Celebrating Magdalen Memories

And what a celebration it was, we had about 150 people through the doors of our first ever pop-up museum - The Magdalen Memories Cafe. You flooded in to peruse the old photos of the street, watch videos from the 60s, make your own blue plaques, share your marvelous and fascinating memories of the street, chat to our historians, visit our doll doctors in memory of the old Doll's Hospital, and of course eat cake and warm your souls!

The Doll Doctor at Work

We were flooded with memories about the old Doll Hospital, once at no.62, where the flyover is today:
Judy spent time with our historians on Saturday and we learnt so much about the street through her memories. Among other things, she remembered walking to Magdalen Street from the bus station, a long journey for her little 6 year old legs at the time. Her mum was a dress maker and used to make her dolls' clothes but she had to come and get new hair for her dolls at the hospital, having lovingly combed it all out! She remembers buying an auburn wig with her mum.
Miranda recalled tearfully taking her doll to the hospital having poked her eyes back in to her head! She left her with the kindly doll doctor who fixed her up nicely.
And Marilyn described the inside of the hospital for us, painting a picture of shelves upon shelves of old dolls with name labels on, waiting for their owners to collect them. She remembered the lovely man who ran the shop, he wore a long khaki overall, buttoned through. "He used to take your doll in his arms and say 'Don't worry, I'll look after her'". Marilyn's doll, she told us, was a 'bride doll' wearing a long wedding gown, she had broken her arm, hence her trip to the hospital to get it fixed.

Other stories tumbled through the doors and had us enthralled: a postponed marriage in 1909, when the church which is now the Puppet Theatre was under threat of demolition; work at the Plasterer's Arms in the 1980s; the painting of the colour pencils which make up Magdalen Gate School's railing; ten pin bowling on the site at Epic, which cost Mike 2/6d (12.5 pence); the luxurious wooden floors of Wollies (Woolworths), where you were sure to find anything you'd ever want to buy; the first Star Wars movie showing at the old Odeon; a run away child who wanted to live under the fly over; a lady who crashed through the window of the Dolls Hospital after skidding on ice on her boyfriend's motorbike and so many people discovering new things about their relatives who lived locally with the help of our historians, Glynn from Norfolk Tours and Nick Bowen.

To get a flavour of the day listen to the wonderful podcast by Richard Fair. 

                 With warm thanks to Epic for having us, to Jane for supplying cake and coffee, to the Norfolk Records Office for gathering documents and presenting them so professionally, to Nick at Heart for printing some of Plunkett's photos, to Art 1821 for lending us their John Thirtle painting, to Issy who was our Doll Doctor, to Pat at Looses who lent us the furniture and especially to Nick Bowen and Glynn Burrows for making everyone feel so welcome, for listening to so many memories and assisting in the exploration of others. We loved being a part of the Magdalen and Augustine Celebration, well done to all our fellow organisers!

If you're running a community event and would like a pop-up museum to explore the past and present of your area say hello@livingnorwich.co.uk. Join us at our next Secret Norwich: Heritage After Dark event, this Thursday 18th October, with a talk by Dr Richard Cocke at St Andrews Church and then St George's Colegate. 7-9pm. See our website for details.