Tunnel Boat Trips from London Canal Museum

the Tunnel was built in 1820 - sadly without a towpath - which is really annoying for all the cyclists wishing to travel safely from Islington to Camden.

Tunnel Boat Trips from London Canal Museum

William Morris Gallery wins Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year | Culture | The Guardian

This is a surprise but I do think it has made the place a really good visit - not entirely sure I felt I was in Morris's home but then they avoided the option of creating a pastiche, and museum, park and cafe are really well worth a visit
William Morris Gallery wins Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year | Culture | The Guardian

Jane Austen, and getting wet

Jane Austen was right: Her characters were known for falling ill... but historians say 19th century people WERE prone to disease | Mail Online

Other articles

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10105843/Solved-Why-Jane-Austens-characters-get-ill-from-the-rain.html
 

http://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/science/whats-on/2013/pride-prejudice-and-the-doctor/

http://www.ls.manchester.ac.uk/people/profile/?personid=1765

Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy Tour

I have just received a most gratifying email from one of the people on my Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy Tour

It says:

'I've sent off a rave review of your knowledge and guiding skills to Road Scholar and ordered two of your books.  I'm appreciative of Road Scholar choosing you as our literary mentor on the Literature on Site southwest England trip recently completed.  

What is most impressive from my point of view is that it is from a professor of English and of Women's Studies '

 

The tour takes in Steventon, Bath, Wincester, and Chawton.

The Hardy Section is based in Dorchester and visits the Birthplace, Max Gate, Stinsford, Puddleton, Sherborne, Marnhull, Sturminster Newton, Maiden Castle, Maumbury Rings and Dorchester.

In between we spend a couple of days with Agatha Christie in Torquay, and on Dartmoor with Sherlock Holmes.  We end with a Dickens and Holmes Day in London

Exhausting but very rewarding.

Temple of Mithras - British Pathé

Showing the Temple of Mitras 1954

ROMAN TEMPLE IN THE CITY aka ROMAN TEMPLE IN LONDON - British Pathé

Jane Austen's Bath

I was asked to keep a blog of my literary tour.  So here goes.
Jane Austen's Bath.  She didn't like the place - she would find it weird that we now revere it on her behalf.  The local Waterstone's has a long shelf stuffed with books based on the afterlife of her characters.  What Darcy, Elizabeth, Caroline, Emma etc did next.  There is a Jane Austen attraction in a house which she never lived in. 

I'm up at 5, as I cannot sleep in my big Hilton Room, because we seem to have decided to sell our house,  and I have a Lecture on Gilpin, Austen and Landscape to revise (or remember!).  Did I mention that there were no biscuits in this Hotel room?

Dynamic Map of Europe: 1000 AD to present day

Watch Empires ebb and flow!

This is really interesting - as my friend Jon  says it needs a time display and it needs a slow down button
LiveLeak.com - Map of Europe: 1000 AD to present day

BBC News - The story of how the tin can nearly wasn't

This is a very interesting article about the inventor of the Tin Can which took place in 1813 in Bermondsey. The article shows that the invention was a development of pioneering work in France.


BBC News - The story of how the tin can nearly wasn't

A jaunt into Jane Austen country

Some interesting places to visit near Jane Austen's House Chawton
Britain Magazine | The official magazine of Visit Britain | Best of British History, Royal Family,Travel and Culture - A jaunt into Jane Austen country

twitterfeed.com : feed your blog to twitter

I am attempting to link my facebook, twitter and blog accounts. This is a test

twitterfeed.com : feed your blog to twitter

Products through the ages - slideshow | Life and style | The Guardian

Products through the ages - slideshow | Life and style | The Guardian

Ekarv text | Mouseion: artists' reflections on museums

These are the 'Ekarv' Guidelines for writing readable texts.

Generally, the principles seem to make sense, though too strict and too unlike real English


Ekarv text | Mouseion: artists' reflections on museums: Guidelines

One idea expressed per line

Line breaks placed at natural pauses in a sentence

No more than 3 lines per sentence

Simple sentence structures, no complex clauses

Use active forms of the verb where possible

Conversational rhythms, easily spoken out loud

Maximum 52 characters per line (including spaces)

Maximum 8 lines per paragraph

Maximum 15 lines for labels, 22 lines for panels (including spaces)

This framework provides a strict discipline for writing and is initially quite difficult to work within. It also has significant implications for design, as the placing and spacing of text is absolutely crucial and the short line length imposes a portrait format on the final label. It is therefore extremely important to work closely with designers from the beginning of the process.

Grotesque Mummy Head Reveals Advanced Medieval Science - Yahoo! News

Grotesque Mummy Head Reveals Advanced Medieval Science - Yahoo! News

The Halloween and Scare Attractions network

This is how weird a society we are - there is a Halloween & Scare Attractions network - and no the Old Operating Theatre will not be joining.

The Halloween and Scare Attractions Show

Museum closes pub! - Furore over Geffrye's expansion |

 Or at least is considering demolishing it - but it is already closed.

Furore over Geffrye's expansion | Museums Association

▶ BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Anglo-Saxon Portraits, Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians

▶ BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Anglo-Saxon Portraits, Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians

Boris orders fire authority to press on with Southwark Fire Station closure consultation [30 January 2013]

 If there is one fire-station that should be saved it is the one in Southwark Bridge Road - it is associated with the foundation of the London Fire Brigade and Massey Shaw and James Bradshaw - hero firemen.



Boris orders fire authority to press on with Southwark Fire Station closure consultation [30 January 2013]

Internet Archaeology: open access articles

Internet Archaeology: open access articles-  much of the archive is now free

From Salon 291 - interesting stuff on stately homes:

'Thus our Fellow Pamela Sandbrook (in her paper on ‘“The Servants’ Friend”? Country house servants’ engagement with new technology’) tells the story of Virginia Woolf’s inept attempts to sack her cook. Woolf’s use of modern technology in order to achieve a servant-free life at Monk’s House in Sussex reflects her personal desire for privacy, but in a minor way it also stands for the impact of new technology, which was to make redundant an army of servants: whereas in the early days of technology it was cheaper to use servants than to install modern plumbing, by the 1920s and 1930s, technology had reversed that formula.


Pursuing the Woolf theme, another insight into the impact of technology on country houses was the way that electric light changed the appearance of houses built in the era of candle, oil and fire light — as at Knole, for example, where Vita Sackville West wrote in 1922 about the restless flickering of candle flame accentuating the textures of furnishings and textiles, adding lustre to gilding or silk textiles, lending depth to plasterwork or picture frames. It was Victoria (Vita’s mother) who began the introduction of electrical light at Knole in 1902, and unusually, Maureen Dillon points out in her case study on lighting technology at Knole, this included the servants’ rooms at a time when the prevailing opinion was that this was undesirable as ‘it encourages reading there’. Borlas Matthews, in Electricity for Everybody (1909), advised (ironically given the book’s title) that if the servants’ bedrooms were to be lit, there should be a master switch in the dressing room ‘so that the consumer can extinguish their lights when he goes to bed himself’.'

Planning change in Southwark

North Southwark/Bermondsey  has a unique collection of industrial buildings of the 18th, 19th and 20th Century.  These need to be preserved as a set - and we must not allow the developers to pick them off one by one.  We need to set up a thoughtful planning process whereby examples of all periods are kept.

For example in Bear Gardens there was a series of industrial buildings, most of which have been preserved except  a 1960's concrete building was pulled down - probably because no one thought it had an architectural merit but it was the only one from that period and as such was a great example of modernism.

