Weird Stuff
- Bristol is the least antisocial place in Britain (National Audit Office).
- Bristol is also the happiest place to live in England (You Gov Poll).
- Bristol is the third wealthiest city per capita in England.
- Bristol has A GDP 9.439 billion which is larger than countries like Albania and Paraguay.
- Tarmac, The Methodist Church, Ribena, the Plimsoll Line and Lara Croft were all invented in Bristol .
- The last ever reading of the Riot act in the UK happened in Queen Square in 1831.
- The first Englishman to set foot on Australia was Bristol Privateer William Dampier.
- America is named after Bristol Merchant Richard Ameryke.
- Billy Butlin’s first Business was a Hoop-La store in Bedminster.
- The world’s first test tube baby was Bristolian.
- Bristol’s Theatre Royal is the oldest continually working Theatre in England.
- Bristol Barber Charlie Stephens, inside a barrel, was one of only 15 people to have ever gone over Niagara Falls in or on a device. Only his tattooed right arm was recovered..
- Nipper, the dog on the HMV logo was born in Bristol.
- Harry Potter was based on boy JK Rowling met in Bristol.
- Laughing Gas was first discovered in Bristol.
- Six Thousand Six Hundred and Forty Two Bristol residents gave there religion as Jedi in the 2001 census.
- Princess Caraboo (Mary Willcocks) returned to Bristol from America and made a living selling leaches in Bedminster.
- Daniel Defoe met Alexander Selkirk the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe in the Llandogger Trow in King Street.
- The Phrase “pay on the nail” derives from the four Brass pillars on corn streets used as tables by merchants to strike deals.
- The clock above the Corn Exchange has two minute hands. One shows Bristol time and the other Greenwich Mean Time.
- Whitchurch Airport during the Second World War was the country’s only operating civilian Airport..
