Category: Museums

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PODCAST FOR A VIRTUAL TOUR THROUGH THE WHOLE ISLAND OF GREAT BRITAIN. NO.5 EDINBURGH

View From Edinburgh Castle
View From Edinburgh Castle

This is the Podcast for the Virtual Tour of Edinburgh

To find out or book for the Edinburgh walk and other walks this week end click here

A Virtual Tour Through The Whole Island Of Great Britain. No.5 Edinburgh

Monday 2 May 2022 7 pm

A Virtual Walk Through the Athens of the North

Borrowing my title from Daniel Defoe’s early chorography, my first Circuit is from Chester to Edinburgh. Now on the last stop on this first circuit we are taking a virtual tour of the most extraordinary City – Edinburgh.

Edinburgh is a very unusual City as it was built on the saddle of a hill so its main street runs down the ridge of a hill and the City falls away on either side. This lack of flat land and restricted space led to the City growing upwards. This gave the City an extraordinary density and an unique atmosphere that we will be exploring.

In the Georgian period the City was extended with the addition of a new town quarter which was rationally planned and made a marked contrast on the old Town. Together it gives the Capital of Scotland, a combination of atmospheric and claustrophobic town planning with the elegance of a City that was one of the great Cities of the Enlightenment.

We will begin the virtual walk in the shadow of Arthur’s Seat at the shiny new Scottish Parliament and walk up the Royal Mile from Holyrood to Tollboth, to the Netherbow and onto the Castle at the pinnacle of the City

To Book:

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SLAVE TRADER ROBERT MILLIGAN TO BE ‘CONTEXTUALISED’ INSIDE MUSEUM

Robert Milligan before removal

Robert Milligan once reigned supreme outside the Museum of London in Docklands as a representative of the West Indies merchants who proudly set up the West Indies docks. Now he has been removed from his prestigious position and acquired by the Museum of London. Their Docklands Museum can be seen behind the statue in this sketch. According to a statement by the Museums Association he will be ‘fully contextualised’ in the museum. The docks were set up to to maximise profits from the slave driven sugar plantations in the West Indies. Milligan was the Deputy Chairman of the project.

The museum has an excellent display on the slave trade.

Sorry for gap in posts as I’m recovering from surgery following an accident whereby a taxi driver opened his door and knocked me off my push bike so typing one handed and dealing with images is quite difficult at present. Please adopt the ‘Dutch Reach’ when opening car doors and be careful.

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BIG WEEKEND OF WALKS!

Bootham Bar with York Minter in the background
Bootham Bar with York Minter in the background photo Kevin Flude

I’m doing a virtual tour of York tonight at 7pm.

Then, tomorrow, two proper real walks in the fresh air:

a Literary and Archaeological walk of Roman London at 11.30

a Spring Equinox Walk at 2.30.

and I then dash hope to repeat the Equinox Walk as a virtual tour.

Links to the walks here:

And the Sunday was ruined bt the taxi driver who knocked me off my bike!

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HERITAGE WITH MY GRANDSON 2 – BRITISH LIBRARY & MUSEUM

Arlo at the Beethoven Exhibition, British Library, March 2022

For our next outing we went to the British Library but Arlo didn’t like the Beethoven exhibition. It was too dark and nothing to surreptitiously climb on. He definitely does not like dark exhibitions which is a shame because it seems to be the design idea of the moment. The Nero and the Stonehenge exhibitions were also dark spaces working on creating atmospheric views using bright colours, spot lighting and spectacular objects. But it doesn’t work for a 20 month old.

Nor did the largely text based Paul McCartney’s Lyrics exhibition attract a second of his attention. ‘Paul who?’ he seemed to be saying as we stumped past to the very quiet sound of ‘Hey Jude’.

What he did like was the escalators. We went up and down, and up and down, and then onto the second set where we repeated the repeat.

British Library – note the escalator to the right

And down and back again, and no time to see the enigma machine. We ate in the upstairs Restaurant which is a really pleasant place to spend a lunch time.

Enigma Machine, British Library

Time for him to have a sleep so we walked to the British Museum through Bloomsbury without much sign that he he would nod off. But we found a couple of interesting revolutionaries of the 19th Century en-route.

Plaque to Robert Owen ‘father of the Cooperative Movement’, Burton Street

Then to Cartwright Gardens named after John Cartwright, called ‘the Father of Reform’. He had quite an amazing life. He refused to serve in the Navy as he would not fight against the American Colonists in the War of Independence. He supported reform of Parliament, universal suffrage, annual Parliaments and secret ballots.

John Cartwright Statue Cartwright Gardens.

The milk soon did its job and Arlo was asleep, so I took him to the Member’s Room for a cup of tea while he slept. I could keep an eye on the book trolley selling my book! (just behind Arlo’s head).

Sleep in the Member’s Room overlooking the Great Court

When he woke we whizzed around the third Floor but Arlo was reluctant to leave his buggy because it was much more crowded than our last visit when he was able to run free around the galleries which he loved. So, I could look at some old favourites like the Portland Vase. This by the way was smashed into hundreds of pieces and very beautifully restored. In 1848 a drunken visitor threw a sculpture into the case and smashed the vase. It was restored but 37 pieces were separated and, by luck, survived until 1988 when the vase was reunited with the pieces and expertly restored.

The Portland Vase – 15BC = 25AD Cameo Glass
Plate Cameo Glass 15BC – 25AD

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STONEHENGE EXHIBITION AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM

The Nebra Disc

What an Exhibition! The BM has pulled together an international array of treasures from the Stonehenge era. It is stunning , the objects are amazing. Stonehenge itself is there in the labels but it is not at the forefront – the objects are left to speak for themselves. The labels are there to give some details and some context but they never dominate.