So the stock of industrial buildings needs to be studied as a set and preservation issue determined as a set with a view to preserving not just the quaint old ones but also some of the harsh modern industrial ones.

Southwark gains its uniqueness from a diversity of building types and styles and that the atmosphere of the area is ruined if they are all torn down and replaced with modern ones, so I would make sure that the historic fabric is kept in tact and that destruction of old buildings is very selective.

Lets keep Southwark as a unique environment and not turn it into a bland glass modern environment.

Society of Antiquaries London'  Salon 289 reports: 'Star Carr was far bigger than we thought Also challenging previous interpretations is the paper in Antiquity on Star Carr by Chantal Conneller, Barry Taylor and Fellows Nicky Milner and Maisie Taylor, which ‘rewrites the character of Early Mesolithic settlement in Europe’, throwing into contention our picture of small mobile pioneering groups colonising new land and establishing small seasonal camps. In 9000 cal BC, Star Carr extended for nearly 2ha (5 acres) and involved the construction of a large timber platform, extending for an estimated 30m along the lakeside waterfront, with at least one post-built hut structure with signs of long-lasting or repeated occupation. In addition, since less than 5 per cent of the site has been excavated, and the archaeology of the larger, dryland component has hitherto been neglected, there is considerable potential for additional hut structures to be uncovered in the course of future excavations. The scale of the site is now known to be at least eighty times larger than the small, ephemeral sites that have so far been considered ‘typical’ of the period. The authors argue that the ‘small groups’ model of Mesolithic settlement results from the small scale of our excavations, rather than reflecting the true scale of settlement in early Mesolithic Europe. They list a number of sites elsewhere in northern and western Europe known to have even higher lithic densities than Star Carr but that have only undergone limited excavation. On the basis of this new research at Star Carr they suggest that Mesolithic populations recolonising northern Europe invested significant amounts of time and labour in building structures in favoured landscape settings at which it is highly probable that large groups congregated for long periods of time — behaviour that is more typically associated with changes in socio-economic organisation several thousand years later.'

New Stonehenge dates

SALON - the Society of Antiquaries of London Online Newsletter Salon 289 Reports:

'The latest issue of Antiquity, for December 2012, contains a paper by our Fellows Tim Darvill, Mike Parker Pearson and Geoff Wainwright plus Peter Marshall on the sequence of construction at Stonehenge, based on recent excavation and carbon dates modelled using Bayesian algorithms. Five prehistoric stages are now proposed, in place of Atkinson’s four and Ros Cleal’s three (some of which were further subdivided), and perhaps the most radical departure from earlier interpretations is the placing of the construction of the sarsen trilithon horseshoe at an early stage in the sequence.

During Stage 1 (3000―2620 cal BC), the authors argue, Stonehenge consists of an earthwork enclosure bounded by a bank and ditch, within which are simple timber structures, pits and the fifty-six Aubrey holes, whose function remains enigmatic: the authors say they might even have been dug before the ditch, and might have held standing stones, but the jury is still out.

The relatively short phase 2 (2620―2480 cal BC) was the momentous one, when Stonehenge was ‘transformed from something fairly commonplace to a structure quite unique in the ancient world’. Two possible scenarios are presented. In the first, the trilithon horseshoe is initially surrounded by the double bluestone circle and then years, decades or centuries later, the sarsen circle is added. Alternatively, the trilithon horseshoe, the double bluestone circle and the sarsen circle are all erected in relatively rapid succession. Culturally, Stage 2 is associated with the users of Grooved Ware and took place broadly contemporaneously with the construction and use of Woodhenge, the three timber monuments south of Woodhenge and the southern and northern timber circles and the houses and settlement at Durrington Walls.

In Stage 3 (2480―2280 cal BC) the Bluestones (perhaps derived from Bluestonehenge) are arranged as the central bluestone circle within the trilithon horseshoe and the Avenue is constructed to link Stonehenge to the site of the former Bluestonehenge beside the River Avon, 2.8km away.

Next, in Stage 4 (2280―2020 cal BC), the central bluestone and the double bluestone circles are dismantled and re-built as a bluestone oval of around twenty-five monoliths inside the trilithon horseshoe and an outer bluestone circle of between forty and sixty monoliths in the space between the trilithon horseshoe and the sarsen circle.

The final stage (2020―1520 cal BC) sees extensive use of Stonehenge, with some bluestones being worked into artefacts, rock art applied (around 1650―1500 cal BC) to stones forming the sarsen circle and trilithon horseshoe, the construction of the Y and Z holes (in the period 1630―1520 cal BC) and the construction of numerous round barrow cemeteries in the surrounding landscape.

The authors stress that their sequence is provisional, and still tentative in places, and is presented as a working hypothesis for future investigations to test. In particular, the five stages cover large date spans, some of them encompassing a considerable number of events. It is unlikely, though, that building work was continuous throughout the period: it is more likely that there was a burst of activity for one or two generations, resulting in the major elements of the site, followed by long periods when little changed.

Fellow Robert Ixer, who is developing techniques for the chemical fingerprinting of the individual bluestones in order to trace their precise places of origin, said that the paper ‘was very timely and very important … a lot of us have got to go back and rethink when the stones arrived’. Fellow Tim Darvill, co-author of the paper, said that previous sequences suggested that Stonehenge started small and grew: in fact, ‘it starts big and stays big’, and the giant sandstone horseshoe came first, drawing stone from nearby quarries; only then were the smaller bluestones imported from Wales: ‘they sort out the local stuff first, and then they bring in the stones from Wales to add to the complexity of the structure’, Tim said. The new timeline ‘connects everything together, gives us a good sequence of events and it gives us a set of cultural associations with the different stages of construction’, he added.'

Roman London Walk Dec 30th

My next walks are ideally suited to get your out of the house after Christmas

10.45 Sun Dec 30th 'Roman london' Barbican Tube

10.45 Sun Jan 6th 'The origins and Archaeology of the City of London' Tower Hill underground

Early Sirens and Mermaids

From the Liber Monstrorum (9th-10th century)

'Sirens are sea-girls [marinae puellae] who deceive sailors with the outstanding beauty of their appearance and the sweetness of their song, and are most like human beings from the head to the navel, with the body of a maiden, but have scaly fishes' tails with which they always lurk in the sea.'

(Translation from Andy Orchard _Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters in the Beowulf-Manuscript_ (University of Toronto Press, 1995, repr 2002) pp 262-3)

From a posting in Britarch by John Clark

Norman carving of a mermaid from Norman Chapel Durham

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/durham-castle-photos/slides/eos_146pl

Archive of film about the early RAF

Excellent archive of images.


Mopic

What’s Happening With London Stone? | Londonist

What’s Happening With London Stone? | Londonist

London Stone: Fury as developers plan to move legendary rock from its historic site | Mail Online

We are all doomed - apparently if London Stone is moved it spells doom for London.

London Stone: Fury as developers plan to move legendary rock from its historic site | Mail Online

Rose Theatre project wins Heritage Lottery Fund development grant [15 November 2012]

This is excellent news for the Rose - the probem is that it is incredibly important but as the remains are buried beneath wet sand it is not a compelling attraction - hopefully, the excavation of the unexcavated third might allow the display of something real to make it a compelling attraction.

