IWM London + HMS President

Why anyone thought this overbearing clunky Star Wars look would enhance the exhibits is beyond me.

I thought it was more Dr Evil than Darth Vader….

NASM eventually worked out how to protect Flak Bait. Taken in 2012. Good to hear that this aircraft is now being put back together.

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Thanks, Mike, I’d assumed so. And from photos I’d seen the badly decayed (warped and discoloured) Nav position window was replaced too?

The Perspex barrier to the crew compartment is still in place on the Lancaster nose James

Thanks to The Freshest for their view.

… Flak Bait also immediately came to mind when I saw the Lancaster. It won’t be a year before the paint starts disappearing or things get damaged. Displaying exhibits unprotected in this day and age is just not done. It WILL get damaged.

If you look at the ‘before’ image I posted earlier in the thread, you can see the Lancaster nose on display, as was the Halifax nose and numerous other artifacts. They were without barriers to the external surface, but with Perspex barriers to the interior (in the Lanc’s case) and the crew positions (in the walk-through Halifax’s case).

The B-26 Flak Bait suffered from the fact the existing barriers directed millions of people to touch one patch which became bald; the Lanc nose won’t have the same concentration, and has already had at least 40 years of touching.

That said, I agree, that artifacts like this should not be left touchable in museum care like this. Even a light patina from human grease and wear is a failure of the museum’s primary mandate of preservation.

Regards,

Not a great fan of the new version. Flak Bait also immediately came to mind when I saw the Lancaster. It won’t be a year before the paint starts disappearing or things get damaged. Displaying exhibits unprotected in this day and age is just not done. It WILL get damaged.

Why anyone thought this overbearing clunky Star Wars look would enhance the exhibits is beyond me.

Looking at the various photo’s it looks very nice but I’m struck by the fact it looks more crowded that before? The atrium had a very open feel to it last time i was there 12 years ago but the photo’s look like it’s crowded for space?

I have to address her as “sir” every time I pop into the office!… 😀

My apologies, Miss, Ms, lol

I have to address her as “sir” every time I pop into the office!… 😀

Hello Sir…

I bet you don’t get addressed as ‘Sir’ very often Becka! 🙂

No. Whenever something is changed a proportion of people will prefer how it was, a proportion will prefer how it is, and most will just accept that it’s different.

It’s therefore unlikely that you will be the only person to hold that view.

Thank you The Freshest 🙂

Out of interest, was it this V2 attack that your grandmother was injured in/her family members were killed? http://blogs.iwm.org.uk/transforming-iwm-london/2012/11/a-v2-explosion-in-lambeth-during-the-second-world-war/

Hello Sir, no it was in 1944 in Petts Wood/Bickley area. She had moved to Petts Wood by this time. It was the bombing of a pub called the ‘Crooked Billet’. Today it has a Harvester on the site and is marked with a Blue Plaque to commemorate the loss of life.
Hope this helps.

Am I the only one who thinks it looked much better before?

No. Whenever something is changed a proportion of people will prefer how it was, a proportion will prefer how it is, and most will just accept that it’s different.

It’s therefore unlikely that you will be the only person to hold that view.

Moggy

Having seen a bit of the build up to the re-opening of the museum on ITV news a week or so ago I decided to take a trip over to Lambeth today.
My Nan lived almost opposite the museum (just of Lambeth walk) and was born on Fitzalun St in 1920. She is still with us at 94 and every meeting is a history lesson! She vividly remembers in WW2 the ‘reconnaissance aircraft with black crosses’ circling overhead before incendiaries were dropped before a raid and she was herself was ‘blown up’ by a V2 rocket killing her mother, father and husband, she spent the next three years in St Thomas’s Hospital and has the shrapnel inside her to prove it!
Sorry back to the thread. I arrived at the museum at midday and was given a WW1 gallery ticket free of charge for 2:30, the layout is much different, I like the old atrium better (FW190 and Mustang set up), but the information is much more informative I think and presented nicely. The WW1 galleries have had such a lot of work put into them, I spent over 2 hours and a half in there. There is so much reading material and together the with posters, photography, film, exhibits and soundtrack made it a special experience. Thinking back on yesterdays visit I dont think ‘the trenches’ walk through is still there which is a shame I thought that was great.
Make the trip, its well worth it.

Thank you The Freshest 🙂

Out of interest, was it this V2 attack that your grandmother was injured in/her family members were killed? http://blogs.iwm.org.uk/transforming-iwm-london/2012/11/a-v2-explosion-in-lambeth-during-the-second-world-war/

Am I the only one who thinks it looked much better before? As with many modern museums, the new one looks nothing short of an architects ego trip.

The money could have been put to much better use.

Having seen a bit of the build up to the re-opening of the museum on ITV news a week or so ago I decided to take a trip over to Lambeth today.
My Nan lived almost opposite the museum (just of Lambeth walk) and was born on Fitzalun St in 1920. She is still with us at 94 and every meeting is a history lesson! She vividly remembers in WW2 the ‘reconnaissance aircraft with black crosses’ circling overhead before incendiaries were dropped before a raid and she was herself was ‘blown up’ by a V2 rocket killing her mother, father and husband, she spent the next three years in St Thomas’s Hospital and has the shrapnel inside her to prove it!
Sorry back to the thread. I arrived at the museum at midday and was given a WW1 gallery ticket free of charge for 2:30, the layout is much different, I like the old atrium better (FW190 and Mustang set up), but the information is much more informative I think and presented nicely. The WW1 galleries have had such a lot of work put into them, I spent over 2 hours and a half in there. There is so much reading material and together the with posters, photography, film, exhibits and soundtrack made it a special experience. Thinking back on yesterdays visit I dont think ‘the trenches’ walk through is still there which is a shame I thought that was great.
Make the trip, its well worth it.

Thanks for sharing those photos. Especially for those of us not within such easy reach of London.

First impressions when I saw the press images wasn’t overwhelmingly positive, but I’ve come around to the new look a bit more. And I guess the enthusiast isn’t the target market. I will look forward to having an oportunity to visit Lambeth again someday.

HMS President looks amazing!

look what happened to Flak Bait in the NASM

http://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/multimedia/detail.cfm?id=1472

a pilot boat has also been painted in a dazzle scheme in Liverpool

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/gallery-world-war-dazzle-ship-7246865

….irresistable to kids who want to climb on it.

Where an artefact is unique (i.e. last one left, or of particular significance by virtue of what that particular example did, or who used that particulalr one) then it should be out of reach.

Where we have multiple examples of an artefact, then letting people/kids touch it, climb on it etc is no bad thing, as it gives them more of an “experience” that may get them interested in coming back. Who knows, one of them may even going on to study military history, develop a lifelong interest in something, or even end up curating a museum at some stage in the future?

So, some things like the retrieved Chevvy Desert vehicle and Lancaster nose should probably be safely out of reach, but some other items should be accessible and sacrificed to the visiting masses. I am sure we could spare an old Lee Enfield .303, or a 25pdr field gun?

No doubt it’s a hard decision to make, but as we regularly discuss in this forum, we have to catch the imagination of ‘tomorrows enthusiasts’ – and what will they remember most, a dusty old truck out of reach behind barriers/glass, or the fact they climbed on and fiddled with a real tank/field gun/aeroplane….

If we don’t let them get touchy-feely with soemthing they’ll soon prefer to stay in front of the video console playing “pretend soldiers” at home rather than wandering past loads of “out of bounds” signs.

But, it does look like the revamped IWM have perhaps swung too far towards the “access everything” end of the spectrum?