Yes, I did get to Open House London yesterday! Oh, I was so diligent. I spent so long researching the hundreds of properties available to view. I narrowed it down by area, figuring I'd start with those in walking distance and move into town. It took ages.
:-)
How many did I get to see? One. Brompton Cemetery, five minutes walk from home.
Well, y'see, there was a guided tour at 2 - which I was keen to go on. I knew there were stories associated with this graveyard, and really needed a guide to tell me them. The tour started outside the chapel - which was interesting in itself, I've never been in there before. As I waited in the chapel, and checked my emails, they were handing out questionnaires about a new development they're planning in the cemetery. A cafe, children's play area and the like.
A Royal Parks representative actually accompanied us on the walk, arms full of questionnaires and information leaflets. The tour guide, however - an official London guide - was a little late. He announced himself, then took off at a gallop down a side path.
When we caught up with him, he explained that, if we were to cover everything, we'd need to move fast - there are 40 acres. What followed was the most fascinating and engaging tour I've ever been on, led by the most enthusiastic guide. With an obvious love, and encyclopaedic knowledge, of his subject, he regaled us with facts, figures, and anecdotes. We learned how the cemetery contains 35,000 monuments, how 215,000 people are buried there, how it's still a working cemetery, wih an average of one burial per week. This compares with the average in Victorian times of 17 per day - on one fateful day, there were 32! We also learned how the number of listed monuments in the cemetery has recently increased from 1 to 28. They keep pushing for more to be included.. (Listing means that English Heritage has to cover the cost of repairs to damage incurred after the listing. Not that they're quick to get around to it..)
We duly tore around to various parts of the cemetery, stopping at various monuments that the guide had stories about. Not only was he a treasure trove of information, but he was egged on by enthusiastic tour participants, who kept asking interesting questions and probing into areas that, as he said, he could go into, but we'd be there all night.. We stopped at the graves of people with interesting stories, we stopped at graves that were architecturally interesting. We went down overgrown side paths, and down the main avenue. Interesting sights there included the family walking their cocker spaniel. We had to make room for them to pass on the main avenue. Next time we saaw them, we were on a side path - and the little girl had climbed onto her skateboard, and was being towed by the cocker spaniel. At speed. Five minutes later, they passed in the other direction, the dog still towing. At speed. A 1-dog-power skateboard..
We climbed onto the terrace - specifically for dog walkers, it offers an elevated view of the cemetery. There, the guide kicked at some undergrowth to show us the edge of a grave that belonged to the founder of the Victoria and Albert museum - the most unassuming grave in the whole place - completely overgrown and invisible! Some more tales attached to photos, posted here.
At 10 past 4, he asked us how we were doing. Some people dropped away, but most were still going strong, so he said he's keep going for another hour (the Open House ended at the cemetery at 5). When he asked for the time again (he doesn't wear a watch), it was 5.15! He peered up the avenue towards the chapel - the doors were locked. Oh dear, he'd left his coat in there. He checked his pocket - no, he had his keys, that was all right then. He could keep going. And so he did!
Most people had fallen away at this point - including the Royal Parks representative. He didn't mind, he was having a ball! So were we, although it was exhausting. When he finally finished, at 6.30, we'd been going for 4.5 hours. And were shattered. I checked my list - yep, everything else was closed by then that I might have gone to. Hey-ho.. that's the second year in a row I haven't got to St. Cuthbert's! And it within walking distance, tsk. Well, one of these years..!
Tonight, I might have gone to a play called My Night with Reg, but it was completely sold out. So a film it is - after eliminating a football documentary, I'm left with Dark Will Fall - a film of documentary footage, shot by war correspondants, of concentration camps liberated at the end of the Second World War. Among those who worked on it was Alfred Hitchcock. Thought too controversial for release at the time, it was shelved and rediscovered in the 90s. Restored by the BFI, the closest to me (and earliest) showing is at the Vue Piccadilly.
Tomorrow, I am off to a play - a different one though, called Chicken Shop. Showing at the Park Theatre (oh Lord, up there again!), best price is available on the venue website - code CHICKEN gets you a discount on full price tickets (found this code on a website I haven't heard of before - A Younger Theatre).
