Bristol

Bristol Zoo is a zoo in the city of Bristol in South West England. The zoo's stated mission is "Bristol Zoo Gardens maintains and defends... biodiversity through breeding endangered species, conserving threatened species and habitats and promoting a wider understanding of the natural world". Opened in 1836 by the Bristol, Clifton and West of England Zoological Society, Bristol Zoo is the world's oldest provincial zoo. It is a Victorian walled zoo located between Clifton Down and Clifton College, near Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge; it covers a small area by modern standards, but with a considerable number of species. In the 1960s the zoo came to national prominence by appearing in the UK television series, Animal Magic, hosted by the comic animal 'communicator', Johnny Morris. Morris would play keeper and voice all the animals there. The zoo's official name is Bristol Zoological Gardens . This is not in recognition of the flower displays but recognises the first use of that title at the Regent's Park Zoological Gardens.
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The Dean of Bristol is the head of the Chapter of the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, Bristol, England. The current Dean is the... Very Reverend David Hoyle, whose nomination was approved by Elizabeth II on 22 December 2009 and who was installed at the cathedral on 29 May 2010.
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At-Bristol is a public science and technology "exploration" and education centre and charity in Bristol, England. As a visitor attraction, At-Bristol... has hundreds of hands-on exhibits, and a Planetarium with seasonal shows for the over fives, and a 'Little Stars' show for children aged five and under. In addition to trails and activities, they also have changing exhibitions and presenter-led Live Science shows. They have recently started holding special events for under sixes called 'Toddler Takeover'. At-Bristol also welcomes 40,000 school pupils every year, from pre-school to post-16, for school visits and education workshops. They are also host to the Science Learning Centre South West, and together they offer continuing professional development for teachers and other science communicators. There are rooms and roof terraces above the exhibition that At-Bristol offers for venue hire, and these have been used for events such as the Sky News media hub for the General Election Debate, as well as other conferences, meetings and events. These spaces are also available for weddings and civil partnerships.
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Cabot Tower is a tower in Bristol, England, situated in a public park on Brandon Hill, between the city centre, Clifton and Hotwells. It was... constructed in memory of John Cabot, 400 years after he set sail in the Matthew from Bristol and landed in what was later to become Canada. The foundation stone was laid on 24 June 1897 and the tower was completed in July 1898. The architect was William Venn Gough and it was built by Love and Waite of Bristol. It consists of a spiral staircase and two viewing platforms which overlook the city, the higher of which is approximately 334 feet above sea level. The tower gives its name to the area and Council ward of Cabot. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II listed building. The tower is 105 feet high and built from red sandstone with cream Bath Stone for ornamentation and emphasis, and was paid for by public subscription. On three sides of the tower are commemorative plaques. They read as follows: "The foundation stone of this tower was laid by the Marquess of Dufferin & Ava on the 24th June, 1897, And the completed tower was opened by the same nobleman on the 6th September, 1898. W.
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The Arnolfini is an arts centre and gallery in Bristol, England. It has a programme of contemporary art exhibitions, live art, music and dance... events, poetry and book readings, talks, lectures and cinema. There is also a specialist art bookshop and a café bar. Educational activities are undertaken and experimental digital media work supported by online resources. A number of festivals are regularly hosted by the gallery. Arnolfini is funded by Bristol City Council and Arts Council England, with some corporate and individual supporters. The gallery was founded in 1961 by Jeremy Rees, and was originally located in Clifton. In the 1970s it moved to Queen Square, before moving to its present location, Bush House on Bristol's waterfront, in 1975. The name of the gallery is taken from Jan van Eyck's 15th century painting, The Arnolfini Portrait. Arnolfini has since been refurbished and redeveloped in 1989 and 2005. Artists whose work has been exhibited, include Bridget Riley, Rachel Whiteread, Richard Long and Jack Yeats. Performers have included Goat Island Performance Group, the Philip Glass Ensemble, and Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company.
