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The story of London Tweed

So this is how the story goes. In 1826 a London merchant decides to buy some cloth from a weaver in Hawick, a town in the Scottish borders famous for its cloth production. Very happy with his order, he decides to get some more but – crucially – misreads the weaver’s dashed handwriting. Instead of ‘twill’ this Londoner reads ‘tweed’, and assumes this new cloth must take after the River Tweed which runs fast and clear through the textile areas of lower Scotland. ‘Tweed’ and not ’twill’ has been the term used ever since.

Miss Levy’s Wedding Dress

This whole thing started a few years ago when a wedding dress came up at auction. Not being a wedding dress swooner I could nevertheless think of quite a few (entirely rational) reasons why the museum should acquire this particular example. For one thing it was made by Victor Stiebel, one of my favourite London couturiers. Secondly, we do not have enough of his creations (one never does) and they do not come up at auction very often. The dress also had an intriguing mystery inscription. We will get to that in a moment.

A starring role for the Suffragette collection

As curator of the museum’s wonderful Suffragette collection I often welcome ‘important’ visitors to the archive, captivated by the story of the women who endured imprisonment, hunger-strike and even force-feeding in their battle to win the vote.

Artist Q+A: Estuary’s Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen

By francis marshall on 22 Oct 2013

Estuary artist Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen

'Stranded' from Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen's Portrait of a River

'Traverse' from Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen's Portrait of a River

'Drift' from Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen's Portrait of a River

It’s your last chance to see Estuary at the Museum of London Docklands this week. The free exhibition of contemporary art, inspired by the outer limits of the River Thames, comes to a close this Sunday 27 October 2013. In advance of this, Estuary curator, Francis Marshall, caught up with Danish film artist, Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen, who was commissioned by the museum, in collaboration with Film and Video Umbrella, to create the film, Portrait of a River. The film – which appears in the exhibition – proceeds downriver, weaving together fragments and traces of the people and the places that define the character of the Estuary. Read the full post