The working life of Museum of London

This month the Museum of London Docklands launches a web-based initiative bringing to life London’s Docklands in the early twentieth century through the diary extracts of a young messenger boy employed by the Port of London Authority at the time. Recently donated to our collection, the diary details Oscar’s daily activities both at work and home, personal interests (Oscar loved to read) and details of the things he enjoyed when not working ranging from comics and sweets he bought, to visits to the music hall. 

The Museum plans to feature the corresponding daily diary entries on the homepage of the Museum of London Docklands website and on other social media sites starting from January 1^st 2010.

A planned online archive of all diary entries and further supporting details relating to the subjects that Oscar covers in his diary will also be updated regularly. 

Oscar was 15 when he started to work in the East India Docks in 1918 ferrying messages and mail between different docks and Port of London Authority offices. Oscar would have been provided with a uniform and would be expected to look smart at all times (Oscar notes making a “boot pad” on Sunday January 5^th 1919, possibly to keep his boots clean). 

Although work days for Oscar could be arduous he still found time for fun as the start of his diary entry for Wednesday 22^nd January 1919 highlights: “got chapped hands today. Played between 12.30 and 1.30 in the sack shed”.  Oscar was also saving to buy a bicycle of his own, by giving his father a few pence at a time towards the cost. By the time the entries in the diary finish in July 1919 he had given his father 1/6d (7.5p) towards the cost.

Oscar’s diary is currently on display in the Sainsbury’s Study Centre at Museum of London Docklands.  Find out more about Oscar’s thoughts and duties daily on our website from January 1^st 2010 and follow Oscar on Twitter at:  http://twitter.com/OscarKirk1919

Each month we offer an insight into a fascinating object from our vast collection, this month we feature a Christmas card from 1890.

The tradition of sending Christmas cards to friends and family became fashionable during the reign of Queen Victoria and has survived the intranet age to remain a popular way of staying in contact over this festive time.

This card from our collection represents the look and design of some of the earliest cards ever to be sent.

Here, a clown holding a large Christmas pudding pops up when the Christmas card is opened.

 Victorians felt that clown’s added fun, surprise and mischief to many a Christmas scene as they were leading performers in the popular Christmas pantomimes in theatres at the time.

Although clowns are not now seen as necessarily embodying the spirit of Christmas, in the Victorian period, they symbolised the festive spirit of both Christmas and the New Year to both young and old.

Inside the card, a seasonal poem is printed to accompany the sender’s personal messages:

“Hurrah! Hurrah! For Christmas Day, and the pudding so big and jolly, may you my dear be just as gay when all’s gone, save the holly”.

The sending of Christmas cards and many of the other traditions of Christmas such as “dressing the tree” that developed in Victorian times and gained popularity through the works of authors such as  Charles Dickens are explored in a series of events at both museums during the holiday period.

Each month we offer an insight into a fascinating object from our vast collection.

16^th century shoe as worn on the stage of the Rose Theatre 

This shoe was recovered from the Rose Theatre site on the Bankside of the Thames in the late 1980’s by Museum of London Archaeology and is believed to have been worn during performances undertaken on this famous 16^th century theatrical stage. The Rose was one of two key playhouses of Tudor London, the other being The Globe. The Rose was built in 1587, predating the building of its rival by 12 years.  The timbers used to construct The Globe were themselves taken from The Theatre, in Shoreditch, where Shakespeare’s first plays were performed.  The foundations of The Theatre were recently uncovered by Museum of London archaeologists.

The Rose Theatre has long been associated with the works of Christopher Marlowe, with the first performances of plays such as the Massacre at Paris believed to have been undertaken there, but Shakespeare’s also used the theatre. Performances of Henry VI and Titus Andronicus are believed to have graced the Rose’s stage in the early 1590’s.

The shoe is one of many remarkable finds that have allowed Museum of London archaeologists to piece together the story of London’s Elizabethan playhouses. The shoe has a high ‘vamp’ or upper and the pink zig-zagged patterning can still be seen. The throat of the shoe is stitched with delicately holed and decorated scallops. The pressures on actors at the time are highlighted by the hole at the toe end – which was most likely to have been deliberately cut to accommodate a painful bunion.  

This shoe, along with three others from the Museum’s collections worn by later prominent Shakespearean actors, will be on display in the foyer of Museum of London Docklands from late November. The shoes will be surrounded by hazelnut shells found at the Elizabethan sites – an historical equivalent of cinema popcorn today. Dress pins, probably dropped during costume changes will also be on show.The display accompaniesMuseum of London Archaeology’s publication of The Rose and The Globe: Playhouses of Shakespeare’s Bankside, Southwark, the definitive book on the archaeology of these famous Elizabethan playhouses.

 The Walbrook curse
Found in Princes Street, near the Bank of England in 1928
1st-2nd century AD

As the nights draw in and Halloween draws nearer, the Museum this month turns to the dark arts for inspiration for its object of the month, as one of our Visitor Hosts, Kimberley Ahmet, sheds some light on a superstitious object from our Roman gallery…

“In the Museum of London, you will hear the soothing sound of pipe music playing softly near the end of the Roman Gallery. This lulling sound is broken by four strident voices that cry out, causing some of our younger visitors to jump with fright. What are these voices and what are they saying?

