Londinium - the iphone version

  

THE MUSEUM OF LONDON HAS JOINED FORCES WITH TV CHANNEL HISTORY™ TO DEVELOP A NEW, ADVANCED VERSION OF STREETMUSEUM, WHICH GIVES YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE ROMAN LONDON AS IT WAS 2,000 YEARS AGO

Streetmuseum™ Londinium directs you to locations across the capital where you can immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of Roman London. As you’re guided around the city you’ll unearth exquisite artefacts as if discovering them for the first time and reveal the stories of life in Londinium. From leather bikini briefs to hoards of gold coins, you can digitally excavate Roman artefacts where they were found, using your finger to dig or by simply blowing on your iPhone (blow mode only available on iPhone).

Key Roman sites in London, such as the amphitheatre at Guildhall, are brought to life through augmented reality video – produced by HISTORY™ – which re-enacts scenes of Roman London against today’s modern backdrop. Soundscapes also allow you to listen to the hustle and bustle of the forum or the sounds of ritual incantation at the Temple of Mithras. (AR mode only available on iPhone).

All these immersive experiences are brought together on a new map of Roman London – compiled and produced by Museum of London Archaeology – which is superimposed on a modern map of the capital, allowing you to see how the city has changed and grown over the last 2,000 years.

You can also use the map to follow a guided walk around the visible Roman remains of the city, to see what is left of Londinium in 21st century London. With all these features in just one app, you’ll have everything you need to reveal the hidden London which lies beneath your feet.

Want to continue London’s story? Visit the Museum of London to discover how the capital became the vibrant world city it is today, and to examine many of the artefacts featured on this app up close.

Streetmuseum™ Londinium is available nowfor iPhones and iPads and is free to download.

TAKE A TOUR | iPAD | iPHONE

I | II | III | IV | V |

TAKE A TOUR | iPAD | iPHONE

I | II | III | IV | V |

TAKE A TOUR | iPAD | iPHONE

London Mayoral Elections £3billion on social housing at stake

This years Mayoral elections in Greater London have an added importance. The Tory/LibDem coalition government have granted the Mayor an extra £3billion to spend on social housing under Eric Pickles Localism Bill as the Mayor takes on new responsibilities for housing and regeneration (click here for more). So depending what kind of Mayor you vote for - might depend what kind of housing you get! Time to scrutinise those candidates harder  (click here  for candidate list)

East End Dwellings (co Ltd), a photo by david sankey on Flickr.

housing over hertford union cut, a photo by david sankey on Flickr.

This And That, a photo by Dave Gorman on Flickr.  (student housing blue - social housing brick)

Liberty Hall, a new landmark building for Dublin?

Individual landmarks have a powerful influence over great tracts of land, and towns and cities. One such is Liberty Hall in Dublin. The name is redolent of purpose. This place is intended to be of far wider significance than the form and fabric of a building. SIPTU, the trades union inheritors of this building have obtained planning permission to demolish the existing 16-storey building and construct a 22-storey tower with greater facilities for the public (theatre, heritage centre, viewing platform)

The current 1960s building was the tallest building in Dublin and commands views along the river Liffey (building on the left behind the Ha'penny Bridge, click here for more). Although more recently taller buildings have been constructed, a general antipathy to tower blocks has meant that Liberty Hall remains an icon building, one that is used by Dublin citiens and visitors to orientate themselves physically (and arguably socially?).

The origin of its prominent position was in an earlier Liberty Hall, headquarters of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, who led the wider Dublin trades union movement through a general lockout in 1913, under the leadership of Jim Larkin (A statue of whom stands prominently in O'|Connell Street, right  click here for original) and James Connolly.

They went on to form -under the leadership of James Connolly- the Irish Citizens Army and the original Liberty Hall became a command and control centre (as well as an armoury) for the 1916 Easter uprising, which proclaimed an independent republic and from which the modern Irish state traces its origin.

SINN FEIN RISING - LIBERTY HALL  (film opens in new window)

Irish Citizen Army outside Liberty Hall, lined up under a banner proclaiming "We serve neither King nor Kaiser, but Ireland!"

Liberty Hall, a photo by National Library of Ireland on The Commons on Flickr. 

