UWE Exhibition and Conference Centre

You can run a conference for 20 to 320 delegates on a campus two miles from the M4 and M5, with catering, AV, security staff and an events team all supplied by the university itself, so you deal with one contact rather than several suppliers. If your dates fall in July or August you can also put groups of ten or more into en-suite bedrooms on the same site. UWE Bristol (the University of the West of England) hires out lecture theatres, teaching rooms, seminar rooms and dining areas at Frenchay Campus in north Bristol, with further rooms at its City Campus at Bower Ashton and at Glenside Campus in Stapleton.

The university’s own history timeline records that its Exhibition and Conference Centre opened on Frenchay Campus in 2009 and was turned into a temporary NHS hospital in 2020, later hosting a vaccination centre whose final clinic was set for 17 March 2023. Its current venue hire pages describe conference facilities across the campuses and do not name the centre or give it a separate room list, so confirm with the events team which building your event would use.

Event spaces and capacities

The largest published space is an upgraded lecture theatre at Frenchay for 320 delegates, and Frenchay classrooms take up to 120. Across its campuses the university says it can host from 4 to 320 delegates, and it also offers specialist labs, including science and robotics labs, for hire. It does not publish floor areas, layout-by-layout capacities, a room count or exhibition floor space.

Capacities as published by the venue on its campus facilities page, checked 6 November 2026. The classroom figure is given as “up to 120 delegates” without a stated layout.

Getting there and parking

Delegates coming by road or rail have several options. The university puts Frenchay Campus two miles from the M4 and M5. Filton Abbey Wood is the nearest station, about 30 minutes on foot, with a First Bus service from the station car park; Bristol Parkway has buses direct to the campus or close by, and Bristol Temple Meads serves the city centre, a 15-minute bus ride away. Frenchay has its own FlixBus and National Express stop, and Bristol Airport links to the city by the Airport Flyer bus. Use BS16 1QY for the East entrance and BS34 8QN for the North entrance.

Parking needs planning. Between 08:30 and 17:00 on weekdays every car on campus needs a permit, a booking in the visitor parking system or a Blue Badge. The Frenchay visitor car park is reached only from the North entrance, uses number plate recognition and must be booked by your host, and parking at Glenside and Bower Ashton is very limited. Blue Badge holders pay no charge in university car parks, and cycle parking, lockers and showers are provided on each campus.

Catering, AV and accommodation

You get food, equipment and on-the-day help from in-house teams. The catering team offers canapés, buffets, sandwiches and full gala dinners, with halal, vegetarian and other dietary menus, and sends sample menus on enquiry. The university says its main Frenchay outlet, OneZone, held the Soil Association Food for Life catering mark for the eighth year in November 2023, that it is an accredited Fairtrade university, and that its fish is MSC certified and its meat Red Tractor assured.

AV on offer includes data projectors, laptops, sound reinforcement, video conferencing suites and facilities for D/deaf or hard of hearing delegates, with technician support if you need it. The events team adds business centre support (telephone, email, printing), stationery such as flip charts and a review after the event, and campus security and logistics staff can be hired for set-up, first aid cover and security. En-suite single bedrooms with linen, towels and shared kitchens can be booked mainly in July and August for groups of ten or more, and adapted accessible rooms are available.

What to ask before you book

• Which building and room will hold your group, and can you have floor plans and layout-by-layout capacities, since only the 320-seat lecture theatre and the 120-delegate classrooms are published?
• How many visitor car park spaces at Frenchay can the events team pre-book for your delegates, and at what charge?
• What the day delegate package costs and includes, as the university promises clear pricing but does not publish rates.
• Which rooms are free on your dates during term, and whether summer bedrooms are available if your event falls outside July and August.
• Whether AV technician support and video conferencing are charged on top of room hire.
• If you plan an exhibition, what floor area, power and loading access the university can offer, as none is published.

Related on Events Review

• Conference venues in Bristol
• Academic conference venues
• Conference and exhibition venues
• Ashton Gate Stadium, another Bristol conference and exhibition venue
• Bristol Beacon, a Bristol conference venue
• Paintworks Events in Bristol
• Watershed, also one of UWE’s City Campus sites
• Engine Shed, a Bristol venue
• byCaerdydd Venues, Cardiff University, a university venue in Cardiff
• Warwick Conferences, a university conference venue in Coventry
• Turn venue accessibility claims into a usable event plan
• Choose the venue around the event, not the headline capacity

Sources: conference facilities, campus facilities, specialist venue hire, lecture theatre and meeting room hire, event management service, catering, accommodation hire, getting to and from UWE Bristol, visitor parking, sustainable food and UWE Bristol timeline, all on uwe.ac.uk, checked 6 November 2026.