Showing posts with label Brompton cemetery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brompton cemetery. Show all posts
Monday, 22 September 2014
Sunday, 18 May 2014
Films: Walkabout & Wake in Fright
Despite the glorious weather today, I took a train journey of 50 mins duration each way, to sit in the Rio, watching their Beyond Civilisation double bill, set in the Australian outback. Well, if I hadn't been that keen, I wouldn't have bothered - but these films - Walkabout (1971) and Wake in Fright - sounded excellent. Besides, I'd have been bored, just sitting in the sun for the afternoon..
I was lucky, firstly, that the Overground runs direct from just up the road from me, at West Brompton station, to Dalston Kingsland, just down the road from the Rio, as it happens. Not only is it handy not to have to change, but the Overground is cheaper than the Tube - particularly since I'd have to go through Zone 1 to get to the other side of town. Secondly, I was lucky, because not only were there no Tube trains running through West Brompton today, but neither were there Overground trains for much of the line (planned engineering works take place at weekends, to minimise disruption). Anyhow, I took my book with me - rather excellent, The Last Queen - I do recommend it - and between the outward and return journeys I got a lot of it read. The fare turned out to be £1.50 each way - rather good value for a 50-minute journey! I'd forgotten about the cheap fares on Sundays. I knew from Google Maps to turn left from the station, and within a few steps the cinema was actually in sight! Easy-peasy.
I'd been early enough to get the train before the one I needed to get - which is great, except that the cinema wasn't open yet when I got to it! So I hung around, trying to look as though I wasn't waiting for the doors to open.. there was a notice saying that it would open at 1.15, it was about 1.10 at this point (by my watch). They eventually opened at about 1.20. There's a café in the lobby, where you can buy your ticket if there's no-one in the ticket office. Handy, that café - I took advantage of the fact that they sold ice cream.. There only seems to be one screen, and the whole place is a bit scruffy, but the staff were friendly, and I liked it.
Stairs led to the balcony, but I knew from the website that that was closed today, and the guy who sold me my tickets (for both films, two for the price of one) and ice cream also told me where the entrance to the stalls was. I was, of course, the first in, and it took so long for anyone to join me that I seriously wondered whether I'd be the only one there! I wasn't, of course. Rather cramped toilets were located on either side of the screen. Nice comfy seats - although a bit bum-numbing after a double-bill - and nice plush red curtains covering the screen, that opened when the film was due to start and drew closed after the credits finished. Oh, and another nice touch - no ads! So I didn't mind that each film started a bit later than advertised.
The first was Walkabout (1971) - a highly visual and quite moving piece that tells the tale of a teenage Jenny Agutter and her little brother, whose father is obviously having problems that aren't divulged. Anyway, he drives them into the outback for a picnic, then starts taking potshots at them. When he can't catch them, he torches the car and shoots himself. Which would be bad enough, except now the kids are alone in the desert, with no idea which way to go, and no decent provisions. They're in a bad way by the time they come across an Aboriginal lad on walkabout - the traditional initiation ceremony whereby a teenage boy heads off into the wilderness on his own, forced to fend for himself. He helps them.. and as he leads them back to the world they know, the film becomes a metaphor for the conflict between his world and the "civilised" one, of crowds, traffic, cities.. A memorable piece, the more so because I've always been fascinated by the outback - the idea of a vast expanse of desert, with, to paraphrase Bill Bryson, more things in it that can kill you than anywhere else on the planet.
We had a short break before the second film - Wake in Fright. Now there's a promising title! (Also known as Outback.) Also made in 1971, this is a slightly more conventional story, but no less striking. A young teacher - Gary Bond - faces the same problem as so many - the difficulty in finding a post. As he explains at one point in the film, he studied history and literature - but if your parents are nobody, what can you do but teach? The only way he could get a job was to become a bonded teacher with the Department of Education, which bond he has to work off - which means he has to work wherever they tell him. So he ends up in the back end of beyond, teaching what, I'm not quite sure, from the evidence of the opening scene, which has the class staring at him in silent boredom until he says they can go. How well behaved they were in those days..!
Well, if the first film was about the conflict between modern civilisation and the traditional way of life, you could say that this film was about the conflict between an idea of civilisation - or sophistication - and the hard-drinking, lowbrow, society of the miners of the outback. In the first film, civilisation pretty much won - in this one, it's not such a clear victor. This guy starts out as a tortured intellectual, thinking himself better than those around him, feeling he deserves greater things. He overnights in a rough mining town on his way on holiday - and after he comes into contact with the locals, including the slightly manic, alcoholic, local doctor, Donald Pleasence, things are never quite the same again as he's drawn ever more into their world. Memorable, truly.
