Uncomfortable Statues Walk

For today, I found something interesting with London Walks, Art & Culture Explorers! Yet another new one for me. This was an "Uncomfortable Statues Walk" - statues commemorating controversial people. I could think of a few, and it'd be interesting to see which came up on this! Another early start though, damnit. Still, it was an early night last night.

Sleep wasn't an issue - getting my phone charged enough was, what with the trouble I've been having of late, activating fast charging. Anyway, with the charge nearly up to 50% again, I said I'd better go. Arrived at Trafalgar Square in good time - certainly, I had less far to travel than yesterday! Now, Trafalgar Square is large - but we'd been told to meet in front of the statue of James II. You what?! I had to Google it.

On the way, I noticed busking circles - new to me, since I was here last!

First controversial statue I saw had nothing to do with the walk - the current offering on the fourth plinth - where statues are regularly replaced - is, apparently, a reflection on surveillance in modern society:

A drone and a fly, on a cream topping with a cherry on top. Hmm.

Back to King Jimmy. Well, aside from his dubious taste in having himself portrayed as a Roman General (!), the source of the controversy surrounding him was that he apparently set up a slave-trading organisation. And thus began a long couple of hours of outing people as being slave-owners, or racists, or having made racist remarks. All this seems to have come to the fore primarily as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement. All well and good. Except that, scratch the surface of anyone that lived a while ago, and you might well come across something similar.

The next statue was of George Washington (slave-owner) at the other side of the square. And so on to Nelson's column - the statue of him in Dublin was blown up by the I.R.A. (probably) in the 60s, you know. The column is so high that you can't see the statue from where we were standing, at the base - instead, we saw a relief that depicts his death, with a person with African features at the left-hand side: probably one of the slaves who, if they escaped slavery in America, were offered freedom if they fought for the British.

Captain Cook had a suitably pompous stance, we agreed:

(Well, how else are you going to look in your statue, I guess?) He, of course, was guilty of invading far-flung places and bothering the locals.

Taking the biscuit, though, had to be Clive of India:

An embezzler, who got off because he was also a brave soldier, when he killed himself he wasn't popular, the idea of a statue to him over a century later was wildly unpopular. You'd have to wonder, not only how it got built at all, but also how such an in-your-face statue was permitted to be built, and is still standing there. Really, quite odd. A monument to rampant capitalism, perhaps?

And so to Parliament Square, home of many controversial statues. (As a couple of us remarked, it can't have been by accident that Margaret Thatcher's statue was located indoors.) We started with Churchill, a man of many contradictions - again, he held many ideas that we would consider racist, but hey, he was great during the war.. other contentious statues included Gandhi (who made racist remarks in his youth, which he later retracted) and Mandela, who, as everyone knows, was a member of the ANC, considered a terrorist organisation. As they say, one man's terrorist, another man's freedom fighter.. Speaking of terrorists, we ended with Oliver Cromwell, who ranks right there with Satan in the Irish consciousness, courtesy of his vicious campaign in Ireland in the 17th century. So, the Irish got the last word..

Our guide had obviously done a lot of research - he'd brought enough notes. Perhaps too many - perhaps he's not yet fully experienced, despite his guiding qualification. My one major quibble though was how softly spoken he was - not the best quality in a guide, particularly when we were trying to hear him in crowded, busy squares, with traffic, aeroplanes.. a mic would have served him well. Oh, and what were they doing, advertising a pub social afterwards for a Meetup that was obviously just advertising a commercial venture? Naturally enough, no pub was mentioned on the walk, and afterwards, we all just dispersed. Also the first guided walk I can remember where nobody applauded at the end.. neither did I feel inspired to do so.

I needed food again. What was around there didn't look too promising, so I headed back to Trafalgar Square, which isn't that far. Saw a Prezzo on Northumberland Avenue, and said I'd give it a go. Wow, am I glad I did: was quickly seated, and despite being warned that they were understaffed, so I might have to wait a bit - why, I honestly have never had such quick service!

Had garlic bread again - delicious, and this time just the right size! Followed, at a respectable interval, by spaghetti carbonara, with optional chicken, and optional sprinkling of cheese. Gorgeous, and accompanied by two glasses of wine - because. Dessert was a delectable chocolate fudge cake. My server had an eye on me the whole time, and I almost never had to wait. And I practically floated home. Yum.. 

Tomorrow, I'm with London Classical Music & Theatre Group, for a choral performance (annual, apparently) by The Sixteen in Temple Church. Fantastic, and I've never actually been inside!

On Tuesday, I'm with Guided Walking Tours in Brighton and Sussex (!). They have an online talk entitled Hallowe'en Penny Dreadful Online Show - The Art of Victorian Horror. I have to say, online has become much more of an option since lockdown. And that'll be a night I can move stuff from my desk - we have to clear them out by the end of the week, as we're moving office next month!

On Wednesday, I booked another walk with Invigorate - this one is a tour of (the outside of) Christopher Wren's churches. Starting even closer to the office than the last one, handily. Rain is forecast - I hope it doesn't get too bad.

On Thursday, an online storytelling double-bill - I'll have to see how that pans out. First, I'd booked Universe, a Crick Crack Club (CCC) show happening in Oxford and live-streamed. Clare Murphy - and I've seen it before, and it was the best show ever! And then I saw that Martin Shaw from the CCC was doing an online show, earlier in the evening.. this one, in association with Watkins Bookshop, is called The Smoke Hole, and it's free. So I said, hey, why not? (And this is realistically the last night I can move stuff from my desk.)

On Friday, back with the London European Club for a concert - Balkan Music, courtesy of Raka & Balamuc, in The Post Bar, Tottenham. Sounds like fun. Even if I have to bring my work laptop, as we won't have access to our desks by that night. Then I'm back to Ireland - another Saturday flight - and with a few days off, I'm not flying back until the 28th. At least I'm not working from home this time, so don't have to bring the laptop on the flight!

But on the 29th, back with that group again, for Carmen - contemporary flamenco at The Place. (Might work from home that day, as we won't be in our new office yet, and I'd have to carry my laptop around with me.) Funnily enough, someone in the group said there were no individual seats left, and asked whether anyone wanted to double up with her. I offered, if there were no other takers - but she never got back to me. So, since I was now up to that date in my schedule, I decided to check for myself - and got an individual seat! So I've booked it.

And on the 30th, I'm doing something nice and Halloweeny - a ghost story event entitled Night Owl - changed from Scared to Death in the Woods, which they're now doing on Hallowe'en itself, and which has sold out. Tickets from Design My Night. So, an organisation called London Dreamtime is leading us off into a undisclosed location, somewhere around Hampstead Heath.. we're to dress warmly, and bring a blanket to sit on, and a "candle in a jar" - I actually went out and bought an LED flickering candle in a lantern-style holder. Well, thought it was the most practical! Now I just need batteries..