please empty your brain below
MOMI - Museum of the Moving Image - became The BFI Southbank

dg writes: opened 1988

David Cohen | 29.10.21 - 7:06 a.m. | #

Blimey - I live just round the corner from the Taxi Museum, and did in 1986 too, but had never heard of it. Possibly that’s a clue as to why it closed.

Baldassaro | 29.10.21 - 7:36 a.m. | #

If I remember right I visited Crosby Hall some time in the 1970's. I have also visited Cuming Museum, before the fire, and Theatre Museum, before it closed.

Leuconoe | 29.10.21 - 7:58 a.m. | #

Fascinating as always. I certainly remember going to the Guinness World of Records which, if memory serves, later became the now defunct Sega World. The Planetarium, Commonwealth Institute and possibly the Livesy Museum were also ticked off in childhood. I’m trying to remember if the Livesy Museum had a huge adventure playground nearby.

Like David I also wondered about Momi, which always proved to be one of the more exciting school trips post-1988.

finlay | 29.10.21 - 8:10 a.m. | #

Visited the Planetarium more than once (as you guessed). Also visited the Museum of Mankind (which had good ads on the tube, which was why I went), Gypsy Moth IV (which I hadn't realised had moved from Greenwich - if you'd asked my I'd have said it was still there) & the Commonwealth Institute.

I've also visited the Old Bailey, but that was on jury service (fascinating).

The sale of Crosby Hall to private owners was criminal.

Steve | 29.10.21 - 8:37 a.m. | #

Many of the Courtauld works could be viewed in the Warburg Institute in Woburn Square from 1958 before being moved to Somerset House.

Keith | 29.10.21 - 9:02 a.m. | #

A few examples of 'levelling up' with attractions heading out to the regions, wonder how many have come the other way.

TomH | 29.10.21 - 9:09 a.m. | #

Yes, happy memories of the planetarium. You will know also that Madame Tussauds ran the Royal and Empire exhibition at Windsor Central station but sold it to property developers for a shopping arcade in the late 1990s. That was certainly one worth visiting.

davews | 29.10.21 - 9:10 a.m. | #

The Labour History place became the 'People's History Museum' in Manchester. It's good - 'dress-up like a millworker' stuff for kids, lots on the Co-op, Michael Foot's legendary donkey jacket, union banners etc. It's also housed in the remaining pump house of the Manchester hydraulic power system - where water at huge pressure was supplied down (thick!) pipes to run hydraulic motors around the city, before mains electic distribution.

mark addy | 29.10.21 - 9:18 a.m. | #

I'm surprised that the London Toy and Model Museum in Craven Hill didn't make the list.

dg writes: found it, and added, thanks.

Les Savine | Homepage | 29.10.21 - 9:31 a.m. | #

The London Planetarium was a sad loss. They also did laser shows to music there - laserium was its name I think.

Mikey C | 29.10.21 - 9:51 a.m. | #

Didn't realise the Ceylon Tea Centre had closed. Used to go and get Kandy tea there for my dad who acquired a taste for it while he was based there for a while after the war.

Yer another (albeit minor) link with the past gone.

Chris | 29.10.21 - 9:52 a.m. | #

The former Museum of Mankind is now the Burlington Gardens entrance to the Royal Academy of Arts.

Ian Paton | 29.10.21 - 10:28 a.m. | #

The Design Museum moved to Shad Thames, although it wasn't quite the same ethos or funding, and I see it has now moved to Kensington High Street. The Haymarket venue was a showcase of 60s and 70s when the UK was a leader in design and fashion, but latterly it somewhat lost its impetus.

Peter | 29.10.21 - 10:32 a.m. | #

I was born in Australia and in May 1986 my parents took us around the UK and Europe on a four month holiday. I remember going to the Guinness World Records museum as well as many other attractions. It's a completely different city now - lifeless, sterile, robotic, soulless.

daveid76 | 29.10.21 - 10:36 a.m. | #

The Museum of Mankind was my favourite museum after i moved to London in the 1970s. It showed me the lives of other cultures in such an immersive way that i felt dazed coming out into a rainy Mayfair after a visit. i was gutted when it closed.

the other eric | 29.10.21 - 10:48 a.m. | #

Went to the Planetarium and the Theatre Museum many times.
I may have got to the Toy Museum. I don't remember, but it sounds like the type of place my parents would have taken their children.
Have been to Lancaster House many times for work purposes.

iriw | 29.10.21 - 10:52 a.m. | #

The Museum of Mankind could be considered to have been swallowed up (or re-ingested) by the British Museum.

Jonathan Wadman | 29.10.21 - 11:10 a.m. | #

Back in the mid 80's Crosby Hall was some kind of student accommodation. A good friend of mine had a room there for a while and I remember visiting her.

anon | 29.10.21 - 12:10 p.m. | #

So that's what happened to the Toy and Model Museum ... they must have made a pretty penny cos they had some lovely stuff there

Caroline | 29.10.21 - 12:22 p.m. | #

It closed well before 1986, but nobody but me seems to remember the Football Hall of Fame, which was sited in Newman Street off Oxford Street in the early 70s and was pretty popular for a few years.

