New Islington Museum

Today saw the opening of the new purpose-built Islington Museum at Finsbury Library in London. It cost £1.2m, of which £918,000 came from the Heritage Lottery Fund. A bust of Lenin is one of the items on permanent display. Aren't there enough busts of Lenin around the world without one in Islington? The populace used to show its disapproval by vandalizing the bust when it was on display in the Town Hall. So much for Democracy! Also on display are book covers stolen from the borough's libraries and defaced by playwright Joe Orton and his boyfriend Kenneth Halliwell. They were jailed in 1962 for these offences. It all reads like a waste of Lottery Funds. What about the William Morris Gallery - a far more deserving slice of our heritage - starved of funds and deprived of its curator by ignorant and incompetent councillors? (CLICK for WMG news.)