To the west are Bishopsworth and Hartcliffe, to the north Bedminster and Windmill Hill and to the south Whitchurch Park and Hengrove.

Knowle West remained rural in character until the 1930s, when a council estate was developed to provide homes for people displaced by slum clearance in the centre of the city.

Former residents include the musician Tricky, the England rugby player Ellis Genge, the boxer Dixie Brown and late 1950s rock and roll band The Eagles.

[3] There is evidence of late Iron Age and Roman settlement at Inns Court and Filwood Park, which lie within Knowle West.

[5] The survey shows Knowle as being under the lordship of Eadnoth the Constable who had 30 holdings in Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire before the Norman conquest.

[8] In Anglo-Saxon times Filwood Chase was part of the royal hunting estate known as Kingswood Forest, which encompassed a large area around Bristol.

[4] A new wave of development commenced in the 1960s at Inns Court, occasioned by the need for more homes following the further clearance of inner city areas which had been devastated by the Bristol Blitz.

"[4] The layout of housing built around short cul-de-sacs "has resulted in a physical environment that contributes to isolation rather than facilitating community interaction", according to a 2009 city council report on the area.

[18] Modern Knowle West has an area of approximately 1.26 square miles (3.3 km2), located on a plateau about 215 feet (66 m) above sea level,[note 1] south of the centre of Bristol,[19] between the districts of Knowle on the east, Whitchurch Park and Hengrove to the south, Hartcliffe and Bishopsworth to the west and Bedminster and Windmill Hill to the north.

[20] There is steeply sloping land to the north and west, which together with Pigeonhouse Brook, a tributary of the River Malago, creates a natural barrier to adjacent areas.

[22] The boxer Dixie Brown lived in Knowle West from the 1930s until the 1950s and was a regular at the Venture Inn, a public house in Melvin Square.

[29] Ongoing adult education is provided at the Park Centre and nearby Bedminster and Marksbury Road libraries.

[52] Knowle West is served by four council supported bus services, which connect the area to Totterdown, Broadmead, Hotwells, Bedminster and Brislington.

[55] Journey times from Knowle West to the city centre have been identified as hampering employment opportunities for residents and proposals for a Greater Bristol Bus Network and a rapid transit scheme have noted the need to provide better connectivity for the area.

[58] Proposed extensions to the A4174 ring road, which would pass along the southern part of Knowle West, have been claimed to reduce delays across the Greater Bristol area by 6%, and lead to a 9% increase in public transport use.

The Bristol City Council Baseline Briefing notes that employment opportunities for those without a car are limited[60] There is a retail park on the former Imperial Tobacco factory site in Hartcliffe, which has plans for further development.

[61] In addition, South Bristol Business Park was built on the former Filwood playing fields in the early 21st century.

"[67] Shawnie, a 2006 novel by social worker Ed Trewavas, written from the point of view of a 13-year-old girl living in Knowle West, documents some of the deprivation he encountered in his work.

One of the novel's characters "describes Knowle West ... as a 'shit hole' populated by 'yokels, cider-heads, junkies, dole-scammers, slappers and failed wide boys, all interbreeding and nicking their cruddy possessions off of each other in some giant, dismal rota.

'"[68] The Guardian in 2007 reported "Fed up with the media's view of their community as a hub for drug use, crime and antisocial behaviour, the residents of one of Britain's most notorious housing estates decided to fight back."

[70] A 2007 report for the Community Foundation Network, looking at the work of voluntary sector groups, found that three-quarters of the super output areas in Filwood ward are amongst the 10% most deprived in England.

[73] Prior to Brexit in 2020, Filwood was represented in the European Parliament by the six MEPs of the South West England constituency.