The dockland site in Bristol which is home to the historic ocean liner SS Great Britain will change its name as part of a rebrand to make it more inclusive.
The 19th century passenger ship, which was once the largest in the world, was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for transatlantic voyages between Bristol and New York. Now a tourist attraction, the ship is found in the dry dock where it was constructed.
The ship and associated museum is billed as Brunel’s SS Great Britain but it will relaunch in July as Bristol Dockyards, as it seeks to focus on the role played by the ship in the days of Empire.
Chief executive of the SS Great Britain Trust Andrew Edwards told The Guardian that some people might view the decision as “woke” but added: “Change is never easy.”
Mr Edwards said: “You’ll always get those that are resistant, but when we were shaping the vision, I tried to take stock of where the city was and what the city was all about.
“We’ve consciously tried to avoid falling into those stereotypical ideas of what a maritime museum should look like and tried to present something that feels a little bit more rooted in Bristol.”
Mr Edwards said some visitors think “SS” in the name of the ship stands for “slave ship”. However, it means “steamship” and SS Great Britain was built following British abolition of the slave trade.
The new name for the site comes as it is set to open an expanded museum in July.
This museum will focus less on the engineering behind the vessel and more on the human stories associated with it, such as passengers’ personal histories and its impact on communities in the Caribbean, India, Australia and the US.
Mr Edwards said: “We live in a very diverse world and we live in a very diverse city in Bristol.
“I believe the role of organisations like us is to represent that diversity as best we can and to be able to provide a little bit of something that appeals to everybody, whoever they are and wherever they’ve come from.
“Heritage really only works, in my view, when it has ownership within the community within which it sits.”
Though it is changing its name, the site will still be described as “home to the SS Great Britain”, Mr Edwards said, so the ship’s name will not be completely removed from its branding.
