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 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. 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!
Today, the top floor art galleries include a collection of Chinese Glass and the "Schiller collection" of Eastern Art donated by Max Schiler, the Recorder of Bristol from 1935 to 1946. It contains a range of Chinese ceramics wares spanning different dynastic periods. Particularly fine pieces include a number of white, light blue and green-glazed (Ying Qing and Qingbai) wares from the Tang (AD 618–960) and Song (AD 960–1279) dynasties. It also holds a collection of Bristol blue glass. The Egyptology gallery contains mummies besides other items and a wall decoration made over 3,000 years ago – the Assyrian Reliefs, which were transferred from the Royal West of England Academy. It also has a significant collection of Egyptian antiquities, a considerable number derived from the excavations of the Egypt Exploration Society and British School of Archaeology in Egypt. A completely rebuilt Egyptian gallery opened in 2007. A natural history gallery contains examples of aquatic habitats in the south west of England and an interactive map of local wildlife sites and a freshwater aquarium containing fish typical of the region. The museum also holds many of the prehistoric and Roman artefacts recovered before the flooding of Chew Valley Lake and other local archaeological finds such as those from Pagans Hill Roman Temple and the Orpheus Mosaic from Newton St Loe. In 2012, the museum was given the entire 50,000 piece collection of the former British Empire and Commonwealth Museum.
There is level access to the museum. Thie museum does not play background music. Motorised scooters are allowed in public parts of the venue. Exhibits can be audio describedbut tactile signage for exhibits is not available. Touch tours are available. There is a wheelchair to borrow. Documents can be requested in Braille. Documents are available in large print. A bowl of water can be provided for an assistance dog. The accessible toilet is located in the rear right corridor. There is level access to the accessible toilet.
Location : Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1RL
Transport: Bristol Temple Meads (National Rail)then bus. Bus Routes : 1, 2, 3, 3X, 4, 8, 9, 19, 72 and 462 stop close by
Opening Times : Daily 10:00 - 17:00; Saturday/Sunday until 18:00
Tickets : Free
Tel: 0117 922 3571
The Georgian House Museum is a six storey townhouse built in 1790 for John Pinney, a wealthy slave plantation owner and sugar merchant. It is displayed as it might have looked in the 18th century and provides an insight into life above and below stairs. You can just imagine the kitchen buzzing as the servants prepared meals, taking a dip in the cold-water plunge pool and relaxing in the elegant upstairs rooms. The Georgian House is expecially significant to Bristol's history as it is where the enslaved African, Pero lived. In 1765, at the age of just 12, Pero Jones was bought by John Pinney to work on his Mountravers plantation in Nevis. In 1784 he accompanied the family in their move from Nevis to Bristol, where they lived in the Georgian House. Pero was personal servant to John Pinney and served for 32 years. Pero's Bridge, the footbridge across Bristol's floating harbour was named in commemoration of one slave who lived and died in the city.
The house has been restored and decorated to its original glory, and is the perfect way to step back in time and imagine what life was like in this affluent area of the city hundreds of years ago. There are 11 rooms spread over four floors, including; the basement, where you can see the kitchen, housekeeper's room, pantry and John Pinney's cold water plunge pool. Formal rooms including John Pinney's office, two dining rooms, a library and two drawing rooms. The second floor bedroom. A small exhibition on the Pinney's involvement in the sugar trade and John Pinney's slave, Pero. The museum is not wheelchair accessible. There are no designated toilets for the disabled. Assistance dogs are welcome. Documents are available in Braille. Documents are available in large print. A bowl of water can be provided for an assistance dog.
Location : 7 Great George Street, Bristol BS1 5RR
Transport: Bristol Temple Meads (National Rail) then bus. Bus Routes : 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 16, 19, 72, 462 and 624 stop nearby.
Opening Times : Tuesday to Thursday (Tuesday to Sunday during Summer Holidays) 10:30 to 16:00
Tickets : Free
Tel: 01179211362
The Red Lodge was originally built at the top of the gardens of "ye Great House of St. Augustine's Back". The Great House was built in 1568 on the site of an old Carmelite Priory by John Young, the descendant of a merchant family and courtier to Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, and is now the site of Colston Hall. The Red Lodge would have originally been used as a guest house and entertainment pavilion, so that the Young family could promenade their guests through their eight ornamental gardens and orchards to wine and dine them. John Young died in 1589 shortly after the Red Lodge was completed, and his 19-year-old son, Robert Young inherited the entire estate. Robert quickly spent his inheritance and had to convey the Red Lodge to Nicholas Strangeways to avoid seizure. In the 1730s, John and Mary Henley bought the Red Lodge and started major extension work on the north side, doubling the footprint of the building, fitting large Georgian windows, and rebuilding with hipped roofs and eaves, and cornices replacing gables, giving a full-height second floor. The Henley’s refurbished the Reception Room and part-refurbished the Parlour, leaving some original panelling and the original decorated ceiling, but made minimal changes to the Great Oak Room, Small Oak Room and Bedroom, leaving the rich Tudor decoration largely untouched.
Before the end of the extension work, John Henley died, leaving Mary Henley childless and unable to inherit. John wrote into his will that Mary had the right to live in the Red Lodge for one month in every year. This meant that the building could not be leased out long-term or sold to a new owner. After the Henleys died the Red Lodge was leased to tenants practising medicine working at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, including James Cowles Pritchard who wrote Researches into the Physical History of Man, and Francis Cheyne Bowles and Richard Smith, who used the Great Oak Room as a dissection theatre. In 1854 the building was bought by Lady Byron, using Lord Byron’s endowment and given to Mary Carpenter to use as a school. Mary Carpenter was a zealous reformer and founded the first ever Girls’ Reformatory at the Red Lodge to encapsulate her radical and progressive ideas of improvement and nurture for the nation’s poor, in contrast to the harsh workhouses and prisons which were the common solution in the Victorian Era. The Red Lodge was used as a Reform School until 1917, during which time Carpenter used her standing as Superintendent to lobby parliament and travel the world researching the plight of ‘pauper children’.
The Great Oak Room retains its original oak panelling, moulded plaster ceiling and ‘double-decker’ fireplace, making it “one of the finest rooms in the West Country”. Entrance is via an oak internal porch, similar to that of Montacute House. The only features which have changed since the room was built are the enlarged Georgian windows, giving a view onto the knot garden. The Garden viewed from the Parlour and Great Oak Room is a 1980s interpretation of an Elizabethan Knot Garden. The box hedge ‘knot’ is copied from the design incorporated into the ceiling of the Bedroom. Herbs and flowers are mixed together in beds as was the fashion in the 1630s, and all the plants used would have been common in a similar garden of the period. The trellis is copied from a French seventeenth century design. The museum is not wheelchair accessible. There are no designated toilets for the disabled. Assistance dogs are welcome. Documents are available in Braille. Documents are available in large print. A bowl of water can be provided for an assistance dog.
Location : Park Row, West End, Bristol BS1 5LJ
Transport: Bristol Temple Meads (National Rail) then bus. Bus Routes : 3X and 16 stop outside.
Opening Times : Tuesday to Thursday (Tuesday to Sunday during Summer Holidays) 10:30 to 16:00
Tickets : Free
Tel: 0117 921 1360
