Mass Observation diary

It's the Mass Observation Diary Day today so here is an edited highlight of my diary for Mass Observation.

I got up at about half past seven and made my breakfast.  My toast was burned.  I fired up the computer and looked for suitable film editing software – it is not easy to find.  Microsoft Movie Maker does not do colour correction or chroma key. I also worked on my blog – mylondontravels.blogspot.com – which took up a little time and answered some emails. 

I went out at about 10 o’clock to travel into St Giles in Holborn to meet somebody (TB) to make a film with.  I took the Number 1 bus which takes me directly there as it is the last stop on the route.  The journey was uneventful but I reflected on how much time I spend on public transport and how full the bus was.  I arrived at TB’s flat and phoned him.  He came and met me and we went to wait for the actor who would meet us outside the Dominion Theatre.  The theatre was being used for a religious service – Hillsong – that day so we could wait inside out of the wind.  There were lots of greeters and lots of people coming into the service.  It’s not really my kind of thing.  We met our actor (M) dead on 11 and went for a coffee to discuss what we would do.  We wanted to show the actor enjoying life as it was for a promotion film for a health education charity to be shown at a major event in London.  We discussed what we were going to do and what filming we would do also.  M said he enjoyed shopping so we thought we would get a shot of him doing some shopping.  We also wanted him walking around and sitting outside a cafe a mixture of stills and video.  Just enjoying life really.  The film is supposed to be upbeat.

As we passed a cafe with tables on the pavement we asked M to sit down and have his photo taken.  We took the first lot of video footage in St Giles’s churchyard.  We tried to find a flower garden but a small garden nearby was locked so we returned to the churchyard where we took footage of M walking round a crescent path with palm trees next to a hedge.  We had about four takes of this as he kept speeding up on the way round.  Eventually I said I would gesture to him to slow down if he was speeding up, so we got the takes right eventually.   After this we went to Seven Dials where we took a still of M sitting on the base of the monument.  We went into another street and took footage of him coming out of a cake shop and a still of him sitting at a table outside.  We also took footage from behind of M walking down the street looking in shop windows.  We were not sure what to do next and I spied a small entry with an elaborate metal gate to what had been a school and was now a block of flats.  I suggested that M meet a friend by surprise who was coming round the corner.  I was to play the friend.  We took about four takes of this with me coming round a corner, meeting M and giving him a hug before walking off into the distance.  This was a very effective scene as it is upbeat and uplifting.  This was the final scene involving the actor so we parted and went back to TB’s flat to edit the footage.  TB has an apple computer with a good video editing suite.  He’d started doing the film with some stills and intertitles and we started editing the footage and compiling it into a useable film.  We got a long way in to doing it and made a fairly useable film with it.  He had booked a training session at the apple store to iron out any problems in the editing.

I took a Number 8 bus to Bethnal Green and walked down to Whitechapel to the Ideas Store there, calling in at Sainsburys to pick up some ready meals to take to work and a packet of biscuits.  I used the self checkout. 

I went into the Idea Store and had a look around.

The East London Line was not working today so I couldn’t get home that way.  I decided the best thing to do was to walk over Tower Bridge and take a bus from there.  As I got halfway down Whitechapel High Street I remembered I could have taken the district line to West Ham and changed there.  I felt foolish especially as what had been a sunny day was now a wet one.  I called in at the Whitechapel Gallery and had a look at some of the displays there.  The one I liked most was called  Black Eyes and Lemonade and referred to popular art and an exhibition of design held at the Whitechapel Gallery as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations.  In the exhibition there were all kinds of objects that had been designed including book covers from the fifties and a model rocking horse head.  It was generating some interest.  In another gallery there was a bronze tree trunk with branches that was hollow and gilded on the inside.  Nice.

I continued my walk down Leman Street past the old Co-operative Wholesale Society buildings and through St Katherine’s Dock.  Gloriana the royal barge was in the dock and I took some pictures of it.

