# The Clockmakers Museum



## AVO (Nov 18, 2012)

I first visited the Museum of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, to give it its full and rather grand title, in its former home at the Guildhall near St. Paul's. It closed there in 2014 and was reopened the following year in a gallery on the 2nd floor of the Science Museum. The aims, I believe, were to allow it greater space and to allow more people to visit. I went there yesterday for the first time since the move.

The old museum was a little cramped and, while I think it is fair to say that the new layout does allow for better circulation and a more logical order, as well as allowing more people to see it as part of their Science Museum visit, there is a downside. You cannot escape the noise of a busy, exciting, hands-on museum with huge numbers of children.

There are many fabulous old longcase clocks by Tompion, Quare, Graham, Vulliamy and others, and they run. To stand there at midday and listen to them all is still amazing, but in the quiet of the old museum it was an incredible moment.










There is an excellent spread of wonderful clocks, watches and related paraphernalia from the various periods, and some very famous objects. A few favorites...

H5, Harrison's second sea watch, is shown here with John Harrison's personal watch below, made to his specification by John Jefferys. H1 to H4 are at Greenwich, of course, and neither of the watches, H4 or H5, is kept running because of friction and deterioration. The Jefferys watch was essential cooked in a jeweller's safe in Hull during the Blitz.










"Mr Arnold", the Arnold pocket chronometer used by the Greenwich Time Lady, Ruth Belville. She visited the Royal Observatory once a week to get the watch checked, and then she visited shops and businesses all over London selling the correct time!










My personal favourite is the Smiths worn by Sir Edmund Hillary on Everest. The time is set to 11.30 because I believe that is the time when he and Tensing reached the summit on 29 May 1953.










I will add a few more pictures as I sort them out. I would certainly recommend a visit to this museum if you are at all interested in the historical aspects of horology. Even though I preferred the old location, I accept that it will now be accessible to more people, which has to be good. And it's free!


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