Bristol has been building chips since 1978
- Inmos and the transputer
- Europe’s largest street art festival
- Europe’s largest balloon meeting
- A regional tech festival since 2019
How Bristol grew
The short version, in order. Pick a year.
Inmos is founded
A government-backed attempt to give Britain its own semiconductor industry, based in Bristol. It produced the transputer — a processor designed from the start to be wired to other processors.
Inmos and the transputer
Inmos was founded in 1978 and headquartered in Bristol, a deliberate state-backed attempt to give Britain its own semiconductor industry. From 1979 David May worked there as architect of the transputer, and designed the occam language to go with it.
The transputer, launched in 1985, was a strange and clever idea: a microprocessor with its own memory and communication links, designed to be wired directly to other transputers. You built a more powerful computer by adding more chips. Conventional processors eventually outran it, but the parallel thinking it forced on a generation of engineers never left the city.
Bristol still designs chips. The cluster around it is one of the reasons the west country quietly hosts serious silicon work.
What that means if you trade in Bristol
Bristol has an independent streak that shows up commercially. Customers here actively prefer the local operator to the national chain, and will pay a little more to keep it that way.
That is a gift for a small business website, provided the site actually sounds like a person from Bristol rather than a template that could be anywhere.
What Bristol businesses ask us for
Sound local, genuinely
Name the neighbourhoods. Clifton, Bedminster and Fishponds are different worlds and everybody here knows it.
Independent is the selling point
Say who owns the business and who turns up. In this city that is an advantage, not a disclaimer.
Be honest about coverage
The hills and the river make some journeys much longer than the map suggests.
The tech scene here
Bristol’s technology industry is unusually deep for the size of the city, and unusually hardware-flavoured. Semiconductors, silicon design, robotics and aerospace sit alongside the software and creative work, which is a direct inheritance from Inmos and what came after it.
Engine Shed, next to Temple Meads, is the visible front door — an innovation hub run with the university and the council that seeds a good deal of the city’s startup activity.
The city also has an exceptionally strong creative sector, from animation to street art, and the two overlap more than they do elsewhere.
Where people work
Most of it sits around Temple Meads and the harbourside, within walking distance of each other.
Engine Shed
The innovation hub in the restored railway building beside Temple Meads, run with the University of Bristol and the council. A founding partner of the city’s tech festival.
Bristol’s festivals
Bristol does festivals at a scale that surprises people who have not been.
Bristol International Balloon Fiesta
Europe’s largest annual meeting of hot air balloons, four days, free to attend, and the thing the city puts on its postcards.
Upfest
Europe’s largest street art festival, held in Bedminster and Southville — fitting, in Banksy’s home city.
Bristol Technology Festival
Running since 2019 and billed as the UK’s largest regional tech festival, with Engine Shed among its founding partners.
How local businesses use their sites
It changes by trade, but the website is nearly always the first contact — and usually the only one before someone spends money.
Trades and home services
The areas you cover, photos of real jobs, and a phone number you can see without scrolling.
Clinics, salons and studios
People expect to book online rather than ring during working hours.
Shops, cafés and bars
Bristol supports independents unusually well. Say what makes yours yours.
Creative and studio work
Portfolio first, and make it load. This is a city that judges creative work quickly.
Why FastSites works here
Bristol is a city of independents, and independents are exactly who a one-page site suits: everything that matters, on one screen, without a five-page structure invented to look bigger than you are.
Live in days, price published, built for phones. Name Bedminster, Clifton, Southville or Easton and turn up when someone there searches.
How well do you know Bristol?
Five quick questions. Get all five right and you win a 10% off discount code for your website. Every answer is somewhere on this page, so have a read if you get stuck.
Bristol quiz · 1 of 5
What did Inmos, founded in Bristol in 1978, produce?
Common questions
The simplest one-page site starts at £15 a month, with the website build included and nothing to pay up front. Every plan and its price is published on the pricing page before you speak to anyone.
Sign-up takes about 3 minutes and the build questionnaire about 5. Most sites are then designed and built within 21 hours, and live within days of the brief being answered.
No setup fee and no hidden extras. Your monthly plan covers the website build and hosting. Done-for-you plans have a 12-month minimum term, then you can cancel any time from your dashboard.
Yes — you can upgrade at any time as your business grows, with no need to start over.