After failed attempts of entry at The Sherlock Holmes Museum (too busy) and London Film Museum (too closed) we headed to the London Transport Museum.

It’s pretty pricey at £15 a head, but it’s hugely impressive and worth every penny in my view.
You could say that I, Ant John Harris, was pretty keen on it, but not as keen as John Harris of Marylebone.

In fact – London transport seems to have had lots of admirers over the years, inspiring plenty of toys and games for the hordes of children that dreamed of becoming bus conductors and train drivers.

I found it interesting that people used to use postcards in a similar (slower) way that we use text and email: short sharp messages sent in their millions everyday. There’s probably an interesting project in there somewhere.

There was a fair bit on Metroland – a subject I’ve seen Craig Mawdsley speak about before.
Advertising a better life in the suburbs – it was a strategic masterpiece: Stop advertising the trains, start advertising the destination.
Booklets, postcards, posters, luggage labels, tickets, even door handles were used to spread the idea.

In fact, this strategy seems to have informed a great number of their posters.
One poster may as well be the manifesto: The Underground brings all good things nearer.

The copy on some of the posters they had on display was tonally brilliant.
I particularly like this poster about the Zoo from 1965 – especially the honesty of a line like ‘unconventional new Aviary (not quite finished)’.

The words ‘quite the worst’ and ‘doze off’ on the following posters are also funny, I think.

Both MinaLima Design (http://www.minalima.com/film-work/graphic-props/harry-potter-2000-2010) and Anthony Burrill seem to have taken huge influence from early era transport posters – here’s a couple I liked.

Perhaps my favourite posters were these two though – released within six months of each other (as the weather changed funnily enough). It’s almost like they were lying to try and get people to use the underground. It’s cooler below. I mean warmer below. I mean cooler.

I thought this photo was interesting – I’ve never seen them rolling the stop names into a bus before.

The dangly things that you can hold onto on buses (not so much on the tube anymore) are called a straphanger. At one point, they toyed with the odd idea of using the strap hangers to advertise products.

Underlying all of the great designs (from carriages to posters) seems to be the work and legacy of one man – Frank Pick. He really sounds like the perfect client, believing that good design gave order, style, and efficiency to everything that an organisation did, making it ‘fit for purpose’. When made CEO of London Transport, he said ‘Underneath all of its engineering and operation, there is the revelation and realisation of something which is in the nature of a work of art.’

Interestingly, he was another scrapbook keeper – compiling archives of postcards and photographs he liked. His notes were written in distinctive green ink.

FIVE FACTS

#1. The changeover from horse power to mechanical power in London at the start of the 20th century was astonishingly fast. In 1900 there were only a few, short lived experimental motorised vehicals. By 1915, horse-drawn buses and trams had vanished and motorised taxis heavily outnumbered horse-drawn cabs.

#2. In 1901, when nearly all traffic was horse drawn, there were 186 fatal road accidents in the London County Council area. By 1929, when motor vehicles dominated, there were 1362 deaths and 55,000 injuries. This was down to the fact no private motorists had been trained – and driving tests, the highway code and speed limits were hastily introduced.

#3. The first escalator was invented by Jesse W Reno – an electrically driven angled belt of wooden pallets with no steps. The first was built for an amusement park at Coney Island NY in 1895. The first in London was installed in Harrods in 1898. The Reno company built a spiral version of an escalator in a lift shaft at Holloway Road Station in 1906 for the new Piccadilly line. It never opened for public use, and there is only one known photograph of it.

#4. Flashing lights in large yellow globes on striped poles were first put up to mark pedestrian crossings in 1934. They were named ‘Belisha beacons’ after the Minister of Transport Leslie Hore-Belisha.

