The Museum of London has acquired a sign neon sign from ZSL London Zoo, which was installed outside its Giraffe House last April during the first wave of the Covid pandemic.
The giant sign features two red hearts and says NHS in white lettering. It was created by the zoo as a symbolic thank you to front-line NHS staff and was deliberately positioned to be in the direct line of sight of paramedics who were parking outside the locked-down zoo during their lunch breaks.
It featured in the ITV documentary ‘London Zoo: An Extraordinary Year’, before being removed prior to the zoo’s reopening on 15 April.
Kathryn England, ZSL London Zoo’s chief operating officer, said the sign proved popular with local residents who passed the site during the daily exercise: “It became something of an emblem for London’s resilience to the pandemic and meant that even when closed, the zoo was able to bring a smile to people’s faces.
“As London’s zoo, we are absolutely delighted that this sign will now have a home with another one of London’s great institutions, the Museum of London.”
The museum is being considered for potential display in the museum’s new home in West Smithfield when it opens.
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“Throughout the last year, while London Zoo’s doors were closed, the sign was a source of great camaraderie for the local community and front-line NHS workers,” said Beatrice Behlen, senior curator at the Museum of London. “It represents the many messages and acts of support that came from so many of London’s institutions to uplift, provide hope and connect Londoners over the past year.
“As part of our permanent London Collection the sign will help tell the story of London and Londoners from this time in a new and imaginative way, which is a priority as we look ahead to the opening of the new Museum of London in West Smithfield in the coming years.”
The acquisition is part of the Collecting Covid project, an active collecting project that seeks to reflect Londoners’ lives during the time of the Covid-19 crisis in order to keep a record to ensure future generations of Londoners will be able to learn about and understand this extraordinary period.
The museum has also collected a ceremonial chain made of card and plaited t-shirt fabric that councillor Philip Normal made to celebrate his appointment as mayor of Lambeth in April 2020, and a Black Lives Matter tribute shirt worn by Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang during the 2020-21 Premier League season.
