My Time at the Tower . . .

Cover of the souvenir booklet

As I continue on with my museum career journey, I come to the making-a-dream-come-true part: Living in London. I had always loved the city and had the opportunity to travel there a couple of times and really, really wanted to live there. So after I getting my undergraduate degree in history, I took it and my British passport (which I got through my father, who was born in Wales) and headed off to the place that captured my imagination so much history in just one place. I packed a HUGE bag - a hockey bag no less, how Canadian! - with a bunch of books, a stereo (!), my photo albums and some clothes in a suitcase . . . I was going to set myself up there and be part of the action!

My Welsh cousin met me at the airport. I do wonder what she thought of me and all my bags . . . and we took the underground subway (tube) to her place in east London. I arrived right around Guy Fawkes Day, and so there were fireworks and everything, I was so excited. I quickly got myself settled best I could and hit the pavement, looking for work.

I remember specifically going to the British Museum and the Imperial War Museum on my trek around town in my new and not-yet-broken-in pumps. Staff there were not overly-excited to see a young eager Canadian university graduate, I have to say! And, ya, as this was the time before easy internet (!!), it was tough to figure out where to look, who to talk to, how to get to work in a cultural organization. But I was not to be deterred! I went an employment agency of sorts and tried to understand the new place I was in. The positions listed there were more for odd-jobs and pubs, and I didn't come all that way to NOT work in a museum-like setting, so I decided to take more resumes to other places in person. My cousin was kind enough to put me up until I found a job, but time was pressing on . . . and that's when I got an interview and then awarded a seasonal position in the Tower of London gift shop!

for more awesome photos, check out here


Yeoman Warder

 

I was ecstatic. I would be taking the tube from Leytonstone to Tower Hill EVERYDAY, be a commuter in my big city. They also provided a uniform, which I later found out was a little bit too much like a school uniform, but that was okay - I would know what to wear. And it was a pretty intense schedule of 6 days on, 1 day off, with every fifth week a three-day break (not necessarily on a weekend, for sure). So I would be getting a LOT of experience working front-of-house at a World Heritage Site.

I learned a whole lot in my time there . . . we had rotating assignments in the main gift shop, a smaller one inside, a booth at the Crown Jewels as well as selling tickets at the front gate. Oh the stress of a balanced till at the end of the day! And all those postcards and sweets and little soldiers and souvenir books. And answering a whole lot of the same questions over and over again . . . . it is true that visitors ALL want to know where they can get a good cup of coffee, where to grab lunch and if there is a public loo anywhere nearby. Oh, and what of these heavy coins, help?! Oh and WHY is everything so expensive? Can they use this ID to get a 'deal'? Also to see the student groups from all over the world as well as the walking tours with a guide who would hold their umbrella up high so they could follow them easily. And what it was like when either or both groups would descend on the gift shop at the same time!

The entry to the Crown Jewels. Once I answered the phone on duty

when at my booth there and it was a person wanting to talk to someone at
his bank branch . . . but he didn't think he was calling THE Bank!

I really liked my co-workers. We were of two sorts - permanent, local East Enders with benefits and temporary, seasonal students and backpackers from places like Australia and Germany. And as mentioned in a previous post, the security and tour guides were Yeoman Warders, which was pretty cool (although I got in trouble with them a few times for accidentally kicking the alarm in the ticket booth. "CANADA! Stop swinging your feet!!" they would say...). I also got in the groove of having a bacon butty and tea on break, and having great conversations . . . made my own accent kind of funny, living with my Welsh cousin and working at the Tower. One visitor actually said to me, "What are you, Irish?!" It was truly an international experience, lol. 

One of the shopgirls was a daughter of a Yeoman Warder, whose family 
lived on the grounds. She invited me to stay overnight once and I
got to sleep in the amazing (but very spooky!) place!

One bonus I had not earlier considered was that being in England also gave me an opportunity to travel easily, and this job situation made it possible to earn money, go on adventure, and return back to work. With the intense full-time schedule, I have to say it was tough to get even just laundry done - work was all I did when I was there, with an odd one-day fun day if my day off landed on a weekend. And so a friend from home and I took trains for a couple of months and we saw almost all of the western countries in continental Europe. It was awesome. It also made me realize that I wanted to do some more travel . . .  maybe I had done all I needed to do in London - for now! - and so another friend and I planned a great return back to Canada via Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii. What an experience that was! (I HIGHLY recommend doing something that can combine work and travel, especially when you're young!)

Venice!

Sydney!

While working as a shopgirl at the Tower was not exactly what I had dreamed for my first museum-y job, it was amazing all the same. The reality of it - and I am grateful to this day for it - is that I gained a deep appreciation for people who sell admission tickets, work in retail, help visitors navigate a good experience at cultural organizations. Some things you need to do yourself to really understand all that needs to go into making a good first impression, be the first good contact, at a place a visitor has invested the time and money to explore. It was my privilege to do so at the Tower of London, and I took this visitor-centred learning and understanding on with me on to my next work adventures.