Recent developments in Inner London
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Image: Museum from the air
Bethnal Green Museum Re-opens
After being closed for about two years, the museum re-opens on Saturday 9 December 2006. It is now bigger and better than ever.
Actually part of the Victoria and Albert Museum, this building specialises in showing toys from today but, more importantly, from Victorian and earlier times. Be warned, however ! If you are now an adult, you will probably find children looking into a glass cabinet and wondering how anyone ever wanted to play with your toys. Toys of just a few decades ago are also on display !
Story dateline: 5 December 2006
Image: Hollar's 'Long View' superimposed on today's riverside
British Library - A Life in Maps
Continuing until next March, is a temporary exhibition of maps of London at the British Library, which is beside St Pancras Station, in Euston Road. The exhibition is very comprehensive with most of the well-known maps of London on display.
The exhibition starts with early representations of London, one even dating from Roman times. The main thrust of the early maps includes the so-called 'Agas Map', on loan from the Guildhall Library, along with the 'third' copper plate, on loan from a German museum. This plate is rarely seen and this is a good opportunity to go an see it. Be warned, it is tucked into a corner and is not easily viewed.
Moving into the the 1600's, the remarkable Ogilby and Morgan map dominates one wall. It is drawn to one of the largest scales ever ! Not far away is Hollar's map of damage to the City of London by the Great Fire, in 1666.
From the 18th century, Rocque's vast map of Central London is on display and, on another wall, his Inner London map can also be seen. Both date from about 1750.
Into the 1800's and we see Horwood's map. It is about the same size as Rocque's maps but is in far greater detail. It is almost as good as a modern-day Ordnance Survey map !
Another map of note is Booth's Poverty Map, from the 1880's.
These few paragraphs give you a working list of what to look for if you are starting out in the world of maps. There are many more on display but, those already listed should be 'looked out' for in order that you don't miss them among so many other exhibits.
Story dateline: 28 November 2006
Image: 'Discovery' outside the Museum in Docklands
Museum in Docklands - Settlers Exhibition
Over the next few months, there is a temporary exhibition all about the people who set sail from England in the 1600's hoping for a new and better life in America. Many of them were to be disappointed but their story has never really been told in any great detail before. The Museum in Docklands, located a short walk from West India Quay DLR Station, hopes to change all that.
To give the visitor a real sense of how hazardous the voyage of the settlers was, the museum has arranged for a replica of the smallest of all the vessels to be moored in the West India Docks - right outside the entrance to the museum itself. When you see how small the vessel is, you will be surprised that anyone could sail across the North Atlantic and arrive safely on dry land !
The vessel, called 'Discovery' was one of three ships that left Blackwall on 20 December 1606, to establish the first permanent English settlement in America, at Jamestown, Virginia. Measuring just 11 metres (36 feet), which is about the length of three small family cars bumper to bumper, the vessel carried 22 men on a five month voyage. This replica was built in America, in 1984. It has been brought to England to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first sailing from England.
Story dateline: 28 November 2006
Image: Shoreditch Station in 2005
East London Line Extension
From 12 June 2006 Shoreditch underground station will close permanently in preparation for the long-awaited East London Line Extension (ELLX). Shoreditch, by the way will be served by a shuttle bus to Whitechapel for the next four years.
The old East London Line, between Shoreditch and New Cross / New Cross Gate is to be extended, opening in 2010. A new Shoreditch station is to be built some distance away from the present one. The tracks from Whitechapel will be taken up onto the Victorian Braithwaite Viaduct, once the site of a large goods yard, where the new station will be located. From the new Shoreditch station trains will run north to completely new stations at Hoxton and Haggerston, linking up with existing tracks at Dalston Junction, Canonbury and Highbury & Islington.
Going south, the existing underground lines from Shoreditch down to New Cross Gate will be used, with 12 trains every hour servicing it. Trains will run south as far as Crystal Palace and West Croydon.
Story dateline: 1 June 2006
Image: The south wall of the Charnel House
Bishops's Square
On the site of the old Spitalfields Market is now a new shiny office block, designed by Norman Foster.
It stands on the even earlier site of the medieval Hospital of St Mary Spital, founded in 1197 and closed at the Dissolution. When archaeologists conducted a dig about 1999, in preparation for the new offices to be built, the discovered the remains of a Charnel House, dating from about 1320, still in the ground. It is still there, underground, with public access for those who care to look for it.
Image: Pipes, embedded in the pavement casing.
Bishop's Square Artefacts
In Bishop's Square are 12 artefacts, which were found during the excavations. They have been put on show, embedded in the pavement. They sit in specially made glass-covered mountings but, sadly, do not have any accompanying description. The descriptions, which it is hoped will one day be placed in the square, are listed below. They are listed in rough chronological order.
(1) Oyster Shell cast in lead from Roman sarcophagus mould
(2) Roman Samian Ware
(3) Cattle Horn
(4) Medieval floor tile (1)
(5) Medieval floor tile (2)
(6) Medieval masonry
(7) Ceramic costrel jar (a large jar with ‘ears’ so that it could be suspended from the waist)
(8) Delft wall tile, c1700
(9) Glass perfume jar, 18th century
(10) Artillery lead shot
(11) Clay pipes, 18th - 19th century
(12) Porter’s badge, 20th century
The artefacts need to be looked for - some are in a more obvious place than others but searching for them is half the fun ! These 12 objects span the site's history of 2,000 years. Bishopsgate was a Roman road, leading north from the City. At that time the site was a burial ground and it was on this same site that the 'Girl in the Lead Coffin' was also discovered around 1999.
Medieval pottery is an obvious enough object to find on a monastic site. Cattle horns date from a similar time. Horns were taken from the thousands of slaughtered animals and used for many every-day purposes. One was to line a pit in the ground with thousands of horns, to give strength to its sides.
The artillery lead shot remains from the days when the land was in use by the Honourable Artillery Company. They practised target practice with their primitive guns in the 16th century and appear on the Agas map. Artillery Lane, round the corner, recals their time in Spitalfields before they move to their present site - in the City Road.
Story dateline: 31 March 2006
Image: Masonry in Greensand stone. It stands upside-down and was probably the stonework supporting a church window.
Bermondsey Abbey
Ever since the summer months of 2005, archaeological excavations have been carried out in Bermondsey Square, prior to several new buildings being erected. In March this year open Sundays were held when the public were invited to see what had been unearthed.
At the corner where Long Lane joins Tower Bridge Road, foundations in chalk were discovered for a house built for Thomas Pope who had obtained the buildings of Bermondsey Abbey from Henry VIII, after the Dissolution.
Along the south side of Long Lane, the foundations of the western end of the abbey church were uncovered. They are due to be preserved under a glass floor of a new prestigious restaurant in Bermondsey Square.
Story dateline: 26 March 2006
Image: The new hotel which stands beside West India Quay, at Canary Wharf.
Number One West India Quay
The latest large hotel in London opened last year when a high-rise building was completed on the west side of West India Quay DLR Station.
The lower floors are a luxury hotel with a large restaurant called 'The Curve'. Its name relates to the shape of the building which, along the side facing the dock (as seen in the picture) is in the form of a graceful curve.
Above the hotel, the remaining floors are residential. The highest floors have penthouse suites with stunning views across London. They are the highest living quarters in London. To the east, the residents can easily see the Thames Barrier and, on clear days, as far as the Dartford Bridge. To the west, the City of London is in the foreground, with the outline of Westminster on the skyline.
Story dateline: 26 March 2006
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