The British Library and the Horse Hospital

Today is the anniversary of the death of Joe Orton who was bludgeoned to death by his jealous lover 40 years ago.

Jim Hollands, a very talented (in both senses of the word) filmmaker has made a film of the Associated Rediffusion television play of The Erpingham Camp. I went after seeing an exhibition on the similarities between Christians Jews and muslims at the British Library. I especially liked seeing King David depicted as Henry VIII.

Kew Gardens

A pleasant day spent in Kew Gardens with colleagues as an away day from work. The weather was beautiful as we sat on the train for half an hour outside Gunnersbury due to a buckled rail. Anyway we got to Kew and the first thing I saw was a horse and carriage driven by a good looking bloke in Jodphurs and hunting boots. Why he was wearing these when he wasn't sitting on the horse I don't know, but they looked good on him so I suppose...

After a picnic and team building exercise it was time to walk down to the Palm House and have a look in there.
 

The Palm House contained some very big palms and a beautiful marine display. It was fronted by stone efigies of the kings beasts. After the palm house I had a look round the lake which was most enjoyable.

Brighton Pride

A brief visit to work on the Coöperative membership stall at Brighton Pride. This is the third year I've done it and this year I was wearing a large heart (front and back) and giving out postcards Some readers may have seen me there. I also went down to the sea front with Mark. The journey (on the hottest weekend so far this year) was a predictable nightmare.
Haven't got a pic this time so here's a historical one when the west pier wasn't a piece of charred ironwork.

Brighton (and 'busses)

A visit to Brighton to see M & T and do a store visit. You'll have to look at the other blog for the info on that but on Sunday we went to Worthing for a 'bus rally. The first picture shows a Brighton Corporation 'bus in a fairly old livery, I remember the blue 'busses just before privatisation rather than blue and white.


The picture of the green van was formerly a coöperative mobile shop. After a brief look at the preserved 'busses it was time to get on board the special open top 'bus route which led out to the villages near worthing, our aim was to get to Findon. But about two miles short of Findon the 'bus engine conked out and smoke started rising from the engine compartment. Oh dear. The driver poured water in (which someone from Loughton advised me might crack the cylinder head and cause more trouble), and we were waiting at the side of a busy and narrow road for half an hour before our relief bus arrived. (see illustration).
After arriving in Findon we went for a sherbert in the Black Horse Inn with a mountain on its pub sign (why?). After this we walked into the village to partake of a sherbert in the extremely expensive pub called The Gun, and then into the helpful pub called the Village House. By this time my money had run out and the preserved bus to Worthing was due, so we waited for it, and waited and finally decided it wouldn't turn up. So we went back into the Village House where other refugees from the bus show had gathered, including the people from Loughton, who appeared to be a family with mother, father and son. Eventually we took the service bus (lucky on a Sunday there was a service bus) being the only people on it and returned to Worthing and thence to Brighton. I will draw a veil over the rotten journey home.

The other picture shows an unusual view of St Bartholemews Church.

Braintree, Temple Cressing and unwelcoming Witham

Braintree was home to the Courtaulds and the Crittalls, two well respected firms. I took the town trail from the Town Hall, paid for by the Courtaulds, round by the Courtaulds silk mill and up to the hostel and fountain provided by the Courtaulds as a memorial to King George V. The walk then led me through the modern shopping centre and past the original workshops where Crittall windows were made. Crittall's mother injured herself on a wooden window and he went to work on a lightweight metal frame with great success. He found a market in India and other places during the days of Empire, as the steel windows were light weight and not subject to destruction by insects or warping with heat. Even today Crittall Windows are produced in their original styles but with modern innovations such as double glazing for those who want to replace their windows. There was a good coöp department store in the town.


The town museum in Braintree is double price if you're not local, it's obviously a local museum for local people - nothing for me there!

After Braintree I went to Temple Cressing, a former Knights Templar monastic foundation dating from the 12th Century. However the monastic buildings are gone, except for the meadieval barns, the large barn for wheat and the smaller barn for barley. Intensive agricultural production is nothing new as these barns were enormous the barley barn being 36m long and the wheat barn constructed 50 years later being 40m long. Truly awesome inside and marvelous examples of oak construction. There is also a farmhouse (not open to the public) and a tudor walled garden. it's a pity the weather wasn't kinder but the barns could beat the weather any day.


