Assignment 2: Museum of London

I have to be completely honest when beginning this one... I thought this museum was one of the more boring ones we've visited.  It could be the fact that we chose to go about a month after we arrived in the city and we kind of know some about the place now, but I just didn't take that much interest in it.  I think the fact that also go to a museum once a week for art class was a contributing factor as well - when we're in class, we have someone guiding us through it and pointing out certain things to look at while providing an explanation of things.  That helps draw my attention much more than when I go alone... I've never been much of a museum browser but I did my best!

Something that I probably enjoyed most about the museum was the section on the Great Fire.  I'd learned about it previously in history classes, but not in much depth.  We also talked about it a bit on one of our first tours during the week we arrived in London.  I think I was interested in it because I got to see certain venues that the the fire actually destroyed and was able to compare the modern buildings that are there today.  I did also learn a lot of other facts about the fire that I didn't know about before, such as blaming certain people for the fire.  I thought it was interesting that so many different groups of people were blamed for the fire, regardless of the fact that they had nothing to do with it.  Anyone from Catholics, to Spaniards, to God Himself were all blamed for causing the fire for a variety of reasons that no one could really explain.  The most widely accepted cause states that a fire broke out in the kitchen of a baker - that, combined with a very dry summer caused the fire to spread extremely rapidly with little hope of it being extinguished.

I also thought it was interesting that the number of people that died as a result of the fire isn't known.  Some information at the museum said that because cold weather and lack of housing were very common, it was extremely difficult to tell which deaths were from that, and which deaths were a direct result of the fire.

Some other things that interested me about the museum were the amount of tools they had discovered and had on display.  It was hard to believe that so many tools could have been preserved over such a long period of time, and dated so accurately that they were found to be thousands of years old.  I guess I think of London as a historical city, but in a more medieval context than anything.  The tools I saw put things into perspective and were a good account of how old the city really is.

Overall, like I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed parts of the museum, but overall it hasn't been one of my favorites.  Maybe I'll go check it out again when I'm feeling especially studious.....