Bristol: A City of Surprises

Penguin Books Started in a Vending Machine

Sir Allen Lane was born in Bristol in 1902 and founded Penguin Books in 1935. He envisioned making high-quality contemporary fiction accessible and affordable, selling paperbacks not only in bookstores but also in unconventional locations like railway stations, tobacconists, and chain stores. He even pioneered selling them from vending machines, priced comparably to a pack of cigarettes.

The initial Penguin paperbacks featured renowned authors like Ernest Hemingway, André Maurois, and Agatha Christie. They were color-coded – orange for fiction, blue for biography, green for crime – and retailed for just sixpence. Today, Penguin remains one of the world's most recognizable brands.

We made chocolate happen

Fry’s was a pioneering chocolate firm in Britain, and potentially globally. They revolutionized chocolate production by mixing cocoa with flavorings and sugar, then pressing it into tablets. Initially consumed as a drink by adding hot water or milk, Joseph Fry ingeniously developed the method to transform liquid chocolate into solid bars. In 1776, one pound of Fry's famous chocolate retailed at 7/6d (35p), a sum only slightly below the average agricultural labourer's weekly wage.

Thesaurus, fizz and more

Dowry Square is rich with unusual associations, attracting literary figures, socialites, dentists, and even those experimenting with science. In 1792, Jacob Schweppe established his carbonated water business, later bringing his famous effervescence to Bristol's thriving spa culture. Nearby, Dr. Thomas Beddoes operated his clinic, where he famously attempted to cure consumption by having cows in patients’ bedrooms. Alongside his assistant, Humphry Davy (of Davy miners' lamp fame), Beddoes made significant contributions to human happiness by producing nitrous oxide, which became a popular recreational gas. Another assistant, Peter Roget, famously compiled the Thesaurus, while Beddoes’ son, Thomas Lovell, grew up to be celebrated as one of Bristol’s greatest poets.

Elizabeth Blackwell

Born in Queen Square, Bristol, in 1821, Elizabeth Blackwell emigrated to the USA in 1832. She enrolled in medical school, though a later loss of sight in one eye prevented her from pursuing a career as a surgeon. In 1857, she overcame significant systemic resistance to open the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, staffed entirely by female medical professionals. Returning to England, she made history in 1859 by becoming the first woman to be registered on the British Medical Register. She worked at St Bartholomew's in London and frequently visited Bristol while campaigning for the admission of women into the medical profession.

The First Gender Reassignment Surgery Took Place Here

In 1946, a groundbreaking procedure was performed by staff at the Bristol Royal Infirmary: the world's first modern gender reassignment surgery for a trans man. Michael Dillon's transition was so successful that he was able to practice medicine and live in privacy for many years, before a later peerage dispute thrust his life into the media spotlight, leading him to find peace as a Buddhist monk in India.

IVF

In 1977, Steptoe and Edwards achieved a monumental medical breakthrough, leading to the birth of the world's first baby conceived by IVF. Lesley Brown's blocked fallopian tubes had made natural conception impossible for her and her husband. Lesley bravely enrolled in the experimental procedure, which succeeded on its first attempt. She made medical history on July 25th, 1978, by giving birth to her daughter, Louise. Edwards was subsequently awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Equality Came Here First!

The Red Lodge Museum on Park Row houses a room that was once the first school in England dedicated to educating girls.

And Bristol Has Been #Proud for a Long Time

St Nicholas Street was once home to Bristol's first gay pub. The Radmore Hotel, which opened in the 1930s, is still fondly remembered by its former patrons as a sanctuary for Bristol's LGBTQ+ community during a period when homosexuality was illegal.

Independent

Gloucester Road is widely celebrated across the UK and Europe for its vibrant, unbroken stretches of independent retailers, serving as a shining example of community-led enterprise.

Talk Like a Pirate

The distinctive "Pirate Talk" heard in cinema is widely believed to have originated from Robert Newton's authentic Bristolian accent in the 1950 film adaptation of Treasure Island.

Links with North America

A decade before Columbus, Bristol sailors were already fishing the cod-rich waters off Newfoundland, landing there to process their catches for transport back to Europe. Maritime records indicate that Bristol sailors had likely mapped these far-reaching coastlines well before Columbus’s famous 1492 voyage, a claim later reinforced by the historical John Day letter, which noted that the land across the Atlantic had been discovered "in the past by men from Bristol."

Bristol has been described as 'the Birthplace of America'. In 1497, John Cabot and his crew set sail from Bristol aboard The Matthew, seeking a new route to the Orient. Instead, he landed on the coast of Newfoundland, earning him the distinction of being the original documented European 'discoverer' of North America.

The name 'America' has been linked by historians to Richard ap Merryk (also known as Ameryk), a wealthy merchant and customs collector for the Port of Bristol. In 1495, John Cabot received royal permission to claim newly discovered lands for the King, and it is believed Ameryk helped finance the 1497 voyage of The Matthew. In recognition of this connection, the Bristol Guildhall proudly displays the Amerike coat of arms.

