The Empire raises its flag in London
Britain's conquest of a quarter of the world has long been a near-taboo subject for public discussion. Now a museum is to confront visitors to the capital with the darkest moments as well as the high points of the imperial past.
The British Empire & Commonwealth Museum, currently housed in Bristol, is the favourite to win a contest for a new cultural institution to be built on a three-acre site on the south bank of the Thames opposite the Tower of London.
The project is likely to be controversial – when the museum was first set up at a cost of £8m in 2002, it was attacked from the left for promoting empire “nostalgia”, and from the right for “Marxist bias”.
Organisers hope that by relocating to the heart of multicultural London, the museum will help Britons “face up to” the most contentious period of their history. They claim the museum, intended to open in 2010 or 2011, will be “ideologically neutral”, showcasing the empire’s achievements, such as the spread of parliamentary democracy, as well as atrocities such as slavery...
Read entire article at Times (UK)
The British Empire & Commonwealth Museum, currently housed in Bristol, is the favourite to win a contest for a new cultural institution to be built on a three-acre site on the south bank of the Thames opposite the Tower of London.
The project is likely to be controversial – when the museum was first set up at a cost of £8m in 2002, it was attacked from the left for promoting empire “nostalgia”, and from the right for “Marxist bias”.
Organisers hope that by relocating to the heart of multicultural London, the museum will help Britons “face up to” the most contentious period of their history. They claim the museum, intended to open in 2010 or 2011, will be “ideologically neutral”, showcasing the empire’s achievements, such as the spread of parliamentary democracy, as well as atrocities such as slavery...