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New name for SS Great Britain site to ‘feel more rooted in Bristol’
A rebrand for the site on which the SS Great Britain lies forever in dry dock hopes to make Bristol’s most popular visitor attraction more inclusive.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s world famous ship and the museum spaces around it will become Bristol Dockyards from July.
SS Great Britain Trust chief executive, Andrew Edwards, said that some people might view the rebranding as “woke” but he added that “change is never easy”.
And remember, it is not the ship that is changing name but its location next to the Floating Harbour. Bristol Dockyards will still be described as “home to the SS Great Britain”.
Bristol Dockyards will still be described as ‘home to the SS Great Britain’ – photo: Martin Booth
Speaking to the Guardian, Edwards said: “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…
“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.”
The new name of Bristol Dockyards comes ahead of the reopening of the expanded museum next to the steamship which will focus less on its engineering, and more on stories of people from Bristol and across the world connected to the vessel.
A cabin in the SS Great Britain has been recreated to show how England’s cricketers would have travelled to Australia – photo: Martin Booth
“We live in a very diverse world and we live in a very diverse city in Bristol,” said Edwards.
“I believe the role of organisations like us is to represent that diversity as best we can and to be able to provide a little bit of something that appeals to everybody, whoever they are and wherever they’ve come from.
“Heritage really only works, in my view, when it has ownership within the community within which it sits.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
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