Museums of London 1935 : 2025
Ninety years ago in 1935 His Majesty’s Stationery Office published an information booklet Guide to London Museum and Galleries. More than sixty thousand copies were sold before the war. Publication was resumed in the 1950s ‘after the National Institutions had been able to make good, in some measure, the havoc and dislocation suffered during the war.’
Looking today at the post-war reprint of the HMSO guide book what most striking differences between then and now we see? In our Curiosities of Orpington book (Cray 150 Publications, 2023) we said this about the Bromley local history museum at the Priory:
‘Isn’t it great how museums nowadays have been transformed into such bright and attractive places to visit? Whereas, as a photograph circa 1960 reminds us, emphasis on archaeological digs was a bit dull and dry? We don’t mean overly to denigrate the efforts made by the earlier curators and staff to attract visitors to the Priory but did a child ever declare that he or she felt spellbound inside there?’
It is undeniable that museums up and down the country, and certainly in London, offer displays that are nowadays vibrant and colourful. We can thank modern technology for that – and we can also credit, surely, an accommodating trend for museum curators to strike a communicative and engaging balance between informing the visitor and entertaining the visitor too. Old-style museums didn’t always achieve that with the dry, unimaginative and highbrow styles of display that visitors sometimes encountered.
In short, we find in the 1950s and 1960s versions of the Guide to London Museum and Galleries a reminder of the visits that we post-war ‘baby boomers’ might have made during our childhoods. Perhaps those visits were ‘educational’ on school trips or they were ‘exciting treats’ organized by our parents. How much do we remember of such visits? Were they exciting? – or were we bored?
Ninety years ago in 1935 His Majesty’s Stationery Office published an information booklet Guide to London Museum and Galleries. More than sixty thousand copies were sold before the war. Publication was resumed in the 1950s ‘after the National Institutions had been able to make good, in some measure, the havoc and dislocation suffered during the war.’
Looking today at the post-war reprint of the HMSO guide book what most striking differences between then and now we see? In our Curiosities of Orpington book (Cray 150 Publications, 2023) we said this about the Bromley local history museum at the Priory:
‘Isn’t it great how museums nowadays have been transformed into such bright and attractive places to visit? Whereas, as a photograph circa 1960 reminds us, emphasis on archaeological digs was a bit dull and dry? We don’t mean overly to denigrate the efforts made by the earlier curators and staff to attract visitors to the Priory but did a child ever declare that he or she felt spellbound inside there?’
It is undeniable that museums up and down the country, and certainly in London, offer displays that are nowadays vibrant and colourful. We can thank modern technology for that – and we can also credit, surely, an accommodating trend for museum curators to strike a communicative and engaging balance between informing the visitor and entertaining the visitor too. Old-style museums didn’t always achieve that with the dry, unimaginative and highbrow styles of display that visitors sometimes encountered.
In short, we find in the 1950s and 1960s versions of the Guide to London Museum and Galleries a reminder of the visits that we post-war ‘baby boomers’ might have made during our childhoods. Perhaps those visits were ‘educational’ on school trips or they were ‘exciting treats’ organized by our parents. How much do we remember of such visits? Were they exciting? – or were we bored?
The British Museum
In a ten-page feature on the British Museum the guide book put enormous emphasis on the collections from the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans; Islam, the Orients, Persia, Syria, Central Asia. That comported surely with the representation to us when children that the British Museum offered a mouthwatering glimpse of the Ancient Worlds that thrilled us so much when we had read or had been told about Biblical kings and places (the Pharaohs, the Babylonians, Ur of the Chaldees); the Greeks and the Romans (their Gods and Myths); the Parthenon, the Pyramids, palaces, tombs and treasures.
In a ten-page feature on the British Museum the guide book put enormous emphasis on the collections from the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans; Islam, the Orients, Persia, Syria, Central Asia. That comported surely with the representation to us when children that the British Museum offered a mouthwatering glimpse of the Ancient Worlds that thrilled us so much when we had read or had been told about Biblical kings and places (the Pharaohs, the Babylonians, Ur of the Chaldees); the Greeks and the Romans (their Gods and Myths); the Parthenon, the Pyramids, palaces, tombs and treasures.
Today there is controversy regarding the legitimacy of Britain holding on to precious antiquities that belonged to other countries?! – but visitors from all over the world still swarm to the British Musuem in their daily thousands where they will find many domestic British treasures too: the Magna Carta, Lewis Carroll’s manuscript of Alice in Wonderland, the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. Meanwhile and most definitely mentioned in the booklet are such highlights from the Ancient Worlds as the Portland Vase, the Rosetta Stone and most notorious of all the Elgin Marbles.
National Gallery
Today we would need to add little if any to the opening paragraph that suggests only the Louvre in Paris can equal the magnificence of our National Gallery in London? In large part the booklet chronicles the names of the principal art collectors who have added to the original founding collection of John Julius Angerstein (also one of the leading founders of Lloyd’s of London insurance) in 1824.
Today we would need to add little if any to the opening paragraph that suggests only the Louvre in Paris can equal the magnificence of our National Gallery in London? In large part the booklet chronicles the names of the principal art collectors who have added to the original founding collection of John Julius Angerstein (also one of the leading founders of Lloyd’s of London insurance) in 1824.
