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. The city has two universities: the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England. The city has the largest circulating community currency in the UK, the Bristol Pound, which is pegged to the pound sterling. The Port of Bristol has since moved from Bristol Harbour in the city centre to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Dock.īristol'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. 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. In 1499, William Weston, a Bristol merchant, was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America. ![]() On a ship out of Bristol in 1497, John Cabot, a Venetian, became the first European to land on mainland North America. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities, after London, in tax receipts.Ī major port, Bristol was a starting place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373 when it became a county corporate. Around the beginning of the 11th century, the settlement was known as Brycgstow ( Old English: 'the place at the bridge'). Iron Age hillforts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon. The wider Bristol Built-up Area is the eleventh most populous urban area in the United Kingdom. Bristol is the most populous city in South West England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south.
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