Ahoy There!: From Dry Dock To High Seas

Bristol has become somewhat of a regular destination for me of late, but on this occasion I managed to rustle up some willing volunteers and set out on somewhat of an adventure. In the past, I’ve never gone beyond the boundaries of the Zoo (I know, I know) but this time around we set out to explore the city! 

SS Great Britain
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We visited the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery and Bristol Cathedral, but the highlight of this whistle stop tour has to have been the SS Great Britain, which is docked in the Great Western Dockyard. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we first when we arrived, not really being a fan of naval history and I didn’t expect we’d be hanging around long. But appearances were deceptive and I could not have been more wrong. A lot of thought has gone into visitor experience by the team behind this site. You’re given a ‘ticket’ when you first arrive and are ushered out onto the ‘dock side’ where there are barrels, unloaded cases and store fronts, all of which give an authentic impression of what it would be like to be about to set sail on the high seas.

Dry Dock
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You first follow the signs to head underneath the ship to the dry dock, where you can walk around the underside of the ship; an experience which has been done in an equally thoughtful way. A false ceiling has been placed around to enclose the space and water is rippled across the top to give the impression of being under the sea. You can walk around, reading text panels and lifting others which pose questions and encourage you to think more about the ship and the process of conservation that is taking place. You can also stand next to an anchor and a replica of the original propeller which gives you a sense of the sheer scale of this feat of engineering. It is somewhat of a poignant experience to see such a well-loved ship corroding and resting upon concrete bars. A ship should be at sea after all.

Ship's Doctor
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You then move through into a space which is much more like a typical museum experience, where artefacts are on display, more text panels to read and at various points’ there are also video documentaries explaining how the SS Great Britain came to once again be docked in Bristol. This is also where the children’s activity on your ticket comes into action, as at each phase in the ships history there is a stamp to be collected, representing a journey or significant place. There are other activities to do as well, navigating a ship with a wheel and compass, creating more steam power and a chance for those fancy dress lovers amongst you to dress up and recreate scenes from nostalgic photographs (there was no need to prompt my companions, who were off before you could say “smile”!, let alone “Flash, bang, wallop what a picture!”).

Needless to say we were all quite impressed by this time, but little did we know the best bit was still to come. Once you’ve made your way through the gallery, you head up some steps and onto the main deck where you can wander around and see some (fake) domestic animals that were kept aboard for food and perhaps pick up a ‘visitor companion’ audio guide, which offers you a tour of the ship from the perspective of a passenger. You then head below deck. But this time you travel through a time tunnel and end up back in the Victorian period, becoming a passenger aboard the SS Great Britain bound for Australia.

Ship's Kitchen
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The ship has been recreated to offer the Victorian passenger experience. There are First Class, Second Class and Steerage passenger rooms that have been replicated to offer visitors an ‘as it was’ experience, in some cases complete with passengers. You can experience a family compartment, see the ship doctor’s office or perhaps lend a hand in the ship’s kitchen. It was an experience of constant surprises for each section of the ship we passed through offered a different experience to the last. But to top it all off, there were also sound and SMELL effects. Oh Yes! One woman was even suffering with seasickness and the smell of vomit lingered through the passage ways.

On Deck
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When I ‘stepped aboard’ I certainly wasn’t expecting this sort of experience and I have to say it was one of the best historic sites I’ve been to in a long time. As a visitor, being constantly surprised by what lay ahead and having all my senses stimulated made for a highly engaging and somewhat thrilling experience. Those that run the site have really thought about what makes for high quality visitor experience and have catered for that ,in a way that appeals to a wide audience. It’s original and inviting. There is a happy medium of education and entertainment and all the visitors that were around were engaging and talking about the experience. I would thoroughly recommend a visit here to anyone who fancies it, young or old. It makes for a great family day out, with that all important added slice of history!



