M Shed is a museum in Bristol, 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 perm ...

in a dockside

transit shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built ...

formerly occupied by

Bristol Industrial Museum The Bristol Industrial Museum was a museum in Bristol, England, located on Prince's Wharf beside the Floating Harbour and which closed in 2006. On display were items from Bristol's industrial past – including aviation, car and bus manufact ...

. 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 Bristol 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 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 firefighting equipme ...

(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, su ...

s (''

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

'', 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 Giovanni Caboto in 1497. The museum contains a shop, learning space and cafe.

History

On the quayside outside the museum are four electrically powered cargo

cranes Crane or cranes may refer to: Common meanings * Crane (bird), a large, long-necked bird * Crane (machine), industrial machinery for lifting ** Crane (rail), a crane suited for use on railroads People and fictional characters * Crane (surname ...

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 the

Bristol Harbour Festival The Bristol Harbour Festival is a festival held annually in the English city of Bristol, and which the celebrates the city's maritime heritage and the importance of Bristol's docks and harbour. Most of the activities, including live music, street ...

. The Bristol Industrial Museum closed in 2006 and was transformed into the M Shed. The conversion was designed by

Lab Architecture Studio LAB Architecture Studio was a firm of architects and urban designers based in Melbourne, Australia with international offices in London and Shanghai. Directors Peter Davidson after graduating from Bachelor of Architecture in 1980 from the NSW Ins ...

. 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 The Bristol Harbour Railway (known originally as the Harbour Railway) was a standard-gauge industrial railway that served the wharves and docks of Bristol, England. The line, which had a network of approximately of track, connected the Floatin ...

offers train rides along the quayside on selected weekends, using restored steam locomotives and rolling stock. Moored in front of the new museum is the collection of historic vessels, which included the 1934 fireboat ''

Pyronaut ''Pyronaut'' (originally ''Bristol Phoenix II'') is a specialised form of fireboat known as a fire-float. It was built in 1934 by Charles Hill & Sons Ltd., Albion Dock Bristol, Yard No. 208. Registered number 333833. She is owned by Bristol Mu ...

'' 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, slave trader, philanthropist, and Tory Member of Parliament. Colston followed his father in the family business becoming a sea merchant, initially trading in wine, ...

, toppled in the aftermath of the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internat ...

in 2020, went on display at M Shed to "start a city-wide conversation about its future". The campaign group

Save Our Statues Save, SAVE, or Saved may refer to: Places *Save (Garonne), a river in southern France *Save River (Africa), a river in Zimbabwe and Mozambique * Sava, a river in Eastern Europe also known as Save *Savè, Benin, a commune and city * Save, Govur ...

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 Bristol, and containing a mixture of media. Among the 3,000 exhibits of material on display are models of Nick Park's Oscar-winning animated duo

Wallace and Gromit ''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British stop-motion comedy franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series ce ...

, a 10m 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 by Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws, Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. The debut Massive Attack album '' Blue Lines'' was releas ...

, 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 ...

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, UK. Dinosaurs combined with architecture are a common theme of his designs.

and

Luke Palmer People *Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name) * Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known ...

. 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. ''Aviation'', the museum also contains: a

Mignet HM.14 The Mignet HM.14 ''Flying Flea'' (''Pou du Ciel'' literally "Louse of the Sky" in French) is a single-seat light aircraft first flown in 1933, designed for amateur construction. It was the first of a family of aircraft collectively known as Flyi ...

, a piece of the

Bristol Brabazon The Bristol Type 167 Brabazon was a large British piston-engined propeller-driven airliner designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company to fly transatlantic routes between the UK and the United States. The type was named ''Brabazon'' after the ...

, a one-third scale model of a

Rolls-Royce Pegasus The Rolls-Royce Pegasus, formerly the Bristol Siddeley 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 ...

engine, a

Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 The Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 was an Anglo-French turbojet with reheat (afterburners), which powered the supersonic airliner Concorde. It was initially a joint project between Bristol Siddeley Engines Limited (BSEL) and Snecma, derive ...

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 dro ...

Mk.255 engine.

References

External links

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{{Use dmy dates, date=September 2013 Bristol Harbourside Grade II listed buildings in Bristol Museums in Bristol Bristol Industrial Museum Museums established in 2011 2011 establishments in England