Tag: Blog Post
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Finsbury Rifles, Away from the Western Front: 8th January to 14th January 1916
This portion of the diary illuminates the routine and repetition which defined much of the soldiers’ experience. The 1/11th London Regiment was not operating in isolation but belonged to the 162nd Brigade, itself part of the larger 54th (East Anglian) Division. Many of the military exercises and duties mentioned in the battalion diary such as…
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Finsbury Rifles, Away from the Western Front: 1st January to 7th January 1916
In this passage we learn about how the Battalion established their camp at Sidi Bishr, including building trenches in the sand. Although taken at a later point in the year, when the Regiment was located at Ashton Post along the Suez Canal, the image below illustrates some of the challenges facing soldiers building…
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Finsbury Rifles, Away from the Western Front: 19th December to 31st December 1915
Having arrived in Egypt, from the Gallipoli campaign, the Rifles pitched camp in Sidi Bishr, a large camp near to Alexandria. While the Diary does not log a delousing and cleaning session on arrival in Egypt, Joe Guthrie, Machine Gun Sargent for the Finsbury Rifles, recalls his experiences on arrival in…
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Finsbury Rifles, Away from the Western Front: 19th December to 27th December 1915
In Islington’s Gallipoli we blogged the 1/11th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (the Finsbury Rifles’) War Diary. We followed their often heartbreaking daily log, charting their experiences in Gallipoli. In December 1915 the Battalion left Gallipoli on HMT ALAUNIA. The next two years would see them visit Egypt, Palestine and Syria, experiencing new…
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Firefighters in War
Today we were lucky to see some pictures of a children’s Christmas party at Clerkenwell Fire Station in December 1940. They were brought in by Jean Chapman, daughter of William Chapman, who served at Clerkenwell Fire Station during World War II. William Chapman was part of the Auxiliary Fire Service…
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Visiting HMP Holloway
Roz Currie, Curator Holloway Prison closed this summer -the last prisoner left on 17th June 2016. Until May it was the largest women’s prison in Britain, holding around 450 inmates. Entrance to Holloway Prison just before it closed in June 2016 The prison was established in 1852 on Camden Road in Holloway,…
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Museum of London -Incoming!
Roz Currie, Curator Over the summer we have been working with the Museum of London on their rationalisation project. Following a review of the Social and Working History collections, 6000 objects were identified for disposal … and Islington Museum was one of the lucky recipients! During the 1970s and 1980s…
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Exploring 53 Cross Street
By Martin King, Islington Museum Volunteer I lived in 53 Cross Street from 1989 to 2003 as a member of Black Sheep Housing Cooperative. The house was built in 1785 and there was evidence of subsequent occupation ranging from the remains of a brass engraver’s studio in the backyard to…
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Curating Imagine Islington
Roz Currie, Curator During 2015 and 2016 Islington Museum worked on an Arts Council England project, ‘Imagine Islington‘, exploring objects from the museum collection. Three different artists and six primary school classes were inspired by six objects from our collection. The exhibition brings together the six objects and the artworks they…
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A Sense of Place: tactile book
In 2015/16 Islington Museum partnered with Morelands Children’s Centre on ‘A Sense of Place’, kindly funded by Islington Giving Supporting Families Programme and the Bunhill Councillors. Over 5 day long workshops we worked with local families from the King’s Square Estate. Working with artist Sarah Pimenta, families drew and then screen printed…
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