Brandon Hill rises between Clifton, Hotwells, and the city centre, the highest open ground in central Bristol and a public park since the 1170s. In the Middle Ages a chapel stood on the summit, possibly belonging to St James' Priory below. By the sixteenth century the chapel was gone and a windmill turned in its place, grinding grain for Bristol bakers. The Society of Merchant Venturers, who controlled much of Bristol's commercial life, allowed the windmill to operate at the top of the hill where the prevailing wind never stopped. By the late Victorian period the mill too was gone, the hill was a municipal park, and the city was looking for a way to mark the four hundredth anniversary of Cabot's voyage. Public subscription paid for it. Schoolchildren sent in pennies. The tower was, in the truest sense, the city's own.

William Venn Gough designed the tower in red sandstone, dressed with cream-coloured Bath Stone to pick out the windows and the angles. It rises 105 feet from its plinth, with a spiral staircase climbing inside between two viewing balconies. The higher balcony stands roughly 334 feet above sea level, high enough that Bristol's spires, the gorge, and on clear days the hills of Wales lie open below. Diagonal buttresses support the shaft. Flying buttresses lift its octagonal spirelet. At the very top, a carved winged figure represents Commerce, the deity Bristol most genuinely worshipped. Love and Waite of Bristol built it. A lift was planned and never installed, which is why every visitor still climbs the stairs. The completed tower was opened by the same Marquess who had laid its first stone, on 6 September 1898.

Three commemorative tablets sit at the base. One records the foundation. One credits the executive committee, including the publisher James Arrowsmith. The third is the most unexpected: a Bristol Peace Society plaque, expressing 'the earnest hope that peace and friendship may ever continue between the kindred peoples of this country and America,' followed by the angels' words from Luke 2:14. In 1897 the United States and Britain were still close enough for the relationship to feel personal, and Bristolians knew their tower stood for the moment when those two countries' shared modern history began. The dedication plaque names not just Cabot but his three sons Lewis, Sebastian, and Sanctus, all named in Henry VII's letters patent of 1496 alongside their father.

By the early 2000s the tower had a problem. The Victorian reinforcing steel inside the stonework had corroded, pushing the masonry apart from within. Cracks ran through the spire. In 2007 the public was locked out for safety. It stayed closed for four years and £420,000 of repairs while specialists replaced the corroded steel with stainless rods and stitched the stonework back together. The tower reopened on 16 August 2011. Three years later, in 2014, a small light at the top was switched back on, flashing 'Cabot Tower, Brandon Hill, Bristol' in Morse code. The light had originally been installed for decades before going dark in 2001 when its mechanism failed. Now it flashes again most evenings, dot-dash, dot-dash, a Victorian signal carrying a Victorian message from a Victorian monument, still reciting its own name to anyone who cares to read it.

Cabot Tower stands at 51.4540°N, 2.6068°W on the summit of Brandon Hill, the highest point in central Bristol. From the air the tower is unmistakable: a thin tapering shaft of red and cream stone rising from green parkland between Clifton's terraces to the west and the city centre to the east. The Floating Harbour curves below to the south. Recommended viewing altitude 2,000-3,500 feet. Bristol Airport (EGGD/BRS) is 7 nautical miles south. The tower lies less than a mile northeast of Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge and is a useful visual landmark for orienting yourself over the city.