HMS Belfast a War Ship

 I have looked at Life on Board HMS Belfast in a previous post, here.

Food, laundry, spare-time, sleep and shopping.

But HMS Belfast is a war ship,

commissioned in 1939,

at the beginning of the second World War.

My kids have studied the second world war,

in both primary and secondary school.

Would this ship connect to the history they had learnt at school?

What would our kids make of war?

What did war at sea look like?

There are guns.

These guns, if fired, would hit Scratchwood motorway services,

the southernmost services on the M1, 14 miles away.

Deep below deck,

shells are stored, ready to be sent to the gun turrets.

 Each 6" shell weighs as much as two small children.

We could demonstrate that weight, sometimes it's useful having twins.

Steering the ship was done from a safe position, below deck,

but you still had to wear your anti-flash gloves and hoods

to protect you in the event of fire.

War is strategic, it involves planning,

team work where every man had a specific job.

We worked together to locate aircraft parts,

studying the map, plotting journeys and moving ships and helicopters into position.

 Ooops!

We did it!

 It was important to take orders rather than 'selfies'.

If you didn't follow orders, and you misbehaved,

you could end up in the punishment cells

being shouted at and having to unwind rope.

Having been caught drunk on duty,

this guy is too busy throwing up into a bucket to unwind any more rope.

The top misdemeanours were being drunk, absent without leave and fighting. 

For some reason the punishment cells appealed,

we fought to try out the wooden pillow.

 Now moored on the Thames by the City of London

HMS Belfast doesn't look so big.

It is though.
It's two football pitches long and nine decks high,
they can all be explored, many are below the waterline.

All those different greys.

That's called dazzle paint, designed to confuse the enemy when it is spotted at sea.

It does a pretty good camouflage job in the City too.

As for war,

secondary school history has given them some context for the life of HMS Belfast,

the Second World War and later conflicts.

I learnt a lot from the older two.

For our primary school children, HMS Belfast was appreciated more for being a ship,

what it did and how it worked.

It is perhaps difficult to comprehend the realities of war for the crew on HMS Belfast,

at sea, in action.

I'll leave you with words from archive footage, heard in the Gun Turret Experience,

spoken by former crew who had fired those guns.

Food for thought.

"...we wanted to get the ships, not the crew..."

At that point, I gulped.

HMS Belfast is open everyday.

Occasionally there are still veterans on board to meet and hear their stories.

Details on their website, here.

I recommend the children's audio tour. It was the one we used for our family,

aged eleven to adult.

Form Through Colour

Ever walked around an exhibition

working out which piece you would take home if you were allowed?

Well in Form Through Colour at Somerset House

those daydreams can become a reality.

Price on application.

Christopher Farr with over twenty-five years of experience in rug design

has created rugs, based on the paintings, prints and textile studies of Anni Albers,

Josef Albers and Gary Hume.

They are for sale.

Anni and Josef Albers worked at the Bauhaus, Germany, in the 1920s and 30s.

Along with Farr's contemporary rugs,

you can see plans, ideas and documents from their life and work.

Anni was very much influenced by textiles from Latin America.

She visited over fourteen times to learn fom,

"my great teachers, the weavers of ancient Peru".

Josef taught drawing and colour.

His colour course 'Interaction of Colour', exploring, learning and teaching about colour

was published and used world-wide.

It wasn't so long ago that most art books were published in black and white.

Christopher Farr has worked with Gary Hume to

create huge rugs based on his life-size paintings of hospital doors. 

Like Anni and Josef Alber's work, these rugs explore colour and shape.

The shapes geometric, but his use of colour is more subtle. 

Colour can be affected, not only by dye, but also by different rug making techniques.

There is weaving...

...and there is knotting.

These are knotted by hand!

You do wonder why all these rugs are on the walls.

But it does reflect the wishes of Anni, who made "pictoral weavings",

with no practical purpose.

Ah, a rug I could use.

Then there's the obligatory museum selfie.

This sort of took itself.

Standing in front of Hume's, Green Door, 1988,

we found ourselves framed by the gallery doors.

Subtle colour changes, non-geometric shapes.

Form Through Colour is on at Somerset House, East Wing, until 31st August 2014.

Details on their website, here.

Admission free.

Rugs, price on application.

Return of the Rudeboy

Planning to go to the Return of the Rudeboy exhibition at Somerset House,

this was the first time I had ever worried about

what I was going to wear to see an exhibition about

"style, swagger and significance."

