The Knowhere Guide

Best and Worst in Bristol, Bristol*

Bristol, Bristol Triumphs and Tragedies

Favourite Building

• MOD near Park way
• Temple meads car park.... for what it is, its shit hot.
• Bristol Museum - does anyone ever go there? It's brilliant, maybe not the biggest and grandest but big is not always best. Plus they possibly have my favourite painting in La Belle Dame Plus Sans Merci which is appallingly lit (if anyone from the museum is reading this)
• Catherdal & council House on College Green - nice at night.
• Wierd water tower thing near temple quay (worth a visit!)
• Naval Volunteer - better class of daytime rum drinking skiver
• Ashton Gate
• Bristol Cathedral - on the inside when you're feeling low. Sometimes they have children's pictures on display which really cheers me up.
• SK8 N RIDE
• Queens Court Clifton-Has anyone in last few years NOT shagged someone there,been to a party ther,been back for a smoke there or scared the staff at spar at 6 in the morning looking for "anything"?
• Clifton Suspension Bridge.
• The Wal Mart store at Cribbs.
• Any on Corn Street
• The Old Duke -Jazz and blues pub
• that old church down towards the centre from bristle bridge. you know the one - with the arches. on second thoughts, the church with the quarterjacks at the junction of corn / broad / wine / small streets.
• To my great surprise, like many Bristolians I love the Lloyds building. We expected a monstrosity, and got a perfectly judged thing of beauty.
• Wills memorial
• the courts building as i used to conduct my secret affair with my boss there!
• cabot tower.
• Well it was going to be the incredible "exploded greenhouse" style Concert hall but the F*****g arts council took the money just when we'd dug the foundations. So no we have a 2500 seater hole in the ground. Grrrrrrrr
• Peros Bridge (not really a building). This bridge has come in for a lot of critisism for all sorts of strange reasons, but I like it plus it is incredably good at getting you from one side of the water to the other.
• st judes church
• What used to be Lewis's, taken over by Bentalls. If only more of Broadmead were like it.
• River Station
• Burden Nurological Hospital, Coldharbourlane
• Trinity Road Police Station.
• The massive grey square block with no windows that looks like a decommissioning site for alien spacecraft - opposite Harvey's wine museum.

Demolish It Now Building

• evolution night club
• Bedminster. Yes, all of it.
• Clifton Student Union
• The building on stokes croft near the junction with ashley road- Condemmned for ever why dont they do something with it its just wasting space, rebuild it as big as it is u could house all the homeless people from the area, just a thought!
• The whole of Stokes Croft
• Bristol + West Tower uggggh - ugly post-war eyesore
• Lloyds Bank Building on docks, grey lifeless polo mint with hole @Bristol is like a sea of concrete with two token green trees
• The Memorial Stadium - On a day when the r****s are at home
• IKEA. What was wrong with the dogs?
• That huge crappy building on Stokes Croft. The new bits of St Matts campus in Fishponds.
• Broadmead. The redeveloped Centre is a missed opportunity. Better than it was before, but that's not saying much.
• SOUND WELL COLLAGE THE BIGGEST JOKE OF A PLACE IN BRISTOL!
• THE COUNCIL HOUSE
• Traffic Wardens rest room-wherever it is Car Pound in St.phillips-Only the Portakabin with grills and smug deadbeats inside,what a great job. Students Union Building -Queens Road-Freshers Week
• Bristol & West tower in the centre, and several other concrete stumps around town!
• The inner city centre.
• Adecco Office in BT
• Greyfriars, Whitefriars, Broadmead,
• not so much a building, more a whole development -the centre outside the hippodrome - where is the grass????????????? also that building on the corner of stokes croft & ashley rd.
• Ashton Gate. Whilst full.
• Wills hall of residence
• they're all alright really
• bristol uni students union is a shite hole, and whitfriars, coz its got bt in it.
• Rollermania skate shop Dingles
• Bristol & West tower
• redwood house in wade st.
• Clifton College; I did eight and a half years there in the sixties after my parents took my free scholarship to BGS away. Can I nuke it please?
• Broadmead apart from Bentalls and the Arcade
• Ashton Gate - a red monstrosity on the outskirts of town
• Avon House, St James Barton
• The whole of Ashley Village on the UWE Frenchay Campus
• That horrid grey and red fronted terrace house in Coronation Road. WHen you round the bend coming into town near the tannery, it's in front of you. Utterly disgusting. I saw this incredible thing on TV the other night - in that estate agents fuckyoumentary. Get that family out now, and pulling it down with heavy chains. As for Clarks Estate Agency - what. I hope they go to the wall, and all the shitters, including sodding pathetic no-hoper Pinder lose their jobs. End up being buskers/skateboarders no doubt.
• Bristol University Student Union.

