Bristol – The City With the Most Green Space in England!

Bristol is famous for its lively music scene and for Banksy and the vibrant graffiti and street art found around the city. However, Bristol’s abundance of parks and wildlife mean that it is also a very green city. In fact, Bristol has the most green space out of all of England’s core cities! Only two other large UK cities have more green space and they are both in Scotland. Have a look here for more information:

The UK’s top 10 greenest cities – Positive News – Positive News

How green is your city? UK’s top 10 mapped and ranked | Cities | The Guardian

During this covid period, most indoor places have been closed. Of course, we know our students can’t wait for the pubs, cafes, restaurants to reopen again soon. Neither can we! However, one thing our students have been doing during this time is meeting another person from another household to take exercise outside. Our students at ELC Bristol have been enjoying this time by going for nice walks together, discovering new parts of the city and visiting Bristol’s beautiful parks and green spaces and seeing some of the local wildlife. They’ve also been taking some lovely photos too – see what you think 🙂

Here are some of their top tips and photos from their walks:

The Downs

Bristol’s most famous parkland is just 10 minutes’ walk from school and the ELC school’s self-catering residence. ELC Bristol students find The Downs a great place for a walk, to go running, to enjoy some sunshine or play football or volleyball. Our famous Thursday football with the teachers has restarted this week and takes place on the Downs. But some of our students have also just discovered that at the back of the Downs is an area known as The Gully, where two wild goats live. Our Swiss students say they make them feel really at home! Although some days they are quite difficult to find, our students have managed to take some nice photos of them.

Ashton Court

This is a lovely big park just across the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge. Walking around the park, you can usually see the herds of beautiful deer that live there. Or you can simply enjoy the wonderful landscape and views back to Clifton’s elegant Georgian and Victorian buildings.

There is also a golf course here, which is open from 8am, with the last tee off at 5pm. If your regular golf skills are lacking, why not try FootGolf or even Disc Golf, which uses a frisbee instead of a ball.

Brandon Hill

Situated on a steep slope, Brandon Hill is a friendly, small park between the school and Bristol city centre. Lots of students and local people often come here on their lunch breaks. Our students have enjoyed watching the cute squirrels eating their lunch there!

Leigh Woods

Just across the Clifton Suspension Bridge on the other side of the river, Leigh Woods is a nice place for a walk or a picnic and students can also enjoy mountain biking on the trails through the woods.

The Harbourside

OK – this is not strictly a park or green space! However, it’s a lovely open space next to the water with great views of the city and lots of different birds. You can take a circular walk all around the historic harbour, past a famous Banksy artwork and enjoy splendid views of the beautiful coloured houses of Cliftonwood on the way. ELC students have seen swans, ducks and sometimes – if they are very lucky – cormorants.

Bristol is a lively university city of nearly 500,000 known for music and street art. But as you can see, there are lots of lovely green spaces and wildlife to see too!

(Wildlife photos taken by our students and by Andrew, the Principal, on walks around the city)