Television’s Dickens

3 February, 2012 at 1:50 pm | Posted in With an artistic bent | Leave a comment
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Jack Rosenthal

It was last year when walking down a high street in Dorset when I saw in the window of a charity shop Jack Rosenthal’s autobiography for the bargain price of £3. Having always liked his plays I could not wait to get home to start reading, but when I opened its first pages what surprised me was to find the text had been written in the format of a play.

The early disappointment quickly dissipated for when I started reading the book Jack just seemed to leap from each page with life’s anecdotes narrated with pathos and humility, with beautiful observations of the inherent caricature in human behaviour.

His death in 2004 led The Guardian to dub him “television’s Charles Dickens”, now next week on 7th February marks the bi-centenary of Dickens’s birth and you are going to hear an awful lot about Dickensian London, but nearly eight years after his death not much of our own master Twentieth Century wordsmith who also based many of his stories around London.

So in the interest of balance I’ve selected a play that defined one of the iconic characters of the Capital from the dozens of scripts that he wrote. For we London’s cabbies he is best known for his 1979 play The Knowledge. It was the last one-off drama ever to be made by Euston Films, filmed around central London (watch out for a prime piece of “George Davis is innocent OK” graffiti), which features outside shots of the old Carriage Office in Penton Street along with some pretty run down parts of London.

Known for his attention to detail and creating credible characters, good research played a large part in writing The Knowledge he spent many hours amongst the cabbie fraternity, and in so doing Jack was granted an honoury taxi driver’s license in the process.

The story charts the trials and tribulations of four men attempting to learn the knowledge to become a London cabbie. Chris played by Mick Ford is the youngest of the four, he is on the dole and given up all hope of finding a job. Dippy and dopey he is encouraged to start the knowledge by his exasperated girlfriend Janet (“Look, I can’t help the word ‘job’ coming up in the conversation, it’s a word!”), eventually he becomes so engrossed in learning the knowledge his girlfriend decides it’s either the knowledge or her in their relationship – she loses. Gordon played by the late Michael Elphick is a cowboy builder and serial womaniser (“Ignorance is bliss. My wife is completely blissful about the whole thing.”), who leaves behind his irate wife (played by Jack Rosenthal wife Maureen Lipman) to spend half of his time learning London’s road routes and use it as an excuse to carry on an extra-marital affair. Jonathan Lynn plays Ted Margolis who comes from a Jewish cabbie dynasty and is the most confident of the quartet and is quickly pages ahead of his fellow Knowledge boys in memorizing the routes but makes the mistake of trying to ingratiate himself with Mr. Burgess, nicknamed The Vampire played with delicious sadistic pleasure by Nigel Hawthorne (“I won’t take offence if anyone here decides to call me ‘Sir’”) and lastly the elderly Walters (David Ryall), is so much one of life’s losers he is nicknamed “Titanic” who views The Knowledge an escape from his uncommunicative wife. He attempts to learn all the runs on a bicycle and farcically wobbles all around London in an effort to do so – frequently falling from his bike.

At intervals they are called in to see Mr. Burgess for an appearance, which involves the student attempting to describe verbally the runs whilst Burgess endeavours to put them off with a series of diversions often involving throwing water or putting Vick nasal inhalers up his nose. Gordon is kicked off the Knowledge for losing his temper while being tested by the Vampire. Ted Margolis of course passes with flying colours only to lose his licence the day he gets it after going to a pub with the rest of the boys to celebrate passing. Chris passes and then is admonish by a passenger when he gets the first route he learnt – Manor House to Gibson Square – for being cheeky and Titanic scrapes through and leaves his wife. He tells the boys she begged him to come back, when truly it can be heard her shouting,”Piss off and don’t come back”.

Jack Rosenthal’s prime interest lay in the way people interacted with each other, much like Charles Dickens, and in the relationship between individuals and institutions. In much of his work he wrote about particular groups of working men, The Knowledge was about trainee taxi drivers, London’s Burning was about firemen, and Dustbinmen was about dustmen. In each he deftly observed the conflict between the aspirations of the protagonists and what others demanded of them.

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Taking sides

25 November, 2011 at 1:30 pm | Posted in With an artistic bent | Leave a comment
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Theatre_Royal_Drury_Lane_1813

In an age when it’s hard to get a cigarette paper between the lives, education and ideology of the leaders of our three main political parties, it’s hard to imagine a time when views were so much more polarised and one’s political allegiances were very much more manifest 200 years ago.

The Whigs (who transmogrified into the Liberals or anyone else they could form a coalition with) would belong to Brooks’ Club, while White’s was, and still is, for your blue blooded Tories.

Part of this ritual of taking sides was played out at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, now celebrating two centuries since it was rebuilt in 1811. The theatre is the fourth to have been built on the site, and I suppose the original actually was in Drury Lane unfortunately Knowledge students these days are surprised to find that the theatre’s main, and only, entrance is facing away from Drury Lane in Catherine Street.

Two hundred years ago when a new play opened there, the great and the good would attend the first night, but here was their dilemma: King George III and his son the Prince Regent hated each other and would refuse to sit in the same room, let along speak to each other.

In the days when Royalty would attend a first night (they hardly do now when for instance the theatre’s current offering is Shrek: The Musical) the theatre’s staff ensured that the King and his son would sit at opposite sides of the auditorium.