I did not realise that Temple Cressing and Silver End, the village built for the employees of Crittall Windows were within a mile of each other, otherwise I would have visited it. Perhaps another day.

Unwelcoming Witham

Witham town was a long way from the station and I arrived there after 4. The first thing I noticed was the Labour Hall and the Conservative Party HQ glowering at each other across the road. The labour hall looked better being more up to date and modern. The town hall contained a museum about the town but I got the impression that they were about to close and my prescence was not desired. There were a few coöperative artefacts there. The town was bricky and 18th Century, and it seems that its claim to fame was that Dorothy L Sayers lived there. There is a Dorothy L Sayers centre in the public library. I went in to the typical 1960s coöp department store, an interesting look at coöp history.
Then it was time to go home.

Thaxted and Saffron Walden

Then raise the scarlet standard high
Within its shade we'll live and die
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

A day out to Thaxted and Saffron Walden.

Thaxted


Thaxted had its market day today, but instead of the bustling 14th and 15th century market there were about five stalls that sold food and one that sold carpet. It did not seem to be a thriving market to me. The Post Office stores sold a lot of toys etc giving a real 1930s feel.

The guildhall or moothall of circa 1390 incorporates a lock up (for villains not a toilet see picture) and also has a museum closed Monday to Friday (except Bank Holidays). The real glory of Thaxted is its Church, remarkably free of memorials and very empty with tractarian chairs although laid out for a concert when I called. A sleepy village like this would be calming and extremely sleepy in the 1930s but Thaxted attracted its fair share of controversy. Rev'd Conrad Noel, who loved justice and hated oppression was vicar here from 1910 until he died in 1942. Prominent in the Christian Socialist Movement he was given an Irish tricoleur in the church to hang in the church alongside the flag of St George, and, as these represented nationhood he decided to raise the red flag to represent the one in many and the many in one with the inscription 'He hath made of one blood all nations'. This was not pleasing to cambridge students who came down to Thaxted to dstart a riot. Eventually an ecclesiastical court decided that Noel could stay as vicar but the flags should be removed and they have been.

The church also has a wooden font cover that envelopes the font and is most unusual. In the churchyard is an old chantry that Conrad Noel converted into a single dwelling in 1933 and a row of three extremly pretty almshouse cottages converted in 1975.

The town trail leads to John Webb's windmill, closed Monday to Friday (except Bank Holidays), and from this there were some good views.

The town trail leads back to the village and past a house where Morris Dancing has its origins from 1911, encouraged by Mrs Noel.

There was a shelter that had been presented to commemorate the coronation of 1953, but this was not at the bus stop. There wasn't even a seat.


Saffron Walden

The town shield bears tulips within a wall - saffron walled in - and saffron is the foundation of the town's prosperity. Our most complete medieval town it did not get the refurbishment that York got in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

I followed the town trail here from the Town hall of 1792 with victorian gable via the corn exchange, covered in scaffolfding. The former Sun Inn with marvelous pargetting (see illustration) contained an antique shop and second hand bookshop with very expensive books (what I usually buy for £3.99 were on sale for £12.50 - the proprietor must love his stock).

The Church is large and peaceful, the benches dwarfed by the soaring height of the nave, aisles and chancel.

There is a beautiful garden, the former retreat of a quaker family with connections to the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry was extremely relaxing and enjoyable.

The finest building of the meadieval period was the youth hostel. An essay in English vernacular architecture of the period.

Bishop's Stortford home of the Empire Builder.

A brief visit to Bishop's Stortford, where Cecil Rhodes was born, although I saw nothing of his birthplace. There is a pleasant high street with some old houses converted into shops and what was the Wimpy Bar has been converted into a Zizzi. There is a six hundred year old church with a norman font and it was open strangely enough. The tower had been restorred in the 1990s. It was at this church that Cecil Rhodes's father preached.

I once came upon the phrase "There is no evidence that [Rhodes] was homosexual". Dose this mean that there was a lot of rumour and conjecture?

