History of London - planning a series of museum exhibits to show London from Early Victorian to 1960s & 70s.

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Ramy Tawakol        

December 18, 2009

GED 311 London and the world: a history

Alan Hertz

Final Exercise

From Early Victorian to 1960s & 70s London

1st Gallery: Early Victorian London.

At the entrance of the gallery there will be a guide about early Victorian London, which will explain what happened at that period of life. In the middle of the 19th century, London began to be confident and the metropolis was expanding all over London. The railways and the steamships made the economy of London grow, and people were calling London the most powerful nation of the industrial age. Between 1831 and 1871 the population went from 1.6 million to 3.2 million people. There was a clear problem about the endemic problems of disease and sanitation that would never be solved with the old parish-based systems of government. The metropolitans were trying to improve the roads, buildings and sanitation. By the late 1830s the city looked better and the roads improved, but the streets smelled of horse-drawn vehicles but the idea that Joseph Hansom’s introduced about the railways in 1835 was creative. In 1851 there was the great exhibition that took place in the Hyde Park, Joseph Paxton design the crystal palace where the exhibition took place, the exhibition symbolized Britain’s commercial and industrial supremacy, it was also intended to promote the nation’s leading role in technological progress, I will represent that by an audio explanation in front of the a small crystal palace. There were lots of Metropolitan improvements in Early Victorian age, one of the most important road improvement was the Victoria, Albert, and Chelsea embankments which took place between 1868 and 1874. At that age there was firefighting but it’s the responsibility of your private fire insurance companies, no other properties can be protected, only the insured ones. Traveling around London was with new horse-drawn vehicles. Also steamboats services for passengers on the Thames river was introduced in 1815, by providing pictures to the public and a written explanation. The railways were introduced on 1840s, and that was between the cities. Bringing an electric telegraph to the gallery and a written explanation that says that it was first made just to communicate and signal for the expanding railway network, it can travel 1600 kilometers (1000 miles). And this was the beginning of the Late Victorian age which will be in the 2nd gallery.

2nd Gallery: Late Victorian London

At the entrance of the gallery there will be a guide about late Victorian London, which will explain what happened at that period of life. London started to look like an imperial capital, and the new government new buildings were built to match the Houses of Parliament architecture, and in 1860s some people were comparing the city to Paris. The British ran the empire from modern offices. London became a four million population in 1890s. The wealthy and the poor people were the only people who lived in the centre of London. London became a commercial and financial city. They started to build theatres in 1880s and the 1890s; most of the theatres were built in Shaftesbury Avenue. The first social party was the Social Democratic Federation, which was founded 1880s and they were trying to help the unemployment that the West End was facing in 1886 and 1887. In 1888 London started to by electing people. The London County Council promised the people high rates, and healthy cities. In 1899 a modern secular society was emerged.

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After passing the entrance of the gallery, which you go into a circular room that has explanation and pictures about: government buildings, trains, trams and the underground, Public Houses and music halls, the Victorian art world, the school board and education for all, and popular religion. Starting by a picture of queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, 1887 and in front of the painting there will be a phone that has the explanation of the government buildings & Royal Jubilees: which will state that the late Victorian London was the capital of a worldwide empire, it was between Westminster and Whitehall. The ...

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