And Did Those Feet

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

Lovely idea this - the rich and wealthy fighting the war on the home front from the luxury of the First Class Hotel - hence the title the Ritzkrieg - Matthew Sweet's book on the Blitz Nothing Tra La La?: Ritzkrieg

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

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

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

This is Chris Constable's google mapping of workhouses in Southwark Southwark Workhouses - Google Maps

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

UP Projects | Secret Garden Project

Padlocks on London Bridge - the custom has spread to London but the Corporation is deploying bolt cutters apparently. John Clark in an email to Britarch pointed out that the lovers throw the keys into the River and in 2000 years archaeologists will have a puzzle. The Mystery Of The Locks « Christopher Fowler's Blog

This makes sense - and an end to all that nonsense of the hubs - but where does it leave the Horniman and the Geffrye Museum after taking them on a long labyrinthine meander around the Hub. Google Mail - MoL bids for museum development | Monument Fellow aids Scottish HLF bid - kpflude@googlemail.com

Read a piece saying that London had buildings by 5 of the winners of the most prestigious art prize: the Pritzker Prize The winners were Foster, Rogers, Stirling, Koolhouse and Jean Nouvel So I looked up Nouvel and found he designed the terribly ugly building on Cheapside - its really very good inside and on the roof and has great views of St Pauls but the facade is awful and is absolutely no improvement on Cheapside. One New Change,WorldArchitectureNews, Ateliers Jean Nouvel, London, Urban Design

Amazing pictures Stripped down as you've never seen her: Pictures of Tower Bridge during construction found dumped in a skip | Mail Online

Free MP3 Audio Walking Tour of Bath - Jane Austen's Bath

Free MP3 Audio Walking Tour of Bath - Jane Austen's Bath

Article on the reading of Jane Austen Jane Austen Society - Northern California Region

Interesting article going into detail about the type of horse drawn carriages used in Jane Austen. Jane Austen Society - Northern California Region

The discovery, behind a cupboard of Sex Pistols Graffitti in No 6 Denmark Street has caused small hissy fit amongst the smug. Of course they should be preserved, and what is wrong with archaeologists studying them? Anarchy in archaeology as Sex Pistols’ graffiti is rated alongside cave art - Telegraph

Great map of the V2 bombing of london V2 rockets on London and surrounding counties - Google Maps

This is a good e-learning site for non-profits - quite reasonably priced for the sector. Training and elearning for charities and non profits - KnowHow NonProfit's Study Zone

This seems like a really bad bit of planning to me - the hand over between ACE and the MLA seems to have been badly handled - a continues a long running farce started with the abolition of the Area Museum Services Arts Council England confirms interim museum development funding | Museums Association

Thieves have stolen the statue of Dr Alfred Salter, pioneer of the labour party and of public health from a bench in Rotherhithe Southwark News - Southwark - Home

Given the contribution of the London Fire Brigade and the wonderful building it occupies one wonders why on earth anyone would consider closing it! Save the London Fire Brigade Museum - PetitionBuzz

The London Museum Group has set up an innovative share system to encourage Museums to help each other with skill sharing I hope it works. Share London

London Tourist board visits show tourism still doing well despite economic climate September 11 IPS Memo with charts_tcm29-27964.pdf (application/pdf Object)

DCMS survey of culture and sport for 2010/11 taking-part-Y6-child-adult-report.pdf (application/pdf Object)

I saw this in action the other day and it works very easily and is free to you. Ammyy Admin - Remote Desktop Sharing - buy.

Spaaze - Collect, Organize, Share

New exhibition at the British Library Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination

This study is very interesting - showing how modern research can give insights beyond the textx. The following is from Salon 265 'Late medieval English scribes named A new online catalogue has been launched by the team that is studying the handwriting of the scribes who made the first manuscripts copies of works by five major Middle English authors: Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, John Trevisa, William Langland and Thomas Hoccleve. Combining the research of our Fellow Linne Mooney, Professor in the Department of English and Related Literature and the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York, with that of Dr Estelle Stubbs, of the Universities of York and Sheffield, and Dr Simon Horobin, of the University of Oxford, the project has identified the characteristic letter forms of 524 scribal hands. Some individual scribes have even been identified, such as Adam Pinkhurst, Scrivener of London, who wrote the first copies of works by Chaucer, and to whom C...