Rose Theatre project wins Heritage Lottery Fund development grant [15 November 2012]

200-Year-Old Medical Building Still Healthy After All These Years - PreservationNation

200-Year-Old Medical Building Still Healthy After All These Years - PreservationNation

Ale, Caesar! Romans and Caledonian tribes went to pub together - Heritage - Scotsman.com

Roman pub found in Scotland, (possibly)

Ale, Caesar! Romans and Caledonian tribes went to pub together - Heritage - Scotsman.com

London Walks organises Archaeology Walks in Southwark, Bermondsey and Bankside

Kevin Flude and Dougie Killock are giving special London walks around the Archaeology of Southwark this weekend

London Walks has organised a weekend of special archaeological walks around the fascinating area of Southwark. The first walk, at 10.45 on Saturday 17^th November will provide a survey of the Archaeology and History of Southwark. It will begin with the prehistoric origins which make it the most interesting area of London at this period of history, and then trace the origins and development of the Roman City on small islands in the Thames, and the mystery of what happened to the area during the so-called Dark Ages. The walk will also conclude with the excavations of the remains of the Elizabethan & Jacobean Theatre.
On Sunday 18^th November 2012, the focus of the walks shifts eastwards, with a look at the finds to the East of London Bridge, and will follow a trail into the interesting area of Bermondsey, home of the leather trade in London, and will end with an examination of the archaeology and remains of one of Britain's most famous Abbey's – Bermondsey Abbey.

Kevin Flude is a former Museum of London archaeologist, who is now the Director of the Old Operating Theatre Museum. He has enjoyed leading Guided Walks since the late 1970's.

Dougie Killock began his archaeological career as a volunteer on the excavations of Bermondsey Abbey and has since worked as a professional archaeologist on the Abbey, nearby Pope’s mansion, and in Southwark at Ewer Street, the Roman religious complex at Tabard Square and cemetary at Trinity Street, amongst other sites.

 

Nov. 17

The Archaeology & History of Southwark

London Bridge Tube Tooley Street

Nov. 18

The Archaeology of Southwark & Bermondsey

London Bridge Tube

Waterloo and Bermondsey cycle safety changes "too timid" says Caroline Pidgeon [1 November 2012]

What London should be doing is making London the first Global Capital to embrace the Cycle.  We have a mayor who says he is pro-cycle, we have had an amazing success in cycling over the last 10 years and we should embrace it and make London a paradise for cyclists.

The logic is irrefutable.

Waterloo and Bermondsey cycle safety changes "too timid" says Caroline Pidgeon [1 November 2012]

Maggs beneath the Covers

This is an exhibition in a antiquarian bookshop, but it also allows the exploration of a Georgian Townhouse.

'21st September - 21st December 2012 Maggs Bros Ltd, 50 Berkeley Square, London W1J 5BA
It is an unprecedented opportunity for artists to work with unusual and rare books, explore a rich seam of heritage and offer the public a glimpse of previously unseen areas of Maggs's historic Georgian buildings.'


Maggs beneath the Covers

Discover Hackney · Partners

Discover Hackney · Partners

Boris Johnson condemns historic MarketPlace

I've never really had a clear idea of what Boris Johnson does - but this shows the pernicious effect he has:

Salon 285 (Society of Antiquities reports:)

'Spitalfields: yes to redevelopment of London Fruit and Wool Exchange

Just being in favour of culture does not mean that decisions are easy to make about London’s historic buildings. Last week the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, gave the green light to the redevelopment of the London Fruit and Wool Exchange in Spitalfields, much to the dismay of local people, who had submitted 800 letters of objection, and of leading London historians and architectural champions such as Dan Cruickshank and Ptolemy Dean and our Fellows Simon Jenkins, Gavin Stamp and Marcus Binney, all of whom had campaigned for the retention of the existing 1929 building, arguing that it should be used for small business premises and independent enterprises that are in keeping with the character of Spitalfields.

Boris Johnson stepped in after Tower Hamlets council had twice rejected the redevelopment plans. Using his powers as mayor to over-rule the planning authority, he presided over a public meeting on 10 October 2012 at City Hall to hear the respective arguments for and against the development. He then decided in favour of the development, which will see the long facade of the London Fruit and Wool Exchange retained, but the rest of the site used to build 300,000 sq ft of new office, retail and restaurant space. Boris Johnson said the scheme would ‘regenerate the Spitalfields area with thousands of new jobs, and brand new commercial opportunities. It will also make a vital contribution to the wider London economy and have a significant impact not just on Tower Hamlets but on surrounding boroughs as well.’

Fellow Marcus Binney, President of SAVE Britain’s Heritage, has called on the unlisted Exchange building to be spot-listed, arguing that time is needed to assess ‘the special architectural and historic interest of this fine civic building, which in our view is a superb example of dignified and handsome street architecture sensitive to its context’. SAVE describes the building designed in 1928 by the City Architect Sydney Perks, as comparable to Fortnum & Mason, opposite Burlington House in Piccadilly, which has a Grade II listing and is built in the same materials of warm red brick with an abundance of Portland stone trim — the materials used for the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666.

The building houses what was once the largest auction hall in the British Isles, fitted out with mahogany panelling and Art Deco glass, brass handrails and fine parquet flooring. The basement walls are covered with wartime graffiti, a reminder that the building served during the war as a ‘township under the ground’ for 10,000 East Enders during the Blitz. It was here that Mickey Davies, an East End optician, became a popular hero through his work to improve the quality of the shelter by organising medical care, installing beds and toilets and recruiting volunteers to undertake cleaning rotas.

For more on the history of the building, along with a series of recent and archive photographs, see the Spitalfields Life blog.'

Getting On, with Joanna Scanlan & Vicki Pepperdine » The Cinema Museum, London

Really interesting event at the Cinema Museum

Getting On, with Joanna Scanlan & Vicki Pepperdine » The Cinema Museum, London

Museums in 2020 - MA vision

This is the summary of the Museum's Associations vision for 2020

This is the link to the full document

SMARTER Targets - A note on improving the SMART targets methodology.

The SMART methodology is often used to ensure that targets are set which are  measurable and attainable. However,  SMART does not address  whether project outcomes are worth attaining or relevant to an organisation's mission.

This short note suggests  adopting a SMARTER approach.

SMART is usually presented as being an acronym for:

S – specific
M – measurable
A - achievable
R – realistic
T – time-based

There are variants on the system:

S - specific, significant, stretching
M - measurable, meaningful, motivational
A - agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented
R - realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented
T - time-based, timely, tangible, trackable¹

Clearly, the success of the SMART methodology is in the acronym which is both easy to remember and relevant to the targets – outcomes thus defined are indeed smart.

However, the SMART system, leaves out 2 major vital components that are not addressed. The first are ethical issues. A project outcome can be SMART while at the same time being entirely to the detriment of an organisation, against its ethos or at the extreme against humanity. Tony Soprano and Osama Bin Laden could both equally have  used SMART targets to improve the operation of their particular organisations. A less extreme example would be a museum creating a project which lead to an unacceptable increase in use of energy resources. Or an aggressive advertising campaign designed to increase revenue which damages the reputation of an organisation's reputation. These projects might be entirely negative in their effects and yet still fulfil the SMART criteria.

The second is relevance – a project can be SMART but be entirely irrelevant to the success of an organisation. SMART addresses whether the objectives can be measured it does not encourage analysis of what benefits to the organisation the outcome delivers. Nor does it encourage analysis of where the outcome fits as a priority. So, one way of focussing on the needs of the organisation is to add an extra R which will stand for Relevance. Is a project relevant to the Mission statement, it is relevant to a modern multicultural society?

