Imperial War Museum North – Bomber Command Exhibition

Well I went and I liked it. It is different.
There are indeed only about 6 large exhibits but there are loads of smaller ones – more personal items than normal but it did bring it to a more human level. The museum is marketed as more how war affects/affected people than a display of this bit of military equipment or the other.
It is dark in there but I did like the experience. The big picture shows were ok – effective and unusual being surrounded by the event.
I will be going back to spend more time looking at the exhibits. Reading the placards, listening to the stories.
It is not an aircraft museum never set out to be one and is not marketed as such. No problem.

Yes James, I accept that IWM Lambeth is probably the best museum on The Great War, it’s a shame therefore that they don’t take the Harry Tate there and display it in some sort of environment where it has context, instead of a meaningless space filler in Air/Space or whatever it’s called.
In fact if the Biff and the RE8 and the CMB could be re-located, it’d save me the need to ever visit Duxford again.

Andy

I would urge you to reserve judgement on whether it’s a “meaningless space filler” until the 2007 opening. There’s been a hell of a lot of work on the interpretation for the aircraft and the themed displays, and I don’t think one should let a personal dislike of suspension get in the way of a fair criticism. When the place actually opens, preferably.

I’m increasingly of the opinion that it should be renamed “AirSpace Or Whatever It’s Called”, since it seems to be the popular name for it around here. Or perhaps the whole place could be renamed “IWM Sarcastically Dismissive Epithet”?

Visited IWMN last Saturday found it interesting but it isnt what i would describe as a museum as such.Its more of an opportunity to listen and learn about REAL life experiences ,to see how war and conflict effected the ordinary Joe/Josephine Soap ..

To play Devil’s Advocate for a moment though, as aviation enthusiasts “we” are naturally going to take a certain view from what we want in a museum. I recently took my wife to Hendon for the first time, though I’ve been there many times since 1972 and it was very instructive. For her the most interesting parts were Milestones – because the ancilliary information gave form to the exhibits and the medal and uniform displays in the Bomber Command Hall. The airframes were, to her, rather boring for the most part.

Yes James, I accept that IWM Lambeth is probably the best museum on The Great War, it’s a shame therefore that they don’t take the Harry Tate there and display it in some sort of environment where it has context, instead of a meaningless space filler in Air/Space or whatever it’s called.
In fact if the Biff and the RE8 and the CMB could be re-located, it’d save me the need to ever visit Duxford again.

Andy

Quite agree, the only problem I have with Lambeth though is that every time I go through that trench I keep expecting to find Blackadder, Baldrick et al preparing to go over the top, it makes me smile, even though I thought that it was one of the greatest and most moving scenes ever to finish a comedy series, it gets me upset everytime I see it.

If it’s knock museums time, the one I really hate is the Armouries at Leeds, couldn’t stand it, I found it utter boredom, apart from the live enactments, which was the only bit I liked. Once again it was devoted to the whims of architecture.
And talking of warfare, I forgot it was Germany v Argentina, I’m out of here.

Jonathan -I thought the Air-Space project started out at something like 19 million !
Imagine what they could achieve at Newark wiith that money!

All the aircraft under cover!

Plus enough left over to share amongst the other voluntary collections to achieve the same!!

Please don’t get me going along that theme again!!!

I think that’s a bit unfair on the IWM if you include Lambeth which has a series of excellent exhibitions and items referring to W.W.I, and as a proportion of the displays there, is probably not significantly smaller if it is smaller (it all depends on measures, bias etc) than that devoted to W.W.II.

A measure of achievement could be mildly displeasing all of the people – it shows ballance, because (all together now) you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

Yes James, I accept that IWM Lambeth is probably the best museum on The Great War, it’s a shame therefore that they don’t take the Harry Tate there and display it in some sort of environment where it has context, instead of a meaningless space filler in Air/Space or whatever it’s called.
In fact if the Biff and the RE8 and the CMB could be re-located, it’d save me the need to ever visit Duxford again.

Andy

IWMN is a very different sort of museum to IWMD.

Personally I hate it. That in no way detracts from its value to others.

Moggy

…IWM and still The Great War comes a very poor second to the events of 1939-45.

I think that’s a bit unfair on the IWM if you include Lambeth which has a series of excellent exhibitions and items referring to W.W.I, and as a proportion of the displays there, is probably not significantly smaller if it is smaller (it all depends on measures, bias etc) than that devoted to W.W.II.

A measure of achievement could be mildly displeasing all of the people – it shows ballance, because (all together now) you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

There is of course the Land Warfare Hall, but I take your point as things stand. This will hopefully be addressed via aspects of AirSpace, and not just the RE8 and DH9. The problem will be that the approach is thematic, not chronological, so there is unlikely to be a traditional treatment of the 14-18 air war; the information and objects will be more dispersed than that e.g. small arms, rankin dart, and Hales bomb in the area devoted to the development of aerial weaponry, or Western Front aerial photography in the intelligence display. Just examples, but hopefully you see where I’m coming from.

