M Shed is a museum in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, England, located on Prince's Wharf beside the

Floating Harbour Bristol Harbour is the harbour in the city of Bristol, England. The harbour covers an area of . It is the former natural tidal river Avon through the city but was made into its current form in 1809 when the tide was prevented from going out p ...

in a dockside

transit shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before, after, and during loading to and unloading from a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, althou ...

formerly occupied by Bristol Industrial Museum. The museum's name is derived from the way that the port identified each of its sheds. M Shed is home to displays of 3,000 artefacts and stories, showing Bristol's role in the slave trade and items on transport, people, and the arts. Admission is free. The museum opened in June 2011, with exhibits exploring life and work in the city. In its first year, 700,000 people visited the new museum. Normally moored in front of the museum is a collection of historic vessels, which include a 1934

fireboat A fireboat or Fire-float Pyronaut, fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with ...

(the Fire-float ''Pyronaut''), and two

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

s (''

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English sailing ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, reac ...

'', the world's oldest surviving steam tug, and '' John King'', a 1935 diesel tug) and the replica caravel ''The Matthew'', the ship that crossed the Atlantic with

John Cabot John Cabot ( ; 1450 – 1499) was an Italians, Italian navigator and exploration, explorer. His 1497 voyage to the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England, Henry VII, King of England is the earliest known Europe ...

in 1497. The museum contains a shop, learning space and café.

History

On the quayside outside the museum are four electrically powered cargo cranes built in 1951 by Stothert & Pitt. Three of these cranes are operational and operate some weekends. A short distance to the west on Wapping Wharf is a much older crane, the sole surviving operational example of a Fairbairn steam crane. Built in 1878, also by Stothert & Pitt, it was in regular use until 1973, loading and unloading ships and railway wagons with loads up to 35 tons. It has been restored and is in working order, operating on some bank holidays and during the Bristol Harbour Festival. The Bristol Industrial Museum closed in 2006 and was transformed into the M Shed. The conversion was designed by Lab Architecture Studio. It was expected to cost £27 million including a grant of £11.3 million from the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. Another £1.39 million of HLF funding was announced in April 2011. It reopened in June 2011. In its first year, 700,000 people visited the new museum. Bristol Harbour Railway offers train rides along the quayside on selected weekends, using restored steam locomotives and rolling stock. Moored in front of the museum is the collection of historic vessels, which include the 1934 fireboat '' Pyronaut'' and two tugs: ''John King'' built as a diesel tug in 1935, and ''

'', the world's oldest surviving steam tug, built in 1861. In June 2021, the defaced statue of slave trader

Edward Colston Edward Colston (2 November 1636 – 11 October 1721) was an English merchant, Atlantic slave trade, slave trader, philanthropy, philanthropist and Tories (British political party), Tory Member of Parliament. Colston followed his father in th ...

, toppled in the aftermath of the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...

in 2020, went on display at M Shed to "start a city-wide conversation about its future". The campaign group Save Our Statues attempted to prevent people from visiting the exhibition by reserving all the tickets. It was unclear if the protest had any effect on visitor numbers.

Galleries

There are three main galleries: Bristol Places, Bristol People and Bristol Life, each telling a story of the city, and containing a mixture of media. Among the 3,000 exhibits of material on display are models of

Nick Park Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is an English filmmaker and animator who created '' Wallace & Gromit'', '' Creature Comforts'', '' Chicken Run'', '' Shaun the Sheep'', and '' Early Man''. Park has been nominated for an Academy ...

's Oscar-winning animated duo

Wallace and Gromit ''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British claymation comedy media franchise, franchise created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations. The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric, cheese-loving bachelor inventor, and Gromit, his ...

, a long mural by local graffiti artists, and pink spray painted record decks (1980) courtesy of

Massive Attack Massive Attack are an English trip hop collective formed in 1988 in Bristol, England, by Robert Del Naja, Robert "3D" Del Naja, Daddy G, Grant "Daddy G" Marshall, Tricky (musician), Adrian "Tricky" Thaws and Andrew Vowles, Andrew "Mushroom" ...

, the trip hop trio from Bristol. The band's experimental sound would play a big part in the formation of the city's club scene in the 1980s and 1990s. On display are newspaper clippings from the city's landmark political episodes, including a victory for the fight against racial prejudice in 1963 when a group of West Indian workers led a bus boycott after the

Bristol Omnibus Company The Bristol Omnibus Company was a dominant bus operator in Bristol, and was one of the oldest bus companies in the United Kingdom. It ran buses over a wide area of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and neighbouring counties. History Early ...

refused to recruit black workers. A centrepiece of the galleries is a huge mural entitled ''Window on Bristol'', painted by local artists

Andy Council Andy Council is an illustrator and graffiti artist from Bristol, Bristol, UK. Dinosaurs combined with architecture are a common theme of his designs.

and

Luke Palmer Luke may refer to: People and fictional characters * Luke (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Luke (surname), including a list of people with the name * Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Lu ...

. It depicts Bristol's buildings in the form of a huge graffiti-esque dinosaur.James Lachn
''M Shed, Bristol, review''
The Telegraph, 21 June 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2011. There is also a temporary gallery displaying changing exhibitions throughout the year. The museum also contains aviation exhibits, including a Mignet HM.14, a piece of the

Bristol Brabazon The Bristol Type 167 Brabazon was a large British piston engine, piston-engined Propeller (aircraft), propeller-driven airliner designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company to fly Transatlantic flight, transatlantic routes between the UK and the ...

, a one-third scale model of a

Rolls-Royce Pegasus The Rolls-Royce Pegasus is a British turbofan engine originally designed by Bristol Siddeley. It was manufactured by Rolls-Royce plc. The engine is not only able to power a jet aircraft forward, but also to direct thrust downwards via Thrust ve ...

engine, a

Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 The Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 was an France–United Kingdom relations, Anglo-French turbojet with reheat, which powered the Supersonic transport, supersonic airliner Concorde. It was initially a joint project between Bristol Siddeley, Br ...

engine and a

Bristol Proteus The Bristol Proteus was the Bristol Engine Company's first mass-produced gas turbine engine design, a turboprop that delivered just over 4,000 hp (3,000 kW). The Proteus was a reverse-flow gas turbine. Because the second turbine drov ...

Mk.255 engine.

References

External links

* {{Use dmy dates, date=September 2024 City museums Bristol Harbourside Grade II listed buildings in Bristol Museums in Bristol Bristol Industrial Museum Museums established in 2011 2011 establishments in England