Harbourside News

New map improves access to Bristol's harbourside

A new Bristol Harbourside Visitors' Map has been published encourage people to find the easiest and most sustainable way to travel around the city's major attractions.

Produced by the Harbourside Travel Group, the new map provides information on how people can walk, cycle, catch the bus or the ferry and where to leave their car in Bristol.

The map includes walks alongside the Floating Harbour that have been opened up to the public for the first time through Crest Nicholson's development at Harbourside and pedestrian routes through the new development and its new car park.

The map will help visitors and locals plan their route between Explore-At-Bristol, the Arnolfini, Spike Island, CREATE Centre; Brunel's ss Great Britain, the Watershed and the City's museums.

This new map reflects the dynamic changes there have been to the central area of Bristol in just a few years. It will help both visitors and Bristol residents find alternative ways to travel and consider walking, cycling, taking a boat or using public transport to get around the centre of the city.

The map is available free from Bristol's major tourist attractions and Bristol Tourist Information Centre.

New Museum of Bristol

Bristol is celebrating as the Heritage Lottery Fund confirmed a £10.2 million grant to support the new Museum of Bristol project. This fantastic news enables work to begin on creating an exciting new interactive museum on Bristol's harbourside.

The new Museum of Bristol will be developed by Bristol City Council on the site of the former Bristol Industrial Museum at Princes Wharf.

Preserving the existing architectural footprint and dockside façade of the historic L and M sheds, the new museum will take the best from the existing facility and combine it with state-of-the-art displays, dynamic audio visual materials and items from the city's nationally-recognised historic collections to develop a heritage attraction of international standard.

The £18.6 million project, scheduled for opening in 2010, will take visitors on a journey of discovery, exploring the city's history and culture through the eyes and experiences of Bristol people and communities past and present. The aim is to enable everyone to find their own answer to the often asked question: 'What makes Bristol, Bristol?

The attraction will also explore the possibilities for the city's future - and engage visitors in helping to shape the city's vision for the next few decades and beyond.

The design for the new museum building has been developed by internationally-renowned architects LAB Architecture Studios. It preserves the heritage façade of the existing building and ensures that the working cranes and docks railway continue to be a key feature of the harbourside landscape and of the museum itself.

In addition, the new museum will provide:

2500 square metres of new exhibition space over three floors;
A stunning rooftop gallery with views across the city centre and access to a roof terrace;
Education spaces and volunteer facilities;
Engine sheds and workshops;
A café, gift shop and conferencing facilities;
Improved disabled access.
The existing Industrial Museum closed its doors on Sunday, October 29th and its 700 items, including historic printing and packaging machinery, shipping memorabilia, buses, cars, helicopters, and even the fuselage of a Concorde aircraft, are being moved into storage in other parts of the city or to specialist storage facilities elsewhere in the UK.

Once the space is cleared experts exhibition designers, working closely with museum staff, will start to map out the galleries and displays that will attract at least 200,000 visitors a year.

In a move that is unprecedented in the UK, the city council will be working closely with local communities to develop the content for the displays and exhibitions so that it truly tells the story of Bristol and captures the essence of the city's personality.