People living on a street in South Bristol are about to become TV stars - for setting up a museum on the history of their road. The new Channel 4 series will be presented by Bristol’s own Sir Tony Robinson, which is particularly fitting as he has just been named patron of a community theatre just streets away.
All eyes in Bedminster will be on More 4 next Monday, October 17, when the first in the series of a programme called The Museum of Us is aired. The show will feature a different street in Britain each week, as its residents are set the challenge of finding out about the history of their own street, the stories from the decades and centuries, and then putting it all together in a special museum they curate of what they found.
The programme was announced back in March, and over the summer, the presenter of the show, Sir Tony Robinson, challenged the people living in Hebron Road in Bedminster, to create a museum in the nearby church building.
Hebron Road, one of the first residential streets of terraced homes to be created in the middle of the 19th century as Bedminster boomed with mining and heavy industry, was named after the Palestinian town famed for its glassware.
It’s thought this was done as part of a street naming idea in Bedminster at the time that also saw new roads named after the Syrian city of Palmyra and nearby Sion Road. Its church burial ground is the last resting place of Mary Baker, who fooled Bristol’s aristocracy as the Javanese Princess Caraboo in the first half of the 19th century.
All the stories of Hebron Road were pulled together to create a temporary museum over the summer, and the results will be on the Museum Of Us in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, the nearby Acta Theatre, a couple of roads away in Palmerston Street, has named the Museum of Us presenter Sir Tony Robinson as its first patron.
Acta’s director Oliver Jones said the patronage honours Sir Tony’s own background in community theatre and reflects his ‘commitment to social activism and the role of arts to serve the community’.
“I would like to thank Tony very much for his support,” he said. “We believe his representation, during this time of post-covid recovery and change within our organisation, will bring much-needed profile and attention to our work with Bristol’s vulnerable communities. “Throughout Tony’s career, he has shown dedication to equality – for which he received his knighthood - something that is at the core of our organisation. We feel privileged to have Tony helping us break down barriers to creative expression and empowering everyone to have the opportunity to participate in theatre and the arts,” he added.
Sir Tony said he was delighted to back the community theatre. “I’m delighted to have been asked to become patron of Acta,” he said. “The work the organisation does in Bristol and the wider community will be more important than ever during the difficult times ahead. I hope my own experience of grassroots theatre and my commitment to social justice and opportunity for all will mean I can make a valuable contribution,” he said.
It’s the perfect time for Sir Tony to get involved, given his Museum of Us project nearby. The Acta community theatre has just been awarded an Everyday Heritage grant to explore Bedminster’s working class history - specifically the long-lost Hippodrome Theatre in East Street.
The Museum of Us starts on More4 at 9pm on Monday, October 17.
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