The Best Things

• What is Henbury like
• Ritas kebabs on Stokes croft at 2.30 am
• eclectic people, buildings & history; rivers & boats; hills; cycle-paths; south AND north Bristol, even if the northerners don't know how to cross the river; parks; churches; small shops; unusual pubs with no music; unusual pubs with great music; strong local communities; comforting Bristolian accent and 'l's on words; fantastic bands, and MUCH MUCH MORE - try walking around and see what you can find.
• The drunks at the pedestrian crossing at the end of the high street in Bedminster. Oh how I wish I could be them.
• Everything that you want from a city with the proximity of the countryside, I have lived in London and really do not understand why everyone wants to move there, haven't you noticed that all the Londoners are trying to move here? It's why none of us can afford to buy our own homes.
• The varied culture and one love of music!
• Good Hypnotherapists - see David Gould in Yellow Pages. Fab range of alternative therapies..
• People, Bars, Clubs, Cafes, Shops, Art, FESTIVAL WOOHOO, general emininence of cool things, parks
• Bristol is laid back, full of emigres from Tooting. You can be yourself here.
• The accent - no better or worse than Scouse or Estuary English. Just totally ignored by the local media & replaced by would-be Mockney. It sounds like home when I hear it - which is less & less. Bristol speakers are used to meekly accepting "correction" delivered in ways that would provoke a smack in the mouth if they were Mancunians or Glaswgians. Enjoy Bristolian "characters", they are a dying breed.
• The sheer presence of Bristol City FC
• Good supply and quality of flammable dried herbs.
• The Old Vic theatre, the Cadbury and the Bell. The old bits of St Matts Campus in fishponds.
• Ashton Court Festival. Sitting outside the Arnolfini, in the sun, with a drink, looking across the docks. It's just the right size - loads to do, but it's not too bad to walk/cycle around (apart from the hills!).
• the vibe in bristol is great, i've lived here a year and it's a second home to me already. hiphop in bristol is havin it
• Ashton court Ashton court community festival Devon cornwall beaches within 1 and 1/2 hours drive Clifton most of the time especially non term time! Drugs getting cheaper
• Not much apart from the choice of beer in all the pubs!
• A wide variety of districts Nice area round Blackboys Hill with Badminton School, Red Maids school and Ursula Convent all next door to each other up on the downs. White Ladies Lane is also pretty cool.
• The Star and Garter in Montpelier. Love it I do. Beer in Belgoes.
• There's got to be something..... Lots of trees, parks etc. The Docks -very nice area Clifton -Downs and the zoo
• Topspot snooker club except the students are taking over in a big way.
• woodes cafe on park st. - better without the naff pewes upstairs, but still the best floater coffee in town. arnolfini marcruss stores on the rd to hotwells (cool ad on telewest!) cabot tower the slidey rocks nr. the suspension br. - true bristolians will have been taken there by their dads when they were 5!
• BeWise in Kingswood. Great value, at a bargain price. I think many of your contributors are non Bristolians. Those of us that are love the seemingly drab suburbs, as well as the comical accent (particularly if, like me, you are blessed with it for life). I can't tell you quite why, but I've moved away twice, and always returned.
• all my great mates
• the balloons in the sky on a summers eve.
• Clare in Pizza Prov. show us yer tits love
• loads of skaters in bristol, and a fair few punks too.
• Right : 1. It is nice. In the nice bits. 2. It is nasty. In the nasty bits. 3. The nice bits are very nice. And so are the people. 4. And so on.... But if you're coming here to visit. Pay attention to what nice things people have said and you can't go wrong at all.
• the residents of the many blocks of flats
• Massive Attack-coolest band on the planet.
