I know you have all been waiting for him so I won’t make you wait any longer. After a great deal of effort we have managed to secure an interview with perhaps the most busy man around Xmas (plus his helpers, our Victorian photographer and the mystic Gypsy lady) , of course its our Santa.

Welcome Santa, are you ready for this year?

Of course, I am looking forward to making all the children around the whole world have a special day and seeing the joy on their faces when they open their presents.

That’s great news to hear Santa. It must be tough going what with all of that exercise you are getting. Are you feeling fit enough to lift all those presents?

Don’t worry about me as my elves take good care of me. They have done their elf and safety.

Good to hear, so what can we expect to happen this year?

I am planning to do all my travelling at night so I will have some time to spend in my Grotto here at the Museum of London Docklands. That means I can meet lots of families and offer them some presents when they come to see me and hopefully have a photo with everyone involved so we can all remember this special occasion.

Anything you would like to say to everyone before you leave on your errands?

Yes, I wish everyone a merry, merry Christmas and look forward to seeing you soon.

If you want to meet our Santa then book a meeting with him on 0207 0019844 or on the day when you visit the Museum of London Docklands.

Santa’s Grotto is open daily until 23 December 2011.

If you are unable to visit Santa why not come along and meet Scrooge from 27 December 2011 to 1 January 2012!

You can also enjoy some festive family fun if you time your visit to Santa or Scrooge to coincide with our December events schedule. More details on our website here.

Here is another picture too of what it looks like right in the heart of our Grotto

If you want to see more and meet our Santa then book a meeting with him on 0207 0019844 or on the day here at the Museum of London Docklands.

Santa’s Grotto is open daily from 10 December until 23 December 2011.

If you are unable to visit Santa why not come along and meet Scrooge from 27 December 2011 to 1 January 2012!

You can also enjoy some festive family fun if you time your visit to Santa or Scrooge to coincide with our December events schedule. More details on our website.

Team bonding

Down at Docklands, we are working on a new concept for the part of the museum that looks at the Docks since 1945. The working title of this project is Many East Ends.

In order to tell as rich a history as possible in the new gallery, Docklands Strategy Manager, George Young, is doing lots of creative colloborations with all types of groups and individuals. One of these groups is Tolerance in Diversity, an organisation based in Limehouse led by young people for young people. TiD work to reduce discrimination and prejudice by delivering training and running events throughout London. They have worked with the museum before and we have invited them back for their input into the concept for Many East Ends.

Why the long face?

The process started last night, under the guidance of artist Sarah Carne. www.sarahcarne.org

Sarah asked everyone to think of  their favourite East End person, place, image and thing.  Everyone was given a video camera and asked to give their four examples to camera. This has delivered some very interesting footage that we hope to put online in the future, together with other footage as the project progresses.

After filming, and armed with a camera, everyone was asked to find examples of items in the gallery that connected to, or represented, their four examples. Here is a snap shot of some of them.

Canary Wharf model

Bridge for DLR

East End family

Bomb by William Ware

We then started talking and thinking about what everyone wanted to get out of the project.

Thinking of ideas

Sarah asked everyone to answer the following questions:

What skills to I bring to the project?
What do I want to get from the project?
What could stand in my way?
What skills do you need in the East End?

Hard at work

Lastly, Sarah led discussion on what elements of the East End would need to be included in the gallery when it was redeveloped, based on the thoughts from the evening’s activity. On initial discussion, the following ideas and elements were put forward.

• Politics
• Immigration
• Buskers
• A working DLR train
• A mock tube station – not Bermondsey
• Gangs
• The River Thames

Developing, expanding and honing this list will form a key element of this project as it continues towards Christmas and into the New Year. Next week we will be returning to it to see what ideas have changed or grown. We will also be looking at how far back in time the Many East Ends gallery should go, as well as having more fun with cameras, creating more bunting (as seen in the background of the photos) and adding more to our project portfolio books.

To support the launch of HiddenCity’s (external link) interactive text message trail we are looking for a family who would be happy to be filmed using the trail in our galleries early next week.

