‘Ace cafe with quite a nice ancient monument attached?’

‘Ace cafe with quite a nice ancient monument attached?’ Original article by Alison Feeney-Hart

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24335517

We were emailed the link to this article by Alison Feeney-Hart earlier in the week, by one of our lecturers and it immediately reminded me of a discussion we once had in our a-level archaeology class. Pete was a fantastic teacher, the Mick Aston of the Archaeology department, but he voiced some strong concerns about these proposals when they were first discussed. Part of the appeal and intrigue that surrounds Stonehenge hinges on the fact that this prehistoric monument stands alone on the Salisbury Plain. As you drive along the A303 your attention is immediately grabbed by this enigmatic site that dominates the landscape. Why then would you want to put a £27 million visitor centre near the site? Surely it will detract from its ancient beauty.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stonehenge/

It’s one of those situations where you can appreciate both sides of the argument. You can hardly deny that shops and cafés are both an added bonus to the visitor but also a lucrative source of revenue for historic places. Talking from personal experience, I know family fridges that have been covered in fridge magnets from places they’ve visited – Hampton Court and Carisbrooke Castle for example. I also know people who collect silver spoons and postcards as mementos. It’s almost part of the experience now, engrained on us that we must take something away to remind us of our visit.

Cafés also add an important facility to a site and improve visitor experience – especially in the case of somewhere like Stonehenge. It’s an unwritten rule that whenever you go on an archaeology trip it’s going to rain and the chances are it will probably be torrential. This is what happened when I last went. I’ll never forget being stood on Salisbury plain and feeling totally exposed to the intensity of the monument, but also to the elements. Rather than having our umbrellas over our heads, we were using them like shields, preventing the horizontal onslaught of torrential rain. We got absolutely soaked as there was nowhere to find shelter. We got back on the coach dripping from head to toe and it wasn’t until I got home that night I was dry again. We stopped off at Avebury and West Kennet Longbarrow where I dried a bit, but my seat on the coach was so wet I was soon damp again. The point of that ramble was to say that yes, Stonehenge is a magnificent ancient monument but it isn’t very visitor friendly. Providing basic amenities, even if just toilets and a place to hide from the rain, is beneficial to the visitor experience; but combined with a visitor centre, makes for a more fulfilling day out.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1054544/

Not long ago we were also talking about the lack of a visitor centre at Runnymede, where the 2015 Magna Carta celebrations will be centred. Without it, it is almost just a field and in that situation, how is a visitor supposed to plan their day. We all expect to learn something from information about the site but we also all need to eat, drink and take a rest stop and places that don’t provide facilities for that are hindering their attraction. At present its unlikely you’d spend more than half a day at Stonehenge, but with the new ‘immersive experience’[1] that is proposed, I can see that changing and a café and shop are likely to assist in this process.

It will be hard to integrate any construction into the surrounding landscape without disturbing the scene we all know so well and I am intrigued as to how they plan to do that. I really don’t think cafes and shops detract attention from the museum, gallery or site that you’re visiting; instead I’d argue that they add something to the experience and for the organisation, provide a welcome source of revenue.

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[1] http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/content/news/2013/stonehenge-exhibition-and-visitor-centre-opens-on-18-december