We’ve just come back from a few days in London, and I
found the time yesterday to visit the National Army Museum. I hadn’t been to
the museum for quite a few years and had forgotten just how good it is, being a much nicer and less busy environment than the Imperial War Museum in
my opinion.
I had also forgotten how many amazing Napoleonic Wars artefacts the place holds from Siborne’s Waterloo Diorama to the skeleton of the great man’s horse – yes really.
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| The eagle of the French 105th regiment captured at Waterloo by Captain A Clark of the 1st (Royal) Dragoons. I still haven't been to see the eagle of the 45th in Edinburgh castle museum which is very bad of me. |
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| "Dawn of Waterloo" by Lady Butler. This painting was bought by the museum in 2021 for £325k and has been expertly renovated. The restorers removed many layers of yellowing varnish to reveal some really stunning brushwork. Perhaps Mrs S could acquire something like this for the Hinton Hut? |
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| I had forgotten that Siborne's model resides at the museum and it took me a few minutes to realise what I was looking at. It really is impressive in scope and detail although I think it will soon be surpassed by the model being assembled by General Picton. |
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| I did a double take at this - Napoleon's horse Marengo! Just crazy to think that he sat on this animal who went on to survive him by 10 years. The skeleton is complete except for the hooves, one of which became a snuff box and another an inkwell. |
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| Not Napoleonic, this is the charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaklava. I just really liked this painting of the lesser known charge at that battle. |
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| Not at the museum, this is Wellington by Wellington Arch just outside Apsley House. Wellington had originally sat on top of the arch but was replaced in 1912 by the sculpture "Peace desending on the Quadriga of war" - given what happened two years later perhaps they should have just left Wellington where he was. |
If you haven’t been to the museum it's definitely worth a trip.
10 comments:
I have been both before and after the refurbishment. Personally I found the changes, with respect to the display of historical artefacts, all for the worse including a lot of material being removed. OTOH the new restaurant and toilets are top notch, and there's a lot of community and child play space which is great for visitors who aren't interested in the history. When I last went there were some tourists outside who were expressing how unimpressed they were with what is meant to be a NATIONAL ARMY Museum.
I was very disappointed with the treatment of the Siborne diorama as I had hoped they would improve the viewing - I approached the diorama seeing the multiple small terminal/screens around the glass case and thought they were magnifying viewing devices but they turned out just to be a way to shine a light on parts of the battle. To say I was disappointed is an understatment.
I popped in there briefly on Thursday on a lunchtime walk. Very quick look around the ground floor, sarnie & coffee in the caff and then back to work. Was taken with the display on nutritional intake through the ages (though surely the sources for the evidence must be sketchy in the early years).
Chris/Nundanket
Rob, I agree that it was disappointing not to be able to access the Siborne model from all sides although I can see it would have taken up an awful lot of space to be able to do so. I did enjoy the displays and the way they are curated but to be honest I can't remember what was there on my last visit. I did also like the 'community' feel which is in contrast to the rather sombre atmosphere of the IWM.
Chris, the cafe has clearly become something of a community hub which I felt was nice - the cakes were good too! I thought it was interesting that the calorific intake of British soldiers during the Napoleonic was was less than for those before or after although, like you I would have liked to know the source of the information.
When I attended the museum I couldn't stop fling very sorry for Marengo. Wellington had such a fixation with Napoleon that he seems to have collected anything that had belonged to the great man, including his mistresses. Have you visited the second Siborne display at Leeds, really well presented, and a great museum to boot.
Excellent day out Ian - thanks for sharing. I've never been there - another entry for the bucket list!
Robbie, I confess that I also felt rather sorry for Marengo! I have seen the other Waterloo model at the Royal Armouries in Leeds which is displayed in a way you can look down on it. I hadn't realised that it was also the work of Siborne.
Tony, worth the 15 minute walk from Sloane Square which takes you past the Chelsea Pensioners Hospital. A much nicer experience than the IWM plus you get to see Marengo!
Is the other Siborne model the charge of the Union Brigade? I have recollections of seeing that many years ago in Dover Castle of all places - but then my memory is a bit flakey or does anyone know whether it did spend some time there in it's history?
I haven't been to the IWM for some time and I believe it has also been refurbished since - the highlight (for me) used to be the WW1 German telescopic 'periscope'(?) - it was raised up towards the roof and pointed out of a window - you could look through it and see St Paul's! Or maybe that's another flawed/false memory...
Rob, the other Siborne diorama has larger scale models and definitely does feature one of the cavalry charges. I'm not sure of the history of it but as the Leeds Armouries didn't open until 1996 presumably it must have been on display somewhere before that?
I don't remember the periscope!
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