BES Assignment Two - Museum of London

I ventured to the London Museum last week, and I had mixed feelings about the Museum. I was excited to check out this Museum because it would give me more of a background on London. It did not disappoint in that aspect as I did learn a great deal about the history of London. I found the museum had a slow start to it, but became better put together as it progressed toward modern time. The biggest part of the Museum that I disliked was the way they displayed the Roman exhibit. I believe they were doing a special thing for the Olympics, but I found that it took away from the exhibit itself.

In the Roman exhibit, they mixed modern with ancient. There would be a display of an old workshop, and sitting on the floor of the new workshop was a brand new modern set of tools. In another display, there was an IPhone next to ancient artifacts, and there was a piece of modern day furniture in a Roman house display. I understand that this was probably for children to show the difference between the past and present; however, for me, it was as if the museum was taking the value away from these ancient artifacts. By displaying modern with ancient, it says to me that the two items are equal, but in reality the history in the ancient artifact has far greater importance than the modern day items. Now that I got that off my chest, I can talk about what I really enjoyed.

I thought the museum did a great job with an exhibit that showed what London used to look like in the 20’s or 30’s (I do not actually remember the exact time period they were depicting). This exhibit had close to life-sized store fronts, and it made me feel as if I was actually walking through a small city block. I love when museums can make the visitor seem a part of that time period, and the London Museum did a fantastic job with this small city block.  The display that I enjoyed most was tucked away in a corner, and the other two people I went with missed it. There is a dungeon door, and beside the door is a small room that I decided to walk into.

The room was lined with wood planks; it was rather dark in the room, and the sound of walking on a wood floor created an eerie atmosphere. The wood planks were covered with cravings from the occupants of the room. There were many names carved into the wall, one was from the 1700’s, and cravings of a house showed up multiple times on the walls. The room left me in awe. The feeling in the room and the fact that people left their marks on these wood planks from hundreds of years ago made me want to know the stories of the names on the wall. I did have mixed feelings about the museum, but as a whole, I am glad that I went. There were many interesting exhibits, and it helped me to understand more about the history of the London area.