Master Jonjon Tourist Videos

Glance: "William Booth Birthplace Museum" Remember how I’ve promised to explore attractions both ‘big and obscure’? Today we’re getting really into this obscure part. But a humble beginning can also turn into something big. Now given that William Booth founded the Salvation Army, this humility is well justified. The birthplace is at the outskirt of East Nottingham (Sneinton) and requires a twenty-minute walk from city centre. It’s at the foot of Green’s Mill , so plan your itinerary wisely. The birthplace is now a biographical museum with period items and furniture. It operates together with an SA’s community centre just beside it. Staffers there can arrange out-of-hour visits (especially because it officially opens on Tuesday to Thursday only) but a booking e.g. through email is required in both cases. They'll introduce the whole thing and answer all your curiosity regarding Booth, SA or what the centre's planning to do. Hint: tearing down and putting up...

Glance: Wollaton Dovecote Museum This is among Wollaton’s (or West Nottingham’s) handful of oldest-surviving buildings, and hence lucky enough to gather enough protests to save it from demolition. Built in the 1560s by Wollaton Hall’s Willoughby family – two decades before they had the hall. See for yourself: Wollaton Dovecote Museum 1. The museum opens monthly and on the day you’ll see all these signs reminding you yet again it’s opening today (it works - the dovecote is so packed with visitors and gung-ho exhibition guides). Bright yellow and scattered all across Wollaton’s fences and bushes, it’s hard to miss this featured event as you follow the arrows into ever tinier roads, and finally into Dovecote Drive. 2. It was indeed originally a dovecote rearing thousands of doves for their meat and eggs, more than enough for the local population. Converted into a stable by the late nineteenth century. But then after it changed hands in 1926, the house became so under-rep...

Glance: Nottingham Industrial Museum After you’ve been to the Wollaton Hall and before going downhill for the deer, do reserve another hour for one more attraction. After all, you’ve climbed all the way here, so why not save the potential energy and visit this seventeenth-century stable a one-minute walk away? You can imagine how imperative is Nottingham’s glorious past, for this is what the first half of the museum’s about. Aided with exhibits like the printing press, lace machines, telephones and clocks, it tells the story of how these models get developed over its humping factory years. See for yourself: Nottingham Industrial Museum But then as you enter the courtyard, your trip swerves into the mundane and the everyday, as, out of nowhere – you’re in a guided tour in a full-sized Victorian kitchen. Which means what follows is a demonstration of how every part of every chore is used to be done. And, ringing in the back, is this horror / progressive story (depending on ...

Glance: Wollaton Hall / Natural History Museum It’s Elizabethan. It’s built in the 1580s. It’s on a hill in the middle of a park, and if you’re one of those city-people like me, look out for brown hairy stuff at a distance – they’ve got deer! The Wollaton Hall once belonged to the Willoughby family, who over the generations had this curious interest in collecting specimens. As soon as you realize this, it would become clear as to why this Grade I-listed building is now also the flagship Natural History Museum of the area that is Nottingham. And hopefully feeling less violated when you’re greeted by this hippopotamus at the entrance door (this being a convention of “zoological” museums; check out, for example, Cambridge’s Museum of Zoology and  Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences ). See for yourself: Wallaton Hall / Natural History Museum You’ll soon realize yourself torn between two tourist foci, one having the hall as a hall, the other being the collection of wondrou...

"Museum of Archaeology" (University of Nottingham) Archaeology: the ultimate showcase of academic soft-powers. Imagine everyday objects that’s shifted in time – a place to tell great stories, or at least as much as what can be deciphered and fit into a history frame. And you can do your own comparative 'archaeology of archaeology' if you wish, by contrasting departmental museums from around the country, on how they’re doing their job: Cambridge tries to interest us with the recent and the relatable (they have to; it's a dual-scholarship with anthropology); UCL's A G Leventis puts everything on a political timeline . Or perhaps if you're really in for a challenge, why not revisit the mummifying old-school of Petrie Museum? Warning: typewritten labels on browned cardboards. But now find yourself in another kind of experience in Nottingham University. For as soon as you’re experienced enough to compare, you’ll then realize life is full of surprises...

