Fun Friday - Museum of London

I spent my "Fun Friday" morning at the Museum of London this week.

Unfortunately, so did about 50 French high school students along with their wheelie carry on luggage.

They were rude, loud and annoying.  I felt like the queen on a rainy day.  Betty says, "Get out of my country!!"

Since we all entered the museum at the same time I tried to stay two jumps ahead of them by skipping the prehistoric and Roman Londons and going right to the War, Plague and Fire section.

 I collection coronation cups.  The oldest I have is from King George V in 1935.    This is from about 400 years earlier.  It would make a great addition to my collection.  Although, I'm a little grossed out by all that hair.

 The French kids caught up to me because I spent too long reading about the Great Fire - which was the best part of the museum.  So I hustled along to "Victorian Street".  This was similar to a museum that Jana and I went in in York that simulated the Victorian shops.  But in London they included a Victorian urinal.

 Let's face it, London is an amazing city with a fascinating history - half of which we Americans don't even know.  For example - what are the years of The Great Stink??  Anyone??

 1858 was a very odiferous year.  

These are the original elevators from Selfridges from the 1920's.

 The suffragette movement got quite a display.  I love how the men say "Let Them Starve"…as if the men wouldn't be starving right along with them if their wives weren't making their tea.

 What the hell is that hideous face on the "we want the vote" postcard??!!  Do only ugly women want to vote or does voting make you ugly?

 This little alcove shows a map that was made to show the economic standings of the city street by street.  Each street was color coded to delineate class.

 I couldn't resist from zooming in on my own neighborhood - - quite posh even in the old days.

What is more "London" than the red phone box?

 In the 1960's there was an anti-protein activist that became a very famous public fixture in the city.  His name was Stanley Green and this was his sign.

"He believed that too much protein caused uncontrollable sexual passions and unhappiness."

Meanwhile, people were wearing Beatles dresses….

 This museum was very interesting.  It wasn't about the Kings and Queens as much as it was about the everyday people - what they wore, who they cared about, what they did, how much money they had and what they fought for.    It wasn't a museum about beautiful things to look at but about the realities of living in a city that has been built, destroyed an built again.

I have to admit that my very favorite thing in the whole museum was in the shop.  It was this sticker activity book.  "Fun activities that tell the dreadful stories of the Great Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666."  WHAT?? What is the target age for a sticker book - FIVE??  My picture cuts off the upper picture of the plague where a man with a cart is shouting "Bring out your dead!" Monty Python stye.  Meanwhile, the people in the picture below are begging for help as a fire engulfs their homes.  Won't it be fun to put fire stickers over their faces?  Or to put more plague-dead sticker people into the man's cart?

This may be my most favorite London souvenir ever.