I also saw a little row of single storey cottages, the King's Trust Cottages. They had a medallion of Edward VII (perhaps) on each one.

A short period spent there but happy.

The New River path completed.

Call me no more O gentle stream
To wander through thy sunny dream
No more to roam at twilight cool
Above thy wier and glimmering pool.

It is with a sense of relief that I have completed this walk, which was mixed to say the least. The trip to the starting point for tonights walk was dreadful with a bus accident on the way that held me up for half an hour, and the rains came down with a vengance. But if I had waited for the fine weather I think I would have waited for a long time.
A lot of the sections on the banks of New River had not been made into footpaths so there were many houses in the 'by-pass variegated' style en route, and these had the usual quotient of skips and building work being done. I saw some perfectly good WC pans in these and just wonder why people put up with living on a building site as the home improvement squanderbug takes hold. When I got to the New River it was quite pleasant as it was fairly green. Via Enfield the River has been made into a water feature through the parks. This section is very picturesque with old houses on the other side of the river crossed by private bridges. I got lost through Enfield as the path was not well marked, but ended up seeing some curious residential streets, including flat roofed houses and green tiled Beverly Hills in Britain places. One point of interest was the clarendon arch which was built in the 17th century to take the Pymm's Brook, which we met on the loop, under the river. There are commemorative stones to say the Earl of Clarendon built the arch when governor of the New River Co and a commemorative stone for the building of the clay embankment and removal of the wooden trough that had carried the river for 173 years.

After Winchmore hill with its cricket club the river disappeared into a tunnel fairly quickly and I had to walk through streets. On one street a person asked me (in a xxx moment) who earned most money, footballers or golfers. I wasn't sure what would happen if I answered incorrectly, perhaps I would not be allowed to pass, so I hazarded that footballers earned most. I got the answer wrong, but was allowed to continue unmolested on my way.

The tunnel was marked above ground by NRC posts (New River Company). New river Company shares were sold for pence at the begining of the company but when the water was municipalised in the early twentieth century were worth six figures. It just goes to show if you hang around for 300 years you'll make money from shares.
Passing by the Alexandra palace I entered an unappealing area of bread and other factories but I knew the end was in sight Cutting through a curious sloping tunnel under the East Coast Main Line I went through a luxury estate built on a reservoir (no wonder London is now short of water) and saw the welcome sight of the pumping station now turned into a restaurant. It was supposed to be an art gallery but it looks more like a restaurant with pictures on the wall than aa gallery with a refreshment room. (see picture)

A visit to the O2

A visit to the O2 which was formerly known as the Millennium Dome.
I haven’t been in there for just over seven years so it was a bit strange going back. I’m not quite sure what to make of it. The main point of the O2 is to have a concert venue that with suitable commercial hyperbole is the biggest in Europe, although there is also a smaller arena which presumably is not. As always I am suspicious of superlatives, there being at least three smallest counties in England There has certainly been a lot of money spent on it with a large number of chain bars and restaurants, which I suppose are reliable. Chains predominate here, however there was a café called S & M although this was closed when I called. I dread to think what happens in there.

Even the bizarre range of sponsors are all international firms or linked to them. Why BMW, Nestle, and Vivitar are sponsors seems extremely bizarre. InBev and Pepsi Max are no doubt selling drinks and Credit Suisse is probably using up some numbered account that was last accessed 40 years ago and under Swiss banking law becomes the property of the bank.

I was quite impressed by the O2 in spite of myself, although the (chain) sushi bar had a very dirty floor. Clearly a lot of money has been spent here and it is arguably better than the Millennium Dome, which was glitzy where it should have been serious and serious where it should have been glitzy. The catering facilities are still as expensive as they always were but the hand driers in the lavatories were very effective: they almost blew your hands away.

There is a concession in this temple of Mammon to religion as there is a prayer room. I don’t know whether this has Christian facilities as I couldn’t find it. There were also facilities to make your own pop video.

So will it catch on – probably. London is under concert halled and new ones can only be better for everyone. But I wouldn’t want to live near it.

