The Last Tuesday Society

Posted on by inkbiotic
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Dolls, stuffed animals and skeletons

On Saturday I went with a friend to explore The Last Tuesday Society, a very curious museum tucked away in Mile End. It’s a dark, mysterious pit of a place, so I couldn’t get any photos inside, but some exhibits were:

Beautifully carved skulls, giant crab shells, dildos, mummified mermaid corpses, stuffed two-headed cats (and two-headed teddy bears on sale in the shop), skeletons of many animals, books of porn, broken dolls, tropical butterflies, many dead moles in a jar and some strange sculptures. It was very much the personal collection of a rich, artistic and slightly twisted eccentric. That eccentric is the still-living, party throwing artist called Victor Wynd. Wynd is a lecturer at the London Institute of Pataphysics (Pataphysics is what happens when artists get hold of science.)

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Spot the zebra unicorn and the blurry peacock

We also got to meet a number of living animals, such as chameleons, water dragons and snakes. I got to walk around the museum with a Nicaraguan Boa curled around my arm. I’ve not held a snake before, he was reassuringly heavy and mellow, and his skin felt pleasantly shiny and smooth; a beautiful animal.

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Insect Menu

Upstairs in the cafe, we spotted they sold insects to eat. This is something I’ve been curious about for a while – after all, if our global troubles with population with continue, we may have to start eating insects soon. We got the insect platter and chocolate worms. I have to be honest, I didn’t like the insects much, the flavour was ok, but I couldn’t escape the feeling that I was eating a load of insects, the texture was too papery and crispy, and just too much like I would expect a dead insect to be like. I also felt sort of guilty, there were so many of them, all those tiny lives snuffed out so that I could crunch on them feeling a bit sick. The chocolate was nice though.

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Crickets, worms and beetles. The middle object is a slice of banana with worms on.

 

34 thoughts on “The Last Tuesday Society”

    1. I don’t know if there’s a word for someone who abstains from eating insects, but I think I may be that from now on 😉

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  2. I’m envious. I’ve looked at images for this museum on line for some time and it looks amazing. Wynd is also a fantastic artist. One place I would love to go someday. Agree about the insects. I could never bring myself to try witchety grubs although they are supposed to be a delicacy.

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    1. It was very much a labour of love for Wynd, I think. I hadn’t seen anything of his before this, a proper gothic style artist. Hopefully you’ll get to go some day.
      Witchety grubs sounds like a whole new level of bravery! Alarmingly squishy, I suspect 😉

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  4. Ughhhhhhh …… and I’m sorry, but as curious a place as this is, well, I’m thinking, okay – I can deal with the “cabinet of curiosities” in weird collections and what may or may not be a jumbled arrangement, or perhaps only looks this way, after all, artists have visions and all kinds of “method madness” – and that’s cool – but honestly, I draw the line at eating bugs. They are delicacies in some countries, yes – and even staples in some places, but I just couldn’t do it myself – I really couldn’t – so brave on you for being bold enough to try.

    As for walking around with a Boa? Ughhhhhhhhhhh – no!!!!!!!!!! LOL – I have the creeps just thinking about it – although when I was in high school I had a friend who had a Peruvian Boa Constrictor named Margarita – the snake – and HE – yes, it turns out Margarita was a male, not female like initially believed so the gender changed but not the name – anyhow, Margarita had a “thang” for me – much to my annoyance, but hey, I put up with his shenanigans in his company, figuring it would be best to yield to his interests. But for as beautiful as these creatures are, I can’t stand them.

    Anyhow, glad you had a good experience, mostly 🙂

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    1. Just to make it clear, you don’t HAVE to hold a snake and eat bugs, you can just have a wander around the museum looking at stuff 😉 I love the image of an over friendly snake and you trying politely to keep him/her happy!

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      1. It was clear that you didn’t have to get involved, but ohh …. just walking around knowing it? Gives me the creeps. LOL – but that’s me!
        “over friendly” in all kinds of ways …. like hey, let me slide down under your top and try to unhook your bra??? I mean seriously???? of course, when this particular incident was going on, my friend was having an informal party, nothing wild or crazy, just a bunch of hanging out and well, weren’t the guys like laughing their asses off? And yeah, I’m like “dude, what ARE you doing?!” (to the snake) – made for an “interesting” extrication process …. LOL!

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      3. I would love a pet rat, but I think my two cats would give him a heart attack. I couldn’t agree more. They get such a bad rap, but rats are some of the cleanest and cleverest animals out there (not that that should be the only reason we should respect them), though you are getting a little tragedy every time. They only live 2-3 years if they’re lucky :\

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      1. I was the only person there, I think the lovely lady on the door was lonely. We sat and chatted for ages, so she made me a brew and I got a little guide book too. Then this family came in to use the toilet, but decided the exhibition was too creepy for their children.

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      2. It seemed exactly the kind of place where you should be able to stop and talk, so it’s ace you got to do that. Exactly the kind of place that might creep out kids too (although I do think kids should be creeped out once in a while 😉 )

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  8. Holy hell, this place looks amazing! I must put it on my itinerary if i ever get up that way. I think i’ll skip on the insect munching, however! I do remember a recent article in New Scientist mag mentioning how eating insects will be something we’re gonna have to embrace in the future….it mentioned that scientists are trying to devise methods of processing them so that they’re less insecty ( they didn’t use that word) to eat….but still… i think i’ll stick with a veg diet anyway! Good on you for being adventurous enough to try them, though!

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    1. They’ve definitely got a way to go to make them more appetising, or maybe we’ll just have to get used to it. It will make for some interesting adverts, “Mm, locusts for tea! Awesome!” Voice over: “Locusts, healthy, delicious AND crunchy!”

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      1. I reckon. Maybe they could dry them out and grind them into a powder to put into smoothies or something. Mmm, delicious, crunchy locusts! Yum! (not!) haha. I wonder if they’ll do the thing they do with meat and give it a ‘foodier’ kinda name? (Like, with ‘beef’ instead of ‘cow’) if so, i wonder what names you could give the insecteez to make them sound more edible? Maybe they could give them French names so they sound classy? ( except to french people, of course! They’d have to use a different language to describe their grub. Tehehe. Grub. Geddit? ). But seriously, the French word for ‘grasshopper’ is- according to google translate ( who kmnows if it can be trusted?) is ‘sauterelle’. That sounds distinctly foody to my ignorant and uncultured Australian ear 😉 At any rate, some serious psychological manipulation is going to have to happen to get me to want to chow down on creepy crawlies!

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      2. That’s brilliant, I’d eat fried sauterelle with garlic and not even think about it. You really need to head up this marketing campaign, you’ve got the gift. You could call it ‘Le Grub’ 😀

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      3. Sauterelle with garlic sounds totally appetizing, right?
        Haha, maybe i’ve been looking at the wrong career option all this time 😉 ‘Le Grub’ would make a great campaign name! (or insect themed cafe name)

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