The Marvelous Museums of London

London offers visitors 25 free museums. We won't even try to visit them all, though we look forward to visiting old favorites and adding new ones to the list. 

The other day, we had intended to go back to the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum), but we got off the bus one stop too early. Instead of finding ourselves at the V&A, we alighted near the Museum of Natural History. The V&A is right across the street, but we decided to take advantage of our error and go to the natural history museum instead. We were glad we did.

One of the museum's treasures is an archaeopteryx fossil (difficult to see in my photo), which is considered the transitional creature between dinosaurs and birds. We don't think we have ever seen one before, so we found it exciting, especially because there was no one around it, and we could spend all the time we wanted examining it. The museum also hosts a stuffed dodo bird, which peered out at us in all its glory. I had the sad thought that the dodo was not only a harbinger of the further extinctions that came after (like the passenger pigeon, seen in the background), but also a particularly poignant warning in this era of climate change. With the polar bears struggling, our orcas endangered, and kangaroos dying en masse in Australia, I can only hope it is not too late to save this planet, for we already know that many species will be lost.

We also happened across a strange "sculpture."

In fact, the amazing object is a natural concretion! I have seen smaller clay "figures" like this that appear as rounded carvings, but this one is two feet tall or more. It's really quite beautiful, don't you think?

We did eventually get to the V&A,  the largest museum of the decorative arts and design, where we enjoyed several exhibits. Kevin appreciated the work of ceramics artist Rachel Kneebone with her piece "399 days." The museum statement says that the sculpture captures movement and flux in a medium that is traditionally static. I can't say that she won me over, but her work was interesting, and the curators made a good choice to place it with the Renaissance and medieval statuary.

I do like the display of ceramics master Edmund de Waal (who, by the way, also wrote the excellent book The Hare with Amber Eyes, which chronicles his family's story of the Holocaust through a treasured netsuke collection).  Unfortunately, however, although the largest pieces are over a foot-and-a-half tall, you can't see them well, since they are displayed in a dome. (The ceramics pieces are the little white projections in the red in the photo below, to give an idea of the scale.)

The most moving piece in the V&A to me, however, was this display of mould-blown wingless glass birds by Turkish artist Felekşan Onar. Titled "Perched," the installation refers to the Syrian refugees in Istanbul, grounded in a foreign city, with nowhere to fly.

The V&A's architecture also delights. Opened in 1852, it is a fine example of the era. Even if a little overwrought, it's stunning.

And we had a delicious lunch in its cafe--a spicy chicken sandwich with two salads for 7.75 pounds (about $10). In general, we've not found food prices much different than at home. Remember, that figure includes the tax, and tipping is minimal. Some places do not expect it, and even at expensive establishments, 12-1/2% is all that's expected.) Nonetheless, we still travel on a tight budget and don't eat out every day.

 ***

Early in our stay, we finally made it to the Museum of London. It had been closed on one of our visits, and at other times we simply were too pressed to include it. Tracing the history of London from prehistoric times to the modern era, the museum paints a fascinating portrait of the city.

I am always fascinated by Roman ruins, no matter how many places that I have encountered them, so I enjoyed the Roman section in particular. Through a window, you can look out on the remnant of the Roman wall that once encircled the city. First constructed between 190 and 225 B.C., it was somewhat maintained until the 18th century. When Seattle tears down buildings (the Kingdome) and roadways (the Viaduct) within a fairly short time, there's something reassuring about seeing the remains of the Roman wall.

However, the museum was made most memorable by the story of the Great Fire of London of 1666.  A young girl of not more than 5 or 6 was watching the film on the fire with her father. As the narrator intoned, "It was the worst day in London history," we heard this small voice say "Daddy, it was the WORST day ever!" She did not seem to be frightened or alarmed, just fascinated. A few minutes later, she repeated, "Daddy, it was the WORST day ever!" 

Of course, in terms of loss of life, it was not the worst day ever, compared to the Blitz during World War II, for instance. But the city itself lost 13,000 buildings over the five days of the fire, leaving thousands homeless. But I don't think I will ever hear of the Great Fire again without recalling a high-pitched little voice exclaiming in the darkness, "Daddy, it was the WORST day ever!"