The 2007 Artpoints Tour of the United Kingdom continued
Artpoints visits the Imperial War Museum and strolls along thr River Thames
June 29, 2007
 Imperial War Museum Entrance
We needed a break from art museums, so we decided to follow Jim's interest in military history to the Imperial War Museum. The Museum is housed in a former mental hospital with massive artillery mounted outside. The massive entry hall of the museum contains an amazing collection of military hardware.
 
Suspended from the ceiling are classic British warplanes such as the Spitfire and the Sopwith Camel. A WWI Royal Air Force reconnaissance plane looked like it was made of balsa wood and paper. Perhaps it was. I was surprised by how small the Spitfire was. It barely looked large enough to hold a pilot.
The floor of the entry hall was filled with tanks, missiles and military transports. I tried to imagine the bravery and the fear of the young soldiers who fought and died in them.
The Museum does not glorify war, indeed many of its exhibits were intended to show the individual lives of soldiers and civilians swept into military conflict. A special exhibit focused on the experience of children touched by war.
"The Blitz Experience" is a ten-minute immersion into the life of a Londoner during the Nazi sustained bombardment of London from 1940-41. We arrived as a school group of 7-8 year olds were going in. As we waited for our turn, one young girl was brought out in tears, clinging to her teacher, terrified by the intensity of the experience. The rest of the class emerged a few minutes later wide-eyed and gasping from the realism.
 
When our turn came, we were led in to a recreated bomb shelter by a flashlight-wielding guide, costumed in WWII period overalls. We sat on narrow benches in a dark corridor and heard a recreation of sounds and voices from an air raid. After our "shelter" was literally rocked by an explosion, we were led on a slow tour of a wrecked London street made very realistic by a smoky burning odor. We also walked through the "Trench Experience" which recreates WWI trench warfare (without the mustard gas, mud or "trench foot").
 a glorious day on the Thames
After the Museum, we walked a mile through pouring rain to the South Bank of the river Thames for our last afternoon in London. When we got to Westminster Bridge, the weather suddenly cleared giving us a last glorious view of this beautiful city. We crossed the bridge and walked along the Embankment, encountering a massive memorial to the pilots who fought the Battle of Britain in those tiny Spitfires.
On the way, we noticed an unusual number of police cars and motorcycles blazing with full sirens. It was our first sign that London was experiencing another terrorist incident. Later we heard that two car bombs had been discovered and diffused the night before about a mile from our hotel. The next day, the Glasgow Airport would be attacked a few hours after our departure from Heathrow Airport.
I attended graduate school in London in the winter 1979-80. At that time, the Irish Republican Army was conducting an active campaign of terrorism and bombing. I found myself reflecting sadly on the fact that humanity never seems to learn from the irrefutable evidence of History that violence does not create justice - only endless destruction.
 Standing room only at the pub
Friday night in London is very lively. Despite the recent terrorist threat, the pubs all had revelers spilling out onto the sidewalks.
Our last dinner in London was at an Italian bistro - quiet and romantic. We retired early in preparation for the long flight home to Los Angeles.
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