From street art to feats of engineering, Bristol has it all

Brian Berkman visits the vibrant UK port city of Bristol and says two days are not enough to explore renowned graffiti artist Banksy's hometown and pop in at all the historical taverns.

- Brian Berkman

People whose names begin with ‘B’ and ‘C’ have had a major impact on Bristol, one of the UK’s great port cities.

Bristol, about a 95-minute ride from London’s Paddington train station on the Great Western Railway, is today a magnet for the creative industries and historically helped to position the UK as a global mercantile centre.

However, as with most tales of great financial success, only a small portion of that success can be attributed to human ingenuity and technological progress, with the bulk being as a result of great human suffering.

DEALING WITH A SLAVER’S HISTORY

In an act of global solidarity and protest over the murder of George Floyd in the US and the Black Lives Matter movement, on 7 June 2020 a statue of the Bristol businessman and slaver Edward Colston was toppled, defaced and rolled into the city’s harbour.

The site is one of the stops on a highly recommended walking tour called ‘From Blackbeard to Banksy’.

Luke Sargeant, leading the tour that Farmer’s Weekly joined, suggested it should rather have been called ‘Brunel, Blackbeard and Banksy’ on account of the immense mechanical and civil engineering contribution made to the city by 19th-century British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Early work to join the Avon and Frome rivers helped Bristol become an important port.

THE CLIFTON SUSPENSION BRIDGE