I crossed Tower Bridge and took a No 47 bus home.  Again an uneventful journey but the bus was full.  When I came home I wrote up this diary.

Hampsfell Hospice, Grange over Sands.

There was something mysterious going on in Eggerslack Woods. Twice I tried to take a picture of my friend and twice the camera failed. A change of batteries was no help. We were walking from Grange to the Hampsfell Hospice, built by a vicar of Cartmel so that travellers could rest on their way over Hampsfell. I suppose it's really a tourist attraction. Notices inside give a plea in verse for observation of certain rules of conduct in the hospice, ending with 'Kind reader freely take your pleasure But do no mischief to my treasure' An answer is also made in verse asking for a handrail on the precarious stair. And it was precarious too!

The views from the top were fantastic right out to the Lake District and across Morecambe Bay.  All from a tiny stone tower built by a clergyman a long time ago.

Happy St Georges Day

From the Vestry of St George the Martyr and the Bridge House Estates.

Riding on top of the Bus

On a fine day red and green go so well together. So I went off to Theydon Bois for a ride on top of a bus. In fact I took two rides, one via Abridge and one via Loughton Station. The North London Transport Society had 'up to 20 vintage busses on display'. Actually there were about seven of which 3 or 4 were taking people for rides. This splendid Greenline bus used to ply its way to Harlow New Town of happy memory, and this is a South London Routemaster The routes were interesting going through Epping Forrest and the country towns of Essex. I enjoyed the leisurely rides on top of the vintage bus.

All aboard the Lady Daphne for Sea Change!

Lady Daphne is a Thames sailing barge moored at St Katherine's Dock, except when she is out on the spree. I was on board as the guest of the Mainelli family, in particular Professor Michael Mainelli to hear about Sea Change Sailing Trust They can put what they do much better than I can so here's their summary: Sea Change Sailing Trust provides residential opportunities for young people to learn and develop in a unique environment. By living and working together aboard a traditional sailing vessel they participate in a wide range of life skills and are encouraged to take increasing responsibility for their contribution and group decisions. We offer a graduated set of programmes from entry level tasters to extended residential periods with accreditation. This all sounds very worthwhile. The young people learn sailing, coöperation and self discipline by doing a real job, carrying cargoes on the barges. They are trying to raise some money for a new barge to help more young people learn about sailing so if any of my readers have a spare £60000 lying around that they don't know what to do with, then Sea Change would be pleased to have it. Or even a spare £6. The evening was very pleasant and attended by the High Sheriff of Essex, Mrs Julia Abel Smith, and we enjoyed a rousing presentation by writer, broadcaster and sailor Tom Cunliffe. It was wonderful to see inside of an old wooden ship dating back to the 1920s, and I hope that Sea Change do raise the money they need.

Carshalton House and its water tower

Carshalton House is now a Roman Catholic girls school but the grounds contain some fine architecture. Today the water tower, with its orangery, baigno and saloon were open to the public for their first opening of the season. The Hermitage in the grounds was also open, but guided tours only. The water tower complex included an eighteenth century plunge bath with some beautiful delft tiling on the walls and a black and white marble floor with marble steps. The bath was big enough for three or four people, which sounds quite like a sauna. The mechanical apparatus for pumping water to the tank on the top has decayed but some of the waterwheel and the pipes are still present. The place has been altered over the years with a domed ceiling replaced with a flat one after the war. There was a permanent exhibition of prints and tiles from Carshalton House (St Philomena's Girls School).
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The house itself wasn't open to the public but a small garden feature, the hermitage, was open. The hermitage has been repaired but the stone has been left dressed to show its newness. There was a round chamber with excellent acoustic properties with a fine tiled floor. The original part was floored with green and red stone.

