On approach the museum doesn't look that enticing, located as it seems in the middle of a dingy roundabout at the end of London Wall, but this belies its actual scale and ambition. Walking into the museum, one is greeted by a large welcoming, broad space with friendly reception staff waiting to point you in the right direction or advise you about upcoming tours.
The museum is a tardis; it's big and in fact it's not inside the roundabout, it's around the sides and underneath. Indeed, it occupies an odd space which as been used to great effect to house a museum which tells the story of London from its earliest times. And in a way it is appropriately positioned adjacent to a section of the old city wall (built on Roman foundations) which can be seen from inside the museum.
I did tag on to a free tour that was just setting off from the foyer but the guide's delivery style grated so I peeled off and went my own way, heading down the sloping floor and into the exhibition.
It starts right at the beginning, before anyone was there except for the dinosaurs. Fragments of bone and fossilised skeletons are in display cases with descriptions of what the land looked like before humans made their mark. This moves on to evidence of and artifacts from the early settlers. Lots of flint, spear heads, amulets as well as the remarkable Battersea Shield, a beautiful iron age ceremonial shield that was discovered in the Thames by Battersea Bridge. There's a lot to see here and too many small pieces each with their own description and labeling. In retrospect, I spent a bit too much time here and should have scooted quickly through to get the where the interesting stuff starts, with the Romans.
"What have the Roman's ever done for us?!" Well, quite a bit it would seem. The exhibition gives a real flavour of what the city was like in Roman times and all the principal buildings and infrastructure that the city acquired during these times. There's an original mosaic floor which is wonderful and lots of statues and other pieces of building. Despite it being so long ago and so built over, this is a remarkable insight into Roman London.
Post Roman times, the city moved west to Westminster and the old Roman city where the current City of London is today was largely abandoned. Eventually life moved back to the old city and the two were united. During following centuries.
All the major events that shaped the city and it's inhabitants are covered off; The Black Death (14th century), The Great Fire of London, The Plague of 1665 which was followed by The Great Fire in 1666 - Pudding Lane and all that. Plenty of beautiful palaces and other great buildings were built at this time but are sadly no longer here; The Palace of Whitehall of which only the Banqueting House remains and Northumberland House (aka Suffolk House) which, built in the early 1600's held out until 1874 when it was pulled down to make way for the new roads from Embankment to Trafalgar Square. Shame.
There's a wonderful arcade of original Victorian Shop fronts - all very Charles Dickens. The exhibition moves towards the 20th Century; the Suffragettes, the Roaring Twenties and of course the two world wars in particular, the unimaginable physical impact of WWII. By this time I was running out of time and moving quickly through the building. The original sign from the Savoy Grill is there along side the art deco interior of one of the lifts from Selfridges.
The 60's to 80's covers off the rise of multicultural London as well as increasingly vocal minorities supported by the GLC; the demise of industry in London and the rise of the service industries, especially banking. I could see the end in sight now! But not before the final section which was series of photographs imagining what London might look like in the future; favelas in St James's Park; the entire city part submerged and a tropical Hyde Park Corner.
All in all, it's a great place to visit for a comprehensive, visual and fascinating history lesson of founding and development of London over more than a thousand years. Just make sure you give yourself enough time to do it justice.
0 comments:
Post a Comment