Waltham Abbey and Cross

The Eleanor Cross at Waltham (which comes under Cheshunt in my guidebook) was erected in the 13th century to commemorate one of the resting places of Queen Eleanor (not the overalls)on her way from Harby near Lincoln where she died to burial in Westminster Abbey. This is one of the surviving three original crosses and it is in the middle of a pedestrianised area with a red brick shopping centre nearby. It is one of the best of the eleanor crosses although the upper parts are pure 19th century.

The old Swan Inn has been demolished but its forlorn and pointless sign still crosses the now pedestrianised street from the shopping centre.




Crossing the border into Essex, Waltham abbey contains a fine Norman church of Holy Cross and St Lawrence, which is actually the old abbey nave. There is pure romanesque arcading with characteristic round topped arches and columns with decoration reminiscent of Durham Cathedral. The Abbey was built by King Harold. The ceiling of the church is painted with the signs of the zodiac. I came to the abbey five minutes before closure so only had a brief look round the crypt gift shop (described as a visitors centre but really a gift shop)and the church itself. From what I could see the church was well worth a return visit.

The Welsh Harp Inn acts as a lytch (or corpse) gate (although I have seen that word in a newspaper as a 'Lynch gate') and is a fine and picturesque black and white building, with the timbers having become askew.

The town was a typical small town, again well worth a return visit with what looked like pargeted shops and old ruins.

There is a coöp in the town, in the town.

To get to Harlow I found it was a mile along dual carriageway (hateful phrase - who thought that up?) to Waltham Cross Station or a mile along the Lee Navigation to get to Cheshunt railway station. I chose the latter and saw a heron on the canal, and some very charming boats. Cheshunt station also has more trains to Harlow.

Bracing Brighton

Another visit to Brighton, this time for the Coöperative Congress, the large meeting of Coöperative societies that predates the Pioneers. Alan Gill, good County Durham man made history as the last president of Congress and Peter Marks the Chief Executive Designate of the United Coöperative Group made a keynote speech setting out his vision and telling us all that he would know a coöperative principle if it slapped him in the face. However you will no doubt be able to read the congress reports in the Coöperative news if you are so inclined. Friday and Saturday gave good weather but Sunday was wet and I got soaked just going to the Metropole where congress was held (see illustration). Round the back of the Metropole is the little French Church (although it is really the services that are in French). I had a little walk on the pier but really the purpose of the visit was Congress.

Bustling Brighton

Brighton is the Queen of the Watering Places, with a lot going on in the summer months. On Saturday Kemp Town Carnival took place with music and stalls and a French Market. I was down with Mark staying at Mike and Ken's flat in Kemp Town (thanks fellas!). The weather was kind and the stalls were good, including the coöp stall, which was giving away a free fair trade banana to everyone who signed a petition to make trade fair. They had almost run out of bananas by 4:00 after bringing 22 cases of bananas! Still, I hope the Kemp Town store did well from the day. We met with Mike and Tony at the carnival and visited the stalls and St Georges Church Kemp Town, a dignified georgian church with a beautiful painted rood and reredos with the obligatory decalogue, creed and Lord's Prayer written down. The blue colour scheme was very calming. This is the second oldest church in Brighton (the oldest is the 14th Century St Nicholas) most of Brighton's churches being Victorian to cope with the growing population as Brighton became a resort and industrial town.

We spent the late afternoon in the pub then had a walk on the pier. We were going to go on the dodgems but it would have been £6 to go on one car for the two of us, although the same for two of us in two cars, so we didn't. Brighton Pier need to get their prices sorted out I think. We had dinner then walked down the sea front to the Metropole Hotel and back. We went back to the pub later.

On the Sunday we walked up through the town Calling in at the Oxfam and Books for Amnesty bookshops. We walked through the Pavillion grounds and saw the fountains playing on the steine, which is a very rare sight (see illustrations) . We also saw the cyclists on the London to Brighton run. 27000 cyclists do the run each year, although at the finish line I saw one man on a motor scooter. He had lost his way, and ended up on the route.

After a short snooze on the pier with a Mr Whippy for Mark (I refused the Mr Whippy but balked at the price of a proper cornet) we went back to the flat to tidy up, and left town. The cyclists were still arriving.

The other illustration is the view towards the seven sisters cliffs from the pier.

