Bristol, United Kingdom

What Bristol UK is made of: the communities whose institutions are here, the sectors its 16,837 businesses sit in, the franchises already on the ground, and the services a newcomer could start.

16,837 businesses on file · 136 trades · 118 sectors · · built from geonet.bristol on 2026-11-07

Businesses16,837
92% carry coordinates
Specialised in12
trades above the national pattern
Places of worship98
Franchise brands72
already operating here
Known for

Avon River, Severn

Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Bristol UK → — the free guidebook for this region: why go, what to see, what is open when it rains.

1

The local economy

What the business base is made of, what it is specialised in against the national pattern, and what that mix implies. This is the part a development office would read first.

Composition, not health. geonet records what trades exist and where; it does not record formation, closure, employment or revenue, so none of those appear here. What makes this economics rather than a directory is the NAICS coding: it lets the local mix be read against the BLS survival curves and against the 323 industry groups this research has screened.

The two biggest markets here

Every industry group on this page links through to its NAICS page, and to the screened market report where this research has one — that is what the trait-to-NAICS coding buys.

Business density—
Breadth of the base311
broad — 95 industry groups, top three 20.1%
Survival the mix implies56.2%
at five years, against 51.4% for all private establishments
Coded to NAICS23.8%
of which 69.3% unambiguous

What this city is specialised in

Location quotient is this city's share of a trade divided by the same share across 2 UK metro tables. Above 1.25 is the conventional threshold for a local specialisation.

Thin against the national pattern

Common trades that are under-represented here. For someone deciding what to open, this is the more useful half of the table — though a gap can mean unmet demand or a market that does not work here, and this does not tell you which.

The base against the entry screen

Businesses by the entry signal of the industry group they sit in, from the /markets screen. A large "structure decides" share means most local trades are ones where being better than the incumbent does not by itself win. A trade is matched to the screened record at whatever level the research wrote it — the same code, a broader one, or a narrower one. Where a group holds several screened sub-markets the count is shown, because no single one of them speaks for the whole group.

Enter
23.4%
939 businesses
Caution
57.6%
2,313 businesses
Structure decides
19%
763 businesses
Not screened
0%
0 businesses

How to read the survival figure

Each sector's five-year establishment survival rate, weighted by how many of this city's businesses sit in that sector. It is a property of the MIX, not of these businesses — it says what survival this composition would imply at US private-sector rates, because no Canadian equivalent series exists.

Weighted over 99.4% of the coded base — public administration carries no curve. Source: Business Employment Dynamics — Table 7, Survival of private sector establishments by opening year, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And what it does not measure

A "mixed" trait is one that genuinely spans codes — "computers" covers systems design, repair and supply. The clear share is how much of this reading rests on unambiguous coding. Business density also reflects how completely the directory covers a place, not only how many businesses are in it — so it compares poorly between a city the register knows well and one it does not.

2

Who lives here, and who the city is for

The census: the only figures on this page that count people rather than businesses, and the three cohort readings they make possible.

No census subdivision is mapped for uk-bristol in local/census-map.json, so this page carries no census figures. The mapping is kept explicit because Canada has several places called London, Toronto and Kelowna, and attaching the wrong one would put another city's demographics on this page.

3

The communities the register shows

A community appears in the business register before it appears in prose — a national church, a society, a credit union, a newspaper. Those are counted as institutions, and they are what suggests residents. A restaurant serving a cuisine is counted separately as trade, because every city has those and they say nothing about who lives nearby. The ranking is by institutions.

CommunityInstitutions WorshipTrade Where it shows
Polish 1 1 3
Polish RC Church Of Our Lady Of Mercy
Somali 1 — —
South West Somali Community Association
Scottish — — 25
French — — 21
trade on Intermediate Care (3) · Broadfield Road (2)
Chinese — — 18
Welsh — — 10
trade on Building B4 Avonmouth Docks Est (2)
Thai — — 9
Dutch — — 6
German — — 6
Spanish-speaking — — 5
Irish — — 4
Japanese — — 3
South Asian — — 3
Italian — — 3
Turkish — — 3
Greek — — 2
Russian — — 2
Islamic — — 2
Vietnamese — — 1
Swedish — — 1
Swiss — — 1
Jewish — — 1
4

Where the communities are

Streets, not neighbourhood names. The data knows that Greek institutions sit on one street and Greek restaurants on another; it does not know the word "Greektown", so it does not use it.

5

What the city is made of

Every business on file, grouped by the sector it trades in. This is the economic-development view: where the 16,837 businesses actually are, and the specific trades inside each sector.

