Two City heritage organisations – the London Museum and London Archives – have new initiatives to help people explore both their amazing internal assets and those of their neighbourhoods in Smithfield and Clerkenwell. I wonder if they might join up their approaches?
That might produce something like the Museum of the Streets I suggested in an EC1 Echo article earlier this year. Here’s how.
Stories from the London Museum
The London Museum has recently undertaken a rebrand, and relaunched its website. Although the physical museum won’t open until 2026, there’s a lot happening publicly through associated events and online.
In a blog post about the website Trish Thomas explains the Museum has created 1000 stories about London’s most important people, places, subjects and events, and also categorised them under themes like Immigration & Identity, Rights & Activism, Fashion & Style or even Death & Disasters.
You can also browse content by boroughs, and the City of London.
Trish adds:
Along with editorial curation and content tagging, we’re using AI technologies to help find relationships between stories and objects so that wherever you are on the website, you will always be signposted to something else that might interest you. We’ve decided to do this a bit differently to most museum online collections though. This is because we think that ‘lateral’ connections between things are often more interesting than ‘literal’ ones.
There’s more in Trish’s post about how this works, together with email updates and better use of images. It is very impressive.
By way of example, here’s a wealth of stories about the City and the results of a search on Smithfield.
One story of 5 things about Smithfield Market you might not know prompted me to think how much more there was about Smithfield people might not know … something I explored when creating a website last year for Bartholomew Fair and Cloth Fair.
At the time I listed a few of the many blog posts, articles and videos and then later wandered around the area to photograph some 50 places that have interesting stories … from cattle trough to Livery Hall, Martyrs Memorial to oldest surviving City church. I’ve started to put together a map which can be linked to resource sheets in a system like the one I began to developed a few years ago.
My preliminary research reveals that most locations already have well-researched blog posts and articles associated with them … but they are scattered across the web.
Enjoy Your Local Area with London Archives
At the same time a blog post from the admirable London Society reports on developments at the London Archives, whose rebrand involves helping people explore the fascinating history and attractions of Clerkenwell – as well as its exhibitions, tours and talks.
Archives director Emma Markiewicz explains:
We don’t want to morph into being essentially a public library, or, on the other hand, a museum. So now we’ve a new website. We can use it to provide information and help people find us. We’re using it to describe what’s in the immediate local area. If you walk for five minutes from here, what can you find? Or if you walk for half an hour, what can you find?
Here’s the website, and the pages on Enjoy our local area.
I’ve already created some maps of Clerkenwell with Footways and Layers of London, which you’ll find here on a Clerkenwell Commons site. There’s an explanation of how that initiative goes back to 1977, when Mike Franks created the first discovery trail for Clerkenwell, with a little help from me.
I really like Emma’s idea of a five minute exploration (or longer), particularly if supported by maps and information.
Creating a Museum of the Streets
It chimes with the idea of a Museum of the Streets I’ve been developing … a common knowledge base of maps and resource sheets animated with different technologies people could use on their phones. Here’s an article in the EC1 Echo earlier this year, and blog post with more details.
The Museum, Archives, guides, historians already hold a lot of the knowledge needed to give people a richer experience when visiting the area, and I’m sure that within EC1 we have a lot of the tech expertise to make this accessible.
The idea of a Museum of the Streets stemmed from an article I wrote for the EC1 Echo in 2022 in support of Matthew Bell’s proposals to restage Bartholomew Fair. I suggested there was lots in the area that could be explored all year.
Launching at a Festival – or Fair
In 2026 the London Museum is planning to stage a Festival – maybe a Fair – to celebrate its opening. Why not use that as an opportunity to launch a Museum of Streets that would help people explore Smithfield and the City, and Clerkenwell, on the day, and afterwards? (I’m not precious about the name … just hope it helps spark the idea).
An estimated 2-3 million people a year will visit the Museum when it opens, making it an international destination just “two stops from Paris” as Museum director Sharon Ament told the Echo last year.
We could co-create and test the idea of a Museum of the Streets (or whatever) by creating a framework, and then inviting guides, historians, residents and businesses to contribute. While under development, the Museum might feature more stories on its site, and the Archives enhance their area guide with maps and additional information.
Is it over-ambitious and a little cheeky to put these ideas to such august City organisations?
Maybe – but Matthew Bell’s 2022 article in the Echo sparked a £1.5m City investment in re-staging Bartholomew Fair in 2023, as he explains here.
After a review, the Corporation’s Destination City programme has moved from large events to a new approach that emphasises the Square Mile’s existing unique cultural and heritage attractions.
A Museum of the Streets could make a modest contribution to that aim. I’ll report back on reactions.
Links
- Museum of the Streets EC1 Echo article and blog post
- Sneak peak into development of the new London Museum
- Introducing the new London Museum website
- Website about Bartholomew Fair and Cloth Fair
- London Society blog post on London Archives
- London Archives website and page on Enjoy our local area
- Destination City Review