Bristol Museum and Art Gallery

Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.

The collections in the museum include natural history; geology; local, national and international archaeology, including an Egyptology section; history; pottery including English delftware. The art gallery contains works from all periods, including many by internationally famous artists, as well as a collection of modern paintings of Bristol.

The building is of Edwardian Baroque architecture.

The main hall is stunning. 

Hanging from the middle of the ceiling is a replica of the first aircraft built in Bristol. It is one of three made for the film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines in 1965.

The entrance to the Egyptology section

Banksy, Paint Pot Angel (cast in resin with commercial paint, on a painted wooden base, 2009)

Banksy has altered a statue of an angel - the sort that you might find in a cemetery or a garden centre - by tipping a paint pot on its head. The intention is to challenge what people expect to see in a museum like this and question the value we place on art.

A plateosaurus





A different view from the first floor

Lots of art on the landings and stairs, including:

John Craxton, Creatures in a Mountain Landscape, 1950-51.

Doris Brabham Hatt, Brandon Hill, 1931, (oil on canvas)

Kehinde Wiley, Mojisola Elufowoju, (from the Yellow Wallpaper series), 2020, (oil on linen)

Ken Armitage, Moon Figure, 1948, (bronze)

Jacob Epstein, Kathleen, 1935, (bronze)

Nagae Shigekazu,  Forms in Succession 1, 2012, (slip-cast porcelain)

Casting is usually seen as an industrial method for mass-producing everyday ceramics, but Nagae transcends this stereotyope with his experimental sculptures. For his series Forms in Succession he first casts two thin porcelain pieces with razor-sharp edges using moulds and hangs them together in the middle of the kiln. This causes the pieces to sag, creating a sculpture with a sense of organic movement.

The Egyptology Gallery:

I went in the Egyptology gallery in search of Fayoum.

There were mummy cases

and one Fayoum.

Jessica Ashman, Those That Do not Smile Will Kill Me, Decolonising Jamaican Flora. Installation, part of current exhibition.

Ashman's installation challenges the Enlightenment version of scientific research. She explores the history of European colonisers and the extraction and exploitation of Jamaica's natural resources and people. She is creating an alternative narrative that explores how Indigenous and African-Jamaicans used plants to resist their enslavement. 

She has conjured three figures: two women foraging and planting and a deity. They embody rebellion through the magic of  horticulture. The rebellion included growing food to eat and sell, harvesting plants for medicine and birth control, hallucinogens to connect to spirituality and even poisons.The title of the installation is a proverb about the Jamaican fruit, ackee: when the fruit does not split or 'smile', it is poisonous.

Clifton suspension bridge

Having explored Clifton, it was time to go and see the suspension bridge.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge spans the Avon Gorge and the River Avon. The bridge was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Construction began in 1836 but was interrupted in 1843 through lack of funds. It was not until 1864, five years after Brunel's death that the bridge was completed. As a monument to his fame, the chains used were those from the Hungerford bridge designed and erected by him in 1843.

The bridge has three independent wrought iron chains per side, from which the bridge deck is suspended by 81 matching vertical wrought iron rods.

We stopped to have a view of the gorge and river before crossing the bridge - it was phenomenal. The cliffs plunge 90 meters to the river Avon - it really is an amazing sight.

The cliff, called St Vincent's Rocks, is home to hundreds of different plants, more than 30 of which are very rare. Consequently the gorge is one of the top botanical sites in the UK. Some of the rarities that thrive here, include: the honewort, a tiny, rare member of the carrot family; the autumn squill, whose delicate lilac flowers appear in late summer - Mrs Glennie (the wife of Brunel's assistant) warned him that the building work would destroy a colony of this rare plant, so Brunel had the bulbs replanted further along the Gorge; the Bristol whitebeam, a tree that is endemic to the Gorge, which has characteristically shaped leaves with white, hairy undersides and has orange berries.

We noticed this ledge suspended on the rocks and wondered what it was

We started crossing the bridge

More breathtaking views from here

I was looking forward to crossing to the other side, as the views of Bristol would be spectacular, but we were not allowed to, as they starting work on that side

But there is always a way when you try hard enough, isn't there? I found us a ledge which wasn't cordonned off and where we stood and the whole of the river, Bristol and the surrounding countryside were at our feet

Next, we took the path on St Vincent's Rocks, to get to the top, to get more views of the bridge, but also to explore the building we had seen at the rop of the rocks

We got to the Observatory which is on the highest point of Clifton Down

Excellent views of the bridge from here

We saw signs like this everywhere. The bridge is well known as a suicide bridge and is fitted with plaques that advertise the telephone number of the Samaritans. Between 1974 and 1993, 127 people fell to their deaths from the bridge. In 1998 suicide barriers were installed on the bridge to prevent people jumping. This reduced the suicide rate from eight deaths per year to four. 

Just amazing.

I could see that small yellow platform on the cliffs again, so I zoomed in

It's an old cave, and from the Observatory you can pay, get a hard hat and visit the cave which dates back to 305 AD, where it was first mentioned as being a chapel. The Giant's Cave Sits 250 feet (76 m) above the Avon Gorge. The tunnel to the cave leads for 200 feet from the Observatory and took two years to build, opening to the public for the first time in 1837. We decided not to go, even though it was tempting.

I know I have posted too many photographs of the bridge, but I can't help it. It's so awesome.

Good views of the surrounding area from here

We wandered around for a while, getting different views of the bridge,

and then I looked across the river, to this piece of rock where people have climbed down to immortalise themselves by carving their names on the rock. Serious showing off, I would say.

The Observatory has a cafe and a camera obscura as well as being the entrance to the Giant's Cave

After a while we started for the walk back to our hotel. It had been a very good day.