A Victorian Walk

With less than a week until Christmas!

You may now have had enough of the shops,

overwhelmed by choice and

perhaps slightly concerned about the cash that seems to be slipping through your fingers.

As an antidote, let me take you shopping

where choice and cash don't feature.

Not window shopping but Victorian shopping at the Museum of London.

Begining with the Toy Shop.

What's on your Christmas list?

Dolls, puzzles, tea-sets, animals two by two?

Whilst out, an opportunity to stop for a quick 'short back & sides' at the Barbers.

Glass-ware.

This would look fabulous on the Christmas table.

Perhaps you should pop into the bank to check your balance,

withdraw cash,

or if need be, have a little chat with the manager?

 Cakes and bread,

'shop-bought' in Victorian as well as twenty-first century times.

The grocers.

 I seem to have forgotten my list! 

A window onto the twenty-first century

from this Victorian street.

Thirsty work, shopping.

Aren't they supposed to be sat outside in the cold waiting for me?

Head to the shops this Christmas,
visit the Victorian Walk at the Museum of London.

You really won't spend any money, free admission.

More on their website, here.

The Ostrich Egg

At the Horniman Museum

in the Discovery for All sessions on a Sunday morning

we are allowed to get objects out of the cabinets for visitors.

Allowing people to handle objects,

touch them, look at them from every angle, feel the weight of them

and probably most importantly encourage more talk about them

than if they were just sat behind glass.

There are the usual objects that capture the public's imagination

like the hedgehog, the squirrel, masks, dolls from around the world and the sharks jaw.

I'm always asked to get these things out.

With the object most asked for being the Puffer-fish,

a dried out, hollow, very spikey, puffed up puffer-fish.

Then there are the objects that people hardly ever notice.

In museums these are called 'silent objects',

the less conspicuous objects.

Such as the Ostrich Egg.

Asked for today by a family of five.

It was cold, it was white (ish), covered in tiny dots, "like an orange"

and felt much less fragile than you would have thought.

Kid: "What's inside? Is there a chick inside?"

Mum: "No, it's like our eggs, you know, with a yolk."

Kid: "Why is there a hole in the end"

Me: "That's to get what's inside out. Like blowing eggs."

Mum: "I wonder how many pancakes you can make using that egg?

Between these lot, they have about four each,

I make pancakes every Sunday morning."

I comment on how nice this is, try and cadge an invite.

"Nice for them, I've got to get up and make them,

and do the washing up too."

Mum is smiling, it obviously is a much loved family tradition.

As for what gives 'silent objects' a voice?

Well in this case, breakfast.

I sent them off to the natural history gallery to double check it was an Ostrich Egg.

You can see the holes,

must have needed quite a bit of puff to blow those eggs.

Sometimes though, you get a chick.

Discovery for All is in the Hands On Base in the Horniman Museum

every Sunday and sometimes in the school holidays.

Details on their website here.

If you're interested in my posts on those 'loud' objects, the ones that get noticed most often,

and would like to see more of whats in the Hands on Base in the Horniman Museum,

here are the links:

The hedgehog and the squirrel, here.

Masks, here.

Dolls from around the world, here.

A sharks jaw, here.

Bethlem Museum of the Mind

There is only a week left to see the current incarnation

of Bethlem Museum of the Mind.

Louis Wain

At present it is a very small museum.

Showing some of a huge collection of works of art,

part of the (hi)story of mental health care in the Maudsley Hospitals.

All the work has all been produced by current and former patients
whether they have had any formal art training or not.

Next to the paintings are labels,
which along with the artist's name and date,
tell us why, when and how they came to be patients of the Bethlem Royal Hospital.
Very moving.

I'll just tell you about a couple of the artists in the museum
who do happen to have have gone to art school,
however this is not a prerequisite for having your work on display.

Louis Wain.

Three years into his marriage, he began painting their cat,

who at the time gave great comfort to his wife with breast cancer.

Sadly she died, but not before encouraging him to sell his work.

His cat paintings captured the public's imagination.