Carshalton itself is pleasant with two ponds in the middle, one of the sources of the River Wandle, that is fast flowing and powered a lot of water mills in Merton, including one owned by William Morris.    The river runs underneath Honeywood, now the Sutton Local History Museum, which seems popular with the inhabitants, as there were about four families in there when I called. Whenever I hear of Honeywood, I think of Sir Leslie Brash, John Grigblay the builder and James Spinlove, characters in 'the Honeywood File: an adventure in Building by Harry Cresswell - a very funny book. Diamond Geezer has been. This house was inhabited by William Hale White a victorian novelist who wrote about it in a fictional biography. He also lived in this house nearer the Beeches station. The house fell into disrepair and was opened as a museum in 2012 after a restoration. The billiard room is splendid with its inglenook and leather sofas. I ate my tea in Grove park where the wandle flows and there is a watermill being restorred.

Windsor Great Park

The main use of Windsor Great Park is as a dog's toilet, judging by all the small bags left lying around. For today's excursion I had a book published by the Railway Executive in 1949 called Rambles in the Chiltern Country. After a brief moment of confusion as to which way was left on leaving Windsor and Eton Central Station (the author was wrong) I walked past the castle and into Park Street. The Queen was at home as shown by the Royal Standard flying and she had kindly arranged for the band of one of the Regiments of Guards to march through Windsor and play as I arrived. The music was wonderful on this cold and misty day. So the book took me down the Long Walk, 3 miles between the castle and the copper horse, and Windsor Castle's garden path. And of course the guide book led me up the garden path here by saying to take a path by the hospital. Well here was an Ozymandias moment: no trace survived of the hospital. Instead I walked up to the Copper Horse, a large mounted sculpture of Georgius Terto, Patri Optimus, Georgius Rex, which roughly translated means George III best dad King George. This was set up in 1831. As recommended by the guide book I took my lunch in the Fox and Hounds just outside the Bishop's Gate to the Park, and here I place on record that the chicken pie I had cost THREE times as much as the one I had in Kidderminster and was not as good. I went back into the dogs toilet and walked down past another equestrian statue, this time of Prince Albert near the Guards Polo Club, walked through a little glade to Virginia Water. Somebody told me it was dug out by bored soldiers, who had come back from war with nothing to do. Sounds quite likely but not the official version.  The lake is man made and has some embellishments like boat houses and picnic places.  There are also some ruins from ancient roman cities on the African coast.  These are built on each side of the main road with a tunnel to go through for viewing.  These had become ruinous by the late twentieth century so they have recently been restored to their former ruinous state.   There is also a spectacular cascade which is at the head of the lake, with people defying the instructions not to climb on it.  As you can see it's a bit of a raging torrent.
    
The walk then took me past the totem pole, and the obelisk to the Duke Of Cumberland.  The next part was to walk through the Rhododendron walk but these will not be in bloom until June.  Instead I went to sit by the cow pond where there were substantial oak seats, a little bridge and a pergola.  I negotiated the rhododendrons to get out and back up to the Bishop's Gate.  This was a long wal so I had to decide whaat to do.  I think that the railway decided for me in that there is now no Western Region Station at Staines.  The official walk took me to Runnymede and I would have liked to go there but I would not haave been able to get home. Instead I walked in the sunshine back down the Long Wakl with Windsor Castle shining in the sun. No vehicles are permitted on the Long Walk but I did see some skilful driving on the long walk of a Tivo by someone who looked like Prince Phillip.
It was a long road home and I was glad to get in the train on the way back from Windsor.
There is a video available on youtube.

Stansted Mountfitchet

Keep the pavement dry! The Gilbey family donated a water fountain to the village of Stansted Mountfitchet in Essex and emblazoned it with their shield and the motto stated above. If it's the same family who made the gin why did they give a water fountain? Although perhaps on special occasions it ran with gin... Maybe one of those special occasions was the coronation of our own Queen and a memorial stone with the simple inscription "Elizabeth II 2nd June 1953" marked out a bus stop with admirable utility. The village had a number of old houses and pubs including this splendid old house. There are also other historic items around including a Great Eastern Railway fireplace in the station and this milestone

