Digging up London

Have you ever wanted to discover something when digging? On the beach? Or in the garden? Buried treasure? Anything? I once found a farthing when digging in our back garden. And corrugated iron, the remains of an Anderson shelter. 

Crossrail have been doing a huge amount of digging across London as they connect the East and the West by rail. And they did find something! Objects that tell an amazing story about London's past.

"Evidence of deeply buried landscapes"

Human skulls from Roman times, nearly 2,000 years old, found near Liverpool Street.

They reckon this is probably male.

 16th Century pottery found at Farringdon, around 400 years old.

 Evidence of industry from the 16th Century in Farringdon. Bones used in pin making.

Crossrail tell these stories, uncovered through their archaeology programme, in the exhibition, Portals to the Past, in their Visitor Information Centre.

You can read stories of London's past.

 I liked reading about the remains of the Crosse & Blackwell factory in Tottenham Court Road where they uncovered vaults containing around 8,000 ceramic jars.

 Beneath Liverpool Street they uncovered the burial ground of Bethlem Hospital. They're still digging and expecting to find up to 4,000 skeletons which will be used to find out how people used to live, to understand more about their lifestyle and diet.

There were animal processing industries on the River Lea in the 19th Century, producing stenches that "cannot be described or even imagined". Having had a dead rat under our floorboards at home, I can begin to imagine that smell. Nothing compares! 

There are more than fifty archaeological objects on display. Displayed in a manner slightly reminiscent of shelves in children's bedrooms, when they display their own prize finds.

Of course Crossrail also want to tell you about their shiny new plans, a new railway, twin tunnels under London, due to open in 2018.

Portals to the Past is on at the Crossrail Exhibition Centre. For opening times look here. It ends March 15th.

I don't think that there is enough there to warrant a special trip. However, if you're in the area, do drop in.

NB: apparently this exhibition will open somewhere else in the future.
Keep your eyes peeled.

Waiting...

At the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition in the Natural History Museum I discovered that, rather than photos being moments of chance, the photographer happening to be in the right place at the right time, a lot of waiting around had gone on. I thought I would tell you some of the stories about waiting to inspire you to visit, as no photography is allowed in the exhibition.

Some waiting sounds more appealing than others.

Underwater... 'When he spotted a fin, he dived down, held his breath and waited for the eight metre (Whale Shark) animal to pass overhead.'

For fifty days... 'In all that time he only saw one tiger, early morning on day fifty of his stake-out.'

For the morning... 'waited for the perfect dew to form on the flower and the vegetation behind it.'

Baiting Bears... 'Using a Deer as bait he waited patiently for ten days.'

For the weather... 'Marsel had waited years for the right weather to take this photo'

On river banks...'It took three days to get close enough to take a photo of this American Crocodile'

On the sea floor... 'Douglas captured this image by lying on the sea floor and waiting for the Dudong (Manatee) to approach'

Camping... 'Udayan spent the night camping next to a colony of Gharias on the bank, hoping to photograph them early in the morning light'

In a hide... 'Anton and his father were in Finland to take pictures of brown bears. They rented a hide, put out some dog food as bait, and waited'

Don't wait too long to go and see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum as it closes on the 23rd March 2014. A great exhibition for teenagers. 

You can read more about the exhibition here.

Views of St Paul's Cathedral II

A few minutes walk from the painted views of St Paul's in the Guildhall Art Gallery in my last post, the real St Paul's can be seen for yourself.

There are many different viewpoints:

...from street level.

...reflected in street furniture.

 

...from inside One New Change Shopping Centre, Cheapside.

...reflected in the glass walls of One New Change.

Up high on top of One New Change shopping centre there is a public roof terrace with amazing views:

...of St Paul's with a bus passing by

 

...the London Eye, you can just make out Big Ben   

...the Shard to the South East

...the old, new and yet to be built, to the West

...to the South, you can just make out the Crystal Palace mast

 

...and back to St Paul's

These views can be seen for free from the roof of the One New Change roof terrace open seven days a week.

It seems to be a bit of a secret, I haven't met many people who know it's there. It wasn't busy either time I went, even in half term. Having moaned about going, my ten year old ran out of the lift, on to the terrace proclaiming it to be 'cool!' 

http://www.onenewchange.com/11the-roof-terrace.aspx

Views of St Paul's Cathedral I

St Paul's is over 300 years old and was built on the highest point in the city. It remains a constant in an ever changing city. At the Guildhall Art Gallery, you can see paintings of St Paul's which show you how the city has changed over time, not to mention painting styles.

