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There are 5 buildings in total that make up the cabinet Imperial War Museum. These include the IWM London, IWM Duxford, IWM North IWM Belfast, Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms.
The Imperial War Museum London was formerly the Bethlehem Hospital, which was built in 1216. Because of the crowded city, the hospital was moved to Moorfields in 1811. Part of the hospital was then torn down in order to make more space for the Geraldine Mary Harmworth Park. The building that currently stands as the museum was built by James Lewis around 1811. *3
Exhibitions in the Imperial War Museum include works done by contemporary artists, and as well as artists living during various wars. There are also object, news, and description exhibitions on WWI, WWII and the Holocaust. The latter is by far the most emotionally draining.
The most affecting parts of the Holocaust exhibit were the vivid descriptions of mass manslaughter that the Nazi’s performed as well as the meager belongings of the imprisoned Jews, sympathizers, gays, and mentally retarded.
http://london.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.00b005
Most of all, the exhibit made me ask 2 overarching questions:
1. How could humanity get to the point of holocaust? What was it that blinded so many people of the atrocities they were committing?
2. If I was in those circumstances–born in a Nazi German family, indoctrinated at school, was surrounded by Aryan propaganda–would I act similarly.
Churchill Museum at the Cabinet War Rooms was added in 1984 to the exhibit. The Cabinet War Rooms refers to the hidden underground safe-hold where Chiefs of Staff would meet and discuss logistics during the outbreak of war WWII. The size of the rooms were small, the furniture was simple, the walls sparse with a few maps adding “decoration,” and there were ashtrays abounding. However nifty the shelter was, Churchill did not like being in it much. (Go figure.) He would much rather go to the roof of the building and watch the action from a bird’s eye view- much to his advisor’s distress.
http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.4467
After the war (1943), the Transatlantic telephone cable was added to the building. This served as the connector between Churchill and LB Johnson and the Pentagon in the US. The building was not without faults, however. It was overall fairly uncomfortable. The plumbing facilities were sub par. Meaning there was no automatic way of clearing out sewage, windows were absent, rooms were small and morale could be low. *1
Churchill was born at blenheim palace on 30 November 1874 when his family was a party at their relatives’ house. The room in which his presence received on this mortal earth currently has locks from his “ginger hair.” His father was politician Lord Randolph Churchill, his mother Jenie Jerome–an American Heiress. He Fought in Boer War in 1899, as did Gandhi. His marriage with Clementine was a happy one. He was often near her and she was his confident on all sorts of issues, war-related and otherwise. He was appointed as PM in 1940 succeeding Chamberlain. He was also an artist as he painted often. These works were not to be displayed for many years to his demand, but have since been put up in Blenheim Palace.
http://www.churchillsociety.org/churchill-victory.jpg
(I’m not sure if this is the symbol for “peace” or “victory.”)
England rallied around the stalwart Churchill during the war. He would address the country over radio to keep the people informed and to ensure them of their unceasing commitment to victory.*2 Churchill embodies the term great war leader. While he claimed to “not become the King’s First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire,” India, Pakistan, Burma, and several African countries finally gained independence from the colonial rule of Great Britain. *4
Telling quotes of Churchill’s character:
- “Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace, and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.”
- “We are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow-worm.”
I was taken by the simplicity of his life. For being the PM and leader of a world power during a war, he lived simply and frugally. His room was small and not elaborately decorated (in contrast with his cousins at Blenheim), his dress was simple and not overdone, and his art surprisingly beautiful.
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2007/11/02/churchill460.jpg
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://bp2.blogger.com/_SJP3Lr5NHA4/SBklXfNyWRI/AAAAAAAACgU/bful0C410mU/s400/1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://artsiefartsiez.blogspot.com/2008/04/paintings-of-sir-winston-churchill.html&h=351&w=400&sz=27&hl=en&start=48&um=1&tbnid=d1O6QDbeiKtyZM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwinston%2Bchurchill%2Bpainting%26start%3D40%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN
http://www.artinthepicture.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/churchill.jpg
Sources:
1. Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, The Imperial War Museum booklet, London.
