Student Accommodation

Bristol

The University of Bristol

Bristol University is regularly found in the top 50 of the QS World University Rankings of universities, which demonstrates what a great university it is in a wide range of academic studies. Welcoming large amount of international students every year, it is a centre of excellence, and within this fine, multicultural city, with green aspirations, and a vibrancy of colour, art, music, and much more, it is certainly one of the more exciting institutes to attend as a student.

A rich history, dating back to 1876, the University of Bristol was the first in England to admit women and has also taught thirteen Nobel Prize winners. There is a wide and varied library system with access to over 2,300 PCs, and large collections of resources in both print and digital form. The university is also only one of two universities in the entire country with a full NHS practice for students to use.
The Students’ Union is home to over 400 sports clubs and societies with a wide range of interests, hobbies and sports to entertain. It is also home to a large concert venue, theatre, cafés, and even a swimming pool!

The University of the West of England (UWE)

This university has built extensive partnerships with industry leaders and employers in the South West and beyond, with placements and internship schemes available throughout the United Kingdom and even internationally. Students can gain practical experience in a wide range of industries and sectors alongside their studies at one of the largest higher education providers in the region.

At UWE students have access to a range of specialist educational facilities, including a forensic crime scene house, a wind tunnel, a mock courtroom, broadcast studios for multimedia students, and a flight simulator, to name just a few.

The SU Job Shop has a high number of job postings (over 4,000 each year). For students to unwind there is an on-site cinema, bars, plenty of shops, cafés, and a Centre for Performing Arts that hosts plays, gigs, and other events. With over 180 sports clubs and societies, there is something for everyone to explore and enjoy!

Get To Know The City

From your base at our luxury student property in Bristol you’ll be spoiled for choice, whether you are looking for junk food, veggie and vegan cuisine, or street food from all over the world. Here, we take a look at the extensive range of areas and independent restaurants as a sample of what you can expect.

St. Nick’s Market

Located in The Exchange, St. Nick’s Market offers up a wide range of cuisine from all over the world with its street market evert Tuesday and Friday. Choose from the Brazilian BBQ, Japanese dishes, Indian street food, burgers and hot dogs, or tasty falafel. Alongside the St. Nick’s food market, Bristol is also home to the harbourside market every Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Atomic Burger (Gloucester Road)

If you are looking for glorious junk food, massive, juicy burgers, excellent sides, comic book paraphernalia and bright colours on the wall, thick shakes, great service, and brilliant music, look no further than Atomic Burger up on the wonderful Gloucester Road. The sides, starters, and dogs are great, but it’s with the burgers that Atomic made its name. Choose from beef, chicken, and veggie as a base, choose your bun, and then there is a long, delicious list of toppings to choose from, with funky names like the ‘Johnny B Bad’ with USA cheese, BBQ onions, a hash brown, Cajun bacon, and Buffalo sauce. They have great specials on regularly, like the Cowabunga, which is toppings of pizza sauce, chorizo, cheddar, and fresh chillies!

Athenian (Bristol Harbourside)

The Athenian might just be the best souvlaki and gyro you can get anywhere in the UK! Located down on the harbourside, alongside many other small and independent restaurants in converted shipping containers, make sure you take advantage of the Halloumi or pork gyros, they are incredibly delicious, packed full of tasty salad, and lashings of tsatsiki.

Pinkman’s (Park Street)

Head on over to Park Street and you’ll find many different independent cafés and coffee shops. Bristol is home to quirky and petit places like this, and Pinkman’s is a fine example. During the daytime it is a bakery, and a damn fine one at that. In fact, it has been voted in the top 25 bakeries in the whole of the UK! At night, it turns into a pizza restaurant that is always busy.

Bertha’s (Cumberland Road)

For a full-on authentic pizza experience, Bertha’s out on Cumberland Road is one of the better examples. Head to the Wapping Wharf and look out for the bright yellow doors of Bertha’s. You’ll also be able to follow your nose, choosing between the glorious toppings on top of some of the best sourdough pizza bases you’ll find in the city and beyond.

