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  • Museum in Docklands

  • Until Aug 31 2007
  • This event has finished
  • Museum in Docklands, Hertsmere Rd, London, E14 4AL

  • By Peter Watts

    Posted: Mon Aug 6 2007

  • There are many excellent reasons to revisit the Museum in Docklands, but one of the less obvious ones is that this is about the only way you can keep track of the pace of development in this part of town. Every time you visit a gleaming new office building will have appeared, and with the concept of regeneration now appearing on the secondary school geography curriculum, it’s little wonder that Docklands, and its attendant museum, is proving so popular with school groups. Indeed, three such gatherings enter the museum during my lunch with museum director David Spence, as we discuss, fittingly enough, change, and how the museum has adapted and developed as it approaches its fifth anniversary.

    The Museum in Docklands was opened in 2003 as an offshoot of the Museum of London, and after a successful four years (‘since we opened we’ve  attracted 100,000 visitors each year – you would usually see a peak in year one and then a drop off’) it is looking at ways to increase its profile. One such innovation is the addition of a new permanent gallery, London’s only gallery devoted to slavery, which opens in the autumn. Another is an ongoing – and related – bid to have the area around the museum recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO for its links to the global slave trade. Even its name is up for grabs.

    ‘We’re going through a branding exercise and are open to all suggestions, even changing the name,’ says Spence. ‘There is some confusion with the “in”. It’s a little bit clumsy; it tells you where it is but not what it is. Maybe this is the Museum of London East? What does the word “Docklands” mean to people? Many people see it as a derelict area that is difficult to get to, which is not the case at all. It’s an issue that is neatly avoided by the Canary Wharf Estate, whose image is modern, cutting-edge, glass and steel, finance – which is not shared by Docklands as a whole.’

    The museum is also hoping to change its status as one of the few remaining charging major museums in London. ‘We are jointly funded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the City of London Corporation as a subsidy of the MOL, and the DCMS half of the museum is moving to the GLA as part of a transfers of power bill. As part of those negotiations we are asking for enough settlement to allows us to go free, because does Ken really want a charging museum in his portfolio? There’s been a lot of press recently about whether museums would be subsidised but there is no doubt in my mind that going free as national museums has made them more attractive to people who wouldn’t otherwise visit those museums.

    ‘It’s a psychological barrier as much as anything, because a £5 ticket gives you unlimited access for a year, but this is a charging museum operating in an environment where every other top museum is free. When we have promotions when we go free for a short space of time we see visitor numbers quadruple.’

    Spence also intends to build up the museum’s roster of temporary exhibitions, which have been slow to take off. Next year will see a major exhibition on Jack the Ripper, but the overwhelming focus will be on finding a way to engage with the local community, especially the immigrant groups that have settled in the East End over the centuries. For instance, the current installation – ‘Rush Hour’ – is a collaboration between the museum and British filmmakers working with theatre companies in Sierra Leone.

    ‘We want to bring out some of the stories of those communities that have moved into the East End,’ says Spence. ‘So our long term plans involve looking at Asian communities and the Chinese communities. These communities have been here 250-300 years, the Somali community has been here 150 years – they are well established. These stories say something about what London represents in terms of its stories and history.’
    This also touches on what is one of the most interesting things about the museum, how it simultaneously operates on both a local level – 80 per cent of its visitors come from London and it has close links with the local councils of Newham and Tower Hamlets – and a national level.

    ‘This is a huge, cosmopolitan city and being a local museum in London means being a national museum in outlook,’ says Spence. ‘It’s a local museum, but the subjects it deals with are both national and international – trade, the river and the port. It is a local museum and something beyond that.’
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  • Details

  • Museum in Docklands, Hertsmere Rd, London, E14 4AL
    , UK
    Geo: 51.507646, -0.023817
  • 0870 444 3857
  • Category: Museums & Attractions
  • Times: Daily 10am-6pm (last adm 5.30pm)
  • Tube: Canary Wharf
  • Rail: West India Quay DLR

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