• Pizza Prov, it still rules in 1998 - great food and friendlyb staff
• Bristol is the most eclectic, laid back, in yer face, up its arse, frustrating, exciting place outside London. There's always something going on, but nothing ever happens. It has a lovely suburb called Bath, which is well worth spending an afternoon in if there's nowt on telly. Bristol has a thousend years of history, (though the last fifty havent been too kind to it) - you won't find more variety anywhere.
• Eric's Cafe - Best Coffee
• Bristol Rugby Club - England's best club from the 1950s to the 1980s, when it went into decline. Despite recent bankruptcy, millionaire Malcolm Pearce is investing in the club, and plans to bring back the good times.
• Music variety and venues - 50 gigs happening on a quiet Monday!, culture, people, new age stuff, Spark magazine, Venue magazine, Students(!) Closeness to the countryside - the moors, Wales, The Gloucester Road - 3 miles of small shops - the ones supposed to have been wiped out by megastores. The bread shop,pasta shop and butcher on the bit south of the baths. Sapphire the flamboyant character - seen in clubs and also on the Gloucester Rd shopping in his tiara and dress :)
• Ashton Court Community Festival - the largest free festival in Europe, with a very mini-Glastonbury feel to it. Loads of arty stuff, theatre, classical music, Indie, Rock, almost anything here! Highly recommended.
• Best Radio Station: GWR FM (96.3fm). Listen To Morning Crew: 6.00am-9.00am! Best time to listen is 7.30ish-7.59ish!
• Oh yeah, and the International Kite festival at Ashton Court each year the international Baloon Fiesta at Ashton Court each year. All of these things are free!
• The annual Ashton Court Festival (13/14 July 96) Europe's biggest free music festival (they say) 75% local talent on six or seven stages/marquees - Jazz, Rock, Indie, Roots, Theatre, Poetry, Dance, 100 stalls etc - the biggest collection of dogs on string in the whole world...
• Jazz at the Bear, Hotwells Road
• The live music scene. Loads of bands quite a few good mid sized venues. See Venue for listings.
• Venue Magazine (A bi-weekly whats-on magazine): You may not agree with what they say but you can't knock the comprehensive coverage of almost everything that goes on in the Bristol, Bath and surrounding area. It has sections on Music, Clubs, Gay&Lesbian, TV, Film, Classified Ads and also has regular inserts on specicfic subjects. This issue has a pull out guide to all the Music venues, PA hire, Lighting, recording, making a Record guide etc etc. Splendid.
• Hotwells - a great place to live, great pubs, good atmosphere.
• As already mentioned: The Lakota, Fantastic, I went to Cream and "thoroughly enjoyed" myself. Nasty thing though: a man was found outside with about 200 E's down his trousers, no-one is that well endowed mate!
• The excellent number of pubs/cafes/restaurants on Whiteladies Road.
• The Pizza Provencale Debate:
  • Restaurants - Always see what's new before it gets trendy and expensive, but in 1993 PIZZA PROVENCALE in Clifton was the place to be seen.
  • 1995: Pizza Provencale is NOT 'the place to be seen', unless you wish to be seen dead, which would probably improve the atmosphere.
  • I feel that you have been very unfair about Pizza Provencale, my friends and I are regular customers there from the day it opened and although the atmosphere has changed a little it is still a relaxed and cheap place to eat with good jazz on certain nights, I do feel that the comment about it for 1995 should be removed, maybe it was an off night that they tried it on, but I must say that it is the customers who provide the atmosphere!
• The non-mall shops - Check out Queen's Street
• The Water-front Pubs - Try the Bass Pump House on Sundays, or a river boat pub crawl in the summer
• The Exploratory hands-on science centre is a really mega place to visit. Lots of things to twiddle, push, pull etc etc and surf the net as well! Right next to Temple Meads railway station.