City Centre

As a student you’ll want to look for a good night out, and knowing how far away from your comfortable and luxury Bristol student accommodation the best nights out are, should be near the top of your list of priorities. There are loads of great areas in the city to explore, from big nightclubs and student-specific nights, to comedy nights, live music, and pub crawls. The SU if always a good shout too, at both the big universities in Bristol. Here, we look at a few of the different areas and night’s out you can expect to encounter.

Areas to Explore

Whenever you first move to a new city it’s a good idea to explore as many different areas as you can, and to get a taste for the different types of night out you can have. King Street is probably one of the most popular choices that you should head to first. The cobbled streets are home to some old pubs, microbreweries, and even a jazz pub. Park Street and The Triangle are both lively areas, with loads of good student club nights and bars and pubs. If you are looking for something a little more alternative in terms of music, head on over to Gloucester Road and Stokes Croft. Bristol is a Purple Flag city, meaning it is well regarded as a safe city to walk around, and especially on nights out.

The Apple (Welsh Back)

The Apple is an institution in a town that is famed for its great cider. It sells halves of cider for just £1.50 (these are proper traditional cider variations, so you’ll want a half as it is 8%!). . It is located on a converted Dutch barge right in the city centre, and is genuinely one of the best atmospheres for a pub in the whole of Bristol. You’ll also have access to a wide selection of perries if pear is more your thing than apple.

The Lanes (Nelson Street)

It is lively every day and night of the week, and you can go there to eat at the diner, to bowl in the bowling alley, sit and have a drink at the bar, sing in the karaoke rooms, or watch live music at the gig venue. You can pretty much do it all at The Lanes, whatever your entertainment poison. Other places that warrant a mention include The Cat and Wheel, and The Gallimaufry.

Motion (Avon Street)

You want to know about the best student nights and clubs after you’ve been on a pub crawl and Avon Street is the perfect site student nights and clubs. Motion is the largest club in Bristol, and has been around for the longest amount of time. Perfect for dance music and visiting DJs, it also has got a large courtyard, terrace along the river, and four indoor dance floors that are huge. DJ Mag voted it the 2nd best club in the UK in recent years, and 19th best club in the whole world back in 2016!

Live Music Venues

Bristol is a hub of activity for the music scene, with plenty of grassroots venues for smaller, up-and-coming bands, as well as large venues for national and international touring bands and artists. The Thekla is a gig venue on the boat in the harbourside and a really interesting venue, with The Marble Factory a large warehouse that has been converted into a music venue. The O2 Academy and The Island are two other great music venues. Whilst Blue Mountain and The Black Swan host live drum & bass nights.

Staying Fit And Active

If you are active and looking for a sports team or other sporting pursuit to stay fit and healthy, or you like to find a club to watch some live professional sport, Bristol has a wide and varied selection. Your luxury student properties in Bristol are close to a whole host of sports venues and university sports clubs.

Indoor Sports Centre

With membership available through the university, there is some amazing sports facilities for you to stay fit and to make new friends as part of sports teams and other sports activities. There is a sport and team for everyone, from those wanting to run, those looking to take up squash or tennis, or maybe join a team like a football or rugby team. The Students’ Union at the University of Bristol has a state-of-the-art gym, a 32-metre swimming pool, top quality sports pitches, and Olympic weight-lifting gym.

University Sports Clubs and Elite Performance

With over 60 sports clubs and societies you truly can become an elite athlete in your chosen sport if you wish. There are clubs and teams in a wide variety of sports, such as ultimate frisbee, baseball, and American Football. If you are good enough, you might be able to compete against other institutions in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) League. The Performance Squad is aimed at those targeting elite-level sport, helping young athletes to make and meet hard targets and long-term goals alongside their study, with access to the best sports facilities and equipment.

City and Rovers

Bristol City play at Ashton Gate in the Championship, whilst Bristol Rovers play at the Memorial Ground in the north of the city, just off Gloucester Road (and both of them with student discounted tickets!). Ashton Gate has recently been redeveloped and is a comfortable, modern stadia that hosts football, rugby, and live music.

