List of museums in Bristol facts for kids
Bristol is a cool city in England that has lots of interesting museums! A museum is a special place where people collect and take care of old or important things. These things can be about art, science, history, or even how people lived a long time ago. Museums then show these collections to everyone who wants to learn and explore.
Many of Bristol's museums are in buildings that are called "listed buildings." This means they are very old and important, so they are protected by law to make sure they don't get damaged or changed too much. There are different levels of protection, like Grade I for super important buildings, and Grade II for nationally important ones.
Most of Bristol's museums are close to the Bristol Harbour, which is the city's old port. This means they often tell stories about Bristol's history with ships, trade, and the sea. Some museums are also in old houses, managed by the city council or special heritage groups.
Contents
- Awesome Museums to Explore
- Aerospace Bristol
- Arnolfini
- Ashton Court
- At-Bristol
- Blaise Castle House Museum
- Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery
- Clifton Observatory Museum
- Create Centre
- Müller House Museum
- Georgian House
- Glenside Hospital Museum
- Kings Weston Roman Villa
- M Shed
- New Room
- Red Lodge Museum
- Royal West of England Academy
- SS Great Britain
- Museums That Are Now Closed
- Images for kids
Awesome Museums to Explore
Bristol has many fantastic museums. Here's a look at some of them:
Aerospace Bristol
Aerospace Bristol is a museum all about planes and space! It's located at Filton Airfield, which has a long history of aircraft building. The most famous exhibit here is Concorde Alpha Foxtrot. This was the very last Concorde ever built and the last one to fly. You can walk through it and imagine what it was like to travel at supersonic speeds! The museum also has other cool planes, helicopters, engines, and even space technology. It tells the story of over 100 years of aviation, from World War planes to space travel.
Arnolfini
The Arnolfini is a modern art gallery and arts centre right by Bristol Harbour. It shows exciting contemporary art exhibitions, which means art made by artists today. You can also see live performances like music, dance, and poetry readings. It's a great place to discover new artists and ideas. The building itself is an old tea warehouse from the 1800s, which is now a protected listed building.
Ashton Court
Ashton Court is a huge old mansion house with a big estate. It's just west of Bristol. The house started being built in the 1400s and was made bigger over many years. It used to belong to the Smyth family. After the last family member died, the city took over the estate. Today, the mansion is used for events like conferences and weddings. It's a beautiful place to visit, with lots of space to explore outside.
At-Bristol
At-Bristol is a fun science and technology centre. It's designed for you to explore and learn by doing! The main part, called 'Explore', has exhibits about how things work, like mechanics, sound, light, and even the human brain. It's a very hands-on place where you can experiment and discover scientific principles. The building used to be an old railway goods shed, built in 1906.
Blaise Castle House Museum
Blaise Castle House Museum is an 18th-century mansion house. It's so famous that it was even mentioned in a book by Jane Austen! The museum is part of the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. Inside, you can see old household items, toys, and even period costumes. There's also a recreated Victorian schoolroom, which shows what school was like a long time ago.
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery
The Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery is a large museum run by the city council. It's free to enter! This museum has many different sections. You can learn about natural history, which includes animals and plants. There are also sections on archaeology, showing ancient objects from Bristol and around the world. The art gallery has paintings from different time periods, including some by famous artists. The building itself is very grand and old, built in an Edwardian style.
Clifton Observatory Museum
The Clifton Observatory Museum is located in a tower on Clifton Down. This building was originally a windmill back in 1766. Later, in 1828, it was turned into an observatory. Inside, you can still find a working Camera Obscura. This is a special device that uses mirrors and lenses to project a live, moving image of the outside world onto a screen inside a dark room. It's one of the only working ones in the country! The museum also tells the story of the site's past and the artists who used the observatory to paint the Bristol landscape.
Create Centre
The Create Centre is all about being eco-friendly and sustainable. It has an energy-saving eco-house and is home to groups that work on protecting the environment. The centre is located in an old warehouse called the B Bond Warehouse, which was built in 1908. This building is special because it was one of the first in Britain to use a new type of strong concrete.
Müller House Museum
The Müller House Museum tells the story of George Müller. He was a Christian evangelist who ran orphanages. The museum is located at the headquarters of the George Müller Charitable Trust. You can learn about his life and work, and they even keep records of all the children who lived in his orphanages.
