United Kingdom, Bristol

Bristol is England's eighth, and the United Kingdom's eleventh, most populous city. As such, it is one of England's core cities. For half a millennium Bristol was the second largest English city after London, until the rapid rise of Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, in the 1780s.

From its earliest days, its prosperity has been linked to that of the Port of Bristol, the commercial port, which was in the city centre but has now moved to the Bristol Channel coast at Avonmouth and Portbury.

There are two principal railway stations in Bristol: Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple Meads.

The city is connected by road on an east-west axis from London to Wales by the M4 motorway, and on a north-southwest axis from Birmingham to Exeter by the M5 motorway. The M32 motorway is a spur from the M4 to the city centre.

The city is also served by its own airport (BRS), at Lulsgate, which has seen substantial improvements to its runway, terminal and other facilities.

Despite being hilly, Bristol is one of the prominent cycling cities of England, and is home to the national cycle campaigning group Sustrans. It has a number of urban cycle routes, as well as links to National Cycle Network routes to Bath and London, to Gloucester and Wales, and to the south-western peninsula of England.