..now don’t get me wrong….I LOVE BOVINGTON TANK MUSEUM.
Bits of it have been closed off for a while whilst they undertake internal work which promised a new look….and, I feared, fewer tanks. Tank museums have a problem in that Tanks are HUGE…and under-cover space is expensive…but tanks left outside don’t weather well. And if the vehicle itself is already old AND rare, perhaps the only one of its kind in the world, they ALL deserve to be under cover. But there’s a challenge….are museums for the safe storage preservation and display unique artefacts….or should they be “pretty” places?...nice airy places, uncluttered by stuff (tanks!), with large boards with printing on (that can be found in books or via Google) and TV screens showing stuff which can be found on Youtube…for those who don’t know, books, Google and Youtube can be obtained virtually everywhere in the entire world. Pretty Museums eh?...it even happened to Kubinka…for those who didn’t get to “old” Kubinka, imagine rows of tanks, side by side, close…VERY close….not a video screen or a poster or ropes/fences (or Info boards in some cases) in sight…and then they decided to break up the Band….taking the popular stuff (yes….THOSE ones) to the nearby Patriot Park….leaving everything else in the sheds like this....
I visited Bovi earlier this week to check on progress. I don’t know if the work is finished now but on the basis that all the floors had been painted I suspect it is…..but I HOPE it isn’t.
Perhaps I should report on it’s Covid-abilityness (or whatever we’re calling it)….tickets were bought in advance, staff were masked and tills were screened. Masks were requested and floors were marked for the direction of flow….all very good indeed. That said, having driven nearly 150 miles it would’ve taken a blood-leaking spitting coughing Harpy to have kept me out!
So, what have they done. In summary, moved stuff about (and out), painted the ceiling a modern grey colour and introduced “feature walls” (strong dark colours) and glossed up the floor. The WW2 Hall…that’s the one which as soon as you turned the corner you stared down the gun barrel of a King Tiger (or Pershing depending on when you visited) – a MASSIVE WOW FACTOR…well, this is how that awe-inspiring experience has been changed…..
(old pics)
to
...this is one's first view of the WW2 Tank Hall (from it's own entrance)...not a tank in sight.....
These pics provide quick whip-round of the groupings which are based on main areas of conflict/battles…so one kinda walks the war, area by area….well, I say “war”, perhaps that should be “Western Theatre”…...and they've come out in reverse order.....
It LOOKS great. Lovely new space-taking dioramas and “buildings”, great colours…but at what price…..have a look….(admittedly the King Tiger went on loan to Holland…and Bovi was equally boosted by….errrr….nothing coming the other way?) Though it was probably helpful when moving the other stuff around….well, it created a gap right?
Why do out-of-the-way specialist museums care what the “experience” is anyway? I’d guess that virtually every visitor who goes there goes there because of the subject matter…oh, and they don’t know what it looks like till AFTER they’ve paid anyway (isn’t that how it works nowadays?). So the average family troops along to Bovi, possibly dropping some off at Monkey World down the road – they pay to get into the TANK MUSEUM….what do they expect? (and remember again…they’ve PAID already) In this age of BWM (Bored Women Matter)* there’s a need for some places to sit and drink a beverage of ones choice. What’s the next step…..let’s ditch the Tiger….Wheatcroft’s building about 30 anyway which will run too so 131 will lose its edge
I almost prayed "Please God let them replace the bleedin’ Tank factory”…..and it’s little shed-type room full of drawing boards etc…..two and a half unnecessary Centurions and a space for 2 more (different) tanks…..again, for folk who don’t know it…this was an area which USED to house captured Iraqi armour….effectively the Tiger, Panther etc of a generation….all battle-weary, all looking great….but where are they now?
Now, before everyone screams “it’s all in the Restoration centre or sheeted-up outside” which may indeed be the case, one has to reply “Hosanna!....but where can they possibly go?...there’s no towels laying around for THOSE sunbeds…..”
Now I have to say something about Floor-standing “word boards”…I actually pace-measured one bank of them…there’s a tank or even two armoured cars right there! I’m not sure if anyone has noticed that there’s some really big vertical flat EMPTY spaces all round the museum…literally all round….THEY’RE WALLS!!!!! Unless IKEA come up with a great new bracket set for hanging main battle tanks on walls why not prioritise the floor for the heavy stuff and the walls for everything else?! ….here’s an example…..
…..if you look closely at the two individuals you’ll notice that they have “necks” – this enables them to position their heads in many ways….including looking straight ahead to read something on a wall….but what’s that great big expanse on “primer-red” just behind them?...yes…that vast expanse of WALL!!...if only those neck-breaking floor-grabbing tank-banishing info boards had somewhere else to go……
But why does virtually every “improvement” they make = FEWER TANKS?! This is what we couldn’t find…..(old pics)
...and we didn't see the M8 or the Praying Mantis....but hey, every museum has all these vehicles right?
The latest building seems to be pretty much untouched except for the 34/85 has been switched with the Finnish-marked 34/76. For those of you who’re familiar with this part of the museum…that’s the “Story” bit…..the bit where they could save at least twice as many vehicles from being locked away in the Restorations Centre (thus making room in said RC for the poor blighters stuck outside!) if they cut down the nice walkways and floor mounted Info Boards. Or, put another way, even more tanks for visitors to see......
…..when they built the Tamiya Hall…that’s the poorly lit shed extension on the front, at least they filled (note past tense) it with the Cold War big boys….they couldn’t’ve made that space any more uninviting, dark, colour-less, “municipal”, or Brutalist….but it was jammed full of TANKS…GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL TANKS….I can’t recall one poster, one “video experience”…indeed not even a seat…JUST TANKS….I wonder how long it will be before they turn that into the b@st@rd child of Laura Ashley and Habitat…without tanks?!
I will of course keep going back to Bovi several times a year….I think it’s my duty to watch the last tank leave……Members who haven’t been to Bovington…..GO….it’s brilliant…....those who’ve been before, go back…..it’s a lot “nicer” now…..just don’t count the tanks…
*Not a sexist assumption…I didn’t see one female visitor but I appreciate the importance of museums for all
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