Bristol Beacon, previously Colston Hall, is a concert hall and Grade II listed building on Colston Street, Bristol, England. It is owned by Bristol City Council.

Venue: Bristol Beacon
Address: Colston Street, Bristol, BS1 5AR, England
Town: Bristol, GB

Bristol Beacon, previously Colston Hall, is a concert hall and Grade II listed building on Colston Street, Bristol, England. It is owned by Bristol City Council. Since 2011, it has been managed by Bristol Music Trust. The hall opened as a concert venue in 1867, and became a popular place for classical music and theatre. In the mid-20th century, wrestling matches were in strong demand, while in the late 1960s it developed into one of the most important rock music venues in Britain. The hall has been redeveloped several times, and was gutted by fires in 1898 and 1945, though the original Bristol Byzantine foyer has survived. A major refurbishment, adding an extra wing, opened in 2009. The hall closed in 2018 for repair and refurbishment work, and reopened on 30 November 2023. Formerly named after the slave trader, merchant and philanthropist Edward Colston, who founded Colston's School on the site in the early 18th century, it was renamed after a number of years of campaigning because of Colston's ties to the Atlantic slave trade. The renaming was brought forward in September 2020 following anti-racism protests in Bristol that summer. There has been a building on the site of the hall since the Middle Ages. During the 13th century, a Carmelite friary called Whitefriars stood on the site. In the Tudor period, it was replaced by a mansion called The Great House, built in 1568 by Sir John Young, a member of a merchant family and courtier to Henry VIII. Queen Elizabeth I stayed there as a guest of the Youngs when visiting Bristol in 1574. In the late 17th century, a sugar house was established here by the merchant venturer Edward Colston to refine sugar that was brought in from the Caribbean to Bristol Harbour. The sugar refinery included thirteen cottages for workers in its grounds which extended towards the current site of the Red Lodge Museum. In 1708, Colston established the Colston Boys' School in this building in order to educate the poor. It was managed by the Socie