Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Monday, February 18, 2019
Russell Hotel - Titanic Dining Room

The exterior of the Hotel is covered in Doulton's 'The au Lait' terracotta tiles, and the interior is covered with amazing limestone cladding.

On the second floor is a dragon - called Lucky George as his pair sank with the Titanic.
Labels: 20th Century, london 20th Century
Bermuda National Gallery
The star was an exhibition on Shepherd Fairey - rebel with a cause. His punk, Russian Constructivism, Barbara Kruger, street art inspired exhibition showed a clear understanding of how to make an impact in public places. The video with the artist is as inspiring as it is informative. Placing something in unusual places creates something memorable - maybe its obvious but combined with his flair for promotion it shows how he is able to provoke a reaction. Like Banksy he has the eye for combining something striking with something meaningful. So he puts a portrait of a typical american couple surrouded by art work from the Dollar, and the couple are cuddling a bomb. Point simply made..
http://bernews.com/2017/08/bng-announces-new-exhibition-on-sept-21/
Another gallery is reserved for paintings of Bermuda of which one or two make a real impact. Upstairs and on the stairs are a series of modern art works which run the range of modern conceptual art - from the messy pieces of LookAtMe isms mascarading as pyschogeography to pieces that remind us that Marcel Descamps said it definitively and what is the point of saying it again? But there are also one or two pieces that show that some modern artists are finding a confident voice which suggests a future for art beyond the conceptual.
Vincent Van Gogh in London
His first house in London is unknown, and then he moved to 87 Hackford St, which reduced his commute to his job at Southampton Street, Covent Garden to about 45 minutes. He walked via Westminster Bridge. While in London he visited cultural venues with his Sister, Anna, such as St Pauls Dulwich Picture Gallery, and Hampton Court. He collected unpaid school fees in Whitechapel.
He moved to Isleworth, and heard a sermon in Kew Road Methodist Church.
He did a sketch of Austin Friars, and copied Dore image of Prisoners Excercising in Newgate.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Prisoners-Exercising-Vincent-Van-Gogh-Art-Print-Poster-1890-Painting-/222940928857
We know something of his reading - the Arlesienne of 1890
- L'Arlésienne, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
Labels: art history, Charles Dickens, Victorian
Sunday, February 17, 2019
The third City of London Ward Walk - Castle Baynard
We began with an introduction to the City of London and its 'democratic' (not) system. Castle Baynard has an ex Lord Mayor as its Alderman (but that must be true of at least 50% of them). He is public school educated but not Oxbridge and is a Tax expert who began with Arthur Anderson.

This is my sketch map. The yellow is the new boundary, the blue/green is the historic one. You will see that Queenhithe has taken a bite out of the East boundary - if you look there is a sort of nose just under St Pauls, that is the St Pauls Tourist Information Kiosk which Queenhithe must have particularly wanted or needed?
The Ward also lost that 'arm' pointing up which is essentially Warwick Lane. The major addition is the old printing area west of Farringdon Street and East of Temple Gardens, and the area north of Fleet Street and East of Fetter Lane. It seems to me that they have shunted together 2 disparate areas with completely different histories.
The Walk turned out to be about:
St Pauls, and environs.

The War of The Roses as the College of Arms used to be Derby House which was where Lord Stanley (King of Mann and created Earl of Derby) and Margaret Beaufort (mother of Henry VII) lived. They stitched up Richard III at Bosworth Field. Edward IV was proclaimed King at Baynards Castle (as was Edward IV; Lady Jane Grey and Queen Mary). Buckingham suggested Richard III should become King here too. Warwick lived in the area, as did Clarence (Le Erber). There were various War of the Roses events at St Pauls although the most interesting was the 'Love Day' Procession where Henry VI hoped for an outbreak of love and peace by promoting a walk from Westminster to St Pauls. the Duke of York (Richard and Edward's dad) walking alongside Henry VI's wife (Margaret). It had about as much chance of working as solving Brexit by getting Corbyn and May to hold hands on a similar walk. I think they would have liked each other almost as much.
