About
On this page we tell you about some of the things we have been doing at the museum.
The untimely death in October 2007 of museum trustee Mike Stevens was a shock to everyone at the museum and the wider waterways movement of which he was a prominent part. One of his major contributions to public understanding of waterways history was a series of over 230 maps of the waterways of England and Wales that illustrated the development of the system over two centuries. The maps were published on his personal website which is no longer maintained. A copy of the website has been archived in the museum. The map resource is a vast and valuable one and with the agreement of Mike's widow these have now been republished on the London Canal Museum site as a permanent memorial to their author as well as a valuable resource for the public benefit. They have added an increase of about one-third to the overall number of pages on the site. The maps may be found by looking at:
www.canalmuseum.org.uk/history/maps.htm
Visually Impaired People can now enjoy a comprehensive audio tour of the museum thanks to generous support from the City Bridge Trust. The project involved the writing of a special script, designed for those with limited or no vision. The tour was produced for the museum by Flexi Audio Tours. It operates by detecting the location of the visitor and automatically triggering the appropriate sound track for that location so even if the visitor gets lost, they will still hear the right part of the script.
There is no charge for the use of the tour, which is approporate for visually impaired people only. Those with vision should download our podcast tour (see below)
The
museum hosted one of the most unusual of launch events in mid-October with a
launch event for a duo who make a creuise through a long and arduous flight of
locks on the English canals seem like nothing. On the 2nd December 2007, Scott
McNaughton, partner at BDO Stoy Hayward and Neil Hunter, marine engineer in the
Royal Navy, are setting out to row from the Canary Islands to Antigua in the
Carribean in a little boat that is smaller than a narrowboat and largely open.
The launch event saw their boat parked outside - there being no nearby slipway
that would have made it possible to float it into the canal. Scott and Neil are
rowing for Diabetes UK and aim to make as much money as possible for that
charity. The journey will involve challenges not usually encountered on
London's canals, such as sharks, just to begin with, and weather conditions
that may be a little more challenging than in London. They don't expect to see
a Christmas tree during the festive season, or eat a turkey. The launch party
saw a charity auction for Diabetes UK, a display of pictures from Antigua, and
around 150 or more well-wishers heard a presentation about the dangers to be
faced by the courageous duo. The museum arranged communications for a mini
Internet cafe so that donations could be made online. You can follow tScot and
Neil's progress and make a donation or sponsor them by looking at their trip
website:
and there is a video presentation with pictures of the launch at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lU94vKHiSE
On 14th September the museum's new podcast tour went live. The museum is believed to be the first UK museum to offer a downloadable audio tour of its permanent exhibitions. Audio tours to download have been available from some museum websites in the USA for some time, and some UK museums, notably the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, have made good use of the format for other purposes such as background information, interviews with curators and for oral history. No UK museum is known to have done something comparable.
Anyone who has travelled on a London bus can attest that half the population of the City has a "thing in his or her ear" and in most cases that thing will be a device capable of playing the museum's new audio tour. MP3 players, Apple Ipods, handheld computers, PDAs and many mobile telephones are all capable of playing MP3 audio files. People will be more comfortable using their own gadget that they are used to controlling, than a device provided by the museum as is traditional for audio tours.
The podcast is accompanied by a "taster" called Introduction to London's Canals which whet's the appetite and is intended to be listened to not in the museum but on the train or bus, at home, or during a break at work!
The podcast has been designed with a clear purpose in mind, to enhance the value of a visit to the museum and add to the educational benefit of the visit as well as to be informative, entertaining, and enjoyable. It does not duplicate the exhibitions but adds to them, It is hoped to create more audio recordings in the future with an MP3 towpath walk a distinct possibility.
The podcast tour is suitable for anyone who can listen to an MP3 but for deaf and hearing-impaired visitors a transcript is also available in Adobe PDF format. Neither the podcast nor the transcript are available at the museum - they have to be downloaded from the website. This will usually be before a visit, although the museum is a Wi-Fi hotspot and those who bring a laptop or handheld computer with them could download it on site. It will also shortly be available via the museum WAPsite for mobiles.
See Podcast Tour page to download
A substantial amount of change to this website has been taking place as part of a long term programme of redevelopment. A number of pages have been converted to the pull-down menu format that is now used on most parts of the site. Some new sections have been created to encompass related pages and bring a more easily understood structure to the site. Due to the large size of the site it is not possible for all pages to be reached from every menu - to do so would mean menus that were unusably lengthy. The site has therefore been divided into sections, several of which are large websites in their own right.