Rugby Union

Ashton Gate is also the home of the Bristol Bears, who play top flight Premiership Rugby in England. It is easy to get to on foot or via the great transport links from your luxury Bristol student accommodation. If you are more interested in international rugby, Bristol is well-placed to get you to Cardiff for Wales internationals at the Principality Stadium, or quite quickly down to London to see England play at Twickenham.

Healthy Lifestyles and Steep Walks

Bristol is a steep and hilly city, which is ideal if you are active and like to walk places like College Green and Brandon Hill. Bristol has always promoted a healthy lifestyle and was one of the first in the UK to promote the use of bikes so heavily to beat congestion and to boost a healthier lifestyle for its inhabitants.

Clifton Village

Such a beautiful part of town, and easily accessible on public transport from your luxury student accommodation in Bristol, Clifton Village is well worth the trip. Take a really pleasurable walk through the village, taking in the amazing view of Clifton Suspension Bridge and stopping to take a look at the arts and crafts stores, the boutiques, stores, and wonderful coffee shops.

Independent Shopping Across the City

Bristol is an independent shopper’s paradise, with a wonderful array of independent stores offering up a variety of goods and wares in areas such as Gloucester Road and Stokes Croft. Whether you are looking to take up some arts and crafts, buy some bespoke jewellery, buy some vinyl, retro and vintage clothing, or anything else you can think of, the independent scene in Bristol is buzzing. Park Street and The Triangle are another two areas that are firm favourites with students in Bristol.

Cabot Circus and the Shopping Quarter

For big brand shopping and a more familiar feel, head on over to Cabot Circus and a stroll around the shopping quarter. Cabot Circus itself has over 90 big brand stores within its walls, alongside bars, restaurants, and a big cinema. The shopping quarter then works its way down to the SS Great Britain at Bristol Harbourside, and is home to a whole host of high street names that you know and love.

Bristol Markets

One of the best ways to get to know a new city is to take in the markets and see what local product you can find. With the choice of markets and independent shopping in Bristol it is a city like no other for this type of shopping. Old Market is a combination of services and traders, whilst St. Nick’s Market is home to record stores, bookshops, and food stalls in one vintage and traditional undercover market in the city centre. The Christmas Steps Arts Quarter has over 400 years of history, with Wapping Wharf home to modern restaurants and traditional businesses trading out of converted shipping containers.

UNESCO City of Film

You’ll find many creative spaces, such as Co-LAB in Broadmead, Spike Island and many different arts and film events and collectives working throughout the city. In fact, cinema is thriving so much in Bristol that it has been awarded the status as a UNESCO City of Film.

Street Art Tours

We’ve all heard of Banksy, and whether you believe it is one person or a collective of artists, Bristol is the home of Banksy. There are walking tours of Bristol for those of you interested in the street art, taking you to all corners of the city to see original Banksy works. Away from that scene, Bristol is also home to fine collections of traditional and contemporary art in galleries such as Bristol Museum & Art Gallery and the Arnolfini Gallery.

Brunel designed many marvels of engineering and infrastructure, and there is plenty to see in Bristol to amaze. The SS Great Britain was one of those, and for a time was the longest passenger ship in the world. The Clifton Suspension Bridge is another Brunel design, and is a sight to behold since its opening in 1864. There are plenty of other heritage sites in Bristol worth visiting, including the over 100 Grade I Listed buildings, Blaise Castle, and Bristol Cathedral.

Bristol was also a centre of the slave trade, and in fact many of the buildings and streets were built and named off the back of the slave trade. You can see the history of the slave trade and Bristol’s links to the glass, chocolate, and tobacco trades at the M Shed at the Bristol People Gallery.

Bristol International Balloon Fiesta

Hot air ballooning is a popular and adventurous way to see Bristol, and every year there is a truly astounding hot air balloon festival where over 100 hot air balloons launch around the same time and make the sky above Bristol a pretty spectacle. Teams from around the world come to Bristol to participate in mass ascents. It is the largest event of its kind and has been running since 1979.