Earlier this month the London Museum announced that it will be opening in West Smithfield on November 28, and as a local resident I was keen to take up the membership offer and “ join the Flock.” The Museum’s icon is a pigeon …
The first edition of the Flock and Key newsletter is now out (“unlocking stories and behind the scenes insights”) – with details of the opportunity for us pigeons to visit the museum with a guest before the 28th.
There’s a feature about London Tastes, which is going to be the museum’s inaugural programme celebrating the city’s rich and vibrant food culture … information about the collection of clothes said to have been worn by Charles I on the day of his execution … and an invitation to members of the Flock to tell the story of their experience of London.
The blog post announcing the Museum opening date has details of what we can expect to find on our visit:
“Drawing on our seven-million-strong collection and spread across three interconnected spaces – Real Time, Our Time and Past Time – the displays highlight stories and people that have shaped London for millennia. From Roman London, writing tablets that capture the city’s earliest surviving voices go on show. Two rare examples of Roman artistry – a floor mosaic and a painted plaster wall fresco – resurface for the first time in 2000 years.
“In the Goldsmiths’ Gallery, the Cheapside Hoard, one of the most significant collections of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery, takes centre stage. The grit accompanies the glitter with a dedicated display on the Great Fire and a chunk of the infamous Whitechapel Fatberg.
“Below ground in our permanent galleries, a six-metre viewing window offers a world-first museum experience. Watch trains rumble through the galleries, with passengers peering in from the passing Thameslink line”.
However, we don’t have to wait until the Museum opens to gain access to the extraordinary range of knowledge it holds. The Museum website has an impressive selection of London stories. You canbrowse by time period and browse by borough.
I’m particularly impressed that the website has its own AI chatbot or “conversational search agent” Clio 1.0.
You can use natural language to ask about a topic of interest, and Clio will draw on a range of sources to “give you more rounded answers to your questions instead of signposting you to a list of web pages like a conventional search function does”.
An inquiry about Smithfield led me to a page about The many histories of Smithfield
“Once a ‘smooth field’ outside the city’s medieval walls, Smithfield became one of London’s busy hubs, famous for its meat market, wild annual fair and public executions. Trade, revelry, plague, protest, religion, innovation and death – learn more about how Smithfield’s tangled histories capture the story of London itself”.
… and the following articles:
- The history of Smithfield Market
- The wild 700-year-long history of Bartholomew Fair
- Mary I & the Smithfield martyrs
- The 900-year history of St Bartholomew’s Hospital
- The Great Pestilence in London
- fabric: A nightclub for a new millennium
- How the Peasants’ Revolt rocked medieval London
- A history of the London Charterhouse
- Smithfield & the Underground railways
- Smithfield Market: The iron legacy of Sir Horace Jones
- The religious history of Smithfield
- The Smithfield Poultry Market Fire of 1958
Below the articles are links to other related blog posts and stories, and objects in the collections.
The Museum also promises to be a place to engage with each other well as the collections:
“Underneath the market’s restored dome, at the heart of Our Time, is a new social space for London – with curated programming from day to night. This includes a weekly tea club, shared late nights with DJ sets, and monthly dinner clubs and house parties. Young visitors and families have magical, interactive experiences with sensory storytelling sessions to look forward to”.
Visualisation of social space at the museum
There will also be food and drink managed by Green and Fortune.
Ian Mansfield, writing in Ian Visits, notes a shift from the vernacular in their announcement:
“What we call the restaurants and cafes, they call “major hospitality concepts” with four “distinct food and drink destinations” that will come with a “food curator”. All of which is hopefully not a preview of the language to be used on the labels when the museum proper opens.
“The main restaurant will be Clerks House, with space for 140 people, located inside the museum’s main ground-floor site. There will be a bar, called Bartholomew’s, and an “incubator space”, the Roost, which they say will be given over to short-tenancy street food providers.
“There are also previously announced plans to reopen a historic coffee house which was uncovered during the restoration works, which will be turned into a cafe offering hot chocolates and alcohol-free cocktails. With a street-facing entrance, it will also be open 24 hours from Thursday to Saturday”.
Either way, it all looks like a fine feast is in store.
Great post as always, David – thanks!!