The Worst Things

• Ritas kebab coming back up at 9.30 am
• there seems to be an un-written law that locals and students shouldn't get along.... why is this? theres absolutely no need for it. there alos seems to be the reputation that all students are bristol are pretentous. hate to break it to you but this isn't the case. observation shows that UWE students blend in with the locals a bit better I have to say, but the above comments stand, why can't we all jsut get along.
• Bristol is the ugliest city in the world. The archeitecture is dreadful. I've never seen so many homeless people in one city. The public transport is terrible and sometimes non existant. The traffic is a nightmare. The main shopping area around Broadmead is rubbish. The people look like they have not had a wash in years. Temple Meads station is in the middle of nowhere. Everyone's ilogical. All this and I've only been there once.
• cars; being ignored by the rest of the world; outsiders insisting this is Avon; not knowing which county we ARE in; people moving out to the country to avoid the pollution and driving back in every Saturday morning; extortionate bus fares and services that stop at 11.
• THE BIG CRACK AND SMACK PROBLEM!!! This cities ability to turn a completely sane person into a paranoid Schizophrenic or a crackhead within 6 months! The tunnels that lie under Bristol that used to transport the slaves!
• Drunks on a Saturday night, every Saturday nigth, don't they ever get bored??
• townie goons, edge of city estates, BRISTOL UNI STUDENTS : fahfah fah fah fahafah aaaaaagh - almost without exception upper class twits, totally clueless as to what bristol is really about PLEASE GO AWAY
• Average food, Average pubs, 2nd worst schools in the country thanks to retard Bristol City Council which has wrecked the centre with silly sail things.
• The fact that unless you earn more than £20,000 a year you are scum.
• The continuing pathetic wasted existence of that other team.
• The class war; mainly the problem is the mutual resent between locals and students. Why can't everyone try to get on?
• The Centre after pub closing on Friday and Saturday nights. Crammed full of drunken lads in shirts and gold chains gobbling kebabs and leering at shrieking girls in too-tight dresses staggering across the cobbles in too-high heels. Avoid.
• Bedminster is one of the best and worst things about bristol
• I lived in Bristol for nearly two years and just thought I was going insane, but I am so glad that someone has mentioned the word 'ideal' as a subsitute for idea thank you thank you thank you. They still think your crazy if you try to correct them!!!
• People trying to isolate one aspect of Bristol that is at its heart. Bristol is unique exactly because there is a dynamic between the locals and students, Clifton and St Pauls, Broadmead and Park Street. Oh and the fact that this is a town built on slavery and cigarettes.
• City line - Bristol's bus mafia, who refuse to give returns before 9 o' clock and never carry any change. The Evening Post - makes The Sport look like serious intellectual reading. Bedminster, Fishponds, Southmead. People from south of the river who claim to be 'the real Bristol', although what they really mean is that they go to the same pubs as their mums and marry their cousins. Londoners moving in and bumping the price of everything up. £2.50 a pint now - insanity! Bristol's a lovely place though, I'd never live anywhere else!!
• Town Centre Townies Demise of decent House Music now everywher like lakota,maze,creation et al play hardhouse/trance absolute bollocks.where can we hear vocal uplifting House? Parking in Clifton Being burgled and car broken into 5 times in Y2k in clifton-if I ever catch these little shits...... Cribbs Causeway-just one Question WHY?Full of slappers with pushchairs and sportswear with boyfriends called Wayne looking for stuff for Our mum.
• The Bristolians, they are ignorant peasants, that's why the city has no decent restaurants or clothes shops.
• Scum types everywhere. Dirty inner city. No food places near Station
• "That sounds like a great ideal", look it up in the dictionary (that book collecting dust next to the Jackie Collins), it's a different word from idea you tracky wearing idiots.
