London 6: Historyland

London’s got a lot of history. As discussed in previous posts, it goes back to pre-Roman settlements, through construction of a Roman city, the Norman invasion, and onwards to the present. Kinda a lot of things happened here. And that’s obvious at pretty much every turn in the city. Just to give a few examples…

• “The Box Office” sits on the former site of the place once called “The Theatre” which was the first of its kind in London and also one of the places Shakespeare first performed many of his plays (note the Romeo and Juliet adorned building adjacent), and
• Hanbury Hall was originally a cultural center for French Huguenots and later was the home to an organizing drive among London’s “matchstick girls,” one of the events credited with really kickstarting the British labor movement.

• Elsewhere, we ran across this “Ragged and Industrial School.” This is just one of a series of schools for absolutely destitute kids, not just working class ones, that were part of various wrongheaded schemes to “uplift” the poor.

• Near Leicester Square, in the heart of the city, there’s a major monument to Agatha Christie, just one of several monuments we saw to a variety of authors.

• On the Westminster Bridge, I came across reminders that history is still being made here: rememberances for the victims of the terrorist incident that occurred there in March of 2017, five years ago.

• And on the far side of that bridge is the brand new COVID Memorial Wall, a reminder of the damage COVID has done despite the fact that everyone in England seems to think the pandemic is over somehow…

• Out the window of the bus, I saw a plaque proclaiming that the hospital near Paddington Station, St. Mary’s, is where Penicillin was discovered

• And, in front of another major hospital, I found this monument to Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse who was considered something of a hero for her work in the Crimean War in the 1850s.

• Speaking of war, there were reminders of the WWII blitz all over the place (some mentioned in previous posts), like this bit of shrapnel damage to a former newspaper office.

• Most significantly, there are memorials to the dead of WWI and WWII everywhere. It’s almost hard to take a walk without running across one. They’re in almost every park or public square. Some of the most interesting to me were the ones celebrating the soldiers from beyond Britain’s borders…

• …and there was even one for WWII spies.

I decided to follow up on all this war history talk with a visit to the Imperial War Museum. That turned into two visits, when I realized that just the WWI section took me over two hours to work my way through. In general, the museum does a decent job of outlining the British experience of the two world wars. It doesn’t cover every battle and doesn’t really attempt to tell the story of the other people involved in too much detail, but it does do a nice job of explaining how it affected people here, the experiences of their soldiers, and so forth.

I’m not going to go over the whole history of the war, but some of the most interesting bits in the WWI part included…

• Lots of posters encouraging men from the various colonies and other parts of the “commonwealth” to join the fight.

• Games to encourage kids to support the war effort.

• Likewise, books that encouraged patriotic fervor. These two were both odd for different reasons. The letter-oriented one was clearly not going to help anyone learn letters with words like “quandry.” The other was about women working during wartime, and was meant to be supportive of this, but this page was downright creepy (others were less so, but still tended to be demeaning towards the women it ostensibly supported).

• Meanwhile, I found it interesting that the museum had a display about how communities pressured men who didn’t join the army to do so. A white feather was a symbol of cowardice.

• Among several displays about weapons, this was the most amusing: France ordered butchers’ knives because they couldn’t get enough military ones.

• The museum also had a quite sanitized (for obvious reasons) part where you could walk through a “trench” with lights and sounds that soldiers might have experienced.

• More moving was a section with both video about trench warfare as well as audio taken from soldiers about their experiences.

• Elsewhere, the museum talked about how soldiers who were also artists were comissioned by the government to express their experience of the war.

• There were also some humorous bits, like this pigs head. The pig was originally on a German boat, but when the Brits sunk it, they rescued the pig (not sure about the enemy sailors) and kept him on board. They named him Tirpitz after the head of the German Navy and later auctioned him off to raise money for the Red Cross.

• And this might be the funniest photo I’ve ever seen…

• …though this doodle that David Lloyd George (Britain’s Prime Minister) drew during armistice neogtiations made me laugh for how clearly it expressed the frustrations of international politics.