Shakespeare - the Carter Lane letter; print shop at the Sign of the White Greyhound, Coat of Arms at College of Arms; Blackfriars Theatre and the Seven Ages of Man Statue at the Brutalist Baynard House.
The statue shown above by Richard Kindersley was for me a highlight. I have pointed this out on many coach tours but only went up to see it again a couple of months ago. It was therefore nice to read from Jacques speech in 'As You Like It.'
Telecoms. Opposite the HQ of BT is the Faraday Building which turns out to be London's first Telephone Exchange and then the World's first International Telephone exchange.
We had drinks in the Blackfriars and the Cheshire Cheese. The former being perhaps the most spectacular pub interior in London, and the latter the most historic?

We finished off with a quick trip through, Bridewell Palace, St Brides, Hogarth and Hanging Sword Alley and the Daily Express Building.
Fabulous Walk it turns out.
Labels: archaeology, literary tourism, medieval, shakespeare, war of the roses
Friday, February 15, 2019
Castle Baynard Ward Guided Walk
I am looking at Castle Baynard Ward which is south of St Pauls and west across the Fleet river into Fleet Street.
Do feel free to come along.
Labels: guided walks, london, narrative environments
Waterloo to be re-fought at the Kelvin Gallery Glasgow.
Labels: 19th Century, museums
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Need Money? Remortgage your museum?
This is a big surprise and I am surprised that not much seems to be made of it. It can't be a good idea can it?
https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/12022019-riverside-museum-glasgow-remortgaged?utm_campaign=1413726_14022019&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Museums%20Association&dm_i=2VBX,UAU6,27LVJK,34UZU,1
Labels: museums
Have you a definition of the modern Museum? ICOM wants one.
https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/11022019-icom-seeks-proposals-new-museum-definition?utm_campaign=1413726_14022019&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Museums%20Association&dm_i=2VBX,UAU6,27LVJK,34UZU,1
The current definition is: “A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.”
The MA definition is (1998) 'Museums enable people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are institutions that collect, safeguard and make accessible artefacts and specimens, which they hold in trust for society.'
Labels: museums
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
The Latest About the Man with the Boots in the Thames
His teeth suggest he used them to control fishing lines or nets, and his bones suggests a physically stressful occupation. He was not buried but probably lost in the river and under 35 years old.
https://molaheadland.com/the-medieval-mystery-of-the-booted-man-in-the-mud/?mc_cid=45165f23d6&mc_eid=c123dc770c
Labels: archaeology, london, medieval
Saturday, February 09, 2019
Triforium project at Westminster Abbey
Here is their video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPYi45hZ-uE
We heard about excavations just by Henry VII's gallery in what was called Poets Corner Yard. Here they found archaeological sequences which included
Dump levels containing prehistoric finds and Roman remains (but not in situ)
the original chalk raft for the Abbey
burial ground for monks including some coffins with head shaped ends for the corpses head.
Shops and workshops in the area that Chaucer and Caxton had house and workshop in.
Building levels from Henry III through to Gilbert Scott.
The archaeological team cleared out all the dust of years that had accumulated in the gallery. It included thousands of fragments of medieval painted window glass, sherds, tobacco pipes, tiles, bricks, moulded stones. Amongst the many pieces of paper found was the wrapping for a 17th Century tobacco pouch; and invites and seating plans for Queen Anne's coronation.
Well worth a visit (if you can afford it -currently £20 to get in and another £6 to see the Triforium.)
Labels: archaeology, medieval, roman, westminster
Sunday, January 27, 2019
I am Ashurbanipil Exhibition at the BM




The picture below shows that they also used wax tablets like the Romans.
And this one shows the origins of double entry book keeping. These people shown below are keeping a list of booty collected in war. The accountants are always shown in pairs, one bearded and the other clean-shaven. The panels suggests one writes on a board and the other on parchment and in different languages. I wonder if the clean shaven ones are Eunuchs?

