Developing a Museum of the Streets
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This idea for a Museum of the Streets supports a column for the EC1 Echo: Can Destination City also help create a Liveable City? 
The column suggests that Destination City and the new Business Improvement District will be driving change next year in EC1/2 - so let’s develop ideas for residents to get a look in and help shape things to everyone's advantage - including creating a Museum of the Streets, and a community information hub.
The City’s Culture, Heritage and Libraries committee had a full report and discussion on November 14 about Destination City, which provides the policy context for these ideas. Document here and video at 50mins.
In December 2022 the Museum of London closed after 45 years on the edge of the Barbican estate, and prepares for a move to former market buildings in West Smithfield.

The new museum promises to be amazing - but it won’t be open until 2025.
Even when its doors are closed, the Museum may well offer some continuing enlightenment and entertainment, building on its impressive digital services and current off-site activities. The Museum of Docklands will remain open. 

Closure could be a catalyst for exploring the rich but under-realised heritage that we have on the doorstep of the new museum, and in EC1 as a whole.

I think there is scope for developing a Museum of the Streets with walks, talks, maps and the power of smartphones that enable us to connect with neighbourhoods as residents, workers or visitors.

Here’s just a few ideas I’ve developed in the Exploring EC1 project over the past two years, some of which have previously featured in the Echo.

The Clerkenwell-based London Metropolitan Archives has an amazing collections of records and photographs. Just a few of these are featured in a collection created using the Historypin site, developed by another Clerkenwell organisation, Shift Collective

With Historypin you can show historic photos pinned into contemporary settings using Google Streetview, or matched to current photos. Could that be the basis for a new Echo-backed photo competition? Explore yesterday, picture today.

The Footways project has mapped quiet and interesting routes through EC1, and offered to collaborate. There are many self-guided walks available, and highly-knowledgable City guides whose tours could be promoted. A host of smartphone apps allow you to create and publish your own walks, using photos, audio and video.
With my son Dan, I’m developing demonstrations of how this might work with free platforms like Google Earth - and also with Layers of London which has map overlays from the 13th century to today. Mapping examples here.

I’m looking forward to Danny B’s Radical Walk in EC1, and hope it will presage other walks with a range of themes and perspectives. We could help document the walks, adding photos and video to routes and descriptions.

Earlier in the year City councillor Matthew Bell and I suggested in the Echo how we could restage Bartholomew Fair both as a physical event, and also virtually using the sort of apps described here. That would help promote the Barts 900 campaign planned by Barts Hospital and St Bartholomew the Great.
Matthew, together with other local councillors, has offered to help bring together the different interests who might develop a Museum of the Streets. Matthew says:

There can be few other places in the country as full of history as this tiny area.  The City of London is keen to bring more people in to the City.  Bartholomew Fair was all about bringing people in to the area for over seven hundred years and having it resurrected in late August as well as a virtual Fair all year round, would be a fantastic way of introducing people to the area, its history as well as everything it has to offer now.

This though should really be the tip of the iceberg.  There is history everywhere here and with the remarkable digital revolution that we are in the middle of, there is no real excuse for not having the history of our streets readily at our fingertips.  When it opens, the physical Museum of London in West Smithfield should have no boundary with the Museum of the Streets on the phones in our pockets.

The Museum of the Streets can be about today and tomorrow, as well as the past. We could create a virtual hub that would bring together information about local groups and activities, and news of future developments, perhaps linked to a new community room planned for Barbican Library.

A key idea in proposals for the Business Improvement District, planned for next year, is to build on the Culture Mile “Look and Feel” strategy that maps street-level improvements and proposes ambitious ways to use digital technology through the area.

Creating a Museum of the Streets together would help realise the Commitment to Communities highlighted in the BID proposals:

“Collaboration sits at the heart of the BID model. Understanding the value that each member of our community can contribute to projects is vital. We want to harness the potential of all the communities that make up the Culture Mile area, unlocking new opportunities for all”.

A Museum of the Streets should appeal to the Destination City team, tasked with making the City more attractive to visitors. Through the Museum, let’s develop guides and promote events in ways that work for residents too.

Back in 2010 the Museum of London pioneered the award-winning StreetMuseum app offering the potential for virtual tours. It was described as “a bid to put the collections of the museum where they belonged, on the streets of London” Unfortunately changes in phone operating systems mean the app is no longer available. Hopefully it will be updated. Either way a Museum of the Streets could offer a complementary approach, harvesting the resources of many groups and organisations, and providing us all with the opportunity to become digital curators and explorers.

Is this too ambitious? Definitely. Some ideas may catch on, others will require research and funding. What I’m aiming to do with the Echo is see how far we might use a print newspaper and its newsletter, together with social media and demonstrations, to foster experiments that complement official plans like the BID and Destination City, drawing on local expertise and enthusiasm. You find a longer version of this article here, together with more on my blog. If you are interested in helping realise the Museum, email david@socialreporter.com