In
Trafalgar Square you will find the National Gallery (built in 1832-8) to the
north; Admiralty Arch (1910) and The Mall to the west; and St Martin in the
Fields to the east. The Square itself was not so named until 1835 and arose out
of the redevelopment of the Charing Cross area. The design was by John Nash -
famed for his planning of Regent’s Park and Regent Street, the redevelopment of
Buckingham House into Buckingham Palace, and the design of Marble Arch and
Carlton House Terrace. The Square is on the site of the King's Mews (Chaucer was
once their clerk). By 1500 they were used as stables and later some of the
buildings were used as lodgings for Court officials and as barracks for the
Parliamentary army during the Civil War (detail from Weinreb and Hibbert 1983).
The Square has long political associations - as a for public meetings and demonstrations. For example, the Chartists began their march here in 1848 (nowadays they tend to end here - such as the famous CND marches of the 1950s and 1960s). As such it has earnt itself a place in the annals of popular education. People could come to the Square to hear important (and not so important) political speakers - and to meet other activists.
The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, WC2. The gallery was established in 1824 and the building completed in 1838. The aim was to establish a high ranking public collection. There were times when the gallery could only be used by painters and students, and other times when it was open to members of the general public. Its early educational significance lay in the fact that it was one of the few public galleries in existence in Britain - although private societies did organize exhibitions from time to time.
One of the striking features of galleries and museums in Britain is the extent to which they appear to be concerned with exhibition rather than education. Indeed, compared to North America, there has been relatively little discussion of museums and galleries as sites of popular and informal education. Yet as the 1919 Report on Adult Education put it:
The museum should be at once the workshop of study of the pupil, and a place of regular resort for the general public, attracted there by the variety of its interests and the periodical regrouping of its exhibits. The museum thus conceived, is an educational institution of the highest value and should play an important part in the educational life of the community.Ministry of Reconstruction (1919: 147)
There is some tradition of museum and gallery education, but it has been largely directed at children. As a result museum education has not really engaged with adult, informal and community education thinking and practice, and a significant resource has lain underdeveloped (see Chadwick and Stannett 1995)
Chadwick, A. and Stannett, A. (1995) Museums and the Education of Adults, Leicester: National Institute of Adult Continuing Education.
Ministry of Reconstruction (1919) The Final and Interim Reports of the Adult Education Committee, republished by the Univeristy of Nottingham, Department of Adult Education (1980).
Weinreb, B. and Hibbert, C. (1983) The London Encyclopaedia, London: Macmillan.
© Mark K. Smith. First published August 7, 1997.