Hertford

Hertford is the County Town of Hertfordshire but it's still a small market town at the confluence of the Lee, the River Beane, the River Mimram and the river Rib. The New River also rises nearby. Hertford is delightful with quaint streets, a half-timbered library and an old castle. The peace memorial has a bronze hart on top of it. Outside the library there is a drinking fountain (which doesn't work due to municipal meanness) made from the windows of a 13th century church. There are also half timbered buildings although many of these bear their original pargeting. The curious egyptian style house (see illustration) is located just off the market place near Shire Hall.

After lunch Mark and I went into the 1895 church of All Saints which was having a music marathon. We watched a good looking alto who sang stuff from Peter Warlock, Handel Scarlatti and others. I wasn't really in a concert mood but it was quite enjoyable. Then it was time to go home after a balanced day out.

The suburb - Dame Henrietta's dream and Spaniards

A trip to Zone 3 to see a pageant but also a long walk up to Hampstead to take some photographs. The walk was nothing much to write about, going by Euston station, Camden town with its gimcrack market and the TV-AM building now shorn of its egg cups. Haverstock Hill, with the pub where I had the best roast beef in London - the Haverstock Arms, was a bit better leading into Hampstead with its proprietary chapel of St John, Downshire Hill built in the regency period, and the derelict church of St Stephen's Hampstead built in the victorian period. St Stephens was affected by subsidence caused by building the Royal Free Hospital at Hampstead. It is currently being restored but not as a church. There is another church opposite which [is the orthodox cathedral]. St John's Downshire hill is the proprietory chapel for the Downshire Hill estate designed to keep the estate exclusive. A proprietary chapel receives no funds from the diocese and makes no contribution to it. They are usually evangelical in opposition to high church practices elsewhere. The Downshire Hill estate is where Keats lived, and his house is now Hampstead library.

I walked up through Hampstead to the tube station then caught the tube to Golders Green. Arriving early for the pageant I took some photos of Golders Green church St Alban, a nice looking, bricky twentieth century church.

Then it was time to walk up past St Jude's on the hill to watch the pageant in Little Oak Wood. This traced the hundred year history of Hampstead Garden Suburb, a model community planned by Henrietta Barnett for housing of all social classes, although the atmosphere there today is decidedly well to do. Nevertheless as an experiment in town planning it remains a supreme example, although by no means unique. Henrietta was a philanthropist, but also acting out of self interest - she and her husband lived on Hampstead Heath and wanted to protect their view from unsightly development when the railway was driven through. Just like the development I found in my last post in Haringay.
The pageant was a warts and all portrait of Henrietta, and celebrated the suburb as a good place to live, which it undoubtedly is. There is even a suburb song, sung to the tune of the Vicar of Bray, Words by Miss M M Scott

Come all who think that songs are good! A joyous song we'll sing
And praise our Garden Suburb Home until its echoes ring
A home we have beyond compare, where all men may be free
To live in cheery fellowship with man and flow'r and tree.

Chorus

Come then rejoice and raise your voice and sing right merrily
Good luck attend our Garden Home! Good luck to you and me!

There are two more verses: If there's demand I'll put them on.
Everybody in the audience sang that song but nobody in the audience sang "There'll always be a suburb".

I ended the evening with cheery fellowship with men, althougn not flow'r and tree in the Spaniards Inn on Hampstead Heath, a haunt - in years gone by - of highway robbers including Dick Turpin. Overall an entertaining evening out.

Finsbury Park to Hornsey on the new river path.

For the curse of water has come again because of the wrath of G*d
And water is on the Bishop's board and the higher thinker's shrine
But I don't care where the water goes if it doesn't get into the wine.



An evening walk from Finsbury Park to Hornsey on some of the most boring and dangerous roads in Harringay if not London as a whole. I started out at Finsbury Park Station when I should have got off the train at Manor House. Never mind. Finsbury park is quite attractive to walk through with a pleasant avenue, although you do have to dodge the bicycles and the drunks. Meeting the new river in the corner of the park, I lost it again at the main road. The only redeeming feature of the car-choked Wightman Road was the wonderful post modernist church of St Paul, Harringay (see illustration). The original church was burnt down in 1984 and was rebuilt with a new organ which is apparently exceptionally good. The attached accomodation for the incumbent was also post modernist.