I swung by the cemetery for a while on the way home..
I was lucky, firstly, that the Overground runs direct from just up the road from me, at West Brompton station, to Dalston Kingsland, just down the road from the Rio, as it happens. Not only is it handy not to have to change, but the Overground is cheaper than the Tube - particularly since I'd have to go through Zone 1 to get to the other side of town. Secondly, I was lucky, because not only were there no Tube trains running through West Brompton today, but neither were there Overground trains for much of the line (planned engineering works take place at weekends, to minimise disruption). Anyhow, I took my book with me - rather excellent, The Last Queen - I do recommend it - and between the outward and return journeys I got a lot of it read. The fare turned out to be £1.50 each way - rather good value for a 50-minute journey! I'd forgotten about the cheap fares on Sundays. I knew from Google Maps to turn left from the station, and within a few steps the cinema was actually in sight! Easy-peasy.
I'd been early enough to get the train before the one I needed to get - which is great, except that the cinema wasn't open yet when I got to it! So I hung around, trying to look as though I wasn't waiting for the doors to open.. there was a notice saying that it would open at 1.15, it was about 1.10 at this point (by my watch). They eventually opened at about 1.20. There's a café in the lobby, where you can buy your ticket if there's no-one in the ticket office. Handy, that café - I took advantage of the fact that they sold ice cream.. There only seems to be one screen, and the whole place is a bit scruffy, but the staff were friendly, and I liked it.
Stairs led to the balcony, but I knew from the website that that was closed today, and the guy who sold me my tickets (for both films, two for the price of one) and ice cream also told me where the entrance to the stalls was. I was, of course, the first in, and it took so long for anyone to join me that I seriously wondered whether I'd be the only one there! I wasn't, of course. Rather cramped toilets were located on either side of the screen. Nice comfy seats - although a bit bum-numbing after a double-bill - and nice plush red curtains covering the screen, that opened when the film was due to start and drew closed after the credits finished. Oh, and another nice touch - no ads! So I didn't mind that each film started a bit later than advertised.
The first was Walkabout (1971) - a highly visual and quite moving piece that tells the tale of a teenage Jenny Agutter and her little brother, whose father is obviously having problems that aren't divulged. Anyway, he drives them into the outback for a picnic, then starts taking potshots at them. When he can't catch them, he torches the car and shoots himself. Which would be bad enough, except now the kids are alone in the desert, with no idea which way to go, and no decent provisions. They're in a bad way by the time they come across an Aboriginal lad on walkabout - the traditional initiation ceremony whereby a teenage boy heads off into the wilderness on his own, forced to fend for himself. He helps them.. and as he leads them back to the world they know, the film becomes a metaphor for the conflict between his world and the "civilised" one, of crowds, traffic, cities.. A memorable piece, the more so because I've always been fascinated by the outback - the idea of a vast expanse of desert, with, to paraphrase Bill Bryson, more things in it that can kill you than anywhere else on the planet.
We had a short break before the second film - Wake in Fright. Now there's a promising title! (Also known as Outback.) Also made in 1971, this is a slightly more conventional story, but no less striking. A young teacher - Gary Bond - faces the same problem as so many - the difficulty in finding a post. As he explains at one point in the film, he studied history and literature - but if your parents are nobody, what can you do but teach? The only way he could get a job was to become a bonded teacher with the Department of Education, which bond he has to work off - which means he has to work wherever they tell him. So he ends up in the back end of beyond, teaching what, I'm not quite sure, from the evidence of the opening scene, which has the class staring at him in silent boredom until he says they can go. How well behaved they were in those days..!
Well, if the first film was about the conflict between modern civilisation and the traditional way of life, you could say that this film was about the conflict between an idea of civilisation - or sophistication - and the hard-drinking, lowbrow, society of the miners of the outback. In the first film, civilisation pretty much won - in this one, it's not such a clear victor. This guy starts out as a tortured intellectual, thinking himself better than those around him, feeling he deserves greater things. He overnights in a rough mining town on his way on holiday - and after he comes into contact with the locals, including the slightly manic, alcoholic, local doctor, Donald Pleasence, things are never quite the same again as he's drawn ever more into their world. Memorable, truly.
I swung by the cemetery for a while on the way home..