SectorBusinesses ShareWhat is in it
Construction 577 3.4% plumbing (139) · roofing (90) · machinery (83) · painting (73) · heating and cooling (68) · flooring (42) · electrician (28) · carpet (22)
Living 447 2.7% place of worship (98) · cleaning (89) · furniture (67) · property (47) · appliances (46) · apartment (35) · veterinary (29) · fire safety (17)
Business 418 2.5% association (154) · accounting (140) · consulting (57) · government (22) · foundation (20) · bank (8) · vending (7) · auction (6)
advertising 406 2.4%
Education 359 2.1% school (272) · library (71) · garden (13) · writing (3)
Dining 296 1.8% restaurant (193) · fast food (59) · pizza (33) · diner (5) · chinese restaurant (3) · mexican food (1) · steakhouse (1) · pubs (1)
Retail 278 1.7% flowers (105) · photography (65) · jeweler (39) · antiques (17) · department store (12) · gifts (11) · pet supply (10) · office equipment (6)
Automotive 269 1.6% autos (225) · tires (22) · auto repair (11) · scooter (9) · motorcycle (1) · auction (1)
engineer 269 1.6% orchard (1)
construction 210 1.2% landscaping (1)
Finance 178 1.1% insurance (122) · bank (30) · mortgage (21) · loans (4) · bankruptcy (1)
cafes 167 1% greenhouse (1)
Travel 163 1% travel agent (103) · hotel (50) · motel (6) · airline (3) · parking (1)
Food 139 0.8% catering (48) · baker (48) · grocer (21) · fruit (13) · seafood (5) · ice cream (4)
housewares 139 0.8%
consulting 133 0.8%
legal 132 0.8%
emergency 129 0.8%
Media 121 0.7% advertising (63) · signs (54) · books (2) · printing (1) · insurance (1)
Logistics 120 0.7% storage (55) · packaging (32) · truck transportation (16) · forklifts (11) · railroad (3) · towing (3)
6

The franchises already here

Brands from a register of 2,024 franchise systems, matched into this city by name. A high count is a signal in both directions: the territory works, and it may be taken.

46 of these brands are a single common word — Metro, Avenue, Budget — so their counts include businesses that merely share the word. They are marked rather than dropped.

BrandCategory HereWorldwide
Royal Mail post 10 14,300
Salvation Army retail 9 —
Pizza Hut pizza 8 10,000
Royal Bank bank 6 —
Burger King fastfood 4 11,000
Thomas Cook travel 4 700
Costa Coffee coffee 3 755
Hollywood Bowl entertainment 2 24
Signs Now specialty 2 —
Wine Rack liquor 2 160
Allied Irish Bank bank 1 —
Best Western businesshotel 1 4,200
Cartridge World retail 1 1,400
Cash Converters retail 1 16
Disney Store retail 1 —
Enterprise Rent A Car car 1 5,400
Flight Centre travel 1 1,500
Harvey's fastfood 1 345
Hertz Rent A Car car 1 7,000
Holiday Inn businesshotel 1 —
House of Fraser retail 1 —
IKON Office Solutions retail 1 400
Laura Ashley retail 1 —
St. John retail 1 —
The Body Shop retail 1 —
Vue Cinemas entertainment 1 55
Limited name only retail 30 —
Manor name only retail 18 —
Tesco name only retail 15 1,780
Somerfield name only supermarket 9 1,132
Coach name only luggage 7 —
Starbucks name only coffee 6 3,500
ASDA name only supermarket 5 243
Burton name only retail 5 —
HSBC name only bank 5 —
Dillons name only supermarket 4 18
Kingfisher name only home 4 680
Michaels name only retail 4 805
Cineworld name only entertainment 3 74
Diana name only supermarket 3 3
Greyhound name only travel 3 —
Marriott name only upscalehotel 3 2,800
Midas name only auto 3 1,800
Mothercare name only retail 3 —
Progressive name only supermarket 3 150
Roots name only retail 3 145
Waterstones name only retail 3 193
YMCA name only fitness 3 —
Debenhams name only retail 2 126
Halfords name only retail 2 420
Honda name only car 2 —
Primark name only retail 2 160
Travelodge name only economyhotel 2 —
Aldo name only retail 1 —
Blackwell name only book 1 6
Borders name only book 1 559
Budgens name only supermarket 1 227
Esprit name only retail 1 —
Europcar name only car 1 2,825
Farmfoods name only supermarket 1 300
FastFrame name only specialty 1 300
Hallmark name only greetingcards 1 5,600
IKEA name only retail 1 250
Illuminations name only retail 1 16
Jacob name only retail 1 200
Lexus name only luxurycar 1 —
Morrisons name only supermarket 1 368
Roxy name only retail 1 —
Stitches name only retail 1 —
Stuckeys name only convenience 1 200
Trents name only liquor 1 —
Waitrose name only supermarket 1 184
7