#5. An electric vehicle was developed and used only 11 years after the invention of the traditional motorcar. Nicknamed the Hummingbird (after the sound of their motors) they didn’t catch on due to reliability issues. Here’s a pic:

2. Churchill War Rooms 
3. Cinema Museum 
4. Dennis Sever’s House 
5. Dr Johnson’s house 
6. Design Museum 
7. Down House 
8. The Geffrye Museum 
9. London Film Museum 
10. London Transport Museum 
11. Mansion House 
12. Brunel Museum 
13. Museum of the Order of St John 
14. Musical Museum 
15. Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret
16. Pollock’s Toy Museum 
17. Rose Theatre exhibition 
18. Fashion and Textile Museum 
19. Royal College of Music Archives and Museum of Instruments 
20. Sherlock Holmes Museum 
21. Twinings Museum 
22. V&A Museum of Childhood 
23. Bank of England museum 
24. The Stephens Museum 

Date: 29.06.13

Name: Green Shoots
Brewery: The Marlow Brewery – Rebellion Beer Co.
ABV: 4.2%

Taste: 3 / 5
Mouthfeel: 3 / 5
Finish: 4 / 5
Branding: 2 / 5

This is my 100th post on this blog.

I can’t help but think that these toilet signs must confuse the customers of Busaba Eathai, not aid them.

I ran into 2 people down there trying to figure out which one was which…

The quote about good design being invisible comes to mind here.

Well the name’s functional at least.

But I can’t help but think that five or so years ago, the proprietors would have had the ambition to call it Kebab Palace, not Kebab Place.

Location: The Wenlock Arms, N1
Date: 26.06.13

Name: Hadouken
Brewery: Tiny Rebel Brewing Co
ABV: 7.4%

Taste: 4,5 / 5
Mouthfeel: 4.5 / 5
Finish: 3 / 5
Branding: 4.5 / 5

Name: Oscar Wilde
Brewery: Mighty Oak Brewery Company
ABV: 3.7%

Taste: 4 / 5
Mouthfeel: 3.5 / 5
Finish: 3.5 / 5
Branding: 2.5 / 5

Name: Hophead
Brewery: Dark Star Brewing Co
ABV: 3.8%

Taste: 4 / 5
Mouthfeel: 4 / 5
Finish: 3 / 5
Branding: 3.5 / 5

(Forgot to get a glass snap for Hophead – just a tap snap I’m afraid.)

The grounds are gorgeous – old almhouses tucked away in the middle of Hoxton.

The museum basically shows living rooms through the ages.

But each item has a back-story, making the whole visit much more engaging than simply looking at some chairs.

That said, first up… some chairs. Through the ages.

There’s some really beautiful room decoration here.

If ever I was going to work on a B&Q or Homebase brief – I think this would be the place to work from.

The funniest thing for me was seeing this TV from the 1960s.

How fantastic.

FIVE FACTS
Despite clearly being a museum that covers home life between 1600 and present day – most of my facts this time are from the late 18th century. I must have been paying more attention in that room. I can only apologise.

#1. In the late eighteenth-century, custard was a very popular food. Custard was served in little china cups (see below). The most interesting bit for me was, despite being sweet, custards would be eaten for dinner as part of the second course – alongside roasted and boiled meats.

#2. Also during the late eighteenth-century… researchers have found letters and journals of people at that time referring to rooms and furnishings that they liked as ‘neat.’, which didn’t just mean clean and tidy – but also ‘bright and stylish.’ It’s amazing how words come back around.

#3. Dried rushes were often dipped in melted fat during the 17th and 18th centuries, to provide a rudimentary light. The rush was held horizontally by the pincers of a rush holder (or rush nip.) Interestingly, the rushes would only burn for about 20 minutes. You’d have to be working pretty quickly at night on that kind of deadline.

#4. In the eighteenth-century, politeness meant a lot more than it does today. In fact, it was an approach to life that covered all aspects of social behaviour. It’s basic principles were that people be easy and open, making themselves agreeable to others and avoiding extremes of opinion or temper.

#5. A coffee house in London called ‘The Sultan’s Head’ became the first to advertise the sale in tea in 1658 – a new herb imported from china. As tea fever took hold in Britain, many household servants acquired a taste for tea, often having their wages calculated to include an allowance of tea leaves.

