Introductory tours VandA

I have now done three introductory tours with my carer John Gehtin around the Victoria and Albert Museum, and I have a feeling that these are only the first of many. At least with these tours none of them are the same and they are all different from the last one, which makes a difference from other tours I have been on in other locations. This article will be talking about three tours that I did this month. They were all at the wonderful Victoria and Albert Museum. I shall be comparing the two tour guides' unique style of how they interacted and engaged with the audiences. I shall also be trying to put you, my reader, in the picture. My hope with this article is that you shall become so immersed in my world of tours, that you shall be inclined to want to visit this spectacular museum in South Kensington and take one yourself!

Although there are many varied tours at the V&A, I suggest the 1.30 tours as they are brilliant and one learns mountains of information. Recently I went on a Curator's talk about the Arts and Performance galleries. They are a must see, as they can be a museum within their own right. They have original props from The Lion King in the West End. What I liked seeing the most was the beautiful piano and the original pop star clothes from Elton John's collection. The Curator was a expert at pop history so we were incredible lucky to view and learn about the history of these items through her.

The second tour took place on a hot and sticky Thursday afternoon in July. The waiting point for all tours is in the main reception of the museum. Usually it's a group of eight people and a tour guide. This time there were eight people all foreigners all of whom were tourists and were enjoying the museum for the first time. Our tour guide was a wonderful lady who seemed as old as the museum itself. She struck me as a wise owl, very full of wisdom. She was French and called herself Margaret.

Overall her tour was excellent and I found learning about the Indian gallaries and the Muslim heritage fascinating. I do not know enough about them, as they are not my culture, yet I admire them greatly. I learned about the Ardabil carpet on the tour, which is one of the top treasures in the Museum. I learnt a lot about Textile through the Ardabil carpet; it was given as gift by William Morris to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1893. The Ardabil carpet is over 400 years old. It originally belonged in a shrine in North West Iraq. The British army acquired it and WIlliam Morris bought it from the army. It was seen as the finest example of Eastern design, the carpet is wonderful to look at and I would recommend it to people who are at a loss as to what to see within this extensive museum.

On my third and most recent tour, it was like seeing the museum with completely new eyes. I really liked this tour guide, who was a bit of a performer and knew exactly how to engage with the audience. He had come from a musical background and was also a tour guide at the Royal Academy. It started in the Raphael cartoons (I had no idea that cartoon in Latin meant sketching). The cartoons themselves were printed as a mirror image so that when they were made into tapestries they would be the right way around.

This tour was not just about the museum, was saw it from the eyes of a musician called Handel. The main focus of the tour was talking about the wonderful marble statue of George Handel who was born in Germany yet the British claim him as ours. George Handel was born in 1685, died in 1759 and is laid to rest in Westminister abbey. What I loved about this particular tour was the enthusiasm of our tour guide when he described Handel's favourite places in London where he loved playing his music. It was definitely not where we would normally have thought, like in a palace.

The general knowledge we obtained from our excellent tour guide was pure gold dust. The museum itself originated from the Great Exhibition itself. The Great exhibition was held in Hyde Park was a huge resounding success with 6 million visitors (which was a massive amount of people back in the 1850s!) The profit that Prince Albert and Henry Cole made from the Great exhibition was put into buying the land around Hyde Park and the Albertopolis was born. This was Prince Albert's mark on the world, as many of the British were suspicious because of his German heritage. Yet because the Great Exhibition was a success, it was Prince Albert's success.

In the summer George Handel would do many of his rehearsals in the South of London. Handel loved playing in the Vauxhall Pleasure gardens which is where riots would usually kick off. Once a year the Royal fireworks took place in Saint James' Park. On one occasion, Handel was asked to perform in front of the Royal family. For this extravagant event a beautiful wooden stanected. However, there was a lot of wind on this sunny day of the event. Unsurprisingly, the wooden stand caught fire, and whoosh the place was ablaze! This led to a sword fight between the French artist who had designed the stand and the Duke of Montague who had organised this event. Back in the Victorian times riots were normal yet on this Royal event it was a chaotic riot that broke out because of the fire. Apparently, the sword fight became the highlight of entertainment for the evenings crowd in the Park.

What I really admired about this wonderful tour guide is that he took our minds to the park. We were the crowd that was watching the sword fight. My Imagination was ignited with the elaborate swordplay. The tour guide was enthusiastic and a delight to talk to and engage with. I also learnt a lot of general knowledge about the museum itself.

We were shown the original entrance of the Museum which was and still is, a feat of engineering in itself. Apparently when it was designed, only Saint Paul's Cathedral was taller than this museum. There was a wonderful story which the guide told about the entrance, where they have a beautiful terrace, where many couples get engaged. And I suppose that sums up the Museum very well, it is th love and devotion of those who work there as guides, volunteers and full time staff, which makes it the glorious and cherished establishment it is today.