M Shed facts for kids
.jpg) |
|
| Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). | |
| Established | 2011 |
|---|---|
| Location | Princes Wharf, Wapping Road, Bristol BS1 4RN, England, United Kingdom |
| Visitors | 769,474 (2018/19) |
M Shed is a cool museum in Bristol, England. It's located right by the water at Prince's Wharf, next to the Floating Harbour. The building used to be a big storage shed for the docks. Its name, M Shed, comes from how the port used to label its storage buildings.
Inside, you'll find over 3,000 amazing items and stories about Bristol. It covers everything from how people lived and worked, to the city's history, and even its cool art and music scene. The best part? It's free to get in!
The museum first opened in June 2011. In its first year, about 700,000 people came to visit.
Right outside the museum, you can usually see a collection of old ships. These include the Pyronaut, a fireboat from 1934. There are also two tugboats: the Mayflower, which is the oldest steam tugboat still around, and the John King, a diesel tug from 1935. You might also spot a replica of The Matthew, the ship that John Cabot sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in 1497.
The museum also has a shop, a place for learning, and a café.
Contents
Discovering Bristol's Past
The Museum's Story
The M Shed building used to be the Bristol Industrial Museum. It closed in 2006 to be completely changed into the M Shed we see today. This big project cost a lot of money, with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The new museum finally opened its doors in June 2011.
Outside the museum, on the quayside, you can see four large electric cranes. These were built in 1951. Three of them still work and are sometimes used on weekends! A little further away, there's an even older crane called the Fairbairn steam crane. It was built in 1878 and could lift very heavy loads. It has been fixed up and also works on special days like the Bristol Harbour Festival.
Train Rides by the Harbour
The Bristol Harbour Railway offers fun train rides along the quayside on some weekends. They use old steam trains and carriages that have been restored. It's a great way to see the harbour!
The Colston Statue Display
In June 2021, a statue of a slave trader named Edward Colston was put on display at M Shed. This statue had been pulled down during protests in 2020. The museum put it there to help people in Bristol talk about the city's history and what should happen to the statue next.
Exploring the Galleries
M Shed has three main galleries: Bristol Places, Bristol People, and Bristol Life. Each one tells a different part of the city's story.
Bristol's Creative Side
You'll find all sorts of cool things on display. There are models of Nick Park's famous characters, Wallace and Gromit, who are from Bristol! There's also a huge 10-meter-long painting by local graffiti artists. You can even see pink spray-painted record decks from the 1980s, which belonged to the famous Bristol band Massive Attack. Their unique music helped create Bristol's club scene back then.
Important Moments in History
The museum also shows newspaper clippings from important times in Bristol's history. One display tells the story of the Bristol Bus Boycott in 1963. This was when a group of West Indian workers protested because a bus company refused to hire black workers. Their actions helped fight against unfair treatment.
Amazing Artworks
A really cool part of the galleries is a giant painting called Window on Bristol. It was painted by local artists Andy Council and Luke Palmer. It shows Bristol's buildings in a unique way, shaped like a huge graffiti dinosaur!
There's also a special gallery that changes its exhibitions throughout the year, so there's always something new to see.
Aviation Exhibits
The museum also has items related to airplanes and flying. You can see parts of old aircraft engines, like a Rolls-Royce Pegasus engine model and a Bristol Proteus engine. There's even a piece of the Bristol Brabazon, which was a very large airplane.
