I loved the LAARC, and it left me wanting more, so I went on
over to the Museum of London to look at some
of the collection on display. There’s
currently a “Royal Arrival” display, which has a large family tree for the
Royal Family and samples of baby clothes worn by young royals over the years,
including a cap from Charles I. It really made me wish that the Royal Baby
would be born, soon!
The Museum of London covers just that, from prehistoric London up through the
Olympic events last year. There was a really interesting display called “Our
Londinium,” which was a project where students reinterpreted Roman artifacts.
So, for example, they had some coins with the emperor’s image on them, and they
displayed those next to a magazine, to compare celebrity power.
I really loved the Museum of London.
They had a very powerful tribute to the Black Death, where a video describing
the course of the illness played, while in the background, a reader recited the
names of some of the individuals killed by the plague. It was chilling. I also
really enjoyed a similar video set-up for the Great Fire, where they told the
story using firsthand accounts of the fire spreading. It was interesting
hearing about the different ways people reacted. Some were heroes, and stood to
battle the fire, or help others, and some used the fire as an opportunity to
steal or price gouge. Plus, apparently the fire was so hot that the stones of St. Paul exploded, and
the lead melted! So that’s amazing. 
The museum recreated a Victorian London street, with a series of shopfronts and
displays all fully furnished. There was a bank, a tea shop, a glass store, and
even a public bathroom, so that was interesting. There was also display set up
to resemble the pleasure gardens. The display was in a darkened room, so that a
video of a scene being acted out in the garden could be projected onto the
walls. However, there were also a ton of mannequins in period costumes in the
room, and in the dark, it really felt like I was in an episode of Doctor Who,
and I was going to be attacked. Especially from this one. It felt like she was
their queen, with her antlers.
There was very little War Era stuff, because I guess that’s
covered in the Imperial
War Museum.
They did have an original lift from Selfridges, which was cool to see, because
of that recent TV show, and they had a bunch of ‘60s era clothing. Overall, the
Museum of London was a lot of fun.
I wanted to meet up with some of the group at Blackfriars
for a late lunch/early dinner, but there were serious delays on the Circle
Line, so I spent forever waiting for a train. Luckily, my friends are awesome,
and they hung out with me while I ate once I finally got there. We decided to
go our separate ways after dinner, and I took the opportunity to check out
Harrods.
Any department store that distributes maps is significantly
large. I was just sort of in awe with Harrods. It has a room solely dedicated
to chocolate, tea, and coffee. I wanted to buy everything, but it was super
overpriced. Harrods really is a “luxury” department store. I made a point of
visiting the Disney room, and the Toy
Kingdom, which spanned
four rooms. It was awesome! I found a really fun kids book called, Shhh! Don’t Wake the Royal Baby! Which I
almost bought, because it was so crazy.
Before I left Harrods, I made my way through the Pet Kingdom,
where I thought to myself, “All they don’t provide is the pets!” and then saw
the puppies. I also checked out the Harrods gift shop, because a department
store this big apparently warrants its own souvenirs. Somehow I managed to
spend a couple hours in the store, and I never even bought anything.
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