Real estate as a local trade

Four unrelated jobs share the name: selling existing homes, owning and letting them, managing them for someone else, and building new ones. For anyone weighing a move or a licence these are the counts — and the ownership question goes to /property, which answers it building by building.

Real estate is a local job market in its own right, and four unrelated trades get the same name. Counts are businesses filed under each trade in the register, which lists a brokerage once however many agents work there — so this measures firms, not licensees.

Selling homes

5312
18 firms · LQ 0.5

Offices of agents and brokers — the resale market, and the biggest single trade in most Canadian cities.

Named in the register
  • 2 Sydenham Road Management — 2 Sydenham Road
  • 37 Waverley Road No 2 Management Co — 37 Waverley Road
  • 7 West Mall Management — 7 West Mall
  • Besley Hill Estate Agents — 764-766 Fishponds Road; Fishponds
  • C I Properties — 14 Old Farmer Hill; Kingsdown
  • Eastman Developments — 5 Ivywell Road; Sneyd Park
  • L D C Fallowfield — 103 Temple Street
  • Mauretania Estates — 7-11 Park Street
  • Mayfair — 64 Alma Road; Clifton
  • Nigel Greenfield — New Minster House; 27-29 Baldwin Street
  • Overnhill Court No 1 — 1 Overnhill Court; Downend
  • Riverwood House Management Co — Riverwood House
  • The 36 Luckington Road Bristol Management Co — 36 Luckington Road
  • Twenty Six Apsley Road Management — 26 Apsley Road

Owning and letting

5311
35 firms · LQ 7.56

Lessors of real estate: the buildings themselves, filed under the building rather than the owner.

Named in the register
  • 1 Rockleaze Avenue — 1 Rockleaze Avenue; Sneyd Park
  • 3 Hampton Park Redland Bristol Management — 3 Hampton Park
  • 4 Albemarle Row Management Co — 4 Albemarle Row; Hotwells
  • 4 Cotham Park Residents Association — 4 Cotham Park
  • 5 Ashgrove Road Management Co — 5 Ashgrove Road; Redland
  • 5 Dowry Square Management Co — 5 Dowry Square
  • 6 Elliston Road Management Co — 6 Elliston Road; Redland
  • 6 Leopold Road St Andrews Management Co — 6 Leopold Road
  • 8 Cotham Park Management — 8 Cotham Park
  • 8 Henleaze Road 1998 — 8 Henleaze Road; Henleaze
  • Apartment 22 — 19 Tewkesbury Rd
  • Days Service Apartments — 30-38 St. Thomas Street
  • The 4 Bellevue Clifton Bristol Management Co — 4 Bellevue; Clifton
  • The Apartment Store — 274 Anchor Road

Managing for owners

5313
47 firms · LQ 3

Property managers, who run buildings the landlord does not.

Named in the register
  • 126 Cromwell Road Bristol 6 — 126 Cromwell Road; St Andrews
  • 51 Kingsdown Parade Bristol Management — 51 Kingsdown Parade
  • 77 Springfield Road Management Co — 77 Springfield Road
  • 8 Blenheim Road 1996 Management Co — 8 Blenheim Road; Westbury Park
  • 8 Windsor Terrace — 8 Windsor Terrace; Clifton
  • Allendale Flats — 42 Archfield Road
  • Astra — 18 Cotham Hill
  • Baltic Wharf Management Co — Baltic Wharf
  • City Property Lets — 58 Gloucester Road; Bishopston
  • Donaldsons Chartered Surveyors — Beech Ho, 6 St Pauls Road, Clifton
  • Edenhall Properties — 26 Oakfield Road; Clifton
  • Executive Property Services — Bristol, 28 The Mall
  • H S B Partnership — 26 Oakfield Rd, 8
  • Wilkie Francis Commercial Property Brokers — 25 Elliston Road

Building new homes

2361
13 firms · LQ 2.94

Residential builders and the general contractors who work for them.

