Archives Education News
Cholera: London’s Solution to a Medical Mystery
The story of how a Westminster physician and local vicar discovered the cause of cholera and so triggered the construction of Victorian London’s sewage system will be told, thanks to a £47,100 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and a grant of £13,500 from Thames Water.
Documents held by Westminster City Archives and in other London locations will be brought together and made available online for the first time. They will reveal the work of Dr. John Snow and Revd. Henry Whitehead, who succeeded in isolating the cause of a cholera outbreak in Soho in 1854 and thereby confirmed that the disease must be water borne.
Westminster Archives stands in an area whose squalor in Victorian times led author Charles Dickens to name it the ‘Devil’s Acre’. Outbreaks of cholera were originally believed to be caused by impure air but it was Dr Snow who traced the cause of a particular outbreak in Broad Street, Soho, to the water pump used by locals to provide their drinking water. Detailed parish records compiled by Revd. Whitehead, then vicar of St Luke’s Church, helped confirm the theory.
The project will recruit volunteers to digitise original documents produced by the London City Mission which up to now could only be viewed by appointment. These, together, with other documents and illustrations, held by Westminster Archives, are seen as being of great value to scholars studying Victorian London. Students from the University of Westminster will help to create a computer game that will be showcased on the project website it’s aim is to challenge players to modernise Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s sewage system built in 1865 to combat London’s putrid water supply, for the 21st century. The website will also include an animated film telling the story of Old Father Thames, which will be made at family workshops and schools during the autumn term.
Local schools and the community will get involved in the project; activities include a visit to Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s Crossness pumping station, which has just been re-opened. A play and a Father Thames tapestry created by a local Bangladeshi group. International charity Water Aid will visit schools and give talks to explain how cholera, although eliminated from Britain and other developed countries, is still afflicting people in the Third World and to encourage schools to raise money.
An exhibition showcasing the work developed during the project and some of the Archives collection relating to the Thames and Cholera will be hosted at the SW1 Gallery from the 4 January to the 29 January, 2012.
We aim to have the website live by January, 2012. The website address will be www.choleraandthethames.co.uk
A night at the Opera – with Darwin!
Students from St Vincent de Paul Primary School, Westminster gathered at the Royal Society on 23rd November to celebrate the life of one the Society’s most famous Fellows - in musical style. Year 5 students presented Darwin: The Opera, written by music teacher Russell Hepplewhite and directed by Helen Eastman, to an audience of over 200 people as part of the Charles Darwin, A Genius in the Heart of London project, co-ordinated by the Linnean Society of London and Westminster Archives and generously funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
“The Opera featured a range of aspects of Darwin’s life” said Russell Hepplewhite, composer. “The students were inspired to help with writing the lyrics by a visit to the Linnean Society of London in October where they found out more about Darwin, saw some of his belongings and were able to ask lots of questions. We then took all this information back to the classroom and began writing and rehearsing”. Dawn Shorten, Programme Support Officer, Music and the Arts, from the City of Westminster School Effectiveness Team commented “The Opera was a great success. I think it is so important for children to have the chance to engage with partnership projects; the level of expertise in the organisations schools can work with lifts the aspirations of all of the participants”.
" "The Opera was a great success... the level of expertise in the organisations schools can work with lifts the aspirations of all of the participants
Dawn Shorten
City of Westminster School Effectiveness Team
Crossing the White Line
Walter Tull was Britain's first black professional outfield footballer and also the first black officer in the British Army. His story is now being told thanks to a £49,900 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). Walter Tull's extraordinary career lasted just nine short years before he was killed in action at the age of 29.
In 2009 the achievements of this national hero were celebrated with a range of activities, including an exhibition run by the City of Westminster Archives, to mark the 90th anniversary of his death on the Western Front and the end of the First World War.
You can find out more about Walter Tull by visiting the Crossing the White Line website www.crossingthewhiteline.com
For more information about the Crossing the White Line project please contact Peter Daniel or Camilla Bergman at 020 7641 5180 or email pdaniel@westminster.gov.uk or camillawebb@gmail.com
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