The Colston Statue: What next?
The statue of slave trader Edward Colston was displayed at M Shed from June 2021 to January 2022 as part of the Colston Statue: What next? exhibition.
The statue is now on permanent display in M Shed’s Bristol People gallery as part of a display about the history of protest in Bristol. Find out more about the display.
The first display was a temporary measure to start a conversation with the city. A survey formulated by the We Are Bristol History Commission was the focus of the display which asked citizens what should happen to the statue next. The survey has now closed.
Nearly 14,000 people responded to the public survey. Four out of five people from Bristol said that the statue should go on display in a Bristol museum. In April 2022, the Cabinet approved this decision.

The June 2020 protest
There were protests around the world after the filmed murder of George Floyd, whilst being arrested in America.
All Black Lives Bristol organised a protest against police brutality and racial inequality. On 7 June 2020, an estimated 10,000 people gathered in Bristol.

Statue of Colston falling to the ground (© David Griffiths)
Protestors pulled down a statue of Edward Colston, graffitied it and threw it into the harbour. Four days later, Bristol City Council retrieved it. Museum conservators stabilised the condition and preserved the graffiti.
The Mayor of Bristol then established the We Are Bristol History Commission. Their role is to build an improved shared understanding of the city’s story. This is their first advisory project as a group.
There has been public debate about Colston’s legacy and Bristol’s involvement in the transatlantic traffic in enslaved Africans for decades.
The 2020 protest achieved what many anti Colston campaigns had not. The statue was removed and became worldwide news.
It became part of a fierce debate about racial and class inequality, the past, and who is remembered in public space.

Placards left at the plinth of the Colston statue (© Bristol City Council)
Timeline of events
1867 to 1895
1636 to 1721: Edward Colston born 1636, died 1721
20 Sept 1867: Colston Hall opens. It receives no funding from Colston and is named after its location, Colston Street.
October 1893: A wealthy businessman called James Arrowsmith proposes a Colston statue as part of city centre redevelopments.
1894: Statue committee is set up to raise funds but it struggles to raise enough to have a statue made. ‘A Friend’ donates most of the money. Meanwhile, Sir W.H. Wills gives a statue of former M.P. Edmund Burke to the city.
13 November 1895: Colston statue is unveiled, 174 years after his death. The date is ‘Colston Day’, his annual commemoration.
Image caption: Opening ceremony of the statue of Colston (© Bristol Archives 40145/per 28/001/20)

Resources and more information
If you’d like know more of Bristol’s relationship with the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Africans, please visit the displays in (Links open in new tab):
For more information online you can:
- Find out more about the We Are Bristol History Commission on the Bristol City Council website
- Read our action on decolonisation aims and objectives
- Learn more about Bristol and the Transatlantic Traffic of Enslaved Africans on our website
- Explore our collections and what we gathered from the Black Lives Matter protest
- View the Discovering Bristol: Port cities website archive
- Visit the Countering Colston website for more information on the campaign
- See the Bristol Radical History website for more articles on Edward Colston
- Read about the CARGO (Charting African Resilience Generating Opportunities) movement
- Sign up to our newsletter for updates on more similar exhibitions and events
- Find out more about Edward Colston
We’re always looking for more Black history stories, topics or subjects you’d like covered.
Let us know what display, story or exhibition we should document for the future.