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Visit to the Old Brunel Station, Temple Meads, Bristol, Sat 12th April 2008 (REVISED DATE)

Travel by train (cost not included) or your own transport and meet at the entrance to the Empire and Commonwealth Museum, at the bottom of Temple Meads approach at 1055, for a guided tour from 1100 until 1200.

Cost per person (group rate): £6.00, Senior Citizens £5.50. Payment required with booking. Party size between ten and twenty participants.

The Society has arranged for its own “behind the scenes” guided tour of the old Brunel Station, now occupied by the Empire and Commonwealth Museum.

Following the announcement in November that the Museum will be closing in Autumn 2008 and moving to London in 2009, this year may be the last for some time when access can be gained to see the offices and train shed at close quarters.

Highlights of the hour-long tour should include (subject to availability on the day) the passenger train shed, cavernous underground vaults and the mock-gothic GWR Boardroom. These are only occasionally open to the public.
Your Tour fee will also include free entry to the Empire Museum on that day.  Should you wish to leave the site (eg for lunch), and then return to view the Museum Galleries later in the day you may do so- please ask your guide about re-entry arrangements before leaving the site.
As the tour will be from 1100-1200 you will have the choice individually to do whatever you wish afterwards- maybe visit the museum galleries themselves, go into Broadmead/ the Centre (walk or the adjacent nos 8/9 bus), perhaps pop over to Bath on the train, travel back to Weston, or even retire to the nearby Wetherspoons pub at Temple Quay for a spot of lunch before returning home!

Background to the Old Station
Designed by Brunel, Bristol’s original station was built in 1841 and is Grade 1 listed. It is the world’s oldest surviving purpose-built railway terminus.

The station complex consists of an engine shed behind the offices that face the street and a train shed beyond. Both are supported on brick arched vaults.
Cast iron columns support the drawing office that spans three of the five tracks in the engine shed. This is where most of the GWR’s schemes were designed.

The old train shed and its more recent extension finally closed to active use in 1965, and were used as a covered car park for many years. Part of the old station area was restored for some public tours in 1985- the GWR 150 celebrations, but it was not until the opening of the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum (BECM) on 26th Sept 2002 that many other parts of the building were restored and used for the first time in forty years. With the arrival of the BECM, the former Brunel train shed and some of the offices and meeting rooms have been available for hire on a commercial basis, for meetings, conferences and special events, bringing in revenue. In 2006, occasional tours of the site commenced.  

Some of the lower rooms under the train shed are used as a Café, and also a Children’s day Nursery “Buffer Bears”, with an external play area on a removable cover over the former Bristol Tramways tracks/depot visible from the current station approach.
  
About the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum
Opened in September 2002 the museum presents, in 16 galleries, the history of the Empire and Commonwealth from all sides, from viceroy to freedom fighter, explorer to aborigine. A balanced story is presented, explaining the opinions of the colonisers and colonised alike. It not only covers maritime, military and technical triumphs of the empire, but also examines issues of racism, economic exploitation and slavery. Admission cost covered by your tour fee.

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