Bristol M Shed tickets 'block booked' in Colston protest

The Colston statue at the M Shed Museum. Credit: Ben Birchall/PA Wire/PA Images

A campaign group is claiming to have block-booked tickets to Bristol's M Shed museum in order to prevent the public from viewing the newly-displayed statue of Edward Colston.

The Save Our Statues campaign, which has 24,000 Twitter followers, is unhappy at the decision not to replace the statue on its Colston Avenue plinth, and says the new display is a 'celebration of mob rule'.

The Victorian statue of the 17th-century slave dealer Edward Colston was torn down and thrown into Bristol Harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020.

The new £8000 exhibition at the M Shed on Bristol's harbourside. Credit: Ben Birchall/PA Wire/PA Images

It now forms part of an £8,000 temporary display at the M Shed museum, along with placards from the protest, while a decision is made about its permanent future.

The free exhibition opened to the public on Friday 4 June on a pre-booked basis but no slots are available at all on Monday 7 or Tuesday 8 June.

Save Our Statues says it is block-booking the slots in a 'virtual protest'.

The M Shed bookings page, with no slots available on Monday or Tuesday. Credit: M Shed

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