Free exhibit on Those who saved St. Paul’s during the Blitz

thanks Cyn

Thanks for mentioning this, Cyn, it looks very interesting! I'm working it into the schedule for my upcoming visit.

Yes, thank you, adding it to our Late September trip. Having read Connie Willis’s detailed writing of this in Black Out/All Clear I will be delighted to see this exhibit. Probably will need to re-read it yet again beforehand.

Interesting premise for a story, Larry! I just read a summary. Shame I can't time travel back a few months to read this before my trip, but I'll look forward to reading (ok, probably skimming) the 1100 pages of the duo after I'm back. Thanks for mentioning the books!

Hey, cwsocial. She wrote a short story plus 4 books on this 21st century time travel out of Oxford. The idea is historians from the future able to go back and study and report on historical events in the past, while unable to change history. First was a short story involving the first travel, "Fire Watch", which pops up in St. Paul and introduces Professor Dunworthy. Next came "The Doomsday Book" which goes back into Medieval England and the plague and is a really depressing story. This was followed by "To Say Nothing of the Dog", which is a fairly light-hearted comedy in Victorian England. "BlackOut" and "Al Clear" were intended as one book until the size ballooned. All of these were incredibly researched, and the detail in the WW2 pair is amazing. Other than the WW2 pair they do not need to read in sequence, all that is missed is some background on a couple characters, although the short story does explain a critical plot detail that does pop up later on in "All Clear."

Thanks, Larry, I've ordered both from the library. I may flip through, before my trip, to the time period of the WWII history, and then circle back, after my trip, to the start of Blackout. The reviews are mixed, seemingly dependent on whether the reviewer was primarily interested in the time travel, or also in the historical details. I'm intrigued!

I'm about 100 pages in to Blackout (by Connie Willis) and absolutely loving it! Like, can't put it down loving it.

Yes, it's a time travel novel - written from the perspective of time traveling "historians" who go back to observe, first-hand, the experiences of people living through historical events. Such as the evacuation out of London of school aged children, as seen by historian Eileen. As I am reading now, historian Polly is getting a tour of St Paul's Cathedral, while outside, the bomb squad is digging up the unexploded WWII bomb that landed at the cathedral's foundation. (She feels safe inside, knowing - from her year 2060 home time reference - that the bomb did not explode.) To get to St Paul's, she rode around on a double-decker, noting buildings that were still standing and knowing that some would soon be rubble.

It is a fascinating and delightful view of "at that time" London and St Paul's, and (I'm sure) other historical events and places that I haven't read about yet, such as Pearl Harbor.

The Blitz exhibit is near the SW corner of the Cathedral grounds.

Sounds like the Cathedral Gardens are a must do for me!

Wonderful small exhibit, took me about 20 or 25 minutes to read every interesting description with photos of the damage that was sustained and the efforts that saved the Cathedral from fire and explosives. Really remarkable.

And perfectly timed as I'm just reading the chapter of All Clear (Connie Willis) that gives a vivid insider's description from a fictional historian in the Cathedral during the time of the Blitz.

Blitz exhibit is near the SW corner of the Cathedral grounds.

So glad you mentioned this, acraven. I thought of it as I (wrongly) wandered clockwise from the front of the Cathedral. Not exactly pressed for time, I chuckled as I circled the entire cathedral back to the SW corner.

Facing the front of the Cathedral, it's to your right, as if you were beginning to go around counter clockwise.

I circumnavigated the Cathedral, too. At least the exhibit is very obvious, so you can't walk past it unknowingly.

in a related vein, be sure to visit the basement at St. Brides which "thanks" to the Blitz had many ruins uncovered