The film would then be posted onto the Museum of London’s YouTube Channel (external link) and mentioned in tweets (external link) and Facebook updates (external link).

As a thank you for taking part we will provide you with £50 of museum shop vouchers to spend during your visit or save until Christmas.

If you are interested in helping the museum launch this exciting new product email marketing@museumoflondon.org.uk with your contact details including your intended visit date and time and we will see if your timings match ours!

The Discovery Trail takes families on a journey of exploration through London’s turbulent history. Using text messages and a map of the museum, players are guided through a trail of clues, each leading them to a new location within the Museum where they use their ingenuity to deduce answers from their surroundings. Players who successfully complete the trail win a coveted ‘Certified Londoner’ badge by showing the Museum hosts their final congratulatory text message.

To take part, participants sign up in advance by visiting the HiddenCity website (external link), head to the Museum, send the message ‘start’ and get cracking. The trail takes approximately two hours to complete, including a break. It is ideally played by several teams, each consisting of two to four people and costs £16 per team. Entry to the Museum of London is free.

Those who take up the challenge will step through time and can expect to see, touch, hear and even smell exhibits spanning prehistoric, Roman and medieval London, right up to the 20th century and present day city.

What with the opening of the new Westfield shopping site it is now possible to see the key buildings around the Olympic site from new, exciting vantage points. We took a look around the area and have come up with the space age, futuristic images of the site below.

If the building below looks unfamiliar its probably because the public view of it was largely obscured previously by the Aquatic Centre. This building is in fact where the waterpolo will be played and is a temporary venue that will seat 5,000 people during the Olympics.

If you would like to find out more about the Olympic site then I recommend you come along to one of our Olympic walking tours that can be booked at  ‘Walk the Olympic Way: Stratford Regeneration Tour’ which take place every Saturday and last Wednesday of each month.

Also I would like to give a quick reminder that we are looking for your photographs and observations of the Olympic Park to share on our YOUR 2012 flickr group. We will also be sharing in this group some of the hundreds of images that we took while developing this display.

In this post I focus on the workshops developed by my colleagues Stephanie and Joanna.

Stephanie has run a Victorian object handling workshop which has looked specifically at objects found in the kitchen and to do with food and drink, for example butter pats and toast forks.

During the session she used pictures to illustrate how kitchens have changed over the time and she loved to talk about different technologies and appliances that you find in the kitchen. For the kids to take home, she has offered some examples of Victorian Recipes to try.
She has enjoyed a lot doing this workshop, because it allowed children to actually handle real Victorian objects. One of her tricks was not to tell the kids what the objects were so to make them guess. It was nice I am sure to see their expressions when discovering what the objects were used for, for example when it came to a very unusual bottle opener.

She also enjoyed doing the workshop, because the Victorian period is one of her favourite periods in British history and she definitely loves cooking! I can testify to this as the great quantity of cupcakes frequently baked for the Hosts team made their way to the staff room straight from her kitchen oven!

Joanna’s workshop is called “The Glassmaker Apprentice” and focuses on families with children aged 3+. Her workshop is based on the long and fascinating history of stained glass work pieces, with a particular focus on windows.

She told me that the very first examples are from ancient Egypt, later Greece and Rome, but its most height of fashion was during the dark medieval times.
Nowadays this fashion is coming back usually in smaller forms like elements in doors or art works in public buildings, galleries, churches and very tiny forms like window decorations and sun catchers.
On the workshop day Joanna and the families work at making sun catchers.

There are several shapes to choose from and they use brightly foils to imitate glass. To begin with, children and parents are encouraged to draw a flower or other designs on a black cardboard and then they cut off all the holes. For younger children Johanna offers already made models. The following and easy step is to glue various pieces of coloured foils to the back side of the sun catcher and finally attach a string so to be hung in a window. Have a look, I love the dove one!

You can join Johanna’s  next  workshop on Sunday 13 November.  I hope to see you there!

This photo below was taken from inside the Viewtube of the centrepiece Olympic stadium.

