And Did Those Feet

Went to see Connie's Art Textile exhibition at Parliament Hill School - some very good stuff on display and Connie's textiles are really excellent. Especially the Body

I have mailed Southwark schools offering them a visit to the school, followed by a walk ending at the Old Operating Theatre Museum. The idea is that the walk and talk will be customised to the school's location and the particular history of their local area. It will be interesting to see if any take up - but I am hoping it will begin a dialogue with local schools.

5 British sites on this list - including Wilton's Music Hall World Monuments Watch

Vote here for the new Wonders of the World - Stonehenge currently 7th, I believe n7w: Vote

Went to the Summer show at the Royal Academy of Arts I found it bewildering and overwhelming - some how it diminishes my feeling of the importance of Art. So many styles, so many feelings of 'decorative but so what?' Chapman Bros dinosaurs - typically trivial Brit Art but works very well because of the scale.

Excellent article in the Guardian about the need for planners and architects to incorporate a sense of place in their planner - derived from solid research and understanding of the history and role of a area? Tristran Hunt says: Other examples of sensitive developments include Chatham fishing village and Ingress Park at Greenhithe, Kent. Rather than denying the river and its history - which most large housing developments seem intent on doing - both celebrate the authentic sense of place they bring. This isn't an issue of branding or logos - of selling growth areas as part of Dickens's Thamesworld. It requires decent research about the history of the site and an attempt to translate that into civic design. On the one hand, that could mean a commitment to vernacular styles; on the other, civic landmarks, street and pub names, even local signage. Tristram Hunt on the Thames Gateway | Art, Architecture & Design | Guardian Unlimited Arts

I am trying to find out how many electors there are in various City wards - as I remember it there were very few in the Lime Street ward - election results are here: The City of London Ward Elections results 2005 :

I gave a public health walk for the Museum for a group of 14/15 year olds - they were a good audience and it went well. Karen, Chris and I walked around the area together thinking how to improve the walk. We visited the mini-museum in Guys, and the Kings Display about the discovery of the DNA's double heli x.

June Bretherton of JBC - London, consultants came to visit the Old Operating Theatre Museum today to give me advice on access issues at the Museum. June found the Museum much more accessible than she expected - although wheel chair access is a real problem which we can do little about she thought there was plenty in the museum to those with visual and aural limitations. They have a refreshingly common-sense approach which encourages you to improve what you have rather than be weighed down into inactivity with what you can't achieve. She can be contacted on: 020 8521 4325

I gave a guided walk for the Bishop Challoners School BCCCS website. It was a really excellent morning, the Girls were all really interested and contributed, not quite and studious but animated - really very impressed with them. Route was a circular one and it really worked because there were things to investigate and tease 'facts' out of. Itinerary: START Tower Hill – The Roman Wall – The Roman Wall is deconstructed to aid discussion on the origins of London and the nature of Roman occupation. Outside the Wall - we see the same stretch of wall but from the outside to give an outsiders view of London. We consider the wall from the point of view of the 'barbarian invaders'. Tower Hill Sundial– we used the sundial and time line to give orientation and use the Tower to introduce the Normans. Tower Hill Scaffold – we use the execution to site to discuss the nature of punishment, the Peasants Revolt and the the Jacobite Revolution. Merchant and Fishing Fl...

I gave a guided walk for the Allied Irish Bank (GB) - Great Britain, Angel Court. We started at the 'Red Herring' fullers pub in Gresham Street and walked to Guildhall, St Mary Aldermary , St Albans Wood Street, High Walk, St Alphage , Aldersgate St, Postman's Park, Smithfield , St Barts , St Saviours, Old Bailey. Then in poured so we rushed to the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese for some sandwiches. Went very well, I think, and they were very nice people, many Irish. They heard of me because of personal recommendation from Charlotte at Cloth Fair Barristers.

Chris Stringer of the Natural history museum has published an excellent summary of evidence of Early man in Britain. This is the home page: Chris Stringer - Homo Britannicus > home archaeology

Kevin Leahy in an article in Current Archaeology (210) about Cleatham one of Britain's biggest Anglo-Saxon cemeteries: ' Roman Britain probably died, not with a bang but a long drawn out sigh.' He was explained the presence of four pots in the roman tradition, but unlike any known Roman pots suggested the techniques continued for a while into the 5th Century after the mass-produced industry closed down.

I know this is not new News but in November The Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey Street was sold to Newham College and will now act as Museum and Academy. SE1 reported: Zandra Rhodes sells fashion museum [7 November 2006]

Experiments have shown that learnt behaviour can be passed from group to group among chimps - proving that humans are not alone in having Culture which can be passed on. Chimp culture is passed between groups - life - 07 June 2007 - New Scientist

Last night I went to the Degree Shows at Central St Martins, University of the Arts, London. Spent my time at the Creative Practice for Narrative Environments Show in G12 - very excellent work on display. The Students have transformed G12, which is a horrible dark, dingy lecture room into a soft-focussed friendly space. The displays are very professional, and communicate the students work very simply and clearly. The Catalogue is also extremely professional. The range of work is extraordinary - particularly participatory this year. For details: Degree Shows

Salon IFA reports: Behind the hoarding to the north of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, archaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology Service have been busy excavating since 2005, and some of the finds from that excavation have just gone on display at the Museum of London in a special exhibition called ‘the Missing Link’. This looks at the way that the maps of Roman and Saxon London are being redrawn by finds dating from AD 410 to 650, which offer clues to a previously hidden period in London's history. The discovery of a kiln for making roof tiles, and of a stone sarcophagus containing the skeleton of a middle-aged man – both finds dating from AD 400–50 – suggest that Roman civilisation continued in settlements outside the city walls for at least a generation after Londinium itself had been abandoned, while a hand-made ceramic jar datable to around AD 500 in a style that was introduced by Saxon immigrants from the Continent demonstrates the presence ...

Recent analysis shows that the Iceman Otzi bled to death from an arrow in his shoulder which cut an artery, and was shot from the back. He had a last meal in the valley below. As he would have bled to death quickly, he may have been shot near the place he died. The arrow was broken off while he was still alive, either by himself, a colleague or an enemy trying to hid the evidence of whose arrow it was. For more details: BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Iceman 'bled to death on glacier' Archaeology museums

In a speech at Gresham College, Sir Roy Strong urged the need to save Churches to return them to their pre-reformation role as Community Centres. Transcript: Gresham College | Lectures and Events

After a long wait, the British Museum now has open galleries covering the Prehistoric and Roman periods in Britain. The surprise is that the displays are virtually identical to the old displays, the order is the same, the information labels and the objects are nearly all the same. The gallery is brighter it is true but otherwise the gallery seems to have been closed for so long for no great gain. The section on the Neolithic is new but, given, this is the age of Stonehenge is too small and not informative enough. The picture above shows the Mold Cape.

June 2007 issue of AIM Bulletin has short article on issue of capitilisation of heritage assets - Accountants want Museum to include value of museum collections, while museums believe they have no value as the museum will not be willing in any circumstances to sell this assets. AIM believe that the acquisition and disposal should be removed from the profit and loss statements. AIM - Assoc of Independent Museums