The William III statue
Rysbrack's 1736 equestrian statue, Grade I listed and often counted among the finest of its kind in Britain.
Until 1992 a dual carriageway, driven through in 1937, sliced diagonally across this square, corner to corner, with traffic thundering past a king on horseback a few metres away. Today there is not a trace of it: level lawns, broad gravel walks and avenues of plane trees around all four sides, as if the twentieth century had never called. That is what a National Lottery grant won in 1999 bought in the restoration that followed, which put the square back to roughly its 1817 layout. The square itself is far older. Laid out from 1699 over about 2.4 hectares, it is one of the largest Georgian squares in England, edged with early-18th-century townhouses of pleasingly uniform proportion. Much of what you see, though, is not original: during the Reform Bill riots of 1831 roughly half the buildings were looted and burned over three days, then rebuilt. The later arrivals include the old Custom House of the 1830s and the Port Authority building of 1889. At the centre stands the one thing genuinely worth stopping for: William III on horseback in Roman dress, by the sculptor John Michael Rysbrack, erected in 1736. It is Grade I listed and often called one of the finest equestrian statues in Britain. Walk all the way round it; many people think the horse outshines its rider. Be realistic. This is not a destination in itself but a pleasant ten-minute pause on the walk between the Harbourside, King Street and the Old City. The ground is entirely flat, so it suits pushchairs and anyone who tires of stairs, and on summer days you may stumble into an open-air cinema screening, a concert or a festival filling the lawns. There are no cafes or toilets inside the square, but both are a few steps away in the surrounding streets. From Temple Meads station it is about a 15-minute walk.
Rysbrack's 1736 equestrian statue, Grade I listed and often counted among the finest of its kind in Britain.
A dual carriageway cut through here from 1937 until 1992; the square was then returned to its Georgian layout of lawns and plane-tree avenues.
Early-18th-century facades, roughly half of them rebuilt after the 1831 riots burned the square.
Queen Square, Bristol BS1 4LH
Just pass through. It is a lovely short stop on the way between the Harbourside and the Old City, not a sight to plan a day around; ten minutes circling the statue and sitting on a bench is enough, unless you happen upon a summer event.
Yes: the ground is flat with no steps, the paths are wide and the lawns are good for a run and a rest. But there is no playground and no toilets inside the square, so expect a quiet garden and nothing more.