“DH Lawrence Pavilion”, Nottingham Lakeside Arts (University of Nottingham) University museums are the quiet cousins of city-centre attractions. They seldom show up in tourist guides. Some have little promotion, or all you see is a browning humbled sign (check out this murky discovery in LSE ). And if you insist and arrive at a random campus, very likely would you realize how astray they would like to saunter - with each department safeguarding their own precious treasures following peculiar curating policies that none other can contest. (Why not spend a moment to reflect on our finds in Cambridge?  1 2 3 4 ) Which means when it comes to planning a day-out for these mystic creatures, you’ll have to be prepared to turn it into sort-of-like a hiking date. But here in Nottingham University. Let’s hand them a participation trophy. For they’ve put everything in one basket for your convenience and branded it the “Lakeside Arts”. See for yourself: "DH Lawrence Pa...

“Canalside Heritage Centre” (Beeston) The “Canal Museum” of Nottingham has been closed for decades, and all that’s left is a colourful sign standing across the train station. But not all hope is lost, for in Beeston there’s this community museum that persists on (seven days a week by the way, an impressive feat considering its scale) to keep the history available to anyone who has some time between 9:30 and 4:30. The emphasis here is on the Beeston Lock and Canal, built 1796 to connect with Nottingham’s. As you walk from room to room, a timeline on the wall will show you both canal’s history all the way from the rise of dockland transportation of the eighteenth century until 2017, the year the centre opened. See for yourself: “Canalside Heritage Centre” (You’ll also realize these little attempts to be family-friendly: just below the timeline is a children’s story featuring a dog and a duck travelling downstream meeting friends and objects along the way.) Just when ...

“Green’s Windmill Science Centre” (Nottingham) Up till now I’ve visited quite a number of windmills in London and England and it’s still counting: Wimbledon Windmill Museum , Baggleswade’s Jordans Mill Museum , and a water mill from East London that you probably haven’t heard of. Sooner or later, you’ll realize all these strategies in making them more-than-just a mill. Wimbledon shows you tons of windmill models. And they turn. Jordans Mill is more of the history of the brand name to be juiced up with family gossips. And what about the House Mill on Three Mills Island, where a guided tour walks you through ragged wooden floors and head-bumping hazards (adventures like this are enjoyably nostalgic, partly because they reflect the late Georgian / Victorian “safety” standards as demonstrated here )? See for yourself: "Green's Windmill Science Centre" (Nottingham) And now here we’re bombarded with another historical quirk – the Green's Windmill was to ...

“Nottingham Contemporary” This is an award-winning art gallery, and the magical ingredients here can be described in two words. “Theatrical lights”. They make up all the differences. See for yourself: Nottingham Contemporary So throw away your ropes, wirings, portable fences and eyesore “Do Not Trespass” signs. Instead, let lights and shades set boundaries for your feet and your eyes. (The gallery runs ultra-shorts here; what I’m shown here is NTU MFA’s “Aftermath”, a four-day showcase.) When you feel like life is too short, come join my 25-min museum tour . Or find yourself in my novel , check out the photo of the day and finish it off with a secret prize . Tags - in_depth_tourism; museum; London_writer; London_travel; indie_writer; independent_blogger

“Warner Bros Studio: The Making of Harry Potter”  (sort-of around London) I seldom do Brobdingnagian stuff like this. Mainly because I’ve checklisted them long ago and am now only reviewing those that are temporary . But now here comes the Harry Potter Tour. Located in the town of Leavesden just outside Northwest London – if you book through travel agents you can include a coach that picks you up from Central London. See for yourself: “Warner Bros Studio: The Making of Harry Potter” 1. The tour is designed as a one-way route. You simply enter the entrance and start walking along. 2. You’ll bump into these magical paintings at some point. They explain the rules and regulations. Some soft advertising is to commence as you’ll also realize how the studio has been expanding ‘all the time’ e.g. with the recent (2015) opening of Hogwarts Express and Platform 9¾. [Spoiler warning] 3. You’re then brought to a cinema. It’s as smooth as it can get as they bring you ...