Smethwick

Great Western meet London Midland. One of the few places they do is at Smethwick Galton Bridge Station. Named after the major investor the Galton Bridge spans a large cutting with a railway, a canal and a river. Did you really think there was an old castle in Smethick? Alas Smethwick is a workaday town with little to see and that not very old. Even Portrait of the Black Country gives it very little space, and you can hardly tell where it merges into Oldbury, either by book or by town. I walked under the Galton Bridge which had the widest single span in the world when it was built but is, of course, now dwarfed by other bridges around the world. It has an elegant functionality and you have to cross it to get from the station to the towpath, which I did. There was also a canal tunnel, albeit modern and concrete, to walk through so I did. I came out near the other station, Smethick Rolfe Street, where the river met the canal with a former pumping station now converted to a heritage centre (Closed Saturday afternoons Admission 3/6d). The road bridge over the canal had a fine crop of icicles which failed to glisten in my camera flash. I also found a historic toll house although people tell me it wasn't lost. I think somebody had just left the church unlocked so I was able to go in. I'm not sure it was officially open even now. It was 19th century and pleasant enough with some attractive glass and in good decorative order. There wasn't evan a church there before the 18th Century. The lych gate was dedicated to the Brotherhood, whether masonic or a church orgainsation I do not know.

Kidderminster

Nobody eats out in Kidderminster. Even the Subway had closed down. However when I did find a cafe (the Three Shires Cafe) I was quite surprised. The Three Shires cafe had all the atmosphere of a morgue, and indeed it was so full of old people I wondered if I'd gone into a charitable pensioners club rather than a commercial cafe (although it wasn't exactly cheap). The waitress served me though. And to my astonishment when the chicken, ham and asparagus pie arrived it was ecellent. I cannot over use the superlatives here. I don't think I've had a better pie. Wonderful. With the body satisfied it was time to look at the real reasons for going to Kidderminster. The place has one famous son I knew about and one I didn't although only one was born here. In Chronological order they were Richard 'the Reformed Pastor' Baxter and Rowland 'Penny Black' Hill. Richard Baxter came to Kidderminster in 1641 and found the people in a dreadful state with all kinds of wickedness. He persisted with them and managed to turn them from their bad deeds,  Then he wrote about it. Naturally turning to Parliament in the civil war things got a bit hot for him in Royalist Worcestershire so he retreated to Gloucestershire and after many adventures, including serving as a chaplain in the Parliamentary army, returned to Kidderminster finally leaving when the Act of Uniformity maade it impossible for him to stay.  His monument was erected by churchmen and non-conformists and there is a Baxter United Reformed Church in the town.  Just over the churchyard wall, towards the canal, I noticed huge numbers of Sainsburys value lager tins.  At least 50 cans!  I was surprised to say the least!

Rowland Hill was part of the technological revolution and the inventor of the penny post. This was important as it allowed the rapid and cheap transmission of ideas across the country so that something thought up in Manchester could be in Tewksbury the next day. And people who joke about 'snail mail' today perhaps need to be reminded that in the 1840s a letter posted for a penny at 1500 would be in the recipients hands by 1700. And that I can remember the time when an email might take 24 hrs to come through - that's in the very early days for the young folk who don't remember.  Rowland Hill's statue was paid for by public subscription.

Birmingham

"Birmingham looks like New York" said an enthusiastic young man on the train up for a night out. "But it's really more like Detroit" replied his rather more weary friend.  I do enjoy going to Birmingham and I found it exciting seeing the saturnalia on Broad Street, which is where all the pubs are.  A very pleaseant weekrnd. Birmingham is getting a new library - and here it is! Although I do think it's a pity the old one can't be scrubbed up a bit.

A foggy day in London Town

A helping hand in the city

Every year the City of London trains a new batch of the guides who lead the walks round the city, for the benefit of tourists and others. All of them must practice leading groups of people round the sites and yesterday it was my privilege and delight to be one of the guinea pigs for a walk by the charming and knowledgeable David Charnick [link to be updated].  Entitled 'A Helping Hand' the walk showed us the human side of the city through its charitable institutions, dating from the medieval period until the present.