This is a beautiful relief with an idealised impression of Caesar's troops braving the British resistance on a beach in Kent - looks like the White cliffs of Dover in the background from which the Brits are showering spears on the Romans. Caesar Invading Britain by John Deare - Victoria and Albert Museum

This looks like a really interesting exhibition on the Catwalk Autumn Newsletter

This is quite a shocking lack of care for historic houses and shows how little even a charity cares for the built environment. Residents First

The settlement is on the road to Silchester from London at the ford in the Thames BBC News - Roman settlement unearthed in Syon Park, west London

Over 100 bodies of new born babies buried around a Roman villa at Yewden have been interpreted as evidence for Roman infanticide - the thinking being that the large number of new born babies buried is an abnormal distribution of foetal and new born deaths so they are evidence of infanticide. Therefore might the villa have been a Roman Brothel? The alternate explanation is that the Villa was a cult centre for a Mother Goddess cult and women came here to give birth. Bone cuts on the thighs of a baby may imply embrotomy where a baby trapped in the birthcanal is cut up in order to get the baby out and save the mother's life. These operations were carried out from 4 th Century BC. BBC News - Roman dead baby 'brothel' mystery deepens

The mound shows evidence of being aligned to the lunar standstills which take place every 18.6 years Early Celtic 'Stonehenge' discovered in Germany's Black Forest

I'm very pleased to note that Michael Rosen, the poet, mentions the Old Operating Theatre Museum in his piece introducing the The Family Friendly Museum Award - Telegraph : . In response I would like to say how much I enjoyed Rosen's performance of his poem on the number 38 Bus at the Battle of Cable Street celebrations at Wilton's Music Hall. The poem is good but the performance was brilliant.

Deviance and power in late medieval London By Frank Rexroth Interesting article

1. A Faceless Society - it is now the case that it is difficult to get to talk to someone on the phone, it is often difficult to even get an email. 2. Alienation from simple machines - once upon a time, with an analogue micro-wave you turned the timer to 5 minutes and the setting to 5. Job done. Try it now! Another example, I have a new bread machine - there seems to be no way of turning it off once it has started on its programme. And that includes unplugging from the wall and taking it for a walk around the block, plug it right back in again and it starts off exactly from where you stopped it. Machine, I pressed the wrong button, will you forgive me? It ignores me These are but two of many possible examples 3. Computer say no - my daughters have had no debts in their lives (except ofcourse to their parents), are first year students, can they get any bank to extend to them a student loan? No, because they have a poor credit rating!!!! One bank even said because they have no liv...

Silchester Excavation blog has fine pictures of Alex Kingston visiting the excavations - the site has revealed that the rectalinear town planning predates the Roman invasion. SilchesterDig · Just another www.reading.ac.uk/blogs site

Nonsuch Palace on in Surrey was an amazing building and this is a new model based on archaeological and other evidence BBC News - Model of lost Surrey Tudor palace unveiled

Seems like a good idea to have a garden in the ruins of the Palace - at present it does not really attract that much attention from the thousands who pass by. Tony Robinson: why I’m backing Winchester Palace garden proposal [2 October 2011]

Every so often some organisation or other wants to restrict guiding to City Guides, or Blue Badge Guides and it is rearing its ugly head again. The problem is that some people believe that, after a course of instruction, that the Badged Tourist Guide becomes the sole repositories of accurate knowledge about Heritage in their area. They forget that lecturers, academics, PhDs, writers, actors, specialists and the like have knowledge that only the very best badged guides can match. They also forget that teachers, lecturers and group leaders are often trained pedagogues who know how to teach, and who know their group in a way that is not possible for a hired guided to emulate. They want to return to the restrictive practices of the past and a system better suited to a Totalitarian state than a modern democracy. There is of course a potential problem with control of standards and crowd control in certain places. The Badge Guide solution to this problem is to restrict guiding to badged to...

