The Past brought to Life
I’m doing a virtual tour of York tonight at 7pm.
Then, tomorrow, two proper real walks in the fresh air:
a Literary and Archaeological walk of Roman London at 11.30
a Spring Equinox Walk at 2.30.
and I then dash hope to repeat the Equinox Walk as a virtual tour.
Links to the walks here:
And the Sunday was ruined bt the taxi driver who knocked me off my bike!
So, having finished a walk around Chaucer’s London for a mother and her two very bright home educated children. I had to walk back over London Bridge and through the City to Aldgate where Chaucer used to live (and where I had parked my bike).
I took a couple of short cuts which I don’t usually take although often in and around this area. St Mary in Lovat Lane was open so I went in to find this amazing relief.
The panel beside it suggests its a sculpture of hope. Well yes, of sorts, if by hope you mean, facing your maker. It represents scenes from the end of days from the Book of Revelation. Jesus stands on a skull, trampling upon Satan, and below the heavenly clouds the Archangels, direct the newly risen from the coffins and graveyards to the Day of Judgement.
I then went past St Margaret Pattens, another Wren Church and was delighted to see a little display on pattens – overshoes worn to keep shoes clean. My ancestor was a beadle for the Patten makers.
For our next outing we went to the British Library but Arlo didn’t like the Beethoven exhibition. It was too dark and nothing to surreptitiously climb on. He definitely does not like dark exhibitions which is a shame because it seems to be the design idea of the moment. The Nero and the Stonehenge exhibitions were also dark spaces working on creating atmospheric views using bright colours, spot lighting and spectacular objects. But it doesn’t work for a 20 month old.
Nor did the largely text based Paul McCartney’s Lyrics exhibition attract a second of his attention. ‘Paul who?’ he seemed to be saying as we stumped past to the very quiet sound of ‘Hey Jude’.
What he did like was the escalators. We went up and down, and up and down, and then onto the second set where we repeated the repeat.
And down and back again, and no time to see the enigma machine. We ate in the upstairs Restaurant which is a really pleasant place to spend a lunch time.
Time for him to have a sleep so we walked to the British Museum through Bloomsbury without much sign that he he would nod off. But we found a couple of interesting revolutionaries of the 19th Century en-route.
Then to Cartwright Gardens named after John Cartwright, called ‘the Father of Reform’. He had quite an amazing life. He refused to serve in the Navy as he would not fight against the American Colonists in the War of Independence. He supported reform of Parliament, universal suffrage, annual Parliaments and secret ballots.
The milk soon did its job and Arlo was asleep, so I took him to the Member’s Room for a cup of tea while he slept. I could keep an eye on the book trolley selling my book! (just behind Arlo’s head).
When he woke we whizzed around the third Floor but Arlo was reluctant to leave his buggy because it was much more crowded than our last visit when he was able to run free around the galleries which he loved. So, I could look at some old favourites like the Portland Vase. This by the way was smashed into hundreds of pieces and very beautifully restored. In 1848 a drunken visitor threw a sculpture into the case and smashed the vase. It was restored but 37 pieces were separated and, by luck, survived until 1988 when the vase was reunited with the pieces and expertly restored.
What an Exhibition! The BM has pulled together an international array of treasures from the Stonehenge era. It is stunning , the objects are amazing. Stonehenge itself is there in the labels but it is not at the forefront – the objects are left to speak for themselves. The labels are there to give some details and some context but they never dominate.
It is beautifully lit and mounted, and really a triumph. I will go back again to see how the labels and information tell their stories and report back at greater length.
Monday 7th March 2022 7.00 pm
See the gateway to Snowdonia and its magnificent Medieval Castle, Town and Bridges
Borrowing my title from Daniel Defoe’s early chorography, my first circuit is from Chester to Edinburgh. Now on our second stop we are taking a virtual tour of the gateway to North Wales – the delightful town of Conwy.
For a small town Conwy has everything – an absolutely magnificent Medieval Castle, a City Wall that is still intact around the entire Circuit. Some of the great feats of bridge and tunnel engineering, and a pocket sized town containing historic buildings, nice pubs, and the ‘smallest house in Great Britain.’
It is not only picturesque but was a settlement of enormous strategic importance in the invasions by the Romans and the English. And to finish the tour we will take a small excursion into Snowdonia to see what it guarded
Podcast
This was first raised by Plutarch, and it concerns a crucial issue in conservation/restoration which is how to maintain authenticity in the face of replacing worn out parts of an object or structure. The idea is, perhaps, most economically discussed in ‘Any Fools and Horses’ in the scene known as Trigger’s Broom.
Now you are ready to appreciate the philosophic issue that is discussed in this short video by the Khan Academy. Click here.
The Ship of Theseus also appears in the Novel ‘S’ written by Doug Dorst and conceived by J. J. Abrams. in 2013. The book is a story within a story with an innovative ‘interactive’ thread with a novel called the Ship of Theseus which is annotated by two people and also contains press cuttings and printed ephemera in the two characters attempts to identify the mysterious author of ‘The Ship of Theseus. The Ship itself is, replaced part by part as the story develops.
I have republished my post of the Chinese New Year which you can see here:
My Virtual Walk ‘LONDON. 1066 AND ALL THAT VIRTUAL WALK’ is this Sunday 9th Jan. You can book here: But this is a short podcast about 1066 and London.
ROMAN LONDON – A LITERARY & ARCHAEOLOGICAL VIRTUAL WALK
Sunday 12 December 2021 11.30 MONUMENT TUBE VIRTUAL TOUR 7.30pm
This is a virtual sightseeing tour of Roman London accompanied by Ovid, Martial, ex Museum of London Archaeologist Kevin Flude and others.
The virtual walk is led by Kevin Flude, a former archaeologist at the Museum of London.
It features the amazing archaeological discoveries of Roman London, and looks at life in the provincial Roman capital of Londinium.
We disembark at the Roman Waterfront by the Roman Bridge, and then explore the lives of the citizens as we walk up to the site of the Roman Town Hall, and discuss Roman politics. We proceed through the streets of Roman London, with its vivid and cosmopolitan street life via the Temple of Mithras to finish with Bread and Circus at the Roman Amphitheatre.
Publius Ovidius Naso and Marcus Valerius Martialis will be helped by Kevin Flude, former Museum of London Archaeologist, Museum Curator and Lecturer.
This is a London Walks Guided Walk. Look at their web site for a list of other of their amazing walks.
REVIEWS (from London Walks website)
“Kevin, I just wanted to drop you a quick email to thank you ever so much for your archaeological tours of London! I am so thrilled to have stumbled upon your tours! I look forward to them more than you can imagine! They’re the best 2 hours of my week! 🙂 Best, Sue
To book the virtual tour:
To book the physical walk:
Text has been transferred to two pages:
Now that I am a grandfather, and have taken my grandson to a couple of Museums I am, suddenly, an expert on the subject. My preliminary conclusions:
So, in conclusion. Make the Museum itself the playground. Use the playgrounds as part of the displays. Insist on floor length glass cases with knobs, bells, holes and textures integral to the design. Vary the floors, put markings on the floor for children to follow. Create little spaces every so often they can get into, climb on, explore.
