Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge is a soaring spectacle
It doesn't matter how many times I see it, the Clifton Suspension Bridge does something to my heart and belly.
There are few places in Britain where the natural and man-made fuse to such awe-inspiring, stomach-fluttering effect.
Built from designs by the legendary Isambard Kingdom Brunel, this feat of 19th century engineering soars 75 metres above a gorge of the River Avon, a portal to the Bristol Channel, a gateway to the Atlantic.
I first clapped eyes on this incredible structure early one northern summer's morning, about a decade ago. My partner and I were then living in London, but were keen to scout out alternative (slightly more affordable, but still lively and cosmopolitan) places to live in Britain.
On paper, and from what we'd heard, Bristol seemed like a possibility — and we also fancied attending the city's famous annual hot air balloon festival — so we took a night coach from London Victoria and arrived in Bristol before the crack of dawn, when the balloonists would be readying for their flights.
The best vantage point, we were told, was Clifton, a lofty, chic village in Bristol's inner-west. As we stood overlooking the gorge at the vast green space of Clifton Down, Brunel's bridge stole our attention. And soon the balloons would be soaring up from the Ashton Court estate, historic deer parkland about a kilometre across the gorge as the crow flies.
There was a problem, however. Word got around among the dozens of spectators in Clifton that the wind wasn't right for pilots to take off, and the situation was unlikely to change for a while.
So off we went and, after a day of Bristolian walking, brunching, drinking and napping in the parks, we returned to Clifton later that afternoon, just before dusk, as the balloons began floating through the sky.
With the bridge in the foreground, it was a sight to behold and I'm picturing the balloons again in my mind today as I stand in a similar spot to a decade ago.
It's much cooler now — I'm here in the northern winter — and a few days earlier, a storm had closed the bridge to traffic and pedestrians. It's open again now, though, and I gingerly walk across, my legs trembling slightly because of the occasional gusts, as I survey the scenery.
Despite its urbanity, nature hasn't been completely eradicated from Bristol, with verdant hills crinkling the outskirts and the gorge flanked by National Trust-managed woodland. Birds, including redshanks, lapwings and rooks, are regularly spotted here.
Just across the bridge from Clifton, I reach the suburb of Leigh Woods, technically outside Bristol's city limits in the county of Somerset.
There's a volunteer-run visitor centre here, free to enter, but with donations gratefully received. Exhibits reveal the technical and financial conundrums that planners faced to build the bridge and the efforts (and money) that go into maintaining it.
Construction began in 1831, but the project was delayed several times, and actually abandoned in 1843 with only the abutment towers standing.
That same year, Brunel's trailblazing iron ocean-going steamship, SS Great Britain, was launched (and now sits as a visitor attraction in Bristol's floating harbour). But he died in 1859, so never got to see the Clifton bridge completed. Two other master Victorian engineers, William Henry Barlow and John Hawkshaw, revised Brunel's plans and finished the bridge in 1864.
Originally meant for light horse-drawn traffic, it is still a key component in Bristol's transport network, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It's free for pedestrians and cyclists and incurs a £1 contactless toll for motorists (about 12,000 vehicles cross daily).
The visitor centre also offers free tours on the bridge itself — taking place every Saturday, Sunday and bank holiday all year round — while paid-for 'hard hat' and lantern tours offer the chance to explore some of the secluded vaulted cavernous chambers in the Leigh Woods tower.
If you'd like to time your visit with some balloon-spotting, the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta 2025 is due to take place between August 8-10, when the skies will be coloured with more than 100 hot air balloons in mass ascents at dawn and dusk — weather permitting, of course.
+ Steve McKenna was a guest of Visit Britain and Visit Bristol. They have not influenced this story, or read it before publication.
+ The Clifton Suspension Bridge visitor centre is open 10am to 5pm daily. For more details and information on tours, see
cliftonbridge.org.uk
+ For details on the 2025 Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, see
bristolballoonfiesta.co.uk
+ Bristol is 90 minutes from London and 15 minutes from Bath by rail. To help plan a trip to Bristol and Britain, see
visitbristol.co.uk
and
visitbritain.com
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West Australian
5 days ago
- West Australian
Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge is a soaring spectacle
It doesn't matter how many times I see it, the Clifton Suspension Bridge does something to my heart and belly. There are few places in Britain where the natural and man-made fuse to such awe-inspiring, stomach-fluttering effect. Built from designs by the legendary Isambard Kingdom Brunel, this feat of 19th century engineering soars 75 metres above a gorge of the River Avon, a portal to the Bristol Channel, a gateway to the Atlantic. I first clapped eyes on this incredible structure early one northern summer's morning, about a decade ago. My partner and I were then living in London, but were keen to scout out alternative (slightly more affordable, but still lively and cosmopolitan) places to live in Britain. On paper, and from what we'd heard, Bristol seemed like a possibility — and we also fancied attending the city's famous annual hot air balloon festival — so we took a night coach from London Victoria and arrived in Bristol before the crack of dawn, when the balloonists would be readying for their flights. The best vantage point, we were told, was Clifton, a lofty, chic village in Bristol's inner-west. As we stood overlooking the gorge at the vast green space of Clifton Down, Brunel's bridge stole our attention. And soon the balloons would be soaring up from the Ashton Court estate, historic deer parkland about a kilometre across the gorge as the crow flies. There was a problem, however. Word got around among the dozens of spectators in Clifton that the wind wasn't right for pilots to take off, and the situation was unlikely to change for a while. So off we went and, after a day of Bristolian walking, brunching, drinking and napping