Locked Up

Chatting with my family in the Museum of London...

"Imagine being locked up in London in the eighteenth century?"

"Would it have been dark all the time?"

"It would have been light during the day as there's a window, but there's no glass."

What would you do all day?

Scratch your name and the date into the walls... The writing is quite striking, he must been there long enough to make such a beautiful job of it.

"Edward Burk's been here before. What for?"

Or perhaps scratch out a building...

It must have been a very unpleasant experience to have been locked up in this Newgate prison cell in the eighteenth century. Today, in the twenty-first century, this cell is on display in the Museum of London.

What would Edward Burk make of this? The walls he scratched his name into, the dark, cold cell he was locked up in, now preserved behind glass as a museum artefact.  

Without being locked up, you can go 'inside' the Wellclose prison cell at the Museum of London in the 'Expanding City' gallery. Details on the website here.

Jumping to the beginning of the nineteenth century to the Teign Heritage Centre, Teignmouth Museum in Devon, this prison window from Teignmouth, may not have have been as secure as the prison guards had hoped.

The building from which this window came, began life as a quayside store for saltcod, which during the Napoleonic wars was used as a prison. It may not have met prison security requirements.

According to local legend, around this time a Teignmouth trading schooner, the Griffeth, was stolen from the quayside by six escaped French prisoners.

'There is no record of the recapture of the boat or the prisoners and they were never heard of again'.

Quite a feat stealing a ship from the Teign estuary, acurate timing needed, once through that prison window, they would have had to wait for high tide to negotiate the tidal port.  

As for 'never heard of again'. Well they got a mention in the local museum.

Details and opening times about the Teign Heritage Centre here.

London Passion Week

London Passion Week is a great community art exhibition in Deptford, South East London put on by the Bear church.

It explores the Easter story, through the stations of the cross.

Instead of a passion play, the story is told through a passion exhibition.

From the last supper...  

...to the resurrection.

Many different people contributed to the telling of the Easter story,

the very young in the creche,

pre-schoolers in the playgroup,

 and children with their parents.

Told by people who like...

recycling...

brazing (a kind of welding)...

sailing...

 photography...

knitting...

and flowers.

Some pieces of work were made by the church community,

contemplating promises,

 and betrayal, by a kiss.

 Visitors also get to take part, take two sticks and some yarn. 

Whatever your take on Easter, this affords an opportunity over the bank holiday weekend to pause and contemplate its meaning.

Chatting to visitors, I got to hear more about Easter, their thoughts and experiences...

...of huge Easter processions in Columbia, South America, and 'fun' Easter activities in a Croydon primary school.

No mention of chocolate by anybody.

There still may be time to see this exhibition. It closes at 4pm Saturday 19th April 2014.

The Shaftesbury Christian Centre, Frankham St, Deptford, SE8 4RN.

More details on the Facebook page here.  

Chi Chi The Giant Panda

My grandparents in Wembley often took us to museums when we were children.

My most vivid memories of these trips are the Natural History Museum, the RAF museum in Hendon, travelling on Underground trains with wooden floors,

and the long walk back to their house at the end of an exhausting day

along the 'longest road in the world', Carlton Avenue East.

And what I remember most clearly about the Natural History Museum

was seeing Chi Chi the giant panda.

Going to see Chi Chi was an 'event'.
The diorama intrigued me.
Is that what China really looked like?

And why is she sitting eating? Is that what pandas do all day?

And why that yellow! That yellow has stayed with me.

I went back to the Natural History Museum recently with my kids and there was Chi Chi.
The same diorama, the same yellow.

I was excited, I could say to my kids,

"I saw that when I was a girl, that same Panda, that same yellow.

It looked just like that when I was your age."

Looking at the lettering used for 'Chi Chi', very seventies looking, I feel I am probably right.
Nothing has changed.

 Chi Chi was caught in China in 1957. After being kept in a number of different Zoos, she came to London Zoo in 1958 where she lived until 1972 when she died of old age.

They tried, unsuccessfully, to get her to mate and have babies.

So her legacy is not one of children, grandchildren
and helping to increase the panda population.

It is as a natural history specimen, to be wondered and marvelled at

by generations of visitors to the Natural History Museum.

