Words in the Landscape

 I am beginning to wonder what dialect tells us about the Anglo-Saxon invasion, and this rather wonderful article about dialect words about the landscape struck a chime..

For example, Rionnach maoim means “the shadows cast on the moorland by clouds moving across the sky on a bright and windy day”;

èit refers to “the practice of placing quartz stones in streams so that they sparkle in moonlight and thereby attract salmon to them in the late summer and autumn”,

teine biorach is “the flame or will-o’-the-wisp that runs on top of heather when the moor burns during the summer”.'The Shaw

The word-hoard: Robert Macfarlane on rewilding our language of landscape | Books | The Guardian

Recreating the Night Watch - Onze helden zijn terug! - YouTube

This is a video of a PR excercice to get people in a shopping mall to come to see the  original Rembrandt

Here is the painting

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Nightwatch_by_Rembrandt_-_Rijksmuseum.jpg

Here is the video

Onze helden zijn terug! - YouTube

Billboards Share Stories of a City That's Just Getting Too Expensive for Many - CityLab

This is a great project looking at how people are being forced out of London by the high costs of housing.







London Billboards Share Stories of a City That's Just Getting Too Expensive for Many - CityLab

Pitt Rivers Museum

Always a favorite visit, particularly when they say take any photos you like, including flash.

I've asked the students to consider how they might improve the Museum.   I'm always shocked when some say, improve the cases, lighting, labeling add more information.  One said sell the objects and buy better stuff (tongue in cheek)

Very different to quai branle in Paris, which treats all objects as art, but like it the PR does not do context well.

Wolf Hall Tour

I have been asked to lead a Wolf Hall study tour.

Quite exciting but a lot of research needed.

Zeppelin Walk

The first Zeppelin Walk I have done when it was not raining or dark. This one was just cold!

I was taking around a group of logisticians, very nice group and we had a couple of drinks in the Dolphin and in Smithfield.

I discovered that I had been pointing out the wrong clock in the Dolphin Pub to survive the bombing.  Both were set to the right time for the bombing so I guess I can forgive myself.  lovely quiet pub the Dolphin, just across the road from Lambs Conduit St.

The Dolphin Clock (the right one) (photo Steve Bowen)

At the Synge of the Wodows tracked down?

Having drawn a blank as to where Peter Treveris printed his pioneering Great Herbal, I rang the local studies Library, in Southwark, and Patricia was able to track down a reference Treveris working at the 'Sign of the Three Widows'.

As to why his title page says 'Wodows' we don't know.  We had no luck finding out where in Southwark the 'Sign of the 3 Widows' was however.


Patricia used British History Online Old and New London Volume 6 which is about Southwark, and in the Inns section is this:

'Another inn, called the "Three Widows," was probably a perversion of the "Three Nuns"—the ignorant people after the Reformation confounding the white head-dresses of the religious sisterhood with those of disconsolate relicts. Here, "at the 'Three Widows,' in Southwark," a foreigner, Peter Treviris, in the early part of the sixteenth century, set up a printing-press, which he kept constantly at work for several years, as we learn from the titlepages of his books.'

Still have not found the location but Borough High Street is the most likely location.

Watch this space.

Patricia replied and said:

'I’ve checked a variety of our reference books on medieval and early modern Southwark, and found exactly one reference to Peter Treviris: E Boger, Bygone Southwark (Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co, London, 1895), pp 233-234, mentions that Treviris printed a copy of Higden’s Polychronicon in 1500, that, as of 1895, was in the British Museum: the bookplate says that Treviris’s workshop was “at the sygne of Saynte George in Powles Churchyard”.

So this means he was working from 1500 in St Pauls and then in 1516 (?) moved to Southwark.

Dickens' Clock

This is the text of a much loved label now missing from Dickens House - its a letter he wrote about his malfunctioning clock. The energy level to write something this funny for an audience of 1!

My Dear Sir

Since my hall clock was sent to your establishment to be cleaned it has gone as (indeed it always has) perfectly well, but has struck the hours with great reluctance and after enduring internal agonies of the most distressing nature it's has now ceased to striking altogether. Though a happy released for the clock, this is not convenient
to the household.

If you can send down any confidential person with whom the clock may confer, I think it may have something on its works it would be glad to make a clean breast of.

faithfully yours

C. Dickens

A lament for the death of bohemian London | John Harris | Comment is free | The Guardian

This is happening all over London.



A lament for the death of bohemian London | John Harris | Comment is free | The Guardian

Printing in Southwark and early medical publications

After a little bit of digging around. I discovered some very interesting facts about printing in Southwark. 

Dawn Kemp, the new Director of the Old Operating Theatre Museum alerted me to Peter Treveris, the Southwark based printer of the first illustrated Herbal in England, (Peter Treveris’ Grete herball ). I had not heard of this herbal before, and wondered if it had anything to do with the printing of the first Bible in English by Miles Coverdale in the grounds of St Thomas Hospital, Southwark in 1537.

Title Page of Grete Herball

A little bit of research established that Treveris was established as a printer at the 'sygne of the wodows'  in 1516.  (The Stationers' Company and the Printers of London, 1501–1557  By Peter W. M. Blayney; ).  Was this the 'Sign of the Widows'?

Treveris was an alien, possibly from Trier, and was a publisher/translator.

However,  what was a great discovering was that Treveris also published the 'Handywork of Surgery' by Hieronymous of Brunswick - this contains the first anatomical text in English, printed in 1525. And these two books makes Southwark really important in the printing of early medical texts.   Whether the location in Southwark has any medical significance or association with St Thomas Hospital is, as yet, unknown but surely, not a coincidence with the location of the Hospital?

This is the introduction of the Handywork:

 'The noble experyence of the vertuous handy warke of surgeri, : practysyd [&] compyled by the moost experte mayster Iherome of Bruynswyke, borne in Straesborowe in Almayne [...] Item there after he hath authorysed and done it to vnderstande thrugh the trewe sentences of the olde doctours and maysters very experte in the scyence of surgery, as Galienus, Ipocras, Auicenna, Gwydo, Haly abbas, Lancfrancus of mylen, Iamericus, Rogerius, Albucasis, Place[n]tinus, Brunus, Gwilhelmus de saliceto, [and] by many other maysters whose names be wryten in this same boke. [...] Item yf ye fynde ony names of herbes or of other thynges wherof ye haue no knowlege, yt shall ye knowe playnly by the potecarys. Item here shall you fynde also for to make salues, plasters, powders, oyles, and drynkes for woundes. Item who so desyreth of this science ye playne knowlege let hym oftentymes rede this boke, and than he shall gette perfyte vnderstandynge of the noble surgery.'

Author:	Hieronymus Brunschwig; Peter Treveris

Publisher:	[Imprynted at London : In Southwarke by Petrus Treueris, In the yere of our lorde god. M.D.xxv. [1525] and the. xxvi. day of Marche]

Summary:	This translation includes the first anatomical text to be printed in English. (Worldcat)

Treveris continues in Southwark to 1532 (I think). James Nicholson begins printing in Southwark in 1526, and in 1537 moves into St Thomas Hospital and prints Miles Coverdale's Bible, the first bible printed in England in English (there was an earlier print run of the Bible printed on the continent). It was printed by Royal License.  Coverdale was protected by Thomas Cromwell, and closely associated with William Tyndale.  Among Coverdale's jobs was as Rector of St Magnus, across the river from the Hospital at some point, and was interred there after St Batholemew's at the Exchange was knocked down. More information on printers of Southwark can be found here.  Typographical antiquities: an historical account of printing in England, with some memoirs of our antient printers, and a register of the books printed by them, from 1471 to 1600, with an appendix concerning printing in Scotland and Ireland. Considerably augmented by W. Herbert. for Southwark see pages 144-155

Kings College, Cambridge Stained Glass  At the same time as printing,  St Thomas played host to the stained glass works which produced the famous Kings College, Cambridge, stained glass. between 1526 and 1531. Southwark School of Sculptures Further along the river near the Cathedral was a group of foreign stone masons who could not obtain membership of the City Guilds. One of their commissions is thought to be the bust of William Shakespeare in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-on-Avon. More information on printers of Southwark can be found here.  Typographical antiquities: an historical account of printing in England, with some memoirs of our antient printers, and a register of the books printed by them, from 1471 to 1600, with an appendix concerning printing in Scotland and Ireland. Considerably augmented by W. Herbert Text from the Great Herbal is also available in: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33654/33654-h/33654-h.htm Title: The Old English Herbals Author: Eleanour Sinclair Rohde Release Date: September 6, 2010 [EBook #33654] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS ***

Printed in Southwark » Peter Treveris’ Grete herball of 1529

This is the first illustrated guide to herbs printed in England in 1529. and it was printed in Southwark.



I am wondering whether it was printed by the same people who printed Covedale's Bible.





Special Collections » Peter Treveris’ Grete herball of 1529

Metrics Monday: How Museums Use Demographic Data - EdTrips

This is a short blog article about collecting data for museums with examples from the Louvre and the Charles Dickens Museum in London.



Metrics Monday: How Museums Use Demographic Data - EdTrips

The Old Operating Theatre Museum on the London Walks Podcast No.27:

After an introduction on the British Museum, after the first 10 minutes this is an interview with Kevin Flude talking about the Old Operating Theatre Museum.



londonwalks » Blog Archive » The London Walks Podcast No.27: London Museums

The Clock of the Long Now

 Author of 'How buildings learn talks about how to make humans think over the long time - 'The Clock of the London Now'



TED talk

I think I've found a new hero!  I did not know he was also a 'merry prankster' and IN the 'Electric Kool Aid Acid Test' and editor of the Whole Earth Catalog which must surely be one of the most important influences on the Green movement.

Makes me think I have wasted most of my life when I could have been doing stuff like this!





Stewart Brand: The Long Now | Talk Video | TED.com

Pinned down by your things? Stuffocated? Here is the beginning of the answer

From the museum of brands





Are you being stuffocated? ...and other thought provoking events - kpflude@gmail.com - Gmail: STUFFOCATION: Living More, With Less

Are you being stuffocated? Based on his acclaimed book, James Wallman, explains why we've had enough of stuff and need experience more than ever. Do you have cupboards full to bursting? A cluttered desk? Do you want to organise life's clutter and live more? If so, you're suffering from ‘stuffocation'. The solution, as Wallman will show, is experientialism. This does not mean giving up all our possessions, but it does mean getting over our obsession with them, and transforming what we value. Stuffocation is a vital manifesto for change. It has inspired those who have heard its message to be happier and healthier, and to live more with less.
Tuesday 10th Feb. Tickets £15 with free copy of the book

Unreal City Audio - Guided audio tours

Now this is the sort of thing I should have done with my walks, years ago!





Unreal City Audio

We are history - the diggers digging up diggers

People used to say you know you are getting older when policemen look too young for the job.  But an archeologist knows he she is getting old when other archaeologists start digging up your excavations and reporting the finds.

Here is  Raksha who reports digging up beer cans allegedly left by Canadian archaeologist Prince Chitwood.

They haven't found Kevin's teabag yet!

Raksha’s Site Diary: the archaeology of the archaeologists | DigVentures

The Case of Lady Sannox, by Arthur Conan Doyle

This is an article written following the inaugural meeting of a Book Club looking at books with a medical Theme.  

This is a short story written in a highly dramatic form by Conan-Doyle. It does not feature Sherlock Holmes, and perhaps because of that it has a cracking pace.   It is a bit-sized story that can be read in a single tube journey.  There is no detection in it, but the style alerts the reader to the fact that there is going to be a surprising possibly horrific ending.

The plot has medicine at its heart. Conan-Doyle was a doctor himself, trained in Edinburgh by Joseph Bell whose forensic skills were one of the main influences leading to the creation of the world's most famous fictional detective.

There was no wikipedia page, so I set up the following wikipedia entry outlining the plot.


This is a short story by Conan-Doyle which features an arrogant Surgeon, Douglas Stone, who is in love with the married Lady Sannox, one of the most beautiful woman world.
  Spoiler Alert!

Because of his desire to meet his lover; his need for money; his professional arrogance; and the opinion of the Turk that any delay will kill his wife. the Surgeon goes ahead with the operation on the heavily drugged wife who's face is obscured by a veil.

After he has done the operation the lady turns out to be Lady Sannox, and the Turk is her husband who believes the disfigurement will be morally good for his wife. The Surgeon suffers a breakdown.

Medically, the case is interesting as the depiction of the Surgeon is one of extreme arrogance. He would have succeeded in any adventurous sphere of life, and 'his nerve, his judgement, his intuition, were things apart'.  'Again and again, his knife cut away death'.  Although the story was written well after the introduction of anesthesia and anteseptic surgery something of the surgeon in the heroic age of surgery sticks to Douglas Stone.  He, we imagine, is something of the showman, and  so assured is he that he must be in complete control of the operating theatre.

But he has flaws, he is impetuous, and in debt due to an extravagant life style. 

By contrast Lord Sannox is not very impressive, although he had a period as an actor.  But, it becomes clear that he knows his opponent and he plays on the weaknesses of his rival in love: his need for money, his need to do the operation quickly, which suits his belief in his own skills.  To the reader it is clear he should take some care to find out if the patient really will die if she does not have an operation now, we have no real details of the poison, and it is clear that all the information we have is given by the husband. There are enough circumstances, the strange house, the need for speed, to urge caution.

He has not administered anaesthesia but the poison and opium have sedated her. There is a glimmer of intelligence in her eyes  but Stone is easily persuaded that he needs to operate now before she becomes aware of the pain and before the poison spreads.

He takes the word of an unknown turk and with 2 swift cuts he takes out her lip.

It is ofcourse Lady Sannox, and the Turk is her husband.  The most unlikely, perhaps, part of the story is the fact that the surgeon loses his reason as soon as he realises just what he has done.

Strangely, you are left with the feeling that the Surgeon is the villain and not the vengeful cuckolded husband.

Amazing technologies - Arduino - interactive kits, Circuit Pen and 3d Glue Pen

I must start making my own interactives!

Here is how I might start:

This is a kit system designed to help. Arduino - Home

Look at this for some art projects using the kit 

3d Circut Pen

http://www.chonday.com/Videos/penlecticcir1

3d Glue Pen

http://www.solidsmack.com/cad/drop-that-glue-gun-3doodler-is-the-worlds-first-3d-printing-pen/

Museum Fun for Children and Young People | SHOW ME

A Culture24 portal to fun stuff for kids by UK Museums.



Browse Our Fun, Interactive Games for Children and Young People | SHOW ME

The 4 Humours of Shakespeare | Authonomy

I am working on a project I began many years ago, and have decided to try out Authoromy, which is a writer's platform.  I have also published an early version of the book on Feedaread.



So, if you want to have a look at it - its a very early draft and needs lots of work.



The 4 Humours of Shakespeare | Authonomy

Christmas Poem, William Barnes, Dorset dialect poet & friend of Thomas Hardy

William Barnes - St Peters Church,Dorchester

To have zome fun last night: how wer’t?
Vor we’d a-worked wi’ all our might
To scour the iron things up bright,
An’ brush’d an’ scrubb’d the house all drough;
An’ brought in vor a brand, a plock
O’ wood so big’s an uppen-stock
An’ hung a bough o’ misseltoo,
An’ ax’d a merry friend or two,
To keepen up o’Christmas.
An’ zoo you didden come athirt,

An’ there wer wold an’ young; an’ Bill,
Soon after dark, stalk’d up vrom mill.
An’ when he wer a-comin near,
He whissled loud vor me to hear;
Then roun’ my head my frock I roll’d,
An’ stood on orcha’d like a post,
To meake en think I wer a ghost.
But he wer up to’t, an did scwold
To vind me stannen in the cwold,
A-keepen up o’ Christmas.
We play’d at Forfeits, an’ we spun
The trencher roun’, an’ meade such fun!
An’ had a geame o’ dree-ceard loo,
An’ then begun to hunt the shoe.
An’ all the wold vo’k zitten near,
A-chatten roun’ the vier pleace,
Did smile in woone another’s feace,
An’ sheake right hands wi’ hearty cheer.
An’ let their left hands spill their beer,
A-keepen up o’ Christmas. 

Dorset County Museum

@DorsetMuseum ‪#‎adventcalender‬ - 21st Dec: Keepen Up O’ ‪#‎Christmas‬ by ‪#‎WilliamBarnes‬ ‪#‎Dorset‬ ‪#‎Poem‬

Thanks to Pete Glass for pointing this out

Cast Court reopening (at last)

For years, they have kept us away from the Renaissance Cast Court, hiding all the copies of statues of Michangelo, the Doors of Paradise, the pulpits of the Pissani's and Donatello's sublime statuary and so much more.

Before restoration

All those years it has been a parking lot for curators.  Such a pity it has taken so long!





Why do we only worship 'real' works of art? | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The G

Zeppelin Walk

My Zeppelin Walk went off well, after a lot of research!

The public walk was virtually rained off but acted as a rehearsal for a group walk with students from Lafayette University.

The route follows that taken by Kpt/Ltn Henrich Mathy in Zeppelin L31 on 8th September 1915.   I note that someone else has copied the idea - so that's flattering.

The walk begins where Mathy dropped the first bombs on Central London.  The route is:

Russell Square

Queen's Square

Lambs Conduit Street

Dolphin Pub.

Jockey Field

Grey's Inn Road

Bourne Estate

Mazim plaque, Hatton Gardens

61 Farringdon Street

Smithfield

Postman's Park

Gresham St

Morgate

Finsbury Square

Liverpool St

Norton Folgate



Although we have so far not got further than Moorgate on foot.



ZEPPELIN > Historical Note

Pain De Campagne Rustique

I am on the 4th Day of making this french country bread.  Mostly, it involves a bit of kneeding and then leaving the dough around for a long time.

So, I have no idea, as yet, whether the effort is worthwhile.

Here is a recipe but not the one I am using.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pain-de-Campagne---Country-French-Bread/

Museum of London moving to Smithfield?

The following article was published by Salon IFA

Issue 332
15 December 2014

Next issue: 5 January 2015

The Society of Antiquaries of London Online Newsletter (Salon) is a fortnightly digest of news from the heritage sector. It focuses on the activities of the Society and the contribution that the Society's Fellows make to public life. Like the intellectual salons of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, it aims to amuse and to stimulate debate as well as to inform. A copy of Salon’s editorial policy can be found on the Society’s website. News and feedback for publication in Salon should be addressed to the Editor, Christopher Catling.

Museum of London considering a move to Smithfield General Market

The Museum of London has revealed that it is considering moving from its current Powell & Moya-designed building to Smithfield General Market, which was saved from demolition to make way for an office and retail scheme in July when Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, ruled that the scheme would have ‘an extremely harmful effect on the significance of the General Market as an important non-designated heritage asset’.

Reports in the media last week said that the museum had identified the former market as one of three options for its future. A spokesperson for the Museum of London said: ‘in order to create a museum that meets the needs of Londoners and visitors to the city, the Museum of London is considering a range of very speculative options for our long-term future and a detailed appraisal of each is under way’.

Our Fellow Marcus Binney, Chairman of SAVE, which campaigned long and hard to protect the market buildings from demolition, said that the idea of converting the market to museum premises was ‘a very interesting suggestion’, while Christopher Costelloe, Director of the Victorian Society, said: ‘sensitive designs for the relocated museum could both secure the future of the historic London building and increase the Museum of London’s visitor numbers. The Society looks forward to seeing any plans in due course’.
 

Clichés

Clichés

 

They are, originally, phrases which are so overused they are predictable and therefore boring.  In design, solutions which have been used so often they elicit a groan when proposed.

http://literarydevices.net/cliche/

However, because they are so well used they often are clearly understood, and can be concise, and this can,in certain limited circumstances,  be a good method of communication (if they can be used in an innovative way).

Have a look at this for further information on the appropriate use of Clichés. http://thefederalist.com/2014/06/06/in-defense-of-cliches/

In essense, you should avoid all hackneyed, boring, dull use of cliche, but you can occassionally get awy with cliche by   using them,knowingly, cleverly, or by subverting them.

Here is one article on cliche and design

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/02/21/clich-s-and-idea-generation-how-to-turn-clich-in-a-successful-visual-solution/

cliche is a bit like kitsch, avoid like the plaque (but used cleverly can be genius).

So have a look at http://www.lifestylecn.com/the-genius-of-cliche/. Some would say the narrative world of Harry Potter was full of clichés 

7th Arrondismont, Paris

The CSM tutors stayed in the Hotel Royal Phare whose name was grander than the reality.   But what a good location.  The Rue Motte-Piquet is on the Metro and in walking distance are Les Invalides and the Musee DÁrmee; Musee Rodin; Eiffel Tower, Musee Quai Branly, and across the River are the Trocadero, and the City of Paris Museum of Architecture, and the Palais de Tokyo and Musee of Arttt Moderne.  All well worth visiting.

On route to the Tour is Rue Cler and Rue Sante Dominque both of which interesting roads with  traditional French shops such as wine shops, boulangerie and butchers.  I  had the best pain de raisin here, after queuing with a lot of Parisians.

Palais de Tokyo and the Musee dÁrte Moderne

Across the River From Quai Branly Museum, near the Eiffel Tower are yet another 2 wonderful Museums in Paris. 

The Palais de Tokyo is a modern White Cube gallery full of the most interesting installations.  Varied in quality, yes but there are so many of them each with their own big space - either white, bright, or dark, filmic, and some with chaotic art pieces.  But the shere quantity truly gives the measure of the French love of culture.

The suspended crawl-way made out of clear parcel tape was a mere bit of claustrophobic fun, but the marvelous tree growing out of the white  columns was a true deconstruction of the White Cube ideal.. 

Next door is a 'traditional' collection of modern art with paintings from Cubism to the present day, with just enough paintings to give a tolerable narrative, and enough star names to satisfy anyone.  But the glory of the collection is the Salon de Dufy with a huge work of art made for an international exhibition; and the Salon de Matisse with equally big figurative pictures.
Again, it is the scale that astonises- there is nothing quite comparable to this in London.

Quai Branly, Paris

The  Quai Branly is an amazing museum dedicated to art from cultures all around the world.   This, would once have been called an Ethnographic Museum.

It was set up as Jacques Chirac's Grand Project and is designed by Jean Nouvel.  It has been heavily critised for the way it deals with the source material, and has a very heavily and rigorously controlled editorship of all aspects of the Museum.  What is interesting is how the many decisions that have been taken - probably with good intentions, somehow open the Museum up to all sorts of post-colonial criticism. And yet, one has to admire the single-minded focus, the stance that has been taken and stuck to.  Forget context, we don't have room to discuss context properly, so we are just going to present these items as gorgeous works of Art.

The building is screened from the road by a large glass wall,  designed to make the garden visible from the road and to shelter those in the garden from the  roar of the Seine-side road.   But the wall seems more fortress like than a pervious membrane.  The garden beneath the looming building somehow seems to suggest that the collection belongs with the rural and with nature rather than with urban life, while it was probably intended to provide the City with another green space.   The building itself is like a giant space transporter, landing on a derelict plot in the heart of  Paris.  Its openness a symbol of otherness when it should make the Museum seem open and part of the Cityscape.

Is the problem then in our minds, willing to see everything in the light of french elitism, and colonial oppression rather than in the design itself which seeks to elevate the collection into art on a par with western art?

The entrance is a long spiral of darkness before meeting the collection - almost like an airlock allowing you to transform yourself from a Westerner to a being able to appreciate the exotic.

Inside the objects are displayed with enormous beauty. And yet the lighting and the materiality all suggest otherness. Everything  is  earthy - the walls look like adobe, the colour is from brown to red. The vast majority of the museum has banished any blues or greens as if these were alien colours.  It is only when you walk around to the  Far Eastern section that any vibrant colours are allowed, here are a few white lights, and some blues and greens but they look washed out as if they cannot compete wth the burnt umbers of the rest of the Museum.

There is very liittle contextual information,; videos are not very informative or welcoming, and each culture is treated exactly the same as the previous one - no differentiation, not explanation, no seeking to understand or educate or inform.  The entire purpose of the  Museum is to say these items are aesthetically pleasing as any Dufy, or Matisse.  But they are in a different building, isolated from  the rest.

It gives a feeling of french elitism at its most bold.

A totally amazing experience, but so open to criticism.

Read these two articles for an overview.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/arts/design/02kimm.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2006/nov/01/culturaltrips.paris


For a more scholarly view look at this pdf http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/mar/article/view/1905/1891
is a review of a book on the establishment of the Museum, and puts it in the context of French ideas on multicultural society. This French elitism, or the idea that French Culture somehow 'trumps' other cultures was expressed by Jacques Derrida who originally spoke with an Algerian accent but he said:

' at least in France, insofar as language is concerned, I cannot bear or allow anything other than pure French'


This viewpoint arguably, allowed the French to produce a Museum like Quai Branly, both magnificent, so single minded in its approach, cutting through all debate on context, and post-colonial critiques and focusing solely on the artistic merit of the objects; and yet so easy to criticize. I cannot see such a single-minded museum being built anywhere else but Paris.

