By the time we arrived, the weather had taken a turn for the worse; it was grey and drizzling and the first views of the visitors centre was much as described by many already. It looks a bit like an African building site with floors held up by wooden poles. Here is Stonehenge:
and here is the African equivalent:
OK, the Africans are clearly more ambitious as they have gone up two stories rather than one.
The car park is excellent though, with good-sized and well-marked spaces for disabled drivers, but not as many parking spaces as I had expected.
Walking down to the entrance we were met by King Arthur and his Loyal Arthurian Warband. They were in fine voice, asking that English Heritage returned the bones of the dead to the ground, rather than exhibiting them in the Visitor's centre. I'm afraid here was yet another disappointment, but not one of English Heritage's making. There had been rumours of King Arthur Pendragon being attended by a bevy of bare-breasted maidens. Sadly, not a one in sight, but you can't blame them really, the weather was atrocious. Not a day for woad. We'll come back to King Arthur's demands later...
...but at this point I wasn't very sympathetic.
Once you get beyond the scaffolding, Denton Corker Marshall have managed to create an impressive building, although they do seem to have captured much of the "feel" of the old visitor's centre by the pay booths - it feels like you are in a trench, below ground level. Fortunately, it doesn't yet have the redolent smells of the old facility. Despite this, architecturally, the building is impressive. I can't fault the structure. It could be so wonderful.
The next bit of good news, at least for locals, were the arrangements for those of us with Stonehenge Local Residents passes (and for those of you who are members of English Heritage or the National Trust and who also get free access). There was a separate line to the till and it all went very smoothly. Much, much better than the old facility.
Well the Local Residents admission is one thing, but the souvenir first day ticket in plasticised cardboard. Oh come on, get a grip, this isn't a Disney attraction.
Right, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. The new visitor's centre is meant to be a triumph of the age, to set Stonehenge in context, to show a wealth of exhibits and to inform the visiting public. Oh, dear, how sad, never mind. It fails in its main purpose.
Now don't get me wrong. the exhibit cases are first class, the exhibits themselves rivetting. BUT and it is a huge but, there are so few exhibits and they are so poorly displayed. Little information is provided when it should be oozing out of every nook and cranny. There is no clear way round the exhibits. I felt cheated somehow. It's just lots of wide open space with bugger all in it.
The upper oval shows the retail area - filled largely with the sort of "kiss-me-quick" Stonehenge branded tat commonly found at seaside emporia everywhere, or more expensive stuff found at every English Heritage and National Trust site in the country. Most of the exhibits are in the 5 small cases shown in the lower oval. How small? Well, if two people are looking into one of the sides of each case, no-one else gets a look-in. I make that 40 people looking in the cases and the place is too busy. No wonder English Heritage want people to book - there isn't enough room for too many!
Now there are other exhibits round (some) of the walls and there are books in the Objects Chamber (pretentious twaddle for "Room") - but of course, you can only see 2 pages of each book at most. But there is a heck of a lot of empty space - the Interpretation area for instance, that takes up at least 20% of the whole exhibits area. OK, you can stand in it and get to experience what it might feel like to stand in the centre of Stonehenge at different times of year, but wasting so much physical space that could have been put to better purpose, when 3D headsets could present it so much more effectively.
I got mugged by BBC Wiltshire in the shop and asked what I thought of the exhibits. I told them - much as I I have written it above and emphasised it by complaining that twice as much area seemed to be devoted to the shop as was given over to archaeology. English Heritage clearly took umbrage at this and pointed out that the ground area of the exhibits area is twice that of the shop. True, in total ground area, they are perfectly correct. However, as the retail area is packed to the gunnels with "stuff" and you have to search to find anything in the exhibits area - the functional occupancy is somewhat different. Compare the sizes of those two ovals - the ratio of functional shop:functional exhibits is more like 3:1 than the 2:1 I suggested to the BBC.
Time for another plus point. There is a large and much-needed cafe on the other side of the complex. This is bright and airy, makes excellent use of space and is well-planned. This is a bonus for visitors and although the size is reasonable, it is of a similar size to the retail area.
Embarrassingly for English Heritage, every other person interviewed mentioned the coffee, the food, the gift shop - but not the archaeology. Even BBC Wiltshire themselves, during the news bulletin I heard, seemed to spend more time commenting on the delights of Stonehenge jam and English Heritage wine than they did about history. Soooo sad!
I can't help but think that English Heritage have been so eager to screw money out of visitors (Cafe, huge gift shop and double the admission price from February) that they almost forgot to add the exhibits.
Let's go back to King Arthur and his desire to rebury the human artefacts. If they were being displayed with full academic rigour, in a setting that explained the context in which they had been found, in an educational way that both informed and challenged the viewer (See the Amesbury Archer display in Salisbury Museum - and witness the reaction of children who see it for the first time - hushed, almost reverential tones, at seeing a body in "the ground".) I would be the first to say keep them where all people, not just academics, can learn from them.
Then compare it to one of the Stonehenge displays
Instead of being displayed contextually, the remains are arranged to fit the design of the cases and the accompanying text is so uninformative as to be pointless. I can see no reason why the public wouldn't get as much from looking at a good plastic facsimile as they would looking at the real thing. That isn't to say I agree that they should be reburied. I would prefer they were placed out of the public gaze in an area where they could be subject to legitimate scientific study, but where they were normally kept in a place of dignified security. Perhaps English Heritage and the Loyal Warband could come to a compromise?
I've been pretty damning about the new Visitor's Centre. It could be so much more than the pale, dumbed-down, Disney experience it now offers. Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is to be found in the home of Disney - the USA.
A month or so ago, I met up with an old friend in the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall in Washington DC for coffee. Knowing my interest in history, my friend suggested I popped across the Mall to the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History to see a special exhibition that was running called Written in Bone: The Forensic Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake Bay Area. Click that link and this one (the Forensic Files) to get a feel for what they have done. I wouldn't be averse to English Heritage flying all those involved in setting out the Visitor's Centre to see how a thoroughly enthralling, thought provoking and contextually stunning exhibition can be put together in a relatively small space. Not dumbed-down, not Disneyfied, but gritty, educational and thought provoking. It kept my attention for over 3 hours - today the Stonehenge Visitor's centre managed 15 minutes.
More:
- space devoted to artefacts and exhibits
- information
- context
and less tat!
3 comments:
Was it really that bad? The Press seemed to thing it was wonderful.
Well, I did wonder if I was being overly harsh after I had spoken to BBC Wiltshire Radio and went back into the exhibit hall a second time to see if I was being reasonable or not - and I think I was.
My daughter, who came with me, thought the post was very objective and fair; possibly a little too kind to English Heritage. I think the tourist reaction will critical - do they want to see archaeology or simply buy a souvenir?
I suspect a lot of those who once would have stopped to visit will now content themselves with slowing down on the A303, taking a snap on their smart-phone and then heading off to the west or the east, content that they have now "done" Stonehenge.
Pretty busy over the weekend after christmas ,as usual lots of coaches and cars in the car parks most of the day,at around 4.00 pm the entrance is closed off the at airmans roundabout ,causing some confusion and more traffic hold ups ,i did notice a german car turned away,he went onto the A303 eastbound and took the bridleway off the A303 to look at the stones from there ,several cars were doing the same and the next question is ,will EH get this route blocked ?.
Most of the times i passed i noted loads of people were WALKING from the centre to the stones,possibly due to the road train being full..
Not a good idea when its raining.
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