The Lord Mayor Proceeding to Westminster on Lord Mayor's day 9 November 1789

 Richard Paton & Francis Wheatley



The Thames by Moonlight with Southwark Bridge 1884
John Atkinson Grimshaw



The Heart of the Empire 1904 Niels Moller Lund



Blackfriars Bridge and St Paul's 1995
Anthony Lowe



Landscape 715 2003-04
John Virtue



Inside the Guildhall Art Gallery



Guildhall Yard & Art Gallery, the site of London's Roman amphitheatre

Open all week, free admission. Why not check out these paintings and the City of London's art collection at the Guildhall Art Gallery, only a stone's throw from the cathedral itself.

Have a look at the website for more details here.

A Downward Gaze

I saw the Lucian Freud Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery with a friend one Friday evening. I think it's great when museums and galleries open in the evenings. It's the kind of thing I want to do on a night out. This exhibition is open late on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and for these last few days, until 27th May, it will be open until midnight. 

I found Lucien Freud's paintings both beautiful and unsettling.

I love the way he paints flesh. The colours he uses are amazing, when you get close you see so many different colours including greens and purples. He paints skin as I think it should be painted, with character, aged and contoured. I don't want to look at smooth taut skin that only exists on airbrushed models. Who really looks like that? I also like the way he uses his brushstrokes to follow the contours of skin and limbs, accentuating shadows, creases and dimples.

The unsettling bit was trying to figure out Freud's relationship between him and the people he painted, particularly in his earlier paintings, he often appeared to be looking down on them. We walked around the exhibition and realised that alot of his subjects were painted sitting slightly below his eyeline, he seemed to be looking down on them. In his self-portraits, he appeared to be looking down on us too, with a slight downward gaze, we stood just below his eyeline. 

Perhaps this didn't mean anything, but in much of his earlier work, he seemed to me to looking down both on the people he painted and us, as viewers looking back at him in his self portraits. It was quite unsettling and got you thinking about different reasons he might have perhaps done this.

Despite loving his work...  I didn't really like the way he was looking at me.

However we did have a good night out and hope that late night opening in museums and galleries will long continue. But to see this exhibition, hurry as there are only three days left.

Boat Trip

We took a Thames Clipper downstream. We began our journey at London Bridge City Pier. There was no shortage of viewpoints. We started here.

HMS Belfast, Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf.

The view looking back.

The Shard, HMS Belfast.

The Clipper crossed the Thames to the Tower of London.

When I was little the 'Bloody Tower' caused great amusement, just being able to say it out loud without getting told off for swearing was great fun.

We passed under Tower Bridge and looked back at the Shard and City Hall.

Then we had to take our seats as the captain put his foot down. We sped along past moored sailing boats with the Gherkin and the Nat West Tower in the background.

We sped past HMS Ocean, which at 125foot wide squeezed through the Thames Barrier last week. It's here to protect London during the Olympics. 

We passed by Greenwich and the newly restored Cutty Sark.

I cheated with this photo, it was taken on dry land later in the day. 

As we headed downstream the O2 came into sight. 

Then we rounded the bend to see the new TFL cable car crossing the Thames and Antony Gormley's Quantum Cloud. Both huge structures.

We got off the boat at North Greenwich Pier and watched the cable car practising. No passengers yet as it isn't quite finished.

We chatted about value for money, apparently the cable car cost 6o million pounds, "that's 10 million less than Real Madrid paid for Christiano Ronaldo".

I love the way these pictures human contrast scale, us, the figure in Antony Gormley's Quantum Cloud and the gondolas, each being able to carry 10 people.

We had a little walk around North Greenwich and got closer to the O2. 

"It feels like we're in the future", said my 12 year old. I know what she means...

Not a bad value for money trip. All this for the price of a single ticket on the Thames Clipper. 

Next time I think we'll head upstream.

Since writing this post, the cable car is up and running. Great views and especially good as the city lights come on in the evenings. 

Unexpected Connections

Learning in museums can be all about making personal connections.

Sometimes people make the most unexpected connections.

A secondary school girl spoke to me the other day,

"See that dog's head?"

"...my brother's girlfriend looks like that."

It got me thinking, which dog do I look like?

You may be thinking, just the heads? One little boy, struggling with the idea of just the heads, was saved from the brink of tears when a quick-thinking gallery attendant reassured him that all was OK because the dogs were still intact, their bodies behind the wall. He left happy. 

If you would like to see the collection of dog's heads and perhaps decide who they look like. Visit the Natural History gallery at the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill.

http://www.horniman.ac.uk/