Named in the register
  • A A and J Atherton — Kingcott Mill Farm
  • Acorn Character Homes — Hutton Pk, Hutton Moor La
  • Anthony J Brown Building Plans — 16 Harrington Avenue; Stockwood
  • Caines Construction — 280-286 Whitehall Road
  • Chowell Services — 12 Pudding Pie Close; Langford
  • Cleeve Wood Park — Cleeve Wood Rd, Downend
  • D A and B M West — Frenchay Road
  • E J Croker and Son — Florence Cottage; The Batch
  • John Andrew Noble — Bushes Farm; Wapley Hill
  • Kingswood Caravan Camping Centre — 137-145 High Street
  • Phones 2 U — 24 High St
  • Salthouse Farm Caravan Park — Salthouse Fm Pk, Shaft Rd, Severn Beach
  • The Berkeley Leisure Group — Woodlands Park; Almondsbury

Financing it

5222
25 firms · LQ 0.73

Mortgage brokers and non-bank lenders.

Named in the register
  • 1st Mortgage Solutions UK — 186 Henleaze Rd
  • A and S Mortgage Solutions — 81-83 Stokes Croft
  • Bristol Mortgage Centre — 415 Gloucester Road; Horfield
  • BT Home Loans — 619 Fishponds Rd, Fishponds
  • Chelsea Mortgage Management — Chelsea House; 31 St Nicholas Street
  • Independent Mortgage Solutions South West — 14 Whitehouse Street
  • K5 Mortgage Review Service — Woodland Way
  • Kingswood Funding Services — 317 Two Mile Hill Road; Kingswood
  • Mortgage People The — 370 Gloucester Rd, Horfield
  • Privately Independent Mortgage Consultants — 67 Leinster Avenue
  • S and U Plc — 217 Gloucester Road, 7
  • The Mortgage People — 370 Gloucester Road; Horfield
  • UK Loans Group — Broad Quay House
  • Your Choice Mortgages and Investments — 1 Straits Parade; Fishponds

On "how many doors"

How many doors a landlord holds is not in any of this. The register files an apartment building under the building, not its owner, and carries no unit count; there is no open dataset of Canadian landlords by portfolio. Where this research has established ownership it is in the /property record for the city, building by building, which is a different and much slower exercise.

8

Work on the go, mobile services

The Ultimate 411 half of local: everything where the customer does not have to come to you. Each service opens a page on Ultimate 411 to request a quote or book a time.

A shop needs the customer to walk in. These 320 services do the opposite — the mobile mechanic, the mobile groomer, the bookkeeper, the junk haul — and they are the ones a person can start without a lease. 1 of them already match a trait filed in this city's register.

The 320 Service=1 rows in search.local: work on the go, mobile services, where the provider travels to the customer. "present" counts businesses already filed under that exact trait name; a blank is a coverage gap, not proof of absence, because the two vocabularies were built separately.

home services

Accessible Home Renovations Air Filtration & Purifier Installation Short-Term Rental Turnover Appliance Installation Artificial Turf Installation Babyproofing & Safety Installs Electric Baseboard Heater Installation Basement Renovation Bathroom Fan Replacement & Installation Bathroom Renovation BBQ Cleaning Blinds & Shutters Installation Cabinet Refacing Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Carpet Installation Caulking & Sealing Ceiling Fan Installation Ceiling Design & Repair Central Vacuum Installation Countertop Installation Custom Closet Design & Installation Decorative Rock & Gravel Deep Cleaning Drain Cleaning Dryer Vent Cleaning & Hose Installation Drywall Repair Air Duct & Furnace Cleaning Electrical Inspection Electrical Panel & Breaker Upgrade Errand Running EV Charger Installation & Service Exterior Painting Faucet Installation Fence & Deck Staining Furnace & Air Conditioner Installation Furnace & AC Repair Furniture Assembly Garden Weeding & Maintenance Grocery Pickup & Delivery Gutter Cleaning Handyman (General Repairs) Hardwood Flooring Installation Hedge & Shrub Trimming Home Project Design Consultation House Cleaning House Sitting HVAC Tune-Up & Maintenance Insulation Installation Interior Painting Junk Removal & Dump Runs Kitchen Design Consultation Kitchen Renovation Laminate & Vinyl Flooring Installation Landscape Design & Planting Lawn Aeration & Seeding Lawn Leveling Lawn Mowing Fall Leaf Cleanup Light Fixture, Switch & Outlet Installation Material Take-off & Estimate Move-In / Move-Out Cleaning Moving Help (Labour Only) Moving with Truck Office Cleaning Outdoor Blinds & Shades Personal Shopper Picture & Mirror Hanging Pipe Insulation Plaster Wall Repair Pot Light Installation Pressure Washing Move Things Around the House Wiring Upgrade & Rewiring Driveway & Sidewalk Salting Shelving & Closet Organizer Installation Shower Valve Replacement Sink Installation Smart Camera & Doorbell Installation Smoke & CO Alarm Installation Snow Shovelling & Removal Sod Installation Lawn Sprinkler Installation Irrigation Repair & Maintenance Packing & Unpacking Sump Pump Installation & Replacement Smart Thermostat Installation Tile Installation Toilet Installation Toilet Repair Interior Trim & Baseboard Repair TV & Picture Mounting Wall & Ceiling Texturing Wall Panels & Accent Walls Wallpaper Installation & Removal Wardrobe Styling Water Damage Extraction Water Heater Installation (Tank & Tankless) Water Softener & Filtration Water Valve Replacement Weed Control Window AC Installation Window Cleaning Window Film Installation Spring & Fall Yard Cleanup
9