Tuesday, 6 May 2014
Brompton Cemetery
Well, you know, I spent the long weekend in grey, overcast, occasionally drizzly, and finally torrentially downpouring Ireland, so when I got back, last night, to a London with blue skies and sunshine, and summery temperatures, and spent today looking out the office window at brilliant sunshine.. well, I just didn't feel like going to the cinema! And I didn't have anything booked, so that was ok.
So I thought about where the nearest green space is - we don't have a garden. The nearest green space is Brompton Cemetery, not five minutes walk away, and when I looked it up online, it turned out to be open till 8 tonight. There also seemed to be an entrance on Old Brompton Road.. so off I trotted, taking with me the most excellent book I'm currently reading: The Dead Summer, by Helen Moorhouse. And my camera.
I've passed it many times, on my way to or from the local Cineworld, but never knew whether it was open to the public, because it was always closed when I was passing. I always admired the brick wall though, with openings - complete with iron grilles - so you could see into the graveyard, higgledy piggledy with lopsided headstones. I always thought it looked deliciously spooky. Well, this evening I strolled through the ornate gate, read the signs confirming the closing time (and what number to call if you were locked in), and marvelled at the sheer quantity of gravestones. Apparently, there are 35,000 altogether - not that I visited them all. I had read that Emmeline Pankhurst is buried here, but really, trying to find anything in this graveyard if you don't have some prior idea where it is..!
I was immediately taken with the atmosphere of the place. It's geometrically laid out, with many perpendicular avenues, but some parts are very overgrown, and these are the most interesting, I think. Many sections are absolutely jammed with monuments, ornate mixed up with simple, with some mausoleums. Benches are numerous, which meant I had a selection on which to read my book.. and what a terrific setting for a ghost story. The benches are wooden, rather than metal, which is nice.
It's a real haven from the noise and bustle of the city, and I'm delighted to have found it. I shared it with many joggers, a couple of cyclists, a guy in a business suit - there is an entrance at the other end, and it must be a very handy shortcut - and a chap walking his dog. As I left, eventually, with the evening chill coming on, a family was coming in. It's a great place to hang out.
Photos here.. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10204111274486413.1073741844.1361836980&type=1&l=e9e222220d
Tomorrow, the current plan is to go see a Japanese film noir from 1948 - Drunken Angel - at the Prince Charles Cinema. Unless I have a better idea, of course! Then I'm at the Guildford office on Thursday, before flying back to Ireland on Friday for a Christy Moore concert on Saturday. At Glor, again.
So I thought about where the nearest green space is - we don't have a garden. The nearest green space is Brompton Cemetery, not five minutes walk away, and when I looked it up online, it turned out to be open till 8 tonight. There also seemed to be an entrance on Old Brompton Road.. so off I trotted, taking with me the most excellent book I'm currently reading: The Dead Summer, by Helen Moorhouse. And my camera.
I've passed it many times, on my way to or from the local Cineworld, but never knew whether it was open to the public, because it was always closed when I was passing. I always admired the brick wall though, with openings - complete with iron grilles - so you could see into the graveyard, higgledy piggledy with lopsided headstones. I always thought it looked deliciously spooky. Well, this evening I strolled through the ornate gate, read the signs confirming the closing time (and what number to call if you were locked in), and marvelled at the sheer quantity of gravestones. Apparently, there are 35,000 altogether - not that I visited them all. I had read that Emmeline Pankhurst is buried here, but really, trying to find anything in this graveyard if you don't have some prior idea where it is..!
I was immediately taken with the atmosphere of the place. It's geometrically laid out, with many perpendicular avenues, but some parts are very overgrown, and these are the most interesting, I think. Many sections are absolutely jammed with monuments, ornate mixed up with simple, with some mausoleums. Benches are numerous, which meant I had a selection on which to read my book.. and what a terrific setting for a ghost story. The benches are wooden, rather than metal, which is nice.
It's a real haven from the noise and bustle of the city, and I'm delighted to have found it. I shared it with many joggers, a couple of cyclists, a guy in a business suit - there is an entrance at the other end, and it must be a very handy shortcut - and a chap walking his dog. As I left, eventually, with the evening chill coming on, a family was coming in. It's a great place to hang out.
Photos here.. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10204111274486413.1073741844.1361836980&type=1&l=e9e222220d
Tomorrow, the current plan is to go see a Japanese film noir from 1948 - Drunken Angel - at the Prince Charles Cinema. Unless I have a better idea, of course! Then I'm at the Guildford office on Thursday, before flying back to Ireland on Friday for a Christy Moore concert on Saturday. At Glor, again.
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