It didn't take long for me to reject the idea that I was never going to match, let alone compete with the Rudeboys, so I might as well go as myself, dressed in what I usually wear.

But I did have that haircut,

the one on the far right.
Quite a few years ago.

Return of the Rudeboy is not a retrospective, looking back at the Rudeboys of the 80s,

but contemporary photos of Rudeboy style today. 

With its roots in Reggae,

photos in vintage suitcases are reminders of the journey and cultural heritage of the Rudeboy, from the West Indies.

These guys know how to dress.

From top...

...to toe.

If you visit feeling less than your best, in need of a bit of grooming,

this barber's shop will be open at selected times for

a bit of a trim or perhaps a new style.

That's what I call participatory.

Top visitor engagement.

How we respond to exhibitions can be very personal.

Things capturing our imagination.

For me, it was the textures I saw.

In the fabrics...

...and colours,

...and close ups.

An exhibition about Rudeboy style would of course, have to include music.

Every person photographed was asked to put together a playlist to be played in the exhibition.

It's not all photography...

 ...or men.

The lovely Pauline Black.

On My Radio!

Return of the Rudeboy celebrates the now, but referenced the 80s.

It took me back to Ska and 2 Tone. Wish I still had the badges.

I came home and made my own playlist,

my music from the early 80s.

I had all these tracks on 7" vinyl,

and if I didn't,

I spent Thursday nights with a tape-recorder held against the TV speaker,

the pause button pressed, ready to be released, telling my brothers to "shut-up", waiting for the exact moment when the Top of the Pops presenter stopped talking and the music started.

That's how playlists were made in the old days.

If you're interested...

Too Much Too Young -The Specials

Tears of a Clown - The Beat

Mirror in the Bathroom - The Beat

On My Radio - Selecter

Ghost Town - The Specials

Lip Up Fatty - Bad Manners

One Step Beyond - Madness

Return of the Rudeboy is on at Somerset House until 25 August

Free admission

Details on the website, here.

The Museum of Water

The Museum of Water at Somerset House
is exactly the reason why I write about visiting museums,
it brings together my favourite things,
objects and stories,
especially stories told by members of the public.

I begin with the origins of the exhibition, a most important story about water.

Two years ago, Amy Sharrocks began the Museum of Water in Soho, London, opposite the John Snow pub to celebrate John Snow's discovery of the source of Cholera,
collecting and displaying publicly donated water.
John Snow's work led to the saving of hundreds of thousands of lives.

I love to tell stories about objects in museums and in this exhibition
every jar, bottle, tub of water comes with its own personal story.

Every donation has been carefully considered, chosen and collected.

Entering the exhibition, you wonder how different one bottle can be from another.
But when that water represents stories and ideas from over 300 people,
they can be very different,
yet also alike
as people share similar life events,
the good and the bad.

Pond water...   ...a thinking place.

A melted snowman.

Holy water.

Defrosted ice from a London freezer.

Washing up water...   ...'an act of devotion'.

Grief expressed.

If you turn up without water to give to the museum,

there is still space to tell your story,

'what you would have brought'.

Tell them about water that is special to you,
write on a piece of parchment and peg it up here.

The exhibiton is underground in the basement,
underneath the courtyard fountains of Somerset House.
They leak.

Amy Sharrocks is still collecting, in her words, 'hoarding' water.
She is asking people to consider water,
to think about their connections to it and the memories, ideas and emotions it evokes.
You can still donate,
chose water that is special to you,
give it to the museum and tell them why it is special to you.
Details here.

This is a brilliant democratic exhibition, every donation is accepted, recorded and  kept,
building a collection 'for future generations to enjoy'.

    

The Museum of Water is on at Somerset House underneath the fountains,
open until Sunday 29th June.
The collection will continue to grow and the exhibition is set to tour,
keep an eye on their website for details, here.

The water I would have brought
I didn't take water when I visited and when I was there I couldn't think what water I would have brought. Now having time to think, I know what I would have donated. Water from the Thames near HMS Belfast. Having been at home looking after four kids, it has taken quite a while, many job applications and a fair bit of volunteering and studying to move from teaching in schools to learning in museums. I started working again, nearly eleven years to the day that our youngest two were born. And my first day was on HMS Belfast. I was, and am, elated, it is a brilliant museum. I still spend a fair bit of time at home, so I think I would go with the 'act of devotion' above and mix the Thames with a little washing up water.