During the day, Helen emailed to inform me that it was London History Day! Well, another thing I never heard of. London is crammed full of them. Nonetheless, as I said to her, I felt that what I was doing qualified. Anyway, being in the less-than-salubrious surrounds of the Lighthouse, it was - according to Google - an 11-minute walk from the office, which meant I could leave nice and late. And, you know, get some stuff done - very short on time, these days.
So, an easy walk down there - it might be my dissatisfaction with my current accommodation, but it seems that these days all I notice around here is grime - and this part of town is rife with it. Well, I guess it's historically accurate, all the same..
So, I eventually came to the dingy Lighthouse, where I decided I was in time to order a drink. It was my misfortune that the person in front of me ordered cocktails, and the barman was one of those who absolutely can't do more than one thing at a time. It was five minutes - I counted - before he got around to my very quick order. Well, I was still upstairs in time - and it was a good job that I knew where I was going, because once inside, there were no directions.
Upstairs, with its typically non-open bar, a convivial mc checked my name off the list, and advised me that there were seats at the front - it was nearly full. Our speaker for the evening was equally jolly, obviously passionate about her subject: and flogging copies of her book, tidily arranged on the non-functional bar.
As she explained, in the course of her research, she discovered records of around 200 black people, living in Great Britain in Tudor times - baptism, marriage, and burial records primarily. But there were more famous examples, such as a trumpeter for Henry VIII, and various servants to famous people of the time. She's apparently covered 10 in the book, and tonight's talk focused on three..
The first was a diver, brought to England to dive for the treasures of the Mary Rose. It seems that few English people of the time could swim, but an English trader in Mauretania noticed that the locals were most proficient at diving for pearls, and thought that their skills could be useful, so brought them to England for this very purpose.
The second was a Moroccan woman, brought to London as a child and placed into service. Her story had her being baptised - as the speaker pointed out, being baptised into the Church of England was, in those days, the only way to become a full member of society. She started off working for an Englishman that traded heavily with North Africa, then for his widow, and finally for another English lady.. the speaker explained that a common route for black people to come to England was in the household of someone who had business in Africa.
Finally, there was a most interesting chap called Edward Swarthye, who likely came back with Drake from the raids on Panama, attacking the Spanish silver trains. She showed us a close-up of the Drake jewel, depicting a prominent black figure, with a white man in the background, which she speculated was indicative of the cooperation between the English and the local blackamoors, united against the conquistadores. Anyway, this chap ended up in the service of an English nobleman, and in a most unusual scene, it was recorded that his master ordered him to whip another, white, servant for neglecting his duties!
With all of this, she made an important point - there was no slavery in England at this time, these people were all free. Someone asked, in the Q+A afterwards, what it was that brought forth the overt racism of the 18th century, where, for example, she told the disturbing story of a nine-year-old black girl who ran away from her employer. Others in the community took her in and arranged for her baptism - however, her former employer got wind of the plan, showed up on the day, and dragged her out kicking and screaming, declaring that this was her servant and would do as she was ordered! Of course, as the speaker said, the rot set in with the expanse of empire, when plantations were formed that required slave labour, and the British started to think of their conquered subjects as chattels. Pragmatically. In Tudor times, that hadn't yet happened - foreigners were still considered as equals, to be traded with rather than exploited.
Someone asked whether she'd considered going even further back - goodness, she said, finding evidence from the Tudor period was hard enough! She'd met a PhD student who'd taken on the subject of black people in England in medieval times, and suffered a mental breakdown.. whether it was because of the subject matter, she really couldn't say.. But what a fascinating evening! She begged us to take the rest of the books off her hands so she wouldn't have to carry them home. I didn't have cash - and anyway, it's cheaper on Kindle!
Paid a quick trip to the loo before I left, where I was lucky to grab the one and only cubicle, apparently, that had paper! Not toilet paper, mind - someone had thoughtfully left a pile of napkins in there. And I only took that one because I couldn't get the door closed of another.. oh, why does everything around here have to be so damned scruffy?! Oh, and we got lucky for the first half of the talk - but by the end, the band had started up just downstairs, to the obvious discomfort of the speaker. I've said it before, this is a terrible venue for a talk.
Anyway, tomorrow, back with the London European Club (LEC) for yet more music! The London Jazz Meetup also has an event on that night, but the LEC's sounds better on YouTube - part of the Songlines Encounters Festival at King's Place, and they're doing the double bill for the evening, which scores a 20% discount. (30% off if you book for three events in the festival, but I'm unlikely to do that.)
On Saturday, it's a film - would you believe it, with none of the films at the very top of the list showing over the weekend, A Quiet Place - which has held a high rating for ages now - finally came to the top! Awesome - I've been dying to see it. Stars Emily Blunt and her real-life husband, John Krasinski, who also directs - they're trying to keep their family safe in a dystopian future where something is stalking them that hunts by sound. Supposed to be terrifically suspenseful - the best kind. And it's showing near me, in the Vue Islington! which means it'll be the fourth day in a row that I can walk. Need the exercise. My leg felt tight this evening, but I think I need to get it moving. The only showing that day is very late - but what the hey, it's Saturday! I booked it, as it's cheaper on the website - and it certainly is the least I've paid in years for a cinema ticket.
On Sunday, a film called Raazi has slipped into the top spot - it does actually look good, but the closest it's on is in Vue Westfield Stratford City, at 10pm. A bit far out, for one so late. Instead, I've decided to accompany Anthony's Cultural Events and Walking Activities Group to the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival.
We've got a colleague visiting from abroad on Monday and Tuesday, so I'm leaving those days free. Then I'm back with London Literary Walks at last on Wednesday, for another Sculpture in the City walk.
Next Thursday is the company's monthly social - this month, it's in Junkyard Golf Club. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend again.
On the 11th, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for the first time in weeks! Another performance of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical - different every night. At the Lyric again.
On the 12th, another Funzing talk - Inside North Korea. I see the code crazy_fun is still getting a 10% discount. Oh, and by the way, the mc made the same mistake tonight that they always do - the loyalty scheme does NOT give you your sixth event for free, you get a discount equal to the smallest amount of money you paid for one of the previous five..
On the 13th, London Literary Walks is taking us to A Circus School and Shakespeare's Dark Lady.
On the 14th, back with Up in the Cheap Seats - at the Bridge Theatre this time, for My Name is Lucy Barton, starring Laura Linney. I got the very last £15 seat!
And on the 15th, would you credit it, I'm back with London Dramatic Arts! to see Monogamy, at the Park Theatre. Well, it sounds interesting - and they've sold their allocation for this showing, so we're free to buy our own (gee). My good God, it's August since I was last with them..
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