The path by the new river is closed at the request of Harringay Council although much of the New River is open here. There is a tunnel and when I rejoined the river it was at the end of this tunnel where there was a barrage attracting flotsam of very dubious charm! I saw all sorts of refuse in the river here as it ran next to the East Coast Main Line, again the river was on an embankment. I soon needed to leave the river and go via three sides of a triangle to arrive in Hornsey.

There was building work taking place on a pumping station and water treatment works site (luxury flats no doubt) and the path was closed. It was here I saw a Thames Water Authority coat of arms, a combination of the LCC and New River coats.
So I decided to explore Hornsey. I went past a church tower, minus church, that looked like it had been bombed. Actually it was demolished in 1927 and a new church built nearby. Drat, I didn't see the new church and didn't even look! Then I had a walk round Priory Park, complete with three fountains and two people with dogs breaking into the paddling pool. The third fountain was in the 'philosopher's garden' named after a group of old men who meet there in order to have 'casual conversation. The park was a lot more run down than Finsbury Park but there was good play equipment. There were some curious houses round about, including what looked like war surplus buildings - the sort with the crittall windows and the flat overhanging roofs transformed into flats.

Coming out of the park I called in on my friends Jason and Liz. Jason showed me Hornsey Common which had been planted as a wild flower garden - at vast expense.

On the new River Path from Broxbourne to Enfield

AMWELL, perpetual be thy stream
Nor e’er thy spring be less,
Where thousands drink who never dream
Whence flows the boon they bless.

Too often this ungrateful man
Blind and unconscious lives;
Enjoys kind Heaven’s indulgent plan
Nor thinks of Him that gives.

So says the quaker poet, and good quality water is certainly a boon but this path isn't. It's dull, dull, dull, although there were a few good photo ops.

The photos show (a) the first glimpse of Canary Wharf (the building with the pointy roof shown in the blue circle in the smaller photo.



This next photo shows the M25 London Orbital motorway which the New River crosses the motorway by way of an aquaduct in two concrete channels.
The final picture shows the Docwra Aqueduct which doesn't really do anything as the New River is actually diverted to Walthamstow reservoirs.
Really this walk went past some very dull areas, and even Theobald's Park, that royal spot, didn't add anything to the thrills. I think I'll breathe a sigh of relief when it's over.

On the way back, via Great Cambridge Road I saw a conservation area on a council estate and a great big church of the 1920s. I think this will provide much better fodder.

Salford (and Manchester)

When I visit Manchester I usually stay in Salford, so I thought I'd have a look around Salford for a change. Salford is little brother to Manchester and appears in the bit I visited to be much more run down. It is the place where Coronation Street (tm) is based. There is the eighteenth century church of the Sacred Trinity, which has a goth night on one of the fridays in the month. It is also cris-crossed with railway lines.

Portsmouth

A visit to Portsmouth for the Benenden Society Conference. The conference was held in the Portsmouth Guildhall, a Victorian structure that appeared to have been rebuilt in the 1950s possibly after bombing. The hall was quite opulent with tapestry hangings at high level.
Portsmouth and Queen Mary share a motto - Heaven's light our guide - which in Portsmouth's case I assume relates to Navigation. I don't know why Queen Mary (nee Mary of Teck) had it or who had it first.
Portsmouth is always quite an exciting city guided by heavenly light or not. It has a large naval population and a large student population too. The pubs are certainly lively, and the swearing from the Navy girlfriends and wives is quite surprising to hear in the pubs and clubs. There are lots of coöp stores in the town but you'll have to see the other blog for those.

The conference dinner was held in the shadow of the fairly new Spinnaker tower

in one of the boathouses in the historic naval dockyard. We had a very good (cold) dinner and entertainment by a local band. The DEFRA delegation strolled back to the hotel around midnight.
Portsmouth is worth going back to.

A moody view of Kings Cross Station

 

Brighton

A May Day visit to Brighton to go to a party at Mike and Ken’s. A most enjoyable party but the weather was unkind and very gloomy. The seas were rough too so here’s a historic picture of rough seas at Brighton.