But this visit was with a knowledgeable uncle

who used to work at the Natural History Museum.

None of that talk of yellow walls and seventies lettering.

We got animal facts.

"Pandas are unusual, not like other bears, because they have an opposable thumb, like us, for stripping the bamboo so they can eat it. Other bears haven't got opposable thumbs.

They're weird because they eat vegetation all the time, not what other bears eat,

they're omnivores. They have a very restricted diet.

I think you're asking for trouble if you're a panda with a restricted diet of fresh bamboo

and not much else!"

Don't hold me responsible for the factual accuracy of the above statement,

we were just having a chat.

If I did see Chi Chi alive in London Zoo, I was too young to remember it.

I will ask my parents.

Opening times and details here http://www.nhm.ac.uk/index.html

The Lost Tomb of Sir George Gellatly

Museums tell stories and display things.

Some stories and things are real, they can be authenticated, and others, well...

Introducing the Lost Tomb of Sir George Gellatly, found in the garden of the Nunhead and District Municipal Museum and Art Gallery.

A brilliant pop-up museum created for the Telegraph Hill Festival 2014

Sir George Gellatly's mausoleum was discovered at the end of this garden in Nunhead, SE London.

This way...

In we go...

His tomb.

Before you enter, those of a nervous disposition please take note...

His final resting place.

Here is Sir George in better health.

Like all good mausoleums,

there should be...

 ...live music.

and "marble carving in the Italianate style, depicting George's wild and extravagant life."

Objects from round the world, collected by Sir George fill display cabinets.

 I even got to see behind the scenes, where curators had been hard at work.

 Like all good museums,

an engaging series of lectures had been planned,

a museum cafe opened,

and a shopping opportunity provided,

selling unique branded products.

We bought a DIY "Commemorative Display Bone Kit".

The Nunhead and District Museum and Art Gallery began in 2009,

open for two days every year during the Telegraph Hill Festival.

From previous years,

here are the Catacombs discovered under the floorboards in 2009,

opened to the public in 2010.

"They are 100 feet deep,

the site hasn't been fully excavated yet,

as we haven't had permission from the local authority."

I believe that last year the bodies weren't in such an advanced state of deterioration and looked remarkably like Barbies.

The inspiration behind this unique museum I am told, was a visit, years ago, to a municipal museum in Keswick, Cumbria, where, "objects from different collections were all mixed up, everything displayed together, wooden display cabinets, difficult to read handwritten signs, but all about to be revamped, modernised to meet with health and safety requirements and be brought up to date".

So this is a homage to museums in times gone by, yet it is incredibly innovative, energetic and forward thinking.

Such a fabulous municipal museum and art gallery.

I'll leave the last word to the curators...

"Would you like a tomb in your garden?

Let the museum know and you can have this one."

Open 5th and 6th April 2014. part of Telegraph Hill Festival open studios.

You have probably missed it for this year, but put it in your diary for next year, what will the future bring?

Or even better, start collecting and create your own  museum. I'll visit.

If you know of any other pop-up museums, please leave a comment.

On top of cabinet five...

I'd never noticed them before...
...not until a man asked if he could possibly take a look at the boomerangs on top of cabinet five.

There were two. Very unassuming.

Carved strips of wood.

But you would be amazed at how heavy they are. I didn't expect the weight, nor the chat...

"Must be hard-wood?" 

He began, "...the craftsmanship, all hand-carved, no machines, look at the uneven surface.

"Perfect aerodynamics, the curve of the top surface, greater than the one underneath, this is what produces the lift so it rises into the air when thrown." 

 "An aerofoil, designed so when you throw it, it rises into the air,
spins around and comes back to you."

"All that technology, and remember this was before the age of aeroplanes!"

Tools created with such a sophisticated knowledge of aerodynamics, designed to be thrown, to rise in the air, spin about their axis, follow a curved path and to return to their owner.

Inspiring!

I really must spend more time talking to retired carpenters.

I'll never look at these boomerangs in the same way again.

You can hold (perhaps not throw) them for yourself in the Discovery for All session in the Hands-on Base on Sundays and during school holidays in the Horniman Museum. More details here.