2. Modern Britain; The Cambridge Cultural History, Volume 9, Modern Britain, Boris Ford, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
3. The Buildings of England, London 2: South, Bridget Cherry and Nicolaus Pevsner, Penguin Books, 1983.
4. The Story of England, Christopher Hibbert, Phaidon Press Limited, 1992.
5. http://london.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.00b005
6. http://www.churchillsociety.org/churchill-victory.jpg
7.http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2007/11/02/churchill460.jpg
8. http://www.artinthepicture.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/churchill.jpg
9. http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.4467
Victoria acceded the throne in 1837 following the reign of her uncle, William IV. She was then 29 years old and the mother of 6. She was a, um, strong willed woman during her reign as Queen of England. Victoria had a way of looking at things and that was the only way anyone should look at a situation. She would even threaten to step down if policies did not match her agenda. (Hibbert)
Victoria was very happily married to Albert of Saxe-Coberg. In total, the couple had 9 children- 4 sons and 5 daughters. Victoria loved her husband and thought the world of him. (Interesting fact: it is because of Prince Albert that we have the Christmas tree; he brought the tradition from Germany.) When Albert died of typhoid fever in 1861 after 17 years of marriage, Victoria entered into a deep state of mourning. She wore black for the rest of her life to lament his death. Institutions that came about as a result of the Victorian era are the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, the Imperial College of Science and Technology, the Royal College of Music and the Royal Albert Hall. P erhaps the most visible, and blatantly colonial, of all memorials of Albert is the Royal Albert Memorial located in Kensington Gardens. (Delderfield)
The Albert Memorial was built between 1863 and 1877. Sir Gilbert Scott was the architect and he is especially known for his use of Gothic traditions in his designs. (Sutcliffe) The building is striking. Its gold luster and intricate carving provides a stark difference from the scene of the vibrant green Hyde Park surrounding the memorial.
The memorial consists of a stone base with figures representing 4 different continents (Asia, Europe, Africa, America). Inside this square is a smaller base with 4 corners with figures of different types of industry (including commerce, manufacturing, trade and agriculture). Underneath all of these is a line of famous scholars and intellects from Britain. Male intellects and scholars.
I sense a trend of colonization, hierarchy, and oppression surrounding the memento. It signifies the country’s belief of its own greatness and its right to take control of areas different from their own and take them out of the darkness of their own traditions and culture. And even though Victoria was on the crown, she did not seem to mind that none of those honored for greatness were women, and that the only women portrayed were in exotic and revealing clothes. I don’t understand how it can be so accepted and revered as being a great monument when it is such a blatant demonstration of inequality and discrimination.
Sources:
1. The Story of England, Christopher Hibbert, Phaidon Press Limited, 1992.
2. Kings and Queens of England and Great Britain, Eric R. Delderfield, Greenwhich Editions, 1996.
3. London: An Architectural History, Anthony Sutcliffe, 2006.
I never really thought about the name Oxford until I looked at a street sign in the city. On most of these street signs there are little pictures in the corner which are literally an ox over a ford (river). Apparently, the name was chosen because the city provided a ideal spot for crossing the river.
The city of Oxford has been through a lot over the years. People have lived in the area for thousands of years and Oxford has been an established town since the 9th c. Plus it was burnt in 1010 by the Danes. *2 The rivers that surround the city are the Cherwell and the Isis
- Punts on the the Cherwell River
http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.4467
What’s in Oxford:
Oxford University was established in 1220′s with Cambridge followed soon thereafter. It began as an Anglican school of practical study of conveyancing, administration, and elementary legal procedure for men. There are 39 colleges in all– the first being Balliol and Merton. Christs’ church (est. 1525) is probably the most famous; it has the Great Hall in the Harry Potter movies and has been the site of many other films. There, grace is still said in Latin. The university is the school of 20,000 students, 7,000 postgraduate of them. The university celebrates a 94% employment rate and the lowest dropout rate (1.4% with 22% being the national average). The education system is based on a tutorial system where each student meets one on one with tutors who guide them individually through research, papers, and guidance on which lectures to attend. 63% of the graduate students are from outside the UK. The endowment is 2.7 billion pounds.
