Sharing Hidden Histories: KCL’s History Department Monuments Marathon and Parks & Palaces Plod

On our way to stop No.11  Camden Pan-Africanism
© Felicity McWilliams

For the past month or so you may have seen me posting links to the crowdfunding page for an event King’s History Department runs biennially – the Monuments Marathon and Parks & Palaces Plod. The ‘Marathon’ was set up in 2014 by former KCL Professor Ludmilla Jordanova in order to raise funds for the Undergraduate Hardship fund, although this years’ sponsorship was for the equivalent MA fund. The idea as pitched to us was to take to the ‘streets and parks of London to tour sites of historical interest, learning from each other’ along the way.

Hearing that, I should think it will come as no surprise to hear that when we received an email advertising the event back in April, I was immediately on board with the idea – fundraising while learning about history and walking around London – what was not to love! The plan was to walk to 26 historic sites over the distance of around 10 miles, the walk starting at King’s and featuring 4 minute ‘street talks’ from volunteers choosing to speak on sites of their choice along the route.

Stop No. 3 - Mammoths in the Square
© Elle Larsson

And that is exactly what we did last Sunday. We walked a grand total of around 13.8 miles, taking in 26 historic sites over the course of around 10 hours. I should say at this point however that 4 members of the department put in an extra tremendous effort, rising early and running an 11.5 mile route taking in the palaces of London – beginning with the Tower of London and ending with Kensington Palace, before heading back to KCL and joining the rest of us on the walk!  

It was a really fantastic day – we had good weather, great company and were able to share some of the lesser known stories of London we’ve each come across during the course of our own research. A huge range of topics were covered and what struck me in particular was that even though some of these places are signified by plaques and statues, the stories are much richer than can be conveyed by those markers alone, while others simply had no markers at all.

Stop No. 2 Benjamin Franklin House/Bodies in the basement
© Elle Larsson

A few things from the day have stuck out in particular. For example the origin of the legend of the ‘Black Dog’ of Newgate and how beneath Trafalgar Square there was/is a rich source of prehistoric archaeological material, including Mammoths; the fact that beneath Benjamin Franklin’s house a large number of human skeletons had been excavated, owing to the fact that another of its former residents had been a comparative anatomist, who himself died after contracting sepsis from one of his cadavers! But I think my favourite snippet has to be hearing about the mechanized waxwork of Mrs. Salmon which was booby-trapped to kick patrons as they left her establishment. Who new early nineteenth century waxworks could be mechanized?

Stop No. 10 - Fitzrovia Revolutionaries
© Felicity McWilliams

These stand out for me but each talk was incredibly interesting and below I’ve put the entire list of places we visited and topics covered by our talks to give you an idea of the history that is out there and sites that you may have previously walked passed having never realized their significance. It was truly a case of Ispyhistory at its best and it’s safe to say that in two years’ time, when this event comes round again, my feet better be ready for a repeat performance!

The Route

1. Lady Somerset and the Temperance Child, Victoria Embankment Gardens (Statue).

2. Benjamin Franklin House, 36 Craven Street, (Plaque). 

3. Mammoths in the Square, Trafalgar Square.

4. The Strand Menagerie, 372 Strand, (Building).

5. Mrs Salmon’s Waxworks, 17 Fleet Street, (Building). 

6. Picasso in London, 51 Floral Street (Plaque).

7. The Slayer of Soho: John Snow’s Pump, 39 Broadwick Street.

8. Banking Natural History, 32 Soho Square (Plaque). 

9. Penning the Vindication, Store Street.   

10. Fitzrovia Revolutionaries, Fitzroy Square (Statue). 

11. Camden Pan-Africanism, 22 Cranleigh Street (Plaque).

12. South African Freedom Fighters, 13 Lyme Street (Plaque). 

13. Gandhi’s London, Tavistock Square (Statue).

14. Emmeline Pankhurst’s House, 8 Russell Square, (Building). 

15. Literary Lights and Colonial Students, Mecklenburgh Square.

16. Anti-Suffragism and Settlement Houses, 42 Queen Square, (Building).

17. The Women’s Freedom League, 144 High Holborn, (Building).

18. Meating One’s Maker, Smithfield Market.

19. ‘The Black Dog of Newgate’, Warwick Lane.

