LONDONBy seeing London, said Samuel Johnson, I have seen as much of life as the world can shew. The great scholar (1709-1784) was very keen on the city, but he didnt know the half of it. If hed been able to tour the Museum of London, which reopened in May 2010 after a £20-million refurbishing, hed have seen and been delighted even more.
Hed have learned, for example, that at one time the River Thames was a tributary of the Rhine and that hippos, lions and monkeys used to forage in what is now Covent Garden.
He probably knew that the Romans founded London, as Londinium, soon after they arrived in Britain in AD 43, but it would have been news to him that they overbuilt their public baths and had to tear them down because they couldnt afford the upkeep. He would have been shocked to discover that, when the last Roman legions pulled out in AD 407, Londons population drifted off, leaving the city an empty ruin for more than 200 years.
The Museum of London, which looks out on one of the remaining Roman walls, treats everything that has happened on the site of the city as its province, from half-a-million years ago to the present, but it is especially strong in certain areas. The Roman period, for one, since new archaeological evidence from that era turns up just about time someone digs down a couple of metres.
Some of the Roman-age finds are eye-catching, such as the 43 gold coins discovered under a home in Fenchurch Street. Others bring the past alive in smaller ways. A bit of graffiti inscribed in a wet clay tile 2,000 years ago tells us that, For the last 13 days Australis has been wandering off on his own every day.
The accession of Elizabeth I, the Great Plague of 1665, the Great Fire of 1666all are recounted. By Samuel Johnsons agethe mid-18th centuryLondon had overtaken Paris as Europes largest city and had more than 500 coffee houses. What did the rich wear then? In the newly installed Pleasure Garden a series of film vignettes presents the strolling upper classes, chattering like theyre in a Sheridan play and showing off their finery.
Beyond Johnsons day, Victorian-age London is also well represented, with an entire shopping street recreated. We learn that in 1898, when Harrods installed Londons first escalator, nervous shoppers using it were offered smelling salts.
If theres a bit of history where the museum isnt quite generous enough with its display space it is, surprisingly, the Second World War. The London Blitz, 11 straight weeks of bombing by the Luftwaffe in the autumn of 1940, destroyed a million homes and killed more than 20,000, but failed in its intention to demoralize the population. In a small screening room survivors share their recollections of events, and it is moving, but the scope of the destruction and the resilience of the people seem to demand greater prominence. Johnson would have had something pithy to say, no doubt.
For more information, visit its website at museumoflondon.org.uk.
John Masters is a member of the Meridian Writers Group.
