Timeline of Bristol

Prior to 16th century

• 803 – St James' Priory founded.
• ca.1000 – A Saxon settlement began to grow up at the junction of the rivers Frome and Avon.
• 1009 – Market active.
• 12th C. – College Green created.
• 1129 – St James' Priory founded.
• 1140 – St Augustine's Abbey founded.
• 1141 – February: Stephen, King of England imprisoned in Bristol Castle after the Battle of Lincoln.
• 1147 – Bristol fair active.
• 1172 - Charter from Henry II.
• 13th C. – Society of Merchant Venturers formed.
• c.1220 – Bristol Cathedral construction begins.
• c.1223 – Grey friary founded.
• 1224 - Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany imprisoned in Bristol Castle under relatively comfortable conditions, almost to her death in 1241.
• c.1228 – Blackfriars Dominican priory established.
• 1290 – Jews expelled.
• 1292 – Church of St Mary Redcliffe built.
• 1295 – Parliamentary representation begins.
• 1373 – Bristol becomes a county corporate; Redcliffe becomes part of Bristol.
• 1470 – St Stephen's Church rebuilt.
• c.1478–1479 – Ricart's Maiores Kalendar of Bristol started.
• 1497 – May: Italian-born adventurer John Cabot sets sail on the ship Matthew looking for new lands to the west.
• 1498 – May: Cabot sets sail on his second voyage to the Americas; he is never heard of again.

16th–17th centuries

• 1504 – Chapel of the Three Kings of Cologne built.
• 1542 – See of Bristol established.
• 1552 – Society of Merchant Venturers chartered.
• 1580 – Red Lodge Museum established.
• 1595 – Merchant Venturers' School founded.
• 17th C. – The trade in African slaves flourishes.
• 1643 – July: Bristol in the English Civil War: Bristol taken by forces of Prince Rupert.
• 1644 – Fort at St. Michael's Hill rebuilt.
• 1645 – September: Bristol taken by forces of Cromwell.
• 1656 – Bristol Castle demolished.
• c. 1670 – King William Ale House built as a refuge for poor women.
• 1673 - James Millerd publishes his map of Bristol.
• 1691
• * Bristol Corporation of the Poor founded.
• * Almshouse established at St. Michael's Hill.

18th century

• 1701 – Merchants' hall built.
• 1702 – Bristol Post-Boy newspaper begins publication.
• 1710 – Colston's Hospital founded.
• 1708 – Unrest.
• 1709 – St James's Square laid out.
• 1712 – Custom House built.
• 1717 – William Cossley bookseller in business.
• 1725 – Farley's Bristol News-Paper begins publication.
• 1727 – Dowry Square laid out.
• 1729 – Walter Churchman patents his invention for making chocolate.
• 1737 – Bristol Royal Infirmary opens.
• 1738 – William Champion patents a process to distill zinc from calamine using charcoal in a smelter.
• 1739 – New Room built.
• 1740 – Merchant Tailors' Guild Hall built.
• 1741 – King Square laid out.
• 1743 – The Exchange built.
• 1747 – Bristol becomes Britain's busiest slave trading port.
• 1753 – Economic unrest.
• c.1759 – Joseph Fry begins chocolate manufacture.
• 1766 – Theatre opens.
• 1767 – Bristol Gazette newspaper begins publication.
• 1768 – Bristol Bridge built.
• 1769 – St Nicholas Church rebuilt.
• 1770 – Bristol porcelain manufacture begins; Bristol blue glass is also first produced at about this date.
• 1773 – Bristol Library Society founded.
• 1779 – Stapleton Prison built to hold naval prisoners of war captured during the American Revolutionary War.
• 1786
• * Infirmary opens.
• * Wills, Watkins & Co. open a tobacconists' shop which becomes W.D. & H.O. Wills.
• 1788 – John Wesley gives speech against slavery.
• c.1790 – Berkeley Square laid out.
• 1791 – Christ Church with St Ewen and Equestrian Theatre built.
• 1793 – 30 September: Bridge riot.
• 1793–1813 – Stapleton prison used for French prisoners of war during the Napoleonic Wars.
• 1796 – John Harvey & Sons, importers of Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry, founded.
• 1799 – Pneumatic Institution established.

