27 Broad Street

This rather strange looking frontage is Bristol's "Palestine Museum and Cultural Centre.  The Museum offers a free permanent exhibition of Palestinian heritage, culture and political life close to the original city walls in Broad Street, which is at the heart of what is left of Bristol's medieval city.

I was first involved with this building when it was converted into a shop for selling jeans back in the 1990s.  The retail entrepreneurs who took on the building failed to make a go of things, and in due course the shop closed.  

It was subsequently converted into a club, at which stage the amazing frontage was added.  The bulbous leaded window is rather interesting I think, if not entirely in keeping with the rest of the architecture.  I was always amazed that it managed to achieve planning permission.  However, it has to be said that the weird door structure below (which you only see part of in this shot) has never been a great success.

In due course the club too ceased to trade, and the building came to achieve its present function - perhaps a rather odd location for a Museum of this sort?

I should stress that I have no political bias for or against the Palestinian's or the Israelis.  As the events in Manchester earlier this week clearly demonstrate, radicalised politics can cause people to stop seeing others as human beings leading to horrific acts of enormous inhumanity.  "he's my brother, why can't we live together" as the song goes.