Sunshine and Showers at Museum of London

Saturday, 19 January 2008 01:36

LONDON - On 15 February 2008, Museum of London launches a display about the changing nature of the capital’s climate over the last 2000 years. Weather Permitting: London’s Changing Climate uses a colourful timeline filled with intriguing objects and quirky facts alongside stunning paintings to explore the changeable weather of the past and peer into the unpredictable weather of the future. The state of the weather is a national obsession and, as Dr Johnson put it, ‘when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.’ This still rings true, with conversation being kick-started by a reflective remark on the day’s weather and the Museum has responded with a light-hearted look at the history of London’s climate.
 
Visitors can shelter from the winter storms and grey skies in the Museum of London’s foyer and take a moment to learn more about this fascination from a time well before records began. Weather Permitting reveals how Londoners have survived the elements and weathered the fogs, floods, heat waves and freezes of the past as well as the ways in which they have affected the city’s landscape.
 
Why did the Romans introduce the trend of wearing socks and sandals? How could Holborn and Westminster cultivate vineyards? Why did bones come in useful for making a pair of ice skates? And what inspired the nursery rhyme ‘London Bridge is falling down’?
 
Curator Jon Cotton comments, ‘we are focusing on the historical oddities of the capital's weather and the ways in which we can know about this through archaeology, diaries, broadsheets, as well as highlighting its quirks and fascination.’
 
Official annual records of temperature and rainfall began in the 17th century with Old Moore’s Almanack predicting the weather, amongst other things, and today you can be woken by an alarm that gives you a weather forecast at the same time. A surprising variety of objects help us to reconstruct the state of the climate and the weather, including diaries, tree-growth rings, woolly hats, wellington boots and sunglasses. Eight beautiful paintings in the display capture London throughout the seasons and emphasize the changing nature of the capital’s weather from the wintry, icy fun of the Frost Fair to the thick, industrious smog and those longed for suburban summer scenes.
 
Although the science might be disputed, one thing is very clear - London’s climate has always changed and will continue to do so long after Museum of London’s quirky and informative display has ended.
 
Weather Permitting: London’s Changing Climate runs until 20 April 2008 and is free.
 
Visit The Museum of London at : www.museumoflondon.org.uk