Whats Bristol like?

calnen

calnen

calnen

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Can anyone give me some help? I'm starting to look at jobs for after uni (I wont say what field) in a year's time and have found one in Bristol that looks good. Trouble is I've never been to the place! Can anyone sum up what the city and surrounding areas are like? Is it flat? hilly? as rainy as wales? is the city nice? what are house prices like? etc!
Thanks :)
 
Definitely hilly, more rainy than places further in-land, house prices uhhh dunno but rents vary from £220 per month (per room in a house share) further out of town to £350/£400 closer to the centre in a nicer house/flat. Single-bedroom flats are availlable to rent for about £500-£600.

There are posh places, and places to avoid, as in many cities. There's a strong afro-caribbean descent population, which makes the culture of the place quite interesting.

There's lots of live music around, pubs & clubs to suit most tastes, a nice maritime background, it's not a massive city but there is still plenty to do. It gets fairly busy with students during term-time but I don't mind that at all as the majority of my friends are still studying.

I love the place, really do, have graduated now but I don't want to leave!

EDIT: Despite hills, cycling is definitely the way to get around Bristol, rush-hour traffic in the city is a proper pain!!
 
Its very hily, I would say its average with weather. It deff doesn't rain as much as Plymouth, but we have are fare share. The centre is nice. However like most large cities we have a lot of ethnics and a lot of bad areas.

Lots of bars and clubs, but students aren't a massive part of the local populace so beer prices aren't particularly cheap in town.

House prices are horrendous in nice areas. Cotham you looking at over £200k for a 2bed flat or around £650 a month rent. Bradley stokes ok where you can get a large (4dbl bed house) for around £950 a month rent. If your looking to buy then there are a lot of good priced new houses going up every where. Best thing to do is look online at house prices/rent. Look for cotham, redland, clifton or city centre if you want to live really close. Bradley stoke, stoke gifford and filton if you want to live about a 10-30min drive out. I'm sure other people will add some more places.

Public transport is crap. So bear that in mind. But for a large city it is really nice, with plenty of jobs. Largest city in south-west. Lots of regeneration happening which has already made the centre nice and getting better all the time.
 
Just out of interest, which areas of Bristol would you class as bad?
I agree with the hilly bit, walked up the hill to what used to be known as brunel college for 2 years :(
 
What I posted for a friend moving to Bristol in another forum:

Nice/expensive areas:
Clifton
Redland
Westbury-on-Trym (far out)
Stoke Bishop (far out, maaan)

Reasonable areas:
St Andrews (I live here!)
Bishopston (a bit far out)
Horfield (quite far out)
Bedminster
Hotwells
(bedminster & hotwells fairly central)

Avoid:
St Pauls (avoid avoid avoid!)
Stokes Croft (not great to walk at night)
St Werboughs
Montpelier (maybe, might not be *that* bad)
Eastville
 
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Agree with most of the list.
I lived in Easton for many years, between St Pauls and Eastville.

It's interesting the areas in your list to avoid I would consider safe and tell others to avoid Bedminster, Knowle West etc. I'm of asian descent.

When I last lived there, 8 yrs ago, St. Pauls was the only area to avoid. Now it seems the crime, drugs and prostitution has spread all the way up to Eastville. Eastville used to be one of the nicer areas.

To the OP,
You'll be safe anywhere east of the city centre.
 
A lot of my list is going by what people have told me, not personal experience, mind you. But it's worth sticking together in a pair in the dark in some areas, just in case! Same goes for most places really... All of Bristol is pretty much fine during the day, you just need to keep an eye out at night.

In 4 years I've not had any trouble, maybe spoken to a couple of very dubious characters on the street but nothing scary.

Overall it's a good place :)
 
Thanks all, thats great :) Glad I asked now, I had no idea it was so big for one thing! I'll bear the place names in mind if it comes to looking at accomodation, but thats a long time off yet.
 
calnen said:
Thanks all, thats great :) Glad I asked now, I had no idea it was so big for one thing! I'll bear the place names in mind if it comes to looking at accomodation, but thats a long time off yet.
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Well, there's all the place names, but you can walk through one area in 5 mins and be well on your way into the next one - they're not massive :)
 
I stayed in Bristol for a week for work, and I have to say I really enjoyed it.

I stayed in a hotel near the water front (June time). Everything was newly built around there but had a fantastic appeal to it. Secondly, the city is lovely and the ourskirts also fantastic.

Im sure it has its bad points too, but from a brief trip, I went in with trepidation but ended up really loving the city.

Then again, it was 30 degrees sunshines everyday, it always makes everything seem nicer! :)

Regards
 
A pint of cold ale from the Waterfront Pub while dangling my legs over the dockside by the shrek-like bridge thing... Aaaahhhh. Bye-bye summer, see you again next year :(
 
AcidHell2 said:
I missed out as well, it was my m8's birthday, although I probably bumped into them in town unaware.
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Well I have a few busy weekends coming up (actually, I'm booked out for a while, hrmmm), but let's have one sorted before Xmas :D
 
sara said:
Well I have a few busy weekends coming up (actually, I'm booked out for a while, hrmmm), but let's have one sorted before Xmas :D
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I'm broke for a while :(...

went to reading and Dublin in august, My bank account seriously struggling :(..
 
calnen said:
Are you mad? Ale should be drunk cool, not cold. Cold is for lager!
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Well, it tastes cold when it's 30+ degrees celcius outside :P

I agree, most ales only need cooling - but Newcastle Brown should be nice and chilly :)
 
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