In the proposed amended scheme it is also suggested that A stands for Agreed not for achievable. Achievable can be dropped because it is duplicated by R for 'realistic'. A for Agreed has the benefit that it focusses on the need to make sure that targets have the active support of participating parties.



SMART targets thus become SMARTER :



S – specific
M – measurable
A - agreed
R – realistic
T – time-based
E – ethical
R – relevant

Kevin Flude
Director the Old Operating Theatre Museum and lecturer at Central St Martins College (the University of the Arts. London)

This is a slightly revised version on a short note originally published in: GEM (Group for Education) News No 107, Winter 2007

1http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/smart-goals.html

Jonathan Meades: Architects are the last people who should shape our cities | Art and design | The Guardian

This is a great polemic which records how architects are not the people to improve people

Jonathan Meades: Architects are the last people who should shape our cities | Art and design | The Guardian

Dickens, the Resurrectionists and Victorian Southwalk Walk

 Dickens, the resurrectionists and Victorian Southwark walking tour  

Join us for a very special walking tour of the area's most historical sites led by Kevin Flude, Director of The Old Operating Theatre. The tour will cover Dickens sites, historical health (and body snatching!) stories and original looks at Victorian Southwark.

The tour meets at the Tooley Street entrance to Hay's Galleria at 12:30pm and will last for one hour.

Please email Bethany at events@teamlondonbridge.co.uk for more information.

Location: Hay’s Galleria
Event Date: Thursday, 20 September 2012

#Team London Bridge and the London Bridge Business Improvement District

The Daily Constitutional from London Walks®

This is the blog of London Walks - a splendid organisation - one of those things that makes London unique.



The Daily Constitutional from London Walks®

the Lord Mayor Emperor of Planet Free Enterprise - NLA - The Developing City Exhibition

This is one of those  exhibitions that are really interesting - unmissable despite how very flawed they are.  This one not only intellectually but also morally.  The first part of it is one of those glorious exhibitions that has no inter actives at all. It is huge white sheet printed with brilliantly clear and well chosen images of London through the ages.  The viewer can enjoy reading the text in a vertical position, concentration undistracted by interactives, running children, spouting actors etc.   I was very excited  - the first few sheets, wonderfully printed,  shaped up as if it were going to investigate what takes to sustain a great City and explored how a great City can survive disaster - and which would then end up with an in depth discussion of the role of the large high rise in the modern economy.

It failed to live up to my expectation -  in the end it was 3 uncoordinated exhibitions - an interesting but unoriginal historical review of the City;   then a lot of models and text on recent grand projects (really interesting) , and finally an Arup style 'Drivers of Change' look at the future of several 'quarters' of the City.  The narratives were not integrated and it therefore failed to be the overview of the role of architecture in the development of a modern City, and merely became a place to enjoy models of modern architecture and ponder how on earth did anyone give permission for the dreadful 'Walkie Talkie'?  There was a small sub exhibition which tried to show how wonderful HiRise was because the amalgamation of plots and rising high meant perimeters could be drawn back to expand the public realm. Oh how lucky we are! - Don't they realise that great Cities are created by street frontages - not wind swept pavements around lego-inspired towers!

The moral failing was that the future scoping failed to even touch upon vital issues that arise around the City of London - namely how is the City to be controlled to protect the economy? Did we not just live through a credit crunch?  How does the City integrate with London - richest place in Europe cheek by jowl with some of the poorest areas in Britain?  How should the City's  undemocratic nature be changed to maintain useful traditions while righting the democratic deficit? 

What 'Drivers for Change' gave us were green islands in the Thames, Smithfield as a playground of Culture, a new Financial Centre in Aldgate,  green walk ways and a the City as a paradise for financial, cultural and innovation workers.  Gensler hope that the City of London will shake of its national shackles and become the capital of Capitalism - king of a universal free zone - free of taxes, regulation, responsibility for anything London or indeed British - the Lord Mayor Emperor of Planet Free Enterprise. 


Read Gensler's 2050 vision and note that there was not one reference in the entire exhibition in which any alternative voices were heard - no local people, no  local council, no progressive think tank.  Is this how the great teams of architects think?  The City might as well be in a bubble, under a giant acrylic hood, hemetically sealed from the taint of ordinary life.  Great architecture boys, where's the social responsibility?  Oh, they replaced that with environmentalism.


This all came to focus in me when reading the free broad sheet of the exhibition which makes its ambitions much clearer, and when the sponsors and partners are set side by side it makes the lack of any questioning of the role of the City and of the High Tech architects profoundly shocking.

They seem to want to sweep us forward on a tide of new-modernism, recruiting the progressive to become handmaidens of the plutocrats, and using vibrant public space to hide what is actually happening, creating a world that is a playground for the rich.

This is what they said it was about

NLA - The Developing City: The Developing City exhibition will look at how the physical environment of the City - its buildings, public spaces and culture have helped it to thrive as a major business centre. The Black Death, the Great Fire, the Blitz brought pestilence and destruction, yet the City survived and rebuilt itself. Today it faces major challenges as a result of the financial meltdown and the changing nature of financial institutions. How will this impact on the physical fabric of the City? What will it be like to work in the Square Mile in 2050?

Shakespeare - staging the world

Shakespeare - staging the world

The BM exhibition was really interesting for the first quarter, then it became increasingly unfocussed.  Some of the objects were very semi-detached - and it really lacked intelectual rigour.

The first section had some great items from the Rose and Globe excavations which were interesting - particularly the toothpick/ear wax scoop (not sure about the combination in one instrument!) and the Bear's skull - the owners had  ground down the Bear's teeth to even up the battle between Bear and Dogs in the Bear Baiting Pits.

The image of James 1st accession procession was fascinating because it sported an early version of the Union Jack - for some reason they did not have this image in the section on the origins of Great Britain.

I felt I recognize the methodology - I do it when I have a new lecture to do and not much time to do the research. You sit down work out the themes, then think what have I got or know that can illustrate that?  For example, Falstaff dresses in a stag's head when wooing. So they illustrate this with a block of Herne's Oak from Richmond Park (fair enough) then have the famous skull from the Star Carr excavation dating to 8000BC!  Why?

As it happens I took a group of students up to the Europe section of the BM see this item a couple of months ago and was surprised to find it missing.  So one question is - does the pleasure this irrelevant item give to Shakespeare lovers, match the loss to lovers of the Mesolithic for whom this is a world famous item?  Not in my opinion.

To me the whole exhibition is full of similar tokenism - grab a quote from Shakespeare and find something vaguely relevant. This could have worked - for example, the Tudor clock was amazing - because it not only illustrated Shakespeare but told you something you did not know about Shakespeare's world. But for me the Curators made poor choices too detached from Shakespeare and not interesting enough in their own right - in the end, to me it is an insipid exhibition. 

By the end of the Exhibition I had fallen out of interest. There is a section on Cleopatra, another on Julius Ceasar, then a whole bit on Venice.  I understand the potential revelance in illuminating Shakespeare world but each section was so lacking in insight, and interest.  Nothing wrong with the idea - just implemented in a trivial way - lacking scholarlship, rigour and most importantly interest!

I felt Cleopatra - so what?  The only interesting fact here was a rather stretched comparison between Cleopatra and Elizabeth - both being women rulers in a man's world. 

When you go round the exhibition you get glimpses of the Reading Room - and it reminds me what a terrible decision it was to turn this truly internationally important building into an exhibition room where the building is obscured behind temporary staging.  This was a great free library and to me it is betrayal of the public funding to use this public facility for making money in block buster exhibitions.