NLI Ref.: Ke 198

View Liberty Hall in a larger map

Altab Ali Park - placemaking, -naming and identity in Whitechapel

Max Levitas, (Communist councillor of the former Stepney Borough, of Jewish heritage) a veteran of the 1936 Battle of Cable Street, addresses the crowd at Altab Ali Day, May 4th 2012, from the Shaheed Minar, a copy of the Bangladesh memorial to the Bengal language martyrs of the 1950s. For more photos click here

 click here for photos

Altab Ali Park has been has been revamped to designs by MUF ArtArchitecture.  The Park was named after a local clothing worker who was brutally murdered by racists in the 1970s  in Adler Street (named after a famous rabbi). It was formed out of the churchyard for St Mary Matfelon (photo of the 19th-c church left, after a fire). A great many famous - or infamous - people were buried in the churchyard, including the executioner when  Charles I was beheaded (Richard Brandon , tho' he may not have wielded the fatal blow).
The church is first referred to in the 13th century, though its origin may be substantially earlier than that. It became a parish church in the 14th century and it leant its common name of the White Chapel, to the parish and district of Whitechapel. There are no reliable images of the medieval church, but it is known to have been extended in 1591. The medieval church, with its short square tower, is first shown on the Faithorne and Newcourt map of 1658. In 1673 the medieval church was in such a poor state that it had to be demolished. The new church is clearly shown on the Ogilby and Morgan map of 1676. Burials ceased in the churchyard in 1854 and in the 1870s the church was rebuilt again. The remains of the medieval church were discovered in the 1870s after the demolition of the 17th-century church. Observations were recorded by George Birch who stated “on removing the brick walls of the seventeenth century church it was found that they had been entirely built on the old walls of the medieval church”. The new church was barely built when it suffered a fire (pictured) and was rebuilt to look the same. This church was bombed during WW2.
The park was rejuvenated by High Street 2012 and the park reopened formally on March 12th 2012
The design of the new park was informed by an archaeological evaluation

Community dig

and watching brief

Art-off at Altab Ali Park, a set on Flickr

Making Christian Landscapes Conference - September 2012

MAKING CHRISTIAN LANDSCAPES:
CONVERSION AND CONSOLIDATION IN EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE
The Society for Church Arcaheology Annual Conference,
Archaeology Department, University College Cork,
21-23 September 2012
Landscapes across Europe were transformed, both physically and conceptually, as a result of the conversion to Christianity and the development of ecclesiastical structures during the early medieval period. This interdisciplinary conference will seek to illuminate this process through case studies of particular landscapes. Speakers will consider a range of settlement and ritual/burial sites as well as territorial divisions and routeways in order to explore where and how people chose, or were obliged, to live, worship and be buried and how this changed over time. Some papers will focus on the initial process of conversion while others will also consider changes in the nature of people's relationships with ecclesiastical sites and structures over the course of the period.

The conference forms part of the Making Christian Landscapes Project and is the 2012 annual conference of the Society for Church Archaeology. It is organised by the Archaeology Department, University College Cork, the School of Historical Studies, University of Newcastle, and the Society for Church Archaeology.

DETAILS:
Fieldtrip
On Friday 21 September there will be an optional fieldtrip to the Ring of Kerry (Iveragh Peninsula), a landscape particularly rich in early ecclesiastical remains. Bus departs 8:00 am from Gaol Cross in UCC (see directions below).

Conference
The conference proper will take place in Boole 1 lecture theatre, UCC, on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23. Those who have not pre-registered can do so from 8:30 am outside the theatre (see below).

Speakers Include
Edel Bhreathnach (Dublin), Gill Boazman (Cork), John Henry Clay (Durham), Nancy Edwards (Bangor), Julio Escalona (Madrid), Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir (Reykjavík), Élisabeth Lorans (Rouen), Paul MacCotter (Cork), Adrián Maldonado (Glasgow), Richard Morris (Huddersfield),  Sæbjørg Walaker Nordeide (Bergen), Tomás Ó Carragáin (Cork), José Carlos Sánchez Pardo (Santiago de Compostela), Thomas Pickles (York), Sam Turner (Newcastle), Élisabeth Zadaro-Rio (Tours)

Download Conference Poster (PDF)
MCL Poster (302kB)

REGISTRATION:
Delegates can register online, by cheque or on arrival (8:30 am outside Boole 1 lecture theatre, UCC). Note that registration at least three weeks before the conference is essential if you wish to attend the conference dinner and to guarantee a place on the field trip.

Friday field trip 
€15 / £13 (price does not include lunch)

Saturday/Sunday Conference
Adult two days: €35 / £30
Adult one day: €20 / £16
Student two days: €20 / £16
Student one day: €12 / £10
Prices include light lunch(es) and morning and afternoon tea/coffee.

