Plan for toppled Edward Colston statue to go on display at Bristol's M Shed museum

The statue of Edward Colston - made famous after it was torn down and dumped in Bristol's harbour by protestors - is set to go on display once again.

Bristol City Council has applied for permission to put the statue of the prominent merchant, slave trader and philanthropist on display in an exhibition about protests next month.

Because the statue was unveiled in 1895 and is Grade II listed, the council is required to formally ask itself for permission to move it from its plinth to a museum.

This is despite the statue already have being moved, when it was torn down during a Black Lives Matter demonstration where people were protesting against Colston's connections to the slave trade in 2020.

The statue was rolled through the city centre before being dumped in the harbour.

Councillors will vote on whether they give consent for the statue to move from its plinth to the M Shed museum on Wednesday 21 February.

If this is granted, the statue will go on display in March - a short walk from where it once stood for more than 100 years.

Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees said: “The proposals we have developed are in direct response to the recommendations of the History Commission report, which was itself informed by the views of many thousands of fellow Bristolians.

"We have shared our thoughts with Historic England on this matter too and have taken their views on board before submitting this application.

“The best place for the statue is in a museum where its context, and what it represents to many communities, can be appropriately shared with diverse audiences.

"We already glimpsed how eager people are to learn about this context and associated history when nearly 100,000 visited ‘The Colston Statue: What next?’ display in 2021.”

Since that temporary exhibition, the Colston statue has been kept in storage at the M Shed.

Four out of five people responding to a survey said they felt the statue should be kept on display in a museum, while a few people wanted it to be reinstated on its plinth.

Four per cent said it should go back in the harbour, where protesters pushed it in the water.

The We Are Bristol History Commission, which published its report two years ago, was chaired by Professor Tim Cole.

He said the commission tried to facilitate a "city-wide conversation" over what should happen to the statue.

He added: “We gathered many diverse opinions and views that truly demonstrated the complexity of the feelings associated with the statue and the many strands of context.

"What was clear, despite the many different views shared, was an overwhelming sense that people saw the museum as the best place for the statue, and I’m pleased to see the council acting on this."

Details of the upcoming exhibition will be published in the next few weeks.

Credit: Alex Seabrook, Local Democracy Reporting Service.