20. Indigenous Transnationals at St Paul’s, (Building).

21. Rude Deeds on Rood Lane, Rood Lane, (Building).

22. Tower Hill Memorial, Trinity Square Gardens, (Memorial).

23. The Falklands Memorial, Trinity Square Gardens, (Memorial).

24. Altab Ali Park, Adler Street, (Memorial).

25. Responding to the Ripper, 14 Cannon Street Road, (Exhibition).

26. Execution Dock, 57 Wapping Wall.

It will come as a little surprise that after a grand total of 13.8 miles, well-earned celebratory drinks and a sit down were then had at the prospect of Whitby Pub!

Sunsets over London
© Elle Larsson

Medicine through Time: The Old Operating Theatre, London Bridge

The Old Operating Theatre, London Bridge

Heading up the 32 step, narrow, circular stone staircase, I was thinking to myself “are we in the right place?” It felt more reminiscent of exploring the tower of Oxford Castle or the spire of St. Peter’s Basicillia rather than heading up to a museum. But it was the right place, for hidden in the attic of St Thomas’s Church in Southwark, is the oldest surviving operating theatre in Europe, dating from 1822.

The operating theatre was originally part of St Thomas’s hospital but when in June 1862 the hospital moved from its original site in Southwark to make way for a railway line to Charing Cross, the theatre was sealed up; only to be rediscovered almost a hundred years later in 1956. After discovery it underwent a process of restoration and was finally opened to the public as a museum in 1962.

The Operating Theatre itself was exactly like all the images I remember seeing in my GCSE Medicine Through Time textbook. It was very simple and in a way, quite clinical, although only if we substitute modern metal for wood, a lot of wood (and we know that that is not the most practical material for constructing an operating theatre from!) But what struck me most while standing there, looking down on the replica operating table, was just how audience centred the experience seemed to be. 

There was more room for observers to watch the surgery than for the patients and surgeons operating. A sense of spectacle really came across. Now that might be a wrong deduction, perhaps the emphasis then was on education and that doctors learnt best by observing surgery first hand, but I can see why the term ‘theatre’ was perhaps adopted to describe the places in which surgery took place. It was a somewhat bizarre experience to then stand at the bottom and look up – this would have overlapped with the age before anaesthetics and antiseptics – I’d have been awake and when I looked up could have had a hundred pairs of eyes staring back at me. Needless to say, I think the whole thing would have been absolutely terrifying!

Alongside the Operating Theatre there is also a Herb Garret, which was used throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries by the St. Thomas’ Hospital apothecaries to store herbs and make medicines. I’d been warned about the smell of this part and so was somewhat relieved that it wasn’t too overpowering on this occasion, for this section of the museum is like a treasure trove, brimming with every type of herb, spice or plant needed to produce medicines and herbal remedies to cure an array of ailments. There were also lots of original surgical instruments, apothecary’s equipment, medical books and papers. We even spied the remedies of Thomas Holloway – the man responsible for the creation of Royal Holloway!

The Herb Garret

This was my favourite bit it has to be said. It was like stepping back in time and it encouraged you to use more than one of your senses – always a bonus! You could touch (although not everything), see and smell so many different things. You could have a go at producing pills, weighing ingredients and put back together an anatomical model. It was a good balance – you should know by know how highly I rate interaction and a ‘sense of place’.

Making Pills

Herbs & Spices

So why visit somewhere that induces images of blood, guts and gore? I’m not a fan of hospitals and am pretty squeamish these days, so thinking about it, it’s a pretty odd subject around which to formulate a museum. But also there are the ethical implications of medical case histories and as such, the ability or inability to add a “voice” to the narrative that the museum can tell. And I think this was what was actually missing from the experience – a sense of people’s stories. I know it’s incredibly complicated to convey those sorts of histories but even the voices of doctors or of nurses, wardens or even students were what was really lacking for me and I think that’s what would have given it that little more punch. It was missing a hook for me, the type that comes through connecting to an individual.