in the parks, we returned to Clifton later that afternoon, just before dusk, as the balloons began floating through the sky. With the bridge in the foreground, it was a sight to behold and I'm picturing the balloons again in my mind today as I stand in a similar spot to a decade ago. It's much cooler now — I'm here in the northern winter — and a few days earlier, a storm had closed the bridge to traffic and pedestrians. It's open again now, though, and I gingerly walk across, my legs trembling slightly because of the occasional gusts, as I survey the scenery. Despite its urbanity, nature hasn't been completely eradicated from Bristol, with verdant hills crinkling the outskirts and the gorge flanked by National Trust-managed woodland. Birds, including redshanks, lapwings and rooks, are regularly spotted here. Just across the bridge from Clifton, I reach the suburb of Leigh Woods, technically outside Bristol's city limits in the county of Somerset. There's a volunteer-run visitor centre here, free to enter, but with donations gratefully received. Exhibits reveal the technical and financial conundrums that planners faced to build the bridge and the efforts (and money) that go into maintaining it. Construction began in 1831, but the project was delayed several times, and actually abandoned in 1843 with only the abutment towers standing. That same year, Brunel's trailblazing iron ocean-going steamship, SS Great Britain, was launched (and now sits as a visitor attraction in Bristol's floating harbour). But he died in 1859, so never got to see the Clifton bridge completed. Two other master Victorian engineers, William Henry Barlow and John Hawkshaw, revised Brunel's plans and finished the bridge in 1864. Originally meant for light horse-drawn traffic, it is still a key component in Bristol's transport network, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It's free for pedestrians and cyclists and incurs a £1 contactless toll for motorists (about 12,000 vehicles cross daily). The visitor centre also offers free tours on the bridge itself — taking place every Saturday, Sunday and bank holiday all year round — while paid-for 'hard hat' and lantern tours offer the chance to explore some of the secluded vaulted cavernous chambers in the Leigh Woods tower. If you'd like to time your visit with some balloon-spotting, the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta 2025 is due to take place between August 8-10, when the skies will be coloured with more than 100 hot air balloons in mass ascents at dawn and dusk — weather permitting, of course. + Steve McKenna was a guest of Visit Britain and Visit Bristol. They have not influenced this story, or read it before publication. + The Clifton Suspension Bridge visitor centre is open 10am to 5pm daily. For more details and information on tours, see + For details on the 2025 Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, see + Bristol is 90 minutes from London and 15 minutes from Bath by rail. To help plan a trip to Bristol and Britain, see and
The Age
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Sydney Morning Herald
18-05-2025
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Less than 15 minutes apart, these two UK cities are chalk and cheese
Set amid the rolling hills of England's West Country, about 90 minutes from London by rail, Bath and Bristol are like chalk and cheese but complement each other delightfully. While one (Bristol) is a buzzy old port city marrying grit and grandeur, throbbing with zany street art and colourful maritime history, the other (Bath) is a genteel and graceful spa retreat, all immaculate honeystone terraces and crescents, bookish charms and wellness draws. The fact that the train connects them in under 15 minutes makes it a no-brainer to visit both. And seeing as you're in the region, why not tick off Stonehenge and the Cotswolds too? But first, Bristol and Bath. Having enjoyed regular trips to this odd couple over the years, I'd recommend you start with Bristol. It's the bigger and busier of the pair, its cityscape, while fairly compact and strollable, is spliced with calf-testing streets, stairways and knee-trembling clifftops. Get your bearings on the Blackbeard to Banksy walking tour, which takes you through more than 1000 years of Bristolian history in two hours. Beginning at the handsome medieval cathedral, it takes in key sights and streets, tucked-away alleys and aromatic markets, and the incredible murals that make Bristol (arguably) the street art capital of Britain. While some pieces are gigantic and hard to miss, more concealed is the handiwork of Bristol's own Banksy, the planet's most infamous (and anonymous) 'guerrilla artist'. 'That's a Banksy, from 2006,' says guide Luke Sargeant, pointing to an image sprayed on a former sexual health clinic near city hall. Titled Well Hung Lover, the mural depicts a naked man dangling from a window as his lover and her partner look out. We mull more offbeat art on our way to The Hatchet Inn, a low-ceilinged pub dating from 1606, when Bristol was Britain's most important port after London, with its River Avon carrying mariners to and from the Bristol Channel, gateway to the Atlantic. Bygone maps adorn the pub's walls and there are cartoonish portrayals of Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach, a fearsome Bristol-born pirate who apparently drank here when he wasn't plundering gold-laden Spanish galleons in the Caribbean. Other west-coast British port cities, Liverpool and Glasgow, overtook Bristol in the late 18th century, but its raffish maritime character endures, especially down by quays, where gulls squabble, yachts and ferries sail and drinkers converse in that swashbuckling Bristolian burr (they roll their Rs and add Ls to the ends of words, a bit like on-screen pirates). On cobblestoned King Street we find The Llandoger Trow, which claims to have inspired two great seafaring novels. Daniel Defoe, they say, got the idea for Robinson Crusoe here, then Robert Louis Stevenson reimagined the pub as the Admiral Benbow Inn in Treasure Island. Ghost stories and live music, from folksy sea shanties to German techno, regularly threaten to shiver the Trow's timbers. Passing Bristol Old Vic – touted as the oldest continuously working theatre in the English-speaking world – we round a corner to Queen Square, a magnificent lawned park that would fit snugly into London's Bloomsbury or Belgravia. It's framed by grand Georgian properties, bankrolled by Bristolian merchants. Many had amassed hefty fortunes from the trans-Atlantic slave trade and also built sumptuous mansions in Clifton, a prosperous Bath-like suburb in Bristol's inner-west.