His work was published in children's books, magazines, in the papers and in journals.

He also had his own annual published, over a period of twenty years.

He was recognised as a public authority on cats

with his theories about them giving off electricity, being magnetic and hating orange peel.

It wasn't all cats though,

as these beautiful gouache paintings of nature demonstrate,

produced during his struggle with his mental health in later years.

During our visit we comment that this painting reminds us

of brightly coloured embroidered tablecloths,

lots of small brush strokes that could well have been stitched in thread.

These two paintings were produced by Marion Patrick.

Admitted to hospital at only fifteen years old,

she later went to art college.

Even in this small space,

there are so many painings to look at.

Each with a story and challenge for the viewer.

This is especially true for 'The Maze' by William Kurelek.

which leaves us speechless with the portrayal of his mind.

His painting depicts a compartmentalised cross-section of his skull.

A labyrinth of scenes from his life,

with a rat trapped right in the middle with no way out,

who seems to have abandoned his escape and has stopped gnawing at the walls.

The Bethlem Museum of the Mind temporarily closes mid December.

It will move house and is set to reopen in a new building in February 2015

with a new gallery and learning spaces.

It will be worth a visit as it continues to follow its remit

of campaigning for access to the arts in healthcare environments.

As we left the Bethlem Museum I was struck by two things;

the opportunity that the patients had to create

and the value the hospital gave the patients and their work

by providing a place to exhibit it.

Art training or no art training,

I loved that!

More information on Bethlem Museum of the Mind
on their website, here.

I will be back in February to post about the new incarnation of
Bethlem Museum of the Mind.
Very much looking forward to it.

The Walking Out Cane

Sometimes you don't realise that you have a question until you have the answer.

This happened to me the other day at the RAF Museum, London on meeting a volunteer from the Great War Society.

This is Ian from the Royal Flying Corp at the ready to chat to visitors in the RAF Museum, London, with his Walking Out Cane, demonstrating how to use it.

Walking with the cane.

Standing to attention.

At ease.

Salute.

Oh, and that brings to me to my question...

"What's a Walking Out Cane?"

"Makes you look smart."

"Keeps your hands out your pockets."

Actually my first question was, "what's that?"

Before today I didn't even know what they were called.

"Thanks Ian."

Also a big thanks to the Great War Society and the many volunteers who help to bring objects in museums alive.

We had this chat in the First World War in the Air gallery at the RAF Museum, London.

More information on the website here.

First World War in the Air

First World War in the Air is a new permanent exhibition at the Royal Air Force Museum, London.

And there is plenty to see in the air and on the ground.

The grade II listed building housing this exhibition, was once one of the factories where aircraft were developed and made for the First World War. It was brought here brick by brick from three miles away. It's huge.

The exhibition tells the story aviation and its contribution to the First World War. There are so many stories and I was struck by the technology behind the planes, how it advanced during the war, and also the bravery of the men who flew these planes.

I say bravery with the benefit of hindsight, where on the few occasions I've been in a plane, I have actually read the safety manual and watched as the crew pointed out the emergency exit doors. Trusting in this new technology, they might have felt as safe as houses.

This is the Bleriot XXVII

 Not a military plane, built just before the war, it was built for speed, for racing, not for war.

With wheels that look a little like bicycle wheels,

and the skin, made of fabric, doped and sewn together. 

Reminds me of old canvas tents. 

This is the Cauldron G3 first built in 1914.

 To my untrained eye, it looks like they've left the middle bit out. But it worked and was used for training and reconnaissance.

The RAF as we know it was formed in 1918 during the First World War, the merging of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service.

New logo, still stitching the planes together.

To begin with the planes were used for reconnaissance, for watching the enemy, but evolved to be used for fighting.

The story goes that servicemen, whilst in the air, came up with a few novel ideas for attacking the enemy. These ranged from shooting at each other with pistols, throwing fruit and dropping darts on the enemy below.

See, the RAF museum provides oranges to throw at the enemy in the kid's interactive.

Or you can sit at the front with the machine gun.