Although there has not been a definitive excavation in Chelsea, there have been sufficient finds to add to the documentary evidence to give a fairly clear picture of its development. It shows that Chelsea (or at least the River at Chelsea) was very important in the pre-Roman period, and that there was a significant settlement there in the Middle Saxon period - probably a Royal Vill (palace or Manor). I have just updated my Chelsea walk to take account of the latest archaeological finds. I have not had time to properly record all the details but for the time being this will have to do: Chelsea Walk

Found the archives really useful to find out what has been happening in the archaeology of Chelsea. About the London Archaeological Archive Resource Centre Online Catalogue

My next walk is a walk around Chelsea Oct. 1 The Origins of Chelsea 10.45 Sloane Square Underground Station

This is the correct link for the new funding for Museums by the Arts Council The key thing is: Grants of between £500,000 and £2 million will be awarded for a period of three years, April 2012 - March 2015, and only accredited museums with designated collections will be eligible to apply. Most museums are accredited, the designation system is, to my mind, very haphazard and so this restriction of major grants to these combination is very restrictive. According to MLA: The (Designation) Scheme was launched in 1997 and now recognises 138 collections held in museums, libraries and archives.' A look at the list of museums shows that in London at least a lot of important museums are missing and a lot of archives are present who have a very low public profile. Renaissance major grants programme | Arts Council

The launch of the first Arts Council version of Renaissance gets off with a press release that provides a broken link. Auspicious start. 404 error - page not found | Arts Council

The great London graffiti ride revised writing's on the wall: JOIN

Some nice reviews! Amazon.co.uk: Customer Reviews: Divorced, Beheaded, Died: The History of Britain's Kings and Queens in Bite-Sized Chunks : Bought this as my first down loaded book ever. I have always been a keen but amateur historian and this sounded fun to read on holiday. I completely enjoyed the easy flow of the book, keeping each king or queen to a paragraph made them easy but memorable. Also some of the lesser known stuff such as Cannut and the Jews. I would recommend this to people who's children are daunted by the tomes that are normally presented to school kids to learn about our past. This is much more user friendly and will be sticking with me as a reference or just for a cheeky read from time to time. I hope to find more like this as i go along.

I think this is good news? Duchess of Cornwall to go guerrilla gardening at Elephant & Castle [4 September 2011]

Excellent article on the future of the book very pessimistic but seems to have a point. My own feeling is that the way it will go will be books will be published which are really special physical objects. So books will become a souvenir. We read them electronically but true fans by the physical book (signed?) as an object to treasure with extra content? The other thing is that like the music industry writers will move to live events and make money from other aspects of their work. Are books dead, and can authors survive? | Ewan Morrison | Books | guardian.co.uk

So many stories in this list - one lot executed at Charing Cross, others at Tyburn, others fled to american, germany, belgium or holland, some forcibly repatriated to their deaths, others died, others pardoned, others imprisoned. List of regicides of Charles I - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I looked this up because I thought she would have spoken with a french accent but with an english mum and being brought up in Somerset maybe the BBC's decision to give her an english accent is correct. (He dad was French) Elizabeth Pepys (wife, b. St Michel) (Pepys' Diary)

Virtual books (accessible version) - Jane Austen's The History of England: Pages 13 and 14

George Shillibeer's Omnibus The London Omnibus

The builder of Albion Mills, London Bridge, Southwark Bridge and more is celebrated at an exhibition until Ag 31 2011 Institution of Civil Engineers - John Rennie @ 250: Celebrating one of Britain''s greatest engineers