“Thamesmead: A Town for the 21st Century” (Royal Institute of British Architects) This upstairs gallery is just besides RIBA’s beautiful hall and staircases. Do check them out as you walk past them. 1. “Thamesmead” is a post-war housing estate in southeast Greater London. 2. A good exhibition starts with a compelling intro text. And our story starts with how the estate quickly degenerated into a red district with poor transportation and limiting facilities. (You can say it with irony: brutalism meets dystopia.) (Trivia alert: And to make things more quirky – A Clockwork Orange was shot there.) See for yourself: “Thamesmead: A Town for the 21st Century”  (Royal Institute of British Architects) 3. But then came a promising twist, with the whole thing changing hands to Peabody in 2014. (Could privatization save the day? An opposite view is brewing in the exhibition downstairs .) 4. You’ll also find yourself in multiple language games, where excerpts from cold ...

“Make it Happen: New Community Architecture”  (Royal Institute of British Architects) The Venue Jonjon is back to London and you know what – let’s find out those secretive Zone-1 attractions together. (Also in the area: Do you know there’s a museum at Green Park that’s dedicated to Faraday ?) The Royal Institute of British Architects is a seven-minute walk from Warren Street Station. And unlike other institutional museums – no, here you won’t find corridors after corridors, paintings of past presidents or obscure references that are only relevant to insiders. Here all you have are temporary exhibitions. And very temporary indeed – they change them every one or two months. It’s hard not to imagine a line-up of architects waiting to showcase. Feel it: “Make it Happen: New Community Architecture” (Royal Institute of British Architects) The Exhibition 1. … centres on three hidden theme: austerity, the privatization of (council) buildings, and the role o...

Preview: "David Salle: Musicality and Humour", Skarstedt Gallery Those who like to recycle will appreciate this exhibition - you get too see how crafty themes are to be reused across multiple works. Find yourself among repeating patterns and images and how they get reshuffled, rebuilt, revisited. And yet all these works get miraculously different titles. (Which is yet another reason you need to really look at contemporary arts besides reading the texts.) See it: “David Salle: Musicality and Humour”, Skarstedt Gallery (Afterthoughts: Composers will be delighted if this can happen in music.) When you feel like an outing, come join my 25-min museum tour . Or find yourself in my novel , check out the photo of the day , or finish off the day with a secret prize . Tags - in_depth_tourism; museum; London_writer; London_travel; indie_writer; independent_blogger

Quick glance: Jordans Mill Museum, Biggleswade This is a working mill and a thirty-minute walk from Biggleswade. In case you wonder – this is where you’ll find the Jordans Original Crunchy. 1. The mill was bought as “Holmes Mill” by the Jordans in 1893. A fire broke out a year later but this gave them the chance to upgrade everything to its latest technology. 2. This included an upgrade from millstones into metal rollers. Very efficient. Ka-ching! Let's explore: Jordans Mill Museum 3. You need to start from the top floor. And there you’ll face the greatest challenge of the whole experience, one that involves persistence and sweat: You’re to wave at an infrared sensor until it feels satisfied enough to play you an introductory video.  4. Find yourself waving again and again moving forward and backward and forward. Now repeat. Sooner or later, you’d want to give up the whole thing. But you’ll realize it’s worth the effort the moment it starts to play....

You can feel this quirkiness when something artistic is attempted in an all-in-all commercial setting. How else can we fit an art gallery in North Greenwich (to be rebranded as “Greenwich Peninsula” by the way) – the land of The O2? “The Mouse and His Child”, Now Gallery (A madder situation is the “Window Gallery” in Canary Wharf. And literally – imagine a window in the size of a shopping window ( let me know how you find it)) But at least now they've come up with something more community-oriented. The exhibition features a sculpture celebrating children’s novels written by adult fiction writers. You can read those novels right from the shelf. And providing a relaxing space. So just sit. For in these jungles of trades it's a luxury to sit and forget making a purchase. When you feel like an outing, come join my 25-min museum tour . Or find yourself in my novel , check out the photo of the day , or finish off the day with a secret prize . Tags - in_depth_touri...

After some minor struggle I've decided to put my travelling stuff here... You can always find my previous posts from facebook.com/thejonpage . Tourist attractions big and small famed and obscure. Here we go.