Cosmati Pavement - Westminster Abbey New Web Site

Cosmati Pavement - Home: he Cosmati pavement  in Westminster Abbey, is an amazing thirteenth century mosaic floor

A new  restoration project by the Abbey has made it available for the public to see - this web site explains it all.

have a look at this video - what am amazing floor!
http://www.westminster-abbey.org/conservation/video-library/introduction/chapter-one/prof-warwick-rodwell-design-construction-part-1

Web petition in last-ditch bid to save historic Ancoats Dispensary | Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk

 I am shocked at the picture of the deliberate decay of a fine historic building - not only of a quality that should be preserved on its on merits but one that deserves to be preserved because of its medical connections.

I wish you luck in your attempt to preserve it.

I cannot understand why anyone would think the demolition of such a fine building can be a useful thing to do.

Web petition in last-ditch bid to save historic Ancoats Dispensary | Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk

Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret Web Site

The Old Operating Theatre, Museum and Garret becomes a National Trust Partner

 

On September 1^st – the Old Operating Theatre Museum became a National Trust Partner.

The Partnership is an exciting new venture between the National Trust and a selection of small, independent heritage attractions and museums within London. The Partnership aims to bring enhanced benefits to National Trust members living in London or for those visiting the capital for a day out; helping to provide increased opportunities to explore our rich and diverse heritage. In return, partner museums benefit from increased visitor numbers and an exchange of know-how in a community of equality with the Trust.

The Old Operating Theatre, Museum & Herb Garret in St Thomas Street, London SE1 is joining Benjamin Franklin House, Dr Johnson’s House, Foundling Museum, Hall Place and Gardens, Keats House, Leighton House Museum and the Museum of Brands as National Trust Partners.

National Trust members will be entitled to a 50% discount on entry on presentation of their valid membership card.

Kevin Flude, the Director of the Old Operating Theatre Museum, said 'This is an important development in the history of the Old Operating Theatre Museum. The Museum is a very important survival from our medical past, and we hope our association with the National Trust will help bring the Museum to a wider public.'

The Theatre is the oldest surviving Operating Theatre in Britain dating to 1822, and the Herb Garret is a unique survival in the roof of St Thomas Church (built 1703) where the Apothecary kept the herbs that formed an important part of St Thomas Hospital's medical care.

Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret Web Site

From Ludgate to the Barbican - archaeology and architecture walk

From Ludgate to the Barbican - archaeology and architecture walk 

This was a surprisingly good walk - it gave the opportunity to talk about the main findings of archaeology while looking at the major changes in architectural style in the City

Express Building interior

 

 

 

 

 

Route:

Blackfriars Tube

Blackfriars Bridge

Unilever House

Blackfriars Pub

Bridewell Place

St Brides

Fleet Street

Daily Telegraph Building

Daily Express Building

Ludgate Circus

St Martin's

Stationers Hall

Amen Corner

Paternoster Sq

New Change

Foster Lane

Jean Nouvel's New Change looking at St Paul's

St Vedast

Gresham Street

Noble Street

London Wall

High Walk

Museum of London

Barber Surgeons Hall

Barbican

Dickens and the Workhouse lecture at Florence Nightingale Museum

Thursday September 27^th at 6.30pm

Dickens and the Workhouse

The recent discovery that as a youth Charles Dickens lived only a few doors from a major London workhouse made headlines worldwide, and the campaign to save it from demolition caught the public imagination. Ruth Richardson, the historian responsible for these exciting new findings, will explain how profoundly important these years were to his subsequent writing career.

Ruth Richardson is a historian and the author of a number of books. Her most recent book is The Making of Mr Gray’s Anatomy, winner of the 2009 Medical Journalists’ Open Book Award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Honorary Professor of Humanities and Medicine at Hong Kong University.

The lecture will be followed by a free glass of wine and an opportunity to view the museum.
Admission price £10.00. (Members of the Florence Nightingale Museum £8.00) To book, please contact Natasha McEnroe on natasham@florence-nightingale.co.uk or 020 7620 0374.

From Ludgate to the Barbican - archaeology and architecture walk

 My next guided walk is this Saturday:

Sept 1 2012

From Ludgate to the Barbican - archaeology and architecture

10.45 Blackfriars Tube

The Next Public Walk to be given by Kevin Flude

Bonobos Can Make Stone Tools..

The days of 'Man the Toolmaker' are long distant and many animals and birds have been shown to make fairly sophisticated use of 'tools'.

Bonobos Can Make Stone Tools...and That's Freaking Cool | Care2 Causes

BBC News - Neanderthal breeding idea doubted

This refutes recent suggestions that there may have been some interbreeding between humans and neanderthals - suggesting similarities in genome might be because of shared ancestry.


BBC News - Neanderthal breeding idea doubted

Stonehenge by Mike Parker Pearson: review - Telegraph

This is possibly the most anticipated book in British Prehistory - the results of the staggering successful Stonehenge Riverside Project - it just shows what can be achieved by collaboration and the application of intelligence.

Stonehenge by Mike Parker Pearson: review - Telegraph

Genetic study of people with uncommon surnames

Genetic study of people with uncommon surnames - gives new insight into the British

pobipaper.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Octavia Hill's Anniversary - founder of the National Trust

The following information about Octavia Hill comes from the Society of Antiquaries Salon 282 6th August 2012

'The one-hundredth anniversary of the death of Octavia Hill occurs on 13 August 2012. BBC Radio 4 will broadcast a programme about her life and work on that day, presented by Tristram Hunt but with contributions from our Fellow Gillian Darley, whose biography of Octavia Hill was published in a revised edition in 2010 (Francis Boutle Publishers). Gillian is also one of the contributors to a publication that can be downloaded for free from the website of the think tank Demos called The Enduring Relevance of Octavia Hill. Later this year (on 22 October 2012), a memorial to Octav! ia will be unveiled at a special service in Westminster Abbey to mark what the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, described as her ‘substantial and extensive contributions to the preservation of the history and environment of this country’.

Octavia Hill (1838—1912) is perhaps best remembered as one of the three founders of the National Trust, along with Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley and Sir Robert Hunter; their particular achievement was to pioneer a new form of property ownership, whereby land and buildings ‘of beauty or historic interest’ could be held in trust for the specific purpose of conserving them, and their animal and plant life, on behalf of the nation inalienably and in perpetuity, by means of the 1907 National Trust Act. But Octavia Hill’s achievements were far wider than that: with John Ruskin she established a network of fifteen social housing schemes that had, by 1874, provided decent, clean accommodation for nearly 3,000 tenants in London. She also campaigned vigorously for the protection of what she termed ‘open-air sitting rooms’ — that is to say, urban and suburban green spaces, which were in danger of being swamped by the scale of building development that took place in the latter half of! the nineteenth century and on into the twentieth. London’s Vauxhall Park and Parliament Hill remain unbuilt upon as a result of her advocacy and organisational ability.