Saturday Conference Dinner
€30 / £26 (The River Lee Hotel, 8pm)

Click here for online registration

Alternatively, registration forms can be posted to one of the addresses below:

NB: Please print and send MCL Registration Form (632kB) with your postal registration

Euro or GBP cheques made payable to the 'Archaeology Department, University College Cork' can be sent to:
Dr Tomás Ó Carragáin,
Archaeology Department,
University College Cork,
Cork,
Ireland

or

Members of the Society for Church Archaeology can send cheques payable to the Society to:
Michael Shapland,
Conference Coordinator,
Society for Church Archaeology,
162 Elgar Road,
Reading RG2 0BN,
UK

TRAVEL, ACCOMMODATION AND DIRECTIONS:

For information on accommodation near University College Cork see:
http://www.ucc.ie/en/conferencing/accommodation/

For information on travel to UCC see:
http://www.ucc.ie/en/visitors/getting-here/

Friday Fieldtrip: Bus departs 8:00am from Gaol Cross in UCC. Directions from the Main Quadrangle, UCC: walk through the large archway in the North Wing of the Main Quad. Take the second left downhill and through a 19th-century limestone gateway. Continue on and take the first (and only) right over the bridge. You should then be able to see the bus parked near Castlewhite Apartments, No. 18 (E5) on
this map

Saturday/Sunday Conference: Boole 1 Lecture Theatre, UCC, No. 10 (F6) on
this map

Registration from 8:30am  Papers begin at 9am.

See also:
Cork City Council
CorkTourist.com The Cork Guide

The organisers gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance provided by the Heritage Council and by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, under the Built Heritage element of the Environment Fund, towards this conference.

Rural Landscape Conference, Leeuwarden/Ljouwert, Terschelling, Netherlands

• Introduction
• The conference
  • Statement of the conference
  • Conference themes
  • Field trips of the conference
  • Post-conference excursion
  • Conference location
• Programme
  • Programme papers & posters
  • Programme
• Call for Abstracts
  • Instructions
  • Submission
• Registration
  • Registration
  • Newsletter registration
• Contact

News
Last update: 9-3-2012

• Preliminary programme

  The preliminary schedule and the preliminary programme of the 25th PECSRL ...
  
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• Early Bird Registration

  Registration for PECSRL 2012 is now possible. It is recommended to register ...
  
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• Extended deadline

  The extended deadline for submission of abstracts of papers and posters is ...
  
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Introduction

The Permanent European Conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape

Reflection on landscape change:
the European perspective

25th session - 20-24 August, 2012
Leeuwarden & Terschelling, The Netherlands

Organized by:      and    

The 25th session of the PECSRL biennial international conference will be held on 20-24 August 2012. As usual the conference is held at two locations: in the town Leeuwarden and on the island Terschelling, both in the northern part of The Netherlands. The congress will be organized by the Fryske Akademy (Frisian Academy) in co-operation with the Waddenacademie for the PECSRL network. The conference is planned for a maximum of 200 attendants. 

Besides paper sessions, a poster presentation, workshops and general meetings there is one full day of field trips to provide the PECSRL-participants with a detailed knowledge of the rural landscapes in the host country. The conference offers ample facilities for meeting colleagues from all parts of Europe, for getting informed about various aspects of European landscape research and for initiating new projects.

The conference brings together geographers, ecologists, social scientists, landscape architects, historians, archaeologists, landscape managers and planners, as well as other scholars and practitioners interested in European landscapes.

---

Fryske Akademy | Doelestraat 8 | 8911 DX Leeuwarden | T +31 (0) 58 - 23 47 111 | E info@pecsrl2012.com

Zarina Bhimji

Whitechapel Art Gallery, 19 January - 9 March 2012, Galleries 1, 8 & 9

Zarina Bhimji

Landscapes and buildings haunted by their layered histories are the protagonists in British artist Zarina Bhimji’s photographs and large-scale film installations. India and East Africa are the repeat locations for her poetic foray into the archaeology of place.

This first major survey exhibition traces 25 years of Bhimji’s work. It opens with the premiere of her long-awaited film, YellowPatch (2011), inspired by trade and migration across the Indian Ocean. Desolate yet beautiful close-up images of abandoned Haveli palaces and colonial offices in Mumbai harbour give way to atmospheric renditions of the desert and the sea, all accompanied by an evocative soundtrack. Yellow Patchcomplements the renowned film Out of Blue (2002), an arresting visual journey across Uganda, its elegiac terrain disturbed by the sound of fire, birds and human voices.

Zarina Bhimji was born in Mbarara, Uganda in 1963 to Indian parents, and moved to Britain in 1974, two years after the expulsion of Uganda’s Asian community in the Idi Amin era. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2007.

