Bristol Radical History Festival 2025

We are delighted to announce the 7th annual Bristol Radical History Festival

The festival is held over two days at two main venues: Saturday 26th April at Bristol’s social history museum on the city’s historic harbourside, M Shed and Sunday 27th April at the volunteer-run arts centre and cinema the Cube Microplex.

Across two days and four themes, we can promise history talks, walks, exhibitions, stalls, two film screenings and a pre-festival trip to the Bristol Archives. We warmly invite you to join us…

M Shed:  Saturday 26 April 10.30am–4.30pm

Theme 1 : Radical histories of housing

From the nineteenth century socialist origins of the ‘garden suburbs’ of Sea Mills, Hillfields, Filwood and Hartcliffe to the municipal dreams of social housing ‘fit for heroes’ and the post-war responses of hi-rise living, tenant activism, self-build housing coops and the Pardner Hand credit union scheme, this theme looks at hidden histories of housing in Bristol and beyond.

Theme 2: Hidden histories of incarceration

Has Britain ever introduced labour camps for the unemployed? What was ‘short, sharp shock’ in the 1980s? And are there alternatives to prison? This theme considers the largely hidden history of where the British state has extended the boundaries and punitive content of incarceration to include those without work, juveniles, prisoners of war and political activists. From the French (revolutionary) prisoners at Stapleton in the early nineteeth century, through the changing designs of Bristol’s gaols via the Great Depression of the 1930s, to the high point of prison reform in the 1970s, we chart the actions of and reactions to the extensions of the British system of incarceration.

Theme 3: And from Dublin….East Wall History Group

After the success of the international perspectives at last year’s festival BRHG decided to open up one of annual themes to history groups who have worked with us in the past. This year we are excited to host the East Wall History Group from Dublin in the Republic of Ireland who, like us, live in a port city with a long history of Atlantic links and rebellious working class history. Our friends from Ireland bring histories of international collaboration in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, solidarity during the UK miners’ strike, the inside story of the scandalous ‘mother and baby homes’ and during a period of the rise of the far-right in Ireland, analysis and biographies of veterans in the fight against fascism.

It’s not just history talks…

History walks…leaving from outside front of M She

• The one road – From Bristol to Dublin – A walk though time and space,  covering no less 1,500 years of Bristols historic connections with Dublin and featuring Saints and Sinners, Roundheads and Royalists, Colonists and Criminals, Transportees and Treachery, Merchants and Murders…
• Bedminster Coalmines – The Greater Bedminster area was once covered by coal mines stretching from East Street to Long Ashton. This walk will take you around the sites of nine of the mines, each of which have their own stories, many ending in tragedy for the mineworkers.

Exhibitions…in M Shed…Level 2 – Gallery

Come and take a look, or have a guided tour explaining the material on show…

• ‘Short, sharp, shock’ – a display of ground-breaking photographs taken by radical photographer Carlos Guarita within youth detention centres in the 1980s, showing daily life for the young offenders in the militarised regime introduced by the Tory government.
• Mozambique at 50: A LUTA CONTINUA! – a collection of posters celebrating the anniversary of the successful struggle for the liberation of Mozambique from Portuguese colonial rule in 1975.
• ‘Bristol Miners’ Suport Group’ – ephemera, posters and flyers produced in Bristol during the 1984-85 miners strike.
• ‘Faces of the Irish Diaspora’ – a fascinating set of images of Bristolians with Irish heritage.

As always, the festival at M Shed is a free event with no tickets or booking required.

The Watershed: Saturday 26 April 6.00pm

Introduced by some of the original London Recruits who hail from Somerset, aclaimed documentary film The London Recruits tells the story of how the African National Congress recruited volunteers in London in the 1960s and 70s to travel to South Africa for undercover missions against the apartheid regime. Booking required. Tickets £11, concs available.

The Cube Microplex: Sunday 27 April 2.00pm–8.00pm

Theme 4: Counter-cultures 2.00-5.00pm

In a series of talks and discussions we look at some of the hidden counter-cultures in the post-war era.  From Bristol’s LGBT press to gay punk activists in Ireland, via the underground music and art scenes of 1980s Bristol, inspired by popular uprisings and nurtured creatively by the isolation of the West Country, we explore how music, art and the written word have contributed to subcultures of resistance in Bristol and beyond.

Film showing: Wapping – the workers’ story 6.00-8.00pm

Acclaimed documentary about the momentous and violent year-long industrial dispute which began in 1986 when the Murdoch dynasty took on the print workers and their Unions. Introduced and Q&A with Ann Field who at the centre of the dispute, and played a key role in creating the exhibition and archive for the 25th anniversary of the strike.

Publicity

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Saturday 26th April

Sunday 27th April