Hi,
I will be making a short trip to London and Oxford Oct. 30 - Nov 9th.
Is there anything special/history related that you can recommend that shouldn't be missed? Events, etc. I have been to castles and museums, I was wondering about some of your favorites that I might not know about.
I also collect 54mm historical miniatures. I have been told the best shopping for figures is in London. Can anyone recommend a shop that is central?
In London, the British Museum has excellent Roman, Greek and Roman Britain galleries, as well as other nice things like Persian, Anglo-Saxon and Egyptian material.
Roman London lies under the modern financial district, the City, and so is a bit fragmentary. There are sign-posted bits and pieces around the City and the Museum of London would be the best place to start.
There is also some material in the V&A (Victoria & Albert Museum) such as old textiles, but it would be especially worth going there for the casts of Trajan's Column in the replicas gallery (not an obvious exhibit when the V&A is a museum of decorative arts). It's next door to the rather fun Natural History Museum (dinosaurs!) and Science Museum, so you can take a break from the Romans and enjoy some alternative pursuits nearby
The London museums tend to be free and just check winter opening times as you are travelling in October/November.
I can't advise on the 54mm figures but I know Tradition of London are in Mayfair (near all the expensive shops) and are well-known for the sort of 18th century & Napoleonic material. They do have a few ancient period figures.
As a former employee and guide at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, I can heartily recommend it. As a sculptor, you should appreciate the wonderful ceiling of the Divinity School! There's over a hundred different bosses on the ceiling, and a large number of pendants containing statues, all in a wonderful late-Gothic fan-vaulting. I'd recommend the 1-hour tour, which will also show you the Duke Humfrey's Library, and the Convocation Room where the university's parliament meets, and where during the Civil Wars, the royalist members of Parliament met. The features are original from that time. If you book in advance for one of their largest tours, you also get taken to the stacks - large underground stores with conveyer belts for the books.
I'd also recommend Merton College. It's not visited frequently - most people being drawn to Christ Church and Magdalene (don't miss Magdalene, either!) - but if at all possible, try and see Merton, arguably Oxford's oldest college, and - though they offer access only very rarely, it is sometimes possible to visit the oldest still used library in the UK. There's a number of elements to see, including the first T-shaped chapel in Oxford (they leased the land which would take the actual nave to Corpus Christi and could not continue building) and the oldest quadrangle in any of the Oxford-"Other Place" Colleges (Mob Quad) with its Archive building, which is entirely of stone (including the roof) to prevent fires.
Don't forget the Pitt Rivers Museum. It's a fantastic collection of anthropological items (including shrunken heads), and the museum has a really old feel. You generally can't move for cases. It lies just beyond the Natural History museum, which you'll have to cross to get to the Pitt Rivers: it's itself well worth the visit for its lofty Victorian architecture. It's also where one of the first disputes about Darwinism, the one involving Wilberforce, was held, although that room is not generally accessible.
If there's time, there's an interesting museum in the Castle, showing its time as the city prison. You get to see the cells and all. Also interesting, if you have the time, are the Ghost Tours in the early evening. They're great fun; just turn up at the Castle or in Broad Street.
The attached image is of the Divinity School.
M. Caecilius M.f. Maxentius - Max C.
Qui vincit non est victor nisi victus fatetur
- Q. Ennius, Annales, Frag. XXXI, 493
