The WINIR Symposium on Property Rights will take place in Bristol, one the UK’s most unique cities located in South West England (click map to enlarge). Situated on the rivers Frome and Avon, Bristol borders the counties of Somerset and Gloucestershire, with the historic cities of Bath and Gloucester to the southeast and northeast, respectively. The city has a short coastline on the Severn Estuary (which flows into the Bristol Channel).
It is one of the UK's most popular tourist destinations (more information here). Among other things Bristol is famous for the iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge over the Avon Gorge, which opened in 1864. In 2015 it was awarded the title of European Green Capital.
Known as Brycgstow ("the place at the bridge" in Old English) around the beginning of the 11th century. Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was part of Gloucestershire until 1373, when it became a county. Bristol's prosperity has always been linked with trade and the sea. It was the base for the early voyages of exploration to the New World: John Cabot, the first European since the Vikings to land in North America, set out on a ship, the Matthew, from Bristol in 1497; and in 1499 William Weston, a Bristol merchant, was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America. Bristol also produced some famous pirates, including Edward Teach, best known as Blackbeard. For several centuries Bristol played a key role in England's maritime trade in tobacco, wine and cotton, as well as in the triangular slave trade. It was among the top three English cities after London (with York and Norwich) in tax receipts, but was eclipsed by the rapid rise of Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham during the Industrial Revolution.
The Symposium was hosted by the University of Bristol's Faculty of Social Sciences and Law, one of the highest regarded departments of its kind in the UK.