It is beautifully lit and mounted, and really a triumph. I will go back again to see how the labels and information tell their stories and report back at greater length.

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Ship of Theseus – a Philosophic Paradox in Material Culture & Trigger’s Broom

This was first raised by Plutarch, and it concerns a crucial issue in conservation/restoration which is how to maintain authenticity in the face of replacing worn out parts of an object or structure. The idea is, perhaps, most economically discussed in ‘Any Fools and Horses’ in the scene known as Trigger’s Broom.

Click the video to watch Trigger’s Broom and then proceed to the philosophy
The Ship of Theseus can be seen over Ariadne's shoulder
The Ship of Theseus can be seen over Ariadne’s shoulder as Theseus abandons her on Naxos

Now you are ready to appreciate the philosophic issue that is discussed in this short video by the Khan Academy. Click here.

The Ship of Theseus also appears in the Novel ‘S’ written by Doug Dorst and conceived by J. J. Abrams. in 2013. The book is a story within a story with an innovative ‘interactive’ thread with a novel called the Ship of Theseus which is annotated by two people and also contains press cuttings and printed ephemera in the two characters attempts to identify the mysterious author of ‘The Ship of Theseus. The Ship itself is, replaced part by part as the story develops.

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MUSEUMS FOR TODDLERS

This is a good case for a 16 month old (British Museum)

Now that I am a grandfather, and have taken my grandson to a couple of Museums I am, suddenly, an expert on the subject. My preliminary conclusions:

  1. Museum toddler playgrounds could be a lot more imaginative. London Transport Museum basically has buses with buttons to push and steering wheels to turn. Its ok, but then not much better than you get in countless parks around London.. Surely, there should be more story telling and even a bit of wit to amuse the carers?
  2. What is much better, in my grandson’s opinion, is designing the museum itself to cater for the toddlers. My one loved the British Museum, which has absolutely no provision for toddlers as far as I can see. But he loved it! Why?
  1. He loved the space; the length of the rooms to run along; the height of the ceiling; the variety of cases and spaces, and key holes and handles and grids and lighting; the echoes and percussive effects he could produce by his hands or feet.
  2. The floors he loved because the BM in some rooms has ventilation grills that run along a track along the length of the Room. He loved running along them. And was most engaged by the metal grills his feet found every couple of meters. They made a different sound as he ran along them. He ran along them, turned round and ran back and repeated the effort. I should point out he is only 16 months old so not running at a pace that annoys or endangers. In the Classical Galleries, the hard floor changed to carpet. He immediately lay down on it and enjoyed the texture enough to roll around on it, until he found the only visible bit of fluff on the well dyson’d carpet. He took the fluff to the next room, dropped it on the floor, and carefully picked it up. I think we got that bit of fluff from the Cyprus Gallery to the Portland Vase in the Roman and Greek Gallery. A testament to the BM’s cleaning staff.
  3. Crucial to his enjoyment were cases that stretched down to the floor, or about a foot above the floor. He could look in and see the objects, and was often fascinated. In comparison the London Transport Museum’s cases were higher and he could not see in . He also loved any fitting he could touch or move on the cases. Even key holes interested him. The BM also has cases which have low ledges for labels beside cases. He loved to climb on these – although I had to stop him. But a museum could easily build in little cubby holes for kids to climb into and onto. And add little knobs, buttons, bells, declivities and raised areas at low level for kids to turn, press, poke, stroke and twist.
  4. Touch was very important, and he liked to touch the glass of the cases, and there was a stone pillar, he was touching. I thought it was behind glass so did not stop him but when I got closer realised it was the surface of the stone he was repeatedly stroking. Of course I stopped him immediately, but it was a good reminder of the interest at this age in texture.
  5. Sound was really interesting to him. And I know it would be horrifying to visits to have children all halloing the echoes but he did love it! Wooden infrastructure which was hollow offers lots of potential.

So, in conclusion. Make the Museum itself the playground. Use the playgrounds as part of the displays. Insist on floor length glass cases with knobs, bells, holes and textures integral to the design. Vary the floors, put markings on the floor for children to follow. Create little spaces every so often they can get into, climb on, explore.

Toddler Friendly Display Case at the British Museum.
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Sex in the 15th Century – Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles

The Monk-Doctor the 2nd story based in London about a merchant’s daughter with piles. After many unsuccessful ‘cures’ a monk takes on the task. He in blowing a medicine through a tube to cure the piles but he spends too long examining the girl through a hole in a cloth that has been draped over her bottom. She tries to stifle a fit of giggles which becomes a fart and blows the corrosive medicine into the Monk’s one remaining eye and blinds him. The case is taking to the courts and becomes a celebrated and much discussed case.

This is a 15th Century French collection of bawdy tales. The illustrated version in the Hunterian, Glasgow has some marvellous illustrations.

To read the stories follow this link to the Project Gutenberg.

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New Discovery about Stonehenge

20th Century Photo of Stonehenge stones being propped up
Photo of Museum display at Stonehenge, showing 20th Century repair work at Stonehenge

The discovery of a dismantled Stone Circle, the same size as the Aubrey Holes Circle at Stonehenge, near to the Quarry that modern science has identified as the source of the Bluestones at Stonehenge, has validated what Geoffrey of Monmouth said in the 12th Century.

That is that Stonehenge was second hand and was brought from the West. (OK he said Ireland and the newly discovered Henge is in West Wales, and everything else he said seems to be wrong). But at least it would seem Geoffrey didn’t just make up it all up, which is what I have been saying for many years.

Anyway the point of this post is to direct you to this article which is the definitive word on the new discovery by Mike Parker Pearson and his colleagues.

Do read it!