Talking of interactives, yep I did have a go at sitting in the cockpit, pitching and rolling using the stick and yawing with my feet. (Impressed with my aviation terminology, I had help, consulted a friend)

This was actually quite tricky and demanded more of my stomach muscles than it should have.

First World War in the Air charts the development of aviation technology during the war and tells us how the industry grew from small beginnings. In Britain in 1914 fewer than 250 planes were built, by the end of the war, more than 600 were being built every week.

There was a rapid growth in the aircraft industry, providing jobs for women, filling the places of conscripted men.

The numbers tell that story too. Military aviation began with 2,073 people,

yet 9,349 lost their lives.

First World war in the Air, a new permanent gallery, opened Dec 4th 2014 and is well worth a visit. It is just one exhibition on the site of the RAF Museum, London, there's much more to explore.
Free admission. Details on the website here.

Update
Just had an email from my step-father, filling in the gaps in my knowledge.
This is the reason why the Cauldron G3, above, had a bit missing in the middle.
"The reason that they left the part behind the cockpit unfinished was
that the engines were not powerful
and crosswinds turned the plane in flight,
so not to give the wind somewhere too push at."
 Brilliant! 

Vimy Ridge: What the kids said

If you read my previous two posts on Vimy Ridge in Northern France, about the Trenches, click here, and the Memorial, click here, you will know that we visited whilst on a family holiday. As you may be able to guess, I have a reputation for encouraging a museum visit or two, especially when visiting somewhere new and this is not always met with enthusiasm.

However, I did my research, got a good recommendation and was not going to miss this opportunity, two weeks before the centenary of the beginning of the World War One, to visit a First World War site.

So in all, fifteen of us went to Vimy Ridge, aged three (my youngest nephew) to seventy-two (my dad).

From arriving and seeing bomb craters, to the memorial, trenches, tunnels and visitor centre, everyone was captivated. In fact my family were so keen that we were often (perhaps annoyingly) one step ahead with our questions. Our guide often replied, "I was just coming to that".

Our guide, Francoise, a Francophile Canadian bought so much to life with stories, information, questions and answers. No question was too much trouble and every one was answered, and he even let the group answer questions and share their stories.

A big public thankyou to Francoise!

In the car heading back, we listened to Terry Deary, his 'Horrible History' of the First World War. 

That evening at dinner (not at my instigation) my sister in law asked the kids if they had had a good day. They had. She then asked them "what they had found out today?" I got my notebook out immediately and began scribbling. Here's what they found out.

"Four out of twenty soldiers got stuck (and died) in the mud." age 10

"Returning soldiers (after the war) were treated badly,

especially those wounded and disabled." age 11

"The soldiers got to know each others faces." age 3 (very nearly 4)

"Adolf Hitler killed himself." age 10

"Hitler survived the whole of World War One as a runner." age 11

"Hitler was the fastest communication runner." age 7

"When you went for a pee, you had to pull your trousers down and have a white flag

as they didn't have toilets in the trenches." age 13

"If you go back (desert the front line) you get shot by your own team mates." age 11

"When trenches are close to each other, they can make truces with each other

so they could do certain things, like Christmas

and agree that they wouldn't throw hand-grenades." age 11

"8 million people died in the war, 20 million died of spanish flu in the world after the war." age 11

"There was 30 meters between the trenches." age 15

"If you were a runner, you would only survive (on average) for four days." age 7

"To find out how far away the gun shot was,

you listened to the gap between the light flash and the sound." age 11

"If you go into the middle of no mans land and the other person goes into the middle

with a white flag, you could have a chat." age 10

"On no mans land, the only thing that could grow is poppies." age 11

I'm sure this isn't just what they learnt at Vimy Ridge, whilst there, we didn't talk about Christmas, nor the poppies. However, it's interesting what children take on board, what they find interesting and important. It's mostly about the human experience of war, about getting stuck in the mud, what happens if you desert, going to the toilet, truces, returning home after the war, and enemies and allies talking to each other.

More information about Vimy Ridge,

a National Historic Site of Canada here.
I highly recommend it for families.