Community & Learning Intern Blog – London calling

14 August 2015

The end of this week saw us taking our second work-related visit, in which we had a chance to enjoy the lovely Kensington Palace. We also had time to explore the V&A as well before our journey home. Below we offer our separate thoughts on what we saw.

Meghan: I really enjoyed visiting Kensington Palace. This trip was mainly about us looking at the different kinds of interpretation used throughout the Palace, though of course we were also on the look-out for their family offers. I was really impressed by their innovative, eye-catching and engaging forms of interpretation. I felt that these were particularly impressive in the King’s and Queen’s apartments. There was a clear and coherent narrative being told as you progressed through the property which was easy to follow and engaging. Interpretation was clearly well thought through and with the right amount of information provided allowing room for thought and individual contemplation and appreciation of the State Rooms on show. Interpretation was cleverly integrated, being painted and printed on everything from wall hangings to tables and even carpeted stairs. 

Other highlights in the material Kensington Palace offered included their Georgian ‘scratch and sniff’ map for the King’s State Rooms. It had a highly professional finish and engaged with our senses in a really unusual way. Overall, there were certainly lots of really interesting ideas to take away from this wonderful property! 

Ella: I concur with Meghan and I thought Kensington was a great place to visit. The long journey (a taxi ride, a bus ride, a train journey, and three changes on the underground) was definitely worth it! We visited Kensington Palace in the morning and in the afternoon we decided to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). It was only two tube stops away, and I was particularly keen to see it because it had interesting learning resources. Plus, Meghan had never been there before! Natalie actually brought up an interesting connection between Kensington and the V&A when we returned from London. Kensington has always been known as a ‘domestic’ palace, or a palace very much dictated by the concerns of women. The V&A has also been known as a women’s museum, or a female-friendly institution in its history! 

We also noticed an interesting ‘imagination station’ on the ground floor which asked children to draw parts of the museum at interesting angles using mirrors – not unlike our column mirror back at Stowe! Like at Kensington, we made sure to ransack the family trails and learning materials they had on offer, including their guide to learning offers for secondary students. We noticed that around both Kensington and the V&A they seemed to aim for subtle, non-explicit ways to engage children around the rooms. There were games, handling object points, and places where you could dress up, without it looking too forced in the rooms. They had an overall different feel from each other, not least because the V&A is so much bigger, but Meghan and I both agreed that not only their way of engaging but an almost ‘je ne sais quoi’ air they had made the institutions quite similar.

We had a great time at both museums. I felt like I gained a lot from the visits and I’m sure Meghan felt the same. They had something different to offer each of us, and it was really exciting talking to Meghan about what we thought during the day. By the time we got back we were completely exhausted!