Here is another photograph this time of the basketball stadium (which hosted a warm-up match between Australia and China this week)  that has been nicknamed the ‘mattress’ and amazingly can be disassembled and reassembled anywhere in the country in just six months.

We are looking to share via flickr some of the hundreds of images we did not have room to include in the exhibition and to encourage you to share your photographs of the area as it continues to change in the run up to the Olympic Games.

So if you have photographs you would like to share please upload them to http://www.flickr.com/groups/your_2012/ .

To get things started I have uploaded 23 of my photographs today.

I will  monitor the group and share further photographs, insights and themes over the coming weeks and look forward to discussing with you the images that are posted by you alongside those taken by us.

Peter

The origins of children’s television in programmes such as Andy Pandy and Bill and Ben (the flowerpot men) are, in some ways, very different but at the same time very familiar to what our children see and enjoy today.

The pioneers of this new medium in the 40s and 50s were Frida Lingstrom and Maria Bird at the BBC who developed the ‘Watch with Mother’ slot and invented the characters Andy Pandy, Bill and Ben and the Woodentops amongst others.

The Museum of London is fortunate to have many of these puppets as part of the collection.

On the Exploring 20th Century London website you will find an Audio Slideshow  alongside an opportunity to test your knowledge in a fun quiz whilst looking out for tweets and facebook posts capturing the lives of Londoners  in  the 20th Century.

My colleague Ed has a true mania for mail making. He has always been fascinated and he has been doing it for nearly five years now. If you walk to the galleries you will never find him without a small piece in his hands. I am not joking.

He wrote a dissertation on the topic and discovered that despite the fact mail was used for nearly two thousand years, very little work has been done on it. As an archaeologist it is his belief that the best way to understand an ancient technology is to have a go at making or using it. So now he runs the workshop at the Museum of London demonstrating to the public how mail was made and sharing the secrets that are locked within it.

He told me that in the past weapons and armour were not viewed the way they are now, they were integral to society, they had magical powers, names and were status symbols.
Mail armour was one of the most expensive armours around; it is very labour intensive, taking him around 7 months to make a complete shirt alone. It involves linking each ring through four others, and if made properly, riveting them shut to prevent them opening. In a complete mail shirt there can be as many as 28,000 rings, each one formed and riveted by hand.

His research into mail and its manufacture has brought to light a number of interesting new facts: such as how was mail made to fit the wearer? What sort of quality is the metal that mail is made from? What do these facts then tell us about the people making and wearing mail? When Ed does his workshop the public gets the chance to see and touch complete mail garments as well as have a go at riveting a ring or two.

The hope is that through this the public gain some new understanding of this interesting aspect of history, plus its fun! As the workshops progress visitors will see how the rings they have riveted become part of the weave of a new mail coif, a form of head protection that will be put in one of our gallery prop boxes for future visitors to try on.

Be sure to visit our Medieval Gallery to find out more.

Why not Join Ed for his next workshop this Sunday (7 August)!

Here at the Museum of London we love to get inspired by our collections. I hear that very exciting projects are on their way but let me show you what some of us have been working on so far.
We all have a passion for London but for some of the Hosts this enthusiasm becomes a real obsession and so we have been running a different series of workshops for families and children at the museum.

My personal inspiration comes straight from my favourite exhibition in the Museum: the Roman Gallery. With a focus on perhaps one the most famous art activities during Roman times, I decided to work on a mosaic, but a real one, to be made with real stone tesserae and based on authentic Roman design!
The model that I chose for my common project is a twisted rope design technically called Guilloche. I thought it was exceptionally representative of the Roman culture as it was often used in borders to enclose popular patterns and also because we have a wonderful one in our Roman gallery.

What a better example with which to get inspiration from for the kids!
I created the Guilloche freehand but it took me a bit of organisation and time.
I sketched six big circles in an A3 sheet and I drew six smaller circles inside. To make the large circles on the sheets I used a pen held in a loop in a thread and I pinned the string at the centre of the circle to obtain radius of not more than 3cm. At this point I simply drew lines for the rows of the stone tesserae.
Roman craftsmen would opt for different combination of colours according to the uses they were designated for. I wanted to create something that looked quite similar to our Bucklersbury mosaic.