If you notice anything that does not work correctly, please let the webmaster know by e-mailing webmaster@canalmuseum.org.uk.
The museum's audio tour for visually impaired visitors is nearly ready for installation. The script was recorded at a London studio in August and the tour is expected to be operation in September. The audio tour is the last of a series of improvements for disabled visitors funded by the Bridge House Trust. The tour will enable visually impaired and blind people to enjoy the exhibitions using a hand-held audio unit. Whilst there will be a suggested route, the system selected will recognise the location of the visitor and will automatically begin the appropriate dialogue when the visitor has reached that part of the building.
The
museum's project to create a large scale wall map of London's canal network has
been completed. The whole of the London area is covered and a great deal of
detail is combined with a style that will make the map easy for everyone to
appreciate and enjoy. There is an introductory panel just before the map,
showing the context of London in the waterways of England. The map is just over
2.5 metres wide. A lighting installation is in place to ensure it can be seen
easily. A low-level version of the map is provided for wheelchair users, on a
series of separate sheets, suspended on a poster display frame specially
imported from the United States, because it was not available in the UK.
Wheelchair users and anyone who wants to look very closely at the detail, will
therefore be well provided for. The map drew on earlier work by Richard Dean
who kindly gave his permission for re-use of some of his work. Richard's map is
on sale in the museum shop. A great deal of development work has been done by
London Canal Museum staff and the map has been designed by a map specialist
working with the Continuum Group, who have been for some years the museum's
main designers. The map project has been the product of a huge amount of work
behind the scenes in historical research, specification, and project
management, and in checking and updating the draft versions until we were as
sure as humanly possible that no errors remained.
An upgrade to the museum's exhibition on the ice trade has been
completed with additional panels, new labels, and repositioned artifacts,
together with additional scenic effects to show how ice handling was carried
out. Mock ice blocks have been made to fit on the wall to show the way in which
ice dogs were used to grasp the blocks of ice.
The overall design of the changes was carried out in-house, with design of the graphic panels by Continuum Group, and design and manufacture of the scenic ice blocks, and installation work by London scenic design company Russel Beck Studios.
The photograph also shows the new case for the horse and cart model, and the foundation stone mentioned in other news items.
The final project in our programme to improve access for disabled visitors is an audio tour for the visually impaired, and work is now progressing on the development of the script for this. Specialist firm Flexi Audio Tours are producing the tour in close consultation with the museum. The tour will offer blind and partially signted people a guide using hand-held units that will be activated automatically from a series of trigger points around the building.
The museum's delightful 19th century model of one of the Gatti company's horses and ice carts has been cleaned by a conservator and redisplayed in a brand new, state of the art display case. The model has been in the museum for some years having been donated by Mr Roy Guest. It was in good condition but dirty and a few minor repairs were needed. The existing wooden case, probably also made in the 1890s, did not meet modern safety standards for museum display cases, and offered very poor protection to the model from mischievous interference by visitors, accident, airborne dust, and variations in atmospheric conditions. A contribution to the conservation part of the project was received from ALM London. The case was funded by the Canal Museum Trust. The state-of-the-art case provides for climate control, robust security and protection, and improves access to the object a great deal by the use of low-reflectivity glass.
A foundation stone laid in December 1872 by Carlo Gatti's wife and
daughter has been rescued from the building in which it rested for 132 years,
following demolition. It has now been cleaned by Cliveden Conservation, a firm
of specialist stone conservators, and displayed on the museum's wall. No 455
Caledonian Road was built near to the cattle market and slaughter houses which
were big customers for the ice trade. Some ten years before, an ice well had
been dug there but it was not until 1872 that an associated building was
constructed including a cover for the well and office accommodation. The
inscription on the stone reads "This stone was laid by Mrs C. Gatti and
M** R Gatti" She was almost certainly Rosa Gatti who married a cousin and
was therefore a Gatti both before and after marriage. However her husband had
died in 1870. In those days it was usual for a married woman to be described
as, for instance "Mrs Carlo Gatti" after her husband. After the
husband's death, Rosa may have reverted to her own Christian name in formal
titles. When the stone was received into the museum, the Mrs was partly
covered. This was found to be paper and paint analysis shows the paper to have
been a relatively recent addition. We remain therefore mystified by the
modification! The museum is grateful to Falcon Demolition for their willingness
to pass on the stone to us.