19th century

• 1803 – Bristol Dock Company incorporated.
• 1804 – Stapleton prison enlarged.
• 1809 – Bristol Harbour formed.
• 1810 – Commercial Rooms built.
• 1821
• * 13 April: John Horwood hanged at the New Gaol for the murder of Eliza Balsom.
• * 28 May: Population enumerated as 52,889.
• 1823
• * Chamber of Commerce founded.
• * Bristol Institution opens.
• * Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery established.
• 1830 – New cattle market opens.
• 1830s – Clifton becomes part of city.
• 1831 – October: Queen Square riots – 4 rioters killed and 86 injured by cavalry charge in Queen Square.
• 1832
• * 4 Queen Square rioters charged and hanged.
• * Bristol Mechanics' Institution building opens.
• * Holy Trinity Church built.
• 1836 – Zoological Gardens open.
• 1837 – Passage to St Vincent's Cave opens.
• 1838 – 8 April: Paddle steamer begins her first voyage to the United States.
• 1840
• * 31 August: Bath–Bristol section of Great Western Railway begins operating and Bristol Temple Meads railway station opens.
• * Bristol and Clifton Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society instituted.
• 1841
• * 14 June: First section of Bristol and Exeter Railway opens to Bridgwater.
• * 30 June: Great Western Railway opens throughout between London and Bristol; Bristol Temple Meads railway station substantially complete.
• 1842
• * Synagogue opens in Park Row.
• * Buckingham Baptist Chapel built.
• 1843 – 19 July: Iron steamship launched.
• 1844 – Bristol Academy for the Promotion of Fine Arts founded.
• 1847 – Horfield Barracks completed.
• 1850
• * Bristol, West of England and South Wales Permanent Building Society formed.
• * Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Apostles consecrated.
• * Clifton Victoria Baths opened.
• 1858
• * Western Daily Press newspaper begins publication.
• * Bristol General Hospital opens.
• 1861 – Durdham Down and Clifton Down rights acquired.
• 1862
• * Bristol Naturalists' Society established.
• * Clifton College opens.
• 1864
• * Clifton Suspension Bridge opens.
• * Avonside Engine Company in business.
• 1865
• * Bristol and West of England Amateur Photographic Association formed.
• * Industrial Exhibition held.
• * Daily Bristol Times and Mirror newspaper in publication.
• 1867 – Bristol Beacon concert hall opens as Colston Hall.
• 1870 – Gloucestershire County Cricket Club formed.
• 1871 – Bristol Museum and Library established.
• 1872 – Bristol Harbour Railway opened.
• 1873 – Bristol Trades Council founded.
• 1875 – Bristol Tramways begin operation.
• 1876
• * University College, Bristol opens.
• * The Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society founded.
• 1877 – Avonmouth dock opens.
• 1884 – Clifton Antiquarian Club founded.
• 1887
• * 1 October: Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company formed by merger of the Bristol Tramways Company and the Bristol Cab Company and begins a horse-bus service to Clifton.
• * Bristol Camera Society established.
• * Bristol Home for Lost and Starving Dogs opens.
• 1889
• * Labour strike.
• * Bristol Choral Society founded.
• * March: Flood.
• 1892 – Labour strike.
• 1893 – Brazil, Straker & Co in business.
• 1895 – Bristol Tramways begin operating with electric traction.
• 1898 – Cabot Tower built on Brandon Hill.
• 1899 – The chief magistrate becomes a lord mayor.

