The site of Brunel's SS Great Britain in Bristol is getting a new name and a revamped museum, aiming to be "cooler" and more inclusive. The dockland site, home to the historic ocean liner designed by Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, will now be known as Bristol Dockyards, dropping the names of both the ship and its creator.
New Direction for Maritime Landmark
For the past decade, the site has been promoted as Brunel's SS Great Britain. However, the SS Great Britain Trust has decided to rebrand as part of a broader effort to connect more deeply with the local community. The museum's focus will shift from engineering triumph to the ship's role in the British empire and its impact on migration.
Andrew Edwards, chief executive of the trust, acknowledged that some might view the changes as "woke." He said: "Change is never easy. You'll always get those that are resistant, but when we were shaping the vision, I tried to take stock of where the city was and what the city was all about."
Aiming for Cool Factor
Edwards noted that Bristol is often named the UK's coolest city and he wants the site to reflect that. "We've consciously tried to avoid falling into those stereotypical ideas of what a maritime museum should look like and tried to present something that feels a little bit more rooted in Bristol," he added.
Renaming spaces in Bristol can be sensitive. The city's largest concert hall was renamed Bristol Beacon after dropping the name of slave trader Edward Colston, whose statue was thrown into the harbour in 2020.
Addressing Misconceptions
Edwards clarified that the "SS" in the ship's name stands for "steamship," not "slave ship," as some assume. The vessel was built after the British abolition of the slave trade. The new name was announced ahead of the July opening of the expanded museum, which will feature research by community groups on the personal histories of passengers and the ship's impact on Australia, India, the Caribbean, and the US.
Edwards said: "We live in a very diverse world and we live in a very diverse city in Bristol. I believe the role of organisations like us is to represent that diversity as best we can."
Highlights of the New Museum
- Stories of the Johnson family, five brothers who travelled from the Wye Valley to work as shipwrights on the ship.
- The impact of the SS Great Britain on Indigenous Australians during 32 round trips between the UK and Melbourne.
- Details of the ship's voyages carrying British soldiers to Mumbai during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
- Stories of passengers like George Moses, a ship's cook from Jamaica, and James W Jones, a Barbadian musician and poet.
Edwards said: "As a world, we're dealing with lots of big issues. We are also about people movement. We're about how the oceans connect us all."
Future Plans
The renaming and museum reopening is the first phase of a transformation to turn the site into a "cultural campus" addressing heritage, sustainability, and diversity ahead of the 60th anniversary of the ship's return to Bristol in 2030. Edwards confirmed that the site will still be described as "home to the SS Great Britain," so the ship's name is not being entirely removed.
