The Bristol Railway Archive

-Please feel free to use any of these images on the main archive

So, today I took it upon myself to volunteer for the first time (What am I letting myself in for?!)
Drove down to the old industrial museum and had a look around the derelict buildings, then enquired at the shed and was shortly taken on my first footplate ride in Avonside 0-6-0ST 'Portbury'! Fantastic!

Starting off at the old fuel company depot, where many rails are still embedded in the floor (Now a very expensive car park)



Base of a crane maybe?


Points behind the temporary running shed






These seem to be the old uprights for the buildings which once stood here, cut off at the base


Moving toward the railway, a disused goods platform around the back of the art gallery


My own attempt at being 'arty'


The new museum looking great from the outside, although this crossover has been taken out (Visible in its original state via google maps)


And from the front


Inside the shed is the Peckett 'Henbury'



And from the footplate of 'Portbury'!



Back at the SS Great Britain


Also, here is a stitched image of the back of the industrial museum, made from 4 or 5 photos.


The old fuel depot is due to be the site of new housing I think.

I think the "new" museum building looks appalling. It should have been left as it was, why on earth do we need trendy glass and Bristol Parkway style cladding for on an old industrial building with years of history behind it??

carpetcone wrote:I think the "new" museum building looks appalling. It should have been left as it was, why on earth do we need trendy glass and Bristol Parkway style cladding for on an old industrial building with years of history behind it??

From the website about the new museum http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/content/L ... bristol.en

Bristol City Council wrote:The whole site û the sheds and their quayside û is one of the last remaining complete 20th century docksides in the UK.

The sheds will be fully and sympathetically renovated. Their historic character will be preserved and a stunning glass rooftop gallery will be added to create an additional exhibition space.

Sympathetic my arse.

And about the contents of the new museum...

The flagship Museum of Bristol will open on Harbourside in 2011 and will bring the cityÆs full history to life - from ancient times to modern days.

ItÆs an exciting development for all of us û for the first time we will have a world-class museum dedicated to the history of Bristol and the people who have lived and worked here across time.

There will be something for everyone. Bristolians, visitors to the city, children and families will all learn more about the city, and come away with a better understanding of what makes Bristol Bristol. Entry will be free.

And..

Bristol is leading the way nationally in working with local people and experts to decide what to include and display in the new museum:

À It will be full of fascinating objects, pictures, documents and Bristol icons from our nationally-recognised collections. Old favourites will be on display alongside new exciting exhibits. The restored buildings will allow us to display our objects to their full potential.

À The museum will also be full of the personal memories and stories of people who have lived and worked in Bristol over the centuries. It will feature the extraordinary stories of ordinary people to show how the city and our lives have changed over time.

I suspect this means that as much as possible of the industrial side will be dumped, with a token exhibit about Brunel, and the rest of it will be the fashionable exhibits about the way that ordinary people of the town lived back in the day - prize exhibit a collection of 30 historic nightsoil buckets owned by everyone from pauper to prince over the last 300 years.

I hope to be proved wrong but it sounds as though we are going to get a standard social history museum as found in every town across the country and in every National Trust historic house. What every town in the country doesn't have is a decent industrial museum.

My stepdad was saying they should have put concorde on the roof... that would have been awesome.

Concorde on the roof a replica Clifton bridge as access across the docks, and a replica of Speedwell Colliery under the museum, now if we were to put this to the BCC in their usual way of adopting dream schemes they may actually take it on!!

A couple more pics, some of the boards came down t'other day, revealing most of L shed.
From the back:



And the front: