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.

Reviving the High Street

The Liberal Democrats have launched a scheme to revive local high streets.  It was launched by Simon Hughes in Southwark. These are the proposals

The Lib Dem proposals

Simon Hughes MP & the Southwark Liberal Democrats will:
1. Revitalise high streets and markets giving community councils more control, creating a new 'I'm shopping locally' parking scheme and introducing a levy on large supermarkets.
2. Offer business loans through the council to help start-up companies in Southwark obtain the financial support they need to start trading.
3. Use new powers to reduce business rates to support struggling businesses and encourage regeneration where it is most needed
4. Create 1,000 new apprenticeships in the borough to help to revitalise the local economy and create lasting jobs.
5. Open a new 'Jobs & Enterprise Hub' offering information and support on jobs and training, as well as providing desk space for start-up businesses

For more details:  http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/7197

Links to history of medicine, London and Southwark concerned with the Old

I have just updated the links page on the Old Operating Theatre Museum web site.  What was interesting (apart from how many of them were 'broken' - about 40%)  was that these were mostly academic sites - particularly university sites.

Its as if the IT departments have no stability and keep changing things around, while Museums and visitor orientated sites seem to be stable - they have an interest in people finding them!

Links to history of medicine, London and Southwark concerned with the Old

Boat swops

Here are some sites where you can exchange boats.

www.magentaboat.com 

www.facebook.com/aqaequipment 

www.boatswap.info

seemysea.com

Shock! City of London elects the 2nd female Lord Mayor

 Lawyer Fiona Woolf has become the second woman to be Lord Mayor of london - the first since Lady Donaldson in the Thatcher era.

New Lord Mayor's first banquet | London - ITV News

Jane Austen in London - some places

Jane Austen mostly stayed with her brother, Henry, who was a banker before becoming a bankrupt banker.  He lived in Sloane St, Hans Place, Upper Berkeley St, Henrietta St. His bank was in Henrietta Street, Albany, and Cleveland Court off St James St.

Jane also stayed in the Bath Hotel, Arlington Street - near where the Ritz now is, which she found 'dirty' and in Cork Street off Burlington Gardens.

She loved shopping, and shopped in New Bond St at Grafton House, Grafton St, and around the area between Leicester Square to Piccadily.  There are quite a few shops still in existence in this area that survive from her time - however, the ones that survive are mostly 'men's' shops - wine merchants, barbers, tailors. But there there is Fortnum and Mason's and Hatchard's but the former provided the Duke of Wellington with provisions for his campaigns so maybe the 'rule' applies.

Royal Opera Arcade - finished just after Jane Austen's death

She went to exhibitions and galleries but was more interested in the visitors than the exhibition although she looked for her characters in the portraits on the wall - Mrs Darcy wore green she said, but she could not find a Mrs Bingley - interesting that she uses the Mrs - for the Bennett sisters.

She went to the Theatre a lot, seeing the famous Edmund Kean amongst others - Drury Lane mostly I suspect, but ofcourse Lydia Bennett is trapped in London with the Gardiners and she is only allowed the Little Theatre as her sole amusement. The Little Theatre is now the Theatre Royal, Haymarket.

New Blog template

I am attempting to change the template for the blog - the problem being that none of the templates seem to list past pages, except with a yearly archive - not good enough!

Jane Austen's London Walk - the debrief

Local Shops in Jane Austen's part of the town - south of Henry Austen's, Mrs Jennings, and John Dashwood's Houses, but north of Willoughby's, the Middleton's, and Colonel Brandon's

The Jane Austen walk was so enjoyable!  I now feel I know her work and life pretty well - well enough not to worry about not knowing enough.  The route was:

Green Park, Ritz, Arlington Street, Dover Street, Albemarle St; Grafton Street, Upper Bond Street, Conduit Street, Burlington Gardens, Old Bond St; Sackville St, Piccadilly, the Albany, Piccadilly Arcade, Jermyn St, Pall Mall.

I wanted to get to St James Sq and the Royal Opera Arcade  but next time!

Very good audience, lots of them too - it has to be done again!

I think next time I might start from Marble Arch, or Covent Garden.

What I did not expect was that studying for this walk would gain me so much in terms of my knowledge of London.
 

I had not fully realised my knowledge of Mayfair was such  a hole in my knowledge. I thought I knew enough!  I am slightly worried about it because I already worry that I give too much information as we drive around London - Mayfair; St James was almost a rest. Now it will be as full as the rest and I have something to fit in that gap between Hogarth and Dr Johnstone, and Dickens.

What is so interesting is how little the area has changed - instead of rich English Aristocrats intent on shopping it is now rich Oligarchs intent on shopping - I felt immediately that Jane Austen would have felt at home in Bond Street of the 21st Century.

There is a bit of a let down as I have spent the last 2 years reading and studying Jane Austen to prepare for leading a study tour to Bath, Lyme Regis, Winchester, Steventon and Chawton. Now that I have 'done' the Jane Austen of London I can afford to read for pleasure for a few months - But I shall miss Jane Austen.  Perhaps I will read Joanna Trollope's Sense and Sensibility? Or should I have a break?

Wellcome Library | London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

This will be a very useful sources of information on public health in London.


Wellcome Library | London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

Jane Austen reconnaisance

Two hr route March Green Park to henry's Austen's House in Upper Berkeley st. Down New Bond St to Henry's office in Piccadily.

Jane Austen's London

I am preparing for Saturday's Jane Austen's Walk (10.45 Green Park Tube 2nd Nov 2013).  After struggling for a while I found a very good book 'Walking Jane Austen's London'  by Louise Allen. I have now bought the kindle and the physical volume.  It is almost too good because, instead of making up my own walk, I am following Louise's.

What is good about the book is that she has written it from the novels and from contemporary guides/directories and some really good information about shops in Jane Austen's time. On the other hand there is a lot of background information I can add to the walk which, should begin to make it my own.

Preparing for a walk, is a great way to get to know an author because it means you need to do a close reading- normally you just consume a novel - driven onwards by involvement with the story, but for a walk you have to read carefully to work out what can be used on a walk and what it means about the author - and life and times.

My main reading has been the London section of 'Sense and Sensibility' - I was not so aware before of what an enormous amount of snobbery underpins the book, both intentional and otherwise. The key figures seems to be Mrs Jennings - she is condemned by the weak Mr John Dashwood because of her dead husband's association with people who made money by trade.  But a similar criticism comes from the Dashwood females.   When they leave for London it is said they are staying with Mrs Jennings but it is the Middletons who will give them status. Marianne can hardly be civil to Mrs J, and Elinor, although patient makes it clear there is a certain looking down the nose at her.  And yet she is clearly concerned and kindly.  I think Austen changed her mind as she wrote the book - Mrs Jennings begins as a figure of fun - a gossip who does not know 'propiety' (which with 'bloom' and money are what underpins Jane Austen's world) but we begin to see her as a kindly woman with no airs and graces - which for us is surely a good thing.  Not so sure that a lady brought up in Basingstoke thought quite the same thing but Jane warms to Mrs J as the book develops.

The research also begins to make it clear that, at least in part, Austen was a London author.

The Walls of Bath

Medieval Walls Burrough walls - just by junction with Trim Street. The circuit presumable follows the line of the late Roman Walls - a piece of which was foundin 2013 in Burton St. 
BBC News - Sewer workers in Bath reveal part of Roman city's walls

The wall circuit is fairly obvious from any street map but it is as follows

Borough walls - east to Bridge Street. Turnns South just before Pulteney Bridge  (east Gate was here and some remains here to be seen).

Goes south through the east end of the Butter Market, East of the Orange Grove,  an angle at Terrace Walk.  It runs SW just to and parallel to Orchard Street

Turns west at junction with Henry Street. Southgate at junction of Southgate Street and Stall Street - this was the main road out as the only bridge until Pulteney Bridge was on this road.

Wall heading west along south side of Lower Borough Walls , beginning to head north along Westgate Buildings, wall to the West of the the Road.

Westgate at end of Westgate Street.

Wall continues north up Upper Westgate Buildings and into Saw Close, below the Theatre and turns east at the Junction of Borough Walls. North Gate I assume is at Union Street.

Brandon House redevelopment approved [4 September 2013]

This building is clearly too tall for its position next to the Church.

Brandon House redevelopment approved [4 September 2013]

Revealed: the SE1 skyline in 2023 [8 September 2013]

The South Bank in 10 years time?

Revealed: the SE1 skyline in 2023 [8 September 2013]

22 Words | Performing Shakespeare’s plays with their original English accent

An excellent short documentary on the pronouciation of shakespeare's plays

22 Words | Performing Shakespeare’s plays with their original English accent

Turner's twickenham house to be preserved

1262429 - The National Heritage List for England | English Heritage

Israeli App Brings Archeological Landmarks Back To Life | Technology News

Israeli App Brings Archeological Landmarks Back To Life | Technology News

The 1931 Histomap: The entire history of the world distilled into a single map/chart.

Historical chart of the world - a huge compromise but must have been hard to do.

The 1931 Histomap: The entire history of the world distilled into a single map/chart.

The death of Dr Lopez and Conspiracy

This is a very interesting article about the death of Dr Lopez, accused of trying to murder Queen Elizabeth and for some people, the archetype of Sherlock

Imagining and Detecting Conspiracy, 1571-1605 | The Tudors

Zeppelins over London - Google Maps

Exellent map of the Zepplin Raids over London

Zeppelins over London - Google Maps

This week is my 'Archaeology Walks' weekend for London Walks

Saturday

'The origins and Archaeology of the City of London' 

Tower Hill underground - 10.45am Sat Aug 3rd

 The archaeology and History of Southwark'

 London Bridge Underground Tooley St Exit - 2pm Sat Aug 3rd '

Sunday

'Londinium, Lundenwic. Lundonburgh - archaeology from the City to Westminster'

 Blackfriars Underground station 10.45 am Sun Aug 4th

'Chelsea - the archaeology, origins and life of Chelsea from prehistory to the Swinging 60's' 

Sloane Square underground 2pm Sun Aug 3rd

http://www.walks.com/London_Walks_Home/London_Walks_by_Date/default.aspx

Social Networking in the 1600s - The Coffee House

Interesting idea that the Coffee house was the social networking tool of the 17th Century

Social Networking in the 1600s - NYTimes.com

The Archaeology of the Rise & Fall of Roman London Walk

Today, I am leading a London Walks' walk on Roman London. I intend to read a lot of Ovid and Martial.

Tunnel Boat Trips from London Canal Museum

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

Tunnel Boat Trips from London Canal Museum

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

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

Jane Austen, and getting wet

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

Other articles

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

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

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

Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy Tour

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

It says:

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

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

 

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

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

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

Exhausting but very rewarding.

Temple of Mithras - British Pathé

Showing the Temple of Mitras 1954

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

Jane Austen's Bath

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

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

Dynamic Map of Europe: 1000 AD to present day

Watch Empires ebb and flow!

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

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

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


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

A jaunt into Jane Austen country

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

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

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

Ekarv text | Mouseion: artists' reflections on museums

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

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


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

One idea expressed per line

Line breaks placed at natural pauses in a sentence

No more than 3 lines per sentence

Simple sentence structures, no complex clauses

Use active forms of the verb where possible

Conversational rhythms, easily spoken out loud

Maximum 52 characters per line (including spaces)

Maximum 8 lines per paragraph

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

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

Grotesque Mummy Head Reveals Advanced Medieval Science - Yahoo! News

Grotesque Mummy Head Reveals Advanced Medieval Science - Yahoo! News

The Halloween and Scare Attractions network

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

The Halloween and Scare Attractions Show

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

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

Furore over Geffrye's expansion | Museums Association

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

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

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

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



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

Internet Archaeology: open access articles

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

From Salon 291 - interesting stuff on stately homes:

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


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

Planning change in Southwark

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Stonehenge dates

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Roman London Walk Dec 30th

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

10.45 Sun Dec 30th 'Roman london' Barbican Tube

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

Early Sirens and Mermaids

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

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

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

From a posting in Britarch by John Clark

Norman carving of a mermaid from Norman Chapel Durham

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

Archive of film about the early RAF

Excellent archive of images.


Mopic

What’s Happening With London Stone? | Londonist

What’s Happening With London Stone? | Londonist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Roman pub found in Scotland, (possibly)

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

London Walks organises Archaeology Walks in Southwark, Bermondsey and Bankside

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

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

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

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

 

Nov. 17

The Archaeology & History of Southwark

London Bridge Tube Tooley Street

Nov. 18

The Archaeology of Southwark & Bermondsey

London Bridge Tube

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

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

The logic is irrefutable.

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

Maggs beneath the Covers

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

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


Maggs beneath the Covers

Discover Hackney · Partners

Discover Hackney · Partners

Boris Johnson condemns historic MarketPlace

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

Salon 285 (Society of Antiquities reports:)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Really interesting event at the Cinema Museum

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

Museums in 2020 - MA vision

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

This is the link to the full document

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

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

This short note suggests  adopting a SMARTER approach.

SMART is usually presented as being an acronym for:

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

There are variants on the system:

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

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

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

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

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



SMART targets thus become SMARTER :



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dickens, the Resurrectionists and Victorian Southwalk Walk

 Dickens, the resurrectionists and Victorian Southwark walking tour  

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

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

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

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

#Team London Bridge and the London Bridge Business Improvement District

The Daily Constitutional from London Walks®

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



The Daily Constitutional from London Walks®

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

This is what they said it was about

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

Shakespeare - staging the world

Shakespeare - staging the world

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cosmati Pavement - Westminster Abbey New Web Site

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

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

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

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

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

I wish you luck in your attempt to preserve it.

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

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

Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret Web Site

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret Web Site

From Ludgate to the Barbican - archaeology and architecture walk

From Ludgate to the Barbican - archaeology and architecture walk 

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

Express Building interior

 

 

 

 

 

Route:

Blackfriars Tube

Blackfriars Bridge

Unilever House

Blackfriars Pub

Bridewell Place

St Brides

Fleet Street

Daily Telegraph Building

Daily Express Building

Ludgate Circus

St Martin's

Stationers Hall

Amen Corner

Paternoster Sq

New Change

Foster Lane

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

St Vedast

Gresham Street

Noble Street

London Wall

High Walk

Museum of London

Barber Surgeons Hall

Barbican