So, they all seem to have closed yesterday, one-by-one, our major cultural institutions, each one conveying a slightly different message, according to their character. Tate went first with a message which put the welfare of its staff, visitors and community first (they seem to have added the community after the first press releae) and said that it will open again on May 1st. Is that likely ? Hartwig Fischer sent a personal message, saying that it would only be temporary. ‘We have taken this decision with a heavy heart’. Then, I got an email from the Royal Academy ‘The RA is closing for a while’ – admirably unspecific. Then the Design Museum: ‘We will be continuing to develop ideas and plan for the future’, which manages to convey a positive note in a mood of otherwise unmitigated gloom. So, the doors are shut, as they were not during the war. Our cultural life goes online.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Very interesting. I hope you are getting on with your Museum book. I’m making progress with My Life in Poetry for my grandchildren.
That is really good news. Harry Pearce is a superb designer, as all readers of EAST LONDON can see. I can’t wait to see/read it.
Excellent title. It’s good that you will be very active during Self-Isolation. Hurray!