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The Bristol Industrial Museum was a museum in Bristol, England, located on Prince's Wharf beside the Floating Harbour, and which closed in 2006. On... display were items from Bristol's industrial past – including aviation, car and bus manufacture, and printing – and exhibits documenting Bristol's maritime history. The museum was managed by Bristol City Council along with nearby preserved industrial relics along Prince's Wharf, including the Bristol Harbour Railway, cranes and a small fleet of preserved vessels. There are no plans to decommission or remove the railway, cranes or vessels. The museum closed its doors to the public on 29 October 2006. M Shed, the new Museum of Bristol has been created on the site, keeping the same façade and many of the exhibits. It opened 17 June 2011 . The museum's indoor exhibits were housed on the two floors of a former quayside transit shed. On the lower floor was the transport gallery, which housed various land transport exhibits with a particular Bristol slant.
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Blaise Castle is an 18th century mansion house and estate near Henbury in Bristol , England. Blaise Castle was immortalised by being described as... "the finest place in England" in Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey. Flint fragments show Blaise Castle Estate was probably first inhabited by Neolithic farmers. There is more definitive evidence for Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman activity through the distinctive hill-forts in the area and other archaeological finds. The value of this historic landscape was recognised when it became a Scheduled Ancient Monument in 1982. After the Anglo-Saxon invasion and subsequent conversion to Christianity, the land was granted to the Bishop of Worcester as part of the Kingdom of Mercia. During this time the estate picked up its association with Saint Blaise that lives on in the estate's name. John Harford, a wealthy Bristol merchant and banker had Blaise Castle House built in 1796–1798, designed by William Paty. It is a grade II* listed building. John Nash added a conservatory c. 1805-6, and in 1832-3, C.R.
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The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum was a museum in Bristol, United Kingdom exploring the history of the British Empire and the effect of... British colonial rule on the rest of the world. The museum opened in 2002 in Bristol's historic old railway station, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, following renovation and conversion costing £8 million. It is the world's earliest surviving railway terminus, which was completed in 1840 and includes the passenger shed and the adjoining former engine and carriage shed. It is over 220 ft long with timber and iron roof spans of 72 ft , this Grade I listed building has been nominated as part of a World Heritage Site. The museum had a flourishing publications department, producing books on aspects of colonial life such as the history of the Northern Rhodesia Police, and a register of titles of the regiments of the Honourable East India Company and East Indian Armies. The museum also held the collection of artefacts of the Commonwealth Institute; extensive still photograph, paper, film and oral history archives, and a costume collection. The museum was also the home of the New World Tapestry.
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Tricky is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang... lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop culture. His debut album Maxinquaye was nominated for the Mercury Prize and voted Album of the Year by NME Magazine. Tricky was born in Knowle West, Bristol, England to a Jamaican father and a mixed-race Ghanaian-English mother. His father left the family before he was born and his mother, Maxine Quaye, committed suicide when he was only four. He named his solo album after her - Maxinquaye - and once said that though he hardly knew her, he feels like she's speaking through him with his words. He spent his youth in the care of his grandmother, who often let him watch old horror movies instead of going to school. At 15 he began to write lyrics .
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Roni Size is a British record producer and DJ, who came to prominence in 1997 as the founder and leader of Reprazent, a drum and bass collective.... That year they won the Mercury Prize for their album New Forms. He resurrected Reprazent in 2008 with the release of a deluxe edition of New Forms on Universal. Williams, son of Jamaican immigrants, grew up in the Bristol suburb of St. Andrews. He cites reggae as one of his early influences. He was expelled from school at the age of 16 and started attending house parties run by Bristol soundsystem The Wild Bunch . He learned the basics about music production at his local youth club, the Sefton Park basement project, which provided record players, a mixing desk, drum machines and samplers. He worked with his brother's comprehensive collection of Studio One records and later set up a home studio, buying a sampler. His future musical partner, Krust, had been a member of the Fresh 4, whose "Wishing On A Star" reached the Top Ten of the UK Singles Chart in late 1989. Williams, Krust, Suv and DJ Die founded Full Cycle Records.
