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Bristol City Museum : M Shed
Prince’s Wharf Architectural Project in southwest England design by LAB Architecture Studio, UK
page updated 31 Jul 2016 ; 16 Jun 2011
M Shed – Bristol City Museum
BRISTOL’S £27 MILLION CITY MUSEUM OPENS
Design: LAB Architecture Studio
In one of the most innovative and ambitious museum developments of the last decade, M Shed, Bristol’s new city history museum, will open to the public on Friday 17 June 2011.
M Shed Bristol:
images Courtesy of Richard Bryant/Arcaidimages.com
The museum will be housed in the landmark 1950s transit sheds at Prince’s Wharf on the historic waterfront in the heart of the city. Located less than half a mile away from the award-winning SS Great Britain and opposite the Arnolfini Gallery and Watershed Media Centre, it will be at the hub of a vibrant cultural quarter of Bristol. The whole site – the sheds and their quayside – is one of the last remaining complete 20th century docksides in the UK.
Wallace and Gromit as AnI‐Pesto in The Curse of the Were‐Rabbit, 2005:
image Courtesy of Dreamworks
The museum will include 3,000 exhibits, drawn from the world class collection of the city, telling the many thousands of stories of the people of Bristol, which have been discovered through working with experts and communities across the city, a process that will continue for the life of the museum.
M Shed, the building which gives the museum its name, has been sympathetically restored, with the aim of preserving its historic character, while also transforming it into a 21st century museum. The work has been carried out by LAB Architecture Studio, perhaps most famous for the design of Melbourne’s Federation Square.
The new museum includes three permanent galleries and a temporary exhibition space, a new glazed rooftop extension with spectacular panoramic views across the harbour, workshops, a functioning train shed, a learning suite, and café, book and gift shop. Entrance to the museum will be free.
M Shed Bristol:
images Courtesy of Richard Bryant/Arcaidimages.com
Among the unique displays will be:
• Models and props for Wallace and Gromit, Curse of the Were Rabbit, donated by animator Nick Park, from Bristol based Aardman Animations. Wallace and Gromit have not only established worldwide fame, but have now been officially adopted as Bristolians.
• The original spray painted pink Technics record deck used by members of Bristol band Massive Attack to record their tracks in the 1980s when they were still part of the loose group of musicians called the Wild Bunch.
• A 10 metre long mural of a fantasy landscape of Bristol specially commissioned for M Shed from local graffiti artists Andy Council and Luke Palmer (Acerone). Bristol’s rich history in graffiti including celebrated artist Banksy is illustrated in the museum.
• Documents of the notorious Bristol Bus Boycott, led by a group of Bristol’s blackworkers, which hit the world’s headlines in 1963 and whose cause was championed by Tony Benn. The dispute was eventually to lead to the end of racial discrimination in Britain.
• Abolition campaign supporters issued tokens used as small change to gain support for the Abolition movement. Bristol played a major role in the transatlantic slave trade and M Shed tells many stories about those lived it, who profited and ran the slave trade in the city, those who were enslaved and those who challenged the industry.
• Restored, full scale and fully functioning dockside cranes, steam locomotives and harbour boats including the 150 year old Mayflower, illustrating the important industrial past of the area, which lasted until as late the 1970s in Bristol. Access to the public to try out these historic working exhibits will be available regularly throughout the year.
M Shed will also host live events including debates and discussions around the issues raised in the museum. It will also include hands-on workshops with volunteers from Bristol’s dock side community, who will share their skills with visitors as part of a living archive for the Museum.
The £27 million development of M Shed has been funded by Bristol City Council with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the DCMS and a range of individuals, companies and trusts.
Julie Finch, Head of Bristol Museums and Archives, said: “M Shed will be a world class museum. It builds on Bristol’s great heritage to brings experts and the community together in the joint endeavour of building a new narrative for the city. I hope M Shed will become a destination for the understanding and celebration of the history of Bristol and its people and a vibrant learning resource for the future, open to all.”
M Shed Bristol – Visitor Information
Address: M Shed, Wapping Rd, Bristol, Avon BS1
Opening: Friday 17 June 2011
Website: www.mshed.org
Admission: free
Opening hours: Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday from 10am ‐ 5pm, and on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays from 10am ‐ 6pm.
M Shed Bristol – Background Information
Julie Finch is head of Museums and Archives in Bristol. She joined Bristol’s Museum Galleries and Archives Service in 2006, from her previous posts as Director of the National Football Museum and before that Head of Salford Heritage Services. Her interests lie in providing access to resources for the public in creative and exciting ways and unlocking policy in order to establish the best possible outcome for the public. Connecting people with their history, contemporary society, their own identity and the identity of others is key to this.
Bristol City’s Museums Galleries and Archives and their collections are a nationally recognised resource. In addition to M Shed, which replaces the former Industrial Museum, they include: the City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol’s premier museum including important collections of minerals and fossils, natural history, eastern art, world wildlife, Egyptology, archaeology and seven galleries of fine and applied art; Blaise Castle House Museum, a 19th century mansion set in 400 acres of parkland and home to the city’s social history collection; the Georgian House Museum, an exquisite example of an 18th century townhouse, restored and decorated in the style of the period; the Red Lodge Museum, which houses one of the city’s greatest treasures, the Great Oak Room, considered to be one of the finest Elizabethan rooms in the West Country; Kingsweston Roman Villa, the partial remains of a Roman villa; and the City Record Office, housed in a large converted tobacco warehouse at the entrance to the city’s famous Floating Harbour and giving access to over 800 years of Bristol’s historic archives.
5 May 2011
Bristol City Museum
BRISTOL’S £27 MILLION CITY MUSEUM OPENS
M Shed, Bristol’s new city history museum, is due to open to the public on 17 June 2011.
M Shed Bristol:
image courtesy of James Barke
M Shed will also host many live events including debates and discussions around the issues raised in the museum. It will also include hands-on workshops with volunteers from Bristol’s dock side community, who will share their skills with visitors as part of a living archive for the Museum.
M Shed, Wapping Road, Bristol, Avon BS1
Opening Friday 17 Jun 2011 www.mshed.org
Admission free
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday from 10am – 5pm, and on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays from 10am – 6pm
Bristol City Museum image / information from Capita Symonds
Location: M Shed, Wapping Rd, Bristol, Avon BS1, UK
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Bristol City Museum – Background on the M Shed
Julie Finch is head of Museums and Archives in Bristol. She joined Bristol’s Museum Galleries and Archives Service in 2006, from her previous posts as Director of the National Football Museum and before that Head of Salford Heritage Services.
Her interests lie in providing access to resources for the public in creative and exciting ways and unlocking policy in order to establish the best possible outcome for the public. Connecting people with their history, contemporary society, their own identity and the identity of others is key to this.
Museum of Bristol – project
2005-
Lab Architecture Studio
£15m approx. cost – 2004 competition incl. Alsop Design, David Chipperfield, Allies & Morrison, Wilkinson Eyre
Bristol City FC Stadium Building
Capita Symonds
image from architect
Bristol City Stadium
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