The mosaic I am working on with the kids has six lines and presents an alternation of 3 colours. Normally guilloche frames would have had three lines of tesserae only. These might have been one line of one colour and the remaining two of a different colour but they could also have a combination of three colours for each row.
Here you can see what we have achieved so far…

It is a very time consuming work and your patience will pay dividend.

Our Roman Gallery is planned to be completely refurbished after the 2012 Olympics Games.
I can’t wait to give a tour in the new exhibition and perhaps develop another workshop!

Time is ticking away before the 20 images that will make up the Your 2012 free photography exhibition go on display dealing with the impact of the construction of the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London. 

Come along and see it when it opens at the Museum of London Docklands on 22 July 2011.

I thought it would be nice to show you just how the exhibition is constructed so here are a few photographs taken this week as the installation design team are hard at work.

Looking to learn more about the Olympic site? I recommend that you come along if you can to our next Olympic tour called ‘Walk the Olympic Way’ that we will be offering on Wednesday 27 July from 2.30pm – 4pm.

If you do get a chance to visit the exhibition, please do let us know your thoughts by posting comments on either the museum’s Facebook or Twitter pages.

One of the buildings we will be showing in the exhibition is the Orbit Tower. Below you can see an image showing the next exciting phase of development of its construction with winding structures now being built around the central frame. When it is fully constructed it will be a staggering 115 metres high. This will make it even taller than the Statue of Liberty which by way of contrast is only 93 metres high.

If you would like to learn more about the Olympic site than I recommend that you come along to our next Olympic tour called ‘Walk the Olympic Way’ that we will be offering on Wednesday July 27th from 2.30pm – 4pm.

Finally come and check in again for a couple of extraordinary photos from the ‘Your 2012′ photography exhibition itself next week.

Peter

Recently I was fortunate enough to gain access to ’The View’ and take these spectacular photos of the Olympic landscape from an aerial perspective. 

In the photo below, to the left of the Olympic site, you can see a view of the construction works where huge amounts of concrete are prepared onsite.

If you would like to learn more about the Olympic site than I recommend that you come along to our next walking tour called ‘Walk the Olympic Way’ that we are offering on Wednesday July 27th from 2.30pm – 4pm.

Look out for more blog posts later this week and see some of the latest progress going on with the Arcelor Mittal Orbit tower.

Peter

Naturally many of the photographs have their own intrinsic aesthetic appeal which is only to be expected as so much effort has been put into making sure that all of the buildings look visually stunning. With this in mind I thought that this week it would be good to look at some images of those objects that are hidden gems. 

The example below for instance is a visually appealing flower pot holder that is right beside the Viewtube and the Olympic stadium. 

Stratford itself already has some of its own art already built. If you go to the centre of Stratford you can see the  ‘Railway Tree’ designed by Malcolm Robertson in 1996. According to him it is intended to ‘act as a gateway to Stratford and to symbolise its former connection, with industry and railways in particular’.

Another example that sometimes gets overlooked is the Stratford clock tower beside Stratford station. With its twisting winding column like structure Im sure we can all agree it is unique. This extraordinary piece of art was designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects (who also built the adjacent Stratford station) and was completed in 1999.

Anyway if you would like to learn more about the Olympic site than I recommend that you come along to our next Olympic tour called ‘Walk the Olympic Way’ that we will be offering on Wednesday July 27th from 2.30pm – 4pm.

Next week you will be in for a special treat as I have some exclusive aerial shots covering the Olympic site and its surrounding area so come again and prepare to be dazzled.

Peter

Obviously feverish action is taking place to make sure everything is ready and looking fantastic. Knowing the effort that is needed to make this exhibition take place makes myself even more impressed by the rate of progress at the Olympic site. Already the Aquatic Centre is ready as is the Velodrome and according to the latest news this month so is the mobile basketball stadium. Perhaps the most amazing achievement is the biggest, the Olympic stadium itself, as can be seen below.

