Treasures in store

Like many museums, M Shed has more objects in its stores than it has in its galleries.

Its main store at L Shed, adjoining M Shed, contains thousands of items from Bristol’s industrial and maritime past. At one time, Bristol boasted over 300 separate trades, and the M Shed collection contains material from a great many of them. Objects range from the large to the small and from the everyday to the more obscure. These include industrial machines (representing e.g. the printing, engineering and tobacco industries), carriages, bicycles, motorbikes, and all manner of tools, models, signs and scientific instruments.

Some of the more eye-catching objects include the Lord Mayor’s coach, built in 1852, eighteenth-century ship models, and a ‘cosmic ray detector’ from the University of Bristol.

All connected in some way to Bristol’s history, these are vividly brought to life by our volunteer guides.

Many of the items were once on display in Bristol Industrial Museum, M Shed’s predecessor. They’ve been collected over the last 200 years and continue to be added to as new acquisitions enter the collection.

To view the objects in store, check our tour times and booking info.

You can also search our collections online.

Image: Model depicting HMS Arethusa (1781) under construction, set against a painted backdrop of Hilhouse’s Redclift dockyard on the River Avon; photo by Simon Thomas and Michael Hardwell