Lifestyle District: Bristol's Old City

TGtB are delighted to welcome Bristol based bloggers 'Lifestyle District' to the site. They'll be keeping us up to date with all of their food, culture and photography adventures that happen in and around the city:

Much of central Bristol was bombed during the Second World War but many of its fascinating medieval streets survived. Steeped in history, the cobbles of Bristol's Old City ooze character and we love an afternoon stroll to take it all in.

The Old City has played a key role in trade for hundreds of years and while many of the banks are now home to bars and restaurants, business is still a very important feature. The weekly markets on Corn Street sell some wonderful produce from local producers and St Nicholas Market, the 18th century indoor market, is truly amazing!

Known to us locals as St Nicks, it houses the largest collection of independent traders in Bristol as well as an eating area that is as far removed from shopping centre food court as is humanly possible! There are no golden arches or Spud-U-Likes here; instead you'll find innovative, indie food producers and it's one of our favourite lunch locations.

Bristol's Old City comes to life during the day but we must admit that we haven't spent much time in the area after dark - until recently this is.

We were delighted to discover that Cafe Revival, one of our favourite Bristol cafes, is now open on Wednesday - Saturday evenings. Described as "probably Bristol's oldest coffee shop", coffee has been served on the site since 1743. Much loved for its yummy paninis, sandwiches and cakes, its historic delights can now be enjoyed after the sun has set.

We recently popped along to the cafe and it didn't let us down. Instead of a cappuccino and a sarnie, we enjoyed (several) glasses of wine and a cheese board.

Mark Rind, who recently took over ownership, has also created an interesting new concept.  To deal with the problem of different members of a party wanting different types of wine, Cafe Revival offers 'virtual wine bottles'. Customers can purchase six tokens which can be used for glasses of red, white or rose wine from a special menu. The vouchers don't expire and don't all need to be consumed on a single visit but that wasn't a problem for us as we worked our way through the menu!

Cafe Revival by night is a great new arrival and it will help encourage even more people to enjoy this very special area of Bristol.

To view Lifestyle District's full collection of images click here.

Lifestyle District is the blog of Virginia Allwood and Dan Martin who also run Le Shop - an online retailer selling fine art photographs of Bath, Bristol and the South West.