Efforts are now going on the make the surrounding vicinity look equally resplendent as can be seen by the following image below.

Construction efforts have now moved on to the left of the site.  (If you look carefully in the distance you can see the red brick Byrant and May building).

Further along you can see how the site is now being concreted over.

If you would like to learn more about the Olympic site than I recommend that you come along to one of the our tours called ‘Walk the Olympic Way’ that we will be offering on Wednesday July 27th from 2.30pm – 4pm.

Don’t forget to check this blog next week when I will be talking about art around the Olympic site and Stratford.

Peter

If you want to have a clear idea of the scale of construction going on at the moment then check out these images of cranes at various sites around the Olympic venue.

(looking over the Olympic warm up area)

(photo taken on the Greenway with the Olympic stadium in the distance) 

If you would like to learn more about the Olympic site than I recommend that you come along to the Olympic tour called ‘Walk the Olympic Way’ that we will be offering on Wednesday July 27th from 2.30pm – 4pm.

Make sure to check this site next week when I will talk to you about the vast area beside the stadium and all the progress going on there.

Peter

This exhibition will give you a great visual idea of all the changes taking place to make the site ready for next year. However if you want to have a great view next year then probably the best place to go will be the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower. At 115 metres high it will be more than twice the height of Nelson’s Column but 20 metres shorter than the Millenium Eye at Westminster. This gigantic tower will cost around £19 million and has already acquired various nicknames such as ‘the Colossus of Stratford’ and ’the Hubble Bubble’ whilst various newpapers are refering to it as a giant lattice. As you can see it will be huge and this is exactly what Mayor Boris Johnson asked for as one of his provisions for the big Tower was that it should rival the Eiffel Tower.

Judge for yourself below.

If you would like to learn more about the Olympic site than I recommend that you come along to one of the our Olympic tours called ‘Walk the Olympic Way’ that we will be offering on Sunday 12th June 2011 from 2.30pm -4pm and Wednesday July 27th from 2.30pm – 4pm.

Don’t forget to check this blog next week when I will talk about the large number of cranes in use around the Stratford area overlooking the Olympic site.

Peter

Many of you may know me and the other hosts personally but if you come to the Museum for the first time you certainly cannot miss us. We are those friendly and caring people in bright pink shirts who run up and down doing tours, workshops, and assist visitors throughout their stay.

It is the first time that I have written a blog ever and I am very excited at the idea of telling you about us on an open and informal platform. There’s no better means than a blog to get to know us a bit better, unless you come and pay a visit to our museum.

I’ll start by telling you about the Museum of London Docklands latest exhibition Pirates: The Captain Kidd Story and the fun had by both staff and public who attended our special pirate themed late event on the 27 May.

The hosts who went along got very excited at the opportunity of dressing up as pirates and exploring Captain Kidd’s fascinating story.

I unfortunately was unable to join them, but looking at the pictures I am filled with envy! In addition to the fun from dressing up they were also joined by our curators, Tom Wareham and Hilary Davidson, for a free tour about Captain Kidd which were very instructive!

Nick enlightened me with some very interesting facts he picked up at the event, such as intriguing aspects about Captain Kidd’s life, as well as something that I actually had not known before…

Did you know that textiles have in fact a very distinguished heritage when it comes to pirates? It is common for gold and jewellery to be associated with pirates, but it is fabrics that tell us more! According to our curator of fashion and decorative arts Hilary, it seems that between the 16th and 17th centuries Indian patterns featured prominently in pirates’ fashion – particularly on bandanas.

It had the advantage of being easy to wash and at a certain point it became a very fashionable and valuable type of cotton textile to be exported to many parts of the British Empire. I think these types of garments possessed a sort of exotic charm in those days…

 Later in the evening, to the groups great suprise, they realised that one of the team was wearing an exact copy of one the Museum puppets outfits…without a beard.

Later on, Elizabeth discovered that the blue and white bandana she was wearing as part of her pirate outfit was a paisley pattern -just what Captain Kidd would probably have worn. And she had bought two for a bargain price of only £1.50!

