The Victoria And Albert Museum
I have been out and about in the Great Metropolis that is London with my grown up children recently (or so they think). They don't think I have been out and about with them, They know that we have been to London but they think they are grown up. Just glad to get that sorted out !
We wanted a fairly easy afternoon as we all had long journeys to make to return home. Of all the big museums of South Kensington it is the one I have been to the least. It is just not my thing.
Established in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert it is one of the foremost centres for the study of art, design and textiles. It houses many, many relics of past and present civilizations. Ceramics, Fabrics. What look like filthy rags was actually the oldest rug in the world. Something we took (WE as in the British) from our time trying to subjugate the middle East.
There is a theme here. There are works of "wonder" that are from this country that we should have fair and square but there is also a bunch of stuff "We" collected as a result of being an Imperial Empire (To be fair we bought some of it.)
That's right, we stole a huge bunch of stuff over the years
In fact I would summarise the major museums in London thus :
British Museum - Stuff we stole
V &A Museum More stuff we stole and some stuff we are lumbered with.
Science Museum - stuff other countries' thought of but know presented as "British Know-How"(Marconi was Italian! Who knew? Isambard Kingdom Brunel was half French!)
Natural History Museum - Stuff we shot first then stole
Many visitors to this sceptred isle we call home do wonder why it is called the British Museum as much of the stuff is plainly come from somewhere else. A whole bunch of stuff is not British at all - Egyptian Mummy anyone? No? how about some Greek marbles? (we didn't steal these but we are definitely NOT giving them back).
The British Empire has much to answer for.
Still, having waved a white flag at the avaricious Victorian collecters of yesteryear, we did have an interesting trip around the Victoria and Albert museum.
My tip is that unless you have some prior knowledge of the museum, join a tour. There was a guided tour that was along the lines of the "10 antiquities in an hour". What made it all the more enjoyable was the guide had a genuine admiration for all the things he showed us and held the artists and artisans that made it in such high regard with genuine warmth. He seemed to convey the feeling of privilege at being able to share space with these items. The downside was that he would of preferred a smaller group of visitors and was continually trying to shrug some of us off. Me and my family are not good at subtle clues like "Oh you are all still here then?" and followed him with gusto. As a result of the large group I think he fell short of 10 objects, more like three or four.. We didn't pass comment as he could argue that on a technicality the Raphael Cartoons just got him over the line!
I have avoided the V and A for many years. Despite the fact that my mum has spent years telling me her cutlery was in the museum. I just assumed she had stolen it from the cafeteria over the years. What she meant was as a wedding present she was given a cutlery set that the design of which subsequently found its way into the museum archive. I have a nasty feeling it has some ivory in it.
The upshot was that once you put aside the way in which some/all of the stuff was aquired it WAS a decent way to spend an hour on a miserable wet Sunday afternoon whilst you are supposed to be somewhere else.
