It was fine when we awoke but with cloud gathering rapidly and a forecast of rain later, we did not want to be outdoors too much! Just after 9.30 we walked to Paddington and made our way via the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines to Canary Wharf.
Everything in that part of the world is much larger than life - sometimes it seems just for the sake of it. The Jubilee Line station is enormous and could easily be mistaken for a main line station!
The museum was not far away and well signposted. Few of the original warehouses that once surrounded the West India Dock now remain but the museum is in the far left part of this shot.
A few boats are moored in the dock - although it is not obvious if they can now get in and out without the aid of a crane! One of them is now established as a church.
Outside the museum is a statue to one of the founders of the West India Dock and the trading company which it created. Its main aim was to serve the growing market in sugar products from the West Indies. As the trade grew, the labour intensive production needed a much greater cheap work force than the islands could provide and so started the infamous African slave trade. (One of the facts that surprised us later was that when the African trade was abolished, it was replaced by a similar operation from the Far East)
The museum does not allow flash photography so most of what we saw will have to be conveyed in words. We began in the exhibition about the sugar trade.
One display - you can, dear reader, just about see it in this photo - claims that the abolition of the slave trade was as much about economics as morality. Indeed, through the whole of the museum, crossing several centuries of trade and industrialisation, we came across messages that have strong contemporary resonances. In one case, a statement from a Cardinal Manning about conditions in the docks at the start of the 20C were a close replica of the recent statement by English bishops about the impact of the welfare state changes.
OK so it is not a great photo but it is included to illustrate something which at least one of us did not know before. We have seen in exhibitions at stately homes sugar cones but the display today explains why they are that shape. The inverted cone jars receive the boiled product of crushed sugar cane. Much of the sugar crystallises in the cone, allowing the dark molasses to drain out into much smaller cups below. It is then put into separate barrels before transportation and the sugar cones kept whole.
After completing this gallery we felt in need of refreshment so returned to the cafe area on the ground floor for a coffee. After that we went back up to the main gallery where there is an excellent re-construction of the narrow and gloomy streets that once surrounded the dock areas, providing accommodation and working places for the myriad of low paid workers that kept the system going.
Although the rooms are necessarily small to fit into the museum space they are probably a good feel for how crammed in everything was - including the drinking places where many sailors would quickly lose all their earnings after returning from a long sea voyage.
The repetition of arguments about how wealth creation needs some people to suffer was alluded to above - here a dock boss claims that dock strikes were the result of the media filling people's heads with false claims and unrealistic demands that would, if met, hopelessly undermine the over-riding demand to grow the economy. Never mind that the economy only grew for some people but without that growth all these poor suffering workers would have no jobs at all.
After several hours looking around this fascinating museum (NB free entry!) we had a late lunch snack before leaving to retrace our steps back to the boat. We needed to eat quite early tonight as we have tickets for a concert tonight.
Not sure how popular this is a place to work just right now! As can be seen, it was by now rather wet and miserable afternoon. we walked most of the way back to the station through a shopping mall - not that there was much to tempt us.
This is supposed to be a talking statue but we failed to get either of the his or hers side of the story to play to us. But it looks impressive!
We should perhaps have said earlier that we really did enjoy our Lebanese meal out last night. Even though we opted for the smallest of the set meals (not knowing how to make choices from the menu) it was plenty. Very varied flavours.
In the evening we returned to St Martin in the Fields for the first of the two concerts for which we bought tickets yesterday. Tonight's music was provided by the Feinstein Ensemble, a small group of up to nine players, although sometimes only a quintet played.
The performances were excellent - the headline billing had been Bach Brandenburg Concertos but there were also pieces by Telemann, Vivaldi and Mozart.
The two Brandenburgs (nos 4 and 5) bookended the concert. An amazing highlight of the first half was a Sopranino Concerto by Vivaldi with Martin Fenstein as the soloist. An impeccable bravura performance.
The same soloist opened the second half with a Recorder Concerto by Telemann. this was followed by a cello concerto by Vivaldi. Not only did the soloist have some work do to but also the young bass player had some really sparkling sections to accompany him
Overall, a remarkable concert which we very much enjoyed. The quality of the musicianship from mainly quite young performers was outstanding.
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