I went back a few days later to check out the WWII section only to find out that the museum was closed despite a big sign that said it was openly daily. So, on my third visit, I took a slightly more abbreviated trip through the WWII exhibit.

While clearly different, the emphasis of the exhibit here was fairly similar, but with the impact of the blitz, there was perhaps even more emphasis on the homefront. A few of the most interesting, humorous, and odd bits…

• There was actually a quite extensive interactive part of the exhibit that allowed you to explore the “British Empire: Contribution and Exploitation.” It went into detail about the role of people from all different corners of the world in supporting Britain in the war. Of course this reflects a modern outlook. Back then there was no hesitancy about exploiting anyone, so we got posters like this…

• Kids who were evacuated from London were encouraged to enjoy the experience with games like “Vacuation,” while their parents were encouraged not to waste money and instead invest in war bonds through the swastika-bedecked character of the “Squander Bug.”

• Meanwhile, people were encouraged to prepare for air raids. They sold these “Morrison Shelters” where you could sleep under a table that was designed to withstand the weight of upper stories crashing down on you. And the one piece “Siren Suit” was meant to be put on over your pyjamas if an air raid siren sounded and you had to make a quick exit.

• Of course, there was a ton of tragic info as well. (I mean, there was a whole holocaust gallery I didn’t even get to, for instance.) But, one of the craziest bits was a video that showed every single bomb and rocket attack of the war in Europe. Here’s the final image, showing the totality.

There’s a ton of other great history museums all over London that cover a huge range of topics. Over the three months, we got to a few.

One we visited at the very end was the London Mithraeum. This was a Roman-era temple dedicated to the cult of Mithras. The temple was rediscovered in the 20th century, moved, and then moved back to its original location, which is several meters below street level. In the area they found thousands of artifacts, a few hundred of which are displayed above. My favorites are the ones from outside of Britain, as I always find ancient trade routes fascinating. In the actual rebuilt temple, there was a strange audio and light display that tried to give some sense of being part of a secret ancient cult. That part was more odd than immersive, but overall it was pretty interesting for a little thirty-minute stop.

Moving forward a millenium-or-so, I also visited the Tower of London recently. We’d dithered on it because its ridiculously pricey, we’d been there before (23 years ago), and it just seemed like a big time commitment. Eventually, I went one afternoon when Jessica was out of town for an interview. It was definitely worth it.

If you don’t know, the Tower was originally built by William the Conqueror in the 11th century, just a few years after the Norman invasion. Back then it was just the central “White Tower,” but this was later surrounded by one and then another set of defensive walls as various generations of medieval kings decided to beef the place up. Now, it’s picturesquely set along the Thames next to Tower Bridge, across from City Hall and the Shard, while being just downhill from the major business center of the City.

I wasn’t real sure about my decision when I arrived, though. The moat was completely dug up. It turns out that they’re in the process of planting a “superbloom” as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebration. Not great for me, but if you can check it out this summer, go for it!

One of the oddest things in the White Tower was this dragon, Keeper. There was literally nothing explaining why there was a dragon there until I asked one of the workers standing nearby, “Is there anything here to explain why there’s a dragon here?” to which he responded, “Oh, yeah, that’s me.” He then pointed out that Keeper is made up of all sorts of items representing the different uses of the Tower over the years. It’s been a defensive structure, a prison, the royal mint, an observatory, record storage, and more. So, yeah, a dragon.

Elsewhere, Henry VIII’s armor was displayed. I love the details when you get up close.

Nearby, the “Line of Kings” was explained. No. This is not about succession. It’s about some weird old display of wooden statues of kings riding wooden horses. At various times different monarchs were included or excluded in order to promote various ideas about the monarchy. For instance, James II, who was forced from the throne, was excluded for a time.

Other parts of the tower focused on its past as a prison for various people, some famous, others not. In some places you can see the carvings in the wall left by prisoners. It was also the site of several executions (though most were on the hill just outside the walls). This was celebrated with a memorial in the shape of a pillow made of glass, particularly referencing the queens executed here. To me that just seems like a strange–bordering on ridiculous–choice.