Arlu | 29.10.21 - 12:43 p.m. | #

Arlu, I went there. Though my only memory of it is that it was a basement near Oxford Circus and very boring.

ap | 29.10.21 - 12:53 p.m. | #

The London Planetarium was infamously compared to the head of broadcaster Brian Moore in a Half Man Half Biscuit song (and, later, a fanzine for fans of Gillingham FC)

Jamesthegill | 29.10.21 - 3:16 p.m. | #

My dad, who worked in the city, took me to the Stock Exchange when I was around 7 or 8 (1982/83). My school had unexpectedly closed and he couldn't find a babysitter, hence dad taking me to his office for a day. Trading had evidently just finished as I remember looking down from a gallery and seeing caretakers with giant brooms sweeping up masses and masses of paper. I wasn't very impressed! I had a great day, though, one of my fondest memories of time with my dad, as he sadly died soon after. But rather than end this comment on that sad note, during that day I also got to sit with the telephonists who showed me a switchboard and let me put through a call to a very bemused man in New York, who kindly spoke to me for a few minutes, tickled to have his important finance call from London beginning with me telling him about the pigeons I could see from the window.

Jayne | 29.10.21 - 3:36 p.m. | #

As yet no anecdotes...
• Bear Gardens Museum
• Broadcasting Gallery
• Imperial Collection
• Kodak Gallery
• Prince Henry's Room
• Rotunda Museum
• Telecom Technology Showcase
• Woodlands Art Gallery

diamond geezer | Homepage | 29.10.21 - 7:00 p.m. | #

I visited the Telecom Technology Showcase at Baynard House quite a few times in the '80s ("Showcase".. such an 1980s term!) but I didn't find much there of particular interest, because I worked for BT at the time!

Frank F | 29.10.21 - 8:25 p.m. | #

I worked at several of the University of London colleges and institutes in Bloomsbury. One in Woburn Square opposite The Warburg Institute. I think the Courtauld Gallery had a separate entrance direct to the top floor gallery. The first time I went in I was amazed at the 'famous' paintings there. It became a handy source of great cards. Much missed when it went to Somerset House, and favourite paintings disappeared into storage. Thank you (and to Keith) for prompting memories.

g.chingford | 29.10.21 - 8:48 p.m. | #

Yes, the Courtauld in Woburn Square always felt like a secret gallery as you went up in an enormous lift, presumably designed for get-ins of large-scale canvases.

In the 50s and 60s, it was possible to cheaply hire the Danvers Room at Crosby Hall, part of the mediaeval section, for children’s parties and other functions; I went to several parties there, including my own 7th or 8th birthday I think, but as a child of course completely failed to appreciate the age and interest of the building. The student accommodation was in a modern block wedged into the angle between two original wings, if I remember correctly.

Labourer | 29.10.21 - 9:40 p.m. | #

I also had professional connections with the Theatre Museum, but always found it a rather sad and gloomy place, probably because it’s impossible to capture the essence of any performing art in static displays. Looking at Olivier’s Richard III costume, say, might elicit admiration for design, fabric or needlework, but if you didn’t see the original stage performance then it’s just a frock sitting on a dummy. Probably much more useful in its current guise as a research collection at the V&A, though currently in severe danger from cost-cutting and savage downgrading of the curatorial staff.

Labourer | 29.10.21 - 9:50 p.m. | #

The Woodlands Art Gallery also housed the Greenwich local history centre. I went there in 2001 to get an image of a church in Greenwich where a friend was getting married. I also took my children to the Livesey museum; today it still looks as though it's closed temporarily...

H SE18 | 29.10.21 - 10:25 p.m. | #

I’m also reminded of Collector’s Corner at Euston. It wasn’t a museum on account of it being a shop which sold off old British Rail stock, including station signs, lamps and perhaps locomotive nameplates. However, thanks to the RailRiders club, it became a de facto museum for many of us kids with no money to spend. The staff knew you were only there to look around, gasp at the memorabilia, and collect a stamp in your RailRiders book but they didn’t seem to mind.

finlay | 30.10.21 - 9:27 a.m. | #

In the mid 70‘s I worked for a few months in Fleet Street and one lunch hour went to Prince Henry's Room which overlooked Fleet Street.
Prince Henry's 'initials' / coat of arms were on the plasterwork and there was also a small exhibition on Samuel Pepys. A pleasant way to spend a lunch hour.

Sara | 30.10.21 - 9:38 a.m. | #

I went to the Stock Exchange gallery on a school trip. My main memory was wondering why they didn't have waste paper bins. These days, health & Safety wouldn't allow the carpeting of the floors with loose sheets of paper.

I also enjoyed several trips to the Commonwealth Institute with its earthquake simulator and general Tracey Island meets Sir Kenneth Adam architectural vibe.

NickW | 30.10.21 - 10:13 a.m. | #

I don't think I ever went to the Kodak Gallery in High Holborn, but I did once visit the Kodak Museum at the Kodak Works in Harrow. Sadly, that museum closed in 1985, so just missed the publication date of your book (I expect it was in earlier editions). The items from the Kodak Museum are now in the National Science and Media Museum - maybe they went there via the Kodak Gallery.

Alan S | 30.10.21 - 4:09 p.m. | #

I went to the Woodlands Gallery a few times. Bought a bronze of two old ladies sitting on a bench that has moved around with me and is currently on top of a side table.

Tintinhaddock | 30.10.21 - 4:55 p.m. | #

After the borough archives moved from the first floor of the Woodlands Art Gallery in the early 2000s, the whole building has been in use, since about 2010, by the Greenwich Steiner School.

Philip Binns | 01.11.21 - 12:23 p.m. | #

The Southwark Heritage Centre has in fact been open for some time now and is integrated into the new Walworth Library.

zappomatic | 03.11.21 - 2:15 p.m. | #











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