Landships II

As part of the King's College/British Film Institute fact-finding tour, I paid a visit to the Imperial War Museum, my first since the £49,000,000 refit. I had in the back of my mind that a regular contributor to the Forum - Rob? - had said something very uncomplimentary about it, so I was keen to see it for myself.

I am no longer a young man, and I'm sure that some would consider my idea of what a museum should be to be "old school." But I thought, at least as far as the Great War is concerned, that it's absolutely awful. I'll tell you why.

The ground floor used to be crammed with exhibits, including 1914-18. IIRC there was a Mk V, an 18-pdr, a French 75 & limber, a 60-pdr, a 9.5 inch howitzer, a German mast periscope, and, of course, the B-type bus. Was there also some sort of British truck?

They've gone. The bus is on indefinite loan to the London Transport Museum. The periscope and 75 gone altogether. And the Mk V and the 9.5 have been moved elsewhere in the building, about which more shortly. (A lot of other stuff has also gone, including the Jagdpanther, but I don't know where.)

The ground floor now looks like this:

So you make your way to the Great War section. The emphasis is now on the dreaded "accessibility." Lots of flashing lights, moodily-lit exhibits, pools of light, interactive bloody nonsense, and what I am worried to find myself describing as "dumbing down." And before I'm accused of being an old fart, tell me why this

is preferable to a photograph of French troops in the trenches. In what way is it a superior method of conveying the reality?

The trouble is that one of the iconic aspects of the War was that it was drab - the uniforms, the battlefields, everything was dull, dirty, and drab. So now, as you're lured from one set of fairy lights to the next, you can walk past a showcase full of uniforms without realising. The 9.5 has been built into the structure in such a way that I almost missed it. How can you lose a bloody big multicoloured thing like that?

It gets worse. The Mk V has similarly been re-sited. The company that did it are so proud that they feature it on their website: http://www.eocengineers.com/project/iwm-world-war-1-gallery-194 This other mob were also involved http://cassonmann.co.uk/2014/07/11/tank-trench-camel/

As you can see, you now walk underneath the bow. You lose all contact with it, you lose the sense of its bulk. The open side is nearest the wall, so you can no longer see inside it. The rear view looks like this:

The view you least want to see is the one you get. And, believe it or not, there is some slogan written to the right of it, in brown on an olive background - barely legible. Astounding.

If anyone remembers the old layout, well, it's gone completely. I can't be sure but I got the feeling that a lot of WWI exhibits have been removed. Maybe distance is lending a bit of enchantment, but it feels as if only a fraction has survived. One thing I know has definitely gone is the huge diorama (was it 1/72?) in its glass case - a sad loss for Landshippers. (Was there also a maybe 1/32 diorama?)

The final indignity:

I thought that if they were spending 40 million quid they'd think that the Trench Experience would be an important centrepiece.

It's gone completely. Replaced by a section just a few feet long, between two showcases. None of the figures, none of the features of the old one.

So if you ask me, at least some of that £40,000,000 could have been much better spent. Far from increasing understanding, it feels as if the changes have taken some things out of their context.

Something else that struck me was that on the way into the WWI section there are lots of billboards describing social conditions, low wages, etc. All true, and undoubtedly important, but it seemed to be more of a political than historical point. And, of course, such problems existed in all the combatant nations, not just Britain, a point that isn't made.

I'm afraid that a lot of this refurbishment has involved some people w***king over their own creativity. Too many touchscreens, talking newspapers, and multiple-choice quiz modules. What's wrong with putting something in a glass case with a label on it?

Two sentences have caused me considerable dismay with regard to this. One is on the Casson Mann website: "These three objects, tank, trench and camel form a natural dynamic – visually as well as experientially." What does that mean? Is "experientially" a word? And, by the way, that's a Camel, not a camel.

The other one is on Tripadvisor: "A great day out for the kids."