Well, in our ‘Spirituality or Superstition case’ you will find objects like clay figures, amulets, vases and religious ornaments. Amongst them you will also be able to find three irregular pieces of cut grey lead. If you look really closely, you will see that each piece has been inscribed with Latin words.

The words you can see are curses, written by angry or vengeful Roman Londoners who wanted retribution.

This month’s object we are highlighting from our collection is a Roman curse inscribed on a piece of lead that was found with a small rectangular hole pierced in the middle.

That hole was created by a nail which would have fixed the curse to a wooden post at one of the Roman shrines which once stood on the banks of the Walbrook stream that flowed south through the City of London down to near Cannon Street Station and is now buried underneath roads, buildings and tube train tunnels.

The lead has been inscribed on both sides with the same Latin inscription. In English it reads: “Titus Egnatius Tyrannus and Publius Cicereius Felix is Cursed.”

In the same case you will find another example of a curse, this one only has the name “Martia Martina” inscribed in reverse. We can’t be sure why the name was written backwards. One theory is that by writing the name back to front it made the curse more potent.

Unlike the Walbrook curse which was nailed onto a post, we think that this curse was folded or rolled up before being cast into a well. Others have been found in the River Thames. Religious belief regarded such water as rivers, streams and even wells as the express way of sending messages to the gods – a bit like recorded delivery today!

Lots of our younger visitors ask us who the people on the inscriptions were but more importantly, what it was they had done to get cursed in the first place. We will never know for certain. The majority of curses generally just feature one or more names, but very rarely do we find more detail. 

Curses were a way of sending a petition to the gods, asking for help. It was also a way of letting everyone else know that this person was not to be trusted. Imagine if you were walking past a post and saw a piece of lead cursing someone you know, do you think it would make you think twice about the trust you place in them? And what about if it was you being cursed – how would you feel?!

There are many different reasons that a Roman Londoner could warrant a curse. They could be thought to have stolen something valuable, an item of clothing, or perhaps maybe they simply knew too much.

One of the scariest curses that I have ever heard translates as: “I curse Tretia Maria and her life, mind and memory, and liver, and lungs, all mixed up together, and her words, thoughts and memories. Thus may she be unable to speak what things are concealed…..’”

Find out more about our curses on the Museum’s new ‘Living in Roman London’ website.

Each month we offer an insight into a fascinating object from our vast collection via our website and social networking sites.

This month, we look at a mystery worthy of Houdini…

Iron ball and chain 17th – 18th century

This iron ball and chain is likely to have been used to shackle prisoners during transport in the 17th – 18th century. 

It was found by Mudlarkers (members of the public who are licensed to search the Thames foreshore) who thought they had found a cannon ball until the chain came slithering out of the Thames mud. 

It is made from iron and the padlock has a brass plate around the key hole.  The padlock is skilfully made with the screw-thread carved after the padlock was cast.  English padlocks of this time were not made in this way which suggests that this was made on the Continent.  The long spike on the padlock would have pointed towards the other leg when it was fitted around the ankle.

When it was found, the padlock was locked but no key has been found – could someone have slipped out of custody?

Kate Sumnall, Finds Liaison Officer at Museum of London Docklands said: “The river is the repository for so many of London’s stories, and this extraordinary find gives us a tantalising glimpse of the human trials and tribulations of past Londoners.  Whether a would-be Houdini freed himself from the “great iron on his leg”, or perished in shackles, or whether this ball and chain was simply discarded, we can never know.  Visitors to Museum of London Docklands will have to decide for themselves.”

The ball and chain is currently on display in the foyer at Museum of London Docklands for a limited time.

The race is on to locate the key commissioning agreement for the Lord Mayor of London’s grand State Coach. This week I’ve been approaching key media outlets in the hope that they can help track down the location of the family last known to own this fascinating historical document in time for an international conference on ceremonial coaches at the Museum in November.

The beautifully ornate coach was commissioned in 1757 for the princely sum of £860 and takes pride of place each year in the annual Lord Mayor’s Show.

When not on ceremonial duties, the Museum is working to provide the coach with a brand new home when our new Galleries of Modern London open in Spring 2010.

Find out more about our new galleries here

Our curators have been able to locate a copy of the agreement at the London Metropolitan Archive and the notes held with this copy indicate that the original was last known to be in the possession of one “Mr P.K Glover Esquire” from Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire in 1958.

Having been unable to locate the Glover family through conventional means, this week we launched an appeal on the local BBC radio station (Three Counties) and  in the Bucks Free Press to see if anyone knows of the whereabouts of either the family or the agreement.

We believe that the Glover family descended from a long line of 18th and 19th century coachbuilders from Tottenham in London and although not directly linked to the subsequent building of the coach (that we know of) it would appear that an interest in the subject continued.

So if you think you know a family member or indeed have information on the whereabouts of the agreement the Museum would really like to hear from you…

For now the search continues as I plan to approach key specialist and enthusiast publications.