Bristol

In 1138 Bristol was described as "almost the richest city of all the country receiving merchandise by sailing ships from lands near and far". The wool of the Cotswold sheep, woven into fine cloth, was sold to buy wine and oil from Europe.
In the 15th century, merchants were the most important people in the city.
During the 17th and 18th centuries Bristol grew wealthy by trading weapons, textile, iron goods and slaves for tobacco, cocoa and sugar from the West Indies.

Bristol´s Byzantine Style - Many of Bristol´s industrial buildings constructed in the 1860s and 1870s were characterised by multiple rows of arches and multi-coloured brickwork. This style was influenced by Moorish and Byzantine architecture in Spain, Portugal and North-Africa and became known as the Bristol Byzantine. The architect of the building above was William Venn Gough.

Bristol Temple Meads railway station from inside.

Edward Everard Building

The M-Shed was built 1950 as a transit shed where goods unloaded from ships could be stored and sorted. For most of its working life, it was used for the Bristol Steam Navigation Company´s twice-weekly shipping service to Dublin. It was the last shed in use when the City Docks closed in 1975. It housed the Industrial Museum between 1978 and 2006. Now it is used as a Museum about the history of Bristol.