Perhaps one of the most enduring and popular additions to the National Gallery was the Turner Bequest in the 19th century. These were most of the paintings and drawings of J.M.W. Turner that remained in his possession at his death in 1851. In a poll organized by BBC Radio Four in 2005 Turner’s painting The Fighting Temeraire was voted the nation’s favourite. In 2020 it was included on the £20 banknote along with the artist’s 1799 self-portrait.
National Portrait Gallery
‘You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.’ Joni Mitchell’s words came to mind when the National Portrait Gallery closed in 2020 for a refit. Would it be required that the reopened New Millennium display must be so ‘relevant’ and ‘diverse’ that God Forbid, there would no longer be room for all the splendid old exhibits aptly described in the HMSO booklet as ‘portraits of the most eminent persons in British History … oil paintings, busts, medallions, medals, drawings, miniatures, silhouettes and so on … starting from the sixteenth century then having reached the middle of the eighteenth century it divides into two parallel series, one showing rulers, statesmen and men of action, and the other illustrating the arts and sciences.’
‘You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.’ Joni Mitchell’s words came to mind when the National Portrait Gallery closed in 2020 for a refit. Would it be required that the reopened New Millennium display must be so ‘relevant’ and ‘diverse’ that God Forbid, there would no longer be room for all the splendid old exhibits aptly described in the HMSO booklet as ‘portraits of the most eminent persons in British History … oil paintings, busts, medallions, medals, drawings, miniatures, silhouettes and so on … starting from the sixteenth century then having reached the middle of the eighteenth century it divides into two parallel series, one showing rulers, statesmen and men of action, and the other illustrating the arts and sciences.’
The good news is that the vast bulk of those fond and familiar tried and trusted portraits are still there following the Gallery’s reopening in 2023. One notable point of progress since the pre-war and immediate post-war issues of the HMSO guide book is that portraits of living people have long since been allowed in: for example the very first special exhibition in the reopened Gallery was the photographic collection of Sir Paul McCartney. Another perhaps even more notable point of progress is the greater prominence given to women, particularly along the long corridor on the ground floor where the new Reframing Narratives: Women in Portraiture aims to redress the former vast imbalance between male and female choices of ‘eminent persons in British History.’
London Museum a.k.a. Museum of London
How many of us knew or remembered that there was a London Museum in Kensington Palace? It opened in 1910 but at the more recent date of 1976 was usurped and re-named the Museum of London, merging with Guildhall Museum to be based in the Barbican area of the City of London. Today in echo of the recent closure and reopening of the National Portrait Gallery we wait with bated breath to see how the re-branded London Museum will look when it reopens at its new location of Smithfield market following a three-year refit. Let’s simply reflect how the Museum was described in Wikipedia in December 2022 before it closed its doors:
‘It is primarily concerned with the social history of London and its inhabitants throughout time. Its collections include archaeological material, such as flint handaxes from the prehistoric Thames Valley, marble statues from a Roman temple, and a cache of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery called the Cheapside Hoard. Its modern collections include large amounts of decorative objects, clothing and costumes, paintings, prints and drawings, social history objects, and oral histories.’
How many of us knew or remembered that there was a London Museum in Kensington Palace? It opened in 1910 but at the more recent date of 1976 was usurped and re-named the Museum of London, merging with Guildhall Museum to be based in the Barbican area of the City of London. Today in echo of the recent closure and reopening of the National Portrait Gallery we wait with bated breath to see how the re-branded London Museum will look when it reopens at its new location of Smithfield market following a three-year refit. Let’s simply reflect how the Museum was described in Wikipedia in December 2022 before it closed its doors:
‘It is primarily concerned with the social history of London and its inhabitants throughout time. Its collections include archaeological material, such as flint handaxes from the prehistoric Thames Valley, marble statues from a Roman temple, and a cache of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery called the Cheapside Hoard. Its modern collections include large amounts of decorative objects, clothing and costumes, paintings, prints and drawings, social history objects, and oral histories.’
The Imperial War Museum
Perhaps it is appropriate that a museum commemorating the strife and folly of war is housed in the former headquarters of Bedlam? The IMW is still there in Lambeth today but could the authors of that very first 1935 HMSO guide book have imagined or guessed the many conflicts that would follow? World War Two, Korea, Vietnam, the Falklands, Ukraine, Israel – Gaza, etc.
Perhaps it is appropriate that a museum commemorating the strife and folly of war is housed in the former headquarters of Bedlam? The IMW is still there in Lambeth today but could the authors of that very first 1935 HMSO guide book have imagined or guessed the many conflicts that would follow? World War Two, Korea, Vietnam, the Falklands, Ukraine, Israel – Gaza, etc.
In the same way that modern technology has transformed warfare (cyber war, for example) so the display of war is nowadays strikingly enhanced by film footage, photography and special effects. That said, surely even in the black & white print of the HMSO guide book there is nothing to rival the graphic and gripping visual impact of Paul Nash’s extraordinary World War One paintings?
The other London Museums featured in the HMSO guide book of 1935 and later editions were: Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate Gallery, Wallace Collection, National Maritime Museum and Kew Gardens.