Like a latter-day John Clare, who wrote passionately about the privatisation of common land and open countryside by corrupt landowners ganging together to pass enclosure acts, so Octavia Hill resented the closure of what had been city-fringe commons and public footpaths by developers using the law to get their way, knowing that poor people lacked the means to mount an effective opposition. She argued that ‘the little winding, quiet byways with all their beauty, that lead us on by hedgerow and over brooks, through scented meadows, and up grassy hill, away from dusty roads, and into the silent green of wood and field, are a common possession we ought to try to hand down undiminished in number and in beauty for those who are to follow’. Instead, they were vanishing, ‘closed by quarter sessions, the poor witnesses hardly daring to speak, the richer dividing the spoil, the public from a larger area hardly knowing of the decision which has for ever closed to them some lovel! y walk’. Even where landowners could not close footpaths by law, she accused them of concealing them ‘by judicious planting, a lodge gate or hidden doors’ or of robbing them of all their charm ‘by the erection of high, black, pitched fences … depriving it of the fresh air that blew across it, the view over adjacent field and leaving but a hollow mockery’.

Octavia’s work is far from done. Among the organisations that strive to follow her example and promote her ideals are the excellent Open Spaces Society and the Octavia Hill Society, based in Hill’s Birthplace House, in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, which is mounting special exhibitions and events for this centenary year.'

Millennium Bridge soundscape tells the story of London [30 July 2012]

Millennium Bridge soundscape tells the story of London [30 July 2012]

AbeBooks: A Literary Tour of London

This is an excellent list of fiction in which London is the star.

AbeBooks: A Literary Tour of London

Pre-Roman London

This is a very poor argument for a pre-Roman London - it depends upon assertion - totally ignores archaeological evidence and basically the argument comes down to the assertion that Tacitus description of London as a famous centre of commerce is impossible if it was a town only 18 years old.

Nowhere does it even mention the fact that no archaeological evidence has been found for a pre-Roman City.

Pre-Roman London

The Goldsmiths’ Company | The Staircase Hall

lovely panoramic view!

The Goldsmiths’ Company | The Staircase Hall

Archaeological Site Tour of City

 

NLA
are organising a series of events and walks which, were I not doing my own walk on Saturday, I would go on:

(more details see http://thedevelopingcity.com/about/)

Archeological Site Tour - click here to book
Saturday 4 August, 09:30-11:00
Archaeologists from Museum of London Archaeology and the Thames Discovery Programme lead a free tour of current archaeological sites in the City of London, following the route of the Walbrook, one of London's most significant lost rivers.

Walk - City East - click here to book
Wednesday 8 August, 18:00-19:30
An evening guided walk of the architecture of the City of London, led by Blue Badge Guides, tracking the riverbank before heading to the City's cluster of tall towers - ticket cost £12
 

Curator-led tour - click here to book
Friday 10 August, 13:15-13:45
Free guided tour of the exhibition, led by curator Peter Murray

Walk - City West - click here to book
Saturday 11 August, 14:00-15:30
A guided walk of the architecture of the City of London, led by Blue Badge Guides, covering ground between Bank Junction and St Paul's Cathedral - ticket cost £12

The Developing City is a free exhibition on show at The Walbrook Building (entrance opposite Cannon Street station) until 9 September 2012. The exhibition is open from Tuesday-Sunday 11:00-17:30, with extended opening hours on Friday until 19:00.

For further details on the exhibition and accompanying programme of events please go to www.thedevelopingcity.com

BBC News - 'Forgotten' grotesques discovered in medieval church

BBC News - 'Forgotten' grotesques discovered in medieval church

A2i Transcription Services translates print documents into Braille, Large Print, Audio, Daisy & Etext formats | shop for Braille Signage, Braille Books, Braille Keyboard Covers

A2i Transcription Services translates print documents into Braille, Large Print, Audio, Daisy & Etext formats | shop for Braille Signage, Braille Books, Braille Keyboard Covers

Useful service

New Florence Nightingale Book

This is the book on Florence Nightingale by the former director of the Florence Nightingale Museum in London.

Amazon.co.uk: alex Attewell

Well worth a read.

Creationism controversy at Giant's Causeway | Museums Association

Creationism was not at all controversial in Britain until recently - we just thought it was daft and now some people perhaps because of a desire to be inclusive or post-modern give them the air to breath.

For me, its a mistake - we should give space to well-founded rational thought, not to theories with no real basis in science.

Creationism controversy at Giant's Causeway | Museums Association

History of Clapton - excavation report

10_05_124_130.pdf (application/pdf Object)

The Developing City Exhibition

This is an interesting exhibition on the past and future of the City in Walbrook (near Cannon Street)

NLA - The Developing City

HOW TO: Make Your QR Codes More Beautiful

Just want I needed

HOW TO: Make Your QR Codes More Beautiful

Archaeology in Europe - London in the Anglo-Saxon Period

excellent series on archaeology of london

Archaeology in Europe - London in the Anglo-Saxon Period

Free Access to the London Journal

The london Journal is offering free access to its journal online with July August.

Click here to see more

Maney Publishing - Journal-of-the-month-ldn

Aerosmith Early aerial photos of the UK go online

BBC News - Early aerial photos of the UK go online - amazing archive with fabulous images

StreetMuseum iPhone app

Creative Review - StreetMuseum iPhone app - has some good pictures to illustrate how it works

Open Source Web Design - Our Favorite Web Design Templates

Open Source Web Design - Our Favorite Web Design Templates

Dickens London - topographical goldmine

This is full of information of where the dickens is it?

http://www.archive.org/stream/londonofdickens029950mbp/londonofdickens029950mbp_djvu.txt

Student digs in Shoreditch given green light despite controversy over heritage building - News - Hackney Gazette

Student digs in Shoreditch given green light despite controversy over heritage building - News - Hackney Gazette

This was despite the fact that the Heritage Officer objected to it.

Shakespeare's Curtain theatre unearthed in east London | Culture | The Guardian

Shakespeare's Curtain theatre unearthed in east London | Culture | The Guardian

but what are the developers leaving in Shoreditch - are they destroying the Victorian heritage?

The Old Operating Theatre Museum - the quirkiest museums in London? - Telegraph

What are the quirkiest museums in London? - Telegraph

Low Cost training - a casualty of the Arts Council

 Museums in London used to get access to inexpensive training - this has ended as a result of the change over from MLA, London to the Arts Council.

It beggars belief how incompetently this change over has been managed.

Museums and the future

TrendsWatch2012.pdf (application/pdf Object)

MA slams proposal to scrap DCMS and national museum funding | Museums Association

The Museum Association reported:

'MA slams proposal to scrap DCMS and national museum funding | Museums Association: The Museums Association has strongly criticised a proposal put forward yesterday by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) calling on the government to scrap the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and funding for national museums.

The free-market thinktank claimed that taxpayers would save £1.6bn if all spending on DCMS ceased. This saving could be used to slash the rate of corporation tax, cut fuel duty by 3p or partly abolish inheritance tax, the report suggested..

http://www.museumsassociation.org/news/20042012-ma-slams-thinktank-report?utm_source=ma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=25042012

American Postcards | By Ronan Haughton | Category: Arts & Photography | Blurb

American Postcards documents the experiences and impressions of three European photographers in post 9/11 USA (2004 to 2005). It features photography and writing by London College of Communication graduates (BA Photography) Norman Wilcox (UK), Amanda Johansson (Sweden) and Ronan Haughton (Ireland). It also features the work of Art Kaligos (USA), a photography graduate from Parsons School of Design New York.

American Postcards also features exclusive writing by Peter D. Osborne, author of 'Travelling Light, travel and visual culture'.
"Then the police stop us. They’re friendly, they pose for Polaroids .... Art confesses that he would have preferred to have been handcuffed .... so his European pals could have had an Easy Rider experience." - Peter D. Osborne

American Postcards | By Ronan Haughton | Category: Arts & Photography | Blurb

Dirty medieval manuscripts ?