I had an email conversation prompted by the above, suggesting that it was an aesthetic decision not an elitist one and I tried to defend my position:

But the aesthetic approach was a deliberate decision.

The creators said 'these objects are not mere objects, they are objects of desire of art, equal to a Picasso, a Leonardo. so lets treat them as art equal to Picasso - lets give them little labels and ignore context'

Then also an understanding that the other approach - to give them all background information would have been a gigantic task which risks overwhelming the objects, creating a monster of a museum, where labels have to try and sum up 'Japan' 'Dahomey' in a few panels, and videos, so the organising minds cuts through all that and says 'no we will forget context!'

That is to me a staggeringly arrogant and breathtaking decision making.

It cuts all the objects off from their past - what makes it a bad decision is that these objects all used to be in museums which had their own history in Paris, the designers destroy those institutions, they destroy that 'history' they cut the objects off from their history and their context.

They build a huge 'look at me' museum, they make it beautiful.

Its a marvelous piece of creation, its a breathtaking decision, its a destruction of the past.

And the decision to treat the objects like ART like PICASSO is completely undermined by two factors:

1. they are in a completely different museum, they are not in the Louvre, they are across the river, all together - so not at all equal, they are separate.

2.  the display aesthetic makes them as if they were built by people who live in mud huts in rural communities, it makes them rustic, it denies also a different aesthetic one were practicality, art, and spirituality and religion might all be together and not divisible.. The display aesthetic, the building, the entrance all makes them seem OTHER.

I accept that some of this is in the mind of the beholder but it undermines, to my mind, the bravery of the decision.  If they had been put in the Louvre and displayed white cube, it would have not been so open to criticism.  Maybe less beautiful too.

Roman Ship Dug Up In Thames - British Pathé

This is a video of the Roman boat discovered by Blackfriars Bridge in 1963.





Roman Ship Dug Up In Thames - British Pathé

Andreas Vesalius' Fabrica: The Anatomy of a Revolution

 One of the world's most important books?



Andreas Vesalius' Fabrica: The Anatomy of a Revolution on AbeBooks

Mythogeography - Mythogeography

Mythogeography - Mythogeography

Necklace from 600 B.C. was found in a Danish bog.

Check this very beautiful bronze necklace - really unique design.



585. This necklace from 600 B.C. was found in a Danish bog. | National Geographic Creative

London - early electrical generation

This is a good article on the subject,

http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2008/01/15/early-electricity-supplies-in-london/

and also

Shoreditch Electricity Station : London Remembers, Aiming to capture all memorials in London

Why the City of London is indefensible in a modern Democracy

The City of London has long been gerrymandered to make sure it remains a bastion of financial priviledge. In this piece George Monbiot explains some of the details.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/oct/31/corporation-london-city-medieval

Why is the Original so important

This is a TED talk explaining why a Fake will not do, why the original is so important to humans.

http://www.museumsassociation.org/video/22102014-why-is-original-so-important

Weird Things in a Coffin - Queen Victoria

This is what the Victoria files has to say about the contents of Queen Victoria's Coffin.



I do hope she shagged John Brown.



'The Victoria Files » Queen Victoria’s Funeral: In her coffin, Queen Victoria wanted various items of jewellery, Prince Albert’s dressing gown and his cloak which had been embroidered by Princess Alice, the daughter she had lost in 1878, a plaster cast of Prince Albert’s hand, her lace wedding veil, shawls, various photographs and also a lock of John Brown’s hair and a photo of him, which she wanted placing in her left hand. It has since been discovered that she was also buried wearing John Brown’s mother’s wedding ring.'

William Shakespeare, Gangster | History | Smithsonian

This is an article on the writ against Shakespeare, by William Whyte.  The article uses it with a discussion of the old chestnut about who wrote the plays.



William Shakespeare, Gangster | History | Smithsonian

How many people to defend a Hill fort?

This interesting article on the Hillforts of Dorset contends that the Parish Boundaries date back to the Roman period.  Evidence is very much circumstantial.



But it also has a useful go at working out how many people needed to defend a hillfort, and the population of Roman Dorset.



 Parish Boundaries In Dorset9.doc - parish_boundaries9.pdf

How old is English?

How to explain how come so few Celtic words in Old English.



Answer: Celtic was not spoken in East England.



How old is English?

▶ Except from Billingsgate Excavation in 1982 - computers and Kevin Flude

'A very sophisticated filing cabinet' says Kevin Flude



▶ Big82 Computers in 1982 - YouTube

Operation Stonehenge: what the TV films left out | Mike Pitts – Digging Deeper

The argument Mike Pitts makes is that the recent TV programme on the survey results of the Stonehenge Landscape left out much of the story of Stonehenge as discovered by recent excavation.

While this is certainly true, and to get the most our of the programme you need to read Mike Parker Pearson's book on Stonehenge, the programmes did reveal some of the major results of the new project.



So it was essential, if annoying viewing.



Operation Stonehenge: what the TV films left out | Mike Pitts – Digging Deeper

Effect of TV/Film on history as show in Smithfield

Before the release of Braveheart, very few flowers/memorials were ever left at the memorial to William Wallace at Smithfield. Since then, flowers/flags have been ever present. Since the Independence Vote, it has become a centre for Scottish sentiment, with the addition of flags.

Further down the road, a telephone box has become the centre of fans of Johnlock - Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson.  St Barts is indeed where Sherlock and John meet and decide to lodge together with Mrs Hudson, but the Telephone box has only become a 'shrine' since the Cumberbatch/Freeman show in which the death at Reichenbacker Falls is relocated to Smithfield.  Every so often the authorities clear it out but the notes soon reappear.

Nearby in Charterhouse Square is Florin Court, where Poirot lived in Whitehaven Masions (actually Florin Court). But this is just the TV location. No web site I could found actually tried to locate the building in fictional reality, but accepted  the TV location without question. Given the amount of nerdy attention to detail this is surprising.

So for the record in the ABC murders, Poirot's address is  recorded as Whitehaven Mansions W1, and elsewhere it is 30 minutes from Paddington. So Poirot lives somewhere between Soho and Mayfair.

I corrected the Wikipedia page.

Early use of computers in archaeology

Hobley's Heros has just uploaded this snippet of a 1982 BBC programme which features me talking about one of the first uses of computers in an Archaeological excavation in the UK.

http://youtu.be/m-UROHEvfvU

A new suggestion for Arthur's second most famous battle has been proposed - Braydon Forest - it should be, says Andrew Breeze. the Battle of Mons Bradonicus.

