Looks an interesting re-development, Neil

But I suspect that the hypothetical Albert might be off-put by the Artyness of it all.

[hope I'm wrong]

MichaelG.

Redevelopment ??????????

What happened to all the Rolls engines that were there ?

Looks like this museum is going the way as all the rest, wide open spaces with sod all in them.

Add to the fact that it's been closed for at least 4 years so what have they been playing about at ?

My accountant is just round the corner and during a swift 1/2 hour break whilst they fitted new string to the rack I thought I'd pop in only to find it all closes up and looking deserted.

Did the Science Museum two years ago and very, very disappointed. Went to see Babbages engine, you know the one that all the public money went on ?

Found a small model of part of it but not the main engine, walked all over including the nearly empty 5th floor that had 4 computers showing new technology [ thought it was a museum ? ] but no Babbage engine.

Went to the reception desk to ask, some delightful 20 year old rattled a few keys on the keyboard and informed me that they had the model I had seen and on floor 3 they had Babbages brain stored in a jar, [ Science museum ? Natural History Museum is next door ? ]

My reply was "Perhaps you can share it out ? "

The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, chambers st

Just had a squillion pound redevelopment and has a load of new space with new exhibits

…and all the wonderful model engineering stuff has disappeared…

They had loads of it, most of it worked by pressing a button on the side of the case and for a wee boy it was the ultimate amazing toyshop.

Would probably take a Freedom of Information Act request to find out where it's all disappeared to

Hi Ady,

Yes, I remember also the National Museum of Scotland. They had some particularly fine models of steam cranes in there as I recall. Where has all that stuff gone to? I think also the People's palace in Glasgow had some excellent model steam engines…not been lately but I suspect they are all gone too.

The website for the arty outfit running the Silk Mills describe themselves as remaking the place for the 21st Century "Through reawakening the spirit of the Enlightenment" or some such nonsense. the place wasn't built for or in the spirit of enlightenment, it was built to make as much money as possible from what was then new technology by a man who was most likely bumped off for stealing ideas from his competitors. It was a place of hard cash and hard knocks, the latter, not the former, for the workforce.

There is a picture of one of the re:make staff with dirty hands, holding their hands up to the camera (no doubt on a phone, to then be tweeted and put on facebook or whatever other nonsensical folly) to show, with what almost amounts to incredulity, that they have been doing some work and, oh the amazement, have got their hands dirty. Well, the news is that generations of skilled, educated craftsmen and engineers did that everyday for decades. It made us into the world's leading industrial power.

Eloi is the word that springs to mind when I look at this re:make site. Eloi. HG Wells may have been right.