Nov 4 - London Museum Docklands

Hi

I mentioned in my last post that I have a cold.  So, I took the morning off and started organizing my packing.  Yup, the day after tomorrow (Thursday) I will be winging my way westward.  Too late to get back on the island, so I'll camp in Richmond.  Laura is busy making chore lists. 

After lunch I felt not bad and decided I would hit a small museum for an hour or so.  I chose the London Museum docklands.

Bad choice!  I stayed in there most of the afternoon and didn't get through it all.  And I didn't even get into the Mudlarking display (more about that later).

The museum is in one of the old warehouse buildings alongside the North Dock Waters.  This is just past the west end of the Canary Wharf development.

It's the middle section of this building, amongst the restaurants.

My tour of the museum starts in about the 1700's with a lovely 'stuff' display.  The item in front was a big balance arm scale.

A close-up of the interesting set of weights they had.  Perhaps these are the only ones they could find to display.

The original plan for the West India Docks (1801).  The museum is in the top row,  1st or 2nd building on the left. 

A more recent view (from a video).

A display of old instruments and tools with (arrrgh!) another Astrolab

One of the jobs on the quay was to provide manpower to turn the treadwheel for the lifting cranes.  

I haven't mentioned yet that this museum caters to kids.  They do!

Maybe that's why I enjoyed this museum so much!

There was 'Execution Dock' on the Wapping foreshore (upstream, nearer where the Tower Bridge is), where pirates were publicly executed and their bodies put on display in the gibbet (no need for pix)

They also talked about the Slave trade and the Slavery Triangle.

The roaring 1800's

Whaling tools

The St. Katherine docks - Then.  Note the lock at the entrance

And now, from Google Earth

The locks are still there, and the water looks much cleaner inside.  My best guess would be that the silt settles out inside, where there is no tidal action.  At the left of the picture you can see the east side of the Tower of London grounds.

Fires were common and could be devastating.

I'm going to skip ahead now.  There were stories about the Great Dock Strike (1889), impoverished living conditions (often more than 1 family to a room), prostitution, trade in various commodities (timber & grain from Canada), and a mockup of a back street around the docks (for the kids .... and me).

Skipping ahead to WW2:  The docks were very important to the well being of the nation.  WW2 was the first war where the enemy could inflict huge amounts of damage from the air, and the Docklands were vulnerable.

Personal shelters for personnel that had to be at the docks|

 I talked about shelters in the Tube stations before, but the Docklands needed shelters as well.

It's getting late (both while I was at the museum and as I write this), so I'm skipping to one of the most fascinating aspects of D-Day that I never heard of - pipelines across the Channel.

 

There was a video showing this.  Pipe was formed, then covered with tar, then wire armour, then more tar (I might have missed a layer or two).

There was a video running of the process and laying of the pipe.  Here's a view of one of the Conundrums in the water.  It was towed by tugs and it rotated on its own to lay the pipe.

Here's a hunk of the pipe

Getting time to leave.  We remember these guys.  Not sure why their photo was posted.

Two (of the many) things I missed:

-The Mudlarks play area.  Kids only (do I look like a menace to kids?)

-And 'Mudlarking' for adults.  Mudlarks scour the Thames at low tide for treasures.  They are displayed in a separate gallery within the museum called 'Secrets of the Thames.'  Here's a link to the show 

Secrets of the Thames

It has a great intro by the 'Head Mudlark' (the gallery's curator)

I shouldn't, but I might sneak down there tomorrow if I get my act together.

As I left, here's a video taken from the door of the museum.  Quite a contrast between old and new. View From the Museum

I'm hitting the hay to try and drive out this cold

Greg