Walks in Bristol
All walks are easily downloadable as a PDF document and contained a full description that includes the route taken. Here are some excerpts, below.
Bristol Bridge
Route: Bristol Bridge – Civic High Cross – St John’s Gate – St. John’s Conduit – Edward Everard Printing Works – St. James’ Churchyard – The Guildhall – Corn Street – Corn Exchange – Nails – Old Post Office – Bristol Stock Exchange – St. Nicholas Market – William Hogarth’s "Altar Piece". Map
Walk: Bristol Bridge was originally constructed in wood. In 1247 this was replaced by a four-arched bridge of stone. However, the bridge became too small for modern traffic and, in 1768, was replaced with the one you see today.
Clifton Down
Route: Clifton Down – Christ Church – Clifton Suspension Bridge – Sion Hill – Clifton Pump Rooms – Caledonia Place – St. Vincent’s Priory – The Mall – Clifton Assembly Rooms – The Paragon – Royal York Crescent – Cornwallis Crescent – Windsor Terrace – Watt’s Folly – Dowry Square – The Hotwells – The Colonnade – Clifton Rock Railway. Map
Walk: At the southernmost point of Clifton Down is an idyllic green flanked by Litfield Place, Harley Place and Christ Church. Penrose Cottage on Harley Road was home to the poet Walter Savage Landor. Litfield Place, formally 'Leadfield', is a reminder that the Downs were once quarried.
Clifton Suspension Bridge
Route: Clifton Suspension Bridge – Avon – Observatory – Camera Obscura – Glyston’s Cave or The Giant’s Cave – Clifton Down Road – The Promenade – Mansion House – Clifton College – St. Peter and Paul’s Church – Bristol Zoological Gardens – Gallows Acre Lane – Clifton Turnpike – The Downs – The Sea Walls – Bristol Channel – Welsh Hills – Old Roman Road – Blackboy Hill. Map
Walk: Clifton Suspension Bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is a magnificent feat of engineering. Brunel won a competition by designing a bridge to span the River Avon, beating other master engineers such as Thomas Telford. The bridge, seven hundred feet across and two hundred and eighty seven feet high, ran into trouble when funds dried up in 1843 and work stopped for twenty years. Brunel never saw the bridge completed as he died two years earlier.
College Green
Route: College Green – Bristol Cathedral – Abbey Gateway – St. George’s Road – Brunel House – Park Street – Great George Street – The Georgian House – Brandon Hill – Cabot Tower – Jacob Well’s Road – Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital. Map
Walk: College Green, site of the crescent shaped Council House built in 1956, is approximately 3 acres and a popular local spot. The large hotel, built in 1868, incorporates two eighteenth-century houses in its design. In front there’s a statue of Queen Victoria, which was erected in 1887 to celebrate her Golden Jubilee.
Overlooking College Green is Bristol Cathedral, founded in 1142 as the Abbey of St. Augustine. Legend has it that St. Augustine preached here in the late sixth-century.
Haymarket
Route: Haymarket – St James Church – Whitson Street – Lower Union Street – Newgate – Newgate Gaol – Castle Park – St. Peter’s Church – Frome and Avon – Penn Street – Quaker’s Friars – Merchant Taylors’ Almshouses – Broadmead – Greyhound Inn – John Wesley’s New Room. Map
Walk: The Haymarket was originally held circa 1900 in St. James’s Churchyard. A road now covers the site, but the name remains the same.
Start your walk at St James Church. The original Priory was erected in 1130 by the Earl of Gloucester, but it shared the fate of all monasteries at the dissolution in 1543.
St. James Church is a fine Norman Church with some unusual features. The church is entered through the West Front entrance in Whitson Street, where you will see the Norman arcade of arches.
King Street
Route: King Street – Merchant Venturer’s Almshouses – Old Library – Theatre Royal – St. Nicholas Almshouses – Welsh Back – River Avon – Llandoger Trow- "Spyglass Inn" – Bristol Byzantine – Queen Charlotte Street – Queen Square – The Custom House – Coach and Horses – Prince Street – Industrial Museum – Narrow Quay. Map
Walk: In King Street we catch a glimpse of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The street was built outside the old walled city by merchants who wanted to create a new residential area for themselves. The cobblestone street has been preserved and the whole area is awash with architectural treasures spanning three hundred years.
Queen's Road
Route: Queen’s Road – Victoria Rooms – Park Place – Royal Promenade – City Museum and Art Gallery – Will’s Memorial Building – Berkeley Square – Civic High Cross – Park Street – Unity Street – Gaunt’s Hospital – Orchard Street – Denmark Street – Frogmore Street – Hatchet Inn – St. Mark’s Chapel – The Lord Mayor’s Chapel & Tower – College Green. Map
Walk: At the top of Queen’s Road stand the Victoria Rooms, built in 1840. Charles Dickens gave readings here from 1866-1869. Another visitor was Oscar Wilde who lectured on Aesthetics.
To the left is the "Studio" where the Bristol inventor of cinematography, Friese-Greene, opened his first business in 1880.
St. Augustine's Parade
Route: St. Augustine’s Parade – The Hippodrome – Cenotaph – St. Mary’s on the Quay – Colston Avenue – Quay Street – St. John’s Church – Host Street – Christmas Steps – St. Bartholomew’s Hospital – Almshouses – The Chapel of The Three Kings of Cologne – St. Michael’s Hill – King David Hotel – Colston Almshouses – Tankard’s Close – Rupert’s Gate – Royal Fort – Physics Building – Woodland Road – Park Row – The Red Lodge – Colston Hall. Map
Walk: In 1875, Bristol’s first tramlines were laid in the city centre. Before that and until 1892, ships sailed into the city on the River Frome. Up to 1827, a drawbridge was in service allowing access to the other side of the river.
The eighteenth-century houses still remain on St. Augustine’s Parade and are now commercial outlets. The Hippodrome first opened for musicals and operas in 1912.
Victoria Street
Victoria Street – Bristol ‘Byzantine’ – St. Thomas Street – Church of St. Thomas the Martyr – Seven Stars Inn – Abolition of Slavery – The Woolhall – Temple Church & Leaning Tower – Knights of St. John – Temple Gardens – St. Mary Redcliff Church – Pennsylvania – St. John’s Chapel – Thomas Chatterton – Fry’s House of Mercy – Plimsoll Line – Conduit – Redcliff Street – St. John’s Hermitage – Guinea Street – Bristol General Hospital – Bathurst Basin – The Ostrich Inn – Old Gaol – Industrial Museum – The Matthew – The SS Great Britain. Map
Walk: In 1240 the River Frome was diverted through Canon’s Marsh to join the Avon close to the present Bathurst Basin in order to provide a harbour close to the town centre. These works were carried out under the command of Henry III by men from the Redcliff and Temple parishes. At the time, these parishes were separated from Bristol by the Avon. The effect of incorporating these two parishes into the town was to double the size of Bristol.