All said and done I am really glad we visited – it’s one of those off the beaten track places in London which is definitely worth a visit. I also wish we’d gone as a school trip back in the day, as it would have no doubt brought the whole topic that much more to life! 

As an additional note, it was also interesting that we spied a Rothschild connection in the form of the Evelina Hospital for Sick Children which was originally opened in 1869 having been funded by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild of Austria in memory of his wife Evelina who had died, along with their son, in childbirth.

Just in 'The Knick' of time

By Tom Whitehead – “I work as a museum and education assistant. My main areas of interest are modern social and oral history, but more generally I'm interested in thinking about and exploring new ways in which we can engage diverse audiences with historical themes and topics they may not have previously considered. And Game of Thrones, I love Game of Thrones.” Check out Tom’s own blog here - https://tpdwhitehead.wordpress.com/

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Knick

As someone who is both a historian, and one who enjoys lying in front of the television in a state of semi-conscious bliss, I’m always on the lookout for a good historical drama. In my mind the stick every historical drama should be measured by is Deadwood, a show that was cancelled criminally early and which remains, to this day, one of the finest pieces of television (and for that matter anything) I’ve watched.

Until fairly recently, I thought that the show which would finally topple Deadwood from its lofty perch would be Boardwalk Empire, a presumption primarily based on the fact that every television critic from Los Angeles to Littlehampton kept referring to it as “the new Deadwood”. But truth be told, Boardwalk never really captured me the way Deadwood did. Was it bad? No, far from it; but neither was it on a par with Deadwood, a show which managed to present a microcosm of frontier society in nineteenth century America in a way which explored some very important historical issues, whilst remaining grounded in the human story it was trying to tell.      

I never thought I’d find my new Deadwood, that is, until I started watching a programme called The Knick on Sky Atlantic. On the surface, the show is a medical drama about the Knickerbocker Hospital (or, as it’s more commonly known, simply ‘The Knick’), set in early twentieth century New York. However, watch it for more than ten minutes and you’ll soon realise there is so, so much more to the show than that description can ever hope to convey. There are only two series so far, and I hope beyond all hope they make a third season, because without doubt The Knick is as close to perfect as a historical drama can be.

On a purely televisual level the show is superb. It’s beautifully shot, it has a great soundtrack, the casting and characterisation are great across the board, and the production team have done a great job in creating a series of settings which feel historically authentic. As I argued in a post on my own blog a few years ago, to me historical accuracy is less important than historical authenticity. I have no idea if the clothes the cast are wearing are 100% accurate, or if the slang and idiom they’re using is genuine turn of the century New Yorker; and more to the point I don’t really care. I don’t care because what they’re wearing and saying feels accurate, and in terms of historical drama that, to me, is the thing which counts.

However, it is the way the show uses the medical procedural format to explore its historical context that I particularly like. Like with the costumes, I’m not sure if the medical history The Knick presents is entirely accurate, and there are some scenes and storylines which certainly seem to have taken great artistic licence with history. However, in this case I feel it is justified, as it is clear The Knick is using these more imaginative segments to expose its audience to nineteenth century attitudes towards medical issues such as abortion, contraception, addiction, and mental health, in a way which allows them to understand them but which isn’t unduly didactic. At no point when you’re watching The Knick do you ever feel like these issues are being forced into the narrative as a point of discussion. Rather they feel like a natural part of the narrative, and as such you find yourself thinking about them long after you’ve finished watching.

Indeed, for me the true triumph of The Knick is that the issues it explores go well beyond the operating theatre. The Knick does not shy away from exploring difficult social, ethical and political themes, and it would be hard to pick out just one or two key examples of this as the themes the show explores are all so tightly interwoven. However, if I had to pick out one grand ‘theme’ it would be inequality in all its guises. The Knick does a great job of showing how deeply divided New York was on racial, gender and socio-economic grounds, and more to the point it shows just how many people had a vested interest in it staying that way. As such, The Knick holds an uncomfortable mirror up to our presentday society, as whilst we have come a long way since the early 1900s, watching The Knick reminds us that the shadows of our collective past will continue to follow us for a long time yet to come.