M Shed — Attraction in Bristol

Wonderful museum about the history of Bristol. We visited to see the Rebel Curators' GRIOT interventions in the Bristol People gallery, in between checking out of our hotel and catching the train home. The team member we spoke to at the reception desk was extremely helpful, answering our questions and advising on what else to see as well as recommending the café for our lunch. Bristol People is a well thought out gallery, combining traditional displays about local history with a newer display about Bristol's radical history, including the Bristol Bus Boycott and the Colston statue. The GRIOT interventions form part of the display about Bristol's part in the enslavement of African people and use graphics to point out content that is offensive and harmful for people of Black African and Caribbean heritage and to suggest different ways of presenting the story of the slave trade. It's a really powerful display and I hope it influences future redisplay of this part of the gallery, or becomes more than a time limited intervention. We didn't have time to explore the Bristol Places gallery, bit we will definitely make a return visit next time...

This was a fascinating museum to visit, delving into the cultural history of Bristol! Exhibits of items the working class had like masks and First Aid kits are on display, alongside Just Stop Oil and other reasons protests were held. The very statue of Edward Colston that was toppled remains here and his story is told as well as the reasons behind the toppling, giving a glimpse to both sides of the situation! Manufacturing is a focus from the wooden models of ships and clothing or textile companies with their logos shown, entertainment is dived into as cameras are kept here and the adaptation info about Wallace & Gromit in the city. Old food items can be seen as they would have in shop windows with the opportunity to even create a fake basket of one's groceries, development of different neighbourhoods through decades is touched on there's a model of Clifton handmade too. Multi coloured old buses are a grand sight outside under the cargo cranes live in operation, the passenger usage of the Harbour Railway then how it became only for freight is written out and it was marvellous to be able to walk up to the site seeing former...

The ground floor exhibition area seems a little random and unfocussed. I found the signage/ labelling intrusive as it was often on the large side and mounted on the glass cases obscuring the articles in the case. The star of the show is a double decker Bristol bus, which was very popular with children who no doubt have never seen one of these once familiar leviathans of the road. No wait, they will have as we still have double deckers on our streets.

Things get a little more focussed as you ascend through the three floors. On the second floor was an exhibition of how cantankerous and discontent Bristolians can be. Displays outlining various uprisings, riots, protests and grumblings were prevalent.

The third floor was, at the time of visiting, was given over to a history of Bristol’s music scene, which was well put together, cohesive, informative, and interesting. Perhaps they should let third floor designer have a rethink of the...