So why hang the RE8 from the ceiling?
I thinks it’s safe to argue that the RE8 and BE2 are two of the most important British aircraft that are available to display there.
Without giving visitors an implicit understanding of the activities of these aircraft types in The Great War, there is in my honest, little point in displaying them at all.
It saddens me further that two people who have moved the boundaries of understanding of the activities of the RFC in that war, are employed by the IWM and still The Great War comes a very poor second to the events of 1939-45.

Andy

Jonathan -I thought the Air-Space project started out at something like 19 million !
Imagine what they could achieve at Newark wiith that money!

But doesn’t stop them virtually ignoring the events of 1914-18.

There is of course the Land Warfare Hall, but I take your point as things stand. This will hopefully be addressed via aspects of AirSpace, and not just the RE8 and DH9. The problem will be that the approach is thematic, not chronological, so there is unlikely to be a traditional treatment of the 14-18 air war; the information and objects will be more dispersed than that e.g. small arms, rankin dart, and Hales bomb in the area devoted to the development of aerial weaponry, or Western Front aerial photography in the intelligence display. Just examples, but hopefully you see where I’m coming from.

Visited IWMN last Saturday found it interesting but it isnt what i would describe as a museum as such.Its more of an opportunity to listen and learn about REAL life experiences ,to see how war and conflict effected the ordinary Joe/Josephine Soap .

Yes there are some historically interesting artifacts and displays…

That is a description of a museum – a contemporary museum that places military history in a more social history context so that the average visitor can better understand the subject and its significance. This results in fewer real historical things on display, which for those of us who have already taken it upon ourselves to learn something of the history, is often a disappointment.

The approach has its merits, however I do personally I think that you can still use the “human” angle, but that it is far better served by objects than a reliance on multimedia. The trend is still currently “light” on real things, but it should swing back the other way in the next five years or so, I think. Failing that, more open storage, where those visitors that are educated in a particular subject can skip straight to the “things”. Temporary exhibitions are another way to add levels of complexity and interest to what can otherwise be quite superficial displays, in an academic or specialist sense at least.

Visited IWMN last Saturday found it interesting but it isnt what i would describe as a museum as such.Its more of an opportunity to listen and learn about REAL life experiences ,to see how war and conflict effected the ordinary Joe/Josephine Soap .

Yes there are some historically interesting artifacts and displays but it isnt a Duxford or
even on the scale of the now displaced Ulster Aviation society museam (formerly at Langford lodge..hopefully somewhere else very very soon!!! )

So dont go there folks to see the metal rather listen to how War effects flesh and blood.

On a slightly different issue we also visited the Manchester science and industry museum and i was disappointed to note that many of the fine exibits there were coated in dust and dirt. Otherwise it is a fine display .

..and there I was looking forward to my trip to IWMN this weekend…

There’s no such attitude, as evidenced by the £26 million they’re dropping on a new flagship exhibition building dedicated to the story of British aviation. There will always be a focus upon the big projects during the planning, lead-in, establishment, and follow-up periods, but the focus has already switched from AAM to AirSpace.

Which is not to say that the story of the US(A)AF in Britain should be ignored.

But doesn’t stop them virtually ignoring the events of 1914-18.

I positively hate the pro America hang the rest attitude of Duxford

There’s no such attitude, as evidenced by the £26 million they’re dropping on a new flagship exhibition building dedicated to the story of British aviation. There will always be a focus upon the big projects during the planning, lead-in, establishment, and follow-up periods, but the focus has already switched from AAM to AirSpace.

Which is not to say that the story of the US(A)AF in Britain should be ignored.

Actually I can think of one museum that really benefits from gloom and darkness – The Pitt Rivers in Oxford, great creepy Victorian feel to the place, far too many exhibits and reception will even lend you a torch to read the labels.

Steve.

So it’s not just me? I made an effort to get to the Australian War Memorial to see the Lancaster and friends. I should have taken a flood light! Way too dark! Not to mention the Lancaster’s tail up in the air, and 3 feet from the wall… I particularly wanted to see that damn rear turret… oh well…

Could the low light levels be to prevent fading? An attempt to reduce costs? Or maybe just badly planned and now labelled ‘atmosphere’.

The breifing models lacked descriptions (I was left wanting to know more about the Peenemunda one).

Ahhh, Peenemunde, so that’s what it was! Someone must have nicked the placard.

Thanks Aeronut!

For those interested in military motorcycles, IWMN have a very early one on display. Don’t ask me what type it is because it’s parked on top of a wall at a height of about fifteen feet and you need a decent pair of binoculars (with night vision) to see it properly…what’s the point?

They also have a gun removed from a rare WW1 German tank when it was scrapped. The placard tells you this and even tells you what type of tank it was, but for those of us ignorant on the subject, it doesn’t include a photograph of the thing…what’s the point?

I could go on all day about this stuff…