Labels: archaeology, British Museum, museums, narrative environments
Thursday, January 24, 2019
the possibility of unperceived existence, hyperobject and object orientated ontology
In a way it seems another moment in time like Corpernicus's discovery that the Sun does not go around the Earth. Now OOO allows us to ignore philosophers who tell us things can only be known by the senses and therefore their existence depends on our cognition.
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
Of course it does. But, I coming from the no nonsense school of philosophy, have always believed in the 'the possibility of unperceived existence' and have objected to the subjectivists. So thanks to the OOO for bringing this back into reality.
Now Morton has used OOO to attack the eco movement for putting Nature on a pedastal for us to admire, rather it being part of a mesh of existence upon which we all exist as equals. I see an echo here in biodynamism who not only want to farm organically for our health but what to farm well for the good of the patch of land they farm in its own right. Not to increase yields, not to help us, but because that patch of land has its own existence and rights.
As to Hyperobjects - hmmmm. the definition is baffling and its hard to understand what they are and more importantly what they are not. So they don't really have any existence. Maybe just a way of looking at things?
Labels: narrative environments
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
List of English Words and their Latin Alternatives
In English Jesus was crutched or crossed in Latin Cruxified.
A roman officer controling nearly 100 people is called a centurion. In English he would be a hundreder.
A lot of decisions were made in the lead up to the King James bible where a lot of decisions went the latin way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Germanic_and_Latinate_equivalents_in_English
Labels: history
Monday, January 21, 2019
Saturday, December 29, 2018
Judy Garland in Chelsea
http://www.nickelinthemachine.com/2009/12/the-marriage-and-death-of-judy-garland-chelsea-1969/
Labels: 20th Century, swinging sixties, twentieth century
Friday, December 21, 2018
What does Dickens' Christmas hide?
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/dec/20/bleak-house-the-dark-truth-behind-charles-dickens-christmas-obsession?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVS19XZWVrZGF5cy0xODEyMjE%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&CMP=GTUK_email
It is a review of an Exhibition at the Charles Dickens Museum • Food Glorious Food: Dinner with Dickens, curated by Pen Vogler, is at the Charles Dickens Museum, London WC1N, until 22 April.
how does grammerly work ? forr
Labels: 19th Century, Charles Dickens, Victorian
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
This is the place' about Manchester by Tony Walsh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmSKF5hdIpw
and the words
https://speakola.com/eulogy/tony-walsh-this-is-the-place-manchester-vigil-2017
Labels: narrative environments
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Smithfield Pub Tour
https://darkestlondon.com/tag/old-red-cow/
Labels: 19th Century, london
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Living with The Gods Exhibition - British Museum

But the Exhibition didn't deliver it just became tokenism as so many exhibitions do.
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Towards a "molecular archaeoparasitological" map of Europe
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/uoo-pfm101518.php
Labels: archaeology
Tuesday, October 09, 2018
Marie Antoinette's breast cup
http://www.hanleywoodtexas.com/ancienne-manufacture-royale-marieantoinette-jatte-teton-footed-bowl-pieces-p-38636.html
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Monday, August 27, 2018
Monday, August 06, 2018
The Rivers of Westminster and Vauxhall
http://molarchaeology.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=6b00daa1acac4df7a2fcde06104bac1a
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Goodbye Eve. New light on Human Origins in Africa
https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(18)30117-4
Labels: archaeology
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
A great personalised Guided Tour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjvzCTqkBDQ
Labels: beatles 20th Century
London 1944 archive film
Fascinating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8X5bEFvFJQ
Labels: london 20th Century
London Bridge Revealed - Medicine
I tried to give a medical, architectural, historical and to add in various ideas of health and well-being.
