Bristol Cathedral and Aquarium

Well, that was a touch of a misleading title, wasn’t it? The Bristol Cathedral doesn’t run an aquarium. Bless me, no. They are two separate entities: Bristol Cathedral and, pause, Bristol Aquarium.

That said, the two are only a few minutes’ walk apart.

The point I was elegantly trying to make is that, this morning in Bristol, I visited its cathedral and then, after a few minutes’ walk, its aquarium. That’s not to say I was intentionally inelegant. I would have preferred to be elegant, believe me. It just worked out that way.

Of course, when I say “worked out,” …

“COME ON, JOEL,” you shriek. “Get on with it already. Tell us about Bristol Cathedral. And move along quickly to the aquarium, too.”

Fine. Be that way.

Bristol Cathedral

Bristol Cathedral is a stoic old grey stone building in central Bristol that still functions as a church.

The exterior is not as heavily decorated as the Saint Mary Redcliffe Church I visited yesterday, but it has some stone statues and refined gewgaws around the entrance. The overall effect is imposing, but elegantly austere.

Construction of what is now Bristol Cathedral (more formally known as “Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity”) began in 1140, but not as a cathedral. It was built as an abbey.

The church standing today was constructed in spurts from the 13th to the 19th century.

When King Henry VIII (1491-1547) dissolved the abbeys, it was elevated to cathedral status. Well, la-tee-dah.

I don’t know when it happened, but it also switched from being a Roman Catholic church to being a part of the Church of England.

Inside, a row of dignified, fluted stone columns on either side of the nave rises to the ceiling, with the fluting extending farther to form beautiful ribbing on the vaulted ceiling.

Here and there, statues adorn Bristol Cathedral and stained-glass windows grace the walls.

A few attractive chapels sit behind the altar. One is the Seafarers Chapel. Bristol used to be a major seafaring town.

Some tombs sit in wall niches, but they lack the intricate carved stone figures and filigrees found at Saint Mary Redcliffe Church.

I don’t know which parts, but much of the church needed significant reconstruction and repair after it suffered considerable \ damage from the bombing during the Blitz in World War II.

Plain pipes of a large organ hang on a wall near the altar of Bristol Cathedral. For a brief period while I was there, a tune played. The organ has a very rich, deep sound.

A couple of signs in the cathedral pull no punches about a shameful period of its past.

The Codrington memorial currently hangs in the Seafarers Chapel. It has a metal plaque on a stone monument with a few large human figures, several small figures, and considerable ornamentation. It’s dedicated to Robert Codrington (d. 1619) and his son Christopher.

According to an accompanying modern sign,

And that wasn’t the only person associated with the slave trade who is commemorated in the cathedral. A sign in one of the transepts states, with shame, that a nearby stained-glass window was dedicated to the memory of Edward Colston (1636 – 1721). Colston argued that selling people into slavery was compatible with his Christian faith. During his life, he donated money for the repair and improvement of Bristol Cathedral.

Behind the cathedral building, there’s a small, charming garden that also served as a graveyard. A few tombstones, possibly outnumbered by benches, rest among lush flowers and greenery.

The garden also contains an orangey-rose abstract sculpture called “Refugee.” The plaque in front of it dedicates the sculpture to “the victims of all racial discrimination.” Naomi Blake, a survivor of Auschwitz, created the sculpture in 1980.

(Wikipedia tells me that Naomi Blake, née Zisel Dum (11 March 1924 – 7 November 2018), was born in Mukačevo, Czechoslovakia (now Mukachevo, Ukraine) to Orthodox Jewish parents.)

There’s a small patio in the garden with tables for a café in Bristol Cathedral. The café also has indoor tables. I can vouch for the cappuccinos and muffins, or at least one cappuccino and one muffin. I can’t say with certainty that they’re all as good as the cappuccino and muffin I bought. And, well, they’re gone now, aren’t they?

More pictures from Bristol Cathedral:

Bristol Aquarium

As I said, the Bristol Aquarium is only a few minutes’ walk from Bristol Cathedral. I walked there.

Oh, by the way, they may get around to correcting it at some point, but my walking tour app calls the Bristol Aquarium “Blue Reef Aquarium.” If you search for that on Google Maps or Apple Maps, you won’t find it. Look for “Bristol Aquarium” instead.

I tried searching the web for “Blue Reef Aquarium.” There are others elsewhere, but not in Bristol.

What I consider the ultimate source, the aquarium’s website, calls it “Bristol Aquarium.” So, as far as I’m concerned, that’s what it is.

My guess (only a guess) is that the aquarium was once part of the Blue Reef Aquarium chain, but it left the franchise, and my walking tour app hasn’t caught up yet.

The Bristol Aquarium has fish. Duh.

Shortly after entering, I came to two small tanks of, well, regular readers can readily guess what I feel the need to report here. For the benefit of irregular readers, I’ll fill in the blank. They contained jellyfish. One contained translucent moon jellyfish. The other contained another, much larger jellyfish species: Pacific sea nettles.

The Bristol Aquarium isn’t huge, but it’s a nice aquarium with a good collection of fish. It has both large and small tanks. There’s also a glass tunnel through one of the larger tanks, but it’s a much shorter tunnel than ones I’ve seen in other aquariums.

There is also a glassed-in outdoor area with tropical plants and small ponds for fish and turtles.

The aquarium offers talks a few times throughout the day. I stumbled upon one where a keeper was feeding some of their rays and discussing them and the small sharks that were also in the large, open-top pool that the visitor area looked slightly down on. Admission tickets to the aquarium are good for the whole day, so if you want to listen to a few of the talks, you can leave and come back again that day on the same ticket. I only listened to that one talk.

When I finished with the aquarium, it was time for lunch. Lunch was not worth writing about. So, I won’t. So long. And you’re welcome for all the fish.

More pictures from the Bristol Aquarium.