Hilary used Elizabeth’s bandana as an example to show the audience the authentic way of folding it. I am sure she must have looked like a proper woman pirate.

Did you know that a significant minority of historical pirates were female? Anne Bonney, Charlotte de Berry, Jane de Belville were among the most famous ones in history.

Pirates would occasionally capture parrots or monkeys due to the price they fetched on the market once they returned home. In those days tropical animals were a real ‘must have’ accessory and would be considered more unique than they are today.

Pirates are not believed to have actually kept them as pets, but I love to savour the image of a parrot on a pirate’s shoulder just like Long John Silver was portrayed in Treasure Island, a fact that clearly inspired Anna…

Our late events are proving to be very popular (I hope you can see why from the pictures and stories I shared above). I understand that our next late event at the Museum of London will have a 50s theme and will take place on 11 August (check out our website from 04 July for booking details).

Yesterday, a group of Londoners roamed around the Museum creating photographs using shoe boxes as cameras. Inspired by images in the Street Photography exhibition, they used the pin-hole technique, pioneered in the 1830s. When working in pin-hole, anything can be your camera. You simply make a hole in a box to let a very small amount of light onto photographic paper. The photographers of the images above and below used shoe boxes.

The shoe boxes were painted black inside, with a sheet of photographic paper on the bottom. The photographers set them up at different points around the site and allowed light through in for about 2 minutes. The images were then developed in the museum dark room with the help of facilitator Kathryn Faulkner and the museum photographic team. The end product is an intriguing negative image, but a few clicks on Photoshop or the right type of phone, reveal the positive version.

This workshop was part of the Inclusion ‘Continue Creating’ programme.

Iron Mongers Hall - Original Negative

Iron Mongers Hall - Positive inversion

Jug and glasses - Original negative

Jug and glasses - Inverted positive

High walk - Original Negative

High walk - Positive inversion

Garden - Negative original

Garden - Positive inversion

This was to allow the Museum of London Archaeology’s Geomatics Team and Standing Buildings Team to work on the structure whilst Nimbus Conservation carried out conservation works.

The two teams of archaeologists worked together in order to produce detailed elevations of the structure showing the different types of building materials and the existing features. Documentary research into the Bastion’s history was also undertaken using the City of London’s records held at the London Metropolitan Archive.

The comparison between the archival information and the observation of the fabric will lead to the reconstruction of the history of the remains of the bastion and identification of a sequence of development phases.

There is a wealth of information on their work available on the Museum of London Archaeology website here.

Here, Jane Sidell, English Heritage’s (external link) Inspector of Ancient Monuments for London, helps us uncover what was happening underneath:

Bastion 14 has been gradually decaying since the last conservation works over a decade ago. Unfortunately, historic buildings when exposed to the elements tend to deteriorate and consequently require on-going light maintenance. Owing to its deterioration, through weathering, frost-shattering and vegetation growth, the bastion was identified as vulnerable and was placed on the English Heritage, Scheduled Monuments at Risk Register.

A plan and programme of conservation was devised following a condition survey and the work was undertaken by Nimbus Conservation.

The conservation works aimed to secure structural stability, re-point the masonry where needed, using traditional lime mortars, reversing some elements of unsympathetic repairs undertaken in the past.

The excellent work undertaken really shows much more clearly how the bastion would have functioned as a defensive feature before being gradually overwritten by later buildings such as the warehouses and workshops known in the vicinity.

The conservation programme was commissioned through the City Surveyors Department at the City of London Corporation who very generously funded the project.

It looks set to be a very exciting exhibition on a topic that is interesting for many people. Public and media interest is growing exponentially at the moment for the Olympics. Look at this post taken by the Viewtube during high Summer last year and compare it with the pictures taken earlier this month below at the same site.

Not only are large numbers of schools attending the site but also various senior citizens and tourist groups.

Even the media itself are regularly checking up on progress and reporting it nationwide.