• Adecco in BT Queen Charlotte Street. Don't work for them. They are THE most arrogant and obnoxious employment agency I have ever come across.
• Unfriendly people.Town Centre a s##thole and utterly boring. Naff accent. F##k all to do unless your'e into farming. If your'e thinking of moving here take my advice- don't bother, go to the West Midlands- its much better!!!!!!!!!!!
• Skateboarders
• Student Clifton,St Pauls Rd sorts talking loudly who eat in Pizza Prov,Henry Africas,Scream Bar,Watershed, u know the bars. Londoners who come down here push prices up complain about everything, its not as good as london well fuck off back there then!.Sharons with those orrible mini skirts with slits up the side who try to look like posh stick!!! who go in those disgusting bars by the Watershed. That city centre thing. The Lansdown, Richmond Springs and others being turned into sanded down personality black holes because of Students, Londoners etc!!!!
• TAXIS ritzy's they've closed all the TSB's haven't they?
• South of the river. There is a cult among non Bristolians about the Southern suburbs. They believe them to be the real Bristol. Don't be misled. Bristolians who are born south of the river cannot wait to move to the more civilised areas north of it. Those who do not wish to can be identified by their recessive chins and excessive amount of digits. (this is known as B.S.4 syndrome).
• The huge amount of trevors in their escorts with boom boxes and spoilers that think they are gods gift. They also think that the chip shop makes a good place to hang on a saturday night.
• Chuffing students everywhere. Thankfully most of them go home to Mummy and Daddy at Christmas/for the summer, etc., but nevertheless, its seems like they’re always there. Whiteladies Road at 8:30 am is a sight to behold, as a thousand feckwit students walk blurry-eyed to their one and only lecture. Unless, of course, they’re driving in Daddy’s-bought-me brand new Golf (or, for the fairer sex, brand new Renault Clio).
• Club scene. Dance music, dance music, dance music. Hello? There are other types of music you know! And I'm not talking about the shitty "indie" clubs either. Although, saying that, no-one in Bristol would appreciate it....
• How many kappa slappers and trevs can you fit in one city?
• the nauseous students, ritzy and the cliftionians who think they are special
• the traffic, public transport and expensive rents.
• Far too much wannabe head up arseness all fuckin round
• many townies as well.
• Snobbish class war that seems to be raging across this guide between Clifton and South Bristol. Just coz there are a lot of students in Clifton/Redland/Cotham doesn't mean they are any less part of Bristol or the people who live there any less Bristolian, (we still say ideal not idea).
• the state of disrepair allowed by the council to happen to the flats
• The traffic. People who spend three years at the University (or, worse, the Poly - or should I say UWE now?) and think they know the place well enough to judge it.
• Trying to gett around this F'in' city. If you get a taxi it costs a bloody fortune. Esp. Euro Taxis, avoid like the plague! If you take the bus its NEVER on time. I've taken to leaving an hour early to travel ten mins down the road. If you walk you get choked by the fumes. Also Library books have to be returned in THREE WEEKS how crap is that!
• REDFIELD: The most boring suberb of Bristol, consisting of one horrible hiogh street with a zillion charity shops for sick animals and you could mistakenly buy one posing as a hat or winter coat. The rest of the road has the usual cheapo shops and take aways. There is a Tesco, but this caters for mostly oaps or students, so if you fancy cooking something exotic - forget it! Though there was once an occassion when they stocked packs of strips of Japanese seaweed for £ - why??? The only saving grace is that you are near town. N.B. ALL the pubs - and thre are loads to choose from - are equally yuk!
• Yep - the traffic - and POINTS WEST what turd they are. I hate the Evening Post too. I should blow them up, or at least nail bomb the editor's wife
