I read this book while doing my master’s degree and have returned to it occasionally in my museum career. Going back to it, I discover underlined passages and notes, which are occasionally incomprehensible. The book was written in the 1970s but still feels fresh. It is dense with literary and artistic references, but readable. I realise I have worked for two of the places mentioned in the book – Hampton Court and the Victoria and Albert Museum – a subconscious influence perhaps.
The book explores spaces of the imagination. It blends real places, fictional travels, architecture, maps and museums, weaving in Sherlock Holmes’ home, the British pub, Venice alleyways and the gardens of Versailles.
On re-reading Eccentric Spaces, I’m surprised how the museum chapter presents them as suffocating and demanding. Museums are “the final buildings on the earth”, where the present holds power over the past. They are spaces of spatial remembering where time is turned into physical space, a gallery of a geographical location framed in a particular time period.
For me this book is about the intangible, distinctive atmosphere of museums and historic houses, and how those layers of history filter through art, creativity and knowledge. It attempts to explain the magic and mystery of museums, and why we are drawn to them.
The book explores spaces of the imagination. It blends real places, fictional travels, architecture, maps and museums, weaving in Sherlock Holmes’ home, the British pub, Venice alleyways and the gardens of Versailles.
On re-reading Eccentric Spaces, I’m surprised how the museum chapter presents them as suffocating and demanding. Museums are “the final buildings on the earth”, where the present holds power over the past. They are spaces of spatial remembering where time is turned into physical space, a gallery of a geographical location framed in a particular time period.
For me this book is about the intangible, distinctive atmosphere of museums and historic houses, and how those layers of history filter through art, creativity and knowledge. It attempts to explain the magic and mystery of museums, and why we are drawn to them.
Riikka Kuittinen is a touring exhibitions co-ordinator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
