Heritage things:

This year's English Heritage blue plaques to include the 1888 Matchgirls' Strike, the Ayahs' Home in Hackney, and a pioneer of humane psychiatric care, Dr John Conolly and the Hanwell Asylum.

Campaigners are celebrating a victory in the battle for public access to the countryside, after the government agreed to cancel a deadline to ( Read more... )

Yesterday I came across a charming thread on Twitter of people posting pix of their very little ones in museums and art galleries taking no notice of Ye Art and Artefactz, but totally absorbed by things like the bottoms of the display cabinets, the gratings for the underfloor heating, the tiles, etc etc, or just the potential of the floors for ( Read more... )

Apparently it is not yet confirmed whether a historical monument - The Konigshaven bridge in Rotterdam, known to locals as the De Hef - is going to be dismantled in order to permit the passage of a 'superyacht' built in Rotterdam for Jeff Bezos.

On account of apparently nobody thought to think that one through during the process...

And, my dearios ( Read more... )

I sighed when I came across this, because it is is yet another iteration of a previously-observed phenomenon: Donors Worry About Fate of Artifacts as Museum on Irish Famine Closes: Quinnipiac University, which had opened Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum in 2012, said that it could no longer afford to operate it. Enthusiastic person sets up a ( Read more... )

Will the 'culture warriors' start woezering about the National Trust (you know, that evil 'woke' institution the National Trust) doing this? Bat on a non-slip roof: National Trust adapts manor for nocturnal residents: Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk gives tiles a special coating to stop bats slipping off as part of £6m roofing project: The trust on ( Read more... )

Well, this is exasperating/depressing: this article demonstrates that biographies about women who meet Wikipedia’s criteria for inclusion are more frequently considered non-notable and nominated for deletion compared to men’s biographies: On March 7, 2014, a biography for Donna Strickland, the physicist who invented a technology used by all the ( Read more... )

I daresay all dr rdrz have already gone on to the 'buying the t-shirt' stage of the Jane Austen's House addresses the question of 'her connections to slavery and its mention in her novels': as if this has not been being addressed by Austen scholarship for lo, this considerable time.
Dan Hicks, Decolonising museums isn’t part of a ‘culture war’. It’ ( Read more... )

Okay, maybe this thing is rare, precious and unique and maybe it should be Innamuseum, as someone was bewailing on Twitter the morn, but I'm also wondering if everybody who was working there or even just visiting, got a memento piece and museums are groaning when they get offered them.
Much like antiquarian book dealers offered The Family Bible or ( Read more... )

(Okay, I can't make this Friday's slots, but it says 'check back'.)
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In other news:
Dept of, retrocity: refund from British Telecom due to change of landline provider - by cheque, fortunately I have a few deposit slips left around, but, really: why not in predecimal currency, eh?
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Dept of, it's a very niche thing: the first time I saw ( Read more... )

RSPCA checks on Arctic walrus spotted off south Wales coast: 'Animal ‘slightly underweight’ but seemed in generally good health and was probably looking for food': Ellie West, and RSPCA animal rescue officer, said: “It seems this Arctic walrus has swum over to Wales and was resting on rocks when I went to check on him. He was resting and, although ( Read more... )