1st Sept at 7.pm at the Old Operating Theatre Museum THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY At this exclusive evening of mind-reading and cold-reading performance,The London Magician will talk about, and demonstrate, the mind-reading and magical effects that first flourished in the Victorian séances hosted by fraudulent mediums -people who were emulating genuine psychics in parlours across England. Meeting the dead, past-life regressions, amazing mind-reading, apports - the fraudulent mediums were the forefathers of the cold reading prodigies of today. But more than being told, you will be shown: magic will be performed, minds read, tales and fortunes told. Illusion, mentalism and conjuring meet, through a glass darkly. £15 (available on the door or at lastminute.com) ~

This is really bad news - this had the best collection of books on Museums I know of and it was easy to get to and easy to use. I used to send students there so they could get an easy overview of books on the subject. The Library used to be housed in the Reading Room of the old British Library and this was opened to the public as part of the Great court project - then the BM got 'greedy' and closed it to house block buster exhibitions, and moved the library to somewhere noone could find easily, now they have closed it. I suspect it helps them keep the Reading Room closed as a library - which is itself a disgrace - this is a really historic building and you can never seen the inside the way it should be because it is dressed for exhibitions. This really makes me angry! I wonder if they are breaching the spirit of the Grant applications they made which I assume must have mentioned making the Reading Room available to the public as part of it Even the BM management can...

Peter Rowsome's work on the new map of Londinium has born fruit and is now published available at the Museum of London. Museum of London - Publications

King's College London - Programme of events

I see the Museums Association are broadly welcoming the Arts Council demolition of the Museum structures that have underpinned strategy in the Museum world for the last 10 years work. The whole edifice of Renaissance in the Regions - misconceived at the very beginning, has now been abandoned not only by the Government and the Arts Council but also by the Museums Association and every other museum organisation. It is quite pathetic. They destroyed the membership based Area Museum services, telling us that the new Byzantine system of Hub Museums and strategic Museum, Libraries and Archives boards would serve us better. Then just about at the time that we got used to the Hub, and little MLA's then they ransform it into the idea of Core Museums, and then when ACE don't like it abandon that too, and say they are broadly in favour! What on earth is going on - is the Museum world full of yes-people who just let the powers that be kick them around? Yes, I broadly support you kicki...

This is a small display on the cost of living in Roman times at the British Museum British Museum - Cost of living

Two Temple Place built by John Loughborough Pearson for Viscount Astor is reopened with an exhibition from the William Morris Gallery

This is a welcome decision as these arches are part of the world's first mass urban transport system London Bridge railway arches listed by heritage minister [9 July 2011]

 Very interesting title to this group - though when you look at their keyprinciples they have widened it to be a general look at how museums can be sustainable and green rather than focussing on the issue of happinesse. However,this is the link to a pdf which attempts to put a value on happiness created by museum visits. http://www.happymuseumproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Museums_and_happiness_DFujiwara_April2013.pdf This is the web site of the happy museum project. http://www.happymuseumproject.org/?page_id=500  Here is a short paper on the project. happymuseumproject.org | The Happy Museum paper : "The aim of this short paper is to begin a conversation about how the UK museum sector can respond to the challenges presented by the need for creating a more sustainable future."

UK museums hit by ‘devastating cuts’ | Museums Association

on popular demand: AGAIN! Hurry, tickets going fast!   " Steampunkers should hail a hansom and head down to the Old Operating Theatre for Through A Glass Darkly , a wonderful night of Victorian era magic,mindreading and mediumship" The Londonist   "This event takes the whole shebang a little further. In the excellently spooky confines of the Old Operating Theatre the London Magician will recreate, then explain, a Victorian seance, cold readings and spirit communication...Somenthing for everyone in fact." Le Cool magazine   4th of August at 7.pm   THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY At this exclusive evening of mind-reading and cold-reading performance,The London Magician will talk about, and demonstrate, the mind-reading and magical effects that first flourished in the Victorian séances hosted by fraudulent mediums - people who were emulating genuine psychics in parlours across England.   Meeting the dead, past-life regress...

