Quay is a Roman Catholic Parish church in Bristol, England. It is situated on Colston Avenue, next to Colston Tower in the centre of the city. It is the oldest Roman Catholic church in Bristol; the first one built after the Reformation. it was formerly administered by the Society of Jesus and is currently served by the Divine Word Missionaries. It is a Grade II* listed building.

The Bristol Hippodrome (grid reference ST590729) is a theatre located in The Centre, Bristol, England, United Kingdom with seating on three levels giving a capacity of 1,951. It frequently features shows from London's West End when they tour the UK, as well as regular visits by Welsh National Opera and an annual pantomime.

Bristol Beacon, previously known as Colston Hall, is a concert hall and Grade II listed building on Colston Street, Bristol, England. It is owned by Bristol City Council. Since 2011, management of the hall has been the direct responsibility of Bristol Music Trust. The hall opened as a concert venue in 1867, and became a popular place for classical music and theatre. In the mid-20th century, wrestling matches were in strong demand, while in the late 1960s it developed into one of the most important rock music venues in Britain. The hall has been redeveloped several times, and was gutted by fires in 1898 and 1945, though the original Bristol Byzantine foyer has survived. A major refurbishment, adding an extra wing, opened in 2009. The hall's official capacity is 2,075, with an additional 350 in "The Lantern", built as part of the 2009 redevelopments. As well as the main entertainment areas, there are a number of licensed bars and a restaurant. The hall was formerly named after the slave trader, merchant and philanthropist Edward Colston, who founded Colston's School on the site in the early 18th century. The decision to rename was taken in 2017 to coincide with a major redevelopment of the venue, after a number of years' debates and campaigns regarding Colston's ties to the Atlantic slave trade. The renaming was brought forward in September 2020 following anti-racism protests in Bristol that summer.The hall has been closed since 2018 for repair and refurbishment work, and is expected to reopen in late 2023.

St Stephen's Church in St Stephen's Avenue, is the parish church for the city of Bristol, England. It has been designated by Historic England as a grade I listed building.

Whitefriars was a Carmelite friary on the lower slopes of St Michael's Hill, Bristol, England. It was established in 1267; in subsequent centuries a friary church was built and extensive gardens developed. The establishment was dissolved in 1538. Much of the site was then redeveloped by Sir John Young, who built a "Great House" there. This later became a boys' school founded by Edward Colston in the 18th century. The Red Lodge, which survives today as a museum, had its origins as a prospect house for the Prior. The Colston Hall, a venue for concerts, was built on part of the friary site in the 19th century. A 20th-century office block named Whitefriars, built a short distance way, preserves the name.

Corn Street, together with Broad Street, Wine Street and High Street, is one of the four cross streets which met at the Bristol High Cross, the heart of Bristol, England when it was a walled medieval town. From this crossroads Corn Street and its later extension Clare Street runs downhill approximately 325m south-westwards to The Centre.Corn Street contains many historic buildings. For centuries it was at the centre of Bristol's commerce and administration, but in recent years has increasingly turned to market shopping, leisure and accommodation.

Marsh Street is a street in the city of Bristol, England. Located in the historic city centre of Bristol, it runs in a northerly direction for about 200 yards from its junction with King Street and Prince Street to Clare Street. The street is noted in the diary of Samuel Pepys as the birthplace of his maid and love interest Deb Willet.In 1967, the Bristol and West building society built its then headquarters in Marsh Street. The building has since been converted to different use.

The former Bristol and West Building on Marsh Street/St Augustine's Parade, Bristol and facing onto The Centre, was built in 1967 by Alec French and partners.Rising 61 metres with 17 stories, the building was formerly used as the headquarters of the Bristol and West until early 2006. It was clad in granite-chipped pre-cast concrete.In the early 2000s plans to demolish and replace with a 23-storey building, the tallest in Bristol, were proposed, but rejected. Since then, major renovations have been carried out, including re-cladding in blue-tinted glass panels of different shades to give the illusion the building merges into the sky. After several delays the building reopened in May 2009 as a 176-room hotel operated by Radisson SAS. In addition to the hotel, the site also includes residential apartments and shops.

Beacon Tower, formerly Colston Tower, is a high-rise building located on Colston Avenue, in the centre of Bristol, England. The building was designed in 1961, but not completed until 1973. It rises 63 metres (207 ft) and has 15 floors of offices. The building had been named after the Bristol-born slave trader, philanthropist and Member of Parliament Edward Colston. A clock was added to the building around 1996.On 11 June 2020, the "Colston Tower" lettering was removed from the tower in response to the ongoing George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom. Four days earlier, the nearby statue of Edward Colston had been pulled down and thrown into Bristol Harbour.On 26 November 2020, the building's new name, Beacon Tower, was announced.