London Bridge Revealed – Medicine (Guided Walk)
During June the Museum of Walking will lead an eclectic series of walks focusing on some of the key characteristics that make up London Bridge’s past, present and future: its riverside, railway and greenery, and its unique heritage medical and leisure heritage.Both the provision and education associated with Guy’s Hospital and Kings College has a huge legacy in the area, and has attracted private hospitals as well. Not only is the Guy’s tower a significant landmark (purportedly the highest hospital building in the world both at the time of its construction in the 1970s and in the present day), but as one of the largest employers, holds the key to many personal and collective memories.
Join for a guided walk in the company of Kevin Flude, former director of the Old Operating Theatre Museum (in St Thomas’ St) who will slice the area with the accuracy of a surgeon’s knife, revealing how the area retains its position at the heart of modern medicine and public health.
The walk is free of charge, but we ask that you book a place through the link provided. The exact meeting point will be announced here before the walk.
https://www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/event/__trashed-314-4-2/
Labels: 19th Century, guided walks, london, medical history
Friday, June 01, 2018
Julius Caesar - Soc. of Antiquities Public Lecture "Julius Caesar in Britain" by Andrew Fitzpatrick FSA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfFTM5_WcOE&t=20s&utm_source=Salon+Subscribers&utm_campaign=dda885a268-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_04_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c0cb6b55f1-dda885a268-40167989
Labels: archaeology, roman
Tuesday, May 08, 2018
Basement Mania in London
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/may/07/going-underground-the-subterranean-secrets-of-londons-super-rich?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=274068&subid=2272382&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
Labels: london
Tuesday, May 01, 2018
Roman Era names
http://www.romaneranames.uk/
Labels: archaeology, roman
Friday, April 27, 2018
Virtual St Stephens Project
https://www.virtualststephens.org.uk/explore
Labels: london, parliament, westminster
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Victorian London Alphabet
http://spitalfieldslife.com/2018/04/09/the-london-alphabet-x/
Monday, April 09, 2018
London's smallest police station isn't.
Interesting story
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2018/04/08/london-smallest-police-station-in-trafalgar-square-isnt-what-its-claimed-to-be/
Labels: 19th Century, london Sixties
Tuesday, April 03, 2018
20 great films based in London
Saturday, March 31, 2018
' Tonite let's male Love in London' 60s documentary
Labels: london Sixties
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Radical Walking and other pyschogeographic activiites
To find out more, follow this link:
https://www.triarchypress.net/walking.html
Labels: guided walks, narrative environments
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Victorian Buildings in London you did not know about
https://londonist.com/london/best-of-london/five-victorian-buildings-you-didn-t-know-about?utm_source=Today%27s+posts+from+Londonist&utm_campaign=f988096749-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_03_27&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_acfd22879f-f988096749-219853617
Labels: 19th Century, architecture, london, Victorian
Mary Ward House
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/27/gun-debate-culture-war-young-people-will-win?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=269200&subid=1563368&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
Monday, March 26, 2018
Beautiful Brutalism in Camden
Its said to be one of the largest listed buildings in Britain. the Alexandra And Ainsworth Estate and is by the great Neave Brown of Camden Council's Architects Department 1968.
http://londonist.com/london/videos/alexandra-and-ainsworth-estate?rel=handpicked
Labels: london, twentieth century
Sunday, March 25, 2018
How many coffee houses in 18th Century London?
https://publicdomainreview.org/2013/08/07/the-lost-world-of-the-london-coffeehouse/
'By the dawn of the eighteenth century, contemporaries were counting between 1,000 and 8,000 coffeehouses in the capital even if a street survey conducted in 1734 (which excluded unlicensed premises) counted only 551. Even so, Europe had never seen anything like it. Protestant Amsterdam, a rival hub of international trade, could only muster 32 coffeehouses by 1700 and the cluster of coffeehouses in St Mark’s Square in Venice were forbidden from seating more than five customers (presumably to stifle the coalescence of public opinion) whereas North’s, in Cheapside, could happily seat 90 people. '
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Milk or Tea first?
