LONDON —
King Charles I’s execution vest and 20,000 human remains are among the objects
that need to be packed up as the Museum of London makes a daunting £250 million
($260 million) move.
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The museum tells
the story of one of the world’s great cities through more than six million
artefacts — the largest urban history collection in the world.
But it has long
been hampered by its location, tucked away among the glass towers of
London’s
ever-expanding financial center, The City.
When the building
was unveiled in 1976, The Times newspaper reported that “Her Majesty, the Queen
is opening the Museum of London today, if she can find the entrance”.
“We’ve been
struggling with that,” admitted the museum’s director of content, Finbarr
Whooley.
The museum is
preparing to move to a giant disused market building in the capital’s “cultural
mile”, with the formidable three-year task of relocating the items set to begin
on December 5.
“When you think
about moving your own house, you think about packing up and moving and the
stress of that. You just take this and put it on steroids,” Whooley told AFP.
“Some of those objects will be tiny, some of them will be monumental,
literally.”
“But they will all
need to be individually packed, individually numbered, recorded, and then moved
very carefully. We are approaching it with military precision.”
Visitor boost
Some of the items are so large that they were built into the current
building, on a roundabout near St Paul’s Cathedral and the Brutalist towers of
the Barbican Estate.
At the other end of
the scale are delicate objects, including the stained vest reputed to have been
worn by Charles I when he was beheaded in 1649.
The 20,000 skeletal
remains of historic Londoners will also need to be transported with care.
“We as an
organization have to be incredibly respectful of the fact that these are all
people who are Londoners,” said Whooley.
Despite the
challenge, the museum decided to move to a more visitor-friendly location.
“With the
tremendous success of the
City of London, and the growth of all the corporate
buildings, it means that I suppose we became almost an island, a cultural
island,” said Whooley.
Although only a
short walk away, the new location at Smithfield Market is in the heart of a new
cultural center and is expected to “double or maybe triple our visitor
figures”.
The museum will
take over a currently derelict wing of a Victorian meat market, designed by
Horace Jones, the same architect responsible for Tower Bridge.
“There are
wonderful nooks and crannies. There are great vaults underground, where the
trains used to come under, and bring in the meat,” explained Whooley.
‘Bittersweet’
“One of the wonderful things... is that trains will run through the
galleries,” he added. “There will be an opportunity to actually look at
real-life trains passing through the museum in real time, so we think that will
be huge.”
The new museum, set
to open in 2026, will follow the history of London from its earliest days
through Roman habitation and seismic events such as the bubonic plague, the
Great Fire of 1666, and World War II.
But it will also
focus on the modern day.
“It will be a great
opportunity for us to have up-to-date, digital information about what’s
happening in London, at this very moment,” said Whooley.
While excited about
the new opportunities, he admitted that the move was a “bittersweet” moment.
“As a curator, you
build up a one-to-one relationship with your collection, you literally think of
these as your old friends,” he explained.
“As you walk around
the galleries, you walk around knowing at the back of your head that you’re
seeing your old friends in this place, for the last time.”
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