We began our walk at the old priory of St Mary Without Spitalfields which is hidden away underground in a very inconspicuous location near Spitalfields Market. Then we came right up to date with the Spitalfields Crypt Trust which was founded in 1965 as a drop in centre for people in difficulties. The church is, of course, by Hawksmoor, a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren, and as everybody knows a member of the illuminati and the priory of Sion. [What are your sources for this nonsense? Ed] We then came back to the 19th Century with the Bishopsgate Institute, with their recently restored buildings and their archive of radical thought including the G J Holyoake papers and London Co-operative Society picture archive. No tour of London charitable institutions would be complete without showcasing some of the livery companies who maintain almshouses and do other charitable work connected with education. We looked at all kinds of places and charities including one for paralysed priests, not sure how that came about, and the conclusion of the walk was perhaps one of the finest points where one could conclude a walk about a helping hand. I'm not going to give it away so you'll have to go on David's walk when he qualifies and find out. The walk was most informative with a few touches of humour. I think that when David qualifies as a city guide we will be in for some real treats.

Minet Estate Lambeth

There are four things a community needs: A church - Check A park - check A library - check A public hall - check Note that there is no provision for transport, shopping or refreshment whether it be alcoholic or non alcoholic, although I suppose there might be a cafe in the park or at the library. This was the vision of the developer of the Minet Estate, now a conservation area in the Borough of Lambeth. And very pleasant it is too. The church has now become a block of flats, called, rather inappropriately, Black Roof House, but some of the original blocks of flats carry the Minet Coat of Arms and stone sculptures of cats. There is also a cat's head one on the public hall. Minet is French for 'little cat' so the information board in the park tells me. There is also a former convent, somewhat extraordinarily given the Huguenot origins of the estate. All in all it looks a pleasant place to live. There is even a pub (now) near Myatt's Fields park even though it was built in the 1920s or so in 'Brewer's Tudor'. Another thing that is also surprising given the strong reformed faith of huguenots is that there is a branch of the Swedenborgian church. It is called simply Michael Church, and teaches the doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg. I don't pretend to understand what the doctrines are but I think they are saner than the mormons. I don't think they baptise their (or other people's) ancestors by proxy.  We also met a Swedenborgian in Kingsbury when we looked at the architecture of Ernest George Trobridge.  That's another extraordinary suburb.

Minet Library - life beyond life

Libraries are very dangerous places, especially on National Libraries Day. Heavens there are steps, trailing cables and well, people might even... get ideas! They might even get ideas that give them 'life beyond life'. Perhaps we are on safer grounds with archives, after my solo tour with the Lambeth Borough Archivist. Lambeth has an archive rather than a local history library and this is housed in the Minet Library which is a surprisingly huge building on the Lambeth Minet estate. The original developer of the estate gave the library which was octagonal in shape until it was bombed in the second world war. The new building has vestiges of the original octagon visible and is built as a basilica with two wings. Mr Minet was a keen amateur historian and his collection makes up part of the Archive, but of course there is much more material than that. I was shown all kinds of records from air-raid message slips that had somehow survived from our darkest hours, and, in contrast song books from Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, some of which were a bit risque! There were runs of newspapers, housing brochures, family photographs that had been abandoned when a photographer in Brixton retired from business showing people looking very proud in their bus conductors uniforms, suits and best dresses. There are also items institutions have deposited in the archive for safekeeping and to ensure public access. The British Home for Incurables has deposited its early records there. I imagine that the records were in some sort of order in the home then put into boxes for shipping o the archive, and then the poor archivist has to make some sort of sense of them, and catalogue so that they are retrievable. That must be a job and a half. Who'd have thought that drainage plans could deliver social history, well Lambeth Archives has an enquiry obout drains from 1904 by Fred Karno's Commedians! Social history of the music hall. Play bills for theatres, church history (although not the Church of England) Local Government (but not hospitals) I even saw an ice skate in the museum collection. Wow. So many thanks for this tour through the wonders of the Lambeth Archives. After lunch in the Park Cafe I went back to the library to see a film show - the Name of the Rose, The best film ever to be set in a library, although poisoned books and the library eventually burning down is perhaps not for this library. As this post is a bit picture light I have posted some other 'library pictures'

Snow memories in the Surrey Docks.