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Lee Evans is a British comedian, writer, actor and musician, of Welsh and Irish heritage. Lee Evans was born in Avonmouth, Bristol, England to an... Irish mother Shirley and a Welsh father, Dave Evans, a nightclub performer. He left Bristol at the age of 11 and then went to The Billericay School in Billericay, Essex. After a spell as a boxer and two years at Thurrock art college in Essex, he followed his father into entertainment. In his teens he moved to Scarborough, North Yorkshire and also played drums in a punk rock band called The Forgotten Five. On 22 September 1984, he married Heather Nudds with whom he has a daughter, Mollie . They live in Billericay. Evans rose to fame during the 1990s with loud, hot, sweaty, energetic stage performances and physical observational comedy. His slapstick humour has led to comparisons with Norman Wisdom, though Evans does not regard Wisdom as an influence. In his earlier work, he used a dysfunctional character called Malcolm to illustrate unusual characters. In 1993, Evans won the Perrier Comedy Award for his work at the Edinburgh Festival. Evans' sweat drenches him on stage.
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Justin Lee Collins, commonly known as JLC, is an English comedian and television presenter, known for his strong West Country accent, shaggy... appearance, and colourful shirts. Collins is often associated with nostalgia programmes, such as Bring Back, in which he discusses cult films, music and television programmes. Other notable works include his breakthrough show The Friday Night Project, which he co-presented with Alan Carr, its Sunday spin-off, and The Convention Crasher. In recent years he's presented travel documentaries for channel 5, like Justin Lee Collins: Turning Japanese. In 2010 Collins made an unsuccessful campaign to represent Britain and Ireland in the annual Eurovision Song Contest with a song written by Ronan Keating. In the same year he also helped launch the Bristol charity Shine Together, which aims to benefit patients at Southmead Hospital. Collins was born on 28 July 1974 in Southmead, Bristol, to working class parents, Anita and Danny Collins, a self-employed electrician. Collins is an only child.
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David Prowse, MBE is an English former bodybuilder, weightlifter and actor, most widely known for playing the role of Darth Vader in physical form.... In Britain, he is also remembered as having played the Green Cross Code man. Prowse is a native of Bristol, where he attended Bristol Grammar School. Prowse is best known for playing the physical form of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy. James Earl Jones, however, provided the voice for the character. Prowse spoke the dialogue during the making of the film, and didn't actually know Vader was Luke's father until he saw The Empire Strikes Back in the cinema. Though he was never going to be used as the voice of Darth Vader, he claims he was originally told that he would be seen and heard at the end of Return of the Jedi when Vader's mask was removed. This did not end up happening as actor Sebastian Shaw was brought in instead. However, Lucas claims he wanted a 'darker voice' that Prowse could not provide and never intended to use Prowse's voice, which had a West Country accent.
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Stephen James Merchant is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky... Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the co-host of The Ricky Gervais Show in its radio, podcast, audiobook and television-show forms. The Ricky Gervais Show in radio form has won a bronze Sony Award. Merchant appeared in the BBC TV series Life's Too Short in which he co-wrote and co-directs. He also voiced the character Wheatley in the popular 2011 video game Portal 2, co-developed Sky TV travel series An Idiot Abroad, and performs as a stand-up comedian. He has won three BAFTA Awards, four British Comedy Awards, and an Emmy. Merchant was born in Bristol, England, the son of Jane Elaine , a nursery nurse, and Ronald John Merchant, an insurance representative. He attended Hanham High School. As he has described in Xfm London shows and podcasts, Merchant was a very shy child, tending to focus more on school work as opposed to sport. His school yearbook predicted that he would enjoy success.
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Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English-American actor. Known for his transatlantic accent, debonair... demeanor and "dashing good looks", Grant is considered one of classic Hollywood's definitive leading men. Grant was named the second Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute. Noted particularly for his work in comedy but also for drama, Grant's best-known films include The Awful Truth , Bringing Up Baby , Gunga Din , The Philadelphia Story , His Girl Friday , Arsenic and Old Lace , Notorious , To Catch A Thief , An Affair to Remember , North by Northwest and Charade . Nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for Penny Serenade and None But the Lonely Heart , and five times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, Grant was continually passed over, and in 1970 was given an Honorary Oscar at the 42nd Academy Awards. Frank Sinatra presented Grant with the award, "for his unique mastery of the art of screen acting with the respect and affection of his colleagues".