What dirt can tell us about medieval people's habits

What can dirt on pages tell us about medieval manuscripts and their readers?

Narrative Environment Videos - Mitra Videos :: Video Resources On The Net

Mitra is a web site that pulls together videos on similar topics

This is the narrative environments section which contains some from our Creative Practice for Narrative Environments course at CSM:


Narrative Environment Videos - Mitra Videos :: Video Resources On The Net

The Old Operating Theatre Museum 21st in the Telegraph's 100 of the best things to do in London

The Telegraph have named the Museum as the 21st best thing to do in London during the Olympics.


London 2012: 100 of the best things to do in London - Telegraph

New members of the human family tree

New members of the human family tree SALON - the Society of Antiquaries of London Online Newsletter

Salon 275: 16 April 2012

The following is from Salon 275

'So many stories have been published in the media in recent months concerning our ancestors that it is difficult to keep up. The latest position seems to be that it is all a lot more complex than current diagrams of the human family tree might suggest. The outcome has not changed — we are still the only human species left on the planet (at least, until the illusive bigfoot and yeti are tracked down), but that there were probably more hominids than we know about, some of which only became extinct in very recent times, and some of which may live on in modern genes thanks to inter-breeding.'

Stackable Pews in churches

The fashion for removing pews has been challenged and now the advice is to install stackable pews so that the traditional view of a church fits with the new understanding of a Nave as a flexible space.


New Work in Historic Places of Worship | English Heritage

The War on our Doorstep: London's East End and how the Blitz Changed it Forever: Amazon.co.uk: Harriet Salisbury, The Museum of London Group: Books

Excellent book about the East End of London and the Blitz built up from oral history records.

The War on our Doorstep: London's East End and how the Blitz Changed it Forever: Amazon.co.uk: Harriet Salisbury, The Museum of London Group: Books

Jane Austen and London « Austenonly

This provides some interesting blog enteries on episodes in fiction that take place in London

Jane Austen and London « Austenonly

Jane Austen places guide

Succinct guide to Jane Austen's places.

http://www.seekingjaneausten.com/page9.html

culture_knowledge_and_understanding_final010312.pdf (application/pdf Object)

The Arts Council's attempt to understand what on earth it is supposed to be doing with Museums and Libraries.


culture_knowledge_and_understanding_final010312.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Seeing Beneath Stonehenge | Exploring the Stonehenge Riverside project with Google Earth

This enables you to use google earth to see the excavations beneath stonehenge and Durrington Walls

Seeing Beneath Stonehenge | Exploring the Stonehenge Riverside project with Google Earth

The History of English in 10 Minutes - YouTube

This is very informative and fun.

The History of English in 10 Minutes - YouTube

Facebook praise of the Old Operating Theatre Museum

This is a post on our facebook page

Came across this fabulous place by accident. Joined a group lecture held in the Operating Theatre itself. Felt so privileged to have heard the lecturer (an historian) speak so eloquently at length about this fascinating place. My confidence in education in this country was restored.....she was, quite simply, excellent. Awesome.....would recommend++++ Loved the t shirt she wore too...cool, cool, cool.

Audio tour at the Old Operating Theatre Museum

The Old Operating Theatre Museum has installed an audio system for the first time with the generous support of the Guide ID
http://en.www.guideid.com/site/home

museum visitor numbers for 2011

Museum visitor numbers generally up - the Old Operating achieved an 8% increase which was very credible.

ALVA | Association of Leading Visitor Attractions

Palermo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

% days exploring Palermo becomes a couple of paragraphs on Wikipedia

Palermo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

London Fire Brigade Museum wins temporary reprieve [15 March 2012]

London Fire Brigade Museum wins temporary reprieve [15 March 2012]

Friends of Clapton Cinematograph

This cinema in Clapton was built in 1910 and is now threatened by planning applications

Friends of Clapton Cinematograph

London Historians Group

This is a group for those interested in London history


London Historians: Contact

5000 slave burials found on St Helena

A huge number of slave burials have been found on St Helena - they are the bodies of slaves rescued by British ships combating the slave trade in the mid 19th Century


Bristol University | News from the University | St Helena dig

Team London Bridge and the London Bridge Business Improvement District

Business breakfast at the Old Operating Theatre Museum:

Team London Bridge and the London Bridge Business Improvement District: Team London Bridge (TLB) for another insightful Green Network breakfast,

Claire Barclay, artist heading to the Museum after vote won by the Old Operating Theatre Museum

A nightclub and marriages made in dessert heaven: Museums at Night reveals Connect10 results | Culture24

Dickens Calendar 12

Dickens events

Dickens Calendar 12

The Connect10 Vote: You choose where Claire Barclay goes for Museums at Night | Culture24

The Connect10 Vote: You choose where Claire Barclay goes for Museums at Night | Culture24

Vote for the Old Operating Theatre Museum.

Open windows could help beat superbugs, says expert - Science - News - The Independent

Open windows could help beat superbugs, says expert - Science - News - The Independent

belzoni - removal man

The following is from Salon IFA 270 13 Feb 2012

Books by Fellows: Belzoni: the giant that archaeologists love to hate

Salon is very grateful to our Fellow Peter Clayton for the following review of the new book by our Fellow Ivor Noël Hume, Belzoni: the giant that archaeologists love to hate (ISBN: 9780813931401; University of Virginia Press).

It is over half a century since the last good book on Giovanni Belzoni was published (Mayes, 1959). Here, written by a noted archaeologist and former Director of Colonial Williamsburg archaeological research programme, is a splendid and up-to-date story of the, literally, giant (2m tall) and pioneer Egyptologist. Many writers of recent years have had a tendency to denigrate Belzoni and his work, but Howard Carter wrote that his work in the Valley of the Kings was the first large-scale excavations in the Valley, and ‘we must give Belzoni full credit for the manner in which they were carried out … on the whole the work was extraordinarily good’. Belzoni’s detractors fail to recognise the ethos of the period in which he worked, and they should be mindful of Matthew 7:1 [‘judge not lest ye be judged’]. Noël Hume’s new biography puts Belzoni firmly in his place as a pioneer who really thought about his discoveries — he was no rabid collector like his rival Drovetti without any thought for interpretation or context.

From humble beginnings in Padua via the fairgrounds of Europe, fate cast him into Egypt where, against all initial adversities, he found a calling and followed it. Some of the finest sculptures in the British Museum, notably the colossal 7.5 ton head of Ramesses II, and much else, the sarcophagus of Seti I in Sir John Soane’s Museum, the lid of the sarcophagus of Ramesses III in Cambridge, are all due to his endeavours. Added to that, he retrieved the Philae obelisk for William John Bankes (now at Kingston Lacey) whose inscription was to be vital in Champollion’s decipherment of hieroglyphs in 1822. He was the first European to enter the Second Pyramid, of Chephren, at Giza, and the first to find the entrance to the Great Temple at Abu Simbel and, five years before Champollion deciphered hieroglyphs, realised that the ‘hero’ depicted on the walls there was the same he saw in Thebes, i.e. Ramesses II.

Noël Hume brings Belzoni to life in his own words and the world in which he carried out his explorations, and adds much new insight into that life as well as his own pertinent observations. He particularly puts more flesh onto the person of Belzoni’s long-suffering but devoted wife, Sarah. It is ‘S..’s Law’ that on excavations the best finds turn up on the last day, and Noël Hume has been similarly bedevilled. Belzoni died at Gato in Benin in 1823, and Sarah in Jersey in January 1870. Mayes (1959) did not know where she was buried and both Noël Hume and the reviewer (unbeknownst to each other) have for years been trying to locate her grave via Jersey local newspapers, radio and personal contact, to no avail. As, literally, the book was finished and published word came that her grave and inscribed tombstone had been found (see ‘Postscript’). Now the chase is on for details of how and who provided for her burial. Egyptological research, even after a couple of centuries, always has surprises and goals to pursue.