Labels: Literary History, medical history
Saturday, March 17, 2018
Tudor Map of London 1520
Here is the link to buy a copy
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Map-Tudor-London-Englands-Historical/dp/0993469833
Here is a link to the project.
http://www.historictownsatlas.org.uk/content/tudor-london-1520
Labels: archaeology, london, tudor
Layers of London Project
I can't yet see how it is going to work. It has a lot of ambition and very little detail as yet.
Vanessa Harding said the Tudor Map of London project she and Caroling Barron have been working on will link to it.
https://layersoflondon.blogs.sas.ac.uk/
Labels: archaeology, london, tudor
"The Agas Map." and the Map of Early Modern London project
.
The Agas Map.The Map of Early Modern London. Ed. . Victoria: University of Victoria. Web. 01 March, 2018. <http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/map.htm>.
Labels: archaeology, london, tudor
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Refugium

It is running on 18th March if you wish to attend.
https://docs.google.com/forms/
Friday, March 09, 2018
Cornhill Ward Walk
We will look at the archaeology and history of the Ward from the earliest times to the present day.
10th March 18 Cornhill Ward of the City of London
2.30 Bank Tube. Exit 3
Labels: archaeology, guided walks, london
Tuesday, March 06, 2018
Ancient DNA Revolution
This article gives a good summary.
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-ancient-dna-tales-humans-migrant.html#jCp
One result is that the Beaker folk have been restored to a genuine folk movement after a couple of decades of PC cultural diffusion of a pottery style. But more than that the Beakers Folk are not only an intrusion from abroad But they replaced 90% of the Neolithic genome. The mechanism by which this happened is not yet established.
So the great Henge projects were created by the first farmers who were largely descended from the Hunter-Gatherers. Around 2,400 B.C. the beaker folk came over. This was after the Sarsen phase of Stonehenge. They seem to have adopted neolithic use of henges but not the desire or ability to build huge new ones.
The DNA report is published here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25738.epdf?referrer_access_token=VWOWCyPVVXLk4xPfgQahc9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MvCgRpafo1l7XRALArFgCO6vOi1SAh6jgQaefsnzZX1pGLIas5jRPHdWo7nCUK_NDOU3EOuvXbOrokXtSkYpMwwyPp1RX8x9L3YKpE-avBD7y8BMXJGkh-s2PAa-PuH7cIWtx6FXGfFnry1J9SOi7RD1_Z0pibAnYRUIYfq10aZna5ImBOjjsywu8l14vdp0I%3D&tracking_referrer=www.bbc.co.uk
Salon IFA 402 wrote:
'Ancient DNA Continues to Revolutionise the Past

Around 4,500 years ago migrants entered Britain from the European continent, probably travelling from the coasts of France, Belgium or Germany, and initiated a substantial population replacement. The impact is still felt today, with only 10% of the preceding Neolithic genome remaining. The copper age in the UK truly marked the beginning of a new era.
We knew this from a Harvard University research paper published online last year ahead of peer review (‘Pots on the March’, Salon 388). Nature published the article on 21 February, allowing its authors to talk to the press. Among those who did was Mike Parker Pearson FSA (UCL). He told BBC News that the Neolithic British community had monument building ‘absolutely as its core rationale’, while the incoming makers of Beaker pottery were ‘not prepared to collaborate on enormous labour-mobilising projects; their society [was] more de-centralised.’
The context for this is Stonehenge, where our current dating suggests the main structure was built at the very end of the neolithic and shortly before the arrival of Beaker migrants – though smaller megaliths continued to be re-arranged during the Beaker era. There was no ‘violent invasion’, however. The Beaker people, said Parker Pearson, were ‘moving in very small groups or individually’. Steven Shennan FSA (also UCL) noted that ‘around 2500 BC the population [in Britain] is very low and that's precisely when the Beaker population seems to come in.’
