British Empire and Commonwealth Museum Exhibition Hall Museums

An award-winning new national museum, the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum presents the dramatic 500-year history of the rise and fall of Britain's overseas empire. Some ten years in the making, the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum represents the first serious attempt in the United kingdom to present a publicly accessible history of the British empire and to examine its continuing impact on Britain and the rest of the world. This was the largest empire the world has ever known, yet its history is relatively unknown to most Britons today.

The British Empire & Commonwealth Museum in Bristol has been short-listed as a finalist for the 2005 Museums & Heritage Awards for Excellence. It is the only museum in Britain to have been nominated in each of the three years since the Awards began.

The Museum's permanent exhibition features over sixteen themed galleries, divided into three main sections:

Britain Builds An Empire

The Rise of Victoria's Empire

End of Empire

'Another outstanding museum. Full of moving and chastening accounts, it treads delicately between being too jingoistic and being too PC. ' The Independent 6/8/03

'It is astonishing how good the museum is. ' Melbourne Age, 26/06/03

'A Brave and level headed look at the central fact of the past 300 years of British History. '

The Sunday Times 01/06/2003

The museum is open every day of the year except Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Normal opening hours are 10am 5pm. Last admission is at 4. 30pm.

A tour of the permanent galleries will take approximately 2 hours. .