Postscript. Several people have searched for the grave of Sarah Belzoni in Jersey but recently, by a happy case of serendipity, Anna Baghiani (Education Officer with the Sociétié Jersiaise St Helier, Jersey) stumbled on Sarah’s name in the records of the Channel Islands Family History Society in the Jersey Archive. It was an erroneous entry by an unknown subscriber but it provided a date and place of burial. With the help of Vic Geary, the cemetery supervisor who held a detailed plan of the cemetery from the time, she and Dr John J Taylor (Tutor in Egyptology) were able to find the grave. John Taylor had walked past it many times on bright sunny afternoons when it was in deep shadow, but on a sunny morning the inscription became partly visible, and there was no doubt of it reading: ‘Sarah, widow of Giovanni Baptista Belzoni’. The original small foot stone reads: ‘S. B, 1870’. Permission is now being sought to clean the stone and restore the lettering. A photo of the grave in sunlight is reproduced in Ancient Egypt, vol 12, no. 3, issue 69, December 2011/January 2012, p 16.

The Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries – How to apply

The Long list for this year's Clore prize is here:

Camden Arts Centre, Get The Message
Florence Nightingale Museum, Our Generation's Re-interpretation
Jersey Heritage, My History Scrapbooks and Discovery Days
Leicestershire County Council Heritage and Arts Service, Held in the Hand and Touch Tables
Penlee House Gallery and Museum, Treasures from the Earth
The Geffrye Museum of the Home, Stories of the World: London
The Quilt Museum and Gallery, Unfolding the Quilts
The Whitworth Art Gallery, The Manchester Early Years Partnership
Victoria and Albert Museum, V&A Schools Team Collaboration with Seymourpowell
Yorkshire Museum, Celebrating Severus

IdeasTap: Connecting creative people, funding and ideas

IdeasTap: Connecting creative people, funding and ideas

Southwark historic maps on line

These are maps of southwark - listing all the listed buildings, conservation areas etc viewed imposed on historic maps dating back to 1896


Stratus Connect

Google Maps Mania: Mapping Your Photos with Google Maps

Listing of sites that geotag maps

Google Maps Mania: Mapping Your Photos with Google Maps

A Triple Tragedy: How Princess Charlotte’s Death in 1817 Changed Obstetrics « Jane Austen's World

A Triple Tragedy: How Princess Charlotte’s Death in 1817 Changed Obstetrics « Jane Austen's World

here is a more detailed description

Dickens Museum to close during bicentenary

On the face of it a strange decision for the Museum to close during Dickens bicentenary.

BBC News - Today - Dickens Museum to close during bicentenary

Into the mind of a Neanderthal - life - 18 January 2012 - New Scientist

Into the mind of a Neanderthal - life - 18 January 2012 - New Scientist

The Mystery of the 2nd and 3rd Century Roman Dodecahedron....Page 49

Strange objects that no one knows what they are


The Mystery of the 2nd and 3rd Century Roman Dodecahedron....Page 49: Roman Dodecahedron

London in your lunch break: the Old Operating Theatre - Telegraph

London in your lunch break: the Old Operating Theatre - Telegraph

Surevy of visits to visitor attractions 2010

2010

Visitor numbers to all UK attractions went up by 3% the Old Operating Theatre Museums visitor numbers went up by 3%.

Charges went up by 5% the Old Operating Theatre Museum charges went up 4%.


#Final report_tcm30-27368.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Taking Part 2011/12 Quarter 2: Statistical Release

the latest figures


Taking Part 2011/12 Quarter 2: Statistical Release

Running the Roman Home: Amazon.co.uk: Alexandra Croom: 9780752465173: Books

New book that explains in detail the economics and effort taking in running the Roman Home


Running the Roman Home: Amazon.co.uk: Alexandra Croom: 9780752465173: Books

Found - source for Blue Stones at Stonehenge

According to SALON - the Society of Antiquaries of London Online Newsletter 268

the source of the Bluestones has been found - in the journal Archaeology in Wales, Rob Ixer, of Leicester University, and Richard Bevins, of Amgueddfa Cymru — National Museum Wales,

‘We assumed that we might be able to pin down the source to an area of several hundreds of square metres’, Rob Ixer said, ‘but we can now pin it down unequivocally to an area of a few square metres, namely to a small single outcrop or couple of outcrops at Craig Rhos-y-felin’. The outcrop is some 70m long and has many tall, narrow slabs up to 2m high as the dominant feature, splitting off from the parent rock in blocks that are reminiscent of the Stonehenge bluestones.

They compared rocks here to a Box of rocks stored at Salisbury Museum.

One New Change - Jean Nouvel

How such a good architect can produce such a bland exterior is a surprise


One New Change - Jean Nouvel

Inside Alsop’s Palestra

It has just been announced that TfL's control centre will join the LDA in Alsop's Palestra in Blackfriars, Southwark.

Inside Alsop’s Palestra

History of Anatomy

International Journal of Morphology - El Teatrum Anatomicum en la Historia y Hoy

Asceplion at Pergamon.

Really good pictures and description of the Asceplion at Pergamon.

http://www.welcometohosanna.com/REVELATION/Pergamum.html

Shakespeare and Medicine

Interesting article


Shakespeare and Medicine

Destruction of Heritage at London Bridge Station redevelopment

London Bridge Station redevelopment gets green light from Southwark councillors [21 December 2011]: Although there are some disbenefits in terms of heritage, the merits of the scheme are considerable and clearly weigh in favour of approval

Ritzkrieg

Lovely idea this - the rich and wealthy fighting the war on the home front from the luxury of the First Class Hotel - hence the title the Ritzkrieg - Matthew Sweet's book on the Blitz

Nothing Tra La La?: Ritzkrieg

The Resurrectionist's Blog

This is a daily posting of Joseph Naples bodysnatching diary and it is being organised by Kirsty Chilton, Assistant Curator at the Old Operating Theatre Museum


The Resurrectionist's Blog

Amazing Bronze Age Boats found near Flag Fen

Bronze Age site offers first 'complete' picture of life in East Anglia 3,000 years ago - when we were skilled sailors, and even used cutlery | Mail Online

LOCATING LONDON'S PAST

This website allows you to search a wide body of digital resources relating to early modern and eighteenth-century London, and to map the results on to a fully GIS compliant version of John Rocque's 1746 map.


Home | LOCATING LONDON'S PAST

Southwark Workhouses - Google Maps

This is Chris Constable's google mapping of workhouses in Southwark

Southwark Workhouses - Google Maps

Southwark Burial Grounds

This provides interesting information on the Grave yards of Southwark - very useful and compiled by Chris Constable.


Southwark burial grounds

UP Projects | Secret Garden Project

UP Projects | Secret Garden Project

Lovers' Locks on Millenium Bridge

Padlocks on London Bridge - the custom has spread to London but the Corporation is deploying bolt cutters apparently.

John Clark in an email to Britarch pointed out that the lovers throw the keys into the River and in 2000 years archaeologists will have a puzzle.



The Mystery Of The Locks « Christopher Fowler's Blog