Sadly, the rooms where the crown jewels are stored don’t allow photography. Needless to say, there’s some big jewels there. There’s also some more unusual items. Two of them have copies elsewhere in the tower. These are actually originally from the 12th century, whereas most of the coronation regalia is from the 17th century or later. Anyhow, I also find these a little comical: it’s a bird shaped flask (ampulla) used to store holy oil, which is transferred to the spoon to anoint the new monarch. Yup. They need to have oil dumped on them from a sacred bird. Royalty is weird.

Speaking of birds, did you know about the ravens at the Tower? Neither did I. Evidently they’ve been there for centuries. There’s a legend that says the Tower will crumble if there are no ravens there, so they keep importing more. Of course, there are signs everywhere warning people that they bite. Great.

By the way, the other residents of the Tower? That would be the thirty-off “Yeoman Warders” and their families. These are all military veterans who lead tours around the Tower and live there on a long term basis. Officially, they work for the Queen.

One of the last things I saw there was housed in a part of the outer wall that once served as the royal mint. There’s an exhibit there about coins that were made in the Tower, and also about counterfeiting in various eras. I liked the contrast between Queen Elizabeth’s coins and those made under Cromwell which were unusual for not having anyone’s face on them.

There was also a funny bit about when they had a crisis in the late 1700s and simply stamped King George’s head on foreign coins of approximately the right size and weight rather than melting them down and recasting them.

…And I also enjoyed the chance to see my old office across the street from the Tower.

Moving along…

One of the more interesting, and truly beautiful, historical exhibits we saw was at the British Library. The library itself has a ton of research collections and some lovely study spaces like this one that circles a tower of majestic old books in the center.

But Jessica and I spent most of our time in the exhibit displaying some of the most famous and beautiful objects in the library’s collection. We saw a ton of cool stuff, but I’ll share just a couple of examples…

• da Vinci’s notes

• Phyllis Wheatley’s poems

• Oscar Wilde’s edits for An Ideal Husband.

• Dozens of absolutely gorgeous religious texts from all over the world

• One of only four surviving copies of the Magna Carta.

• Florence Nightengale’s charts showing the causes of death of soldiers in the Crimean War. (Hint: it’s not mostly from the fighting.)

• And James Joyce’s notes for chapter 14 of Ulysses.

Seriously. That was just a taste. There were notes by the Beatles, medieval maps, ancient Chinese woodblock prints, and more. It was pretty awesome and overwhelming.

In Brixton, we visited the Black Cultural Archives. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot visually to share there. The main exhibits was basically a giant wall of text and images outlining Black history in the UK. It was pretty interesting to learn about the “Windrush Generation,” the Caribbean folks who came at the end of WWII to help rebuild Britain. There are so many interesting overlaps and contrasts between U.S. and U.K. Black history. Something I need to learn more about for sure. Outside, there was this cool sculpture of Claudia Jones, author and activist for Black civil rights in Britain.

By random chance another day we ran across an exhibit I had read about but forgotten existed at the Barbican Centre. It displayed a ton of artifacts collected over the past half century or so by the Bishopsgate Institute archiving LGBTQ+ history and activism in London. There was all sorts of stuff ranging from old zines and a giant penis puppet used for popular education to a wall of signs from a recent march against violence directed at Black trans folks.

Finally, we made a special trip down to Kensington to check out the Science Museum. We spent most of our time there immersed in some scientific history, but honestly, the coolest thing was simply the design of this crazy room focused on the various uses of mathematics.

A few other highlights:

• an enormous exhibit on the history of watch- and clock-making

• Charle’s Babbage’s Difference Engine Number Two. (He never built it, just designed it, but this was built from his specifications…and works.)

• Some crazy mathematical calculation devices from the 17th century. If I ever teach math, I’ll make my students learn to use this monstrosity…

• An original copy of Newton’s Principia

• An anamorphic painting from the 18th century (see it in the mirror?)

• And a Byzantine mechanical calendar (from about 500 CE, probably modeled off an older Greek model from several centuries earlier).

So…yeah. There’s a lot of history in London. Some on the streets, more in the museums. Speaking of which…there’s more to come on that front. Until next time…