20th century

• 1901
• * Imperial Direct West India Mail Service begins operating to Jamaica.
• * Population: 328,945.
• * Area of city: 11,705 acres.
• 1904
• * Shirehampton becomes part of city.
• * Area of city: 17,004 acres.
• 1905 – Bristol Kyrle Society founded.
• 1906
• * January: Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company introduces its first motor buses.
• * 4 October: Great Western Railway opens Bristol Harbour Extension Railway and Canon's Marsh goods branch.
• * Bristol Central Library opened.
• 1908 – Royal Edward Dock opens at Avonmouth.
• 1909 – University of Bristol receives royal charter.
• 1910 – British and Colonial Aeroplane Company in business.
• 1912 – Bristol Hippodrome opens.
• 1914 – 29 June: International Exhibition opens at the "White City", Ashton Gate, becoming a military depot soon after the outbreak of war.
• 1916
• * August: First tanks shipped to France from Avonmouth.
• * 9 September: Bristol F.2 Fighter aircraft first flies.
• 1926 – Hanham Colliery closes.
• 1929 – Bristol Record Society founded.
• 1930 – Whitchurch Airport begins operating.
• 1932
• * 23 February: Old Market riot.
• * 7 March: Bristol Evening Post newspaper begins publication.
• 1933
• * Gaiety Cinema opens.
• * Ribena first manufactured, by H. W. Carter.
• 1934 – 18 September: BBC Bristol Studios open.
• 1938 – Ritz Cinema opens.
• 1940 – 2 November: Bristol Blitz begins.
• 1941 – 11 April: Bristol Tramways abandoned due to bomb damage to its electric power supply.
• 1944 – 15 May: Bristol Blitz ends.
• 1945 – Bristol Cars in business.
• 1946 – Bristol Old Vic theatre company and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School established.
• 1956 – 17 April: Chew Valley Lake in Somerset is inaugurated as a reservoir for the Bristol area by the Queen.
• 1957 – Bristol Airport opens.
• 1958 – Bristol bus station opens.
• 1959 – Bristol Siddeley aero engine manufacturer in business.
• 1963 – 30 April: Bristol Bus Boycott.
• 1968 – World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association headquartered in city.
• 1969 – 9 April: British prototype Concorde airliner first flies from Filton.
• 1970
• * 5 July: returns to Bristol.
• * 4 September: BBC Radio Bristol begins broadcasting.
• * Purdown BT Tower, for telecommunications and a radio repeater, is built.
• * Bristol Polytechnic established from Merchant Venturers Technical College.
• 1972 – 1 May: Bristol Parkway railway station opens.
• 1973 – 29 June: Clifton Cathedral consecrated.
• 1974
• * 1 April: Bristol becomes part of the county of Avon
• * May: Avonmouth Bridge opens in Shirehampton.
• * c. July: Ashton Court Festival begins.
• 1977 – Gay Pride begins.
• 1978
• * Royal Portbury Dock opens.
• * Castle Park laid out.
• * Bristol Gay Centre founded.
• 1980 – 2 April: St. Pauls riot.
• 1984
• * 1 May: Old Profanity Showboat opens.
• * Bristol Community Church organised.
• 1986 – Show of Strength Theatre Company formed.
• 1991 – 27 January: Following its purchase by the Chiltern Radio Group, Bristol station FTP is replaced by Galaxy Radio.
• 1992
• * 16 July: Hartcliffe riot.
• * University of the West of England granted university status.
• 1996
• * 1 April: County of Avon abolished; Bristol once again becomes both a city and a county.
• * 24–27 May: First International Festival of the Sea held in and around the Harbour; replica 15th-century ship Matthew dedicated.
• * 19 July: MoD Abbey Wood opened at Filton.
• * City of Bristol College established by merger of Brunel College and South Bristol College.
• 1998 – Tobacco Factory Theatre established.
• 2000 – Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory theatre company founded.

21st century

• 2001 – Bristol Royal Hospital for Children building opens.
• 2003 – Plain Clothes Theatre Productions formed.
• 2004 – Bristol Shakespeare Festival begins.
• 2006 – Redland Green School built.
• 2007 – 26–27 May: Dot to Dot Festival first held in Bristol.
• 2009 – The Bottle Yard Studios open as a television and film production facility.
• 2010 – Brunel Institute opens.
• 2011
• * 21 April: Stokes Croft riot, including an attack on a locally controversial newly opened Tesco store.
• * Bristol becomes a "city of sanctuary" for refugees.
• 2012 – 19 November: Architect George Ferguson takes office as the first elected Mayor of Bristol.
• 2020
• * 10 February: Councillors reject a proposed expansion of Bristol Airport, by 18 votes to seven, on the grounds that it would exacerbate climate change, damage the health of local people, and harm flora and fauna.
• * 7 June: The 1895 statue of Edward Colston, a 17th-century merchant, slave trader, MP and philanthropist, is pulled down by anti-racism protesters.
• * 2 December: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom: Bristol enters Tier 3, the strictest level of restriction.
• * 3 December: An explosion at a waste water treatment works in Avonmouth kills 4.
• 2022 – 4 September: Bristol Zoo closes at its Clifton site.

Published in the 17th–18th centuries

Published in the 19th century

1800s–1820s

1830s–1840s

1850s–1890s

• * v.1: Civil history
• * v.2: Ecclesiastical history
• * : Civil and Modern History

Published in the 20th century