Bursting the bubble

Bristol is student-friendly, there’s no doubt about that. There’s a lot more to this city, though, than the well-trodden thoroughfares of Clifton and the campuses of UWE

Go south

Thanks to the ongoing gentrification of places like Southville, ‘south of the river’ is no longer the terra incognita it used to be to people living in north and east Bristol. Well, the regenerated stretch of North Street between the Tobacco Factory and the Steam Crane pub isn’t anyway – and unscientific observation suggests that the branch of Aldi just behind the Tob Fac draws as big a percentage of its customer base from BS8 as it does from BS3. With its café-bars, retro shops and artisan bakery, North Street is certainly a useful beginner’s slope for anyone wanting to explore south Bristol, but there’s far more to the great southern swathe of the city than that. East Street in Bedminster proper has charity shops and bargain emporia galore, while Totterdown, Windmill Hill and Knowle all have their own distinctive charms. Totterdown gets particularly busy when it hosts its annual Front Room art trail in the spring while Windmill Hill City Farm remains a popular local favourite all year round. Victoria Park offers great views across the city while there are plenty of top-notch pubs to discover, including The Thunderbolt on Bath Road with its punching-above-its-weight roster of live music and spoken word events.

Arnos Vale Cemetery

A little further south along the Bath Road from The Thunderbolt, Arnos Vale is an extraordinary place. Many of the city’s great and good are amongst the 30,000 souls laid to rest here and every gravestone oozes history. The social and political reformers Rajah Rammohun Roy and Mary Carpenter, orphanage founder George Muller, dinosaur discoverer Samuel Stutchbury, forensic science pioneer William Herapath, Bristol City footballer William Wedlock and various members of the tobacco-manufacturing Wills family are amongst those buried here. The wooded parts of the cemetery, too, offer a sanctuary to wildlife and jaded city dwellers alike. Look out too for special events here, including guided tours and performances in the chapel. Ffi: arnosvale.org.uk

Go east

Like the south, east Bristol extends outwards from the centre through a range of neighbourhoods, each with its own distinctive identity. Just to the east of Stokes Croft, St Pauls is home to one of the oldest African-Caribbean communities in the country while Easton has a lively multicultural buzz – with a range of cosmopolitan eateries and shops (including famed international food store Bristol Sweet Mart). St Werburghs boasts a well-established city farm while, a little further out, you can stroll around the lake at Eastville Park. 

Go to Kingswood 

If only to pay a visit to Kingswood Heritage Museum, a little-known gem of a museum created by local enthusiasts and telling the story of Kingswood’s involvement in the Industrial Revolution. Proper-job local history, in short, with – if you go on the right day – guided tours of its grounds and grotto. Ffi: www.kingswoodmuseum.org.uk

Go to Severn Beach

Severn Beach isn’t really a beach and the town itself has definitely seen better days. Any pretence at being an estuary-side resort has long gone, but if bridges and engineering are your thing, this is where to go to have a gander at the Second Severn Crossing. Alternatively you can set off on a walk along the estuary from here, while Aust isn’t far to the north – a must for Bob Dylan obsessives (Martin Scorsese used a photo of Bob taken there in 1966 as the promo shot for ‘No Direction Home’) and indeed fossil hunters. It’s getting there, though, that’s the main thing: the Severn Beach railway is one of Bristol’s easily overlooked treasures, and while it’s mainly used by commuters, it should be a bona fide tourist attraction in its own right. Catch it from Temple Meads and go all the way out to Severn Beach: it may not be glamorous, but it sure as hell is fascinating.

Do some psychogeography

Psychogeography was invented by the French activist/intellectual Guy Debord in the 1950s and it sounds very French and very intellectual. It isn’t, though. All it means is keeping an open mind when it comes to exploring your environment: instead of following the same old route that you follow every day, take a diversion down the side-street that you’ve passed a dozen times and just see where it goes. Bother to go over and read the brass plaque on a bench in the park. Find out why there’s an amphitheatre in the car park of a downtown council building. Look into the connection between Brandon Hill and the faucet in the old city walls by the church of St John the Baptist. Another strategy is to go down to the centre, get on a bus and stay on it until it gets to the end of the route – and then explore wherever that happens to be.

Do some sport

If you’re the kind of person who likes to push themselves on the rugby field or hone your synchronised swimming routine, then the facilities at your university will probably more than satisfy your cravings for physical activity. If, on the other hand, you want to meet people beyond Studentland who share your enthusiasm or get into sports which nobody else has ever heard of, friendly sports clubs and facilities abound. Weekend football is something of an institution on The Downs and in Greville Smyth Park, while the internet will put you in touch with other slightly less obvious local favourites like octopush, petanque, real tennis and Gaelic football.

Alfresco Disco

Forward-thinking clubnights with a difference from this much talked-about crew whose events range from parties in forests and quarries to nights-out in unusual downtown spaces. Keep an eye on their website (alfrescodisco.co.uk) for details of forthcoming adventures, including their now infamous NYE’s parties.

Splash & Ripple

Interactive real-time and digital games that’ll just have you going ‘Wow’ when you get back home after beating your way to the castle or taking over the museum. The kind of thing that Bristol does best. You’ll be kicking yourself if you haven’t taken part in at least one of their unclassifiable happenings. Ffi: www.splashandripple.com

Go to a proper-job cider pub

Not that we’re saying, for a moment, that the Cori Tap in Clifton or The Apple floating in Bristol docks aren’t proper-job cider pubs, but for the full-on, bona fide cider experience, you might want to venture a little further afield. The Orchard on Spike Island is well worth a visit, though if it’s edgy you’re after, you’d almost certainly go for The Apple Tree in Philip Street in Bedminster and the Avon Packet on Coronation Road. They look like the kind of dives your mother warned you about, but actually they’re as good a place to get a taste of the ‘real’ Bristol as any.