Downend is a suburb of Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 in South Gloucestershire

South Gloucestershire

South Gloucestershire is a unitary district in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, in South West England.-History:The district was created in 1996, when the county of Avon was abolished, by the merger of former area of the districts of Kingswood and Northavon...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is located to the North East of Bristol and bordered by the Bristol City suburb of Fishponds

Fishponds, Bristol

Fishponds is an outer urban area in the north-east of the English city of Bristol. It is approximately from the City centre. It has two large Victorian era parks; Eastville Park and Vassell's Park and also known locally as Oldbury Court. The River Frome runs through both parks, with the Frome...

 to its south west and the South Gloucestershire suburbs of Staple Hill to the south, Frenchay to the west and Mangotsfield

Mangotsfield

Mangotsfield is a village in South Gloucestershire, England, situated north of the Bristol suburb of Kingswood, bounded to the north by the M4 motorway and to the east by the Emersons Green housing estate....

 to the East. You can find the town on Google Earth with the coordinates N 51 29 16 W 2 30 15.

The outward expansion of Downend dating from the 1980s has been contained by the presence of the M4 motorway

M4 motorway

The M4 motorway links London with South Wales. It is part of the unsigned European route E30. Other major places directly accessible from M4 junctions are Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea...

 which swings around the northern side of Bristol.