The House Husband

Finally, I’ve finished. The 1152 records on the medical update list are completed. It feels like I’ve amended more like 20,000 records! All I can see are pots and statues of Florence Nightingale, breast relievers and feeding bottles. Now I’m just wondering what will be waiting for me next week.

Kevin did mention a possibility of my scanning in old images off the original catalogue cards but that won’t be for another couple of weeks so, who knows.

Anyway, it was such a glorious day today (nothing like yesterday) that I went for a short wander after lunch.

The Queen’s Tower looked fantastic against the blue sky so I snapped a photograph of it in all its glory.

Queen's Tower, Imperial College

This is all that remains of the Imperial Institute which was started in 1888 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. It was completed in 1893 and was intended to be an institute for scientific research into things brought back from all corners of the empire. It was demolished in 1969, because it was considered not adaptable by Imperial College, which was expanding all over the square.

The Victorian Society and John Betjeman (the poet who wanted to destroy Slough) managed to save the tower. It now stands alone at the end of a large green space of super green grass. It is clad in Portland stone which explains why it looks so bright and clean. I say alone but it is surrounded by the distinctly 1970s architecture of Imperial College, London, generally sprinkled with students wandering from building to building.

At the time of the proposed demolition, there was a lot of resistance, prompting Lord Home to say:

Many will regret this change in the Kensington landscape. But it is symbolic of the needs of the times that we can no longer rest on the memorials of past greatness but must prepare for a new but different greatness of the future.

I’m not sure how that was received!

The Tower, which is now more accurately called a free standing campanile, is, sadly, no longer open to the public but, apparently, affords wonderful views of London. It houses ten bells (named after Vic & Albert’s kids) which are still rung on royal anniversaries by a group called the Ancient Society of College Youths.

Here’s a shot looking up from near the base.

Queen's Tower, Imperial College

It’s a bit of a shame that the building was demolished because everything else around it is decidedly Victorian. Well, everything except Imperial College which is decidedly not. To be fair, the Tower makes a wonderful counterpoint to the boring architecture of the college buildings and compliments the Science Museum, which is merely a block away.

What a great day! Though I’d quite forgotten what a real day at work was like. I am down in the basement in the documentation office.

It’s bizarre but everything I discussed with Nick, my supervisor, was something I’ve learned since starting my MSc. And the standard they use is SPECTRUM, which I wrote about in an essay last semester. Quite a handy place to volunteer then.

The place is a bit of a labyrinth so my first lesson was navigation. We met at one entrance then left for another entrance where I was shown how to get through the secret door and up to the control room. From here it was across a gallery, through a second secret door and down a few hundred steps into the bowels of the museum where it is quiet. It’s the quiet you notice most. Rachel said (Rachel is an Australian who also volunteers, working on Fridays too) that sometimes an hour will go by in absolute silence. I find that a bit frightening.

I have a special Science Museum pass which Nick said I must wear all the time. I hope he meant at work, because I have taken it off now. I also have to go to the control room each day to collect the special pass which will give me access to the secret doors.

Nick spent ages going through the meticulous documentation prepared by Oliver, the boss of volunteers and then, finally, we started on MIMSY. MIMSY is the database and what a database! Extraordinary. HUGE! COMPLEX! I really like it. I think I shall enjoy updating MIMSY.

What happens is that a curator wanders around with a spreadsheet in his hand. He isn’t anywhere specific, checking things but just might be there because he is having his lunch. But he always carries the spreadhseet just in case he spots something. When he does, he looks at the spreadsheet and if it doesn’t have a location in the location column, he fills it in with pen. This then comes to me and I update the database. That’s it. I will be updating records for medical and dentistry objects.

I know that sounds really, really dull but I’m going to enjoy it. And I managed to get the train home with Mirinda though it was awfully crowded and we couldn’t sit together until Ash Vale mainly because she doesn’t employ a buffer.