Rarely seen earlier works are presented alongside these ambitious film narratives. Combining black-and-white photographs with colourful spices, She Loved to Breathe- Pure Silence(1987), comments on controversial immigration protocols in Britain during the 1970s, while photographs taken in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Gamble Room and its galleries of Indian art in 1989 pay a tender tribute to this treasure trove of late nineteenth-century Britain.

Lightboxes and large format photographs from Cleaning the Garden (1998), first commissioned for Harewood House, Leeds, and the Love Series (2001–06), panoramic photographs rooted in the research for Out of Blue (2002) are also on view.

Admission free

Zarina Bhimji is organised in collaboration with Kunstmuseum Bern.

Yellow Patch (2011) simultaneously premieres at The New Art Gallery Walsall.

Supported by Amrita Jhaveri, Karima and Gaurav Burman and the Acne White/Art T-shirt Project.

Images:

Bapa Closed His Heart, It Was Over. 2001-2006. Ilfochrome Ciba Classic Print.121.9 x 154.4 cm. Courtesy the artist and DACS, London. Shadows and Disturbances. 2007. Ilfochrome Ciba Classic Print. 127 x 160 cm. Courtesy the artist and DACS, London. Your Sadness is Drunk. 2001-2006. Ilfochrome Ciba Classic Print.121.9 x 154.4 cm. Courtesy the artist and DACS, London. 

The WORCESTER PARK Blog: The Lost World of Worcester Park House

Republished from:

The WORCESTER PARK Blog: The Lost World of Worcester Park House:  Blog reader and keen local historian Jeff has sent me this rarely-seen aerial photograph of Worcester Park taken in the summer of 1937. It was captured by Charles Brown, who took the photograph because the newly-formed Cuddington Residents Association were fighting a plan to develop the site.

Local history buffs... will of course recognise the property as 'Worcester Park House'. (It replaced the 1607 building by the 4th Earl of Worcester. This house was...)Constructed in 1795, the imposing Worcester Park House was inhabited from 1875 by about 8 unmarried brothers and sisters who lived there in some style.


Jeff has investigated the history of the house and has pieced together the story of its final occupants. His research has uncovered that by 1937 there were only two occupants left and in July 1937 when this photo was taken one of them, Nina Wheeler, died.
The last remaining occupant, Laura, laid off the 8 servants and had moved out by 1938 leaving the 30 room House empty. The photo by Charles Brown is believed to be the last ever picture of Worcester Park House in its full glory.
After Laura moved out, the house was never again inhabited. One of the wings was hit by a bomb in the war and in 1948 the whole place burnt down. The ornamental lake dried up, the ornatebalustraded bridge collapsed and nature reclaimed her own.
Much of the area today is almost impenetrable wilderness. There have been some incursions: theHogsmill Tavern in the 1950s and in the 1970s two housing developments and two special needs schools but about the majority of the estate remains as wilderness.
The area is owned by Epsom and Ewell Council who have distant plans to develop the area with 'social housing and amenities'.
Jeff told the Worcester Park Blog:
'There will be a hell of a fight if they try as it is the 'lungs' of this end of Worcester Park helping to counteract pollution from the Kingston and Ewell bypasses.

When the time comes we will probably find an endangered species of newts in the area to prevent development, even if we have to introduce the newts ourselves!"

Today, only a few discernable remnants of Worcester Park House can be found:
"If you've ever driven down Church Road/Old Malden Lane you will have noticed the ruined house on the right before the hauliers yard, that's Worcester Park Lodge which was the stables of Worcester Park House and stands opposite what was the main entrance to the grounds of Worcester Park House.

I've made two incursion in there from the Grafton Road side but the area where the house, ponds and bridge were couldn't be reached due to a boggy ditch and impenetrable brambles so next time I shall enter it by the opening next to the Hogsmill Tavern."

The area once occupied by Worcester Park House became a popular destination for generations of adventurous school kid explorers particularly in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
Perhaps readers of the Worcester Park Blog have their own childhood recollections of the Lost World of Worcester Park House (and grounds)?..

Xcavate! Dorset's Community Archaeologist: Community archaeology publication

Xcavate! Dorset's Community Archaeologist: Community archaeology publication: This is the publication from the 2006 conference at the Institute of Archaeology, UCL. It is an assessment of the aims, results and validit...

Putting participation back into archaeology ---Christ Tripp is an inspiration (if a tad hippyish, sigh). Anyroad-up PARTICIPATION is a legal requirement for Landscape policy, now we've signed up to the European Landscape Convention (click here for more) . But how much Participation is actually takes place?