In a press release from the University of Cambridge, Christopher Evans FSA (Executive Director of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit) said, ‘this study has been a tremendous project to be involved with. The results are truly ground-breaking and suggest that, with the influx of Continental communities, Britain’s prehistoric story needs to be rewritten in a much more dynamic manner.’ ‘Different teams had different key samples,’ said co-senior author Kristian Kristiansen FSA (University of Gothenburg), ‘and we decided to put together our resources to make possible a study that was more definitive than any of us could have achieved alone.’ The Cambridge Archaeological Unit has supplied many further samples for another Harvard study, of a thousand British Iron Age individuals.'
Labels: archaeology, prehistory
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
http://spitalfieldslife.com/2018/02/26/down-a-well-in-spitalfields/
Labels: archaeology, london
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Daily Mash woman-in-art-gallery-just-guessing-how-long-to-stand-in-front-of-each-painting-
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/woman-in-art-gallery-just-guessing-how-long-to-stand-in-front-of-each-painting-20170311123869
Labels: art history, museums, narrative environments
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
The First Britain
Salon: Issue 401
20 February 2018
Begin Quotation

Britain's First Hunter-gatherer Genomes Sequenced

The shape of the head and facial details were determined by features of the skull, but skin (dark or dark to black), hair (dark brown possibly black) and eye colour (blue/green) were suggested by elements of the man’s DNA. His whole genome has been sequenced, from a small amount of bone taken from the skull. It was read by Ian Barnes and Selina Brace at the Natural History Museum (NHM), and analysed by Mark Thomas and Yoan Diekmann at UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment.
This is the first time the colour of Cheddar Man’s skin has been shown to be dark. Public interest was strong, helped by promotion for a Channel 4 film broadcast on 18 February (First Brit: Secrets of the 10,000 Year Old Man). That people in Britain at this time were likely to have been dark-skinned, however, had already been known by scientists.
Cheddar Man’s genetic profile, said Thomas in a release, ‘places him with several other Mesolithic-era Europeans from Spain, Hungary and Luxembourg whose DNA has already been analysed. These “Western hunter-gatherers” [WHG] migrated into Europe at the end of the last ice age, and the group included Cheddar Man’s ancestors’.
Ancient DNA analysis is increasingly showing the history of modern Europeans to have involved several significant genetic changes resulting from migrations and mixing. There are remains of more ancient humans from Gough’s Cave, from whom Cheddar Man was not directly descended, and only around 10% of modern indigenous British ancestry can be linked to the 10,000-year-old skeleton.
The research paper was put online ahead of peer review on 19 February, titled ‘Population replacement in Early Neolithic Britain.’ Authors include Alison Sheridan FSA, Mike Parker Pearson FSA and Chris Stringer. Cheddar Man’s genome represents one of six Mesolithic British individuals, and along with that of 16 new Neolithic and 51 previously published Neolithic British individuals, is used to characterise the Mesolithic and Neolithic populations of Britain. The scientists conclude that the transition to farming at the start of the Neolithic 6,000 years ago was accompanied by incoming continental farmers.
A study released last year also in preliminary form claimed that around 4500 years ago, the time Stonehenge was built, the then indigenous UK genome was all but displaced by migrants from the Continent who made Beaker-style pottery (see Pots on the March, Salon 388). The 10% of WHG DNA seen in modern white Britons could be derived from these Beaker people. They would have picked it up from intermixing with Neolithic Continental populations with a proportion of WHG in their genome.
Stringer, Research Leader in Human Origins at the NHM, first excavated at Gough’s Cave 30 years ago. He said in a release, ‘I first studied Cheddar Man more than 40 years ago, but could never have believed that we would one day have his whole genome – the oldest British one to date!