101 Things to do in London – Ultimate Guide – Time Out London

I visited the Cocoon, Darwin Centre at the Natual History Museum - strangely unsigned posted at the Museum. Its the museum store and offices for the collection of insects etc. Quite an interesting building and workspace - no one was working in the offices and laboratories you can look into as it happens, but it was good to see a display about the research Curators do - although to my mind the displays are a little lack lustre. Cocoon | Natural History Museum

Amazed to see that my book is now no 2 in Amazon's Kindle Bestsellers in Biographies list! Must be because its only 99p! Amazon.co.uk Bestsellers: The most popular items in Biographies

The Royal Commission on the Poor Law and the Relief of Distress -- 1 (2530): 1554 -- bmj.com

This is the walk around Southwark that I am doing on 8th July Urban Physic Garden

Quite amazing death rate for children in the 18th Century BBC - History - British History in depth: The Foundling Hospital

Its nice to be considered one of London's top things to do. 101 Things to do in London – Ultimate Guide – Time Out London

Quirky review of the Museum » The Old Operating Theater Museum and Herb Garret » The Everywhereist

Some one pointed out the many breasted figure on the Monument which is a depiction of Artemis signifying nature who his held in the hands of a goddess representing science. Sculpture - Monument to the Great Fire of London

This looks really good! Urban Physic Garden

Salong 256 from the Society of Antiquities reports: 'Museums 6: further contributions to our museums debate That is an argument that our Fellow Catherine Johns would support. Catherine takes issue with Fellow Nick Merriman’s comments on museum display in the last issue of Salon ‘because of the implicit accusation that those of us who are not wholly enchanted by some of the current trends in labelling DO NOT “wish to engage a wider public with museums”. This is not true. Like Nick, we all went into museum work because we wanted to increase and to share our knowledge and enthusiasm, and to enable people to learn more about the past and how to enjoy and appreciate it. In order to achieve that aim, it is important to make museums into places where the public can not only see the actual material remains, but can learn more about them than they could discover simply by looking at a book, or these days, by googling a Wikipedia entry.’ Nick also referred to the importance of working as par...

interesting article that includes a report on an attack on post modernism's influence on Museums What are museums for? | The Art Newspaper

Blockbusters: too big to fail? | The Art Newspaper

Marlborough mound mystery solved – after 4,400 years | Science | The Guardian

This is a list of 'newly discovered' heritage assets in London listed by English Heritage. It contains some fascinating places - pubs, churches all over London. It can be downloaded for free. The London List Yearbook 2010 | English Heritage

Great stuff from our students and lots of other degree shows to see! News & Events | MA Creative Practice for Narrative Environments

Just found out the audio version of my book is published by BBC books. The hard copy has sold 37,000 copies http://www.audible.co.uk/pd?asin=B004EVMNYC

This is a link to the talk I am giving on the Museum as part of the Urban Physic Garden programme on 29th June and also on the 2nd of Aug 2011 Urban Physic Garden

This is the programme for the Literary London Conference - I'm given a paper on Literary Guided Walks. LL2011.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Here is a review of the Royal Wedding programme of which I was the course director - pretty positive! 'Course director, Kevin Flude, is the greatest; imparting his vast knowledge.' Road Scholar: Program Reviews : "Course director, Kevin Flude, is the greatest; imparting his vast knowledge."

  on popular demand:   30th of June at 7.pm   THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY At this exclusive evening of mind-reading and cold-reading performance,The London Magician will talk about, and demonstrate, the mind-reading and magical effects that first flourished in the Victorian séances hosted by fraudulent mediums - people who were emulating genuine psychics in parlours across England.   Meeting the dead, past-life regressions, amazing mind-reading, apports - the fraudulent mediums were the forefathers of the cold reading prodigies of today. But more than being told, you will be shown: magic will be performed, minds read, tales and fortunes told.   Illusion, mentalism and conjuring meet, through a glass darkly. £15 (available on the door or at lastminute.com)       More vents coming soon! Watch this space!   -- If you do not want to receive any more newsletters, this link To update your preferences and to unsub...

