| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re: Proposed closure of Wandsworth Museum | |
| Posted by: | Cedric Peachey | |
| Date/Time: | 03/03/07 01:24:00 |
| Mr Dixon, at the risk of adding to your despair, I suggest you look at Cllr Grimston’s strenuously upbeat assessment of his own proposals on the Wandsworth Conservatives website: http://www.wandsworthconservatives.org.uk/record.jsp?type=news&ID=315 His theme is very clear – “never mind the quality, feel the width!” Anyone who seriously believes that the thousands of people who dash into libraries every day to collect orange recycling bags, to renew books, to pick up a Freedom Pass or to squeeze in 30 minutes on the internet will have the time or inclination to interrupt their timetable to look at and try to understand a few fragmentary museum artefacts put on display somewhere else in the building is beyond sensible argument. And for those occasional visitors that do, the experience will be so incomplete, so superficial, so lacking in any broader context and relevance that they will rapidly conclude they have wasted their time. Anyone who has visited the Museum can’t help but notice that the lighting throughout the ground floor is quite subdued and for a very good reason – all the items on display would be damaged by bright light. Libraries, however, are the very opposite – bright lighting is essential. This alone will limit what can be displayed and where. There are similar issues with controlling temperature and humidity – this can best be organised and provided in a dedicated building. In the case of Wandsworth Museum, there has been substantial investment in ensuring the correct levels of care are maintained. To comply with the same standards when items are spread across five different buildings, each with their own environmental idiosyncrasies, is certain to be far more risky, complicated and expensive. The lack of reality, the absence of informed thought, the refusal to acknowledge that there are fundamental reasons why libraries and museums cater to very different needs and accommodate very different activities is truly astonishing. As a final postscript, it is worth pointing out that Cllr Grimston carefully omits any mention that his proposals mean the eviction of the De Morgan Centre. |