Towers commemorating Cabot stand in both Bristol and Newfoundland. The Bristol tower was built in 1897 atop Brandon Hill to mark the 400th anniversary of John Cabot’s arrival in North America. A sister Cabot Tower stands on Signal Hill in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, built in 1898 to commemorate both Cabot's discovery and Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

Pennsylvania’s founder

William Penn, the English Quaker, established a foundational relationship between his family and the city of Bristol. King Charles II, heavily in debt to Penn's father, Admiral Sir William Penn, granted the younger Penn a massive tract of American land. William and his Quaker community subsequently sailed to America, founding Pennsylvania in 1682 under unique design principles: ‘Let every house be placed in the middle of its plot so there may be ground on each side for gardens or orchards or fields.’ He also decreed that homeowners plant trees to shade the streets, introducing early concepts of the green "garden city" to the New World.

In 1696, Penn's son, also named William, married Hannah Callowhill at the meeting house in Quakers Friars, Bristol. St John’s Chapel in St Mary Redcliffe Church, now known as The American Chapel, is the final resting place of Admiral Sir William Penn, where his tomb and armor are preserved.

Blackbeard

Bristol's history includes a rogues’ gallery of reckless and vicious pirates, but none rival the infamous Blackbeard. Hailing from Redcliffe, his real name was Edward or Edmund Teach. Legend has it that The Llandoger Trow, one of Bristol's oldest pubs, was a favorite haunt of the pirate captain. He terrorized shipping in the West Indies and along the eastern coast of the US, reportedly causing over 2,000 deaths during his reign. He was the most feared pirate of the early 18th century, known for his long black beard and for thrusting smoking fuses into his hair during ship assaults. He met a violent end in 1718, captured and killed by British naval forces sent by the Governor of Virginia. An anchor from Blackbeard's ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, was recently discovered off the coast of North Carolina.

First American Consulate

Number 37 Queen Square was the location of the first American Consulate established overseas, set up in 1792 following the American Revolution. A plaque on the wall commemorates Elias Vanderhorst of South Carolina, who was appointed by George Washington as the first US Consul to Bristol.

Transatlantic crossings between Bristol and New York in the Victorian era

The SS Great Britain, a revolutionary passenger steamship, was ingeniously designed by the daring Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel for transatlantic service between Bristol and New York. Built and launched in Bristol in 1843, she made history in 1845 as the first iron steamer to cross the Atlantic and was also the largest vessel of her time. Her maiden voyage to the United States shattered previous speed records, revolutionizing travel to America.

Only museum of Americana outside the USA

The American Museum & Gardens near Bristol is the sole museum dedicated to Americana outside the United States. Visitors embark on a journey through American history, from early settlers to the twentieth century, with its remarkable collection of folk and decorative arts showcasing the diverse traditions of America. Situated at the beautiful Claverton Manor, the museum also features extensive grounds, including an arboretum of American trees.

Bits of Bristol in New York

During World War Two, American supply ships, needing ballast for their return journey to the USA, found an abundance of rubble in Bristol due to heavy bombing. Upon arrival in New York, they deposited these former fragments of Bristol into an area of the East River. This area is now known as the ‘Bristol Basin’ and is built upon, meaning that some parts of New York City are essentially constructed on pieces of Bristol. A plaque in each city commemorates this unusual connection.

The slave trade

At the end of the 17th century, an influential organization of elite merchants in Bristol, known as The Society of Merchant Venturers, successfully petitioned to engage in the lucrative African slave trade. Between 1697 and 1807, 2,108 known ships departed Bristol to transport enslaved people across the Atlantic. The Society managed the local harbor until the early 19th century and continues to exist today.

Bristol was one of the three points of the transatlantic slave triangle, and the city's economy prospered immensely from it. Bristol was home to the ship owners, merchants, slave-ship captains, and crew involved in the trade. At its peak, it is estimated that a vast portion of Bristol's population was directly or indirectly connected to the financial fruits of this dreadful trade.

Edward Colston’s immense wealth was heavily accumulated through his high-ranking involvement with the Royal African Company, which held a monopoly on the trade and exploitation of enslaved people. He owned a large fleet of ships involved in the sugar trade and operated a sugar refinery near St. Peter's Church. His immense wealth went on to fund civic infrastructure, schools, and local charities, intertwining his name with Bristol’s growth during the era of merchant capitalism.

In their early years, some Quakers were involved in both owning slave ships and sugar plantations. However, by the 1760s, they began campaigning against the trade and subsequently became leaders of the Abolitionist movement. Reformers such as Mary Carpenter, Hannah More, William Wilberforce, and Thomas Clarkson spoke out against the trade, helping to ignite a massive nationwide boycott of West Indian sugar in 1791. The landlord of The Seven Stars pub on St. Thomas Street famously assisted Thomas Clarkson in his local investigations into the harsh realities of the Slave Trade.

It was common for up to a quarter of any crew and its captives to die from illness and disease during the harrowing transatlantic voyage. Opposition to the slave trade gained significant momentum during the late 18th century, leading to the trade being officially abolished in British territories in 1807.

For centuries, Colston’s name was heavily memorialised throughout the city, including a prominent bronze statue erected in the city centre in 1895. However, a profound shift in how Bristol confronts its history culminated in June 2020. During a global Black Lives Matter protest, the controversial statue of Edward Colston was toppled by protestors, rolled through the streets, and dumped into Bristol Harbour. It was later retrieved by the city council and is now displayed in a museum exhibition, serving as a powerful, modern symbol of Bristol's ongoing reckoning with its colonial past.

Bristols around the globe

The first 'Bristol' outside of the original was founded in Massachusetts in 1632 by Bristolian, Robert Aldworth. Globally, there are 35 populated places named Bristol, with 29 of them located in the United States.