BRISTOL DOCKYARDS REPLACES BRUNEL'S SS GREAT BRITAIN AS SITE NAME

A major maritime site in Bristol has been renamed Bristol Dockyards, dropping the name of both the ship it houses and the Victorian engineer associated with it. The dockland site previously operated under the name Brunel's SS Great Britain for a decade. The ocean liner SS Great Britain was designed by the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Andrew Edwards, chief executive of the SS Great Britain Trust, confirmed the rebrand is intended to make the site feel "cooler" and more inclusive.

Edwards said he had tried to take stock of what Bristol was about when shaping the new vision, acknowledging that some people would describe the changes as "woke". The site will place greater emphasis on the role the vessel played in the British empire and aim to prompt conversations on topics including migration. Edwards also noted that some visitors mistakenly believed the "SS" in the ship's name stood for "slave ship". The trust said it had consciously sought to avoid what it described as stereotypical ideas of what a maritime museum should look like.

The renaming follows a broader pattern of changes to public-facing names in Bristol. The city's largest concert hall removed the name of slave trader Edward Colston and was renamed Bristol Beacon. That change occurred in the same year a statue of Colston was thrown into the harbour. Edwards said Bristol was frequently cited as the UK's coolest city and stated his intention for the site to reflect that standing within the community.