Wow March has rolled around quickly!
March 29, 2010 About my museum job, BlogsHere are the things we in the Visitor Services team have been up to this month ….
Measure for Measure at the Almeida
Ally headed to the Almeida to see Measure for Measure. Once you’ve navigated the funky but slightly socially awkward fold-down bench seats, the Almeida is a brilliant characterful theatre, and the production was great- really playing up the black comedy in the text. As ever, the best characters are the baddies, and this play is no exception. A must-see for anyone who likes their Shakespeare tense and dark.
http://www.almeida.co.uk/production_details/production_details.aspx?code=90
Wonder Fish, 407 Camden Stables
Rachel dipped her toes (quite literally) into a bowl of Garra Rufa aka Doctor Fish – so named for their ability to clear up even the most crusty of feet at Wonder Fish in Camden. The idea behind Wonder Fish is to immerse your feet into bowls of warm water full of the small minnow like fish. The fish instantly swarm to the most dry and crusty areas of your feet and nibble away to reveal a beautiful fresh layer of skin underneath. The fish originated in two areas of Turkey and have long been known for their ability to clear up skin conditions and dry skin. The treatment is now increasingly popular across the Japan, Korea and Turkey - Alex tried the treatment when he was in Korea.
Tickly but painless with fantastic results! Just what you need after standing in a gallery all day! This is well worth a trip at only £6 for 15mins.
Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa
You’ve probably read the rave reviews so we won’t go into to much detail except to say everything you’ve heard is true – a fab exhibition. Just the right size and particularly good panel descriptions. If you can’t make it to the exhibition you can see a couple of the sculptures on loan from the British Museum in our London, Sugar and Slavery Exhibition at Museum of London Docklands.
http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/all_current_exhibitions/kingdom_of_ife.aspx
Blaze at the Peacock Theatre
You’ve only got until the 28th March to see them but if you can get there, get to Blaze. An amazing show, back to back, non stop routines, intelligent with a sense of humour. Quite a few cheaper tickets were available to. Our £10 tickets at the back of the stalls had excellent views of the stage.
http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Blaze
Henry Moore at TATE Britain
Ally went to see the Henry Moore show with a colleague – it was great but both found it hard to ‘turn off’ being Museum geeks! Unwittingly the highlight of their Day Of Culture had turned into a Gallery Maintenance Walk, with surreptitious wiping of fingers to check for dust and tut-tutting at peeling captions. However the exhibition is fantastic, even if we did struggle to hold back from touching the achingly tactile sculptures.
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/henrymoore/default.shtm
Amsterdam
Alex went to Amsterdam to relax in luxury on the River Amstel. His favourite Modern Art Museum, the Steidlijk, was closed for major renovations and even the national museum, Rijksmuseum , was doing a “MOL” and was 3/4 closed! So abandoning culture, a spa and bath were ordered and he found the beautiful art deco baths which reminded him of the Selfridges lifts in our collection – but with much more nudity!
http://www.saunadeco.nl/faciliteiten2.html
Sheffield
Lynne spent the weekend up in Sheffield and put together her recommendations …
The Sheffield Museum
Exhibitions covering the history of the city and the natural history of the local area. Lynne was aware that Sheffield was famous for steel, surgical instruments and cutlery, but was unaware that it was the home of Basset’s liquorice allsorts and jelly babies! The museum underwent major renovation a few years ago and won The Guardian award for “Family friendly museum 2008”. There were lots of things for kids to do include using plastic food to construct a picnic lunch to take walking in the peak district, dressing up as a Victorian maid or butler and using microscopes to examine pieces of Roman Samian ware.
There was also a really cool “bugs” gallery and the café served a “bug hunters” children’s meal in a “McDonalds style” package. The gift shop was very interesting, with a selection of beautiful soft toy dinosaurs. Lynne and her partner are now the proud owners of a T Rex and jelly baby badges!
Bakewell
This village on the Pennines is famous for a delicacy known as the Bakewell tart, it is also a really beautiful place. Even on a cold, misty day in early February, you could see the potential as a summer picnic spot. Cold chicken and salad, white wine, feet in the clear sparkling river, perfect! Be sure to visit the Bakewell pudding shop. Yes pudding, not tart! The shop does sell white iced almond confections with a strategically placed cherry, but do try the puddings. The puddings look a little like a treacle tart but taste like crème caramel (on a pastry base) and have the texture of custard tart. Very sweet and excellent with custard.
If you can’t make it to Bakewell you can ‘post a pudding’ with the The Old Original Pudding Company.
http://www.bakewellpuddingshop.co.uk
Yet to come ….
Ashley’s excited about going to a Powderfinger (Australian band) concert late April, Brixton Academy. It is rare that they perform let alone in the UK so well worth getting tickets if you can get hold of them.
The Visitor Services team here at Museum of London aims to engage and enthuse every visitor that walks through the door with our passion for London. We hope that this extends into our blog posts. Every month (or so) we make our recommendations for all things London plus a few highlights from our travels elsewhere. We hope that through our blog you’ll get to know us better, our personal obsessions, interests and past times – basically what we’re into each month.
If you do follow up a recommendation let us know what you thought of it either by…
- Popping in to see us in the galleries, you can’t miss us – we’re usually walking around with a chainmail hood, hand axe or similar – oh and the uniform’s a bit of a give away too!
- Sending us a letter – we love post! 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN
- Commenting on here, the Museum’s Facebook page, Tweeting at us… etc
- Dropping us an email – hosts-mol@museumoflondon.org.uk
Post by Rachel Kuhn, Team Leader
(Page updated with image: 8 April 2010)