auchonvillerssomme Posted 4 September , 2014 Share Posted 4 September , 2014 We visited yesterday, got there for 10:30, no queue to get in, we were given a ticket for the WW1 displays for 11am entry, but there weren't many people there either and from a couple of discussions I overheard people were being let in outside the ticket times. The WW1 gallery was ok, but relied on interactive screens that appeared to be dumbed so far down they were actually confusing and pointless, plus they were slow and didn't appear to be working very well. The big irritation was the lack of information boards for the exhibits, when you eventually located the information it consisted of a couple of lines on a board. I liked the VC display but was distracted by the thought that the VC's aren't the real thing. The Holocaust display was very effective, well thought out and displayed. The war art section was ok but could have done with some seating. But overall, although I preferred the previous setup I wasn't disappointed and enjoyed the visit. The only suggestion I would make is either eat well before you go or take sarnies, the food is terrible and very expensive, if you are going to go for pretentious and innovative mixtures of ingredients make it edible. I declined to make a donation on the basis I didn't eat the food I paid for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scalyback Posted 4 September , 2014 Share Posted 4 September , 2014 Top tips there I shall be there saturday. However coming down on the bus from South Wales my sarnie rations will be stored in a bergan by the sound of it. Is photography allowed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 4 September , 2014 Share Posted 4 September , 2014 Obviously very much a Marmite experience (that's not a hint for the sandwich filling). All I can say is that I enjoyed it, and having seen the VC/GC exhibition several times I like it. Ho hum ... wach to his own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 4 September , 2014 Share Posted 4 September , 2014 I'm sure there was a restriction on photography in the VC/GC section, but otherwise people were taking pictures. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scalyback Posted 4 September , 2014 Share Posted 4 September , 2014 Cheers chaps. Will be more intrested in GCs as not seen one. The best WW1 exhibit I have seen lately is a local one, the second was the musuem at Peronne. So will see how the IWM fairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scalyback Posted 6 September , 2014 Share Posted 6 September , 2014 A some what mixed review for me. High points and low ones. The Ashcroft collection is terrible in some respects. Noel Chavasse VC and bar and is in a box!!!!!! Some sort of search thing for youngsters but VC and bar should have a bit more respect. The other display cabinets are good just the box thing is odd. WW1 gallery still debating what to say on that. Peronne does it with more class and quiet. The tank is just to abstract to view and see it as the beast it is. I enjoyed the main hall, less is more. The NI/cold war was good but basic. However for me the WW1 gallery on the art blew me away. The death sequence of drawings very chilling. It's free your not going to be down on the experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertBr Posted 7 September , 2014 Share Posted 7 September , 2014 On my way out I was approached to complete a short questionnaire about the revamp. The guy used an IPad to read the questions and input my answers. So after a long 10minutes later I did at least record my comments many good and some bad My main gripes were 1.The stairways intrude into the display space and were always blocked by people understandably using them as viewing platforms. (It was a busy Saturday) 2. The use over use of smart screens to 'label the exhibits. Its great for the person/group using the IT but if you are not with them then you can be left in the dark. Simple written labels next to exhibits are also needed. 3. They have missed an opportunity with the suspended upper mezzanine, which was empty when I attended.I expected to walk out on it and be able to look down on the exhibits, but no it goes almost to the edge depriving you of any view. Is it to late to fit some glass floor panels. 4. Why can't you walk right round the upper floors? 5. Why is the most important VC & Bar in a wooden box? Even the staff had a problem locating it! 6. A full list of the Ashcroft medals and their location should be available near the entrance, Not a list hidden in a seat. 7. Too many shops Redesigning the building must have been a mammoth task getting everything right first time would be almost impossible. It is too easy to criticise but I hope the IWM do listen and make improvements. I did enjoy my visit. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scalyback Posted 7 September , 2014 Share Posted 7 September , 2014 6. A full list of the Ashcroft medals and their location should be available near the entrance, Not a list hidden in a seat. Did't enjoy the label of the VCs/CGcs either seperated into sections either. The medal is same no matter how it was obtained. AsI gather my thoughts, I did enjoy the map at the beginning of the WW1 section. Basic but clever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewBelsey Posted 8 September , 2014 Share Posted 8 September , 2014 Scalyback, I really can't understand how 'less is more'? LESS IS LOSS! I can no longer veiw many of the reasons why I went to the IWM London. I've lost most of the hardware that I went to see. What I see now is concrete, cafes and air! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simond9x Posted 8 September , 2014 Share Posted 8 September , 2014 Oh my goodness! I've not been yet but those two photographs show the changes to be far worse than I had imagined. Has the old London Bus gone too? I used to go fairly regularly but now I'm wondering if I should just remember it as it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewBelsey Posted 8 September , 2014 Share Posted 8 September , 2014 The Old Bill bus is now on display at the London Transport Museum. A few things like the Jagdpanther and Grant tanks are on display at Duxford. There are only 9 objects in the new atrium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 8 September , 2014 Share Posted 8 September , 2014 I wonder sometimes, I really do. The IWM was created at the end of the Great War; since then we have undergone several more wars and countless other campaigns, all of which need to be commemorated. They have also realised that not everyone lives in, or close to, London - as a consequence they have shed loads more stuff to display, and two other sites in which to display it. Additionally, the ethos of museums has changed, whether we old guys like it or not - piling junk to the ceiling is not the way it's done any more. Sorry, chaps - there are things about the new museum I don't like, but overall I think the new designers have done a damned fine job. Yes, I remember the old museum, but I'm certain sure that someone who say it in 1920 wouldn't have liked it in 1970. For someone who'd never seen it before, I reckon the 2014 incarnation would be a real "Wow" moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 8 September , 2014 Share Posted 8 September , 2014 I have been to the IWM every few years since as far back as I remember and loved the place but we have to accept things have changed, it certainly isn't better, in fact it feels and looks like a different place and that's the mindset I have now, we can't change it no matter what we put on the feedback forms, enjoy it as it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scalyback Posted 9 September , 2014 Share Posted 9 September , 2014 Musuems need to move on. So the 109 and Mustang have gone, but the lovely Harrier is there. That will be more meaning to the children of today with footage of the Falkands shown etc. I agree with Mr B on this. Some things will annoy me, they may please someone else. The Bus is in the London transport musuem or Duxford? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 10 September , 2014 Share Posted 10 September , 2014 I will be at Duxford in October and really looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Jacket Collector Posted 10 September , 2014 Share Posted 10 September , 2014 piling junk to the ceiling is not the way it's done any more.. Sadly that's the way lots of current museum directors think - it's all just junk to them. For me the new IWM is like one of those ageing celebrities after a facelift - everything in the wrong place and incapable of showing any emotion other than a big grin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 14 September , 2014 Share Posted 14 September , 2014 Historian Lisa Jardine's take: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29174556 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scalyback Posted 14 September , 2014 Share Posted 14 September , 2014 Intresting article. One point not all the uniforms are pressed and clean, there is a torn officers tunic on display within the WW1 hall. With regards to uniforms how do you display them? The uniforms in the Peronne musuem are clean and tidy but with added personal items. A uniform covered in mud and blood must be difficult to preserve and show? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 14 September , 2014 Share Posted 14 September , 2014 I suppose so, but for once in a while maybe there would be a case for mud- and blood-ing a replica uniform, for effect? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 14 September , 2014 Share Posted 14 September , 2014 Historian Lisa Jardine's take: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29174556 I saw that. I'd rather expected the BBC to be able to spell "glamourise". Ho hum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 15 September , 2014 Share Posted 15 September , 2014 It's not the worst spelling mistake I've seen this weekend... but the others are mercifully blotted from my memory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bombadier Posted 17 September , 2014 Share Posted 17 September , 2014 Just returned from my first visit. I can accept the re arrangement of the exhibits but the interpretation of them is appalling. When I look at something I want to know what it is, not having to go and find the relevant display board and read a very basic description. Some items I never found on any board. In the "Family in wartime" section there are some cabinets with a large number of exhibits in them and next to the cabinet is a list of contents. There is however no attempt to tie the list in with the exhibits. I used to enjoy the ww1 tank, looking through the perspex and imagining what it must have been like to operate it. Now it is climbing over a parapet like the one at Bovington and virtually all that can be seen is the underneath and the tracks. Overall impression is a bit of a curates egg. The interpretation has been dumbed down to the point of being almost worthless in some cases. Redesign was needed and is not bad but a lot of opportunities have been missed. Nigel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 11 October , 2014 Share Posted 11 October , 2014 I had the opportunity to pop in during the week, but I only had a short time so only saw the Great War exhibition. I must put my comments in context: in general, I am not a "museum person". Rarely do they do much for me. Those I have liked have tended to be the small, private ones crammed with artefacts. The modern trend to "telling the story" rather than showing me stuff doesn't often hit the spot with me. I like the Historial at Peronne; I remain unimpressed with the In Flanders Fields in Ypres. I love Bullecourt, yet the new Fromelles one left me fairly cold. I like the little, quirky one at ND de Lorette. I can't say that I ever particularly liked the old IWM, either! So museum, schmuseum. Some I like and some not, but I don't really know why. First impression on entering the main hall: gloomy, concrete-y, noisy. More shops than exhibits - and they seemed to be catering for the mass tourist. Want a WW1 recipe book - got it. Want something on the Battle of Arras - try Amazon. But to be fair I was only passing through so may have missed something in that regard. There was no timed-ticketing on the day I was there, but the Great War exhibition was popular and a chap was letting people in so many at a time. Even so, the place was crammed and it was not easy to get around. Some of the spaces are narrow and if a few people stop to talk, then the whole flow is disrupted. Obviously this would not be an issue if there were fewer people, and I am sure there must be quieter times. This is a "tell the story" exhibition. Lots of words to read and some films to watch, but given that this is the IWM I thought the actual artefacts on display were few. "Mother", the 9.2-inch howitzer is in the middle of it all. Frankly you could have had a pink papier-mache dinosaur there for all the attention it got. The war on the various fronts is covered by the narrative but I was a little surprised to see that the "Hundred Days" is given fairly short shrift. There was not a great deal on the air war either but I guess you could argue that is covered elsewhere. For someone on holiday in London; for school parties; for the vaguely interested - a good destination. For someone already knowledgeable and looking for depth - not so good. PS: where is Edith Cavell's stuffed dog (that I believe they have)? Then again, it wasn't on display before, either. No progress on that front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtaylor Posted 12 October , 2014 Share Posted 12 October , 2014 Made a visit back in August when it was packed and have to say right away that I'm reserving judgement until the next visit. Overall I thought that the new WW1 displays were OK but very object-lite compared with the old ones. Can't comment on the labels as it was pretty impossible to view properly. What did worry me very much was the mauling that the Nery gun was getting from visitors who ignored the 'Please do not touch' notices. It really does need a barrier around it. Given the pressure on display space I thought that the area near the tank which was designed to look vaguely like a trench was a waste and the tank itself could have been made of cardboard for all you could see of it. I need to time my next visit outside the school holidays! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scalyback Posted 12 October , 2014 Share Posted 12 October , 2014 Mother had lots of attention when I was there...............a few children used it as climbing frame! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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