Documentary by Simona Piantieri on the Shard, with contributions from various people including Kevin Flude, the director of the Old Operating Theatre Museum Vertical Expectations on Vimeo

The Museum has been cooperating with the Urban Physic Garden. Union Street’s Urban Physic Garden nears completion [5 June 2011]

This the house in which Dickens died in 1870. BBC News - Charles Dickens' Kent home to be opened to the public

A very interesting workshop in Copenhagen Workshop on the sensuous object (smell and touch, ambience, aesthetic, visual thinking, tacit knowledge, sound and seduction), 29-30 September : "Workshop on the sensuous object (smell and touch, ambience, aesthetic, visual thinking, tacit knowledge, sound and seduction), 29-30 September"

        sorry about the lack of notice but there are a lot of free walks this weekend given by walk London To see them click here:   http://www.walk4life.info/events/*/1292/*/*   -- If you do not want to receive any more newsletters, this link To update your preferences and to unsubscribe visit this link

Here is a list of free walks around London this weekend Walk London

This is a website all about London it has some fascinating content including mental maps of London Victoria maps and much about things to do in an about London About Us | Londonist

New dating evidence suggests Neanderthal died out before homo sapiens reached Europe. So that's one genocide claim that won't be going to the United Nations! Not such a bad species after all perhaps - us homo saps! Dating of Neanderthal fossil suggests they died out earlier than previously thought - University of Oxford

My next walk is the Archaeology of Roman London, St. Paul underground Station exit 2, 10:45, 4th of June 2011. The walk will look at Life in Roman London as well as the rise and fall of Roman London

The following was reported in Salon 254 from the Society of Antiquaries 'Current fashions in museum display Fellow John Blair’s thoughts in the last issue of Salon on new museum displays and the regrettable sidelining of people with real knowledge in their planning and execution, struck a chord with many Fellows. Fellow Lucilla Burn (whose own much-lauded reorganisation of the Fitzwilliam’s collection of Greek and Roman antiquities was a model of how such things should be done) responded to say: ‘My impression is that a lively debate about museum displays, including many of the issues that exercise John Blair, is already in existence. But maybe it takes place too much amongst members of the museum community and within the pages of the Museums Journal, and not everyone who would like to voice an opinion feels he or she has a place to do so. ‘May I draw Fellows' attention to a conference we are holding in Cambridge on 23 September 2011, called “The Past on Display”, where academi...

JustTextGiving Mobile phone operator Vodaphone and online giving platform JustGiving have collaborated on the development of new software to enable free charity donations via text message. Donors will be able to donate up to £10 at a time under the scheme, which will be free for charities to sign up to and will redistribute 100% of the proceeds. href="http://www.justgiving.com/JustTextGiving?gclid=CJ_T9NXs5KgCFcOEDgodbk_-Cw">JustTextGiving Source News Update for London’s Museums 16/05/2011

Late night culture club | Events

I wish I'd said this! YouTube - Tim Minchin's Storm the Animated Movie

There are some interesting Free Seminars at museums and heritage show 11 - 12th march earls court. kevin Link: http://www.museumsandheritage.com/visitors/free-seminars (via shareaholic.com)

Provocative lecture by Prof Ian Angell about the incoherence that is Science - lecture in Holborn Science's First Mistake

Useful article on the future of the University of the Art,London. Art schools face uncertain financial future | Education | The Guardian

Museums in Carcoar - Carcoar Hospital Museum

UCL training courses for museums UCL Centre for Museums, Heritage & Material Culture Studies

Next Walk, Myths and Legends, the Origins of London, Tower Hill tube. 10:45, 7th May 2011 The Next Public Walk to be given by Kevin Flude : "Next Walk, Miths and Legends, the Origins of London, Tower Hill tube. 10:45, 7th May 2011"

Hundreds of skeletons found at Liverpool Street Station BBC News - Crossrail archaeology dig unearths mass burial ground

London Museums at Night 2011