Walk in Bristol
with Richie
5 Nearest Attraction
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
Official website:
https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/Bristol-museum-and-art-gallery/
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery is a large museum and art gallery in Bristol, England.
The museum is situated in Clifton, about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) from the city centre.
The museum includes sections on natural history as well as local, national and international archaeology. The art gallery contains works from all periods, including many by internationally famous artists, as well a collection of modern paintings of Bristol.
Free entry!
(220 feet - 1 min walking)
(0,3 mile - 8 min walking)
(0,2 mile - 4 min walking)
4. Brandon Hill and Cabot Tower
(0,3 mile - 7 min walking)
(0,2 mile - 5 min walking)
Click to the postcode to check the map .
Nearest Public Toilet
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
(Community Toilet Scheme)
Accessible
Richie's opinion :
" Many people believe that knowledge is power.
If this is the case, museums are repositories of gaining power, and the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery is undoubtedly one of them.
It is an extraordinary place where we can meet the important stages and achievements of human history.
If we learn from the past, we can more easily build a better future, which is why it is worth a visit."
About the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm.
You don’t need to book to visit Bristol Museum & Art Gallery unless you are in a group of 10 or more people, just turn up on the day.
Entry is free – but donations are always welcome!
All schools and groups of 10 or more need to book in advance through their Learning team, so contact with them for further information about making your booking.
Do remember to bring a copy of your booking confirmation with you when you come.
You can pre-book tickets for their exhibitions – see what’s on for details.
Access
Please find a summary of facilities at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery. For a comprehensive access guide to the museum, visit the AccessAble website.
Level entry through electronic doors (to the left of the main entrance)
A platform lift into the museum from the main entrance
A passenger lift to all public areas except Sea Dragons, with spoken floor announcements and tactile buttons
Lift access to the basement area for pre-booked tours
Two adult-sized wheelchairs for loan
Induction loop at the Welcome Desk
Staff on all floors
A wheelchair accessible toilet
Assistance dogs welcome
Facilities
Come and explore our amazing collections, displays and world-class exhibitions and events.
Here’s some more information you might need to plan your visit.
You’ll find:
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A café
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Lockers suitable for small to medium bags – £1 per use
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Toilets
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A baby change and baby feeding room
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A picnic room – available during weekends and school holidays
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A buggy park
Child visits
There’s certainly a lot to do here for younger visitors – you can find out more in the families section or by having a look at what’s on. Children under the age of 12 will need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian aged 16 or over.
Café & Shop
The cafe is located on the ground floor and offers a delicious range of fresh, Fairtrade and organic hot and cold food and drinks including a selection of homemade cakes, sandwiches and specials. Find more about the cafe.
The Bristol Museum & Art Gallery shop stocks a wide selection of gifts including prints from their own collection, Bristol Blue Glass, jewellery, toys, books, postcards and much more.
You can also browse our products online.
History
The Museum and Art Gallery's origins lie in the foundation, in 1823, of the Bristol Institution for the Advancement of Science and Art, sharing brand-new premises at the bottom of Park Street (a 100 yards (91 m) downhill from the current site) with the slightly older Bristol Literary and Philosophical Society.
The neoclassical building was designed by Sir Charles Robert Cockerell (1788–1863), who was later to complete the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and build St. George's Hall, Liverpool, and was later used as the Freemasons Hall.
In April 1871 the Bristol Institution merged with the Bristol Library Society and on 1 April 1872 a new combined museum and library building in Venetian Gothic style was opened at the top of Park Street.
The lease on the former Bishop's College building next door, which had been the Library Society's home since 1855, passed to the local army reserve unit, whose drill hall lay behind it; it became the Victoria (later Salisbury) Club and a restaurant.
The old Institution building was sold to the Freemasons. Although the new building was extended in 1877, by the 1890s the Museum and Library Association was struggling financially, and even unable to pay its curator, Edward Wilson (1848–1898).
Negotiations with the city corporation culminated in the transfer of the whole organisation and premises to Bristol city corporation on 31 May 1894.
Wilson remained Curator until his death – only this time he was actually paid!
However, in June 1899 the site of the Salisbury Club was offered for sale to the city, the tobacco baron, Sir William Henry Wills (1830–1911, later Lord Winterstoke) offering £10,000 to help buy the site and build a new City Art Gallery on it.
Designed by Frederick Wills in an Edwardian Baroque style work on the new building started in 1901, and opened in February 1905.
It was built in a rectangular open plan in 2 sections each consisting of a large hall with barrel-vaulted glazed roofs, separated by a double staircase.
It incorporated a Museum of Antiquities, as it had been decided during the planning stage that Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities should be grouped with art in the new structure, rather than remaining with the natural history collections that remained in the old building.
Stone tools continued to reside with the geology collections within natural history.
Yet more space became available to museum displays when Bristol Central Library moved down the hill to College Green in 1906.
The vacant rooms were reconstructed as invertebrate and biology galleries.
In 1913, the army reserve's drill hall, which now lay between the rear of the Art Gallery and the rapidly expanding University of Bristol, was purchased by the two institutions, three-fifths of the complex falling to the Museum and Art Gallery, the rest to the University. Unfortunately, the outbreak of war in 1914 put paid to any plans for new building; indeed, the Upper Museum Room (geology) was cleared in 1916 to become a 'Soldiers Room' to entertain convalescents and the Egyptian Room 'served for reading and writing and for the delivery of special demonstrations.
However, after being used for storage for over a decade, it proved possible to demolish the Drill Hall to permit a rearward extension of the Art Gallery.
This was funded by Sir George Alfred Wills (1854–1928, a cousin of Lord Winterstoke) and completed in 1930.
The 1872–77 Museum building was gutted by fire following a bomb hit on the night of 24–25 November 1940, during the Bristol Blitz, some 17,000 of the natural history specimens being lost.
The 1930 extension of the Art Gallery was also hit, but luckily escaped the conflagration, although suffering badly from blast damage.
Nevertheless, the Art Gallery partially reopened in February 1941, now also housing some of the Museum's surviving material on a 'temporary' basis.
Although now housed in the same building, from April 1945, the Museum and Art Gallery were formally split into separate institutions with the lower floor becoming the Museum and the upper floors the Art Gallery.
As part of this restructuring, the archaeology and anthropology collections were transferred from the Art Gallery to the Museum.
In February 1947, the remains of the old Museum building (with the exception of the undamaged lecture theatre) were sold to Bristol University: it was then rebuilt as its dining rooms, later becoming Brown's Restaurant.
The sale of the building in 1947 reflected the intention that new premises would soon be provided for the Museum and the Art Gallery; planning began in 1951, but then dragged on for the next twenty years, during which time the old buildings received minimal attention, other than the insertion of mezzanines to gain additional space.
Meanwhile, various proposals had been made for new museum buildings in Castle Park, in the very centre of Bristol, overlooking the river Avon.
However, spiraling costs and funding difficulties meant that in 1971 the plans were abandoned and a smaller amount of money was put into upgrading the existing building. Wholesale refurbishment was required, including rewiring, rearranging offices, creating laboratories and dividing up and furnishing the basement to provide proper storage for the reserve collections.
In the summer of 2009 the museum hosted an exhibition by Banksy, called Banksy versus Bristol Museum featuring more than 70 works of art, including animatronics and installations; it is his largest exhibition yet.
It was developed in secrecy and with no advance publicity.