Treasures in store

Photo of the L Shed storeLike many museums, Bristol has much more in its collections than can ever be displayed at any one time.

L Shed, adjoining M Shed, contains thousands of items from the industrial, maritime and social history collections, including the Lord Mayor’s coach, models of ships and a cosmic ray detector from the University of Bristol.

All of the items are connected with Bristol’s history and are vividly brought to life by our volunteer guides on our behind the scenes tours. You can see huge machinery, delicate models and intriguing objects of all shapes and sizes which, one day, will have their turn on display. You will also be able to see the statue of Edward Colston.

Many of the items were once on display in the Bristol Industrial Museum, which was M Shed’s predecessor. They’ve been collected over the last 150 years and some have been added since M Shed opened in 2011.

Behind the scenes tours are free and run regularly throughout the week.

Don’t forget that you can also search our collections online.

Image credits: Simon Thomas and Michael Hardwell

Photo of a model of a ship being built in the L Shed store