 

The context for the battle is the battle for Cirenceaster  between the Saxons and the Britains.  - which Breeze  calls the capital of Celtic Britain.   

The full text is :

Salon: Issue 325
1 September 2014

 

 

'Another major hillfort, this time Ringsbury Camp, in the parish of Purton, some 5 miles east of Swindon, is being proposed as a possible site for the Battle of Badon, or Mons Badonicus, which Gildas says was decisive in halting the westward march of hostile Saxon migrants around AD 490 (though an alternative reading of the crucial passage in Gildas suggests that the battle that took place there was part of a civil war for supremacy in southern England, rather than a conflict between British and Saxon combatants). Various suggestions have been made over the centuries for the location of the battle, including Liddington Castle (aka Badbury Castle, near Badbury, 7 miles north of Marlborough, Wilts), Badbury Rings, in Dorset and Little Solsbury Hill, near Bath.

Fellow Andrew Breeze, in a forthcoming paper called ‘Arthur’s Battle of Badon and Braydon Forest, Wiltshire’, to be published in the Journal of Literary Onomastics, says that all of these suggestions are wrong, because the form ‘Badon’ is corrupt: ‘nobody has ever been able to explain it’, he writes, ‘even though it must be a British Celtic name’. He argues that ‘Mons Badonicus’ is an early error for Mons Bradonicus or Mount Braydon, a reference to Braydon Forest. If so, the best candidate for the battle site is Ringsbury Camp: ‘it is situated not far from the Roman road from Winchester to Cirencester, and is the natural place where an attack of West Saxons on the Britons of Cirencester (long the capital of Celtic Britain) might be defeated’, Andrew concludes.'

Enfield Rifles and the River Lea

A year or so ago  we moored  by Enfield lock on the River Lea, in London and explored the

The Royal_Small_Arms_Factory in Enfield.  



Much of the factory and the workers cottages are still there, and, although slightly compromised by modern development still has a lot of interesting red brick buildings,

So I was quite interested when Michael Portillo  started his exploration of the 'Great Railway Journeys' in Enfield.  This, ofcourse, was his old constituency before that famous defeat by Stephen Twigg in the 1997 election.



This is quite an ideal TV format because essentially, Portillo simply uses the Bradshaw Guide to create a narrative, hops on a train and interviews a few historians and the like in places along the Railway line.



I don't normal watch these programmes but I had the TV on while  rearranging my front room to make way for a French 19th Century 'Boat' Bed. I had just watched Clare Balding cycle along Offa's Dyke, on a Dawes Bike. I discovered that my Dawes Bike has a proud history and that in the 1960's we had a Cyclist who won 8 Tour de France stages. 



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_Cycles



Anyway back to Diane Abott's friend - he told me that  the Enfield factory was the first factory in Britain to adopt new mass production methods of  manufacture - in this case machine making parts to put together  as a Rifle. The idea came from the US - Springfield Rifle I believe.



On this day my father also told me about his visits to speedway at Rye House - another place my boat has been moored.  for further details have a look at this:   http://thefludes.blogspot.co.uk/

How Much Does it Cost to Make a Website in 2014 -

I am considering methods of updating various web sites. They are originally set up using Dreamweaver with templates set up by professional web designers - way back when in the prehistory of the World Wide Web.



I am very tempted by wix and wembly. which seem very easy to set up, although the make professional and with ecommerce there is a monthly fee.



Wordpress is the other option which is the one I think I would go for except for the initial set up which seems difficult.



It seems to involve loading wordpress onto the server, and this always fills me with fear. Reading the instructions, they are all written by people who know what they are doing, and each step seems fraught with unknowable methods.



This web site gives a good summary.

How Much Does it Cost to Make a Website in 2014 -

What is Augmented Reality?

What is Augmented Reality? AR Resource List | Marxent Marxent | Top Augmented Reality Apps Developer for Android & iOS

Tell me a story: augmented reality technology in museums | Culture professionals network | Guardian Professional

Tell me a story: augmented reality technology in museums | Culture professionals network | Guardian Professional

Follow that robot: the hi-tech tour guides taking over Tate Britain at night | Art and design | The Guardian

Strange, I was talking about this very thing yesterday  discussing whether machine tour guides were better than human ones.



my arguement was that a good tour guides tour is an improvisation, tailored to time, and group and the mood of the guide, not a mechanical excercise



Follow that robot: the hi-tech tour guides taking over Tate Britain at night | Art and design | The Guardian

Stonehenge new visitor centre

First visit to the new Stonehenge visitor experience.



A work in progress, partly it seems like a building site and as you arrive by shuttle to the old visitor centre (now buried) nothing much seems to have changed except that it has taken an extra 30 minutes to arrive her.



There is ofcourse a new interpretation centre with Cafe, shop and exhibition.  The Exhibition has some impressive graphics which give some idea of being inside the Circle. But it neither provides a spiritual or evocative experience nor an intellectual engagement.  The interpretation seems  aimed at a low level, no real discussion of the archaeological arguments.  Aimed squarely at the person who is vaguely interested.  Also rather surprised that it is grant aided - surely the government should not be bleeding grant funds for things it ought to be funding directly?





Stonehenge new centre leads to English Heritage being criticised by members of the public on TripAdvisor | Western Daily Press

Ruin & Reputation in Georgian England - No1 Royal Crescent

This is a really good exhibition of portraits (Mezzotints) of Georgian women - from Duchesses to Prostitutes.  Great pictures and the text is also good.  Worth a visit.





Exhibitions | No1 Royal Crescent

London's Abandoned Tube Stations

 Wills Week writes:







Did you know that there are no less that forty-six abandoned tube
stations on the London Underground network. The easiest to spot is on
the Central Line on the left hand side (going East and up-hill) about
200 yards after Holborn station. Within a few seconds of leaving
Holborn, you’ll race through ‘British Museum’. If you cup your hands
(I’ve done it) you’ll just see the old station platform and even a WW2
air-raid shelter poster. It’s awesome, although not quite as spectacular
as the rumour that’s been circulating for years – that it’s been
preserved since the day it closed before the war, complete with all the
original advertising posters etc. If only someone had the foresight to
have pickled that!



Further information on Wills week and 



London's Abandoned Tube Stations

Adam Worth - the Real Moriaty?

This is an interesting life - I wonder why it is not better known.



Seems like a nice bloke!



