In a wide-ranging and stimulating talk Jon Cotton described the new London before London gallery and the rationale behind it. The gallery, which opened at the Museum of London (MoL) in October 2002, is concerned with London’s prehistory. In other words the region’s ‘pre-urban environment’. This is somewhat problematic as the MoL is the World’s largest urban history museum, and so emphasis is placed on the later periods. Moreover, prehistory gets short shrift from the national curriculum and most school parties visit the museum to study the Roman or Tudor/Stuart and Victorian City. Thus it is hardly surprising that the period is so poorly understood. In a survey by MoL a few years ago visitors were asked ‘what does the word prehistory mean to you?’. The answers were illuminating (if depressing): 30% replied dinosaurs, but others said savages, the Flintstones and even the Anglo-Saxons. Only 5% said prehistory was the time before written records.There were two precursors to the London before London gallery. The first, opened in 1976, was put together by Jean MacDonald largely from stray finds of stone tools and metalwork including many items dredged from the Thames. However, a small proportion of material came from a handful of excavated sites, such as Caesar’s Camp at Heathrow dug by W. F.Grimes in 1944.

By the time the gallery was renewed in 1994 the body of evidence for the prehistoric period had greatly increased thanks to excavations at important sites such as Three Ways Wharf, Uxbridge, which provided a rare glimpse of life in the ameliorating environment after the last glaciation. The 1994 gallery was organised by Jon, who used this new material to challenge preconceptions about prehistory (summarised by stirring images of a scantily clad Raquel Welch and a shambling caveman). Traditional techniques, such as the use of dioramas, were used alongside innovative methods of display that allowed objects to be handled. Within six years, however, another renewal was being planned. The latest gallery draws upon the previous galleries and on the considerable amount of material recovered from post-PPG16 excavations. Indeed, the last few years have seen numerous excavations, many of them exposing large areas of the prehistoric landscape, such as the dig at Perry Oaks Sludge Works, where an area 1km in length was stripped to expose traces of prehistoric field systems, settlements and monumental earthworks. At the same time, superbly preserved organic remains have been found at sites on the Thames floodplain, including perhaps as many as 20 prehistoric trackways.

In the most ambitious attempt yet at displaying London’s prehistory the MoL has doubled the floorspace of the new gallery over its predecessor. This time Jon’s four main themes are: the changing landscape, the centrality of the Thames, the ingenuity of people and the continuity of prehistoric cultures in the Roman period. These are presented in three main display elements: a landscape wall around the gallery, a blue-lit ‘river wall’ showing finds from the Thames and display plinths telling the story of London’s prehistory in chronological order. The overall appearance of this brightly lit, ‘sparkly’ gallery owes much to designers from Conran and Partners. Its modern, perhaps slightly austere, look is softened by the extensive use of wood surfacing. Despite following the dictum ‘less is more’ there are over 1500 items on display. One of the most evocative pieces is a cast made from an impression on a 5000-year-old pot recovered from the Thames at Mortlake, which shows the end of a slender, probably female, finger with a long nail. Many members will be prompted to visit (or re-visit) the gallery after Jon’s fascinating talk, especially after the museum’s new entrance opens in the summer. From then on the main thing to remember is to turn right and right again.

Robert Cowie