If you would like to learn more about the Olympic site than I recommend that you come along to one of the our Olympic tours called ‘Walk the Olympic Way’ that we will be offering on Sunday 12th June 2011 from 2.30pm -4pm and Wednesday July 27th from 2.30pm – 4pm.

Come again next week and we will look at the progress taking place at the Crossrail site that is right in front of the Olympic Stadium.

Peter

In continuation of the recent History of the Olympic Site blogs here is part 3 of the story.

Bryant and May Factory

Is just a stone’s throw away from the Olympic Stadium and has left an indelible mark on British socioeconomic and trade union history.  The saga that made it famous began in 1888 when the company tried to force its workers to say they were happy with working conditions following some bad publicity. The workers refused so the company reacted by sacking them and a huge strike by 1,200 women ensued.

 The women won their strike. It is significant because the Bryant & May dispute was the first strike by unorganized workers to gain national publicity. Also because of its success it was instrumental in inspiring the formation of unions all over the country.

 Bazlegette Sewage System

During the Victoria Era the population of London rapidly expanded and with the advent of flush toilets to replace cess pits the net result was that increasing amounts of  sewage went untreated into the River Thames. The situation with the quality of the river became worse and worse until finally Parliament decided to do something in 1858 and appointed Joseph Bazalgette to sort out the problem.

He was a highly distinguished engineer who went on to develop London’s first comprehensive sewage system. This meant constructing eighty five miles of new sewers to re-route the sewage away from directly flowing into the Thames up river. As part of this construction work he built the Abbey Mills Pumping Station that later was nicknamed ‘The Cathedral of Sewage’.

 It took 16 years to build in total. It used to have high chimneys but these were knocked off during World War Two to prevent them being used as a navigational aid by German Bombers.

As you can see from the photo below it is currently being cleaned up for the Olympics and this means lots of scaffolding is required. 

 The Greenway footpath

The Greenway is a footpath and cycleway that passes right through the Olympic Park in East London and contains the Northern Outfall Sewer beneath it.

Yardleys building

Is famous throughout the world for its quality fragrances and soaps. If you look carefully on the photo you can see the iconic image of the flower sellers that has helped make this such a famous building.

If you would like to learn more about the site I recommend that you come along to one of the following Olympic tours  called ‘Walk the Olympic Way’ that we will be doing on Sunday 12th June 2011 from 2.30pm -4pm and Wednesday July 27th from 2.30pm – 4pm.

And if you are interested in learning more about this recent series on the History of the Olympic Site are recommend you look here at the first part of the History of the Olympic Site 

Finally check here again next week and you can read about the mighty canal boats that are cleaning up the site ready for the Olympics.

Peter

As promised here is part two covering the history of the Olympic site

Stratford Railway Works

The Docks Area and Railway Yards were some of the largest in the country. In fact it was the hub of the suburban railway system and the principle locomotive running depot of the Great Eastern Railway, the largest in the country. This is why the area became prime targets for German Zeppelins in World War One and German Bombers in World War Two.

In 1965 West Ham & East Ham were combined to form the Borough of Newham. Governments began to recognise their neglect of the area and plans began to redevelop the area. Things started to change and a new freight Terminal opened on the derelict area of the vast railway engineering yards.

Stratford Railway Works started in 1840 whilst Stratford Works was built in 1847 from 15 acres over the years building and repairing locomotives,carriages and vans. The whole site covered an area of 132 ½ acres. Stratford Works built 1682 locomotives 5,500 passenger vehicles and 33,000 Good wagons.

By the post war period it had become a major Freight Terminal but it has recently been redeveloped into the Stratford International and Regional Station plus the brand new Westfield shopping centre. 

 Archaeology

During the development of the Olympic Aquatics Centre site, four prehistoric skeletons were found buried in graves around an area of Iron Age settlement. One of the skeletons is thought to be 3000 years old. In the Iron Age this would have been a small area of dry land on the edge of the river valley, surrounded by lakes, rivers and marshes. The first Londoners lived by and fished in what is now the River Lea (which surrounds the Olympic Stadium) and parts of their cooking pots have also been found.