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Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author. Redgrave was born in Bristol,... Gloucestershire, England, the son of the silent film actor Roy Redgrave and the actress Margaret Scudamore. He never knew his father, who left when Michael was only six months old to pursue a career in Australia. His mother subsequently married Captain James Anderson, a tea planter, but Redgrave greatly disliked his stepfather. He studied at Clifton College and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He was a schoolmaster at Cranleigh School in Surrey before becoming an actor in 1934. There he directed the boys in Hamlet, King Lear and The Tempest, but managed to play all the leading roles himself. The 'Redgrave Room' at the school was later named after him. In the new Guildford School of Acting building which opened in January 2010, there is the Sir Michael Redgrave studio. Redgrave made his first professional appearance at the Liverpool Playhouse on 30 August 1934 as Roy Darwin in Counsellor-at-Law , then spent two years with its Liverpool Repertory Company where he met his future wife Rachel Kempson.
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John Fortune is a British satirist, comedian writer and actor, best known for his work with John Bird and Rory Bremner on the TV series Bremner,... Bird and Fortune. He was educated at Bristol Cathedral School and King's College, Cambridge, where he was to meet and form a lasting friendship with John Bird. Fortune was born in Bristol. His early career included contributions to Peter Cook's Establishment Club team, which included Eleanor Bron and John Bird in 1962. Fortune and Bird also worked together on the TV show A Series of Birds in 1967, and Fortune and Bron wrote and performed a series of sketches for TV in Where Was Spring in 1969. In 1971, with John Wells, he published the comedy classic A Melon for Ecstasy, about a man who consummates his love affair with a tree. He appeared with Peter Sellers in a Barclays Bank advertisement in 1980 shortly before Sellers' death; the infamous Monty Casino ads. Along with writing several series for the BBC, in 1982 he appeared in an episode of the BBC situation comedy Yes Minister as an army officer who brings the minister's attention to British-made weapons getting into the hands of terrorists.
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Ralph Bates was an English film and television actor, known for his role in the British sitcom Dear John and for being one of Hammer Horror's... best-known actors from the latter period of the company. Bates was born in Bristol, England, of French ancestry and educated at Trinity College Dublin. He read French there, before winning a scholarship to Yale Drama School. The course completed, Bates returned to Ireland to make his stage debut in Shaw's You Never Can Tell at The Gate Theatre, Dublin, in 1963. A career in repertory theatre soon followed and the young actor gained experience in productions ranging from Hedda Gabler to raucous comedies. Later, Bates carved a niche in the world of horror films and played important roles or the lead in several Hammer Horror productions, such as Taste the Blood of Dracula, The Horror of Frankenstein, Lust for a Vampire, and Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, in which he played a deranged doctor who mistakenly transforms himself into a beautiful siren.
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Christopher Ryan is an English actor. Ryan is perhaps best known for his role as Mike "The Cool Person" in the BBC comedy series The Young Ones.... Ryan was born in Bayswater, London and trained at East 15 Acting School from 1968 to 1971. He began his professional acting career with Glasgow Citizens' Theatre in 1971. Ryan was the only Young Ones cast member who was not already well known in British comedy circles; he was a last-minute replacement for Peter Richardson, for whom the role of "straight man" Mike was originally intended along with The Comic Strip members Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer and Alexei Sayle. He played Lucky in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at the Queen's Theatre in the West End in 1991, alongside Mayall and Edmondson. Ryan later played Dave Hedgehog in Bottom and Marshall Turtle, one of Edina's unloved ex-husbands on Absolutely Fabulous.
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Nik Kershaw is an English singer-songwriter. The one time jazz-funk guitarist was a 1980s teen idol. His 50 weeks on the UK Singles Chart in 1984... beat all other soloists. Kershaw appeared at Live Aid, and penned hits for Let Loose, The Hollies and a number 1 for Chesney Hawkes, "The One and Only". Although born in Bristol, Kershaw grew up in Ipswich, Suffolk, and after leaving Northgate High School in 1976 worked as a shop assistant and in the Department of Employment for several years, during which time he played guitar and sang in a number of underground Ipswich bands. However, when the last of these, Fusion, split up in 1982, he embarked on a full time career as a songwriter and performer. In 1983, he signed a recording contract with MCA Records, a deal which spawned his debut single, "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". At the beginning of 1984, Kershaw released his breakthrough song "Wouldn't It Be Good", which reached Number 4 in the UK Singles Chart, and was a big success in Europe, particularly in Germany, Italy, Switzerland and in Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand.
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