End Quotation
Labels: archaeology, prehistory
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Hay's Wharf and Hay's Gallerie
http://www.exploringsouthwark.co.uk/hays-wharf/4588352949
Labels: archaeology, london, southwark. london
Friday, February 02, 2018
BBC Documentary on Thomas Cromwell
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01t03ky/henry-viiis-enforcer-the-rise-and-fall-of-thomas-cromwell?ns_mchannel=email&ns_source=PAN_SOLUS&ns_campaign=PANUK_DIV_04_IPL_Recommends_C+fortnightly&ns_linkname=bbctwo_henry8senforcerthomascromwell_FactualHistory_henry8senforcerthomascromwell&ns_fee=0
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Book review of Quartz and Feldspar. Dartmoor: a British landscape in modern times Planning Perspectives Vol. 0, Iss. 0, 2018
Labels: archaeology, history, Literary History
Friday, January 12, 2018
Last 2 people to be executed for sex between men in England
This is a horrendous taie of the judicial murder of James_Pratt and John_Smith who were found guilty on the evidence of a landlord and landlady spying their sexual activity through a keyhole.
The Magistrate urged clemency but, although the Privy Council, spared everyone else found guilty of burglary, attempted murder and robbery during that period, the only 2 they executed was Pratt and Smith.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Pratt_and_John_Smith
Tuesday, January 09, 2018
Divorced, Beheaded, Died Sales to Date
Labels: history
Monday, January 08, 2018
Wolfhall London. More and Cromwell Tudor London Walk
The Walk is a look at London during the Reformation. Its also a companion to Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. We look at the London of the early 16th Century and walks the streets known to both men - both Lord Chancellors to Henry VIII, both commoners, both beheaded, friends but on rival side of the intelectual and political divide.
Here is a short promo video.
https://youtu.be/Jkiza8HOFm4
Labels: london, Reformation, tudor stuart, Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Sex Pistols - the Uxbridge Gig
I should have been there but I couldn't be bothered to travel all the way out to Uxbridge on a cold Dec night in 1977. (16th December, Cost £1.75)
Pictures:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.153253181495781.35035.148548651966234&type=3
Description
Friday, December 15, 2017
Diffusion Choir art versus nature
Labels: narrative environments
Barging through London
Shows Limehouse, Mile End, Whitechapel, Hackney,Camden, Kings Cross.
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-barging-through-london-1924-online
Labels: london
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
The Arts for Health and Wellbeing
It includes links to download the full report; a summary report and videos.
http://www.artshealthandwellbeing.org.uk/appg-inquiry/
Labels: narrative environments
Sunday, December 10, 2017
Is this the meaning of London
Thames - Dark River
London - indo-european for Plowonida (Richard Coates - meaning settlement by the Dark or flowing river)
These should be replaced by (according to: http://www.proto-english.org/l10.html)
Thames:
'Etymology of Thames: 'aT (the) ames' = 'inhabited place where the estuary begins'. The Romans wrote: Tamisa or Tamesa. [4] The river would later (before the Romans came!) be named similar to 'the London river' as 'the Thames river'. '
They make the point that the name originates as reference to the land and then gets transferred to the River.
London
'Landen, if one accepts that the place-name was originally proto-English. 'Land-en' (aphonic 'e') is an ancient English, but still used in Dutch, plural for 'land'.
'Land' meant originally: an open space to build a home upon, the farmhouse with its surrounding grounds.'
Labels: archaeology, london
Did Beaker Fold replace the Neolithic population
You can download the paper or read the abstract here.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/09/135962
Labels: archaeology
Tuesday, December 05, 2017
The Wooden Roads of London
They can still be seen in Islington and Farringdon.
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2015/01/10/the-time-when-londons-streets-were-paved-with-wood/
Monday, December 04, 2017
The City still pays rent to the Queen
The rent consists of: an axe, a knife, 6 horseshoes, and 61 nails.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/london-is-still-paying-rent-to-the-queen-on-a-property-leased-in-1211
Labels: london
Friday, November 24, 2017
How does it feel to survive Execution?
This is link includes his memoire of what it was like to be hanged.
http://www.executedtoday.com/2008/12/24/1705-john-half-hanged-smith-half-hanged/
Labels: london
The Swinging Sixties. 'You want to get a f***ing joint, they're coming out of your earholes. You want a cup of tea, you've got no f***ing chance!' Cecil Beaton on the set of Performance
Labels: london
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Click here for link
Labels: architecture, london
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Main Wheel Decider for Narrative Environments Lecture
This was a test for the device I used to run my Practice Lecture at Central St Martin#'s M.A. for Narrative Environments Course. In the event I had more options. It would be good if you could click through to a picture or a web site.