Georgian House
The Georgian House is a beautifully preserved house from the late 1700s. It shows what a typical wealthy family's home looked like back then. It's now a branch of the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. The house belonged to a sugar merchant named John Pinney. You can see some of the original furniture and even a rare cold water plunge bath! It was also home to Pinney's slave, Pero, and a bridge in Bristol Harbour is named after him.
Glenside Hospital Museum
The Glenside Hospital Museum is located in an old chapel from 1861. This museum tells the story of Glenside Psychiatric Hospital, which was once known as the Bristol Lunatic Asylum. It has many items from the hospital's past, including early machines used for treatments. You can also see drawings and paintings by an artist named Dennis Reed, who captured life at Glenside in the 1950s.
Kings Weston Roman Villa
Kings Weston Roman Villa is the site of an old Roman villa that was discovered in 1947. A Roman villa was like a large country house for wealthy Romans. Here, archaeologists found traces of decorated walls, mosaic floors, and even underfloor heating! This shows how advanced the Romans were. The things found at the site are now kept at the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery.
M Shed
M Shed is a modern museum that opened in 2011. It's located where the old Bristol Industrial Museum used to be, right on Bristol Harbour. This museum is also free to enter. It tells the story of Bristol's local history, transportation, and industries. You can learn about Bristol's people, life, and places. M Shed even has some working exhibits, like a train and a fire-boat, that you can sometimes ride!
New Room
The New Room was built in 1739 by John Wesley. It's the oldest Methodist chapel in the world. Besides being a place of worship, it was also used as a place to help poor people, with a dispensary and a schoolroom. The pews inside were even made from old ship timber! The building is very important historically and is a protected Grade I listed building. It now includes a visitor centre where you can learn more.
Red Lodge Museum
The Red Lodge Museum is another branch of the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. It's a beautiful old house built in 1580. It has been changed over the years, but it still shows what homes looked like in the Elizabethan and Georgian periods. The house has had many uses, including being the country's first girls' reform school. Outside, there's a lovely walled garden designed like an old Elizabethan knot garden, with plants that would have been grown in England by 1630.
Royal West of England Academy
The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is an art gallery. It was started by a group of Bristol artists in the 1800s. The building itself is very grand, built in 1857, and is a protected listed building. The RWA has a permanent collection of paintings by many different artists. It's a great place to see a wide range of art styles and learn about famous artists.
SS Great Britain
The SS Great Britain is an amazing old passenger steamship designed by the famous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. When it was launched in 1843, it was the biggest ship in the world! It was special because it was made of iron and used a screw propeller, which was very new at the time. The ship sailed across the Atlantic and later carried thousands of immigrants to Australia. After many years, it was brought back to Bristol in 1970 and is now a popular visitor attraction and museum ship in Bristol Harbour. You can explore the ship and learn all about its incredible history.
Museums That Are Now Closed
Some museums in Bristol have closed, but their stories are still part of the city's history.
Bristol Industrial Museum
The Bristol Industrial Museum used to be on Prince's Wharf, right by the harbour. It showed items from Bristol's industrial past, like things about aviation, car making, and printing. It also had exhibits about Bristol's maritime history. The museum closed in 2006, and the new M Shed museum was built on the same site, keeping the old building's look.
British Empire and Commonwealth Museum
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The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum explored the history of the British Empire and its impact around the world. It opened in 2002 in Bristol's historic old railway station, which was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The museum's collections were later moved to the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery and Bristol Archives in 2012. Now, these objects and documents are used in exhibitions and for research.
Images for kids
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The nose of Concorde Alpha Foxtrot at Aerospace Bristol.
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Arnolfini from across Bristol Harbour.
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Ashton Court Mansion.
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The Explore building at At-Bristol.
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Blaise Castle House.
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Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery.
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Clifton Suspension Bridge and the Observatory.
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The Create Centre.
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The Georgian House.
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Entrance to Glenside Hospital Museum.
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Kings Weston Roman Villa.
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The New Room chapel.
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The Red Lodge Museum.
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The Royal West of England Academy.
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The SS Great Britain.
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The former Bristol Industrial Museum.
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The old Bristol Temple Meads railway station, where the museum was located.
