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Museums Explore 20th Century London With Collaborative Website
By Graham Spicer
02/10/2006
The website has digitised records of some 8,000 images, sound files and database records. This ticket dates from 1908. © Museum of London
A new website has been launched creating an online encyclopaedia telling the story of 20th century London.
Exploring 20th Century London draws on some 8,000 objects from the collections of four London museums to explore the rich diversity of life in the capital.
The site is packed with original photos, images of artefacts, sounds files and database records from the Museum of London, London’s Transport Museum, the Jewish Museum and the Museum of Croydon.
Youth subcultures from the Hells' Angels (this jacket is from a Croydon biker of the late 1960s) to mods, teddy boys and punks. © Croydon Museum and Heritage Service
“Exploring 20th Century London presents a hundred years of London and Londoners through a technology born in the century whose story it tells,” said Jack Lohman, director of the Museum of London.
Viewers can search by location, using an interactive map, by decade on the site’s timeline, or by theme. Subjects as diverse as art and design, migration and transport, politics, communities, youth culture and fashion are all covered.
They reveal some uprising tales, from why thousands thronged the streets for a Highgate bus driver’s funeral to where Bollywood films first arrived in the UK.
Image: black and white photo of the inside of a synagogue
This picture of Western Synagogue off the Haymarket was taken between 1910 and 1914. It was closed in 1991. © Jewish Museum, London
The project brings the largest collection of images from the four museums ever made accessible online. London’s Transport Museum unearthed many items previously unseen by members of the public during their research for the website.
Funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) Designation Challenge Fund and the London Museums’ Hub it is part of a wider project by the MLA to make the records held in the UK’s museums, libraries and archives available to a wider audience.
“I’m extremely excited by the opportunities this website affords us to make our collections and holdings more widely accessible,” added Jack Lohman. “It is a key example of museums forging new partnerships and working practices, and will work as a pilot model for future projects, in the London Museums’ Hub and beyond.”
Museum of London
Museum of London, London Wall, London, EC2Y 5HN, England
T: 0870 444 3852
Open: Museum and Shop opening times:
Open daily 10am to 6pm.
Last admission 5.30pm
Café opening times:
Open 10.00am to 5.00pm
Closed: 24-26 December
London Transport Museum
London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, London, WC2E 7BB, England
T: 020 7565 7299
Open: Sat-Thurs 10:00-18:00 (last admission 17:15)
Fri11:00-21:00 (last admission 20:15)
Jewish Museum, Camden Town
Jewish Museum, Raymond Burton House, 129-131 Albert Street, Camden Town, London, NW1 7NB, England
Open: The Jewish Museum is currently closed for major redevelopment project until summer 2009. The £9million project will transform the Museum creating new galleries, exhibitions and displays illustrating Jewish history, culture and religious life as part of Britain’s diverse heritage. While closed, the Museum continues to offer a wide range of events, exhibitions (on tour around the country) and education programmes. Visitors can keep in touch by joining the Museum's e-mailing list. Email subscribers receive advance notice of the Museum’s programme of events. To sign up online visit www.jewishmuseum.org.uk
Closed: until summer 2009
Jewish Museum, Finchley
This Museum is now closed, and its collections will be amalgamated with those of the Jewish Museum in Camden Town, when it re-opens in the Summer 2009. To find out more about the Museum, its collections and its current events programme visit www.jewishmuseum.org.uk
Open: Closed - its collections are moving to Camden Town and will re-open in Summer 2009
Croydon Museum and Heritage Service
Croydon Museum and Heritage Service, Croydon Clocktower, Katharine Street, Croydon, CR9 1ET, England
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