In 1849 he was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and on 2 August 1849 he received the licence of the Society of Apothecaries.

He was elected assistant physician in 1854, and during the next few years he held several teaching posts, being appointed lecturer on botany in 1859, on materia medica in 1860, on general anatomy and physiology in 1865, on pathology in 1870.

He was also medical officer of health for Camberwell (1856–95), physician to the Commercial Union Assurance Company, and to Westminster School.

[1] A three-quarter-length portrait by his daughter Beatrice M. Bristowe hung in the committee room at St Thomas' Hospital.

The bulk of the subscriptions collected on his retirement from St Thomas' Hospital in 1892 was used to found a medal to be awarded for proficiency in the science of pathology.

He communicated to the public health department of the privy council a series of reports:[1] Many of the microscopical drawings to be found in his books were his own.

[1] Bristowe married, on 9 October 1856, Miriam Isabelle, eldest surviving daughter of Joseph P. Stearns of Dulwich.