Goodbye Cutty Sark
While I am away on a book tour of Australia - I'm promoting the Oz version of Watermelons - I learn to my horror that one of London's most magnificent tourist attractions, the glorious sailing ship Cutty Sark, has been completely trashed in a botched restoration job by ambitious petty officials with too few brain cells and too much public money.
Once it was recognisably a ship. Now it's some kind of ghastly synthetic visitor experience with elevators and glass bubbles.
I wonder if there are any US equivalents of this kind of cultural vandalism. I remember on my first visit to the Natural History Museum in New York being blown away by the old dioramas of stuffed animals in mock-ups of their natural habitat. Then I was appalled to discover that London's own Natural History Museum had had similarly splendid Victorian dioramas which had been stripped out by trendy curators in the Eighties in a bid to make the museum more modern, more relevant...
Sometimes, oftentimes, the best thing to do with historical artefacts is leave them well alone.
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Comments:
Jun '10
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
Amen.
May '10
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
I'm tempted to say Ellis Island in NY Harbor, but I haven't been there in years, and maybe I was younger and excessively closed-mind when I went; it felt too sterile, but maybe there's no choice.
May '10
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
The purists insisted an observation tower be torn down at Gettysburg because it defiled the skyline. Shame because it was a great way to gain an appreciation of the whole battlefield at onceThen there are those who want cars banned from Yosemite Park
May '10
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
Last time I was there you weren't allowed to touch the Liberty Bell, even though for generations it was just sitting out unattended.
Sep '11
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
Sounds like our food system.
May '10
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
As an aside, one of the biggest disappointments I've had in life is discovering the tolerance, and really enjoyment of things artificial and superficial. Oh well.
Dec '10
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
You've made an observation which very aptly describes the difference between liberals and conservatives. Conservatives know that sometimes "change" is an improvement, and sometimes it isn't.
My only similar lament is due to the concessions at Yellowstone (and other National Parks?) being sold off to, I assume, European interests. When Mr. Chauvinist and I first visited Yellowstone in the 1980s, all the restaurant and gift shop employees were American, and most were college kids proudly wearing name tags designating their home state. We'd invariably strike up conversations with them while they waited on us and talk about their state, what they were studying, etc. After the Europeans took over, the help had a completely different relationship with us. They were cool and deferential, completely changing the experience. It's made visiting the National Parks seem less American, sadly. At least it isn't anything that can't be undone.
Mar '11
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
It's wearing a skirt.
The archit...nope, not gonna do it...the perpetrator should be pilloried, right out in front of that ghastly eyesore. Preferably with an ample supply of post-market produce available nearby.
James Delingpole:
I wonder if there are any US equivalents of this kind of cultural vandalism. I remember on my first visit to the Natural History Museum in New York being blown away by the old dioramas of stuffed animals in mock-ups of their natural habitat. Then I was appalled to discover that London's own Natural History Museum had had similarly splendid Victorian dioramas which had been stripped out by trendy curators in the Eighties in a bid to make the museum more modern, more relevant...
Sometimes, oftentimes, the best thing to do with historical artefacts is leave them well alone. · · 1 hour ago
The following is almost as bad.
Soldiers Field, as it was:
And the "new improved" version:
Expanded seating, luxury skyboxes, and a completely unlovable appearance -- the new Soldiers Field has it all!
The one thing it doesn't have anymore is its status as a National Historical Landmark. Ah well. That's the way the masonry crumbles.
Edited on April 22, 2012 at 5:44amMay '10
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
Well, if we're expanding the genre to things that shouldn't have been destroyed, I'll go with both Yankee and Shea Stadium.
Apr '11
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
Kansas City Union Station is a magnificent old train station in the grand tradiition - with a glass wart attached as an "improvement". We can't leave well enough alone.
Mar '11
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
I used to love museums that had lots of interesting stuff and just displayed it. You were bound to find something you liked. Then the trendies took over so that the bulk of the collection is in a warehouse somewhere and all visitors get to see are those objects that illustrate some theme or narrative of interest to the curator, but often to no one else.
Another thing that annoys me is the gutted building with a completely new and unrelated building erected inside its shell. No doubt, these abominations owe there existence to local governments' desire to preserve structures of architectural or historic value or to maintain the character of a district, but they usually fail. The shell is too often a travesty while the new 'contents' lack both beauty and utility. I learned a long time ago to be wary about signing petitions after being accosted on the street to sign a petition for the preservation of a grandiose old 1920's 'picture palace', signing, and then seeing it transformed into the largest McDonalds in the southern hemisphere.
Apr '11
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
I'm a bit sketchy on this, but I seem to remember the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago had a coal mine underneath it with a tour via lift in the 60's, then in the 70's it was closed for safety reasons. In the 90's there was no remaining evidence of it.
(I haven't thought about this in years, and may have it all wrong. Correction by other Ricochet members is welcomed.)
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
If it makes you feel better Glenn, that coal mine exhibit is still open.
Apr '11
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
Hey, Blake,
Tell me more. I was through the museum a couple times in the 90's pretty thoroughly, and I didn't see it. Where? Physical appearance?
I'm not going to hug, but I love ya man.
May '11
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
Oh to be a fly on the wall of the royal Rolls-Royce to hear the Queen and her husband discuss the restoration after the launch. I imagine it will be heavily expletive-laden.
Edited on April 22, 2012 at 9:29amFeb '11
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
Glenn the Iconoclast: I'm a bit sketchy on this, but I seem to remember the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago had a coal mine underneath it with a tour via lift in the 60's, then in the 70's it was closed for safety reasons. In the 90's there was no remaining evidence of it.
(I haven't thought about this in years, and may have it all wrong. Correction by other Ricochet members is welcomed.) · 2 hours ago
We were in the coal mine two winters ago.
Aug '10
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
I'm all for technology and updating old infrastructure as the next tech-obsessed coder... but this part just screams "thoughtless design" in a way I find depressingly familiar:
To borrow a truism from software development: sometimes the improvements you deliver fail to improve your end users.
Or, to borrow from conservatism: there is a reason traditions exist; they are usually legacy solutions to old problems. Before you eliminate them, changing everything around in a frenzied worship of "progress", make sure you bothered to solve the original problems.
May '10
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
Am I the only one who saw that headline and thought James had given up drinking?
Apr '11
Re: Goodbye Cutty Sark
Israel Pickholtz
Glenn the Iconoclast: I'm a bit sketchy on this, but I seem to remember the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago had a coal mine underneath it with a tour via lift in the 60's, then in the 70's it was closed for safety reasons. In the 90's there was no remaining evidence of it.
(I haven't thought about this in years, and may have it all wrong. Correction by other Ricochet members is welcomed.) · 2 hours ago
We were in the coal mine two winters ago.
You guys are such teases. Talk to me: where the heck was it, that I could walk past it a couple times without noticing?