Hello, I have LOADS to say about Bristol!
I was born there although we left when I was 9 I went back from 17 until my mid twenties and then again (having lived in London and Devon) from 2003 until 2006 when we moved back to the SE, where we are now.
Pluses:
Loads of eco warrier/worrier types in Bristol. My dad used to call them hand knitted brown rice people. They're two a penny, you will find plenty of kindred spirits
Lots of cinema and reasonably good cultural life:
The Old Vic osed for refurb apparently but one of the country's oldest rep theatres, darling, the Watershed, The Tobacco Factory, The Alma Tavern, The Arnolphony plenty of arts venues and cinema.
Lots of good restaurants, The Riverstation, The Olive Shed, the Barney Haughton organic place, can't remember what it's called now. There's a great Hotel Du Vin, an organic food festival and a balloon Festival. There are lots of parks and Ashton Court which is 850 acres of land belonging to the people of Bristol There's Leigh woods, the Suspension Bridge and the downs. And Bristol zoo and The Georgian House and other quirky museums.
There's also lots of fantastic architecture and the longest Georgian crescent in Europe. Lots of Bristol is very beautiful and atmospheric indeed imo.
House price to income ratio is v v high, one of the highest in the country last time I checked. But if you're moving from London and have equity that won't matter at all. There are plenty of lovely areas, my order of preference would be:
Henleaze
Redland
Westbury Park
Clifton/Cliftonwood
Sefton Park/St Andrews/Bishopston althoguh maybe move this to the top if you're hand knitted and add Montpelier
The Centre if you found a re developed quiet bit, I'm thinking waterfront, otoh bet it's noisy there
Schools are one of Bristol's biggest problems. A LOT of them are diabolical, truly terrible. Had we stayed we'd have paid for secondary school. But if you are intending to HE then maybe this won't bother you so if you can afford to pay or HE this won't be an issue.
Salaries. These aren't as high as the SE although the cost of living isn't dissimilar. One of the reasons we moved was that I was offered a job with a lot more money in the SE having spent a year looking unsuccessfully in Bristol. So it depends on what you do for a living and whether you can do it for less money in Bristol. Some banking jobs pay better than other industries there but still. We couldn't have bought a decent house which was a big reason for taking more money elsewhere (and although we're commutable to London and in SE house prices are more reasonable here, oddly!)
I love Bristol and had I been offered a decent salary there we'd have stayed but since I wasn't and we could only afford grotsville I'm relieved we're not there any more. Give me a £5m house in Clifton and my current salary and I'd go back like a shot!
In short, yes, I think you'll like it! HTH.