M Shed Museum, Bristol

M Shed Museum, Bristol (must see)

M Shed is a museum located on Prince's Wharf in Bristol, housed in a dockside transit shed that was formerly occupied by Bristol Industrial Museum. The museum is named after the way the port identified each of its sheds. The exhibits at M Shed showcase 3,000 artifacts and stories of Bristol's history, including its role in the slave trade, as well as items related to transport, people, and the arts. Admission to the museum is free, and it opened in June 2011. In its first year, it had 700,000 visitors.

The museum also has a collection of historic vessels moored in front of it, including a fireboat, two tugboats, and a replica caravel. Visitors can also see four electrically powered cargo cranes on the quayside, three of which are operational. The museum contains a shop, a learning space, and a cafe.

M Shed has three main galleries, each showcasing a different aspect of Bristol's history. There are also newspaper clippings, political episodes, and a temporary gallery displaying changing exhibitions throughout the year.

In June 2021, the statue of slave trader Edward Colston, which was toppled during the George Floyd protests in 2020, went on display at M Shed to spark a city-wide conversation about its future. The museum also hosted an exhibition of Nick Park's Wallace and Gromit models and a mural painted by local artists Andy Council and Luke Palmer.

Want to visit this sight? Check out these Self-Guided Walking Tours in Bristol. Alternatively, you can download the mobile app "GPSmyCity: Walks in 1K+ Cities" from Apple App Store or Google Play Store. The app turns your mobile device to a personal tour guide and it works offline, so no data plan is needed when traveling abroad.

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M Shed Museum on Map

Sight Name: M Shed Museum
Sight Location: Bristol, England (See walking tours in Bristol)
Sight Type: Museum/Gallery

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