• The Bristol accent, go to the chip shop in the centre of horfield and have a chat with one of the locals. You'll see what I mean.
• Pollution, Public transport limitations, parking costs, hills when cycling Drunk 'yoof' on The Centre on Saturday night.
• Too many student Sloanes!
• Pollution. The insane government transport policy means that everyone drives into work, and hardly anyone car-shares. If you are asthmatic, *don't come to Bristol!* I'm just about to move to Devon to get out of the way :-)
• I lived in Bristol between Oct 1987 and Jan 1989, and I moved there from Brighton and studied at Bristol Uni. Bristol was total bollocks. I hated the place. I particularly hated the way it tried to be a sort of "smaller west country version of London". I also hated the way all the Bristol students formed little cliques. Bunch of arse. Still, never mind. There are millions of Chinese people who couldn't give a fuck.
• I was brought up in Bristol, in Brislington, and get really pissed off when I hear fucking students going on about "their city". Of course they have a right to be there and they do add to the place, but they don't live in the real Bristol and they don't know real Bristolians. Most Bristolians live fucking miles from Clifton and Park Street and their lives are a million miles away from the wankers that shop, eat and drink in those areas. And yet, the council perpetuates the myth of Bristol as Clifton. If you want a laugh, go to the council web site, it's all fucking Clifton. What about the real Bristol? Like St Annes, a beautiful suburb, or Stockwood, which is surrounded by some of the lovliest countryside in the West Country. These places might not be lined with Georgian mansions, but at least they are three-dimensional and unpretentious.
• I lived in Bristol for 3 years, yep I was the worst kind of resident.....A STUDENT WHO LIVED SOUTH OF THE RIVER. I love it, it has so much character and the residents are really nice hardly any anti student feeling. The worst bit? GWR and Galaxy. Talk about a pile of absolute shit. As far as GWR goes you may as well be in any part of the country, they're all the bloody same (Graham Torrington is ok but the rest are crap) Galaxy - wall to wall dance tunes for the metroplex... yeah right, no one's heard of any of them and where the hell is the Metroplex?????
• The Worst Place in Bristol is College Green! I got splatted twice by Pigeons on my way up to Park Street!
• Harvey's Bristol Cream Tour: By far the biggest rip-off in town. 2 1/2 pounds for a teeny bit of sherry, a lot of self-promotion, and tour guides with a bad attitude. We preferred scrumpy tasting in Cheddar.
• The Accent, I hate the Accent, the Accent is terrible, I do not like the accent. Along the same lines the word "ideal" being substituted for "idea" and being called "my lover" well actually being caled "my lover" is faintly amusing, BUT NOT the word "IDEAL" I hate it.
• The word "look" is added to the end of every sentence!
• Rather a sweeping statement concerning Bristol. Bristol City FC have a large following on the WWW. Bristol football is alive and thriving, albeit in a minor division!
• Any soccer team bearing the name "Bristol"
• Getting about: Bristol has a huge traffic problem - the city is split by a river and the docks, so the only way to get from one side to the other is via one of the bridges, and the queues get horrendous during rush hours. This means that not only is driving a nightmare, but buses are notoriously unreliable, as they get stuck in jams too. They're also very overcrowded during rush hours. The really civilised way to get around is on the ferry - regular service from 11.30 am daily (unfortunately, they've suspended the very useful early morning commuter service), from Hotwells and Bedminster (SS Great Britain) to the Centre, Broadmead and Temple Meads. Single fare 80p.

The Knowhere Guide started out as a list of places to skateboard in the UK. It is a compilation of (unedited) information and views supplied by users like yourself. It is not a conventional tourist guide!

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Last updated: 2008-04-21