Bristol's highlights cluster around the harbour, the Avon Gorge, and the medieval city. Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge and the SS Great Britain anchor the engineering heritage, while Cabot Tower on Brandon Hill gives the best view over the city. Bristol Museum & Art Gallery is free and covers everything from Egyptian mummies to Banksy; M Shed on the quayside tells the story of the city itself.
The slave trade history runs through Bristol more visibly than almost any other British city. The Georgian House Museum was once the home of an enslaved man; Pero's Bridge is named for him; the empty Colston plinth and the fallen statue now displayed at M Shed are live civic monuments to a reckoning still underway. St Mary Redcliffe is the finest medieval church in a city of good churches; the Clifton Observatory has one of England's few remaining working camera obscuras; the Redcliffe Caves and Bristol Old Vic on King Street are highlights of a less obvious Bristol well worth finding.