The working life of Museum of London

Hi, my name is Jackie and I work as a curator in the Department of Early London History and Collections at the Museum of London.

My background is very much in archaeology. I come from Cork on the south coast of Ireland and came over to London after graduating with a BA in History and Archaeology at University College Cork. I then began working with the Museum of London’s archaeological unit, which was then known as the Department of Urban Archaeology (now the Museum of London Archaeological Service). I worked as a finds processor. This involved ‘processing’ all the objects found during an archaeological excavation – all the pottery, bricks, tiles, glass, metal objects and so on - have to be cleaned and catalogued and packaged appropriately before they can be given to the various specialists who will more fully identify and date them. This work is often done at the archaeological site and can involve a lot of cold and wet work in winter! However, I really enjoyed the job and it was a great way to learn about artefacts and about the history and archaeology of London.

Having done this for a few years I then became a building materials specialist, working with Roman and medieval bricks and tiles, building stone and plaster. I know it sounds like a strange job but it was very interesting. I worked with some great people and learned an enormous amount about the subject. After a few years I then moved to being a finds processing supervisor and worked on some amazing sites, including the excavation of the Roman amphitheatre at the Guildhall in the City of London and an excavation on the Roman waterfront at King William Street, on the north bank of the river Thames.

The latter site was particularly interesting for Roman artefacts, as although it is now inland from the river, in the Roman period it would have been part of the river bank. In the centuries in between the land has been reclaimed from the river, however if you dig deep enough it is still quite wet and boggy. This means that there is fantastic preservation of a wide range of materials – metals, but also organic materials such as wood and leather.

At the King William Street site, the timbers of the Roman quay were found intact, as well as the foundations of some of the buildings that stood on the quays. One of the most fascinating discoveries was that of three lead ingots – known as ‘pigs’ – which were found hidden under the floorboards of one of the buildings, thought to be a warehouse. The ingots came from lead mines in the Mendip hills in the Welsh/English borders and each was stamped with the name of the Emperor Vespasian. We will never know why someone hid them away but can only suppose that they were unloaded at the port in London and that someone saw an opportunity and hid them under the floorboards. Again for reasons we will never know, they failed to return and collect their booty and so it remained there for nearly 2000 years until the archaeologists came upon it. One of the ingots can now be seen on display in the Museum of London’s Roman gallery. The main thing I remember about them on site is how incredibly heavy they are and the difficulty we had in getting them out of the excavation trench and up to the van so that they could be taken to the Museum!

After supervising the finds work on a number of sites, I then got a job as a ’small finds’ specialist. This was a move to an in-door job (drier and warmer!) and involved identifying and writing reports about the objects - such as metal, bone and glass objects – that are found on an excavation. Initially I specialised in Roman objects, but later also looked at medieval and some post-medieval material too. This was a great job – very varied – and again a great way to learn about artefacts. I particularly enjoyed working with leather assemblages and was lucky enough to write reports on the 14th and 15th century leather objects excavated from a section of the defensive ditch that surrounded London, and the Roman leather shoes and other objects that were excavated at a large excavation at Cheapside in the City of London.

In 2005, the Museum was re-designing its medieval gallery and advertised for another curator to work on the project. I applied and luckily got the job. I was thrilled as I had always been interested in museums and their work and so it seemed like the perfect job for me as it combined all of the things that I’m really interested in! I am lucky enough to be able to say that I really love my job. It is fantastically varied and has already given me some amazing opportunities and experiences. Over the last two years the Museum has supported me as I have undertaken a Master’s degree in Museum Studies at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, which I have just finished.

In the last year I have also attended a conference in Virginia about museums with a placement at a museum in Richmond, VA, undertaken gallery tours and activities, co-curated an exhibition celebrating the 60th anniversary of Indian and Pakistani independence, and have also undertaken a courier trip to the USA.

It is a very varied job and you have to be prepared to do all sorts of things! Obviously we undertake things like tours in the galleries, or handling sessions with objects, but there are also many jobs that go on in the background, like cataloguing, putting objects away in our stores, cleaning objects and the displays in the galleries.