The hotel
Bristol’s the biz for a glam weekend (trains from London Paddington from £74.60 return, gwr.com), and Artist Residence, a Grade 1-listed Bath stone townhouse on a Georgian square, is your dream base (doubles from £160; artistresidence.co.uk). Rooms evoke the Provençal pad of an arty aristo who ditched a dull husband for life with a French lover (rolltop tubs, wicker lamps, distressed dressers, lavender). Dine off rustic-pattern plates in its bistro (great gnocchi) before negronis in the industrial-tinged bar.
The spectacle
In a disused paint factory south of the city centre, Wake the Tiger (from £16 adult, £13 child, wakethetiger.com) is a hallucinogenic one-off: part film set, part art gallery, part ‘amazement park’. Kids can’t wait to lose themselves in its psychedelic warren of neon mushrooms, steampunk workshops, blue aquariums of floating Barbies and walls of washing machines, drums flashing with lights. Based around a fantasy of four tribes who’ve constructed a new world from the detritus of a devastated planet, this is one wild trip.
The restaurant
Even on a grey winter day, there’s a glow to 1 York Place (mains from £26, 1yorkplace.co.uk), with its giant windows, pine tables and dried flower installation dangling like a luminescent cloud. The ambience is intimate and informal, the wine list biblically long and the mod-European menu, by chef proprietor Freddy Bird, delicious. Try pigeon breast with garlic and rosemary potatoes (pictured) or ox cheek, braised in Bristol Cream sherry. Finish on frangipane tart in a puddle of custard, with candied almonds.
The cocktails
A whiff of the occult hangs about the dark banquettes and ceilings of speakeasy Milk Thistle (milkthistlebristol.com), set over four floors of a Victorian merchant’s house in central Bristol. In the gothic-vampiric candlelight, taxidermied creatures gaze down and the drinks menu, AKA ‘The Dreadful Tea Party’, could easily be a list of spells – fancy a Doppelbänger (pictured), laced with coffee-washed Campari and coconut vinegar? All the while, to a soundtrack of hip-hop, bartenders juggle cocktail shakers like circus performers.
The shop
With its indie streak and alternative undercurrents, Bristol loves all things thrifty and second-hand. But vintage curio RePsycho (repsycho.co.uk) is a cut above the neighbouring charity shops of Gloucester Road. It’s stuffed with battered leather biker jackets, 1970s velvet pantaloons, Carhartt gear and wide-leg hip-hop trousers. In the basement, DJs trawl racks of breakbeat vinyl while Beatles/Dylan fans check the quality of bargain LPs. Upstairs, browse retro accessories, including kitsch patterned Pyrex dishes.
The neighbourhood
Is Bristol the UK’s street-art capital? As rumoured birthplace of Banksy, it can certainly lay claim. Make for the graffiti’d Bedminster HQ, download a map (upfest.co.uk/uploads/upfest-map.pdf) and go exploring amid façades daubed in candy patterns. North Street is Bristol’s bellwether: settle in at Kask (kaskwine.co.uk) for vino, then mural-clad Cor (correstaurant.com) for small plates. For a taste of where boho Bedminster began, brunch at The Lounge (thelounges.co.uk), where servers are pierced and eyelinered.