Adam Worth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fire Brigade Museum could stay in Southwark Bridge Road [20 April 2014]

Good news, if this happens, but it really should be mandatory for the purchaser to keep it open



Fire Brigade Museum could stay in Southwark Bridge Road [20 April 2014]

To Tell Your Story, Take a Page from Kurt Vonnegut​ - Andrea Ovans - Harvard Business Review

Thanks, Karin for pointing this one out! - It contains a video of Vonnegut teaching.



To Tell Your Story, Take a Page from Kurt Vonnegut​ - Andrea Ovans - Harvard Business Review

Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Tips on How to Write a Great Story | Brain Pickings

Very good advice from a master story-teller.



Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Tips on How to Write a Great Story | Brain Pickings

Offa's Dyke Dates to the Dark Age

Society of Antuquities reports in Salon:

 

Doubts cast on Offa’s Dyke, Richard III and the Holy Grail

Offa’s Dyke may not have been built by the eighth-century ruler of Mercia after all, according to our Fellow Paul Belford, Director of the Clwyd—Powys Archaeological Trust, who announced last week the ‘tremendously exciting discovery’ that parts were constructed between AD 430 and 652 (Offa ruled from AD 757 to 796). The Clwyd—Powys Archaeological Trust carried out excavations on a stretch of the dyke along the Shropshire border near the town of Chirk. The dated material came from a layer of re-deposited turf underneath the bank, laid down as part of the construction process.

Before we rush to rename the dyke, Paul Belford made it clear that, even if parts of the dyke system were in place before Offa’s time, ‘it is likely that he would have consolidated the existing network into what we now call Offa’s Dyke’. Paul added: ‘It is now clear that it was not the work of a single ruler but a longer-term project that began at an earlier stage in the development of the kingdom. Further work is needed on other parts of this enigmatic monument before we can really say who built it and why.’

Britain from Above | Rescue the Past

This is a new archive of images of Britain from the air.

Amazing pictures



Britain from Above | Rescue the Past

Digitising the Museum at Central Saint Martins | Digital Present

This is a blog article from the CSM museum about the benefits and disbenefits  of digitisation.



Digitising the Museum at Central Saint Martins | Digital Present

The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars - new company set up

This is a new City Livery Company



The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars

Safely into the Unknown? A review of the proposals for the future of English Heritage | Larkin | Papers from the Institute of Archaeology

Safely into the Unknown? A review of the proposals for the future of English Heritage | Larkin | Papers from the Institute of Archaeology

Funding scheme for heritage organisations

Become a partner organisation

Marlborough Mound is proven to be prehistoric

 I: think we always thought it was but it has finally been proven by archaeological investigation that this mound is second only to Silbury Hill and is now the second biggest artificial mound in the UK.



Marlborough News Online - Merlin's Mound

Our Church tower becomming an icon of London

Plans for 27-storey residential tower next to Shard go on show [14 January 2014]

Bureau Of Silly Ideas

this is a great way to make a living and it makes a lot of sense too.


Bureau Of Silly Ideas

Government details English Heritage split | Historic England

So English Heritage is to become the National Trust Mark 2 looking after the 'National Collection' and will be a Charity with no Government support (80m a year to begin with declining to 0)

The listings, buildings at risk aspects will become Historic England a separate organisation.

Government details English Heritage split | Museums Association

Virtual recreation of St Pauls Cross during the sermon of John Donne

This projects allows you to explore St Pauls Cathedral, London, during the 17th Century and hear a sermon by John Donne.

http://vpcp.chass.ncsu.edu/listen-the-sermon/

Roman London Walk

Cheapside Bath House

Very enjoyable Roman London Walk for London walks, yesterday. We started at Moorgate, which was a very good choice geographically. historically.

I used a lot of Martial, Ovid, etc to make it more interesting.

Of what does the happy life consist,

My dear friend Julius? Here's a list:

Inherited wealth no need to earn,

Fires that continually burn,

And fields that give a fair return,

No lawsuits, formal togas worn

Seldom, a calm mind, the freeborn

Gentleman's health and good physique,

Tact with the readiness to speak

Openly, friends of your own mind,

Guests of an easy-going kind,

Plain food, a table simply set,

Nights sober but wine-freed from fret,

A wife who's true to you and yet

No prude in bed, and sleep so sound

It makes the day come quickly round.

Be pleased with what you are, keep hope

Within that self-appointed scope:

Neither uneasily apprehend

Nor morbidly desire the end.

Martial, Epigrams (From 'In their Own Words')

St Alphage

The route was:

Moorgate
London Wall
Fore Street
St Alphage
Cripplegate
Wood Street
Barber Surgeons Hall and Gardens
Noble Street
Milk Street
Cheapside
Kings Street
Guildhall.

We ended outside the Guildhall suggesting the group continue into the Amphitheatre.

defense of Lundenwic

LAMAS Transactions Vol 63 2012 reports on the discovery of a possibly defensive ditch to the north of a site in Keeley Street near the Aldwych. This is thought to be part of the anti-viking defenses of the new port of Lundenwic. 

Other ditches have been found at Bruce House, the Royal Opera House, and Maiden Lane - suggesting not one defensive circuit but a series of defensive enclosures.

Archaeological Evidence for the foundation of St Pauls

Excavations reported by Sadie Watson in LAMAS transactions Vol 63 2012 show that the "western stream" which flowed to the West of St Pauls was probably built in the 7th/8th Century and is likely to be part of the precinct that was built with St Pauls in 604AD.  The suggestion is made that the Western Ditch which is now NOT thought to be Roman, was built as a boundary ditch of the early St Pauls and it is now the oldest Saxon remains from the City of London.

In summarizing, the archaeological evidence for Mid Saxon London in the City she makes the point that the evidence is only from residual pottery but the 'consensus is a predominantly ecclesiastical settlement to the south of St Pauls'.  Sites at Knightrider St 29-33 and 223/4 Upper Thames St/St Peters Hill have a few sherds of imported ware and chaff tempered sherds.  Similar finds have been found at Baynards Castle and Mermaid Theatre.



London & Middlesex Archaeological Society

Glassware found at St Pauls Cathedral from the wedding of Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon?

LAMAS transactions Vol 63 2012 has an article by Sadie Watson which makes a possible link between an assemblage of high quality 15th-16th Century Glass found in a pit in the Paternoster Sq area with the wedding of Arthur and Catherine of Aragon.  It is merely mentioned as a possibility or as an example of the type of high status event that might have required such a posh set of international glassware.


