Talk about Islington

Today - why, London Social Detours had something on again at a time I could make! Specifically, a slideshow about the history of Islington - where I used to live, and which is still just up the road from me (in London). Cool - I signed up.

I signed on to Zoom at the appointed time - she's gradually come around to the idea that people can arrive late, and now checks regularly until everyone has arrived - which is a relief. And so we launched into a well-researched slideshow - starting with Islington's rural history, a couple of hundred years ago, when they used to stable cattle there to fatten them up again, after the long walk from wherever they were bred. The advent of trains gave farmers a way to transport them without using up all their fat, and the area gradually lost this rural connection, and was absorbed by the expanding city. As she mentioned, it's ironic that this is now the London borough with the least green space!

A personal highlight of the talk was the bit about the Hope and Anchor, a longtime music venue - she even had an old photo of U2 performing there! I had to grit my teeth when she mispronounced "Bono", mind.. The other main highlight of the talk was how George Orwell used to live there, and we had some shots of the block of flats where he lived, and a nice one of him and his son. She made an interesting point about how it's hard to judge how long a walk will take when you're doing it online! On the plus side, there isn't any gap between information pieces, to allow people to walk between the locations. I still hate her breathy delivery, which could also be described as twee.. She's not someone whose walks I make a habit of going on. 

The talk afterwards, with a variety of topics, centred on travel (we wish..), on politics, and finally on Covid, predictably. Oh, and we taught her how to maximise her slides on screen - she can use that in future. It was good to have some practice chatting live to someone other than my mother..

On Saturday, they're doing another "time-travel" - Ancient Rome this time, complete with a short film again.

And next Sunday, they have a talk, by someone from the National Gallery, about Catherine of Aragon! I was the first to sign up - nice to be kept busy again.