Curator Peter Higgs looks out the window and sees more than just his garden.
I've got an office at the British Museum. For 15 years, I used to go in every day. I'd get the train just after 6 o'clock in the morning but since Covid, of course, I'm working from home a lot more. I can see my garden. It's looking pretty good. Everything's looking quite lush and fresh. It's one of those times you think those hard weekends you spent digging all day or potting stuff is worthwhile because things are starting to look after themselves. I'm pleased. There's lots of colour out there. The physical structures as well: the shed, the chairs, the windows; everything contributes to what a garden looks like.
I'm an acting keeper, looking after a department, so I actually have two offices at the museum at the moment but I tend to stay in my old office, which is full of books and files and things I started 25, 30 years ago, that I haven't got around to looking at for a long time. Most of us curators have piles of books and notes and things.
My main office leads out to the front of the museum, so you can see the visitors queuing up every day. It's a fairly busy but fairly narrow street. The front of the museum itself is a big courtyard. Years ago, you used to see people sitting around chatting and people nearby would come and have their lunch in the courtyard. Now, because of security systems, we have a queue. Everyone has to be searched. It's quite nice to think that people spend a long time queuing up to come to the place you work in. Obviously we enjoy the space as well, but our experience is different.