During my stay in London, there were two museums that affected me deeply…but for vastly different reasons.
The first was the London Transport Museum: a place devoted exclusively to the history of London buses, trams, and the underground system. It was a giant collection of old vehicles, cross-section displays of the tube throughout its history, and told the story of how London’s transport system became what it is in beautiful, chronological detail.
Why did it affect me so much? Because from the ages of 3 to 11, all I wanted to be was a bus driver. To this day, I remain a transit geek: a lover of buses and transit systems. I could pour over maps for days. I had the entire Kitchener system memorized when I was five years old! A place like the London Transport Museum was amazing and delightful to me at age 31…but if I had stumbled in there at age 10, no one would have EVER dragged me away. It was simply a magical place…and I was the kid in the candy store!
The second museum was the Imperial War Museum, which I explored on my last full day in the city…and that provoked a deeper, more disturbing reaction.
Set inside an ancient building, you’re welcomed on the outside by two massive 15-inch battleship guns, rescued from World War I-era ships. On the inside, you have a giant courtyard full of military machinery, complete with vintage warplanes hanging from the ceiling. You also discover three floors of gorgeous exhibits…but it was the top and bottom floors that held the most effective displays.
In the basement, there was a long, highly detailed, walk-through history of the first two world wars, and there was NOTHING that they didn’t miss in putting this together. Especially effective was the First World War trench experience: a mock up of a long trench, which you walk through from one end to the other.
It’s not for the timid. It’s dark, full of sensory-assaulting battle noises, and various disturbing tableaux. The kicker comes when you realize that, after you leave, you’ve been bombarded by a smell that must have permeated the trenches during their entire existence: urine. For this exhibit, even this disgusting smell has been reproduced, and it stays with you long after you leave…
Yet, on the top two floors, I discovered another exhibit that utterly devastated me, such was its sheer, unadulterated power: the Holocaust exhibit.
I have never wandered through something so detailed, so definitive, and so disturbing. Children age 14 and under are asked not to go through this exhibit, and I can understand why. Three quarters of the way through, I sat on a bench, totally wiped in mind and body…and my soul was aching with sadness. All I wanted to do was crawl into a corner and cry, such was the magnitude of the horror on display – the phrase crime against humanity doesn’t even begin to describe the suffering and torment on display. Every person on Earth should be forced to attend this exhibit – in my mind, there has never been such an amazing collection of artefacts, displays, & videos, combined into an experience of such immense power.
Horrifying and breathtaking…that was the scope of the history on display, and it will stay in my head and my heart for a very, very long time…
