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On this page we tell you about some of the things we have been doing at the museum. Using Twitter, you can follow the day-to-day life of the museum. We report on what's going on in the museum, what's being done for the future development of the museum, and of course keep you up to date about events, using the Twitter service. The stories below are more detailed reports on things that we have been doing at the museum.
The museum has installed
a hot drinks vending machine for the first time, offering visitors a choice of
tea, coffee, soup, or chocolate, at 70p. It had long been understood that
visitors want a hot drink during their visit, especially in the winter, but as
there is not enough space in the museum for a cafe, and the economics of a cafe
would be rather uncertain, it was decided to install a machine so that hot
drinks would always be available. Although mainly intended for daytime
visitors, the machine will also be available to guests at private functions and
people attending our monthly illustrated evening talks on canal-related topics.
The advanced machine is expected to be highly reliable and it includes a
sohisticated automatic coin management system that retains coins for change and
provides change for any UK coin.
The museum has added a new permanent display panel to interpret the tug Bantam IV. The tug has been explained in a variety of different ways over the years since the museum acquired it in 1994. All of these were intended to be temporary. The most recent of these was removed to make way for the Water and Locks exhibition.
For the first time, this interpretation is outside, in a location chosen to be close to the usual mooring of the tug itself. Careful thought was given to the idea of putting an exhibition panel on an outside wall and a mock-up was made and photographed before the museum's Council of Management were satisfied that the panel would not be deleterious to the historic building. Planning permission had to be obtained, and this was granted in the summer.
Visitors to the museum can now look at the tug and read about it in the same outdoor location, the first time that this has been possible.
The celebrated artist and illustrator
Quentin Blake visited the museum on 25th September 2011 on his way to launch
The Big Draw 2011 at nearby King's Place. The museum also joined in the day by
creating a Big Drawing, some 30 feet long, on which all the work was done by
visitors, with a few contributions by staff. Quentin Blake kindly drew the
first contribution to our Big Drawing.
At 1200 he climbed aboard the tug Bantam IV for a short journey across Battlebridge Basin where a large pink ribbon had been hoisted across a stretch of water between dry land and a "Floating Forest", created on a pontoon by artistic organisation The Kindest Group.
The museum has, for the second time, won the Sandford Award for heritage education. This award is given by the Heritage Education Trust, a charity set up to promote excellence in museum and heritage site education provision. All their awards are assessed by a panel of independent judges after a judge has made a site visit and watch educational activities taking place. Only 200 sites around the UK have this accreditation of their standards in providing educational services.
The award panel's citation said:The setting of the London Canal Museum offers a great opportunity to experience the outdoors in this part of London. A visit to the canal, either by narrow boat or on the towpath is a special part of the day thoroughly enjoyed by the children and the accompanying adults. The role of children in London's industrial past is explored in an accessible way, giving the children an insight into how different life was for the local young in the past.
The judges report included the comment that: They [the children] were full of awe and wonder from the outset and by the end of the day they had had many memorable experiences.
The museum previously won the award, which expires after five years.
The museum has moved all its pre-bookable events and trips to an online booking system that offers significant advantages for customers. Over the last few years a growing number of pre-bookable events have taken place. Summer tunnel trips, Halloween trips, and Roses and Castles workshops all require booking in advance. The old method was to print paper tickets and sell these in the museum shop. Customers could apply online for tickets and these bookings would be processed in the shop at the next opportunity, which might not be on the same day. In order to maintain strict security only a couple of people dealt with this process. Whilst the system worked it was cumbersome, took up a good deal of administrative time, and did not provide instant availability and immediate booking around the clock.
The new online system is provided by Chycor Ltd, a west of England firm that has its roots in the holiday accommodation booking business. They have developped a ticketing system that is adapted to the needs of small-scale trip operators such as heritage railways and ourselves. Payment is processed through Paypal, the world's leading online payment processor, and security of customers' sensitive card data is therefore dealt with by Paypal. Neither Chycor nor the museum has access to customer card data, which makes the management of security easier.
The great advantages for customers are that availability can be viewed online at any time of the day or night and bookings made there and then from anywhere in the world. This is a big step forward in functionality. Confirmation is by e-mail within a few minutes.
On 20th June a Bolinder 9hp engine was delivered to the museum and installed on the first floor in a specialist operation using an electric indoor crane and winches, jacks and other handling equipment. Bolinder was the most famous and popular of the early canal boat engines. Apart from the operational Lister JP2 in the museum's Bantam IV tug, this is the first time that the museum has had an early boat engine in its collection and exhibition.
The engine is not in working order but is externally complete.
Whilst it could possibly be restored, it is not the museum's intention to get
it running again. Rather, it will remain as a static exhibit that will enable
us to better tell the story of the massive change that occurred on the canals
mostly between about 1920 and 1935. The replacement of horse power by engine
power began in 1911, but, like most change, it took time to carry through.
Engines made by Bolinder, in Sweden, were the most popular of the early canal
boat engines. The museum's new engine has been added to the exhibitions on the
first floor as part of the "canal craft" exhibition area.
This substantial addition to the museum's exhibitions was not planned in advance but was the result of a rarely occurring offer for sale of a suitable Bolinder engine. Non-working engines in displayable condition are varely available and when one became available the museum responded swiftly to negotiate the purchase. Transport and installation had to be carried out by a specialist contractor because the engine is heavy and needed to be taken to the first floor, a task for which the museum's own team did not have the expertise or resources.
London Canal Museum's offering for the annual Museums at Night festival drew a large audience of around 250 people over the course of the evening. The event was a candle-lit display of the musem and of a range of works of art by some 15 different artists. The art forms included photography, video, sculpture, painting, and mixed media creations. Museums at Night gets bigger every year and an increasing number of museums take part. We used something like 60 candles to light the first and ground floors, and with the addition of all the artworks, a sound artist performing, and the offer of guided tours in the semi-darkness, a unique atmosphere was created. Pictures are available on our Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/groups/lcmatnight2011/
The museum has now completed a project known internally as the "sign light project" to improve the museum's external signage. At the front of the building the old and deteriorating wooden hanging sign was replaced with a modern sign of larger size that is lit by an unobtrusive luminaire mounted on the window sill at first floor level. The luminaire was recently changed to one that distributes the light more evenly.
At
the rear a custom installation has been completed that lights the words "London
Canal Museum" that are painted on the rolled steel joist above the rear glazed
screen. A small glare shield has been made to fit and stuck to the RSJ, painted
to match, so that it is hardly noticable in the daytime. Behind this sits a
strip of LED uplights that light the lettering.
Both installations are controlled by automatic timeswitches that turn on the lights at dusk and switch them off before 2330 each evening. These devices calculate the time of dusk by reference to the geographical location and the date, which means that no external light sensor is required. Because the building is a historic one, great care is always taken to ensure nothing is done to detract from its appearance.
Although quite an expensive project, we believe the improvements will benefit the museum in the long term due to increased visibility in the local area.
The photograph was taken from the desk of the museum's Bantam tug, which did service as a photography platform on the evening that the installation was completed!
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