Here are the latest pictures of the Aquatic Centre and as you can see it is almost complete and looks absolutely fantastic!

Don’t forget to read the final installment of this series on the History of the Olympic Site next week and if you would like to learn more about the site I recommend that you come along to one of the following Olympic tours  called ‘Walk the Olympic Way’ that we do on Sunday 12th June 2011 from 2.30pm -4pm and Wednesday July 27th from 2.30pm – 4pm.

And if you are interested in the learning more about this series then come and check the first part of the History of the Olympic Site here.

Peter  

Anyway as promised here is some information all about the pre 2007 history of the Olympic site before redevelopment had begun.

Hackney Wick

 Hackney Wick was a highly industrialised area around the canal and the railway with its best known products including Clarico Mints (still available but made elsewhere). Petrol was first given its name here (a company called Carless Berger started making paints around here in 1780). The world’s first synthetic plastic parkesine was made here. There were chemical works and they were also pioneers of the synthetic dye industry. Dry cleaning in the country started here too. Other factories made pies and processed foods, jam and much more besides including Lesneys Matchbow Toys  from 1947-1983. Around 1900 Old Etonian Major Arthur Villiers, a Director of Barings Bank bought an area of land to be used in perpetuity as allotments, a bequest that was sadly ended in 2007 when the holders were evicted and had to make way for the London 2012 Olympics.

 Hackney stadium – on what was Waterdon Road in Hackney Wick (and is now within the Olympic Park) was opened in 1932 and used for Greyhound Racing and the Speedway. In 1994 a £12 stand and restaurant was built and the stadium was renamed the London Stadium, Hackney. In December 1997 the company that owned the stadium, London Stadium Hackney Ltd, went out of business. The stadium was left derelict for several years until it was bought by the London Development Agency and demolished in 2003.

Photograph of the Royal Corps of Signal Display Team courtesy of John Skinner, www.defunctspeedway.co.uk

is area will become the site for the new 2012 Olympic Media and Broadcast Centre and after the Games, will be turned over for commercial use.

Hackney Marshes

 Hackney Marsh covers 339 acres of flat meadowland to the East of Hackney and alongside the River Lea it has a long history of Munitions and Lead Manufacturing from the early days of Lead Paint and crude munitions through to First World War “Projectiles” and the Matchbox die cast model factory which closed in 1990.

 The Marshes were drained during medieval times and in the late 1700’s a Roman Causeway was discovered. However the low lying area was victim to several floods and eventually in the 19^th century a canal system was developed which revealed a land rich in wildlife – attracted hunting parties which targeted the birds and rabbits. The sporting theme continued with bear baiting until later when they were replaced with rabbit coursing.

The London County Council bought the marshes for £75,000 in 1893 and they became part of the Lea Valley Park in 1967. They now play host to cricket, Hockey and Rugby and hold the world record for the most number of full sized football pitches in one place.

The East Marsh will be tarmaced and turned into a temporary disabled coach Park for the Olympics in 2012.  This has proved controversial with residents but in return for the inconvenience they have been promised that following on from the games there will be considerable investment to improve facilities  for amateur sport on the marshes.

Photograph of Hackney Marshes taken from The Topical Times Football book 1963-64 © D.C.Thomson&Co.,Ltd

And that concludes the first part of my history of the Olympic site. Come and check on my blog next week when I will look at the Stratford Railways Terminal that used to be where the present day Olympic stadium is plus the archaeological finds discovered round the Olympic Park with a focus on the Aquatic Centre area.

Peter

In the meantime to whet your appetite here are some photos of recent development work going on around the Olympic Park site. As you can see from the photo the Westfield development  is right in the middle of its construction process and on track to be ready for September 2011

    Also connecting the Hackney Marshes car park area with the Olympic Park is the new Ruckold Road bridge.

    With all this work going on we can’t blame some for having a well deserved break!

Come and check up on us again next week and we will have some more information and photos all about the history of the Olympic Park site prior to its recent regeneration.

Peter