2. Churchill War Rooms 
3. Cinema Museum 
4. Dennis Sever’s House 
5. Dr Johnson’s house 
6. Design Museum 
7. Down House 
8. The Geffrye Museum 
9. London Film Museum 
10. London Transport Museum 
11. Mansion House 
12. Brunel Museum 
13. Museum of the Order of St John 
14. Musical Museum 
15. Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret
16. Pollock’s Toy Museum 
17. Rose Theatre exhibition 
18. Fashion and Textile Museum 
19. Royal College of Music Archives and Museum of Instruments 
20. Sherlock Holmes Museum 
21. Twinings Museum 
22. V&A Museum of Childhood 
23. Bank of England museum 
24. The Stephens Museum 

Austra – 05 Home

The beginning of this track sounds a bit like an Adele pop song, but the mood shifts when the electronic drum track flicks on around 40 seconds in. There are pad synths, chorus effects and electronic bass – all swirling together to create an emotive and heavily layered song with plenty of chart appeal. There’s even some flute around 2.50 in – nice.

Cairo Pythian – A1.Unity_Mitford

The drum track on this sounds Streets-esque, but the vocals ensure this track is a world apart from Mike Skinner’s gang. I have to admit, I struggle a bit when a keyboard track follows a vocalists melody – it all sounds a bit too Mighty Boosh for me. This track kicks that habit (and perhaps the haircut) during the chorus, where each instrument begins to compliment rather than mirror. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s enough to win me back round.

H.Hawkline – Ghouls

An odd one this – I didn’t know just how small it was until I got there.

The theatre was preserved under boggy water for hundreds of years, until building work on Bankside uncovered the theatre.
I’m sure it was an amazing find, but the exhibition is pretty pointless.

When the theatre was discovered, archeologists worked to excavate the theatre – but due to timing and budgetary constraints (along with the fact the surrounding ground began to crack as it was slowly exposed to air), the theatre was covered over once more with water.

And that’s how it stands today. With the theatre’s perimeter highlighted by red strip lighting.

In fact, the whole exhibition is a temporary one – whilst they try and find the funds to restore the theatre properly.
And don’t you know it – the entire film you’re shown is a desperate plea for money – showing famous actors begging for money to camera, in an attempt to save England’s Rose (surely they could just club together and fund the excavation outright…?!)

Here’s some of the known Elizabethan theatres of the day:

FIVE FACTS (bit of a struggle with this one!)

#1. The Rose Theatre layout actually provided the inspiration for the main blueprints of the new Globe Theatre. So far so good, except the Globe and the Rose were huge rivals – competing every step of the way in Bankside’s theatre game.

#2. The discovery of the Rose was around my birthday, in the summer of 1989. Actors, scholars and the general public rallied to protect the site from demolition – with an atmosphere a bit like a street carnival. The rally even included the last public performance by Laurence Olivier.

#3. Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn ran the theatre between 1592 and 1597, retiring a wealthy man and founding the College of God’s Gift (now Dulwich College.)

#4. The Rose’s success encouraged other theatres to be built on the Bankside, including the Swan in 1595 and the Globe in 1599.

#5. Despite being a very small space, Elizabethan audiences expected to be crowded – and it’s estimated that nearly 2500 people were squashed in for a single performance, with 700 of those each paying to squeeze into the yard for an admission rate of one penny.

2. Churchill War Rooms 
3. Cinema Museum 
4. Dennis Sever’s House 
5. Dr Johnson’s house 
6. Design Museum 
7. Down House 
8. The Geffrye Museum 
9. London Film Museum 
10. London Transport Museum 
11. Mansion House 
12. Brunel Museum 
13. Museum of the Order of St John 
14. Musical Museum 
15. Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret
16. Pollock’s Toy Museum 
17. Rose Theatre exhibition 
18. Fashion and Textile Museum 
19. Royal College of Music Archives and Museum of Instruments 
20. Sherlock Holmes Museum 
21. Twinings Museum 
22. V&A Museum of Childhood 
23. Bank of England museum 
24. The Stephens Museum 

Location: The Wenlock Arms, N1
Date: 23.06.13

Name: Kohinoor
Brewery: Windsor & Eton
ABV: 4.5%

Taste: 4 / 5
Mouthfeel: 3 / 5
Finish: 4 / 5
Branding: 1.5 / 5

Name: American Pale Ale
Brewery: Long Man Brewery
ABV: 4.8%

Taste: 4 / 5
Mouthfeel: 3 / 5
Finish: 3 / 5
Branding: 0.5 / 5