Wedding of Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon | History Today

'Art Under Attack' - the Iconclasm Exhibition at the Tate

This was much better than I thought it was going to be!  There are a couple of images that make the journey to the Millbank and the renovated Tate Britain worthwhile.

For example, 'A protestant allegory' by Girolamo_da_Treviso,  which shows the 4 evangelists stoning a prostrate Pope. He  is sheltering Hypocrisy and Avarice and it just about sums up the Reformation - I am astonished it is not used more in books on the period (by which I mean I have not seen it before!).  Girolamo_da_Treviso_cat01.jpg (JPEG Image, 1040 × 837 pixels).  

The painting is monochrome but has gold paint used very delicately for halos and decoration on the clothes of the Pope. Strange, that the gold is used for both - on the Pope it would be part of the story of Avarice, but this interpretation is confounded by the fact that it is used for the halos.  So, just decoration.  There is also a huge candle on the flat mountain top in the distant, obviously symbolic but curious.

Some of the medieval sculpture fragments are amazing - one of Jesus and another of Mary breast feeding.

The Exhibition continues with a change from religious to political iconoclasm - the destruction of statues of Charles 1st and then various King Georges and their kin toppled; one amazing picture of Nelson's Pillar in Dublin; then the focus changes to suffragettes.  So far, just I remained just about convinced that this is a coherent narrative, although I wonder why they did not include the bronze head of Hadrian found in the Thames, presumably torn off at the end of the Roman period and in the BM (and 2 on display in the Museum of London - unmarked as replicas!).

But the last section really does belong somewhere else - the section on destruction as part of the art process does not stand up, partly because it is not interesting enough in comparison. But at the end the 3 final paintings are a return to form - the Chapman Brothers purchased original portraits cheaply from sales and defaced them.  Terrible thing to do but a great end to a fascinating exhibition.

Tate Britain Renovation

Saw the Tate Britain Renovations last night. They were very successful - not awesome or amazing, but they fit in and make Tate Britain more comfortable.

They have revealed at their best vistas through the building - the main columns beautifully lit making the classical columns look almost Egyptian.  Had a very quick run through the chronological hang which was interesting.  It meant, for example, that there were far fewer pre-raphaelite star paintings on duty but then you could see the 'opposition' out in force.

So, gives a much 'truer' picture of the art of the period.

Meet Tate Britain | Tate

I have begun a family history project - recording my family's life in London. Here is the first page
http://thefludes.blogspot.co.uk/

Rainham Hall

My next project is about Rainham Hall, built by John Harle and now run by the National Trust.  The unusual aspect of this house is that the grand house is next door to Harle's coach house part of his trading activities based on Rainham Wharf.

So, the most interesting thing, so far for me,  is the exploration of the trading on the smaller Rivers of London - which was also a factor in the study of Ilford.

This is the best source for Rainham I have found.
Rainham - Economic history and local government | A History of the County of Essex: Volume 7 (pp. 134-138)

Ilford High Road

I have been working on a project on Ilford High Road.

Wikipedia says the name is in the  Domesday Book of 1086 as Ilefort and means ford over the Hyle; an old name for the River Roding that means "trickling stream".

Ilford is part of the new London Borough of Redbridge which was created in 1965 with the amalgamation of Ilford with Woodford and Wanstead.  Ilford was an important rural settlement to the East of London on the junction of the River Roding and the Roman road from London to Colchester.  Archaeologists have found Uphall Camp  one of the most important centre's in Prehistoric London nearby on the banks of the River Roding at Ilford Lane. Uphall camp is nearby and it is a very significant part of pre-historic London - http://www.molas.org.uk/projects/ELG/ssilford.asp.This site shows where it is http://www.pastscape.org/hob.aspx?hob_id=408130 The text shows it also has Roman and later settlement. http://www.finestprospect.org.uk/Iron%20Age/Iron%20Age.htm  

The River was navigable to Ilford and the area's rural character changed in the 19th Century with industries based around the Roding, With the  arrival of the Railway in 1839 it developed an industrial aspect. Plessey was one of the biggest early electronics factory, which made Radios for Marconi and was a target for bombing in World War 2. 

The area has a strong multi-cultural mix with 10% of the population being Jewish, 6% Muslim, 6% Hindu and with Polish and Irish communities. Redbridge calls itself 'the leafy suburb' and has 10 underground stations.

The High Road is a mile long, and like many high streets it needs support against increasing retail shopping in Malls and on the internet.   It has a large number of shops, including major brands. It is close to the Town Hall and an excellent Library and Museum, The High Road has a reputation, that seems not to be deserved, for being unsafe at night – this may partly be because the High Road is not a centre of entertainment (apart from shopping) and does not have many pubs and only a few small nightclubs.


Thoughts about regeneration of the High Road

Redbridge is part of the 'Better Barkingside' initiative which is supported by the Mayor of London and a high street regeneration scheme involving Mary Portas – nicknamed on TV 'Mary, Queen of Shops'.

http://www.ilford.towntalk.co.uk/news/d/24313/mary-portas-report-sets-the-stall-out-for-the-town-centre/

Although it has some of the characteristics of a normal High Street it has certain aspects that make it distinctive because it is

never-ending

is cut into distinct section each with their own 'atmosphere'.

it has a 'gradient' from branded shops at one end, to second hand shops and cemetaries at the other end.

it has lots of small business offices above the shops.

I think it would be a great place for business startups - get your business started up now and then when the Cross Rail bandwagon comes to town, clean up the profits.

Also I think is neither booming nor failing - it is very utilitarian - useful rather than lovely - you come here to get things done quickly you go elsewhere to linger or get prestige items.

There are lots of human resources around, library, museum, town hall, theatre, restaurants, shops, soliciters, tech firms, churches, temples all of which have some need to reach out to the populace and interact with them.

There is a lot of space in the middle of the road, lots of stage like rooftops.

To my mind it is calling out for events along the middle of the road which brings the businesses/public utilities into contact with the people. Utilitarian meetings  advice centres, drop in shops, cookery demonstrations, street theatre, spirituality, yoga demos, meditation, debates, sermons, dance, fitness.readings, object handling. 

It needs a catalyst  something in the dead section in the middle might join the 2 parts together? Or a festival, market by the shops, food near the restaurants, a running track near the fitness centre, yoga medition near the churches?

Ilford High Road has some potential to take advantage of ideas against the emergence of  Clone Town and perhaps towards the Weird Town end of the spectrum.