- Dorms at Oxford
Famous “Oxonians” include: John Wycliff, John Donne, Robert, Hooke, John Wesley, Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, JRR Tolkien, Margaret Thatcher, Mylo, CS Lewis, Bobby Jindal, Hugh Grant, Indira Gandhi, TS Elliot, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair.
- JRR Tolkien’s house
Other sites in Oxford include:
- The Ashmolean Museum
- Oxford Museum of Modern Art
- JRR Tolkien’s house
- Botanical gardens
-And now has one of Britain’s largest car factories
I lived in Oxford for almost 8 months while my dad was doing a sabbatical at Oxford studying chemistry. I didn’t appreciate it then, and so I came back. Walking the walk home from school, buying a pastry at the local patisserie, getting biscuit at the local co-op, visiting my flat at 4 Oakthorpe Road, visiting with the same woman that rented the place to us (Joan), finding Luigi (the cat) still alive, and most of all spending the day with my best friend from Oxford High School was possibly the most meaningful day spent in my life thus far. Historic sites may be cool for the moment, but the little things in life and the people you do them with are the only things that matter.
Sources:
1. Portrait of Britain: Landscapes, Treasures, and Traditions, Eyewitness Travel Guides, DK Publishing, New York, 1999.
2. The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, edited by Kenneth O. Morgan, Oxford University Press, 1984.
3. http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/facts_and_figures/index.html
Royal Festival Hall opened in 1951 and was built by the partnership of Sir Leslie Martin and Sir Robert Matthew. The designing of the hall began in 1951 and it was the first British building in modern architecture. And by modern, they basically mean the first building with really big, plain, stone walls with very little ornaments depicting animals, buildings, flowers, trees, or very muscular and voluptuous men and women. The building was completed in 1965. *1
The auditorium seats 3,000 and resides in the Southbank Centre, located near the Waterloo station, just off of the Thames. There are foyers and restaurants on most of the 6 floors of the building.
All of the internal designs of the concert hall are for acoustics. The slanty aisles, uneven seats, and ceiling of sycamore all contribute to the reverb. The outside architecture is purely massive. there is no intricacies to it, but that’s ok because there is a bust of Nelson Mandella statue by Ian Walters in 1985 in the courtyard. *2
The Southbank center includes Royal Festival Hall, the Percell Room, The Hayward, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and the Poetry Library.
Royal Festival hall is the home of the Philharmonia Orchestra. Past conductors include Otto Klemperer, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppi Sinopoli, and is currently Christoph von Dohnanyi.
- http://www.happynews.com/showImage.aspx?fn=1212007/dudamel-debuts-new-york-bang.jpg
I went to a performance in Royal Festival Hall given by the Philharmonia and conducted by Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel. The program included Bedrich Smetana’s overtureThe Bartered Bride, Antonin Dvorak’s Violin Concerto in A min, and Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony in E minor. The vivacity of the orchestra was amazing. From the front to the back the entire orchestra, there was a single breath of music emitting form the ensemble to the audience. Gil Shaham performed the Dvorak violin concerto and the only word that comes to my mind is happy. He was just glowing with energy and buoyancy as he danced around the stage as he conversed with the conductor and each section. Dudamel (who recently became the director of the LA Phil) was just radiating life throughout the entire hall. He conducted the entire Tchaikovsky without a score and did not miss an entrance. I was engaged the entire performance. Plus you couldn’t help but love him as he leapt into the air, bouncing his curly fro like a mushroom top. I will always remember that performance for its life.
- He unfortunately didn’t wear this jacket at the concert. But his hair was just as big
http://www.venezlon.co.uk/newsletter/new_newsletter/aug07/dudamel.jpg
Sources:
1. The Buildings of England: London 2: South, Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, Yale University Press, 1983.
2. http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visiting-us/royal-festival-hall
3. http://www.happynews.com/showImage.aspx?fn=1212007/dudamel-debuts-new-york-bang.jpg
4. http://www.venezlon.co.uk/newsletter/new_newsletter/aug07/dudamel.jpg
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Festival_Hall <–sorry Dr. Hoffmann, had to use it this once..
