The working life of Museum of London

Did you know that road traffic accidents in London kill less than 1 person each day, while smoking cigarettes kills 1 Londoner every hour? Or that cigarette butts account for 40% of the litter on London’s streets? Despite these bleak statistics 2 million Londoners regularly light up to enjoy a cigarette.

One year on from the smoking ban, The Big Smoke looks at the history of smoking in London and life in the capital since the ban.

Curator Meriel Jeater says, ‘London has been a centre of the tobacco trade and consumption for 400 years and this topical display will look at how attitudes to smoking have altered over this time. The recent ban on smoking in public places is causing widespread changes and this display will showcase Londoners’ opinions on the ban and how it is affecting their city.

For some people the new legislation is the final prompt they needed to quit smoking. For others it is ruining their businesses. We want to know what Londoners think.’

You can visit ‘The Big Smoke’ at the Museum of London until 21 September 2008.  Entry is free.

Find out more at The Big Smoke article in our newsroom.

Jon Cotton, Senior Curator (Prehistory) in the Early London History and Collections department of the Museum of London, talks about the Weather Permitting display at the Museum of London. You can see Weather Permitting at the Museum of London until Sunday 15 June 2008.

‘When two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.’ Dr Samuel Johnson.

Why Weather Permitting at the Museum of London?
Try switching on your TV or radio or opening a newspaper without coming across the words ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’. The Museum is well placed to cast an historical eye on this topical question, although in putting the display together we deliberately made no attempt to present a thorough-going scientific analysis of climate change (we’re not meteorologists after all – or politicians for that matter). Instead our aim was to offer a well-grounded historical commentary on London’s weather, delivered with a light touch that focussed on the quirky and the downright strange. The display took the best part of six months to research, design and mount, and its successful delivery involved a wide range of people right across the Museum and beyond.

Display or Exhibition?
We’ve been careful to describe the show as a display, NOT an exhibition. The reason is simple: the space available within the Museum is currently limited. We do not want to raise more expectations than we can realistically deliver in the space. That said, we hope that there is plenty in Weather Permitting with which our visitors can engage.

What’s in the display then?
The display is split between the front foyer and the area outside the London before London gallery. Both are equally important. The front foyer incorporates various layers of information including a climate time-line that runs right to left back into the Ice Age, to highlight the cyclical nature of climate change. This is populated with individual weather events that aim for the ‘well I never’ response.

Contemporary quotes and quirky facts are supported by appropriate images and objects including costume in the large case to the left. A series of five free-standing displays in front of the time-line wall examine specific types of weather: HEAT; STORM; FLOOD; FOG; FREEZE.

Finally a listening-post contains a series of oral testimonies relating to various weather-related events such as the Westminster flood of 1928, the freezing winter of 1947 and so on.

The second main part of the display is in the London before London foyer around the corner. This provides a more contemplative space to show light-sensitive objects including a series of paintings that focus on how artists have recorded London’s weather in the past.

What’s been the response?
So far, reaction has been really positive: the first two weeks of the display coincided with school half term and the foyer was absolutely heaving. Families were spotted singing along to the weather songs and nursery rhymes, and enjoying the storytelling sessions. There’s been a down-side though – the interactives have taken a terrible battering. We’ve already gone through several thunderdrums and a range of fans while the weather lore disk will have to be redesigned to cope with the numbers wanting to use it. It looks as though we’ve been victims of our own success!

The press have picked up on the display too. Time Out have been particularly supportive, and even arranged a tie-in competition asking readers to name their all-time favourite top ten weather songs. (The winner got to hear some of his selections playing in the foyer too!)

My favourite bit of the display …?
I’m really fond of the pair of dainty silk shoes dating to c.1700 in the costume display case, and the painting of the cab horses in snow in the London before London foyer. (I also enjoyed drinking the contents of the bottle of English wine that forms part of the display – but that’s another story!) The whole team had a great time putting the music sound track together, and an appeal to other colleagues swiftly brought a deluge of replies. Everyone’s got their favourite song – for what it’s worth mine is When The Levee Breaks, a 1971 cover version by Led Zeppelin of a song originally written by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy following the disasterous Mississippi floods of 1927. Given the floods we had in parts of London last summer, this has a very contemporary edge …

Well, fancy that …

• John Evelyn’s 1661 tract Fumifugium: or the Inconvenience of the Aer and Smoake of London Dissipated was one of the first to draw attention to environmental problems in the capital.
• An earthquake at five-thirty in the morning of March 8 1750 threw a servant girl in Charterhouse Square from her bed, causing her to break her arm. Dogs howled ‘in uncommon tones’ and fish were seen to jump ‘half a yard above the water’.
• While watching late night TV Ron Langton was startled to find fish falling on the roof of his house in East Ham during a thunderstorm on May 26 1984. Other residents in nearby Canning Town experienced similar fish showers the same evening.

There are more photos from the development of the display and the final installation on Flickr.

Plans for 2008

Both Museum of London and Museum in Docklands have great plans for 2008. Here’s a sneak preview of what’s coming up this year…

Don’t forget late at both Museum of London and Museum in Docklands on the first Thursday of every month. When twilight descends unexpected events occur…giving people the chance to enjoy live performances, tours and music alongside relaxing with a drink at the bar! Check our Events page for updates.

MUSEUM OF LONDON

Weather Permitting: London’s changing climate

15 February - 20 April 2008

The state of the weather is in the forefront of the mind of the public, as Dr Johnson informs us, ‘when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.’ Museum of London launches its first display focusing on centuries of the capital’s climate change and weather reports.

The Big Smoke

1 July - 21 September 2008

One year on from the smoking ban, a display looking at the history of smoking in London. Using objects and images from the Museum of London’s collections the display will chart the history of smoking from the first introduction of tobacco to London, to the present day, following changes in attitude over the centuries. The display will also showcase different opinions on the current smoking ban and show its effects on London businesses and Londoners.

Caught in time – photo display to coincide with publication of book

2 October - 23 November 2008

A photographic display documenting a diverse range of old-style shops in London, taken during the 1970s and 1980s , and more recent photographs showing what happened to the shop sites after they closed. The high-quality, large scale photographs will be accompanied by recordings of interviews with the former shop owners and proprietors.

The hugely exciting £20.5 million redevelopment project to transform the lower galleries is underway and the noisy work about to commence. The upper galleries, London Before London, Roman London and Medieval London remain open throughout the refurbishment and a full programme of fantastic adult and family events continue.

MUSEUM IN DOCKLANDS

Outside Edge: A journey through Black British lesbian and gay history

7 February - 4 April 2008

This challenging display will publicly commemorate people and events important to the Black LGBT community. It will celebrate its achievements and highlight the issues it has faced in the past and still faces today. The display will document the emergence of the Black LGBT community from the 1970s and demonstrate its contribution to campaigns for fair representation and against homophobia, while also celebrating the vibrant Black LGBT cultural, club and music scene.

Jack the Ripper and the East End

15 May - 2 November 2008

Museum in Docklands is returning to the scene of London’s most infamous crimes, with its major new exhibition, Jack the Ripper and the East End. The exhibition will open a new path by looking at the human stories behind the penny-dreadful accounts. Bringing together the surviving original documents for the first time, including police files, photographs, and letters from the public, it will map the world which witnessed the murders and was transformed by them.

Museum in Docklands turns 5 this year and will be celebrating in the summer!