Schools and colleges

wander.schools is a post-secondary table — universities and colleges. K-12 public and private schools are not in it, and only 7 of its 1,686 rows carry coordinates, so these are listed and not mapped.

InstitutionTypeStudentsFounded
Bristol University — —
University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol University — —

In the business register

Where schooling shows up as a business rather than an institution — which is where K-12, tutoring and childcare appear.

school 272daycare 1
10

Health and care

What a person moving a parent here would ask first. The register files clinics and pharmacies; it has no category for a hospital at all, so hospitals are matched by name and the limit is stated rather than hidden.

Medical clinics4
Pharmacies8
Dental practices66

Matched on the name "hospital"

  • Hartcliffe Health Centre — Hareclive Road
  • Hospital Cardiac Support Group — 252A Lodge Causeway
  • Community Services North Bristol Health Centre — Fishponds Health Centre
  • Kingswood Natural Health Centre — 355-359 Two Mile Hill Road
  • Burden Neurological Hospital — Frenchay Pk Road
  • Welsh Back Squash and Health Centre
  • Bristol Hospital for Sick Children — St. Michaels Hill,2
  • Bristol Dental Hospital — Lower Maudlin Street
  • Animal Health Centre — 358 Gloucester Road; Horfield
  • Bristol General Hospital — Guinea St, 3
  • Hospital Broadcasts Service — Bristol Royal Infirmary, Maudlin St
  • Queen Elizabeths Hospital School — Berkeley Place
  • Queen Elizabeths Hospital — Berkeley Place
  • William Budd Health Centre
  • Eastville Health Centre — East Park
  • Priory Hospital Group — Sir Johns La
  • Blackberry Hill Hospital — Fishponds, Manor Rd, Fishponds
  • Horfield Health Centre — Lockleaze Road
  • Grove Road Day Hospital — Grove Rd, Redland
  • Chesterfield Nuffield Hospital — 3 Clifton Hill
  • Bristol Homeopathic Hospital — Cotham Hill, 6
  • Chesterfield Nuffield Hospital
  • Cadbury Heath Health Centre — Parkwall Rd
  • St Marys Hospital — Upper Byron Rd, BS8
  • Ham Green Hospital — Rehabilitation Unit, Ham Green Hospital, Pill
  • Queen Elizabeths Hospital School — QEH Playing Fields
  • Whitchurch Health Centre — Armada Road

geonet carries no 'hospital' trait, so these are matched on the business name. A distance-to-hospital figure needs a source that states hospital locations.

14

What this record cannot tell you

Named in full, because the gaps are the part most likely to be misread as an answer.

  • No census figures on this page: this region is not mapped to a census subdivision in local/census-map.json, so the community counts here are business-register institutions, which is a different measurement and cannot substitute for a population.
  • wander.schools is now readable, but it holds universities and colleges only and 1,679 of its 1,686 rows have no coordinates. K-12 public and private schools need a separate source — in Ontario the Ministry of Education school finder, in British Columbia the provincial school list. wander.citytowns, hotels and territories remain denied to the ru user.
  • No 'hospital' trait exists in geonet; distance to a hospital needs an external source such as StatCan's Open Database of Healthcare Facilities.
  • 7.6% of businesses here carry no coordinates, so a map or address lookup would miss them. Postal codes reach 100%.

Built from

  • geonet.bristol — the local business register
  • wander.regions — city name, population, metro
  • search.local — trait vocabulary and the come-to-you services
  • search.cozfranchises — 2,024 franchise brands