British Studies: Day 7

Today's morning begun in the most fabulous way- almost smashing into none other than Kenneth Branagh.  On my way out of Waterloo station, having just solo bought an Oyster ticket, I was weaving in and out of people to return to the courtyard.  Since I couldn't shout out or anyhting, I did several double takes and am 90% certain it was him.  So there's that.

By afternoon, our group went to the Guinness World Book of Record's largest archive library, the "Pompeii of the North"- the Museum of London's Library.  Here, a fellow named Dan Nesbitt(of LARC) gave us a tour around and sneak peek into many historical lives.  Constantly growing, this site began ten years ago, placed in a steel tubing facility.  With 120 staff members and 40 volunteers, there are guidelines to follow, cataloging to be done, and public accessibility is a priority.  This facility has won not only a world record but various volunteer awards that have inspired similar volunteer programs.  Their primary work concerns are leadership, learning, curating, and research.  In the facility, there are people in charge of organizing the materials(section by section), washing and drying items(there are even drying racks) as well as the most important bit- identification.  A large part of their collection began because of a man named Mortimer Wheeler, a famous archaeologist whom later created a show (so says Dan) called Animal, Vegetable, Mineral.  We were a privileged bunch today, seeing their facility behind the scenes with some of 99% in donated items.  They have roller racks, controlled environments, and many many kinds of items.  A Buckingham Palace telephone(used as a background for the creator of Skype), a Royal Opera House urinal, leather from Shakespeare's time, a "Psycho"(a magician's circle item that can be seen in Big with Tom Hanks, used for "fortune telling.") and much more.  They have an x-ray machine and store their metal items separate from their cloth and tile as well as these grouped parts.  Shelves are organized according to 3 letters(street) and 2 number code(year).  Some have a context number which makes more meaning in context.  The pr-historic flints are their oldest item, but Adam(another staff person) showed us some awesome animal bones that the year was undecided.  It had soil samples, pollen seeds, dietary information, printed records of site digs, and even rules for human skeletons collections.  Graham showed us the drying room and some other items, shears & a Tudor spoon at the highlight.  The cannon ball of Shakespeare's Globe was perhaps the neatest item- the guess is that it was used(they have five from his theatres) as a behind the stage prop for making thunder when needed.  Shakespeare himself may have been a cannon roller!  The storage boxes are standardized and the bags inside are clear for viewing, labeled, and padded accordingly.  There is some small interaction with radiation and a small chance of a squashing hazard- there are many people using the roller racks at a time, so be careful!  The archive even has a catastrophe plan.  The point of this place is that everything is kept because people a) like to see it and b) archaeologists desire totality, or that with an unknown future it might be nice to have.  To whether or not to  keep the archive is something that doesn't need deciding now.  In the end, I asked two questions.  1) No they do not have any dinosaur remains, those belong to paleontologists.  2) There were rubber rucks in the last room(with vases and such) and those are not an inside joke but rather a challenge for sweets for the kids' groups. 

Not sure if I am suppose to show this, but there is the pink duck I found!!

Then the highlight of the evening- JD, LH, C, & A and myself scored 27 pounds tickets for five balcony seats to see The Cripple Innishman.  It was 2 1/2 hours of amazing.  West End has yet to let me down.  It was a dark comedy set in Ireland and had many more characters than Daniel Radcliffe.  Yes, he was in it.  The syke was beautifully used, painting watercolour skies over different scenes.  The stage was "in the round"- picture a t-bone that curves at each angle.  It used several scenes: a store, two bedrooms(at two times), an outdoor park, and a boatdock.  The music and acting were also good, but(like when I saw Evita here 7 years ago) the things the do with the stage are amazing.  And yes Daniel Radcliffe is handsome in person and yes he is small in person, but he played a strong character in a play of 9 people.  I bought a programme for 4 pounds and and looking forward to reading the article he has in it, talking about his work with the stage.  I don't think I will be forgetting the stone sets or jokes about cows anytime soon! 

I adore thee!

Off to Stratford tomorrow, ta!