Passengers
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Dining Cart
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Tower of London: Britain’s Top Heritage Site

Tower of London
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So this week’s class was held at the Tower of London and the word excited didn’t quite cut it! After a nice long stroll along the Thames, camera in hand and acting like a super tourist we arrived and I have to say it was one of the best classes we’ve had. The Curator of Collections, Sally, was so enthusiastic and down to earth in the way she explained the history of the Tower and how it is managed as a heritage site. It receives the most foot traffic of all Britain’s heritage sites but with such a complex history, presenting that can be a challenge. Just how do you present centuries worth of history to an audience whose let’s face it, primary goal is to see the Crown Jewels? Add to that, the fact that often a visitor’s expectation of what they will learn about the Tower is tied up with legend and folk tales, it’s a mine field. How do the curators tell fact without completely destroying what people think they know about the Tower’s History?

The different architectural styles
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When visiting the Tower people expect to learn or hear about executions, Anne Boleyn, the Princes in the Tower, the ravens or to see the Crown Jewels. I’ll be honest, that’s what I expected to be informed about. That has, after all, been what has motivated my previous visits. But this time around I found myself looking at other things. From the river side for example, I was taken aback by the multitude of architectural styles that were evident and that show how the Tower has expanded over time. I looked at that with a somewhat trained eye, but would someone else draw the same conclusions? And how do you communicate that to visitors? We walk around these grand sites expecting to look at what they house not necessarily the structures that house them and at the Tower, this can be detrimental to your understanding of its history for so much of its’ history is attached to the architectural changes. It is difficult to show that however, and while the signage that is placed on nearly every wall does help to indicate that history, it’s not always clear.

Also, with so many visitors there is somewhat of a difficulty in supplying enough information. The Tower produces guidebooks and leaflets and there are plenty of text panels on the interior exhibits to explain the history of artefacts. However, it was the issue of audio guides that I was particularly interested in. Due to the high volume of visitors there could never be enough audio guides to supply every visitor with one and so they charge for them. It was explained that this isn’t an ideal policy, but it is a necessity. It also means that those who are really there to engage with the history and not just the spectacle are able to engage at a higher level. Again, I’d never really thought about the policies behind audio guides before and why some places charge and others don’t and it does make sense; giving people the option, to take their level of engagement in their own hands and offering an additional service if that is their intention.  

3 Barbary Lion Sculptures
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(You Ready?) One of my favourite parts of this day however, was hearing about how the history of the Tower as the Royal Menagerie, has been used in recent exhibits. The inclusion of this part of its more unusual and often unheard of history is signified by the presence of 3 Barbary lion sculptures in the moat as you approach the main entrance. Immediately your interest is spiked as you look quizzically at them, why lions? What have they got to do with the history of the Tower of London?



Polar Bear Sculpture
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There are 13 of these sculptures in total making up The Royal Beasts exhibit and they are located in various places over the site. The menagerie was founded in the reign of King John in the early 1200s and was used as a repository of wild and exotic creatures for over 600 years. Most of the animals were given as political gifts to the reigning monarchs as demonstrations of power, political connections and symbols of foreign lands and were kept as sources of entertainment for members of court. The collection included Barbary lions, a polar bear, an elephant and baboons (all of which are remembered through the sculptures) and became a popular attraction, acting as a forerunner to the emerging zoological collections of the nineteenth century. In particular the Tower was in competition with the proprietor of the Exeter Exchange, Mr Edward Cross whose menagerie in the Strand, had established its own reputation. The menagerie at the Tower eventually closed in 1832 after several incidents, but having unearthed this ‘hidden history’ the Tower of London have created a hook that captures public interest. It’s a quirky feature of the Tower’s past that few people know about and hopefully some of those who overlook the history of the Tower and just come to see the ‘jewels’ will now approach it with less blinkered vision. By using more unusual areas of the Tower’s past, it can tap into a new market and break away from the homogenous narrative that can dictate the history of some historic sites.