Otherwise an easy to use tool.
Click to make your own at Wheel Decide
Labels: narrative environments
Monday, November 20, 2017
Story Shapes in Museum displays
The video is here:
https://vimeo.com/243303263
The handbook is here https://www.swfed.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Saying-It-Differently.pdf
Labels: museums, narrative environments
Charles Roach Smith
http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue45/6/5.html
Labels: archaeology, london
Friday, November 17, 2017
All Saints Road,Portobello Rd and its history
http://www.allsaintsroad.co.uk/our-history/
Labels: london
The True Facts about the Christine Keeler Chair
Read all about it here.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/christine-keeler-photograph-a-modern-icon/
Labels: art history, london
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Bloomberg, Walbrook - a review
I walked around the new Bloomberg Building yesterday. I have contradictory thoughts. But what is clear is what an impact it has. Its huge, its restrained, elegant, perhaps timeless and brings out its neighbours. It places you face to face with great architecture by Wren, Koolhaas, Stirling, Lutyens, Dance and so on. It reinstates part of Watling Street. it creates a sense of space. So it many ways it is a magnificent achievement. And by far the best Foster building in the City for a very long time.
But and there are a few buts for me.

This link described the project.
https://www.bloomberg.com/company/announcements/new-european-hq-unveiled/
Labels: archaeology, architecture, london
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/activity:6336844589701431296/?midToken=AQGvXGqxQZn2UA&trk=eml-email_mentions_individual_single_01-hero-11-check_update_cta&trkEmail=eml-email_mentions_individual_single_01-hero-11-check_update_cta-null-mj5ag%7Eja286l4w%7Esv-null-neptune%2Ffeed%2Eupdate&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Aemail_email_mentions_individual_single_01%3BYezvU9FyTgSmbtXVvWNJjw%3D%3D
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Evidence of world's earliest winemaking uncovered by archaeologists | Science | The Guardian
Evidence of world's earliest winemaking uncovered by archaeologists | Science | The Guardian
Labels: archaeology
Viennese Modernism 2018 - Be ahead of your time
Viennese Modernism 2018 - Be ahead of your time
Labels: art history
Saturday, November 11, 2017
The Making of the London Mithraeum
The Making of the London Mithraeum - YouTube
here is a second film a bit longer
Labels: archaeology, london, roman
Monday, October 30, 2017
National Army Museum Transformation
The displays are less of a success. The only section that really works is the 'Soldier' exhibition. It works very well to introduce the experience of being a soldier with a nice mix of object, interactive, quotation and image. However the Battle section is very disappointing. It really gives neither an interesting insight into the wars Britain has fought, not does it give a view of experience of war in the various periods or the hardware of war. I left this section feeling I had learnt nothing. I had similar experiences in the Army and Society sections. I think the problem is that the displays compete with the Imperial War Museum so the designers decided to take a different approach. It feels as if that approach might have worked on paper but in reality nothing emerges from the detail to enlighten. Its still worth a visit but after a fine start in fails to impress.
BDP architectures national-army-museum/
Plan a visit | National Army Museum
Labels: museums, narrative environments
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Cuseum — Life & Death of QR Codes in Museums
Also has useful links to other material re digital engagement.
Cuseum — Life & Death of QR Codes in Museums
Labels: museums, narrative environments
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Britain's First Museum Catalogue - Musaeum Tradescantianum, or, A collection of ra...
Musaeum Tradescantianum, or, A collection of ra...
Labels: museums, narrative environments
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Ancient Pictures as inspiration for Storyboarding.
Bayeaux tapestry
Charles Duke of Orleans in the Tower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Siege of Lachish British Museum
Trajan's Column
Labels: archaeology, architecture, narrative environments