M Shed, Bristol

M Shed is a fantastic, slightly random museum full of stuff about Bristol. It covers the origins of the city, its development, current status, and potential future. There's lots to see for kids and adults alike, and it's free! There is usually an exhibition at the top floor that works on a "pay what you think" policy, and that is usually worth going to. There are many bathrooms and they are clean and hygienic. The only downside is perhaps the exhibitions are put together by theme rather than chronological order which creates a disjointed feeling.

The museum is always interesting, however the cafe represents one enormous rip off regarding price and quality. How on earth can a mark up of over 600% on a 15 gm pack of Pom Bears be justified. A packet of PomBears cost approximately 17 pence in supermarkets (retail price) but on Saturday the cafe was charging £1.20. A latte coffee at £2.70 is close to motorway service prices and way above a far more decent latte at Costa. Absolutely disgraceful !!!!!! Do they really want customers?

Interesting promised but failed to deliver. Visiting friends in Bristol for the first time on a bank holiday weekend and was being shown round the regeneration work. The History of Bristol exhibition has some great content as it gallops through the city's long history. The displays were jumbled up but there was a good range of topics. The experience was sullied by the disappointed kids and adults faced with the laminated 'This interactive is currently out of order....' signs on most of the fun bits.

Great museum telling the story of Bristol. And it's free. Make a donation if you think you enjoyed it.

The Bristol Industrial Museum was formerly one of the finest museums in the city; it contained a vast and highly informative collection of vintage vehicles, models, and dioramas which testified directly to the storied and contentious history of the City and Port of Bristol: in particular, Bristol's roles in the maritime, aeronautic and transatlantic slave trades were deeply explored. The Bristol M Shed is a pale and disappointing successor to this mueum. In place of the huge exhibition shed is a huge atrium and giftshop, a motley patchwork arrangement of randomly positioned objects with minimal contextual information; worst of all, at least 70% of what was in the industrial museum (trains, model ships, boats, cars, engines, helicopters, interior of Concorde) has vanished completely ... the M Shed website informs us that most of the highlights of the previous museum were flogged, returned to their owners, or placed in storage. A real loss for the city, a terrible waste.