Sometimes I travel 200 miles for you, O my readers, sometimes it simply takes 200 yards. Here are some snow memories around Greenland dock as the winter starts to bite. No explanation of these is necessary really, but the Howland Great Wet Dock was given to somebody once as a wedding present. Now that's the kind of wedding present I like.

Chelmsford and Moulsham

Chelmsford Cathedral is the second smallest cathedral in the country - but they try harder. It's just a jumped up parish church really. They try harder with artworks too. When the organ was moved to the back of the nave, it exposed a blind window. They have now filled this with a tree of life showing Adam and Eve in T shirts with an A and an E on them. St Cedd makes aan appearance as do some butterflies and a rubbish tip with bin bags. The Cathedral authorities als provide interpretation boards to tell you what to think about such things: I prefer it when they leave things ambiguous. Who knows what it will mean in 500 years time, if Christianity survives that long. There is also some good 20th Century glass painting and church furnishing including a westmorland slate font and altar, with bronze and steel pulpits. Small doesn't necessarily mean mean. Not sure about this chap on the outside though. Is he holding a yale key? Chelmsford Museum is out at Moulsham and tells the story of Chelmsford with some interesting other collections including a working model beehive and stuffed animals. There is also a good numismatic collection although not particularly well displayed. It has been extended recently to include the museum of the Essex Regiment and there is a fine display of regimental silverware. The museum also reflects the town's former inductries with lots of knobs to twiddle to produce sine waves and tell you the difference between AC and DC. Cromptons Electric Lamps have a lamp standard outside the museum and Marconi industries make up the bulk of the displays in the new part of the museum. All in all an excellent local museum with a bit more to offer.

Battersea Park

Idolatory in a London Park? Yes. I wasn't sure whether to begin this post with 'Rhoda Rhoda had a pagoda, Selling tea and coffee and soda Buns and biscuits and bread of bran In the pretty Pagoda Rhoda ran!' except that this pagoda doesn't sell anything, or 'There’s a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Battersea, There’s a little marble cross below the town; There’s a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew, And the Yellow God forever gazes down.' The gods are quite yellow too. It's called the London Peace Pagoda and it stands in Battersea Park. Battersea Park Station was a surprise destination on the East London Line this morning - so surprising that Sonya ('cos she get'S ON YA nerves') can't even say the words 'This train is for ___. The next station is ___.' The day started at Canary Wharf Ideastore with a quick look at MS Stubnitz a music and performance art venue currently moored in docklands. Battersea park station is a short walk from Battersea Park, with the LCC monograms carefully concealed by Wandsworth Borough Council. Battersea park has some nice things like the Pump House Gallery (closed when I called) and some very peculiar statues, including a war memorial to the 24th (East Surrey) Division described by Lord Edward Gleichen. He states that the plinth is pleasantly low. There is also a statue of a brown dog, although this is hidden away and I came upon it quite by chance, disturbing an amourous couple in the process. Lord Gleichen doesn't deem this worthy of comment, but is a controversial monument to those noble animals that have laid down their lives to the improvement of humanity. There is an Old English Garden in the park although not as good as the one in Danson Park and was looking rather sorry for itself when I visited, although the water feature was in full flow. Battersea park was the site of the Festival of Britain pleasure gardens and there are still some remnants of this there, although refurbished in 1994. The ponds with fountains present a playful panorama and the tea terrace with its steel frills and flounces make a humourous place to have your tea.