The problem for their acolytes was to make sure they were seen to go up the correct staircase according to whether they supported George or Prinny. They needn’t have bothered to follow either; the King was going mad and in the year the theatre opened he had given up most of his powers to his eldest son but not before he had lost us most of the American colonies in the War of Independence, while the son’s extravagant lifestyle including the building of the Brighton Pavilion did little to endear him to the public.

This tradition of taking sides continues to this day as theatregoers are directed up “The King’s Side” or “The Prince’s Side”. It’s just a shame they didn’t manage to put the door in the correct place.

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Worst face in the world

21 October, 2011 at 1:24 pm | Posted in With an artistic bent | 8 Comments
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The 2012 Olympics have a lot to answer, being told we can’t travel to work next August, cabs banned from Olympic Priority “Zil” Lanes, and Lord Coe’s self-satisfied face on television every night of the week, but its biggest affront is about to be unleashed on Londoners in the next few weeks, namely:

2012 Headline

Soon every bus, taxi and billboard will be advertising the 2012 Olympics. Avenues of lampposts will have hanging from them banners written in a font called 2012 Headline, and as if to rub salt into the wound they will also be displayed in . . . French. Every lamppost in the Capital looks to have hung from it what the International Olympic Committee call pageantry, and because French is the Olympics’ second language expect the “pageantry” to appear in England and French.

Why should be present ourselves in such a fashion? Thirty years ago London was regarded as a culinary desert offering only meat and two veg or fish and chips in most of its restaurants, now because of the brilliance of its chefs London can claim to have some of the finest restaurants in Europe. In the world of fashion – so they tell me – we have surpassed New York and Paris as the place to show the work of cutting edge clothes designers.

So what have we given the world to advertise London’s Olympics and to place it yet again at the forefront of design? A font that looks like a group of primary schoolchildren has designed it during a wet lunch break, but don’t take my word for it. In a list of the world’s worst typefaces Simon Garfield in his recent book Just My Type placed it at number one, that despite some very strong competition. Simon Garfield claims that the public were so outraged by the London 2012 Olympic logo that the Games typeface will just go unnoticed. At the time of its unveiling some accused the logo as looking like a swastika, unfairly in my opinion, at least the swastika has symmetry, others rather bizarrely saw within its jagged shapes Lisa Simpson having sex, but gave no thought to the logo’s typeface.

Some might think that the choice of typeface is unimportant amid the enormity of London’s Olympics, but we identify companies, institutions and events by the advertising used to promote them. If amongst all the other crazy things that Transport for London does they one day should choose to “rebrand” our Underground by getting rid of the familiar roundel and Johnson’s typeface, petitions would be at every station in protest within days.

I know that the Olympics were started in Greece, but did we have to brand London’s contribution to the Olympic heritage with a typeface that wouldn’t look out of place above a dodgy kebab takeaway down the Mile End Road?

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Bread Basket Boy

26 August, 2011 at 1:28 pm | Posted in With an artistic bent | Leave a comment
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Panyer Alley

Three hundred and twenty-three years ago a long forgotten stonemason was putting the finishing touches on a small plaque which remains today marooned in Panyer Alley, a small footpath just off Newgate Street. It depicts a naked boy perched on a bread basket proffering what appears to be a bunch of grapes with a couplet that reads:

“When ye have sought the citty round yet still this is the highest ground. August 27, 1688”.

The plaque is placed just a stone’s throw from the London Stock Exchange an institution whose sole function is to make money, or “bread” in London parlance, the apparent subject of the plaque. Brewer’s Dictionary of London Phase and Fable describes the term bread as:

“Bread (and honey) “money” in cockney rhyming slang. However, the internationally understood synonymity of “bread” and “money” probably does not derive from this rhyme, it is more likely to be of American origin.”

Even so its proximity near the heart of London’s Stock Exchange is curious, as is the inscription that does not appear to make sense in its current location, which is a decidedly short and not at the City’s highest point.

The Little Boy originally stood near its present site which in the 17th century was the centre of London’s bakeries. The alleyway is named after the boys who once sold their bread from baskets or panniers. A law passed in the 14th century prohibited bakers from selling their produce from their premises requiring that bread could only be sold in the King’s markets. To circumvent this law the bakers would employ boys selling bread from their “bread baskets”.

The plaque was originally let into a building on the original Panyer Alley a popular standing place for the boys selling their bread, and commemorates the Panyer Boy, an inn burnt down in the Great Fire of London. The stone, which is dated 1688, has been moved more than once. In 1892 the building on which the little boy was set was demolished and continuing in the bread/bankers tradition he was moved to Farrows Bank in Cheapside as its mascot. He didn’t prove to be a very lucky mascot as the bank folded in 1930. In 1964 he was moved again to his current location to watch over City types hurrying past with their American bagels and coffee.

In a further twist of bread, bankers and American idiom an article appeared in The Echo on 21st January 1893:

A remarkable conspiracy was detected by the authorities of the City a few days ago, when an attempt was made to steal the celebrated Panyer stone . . . It appears that a rich American bribed one of the workmen, engaged in pulling down the old warehouse in which the stone is fixed, asking him to exchange the old relic for a modern stone, and promising to pay £50 for the deception. The workman conveyed notice of this to the City authorities, and a guard has now been placed upon the original stone, which is a cherished heirloom of the City.

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The Festival of Empire

12 May, 2011 at 1:38 pm | Posted in With an artistic bent | Leave a comment
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When I was young affixed to the classroom wall of my primary school was a giant map measuring 5 foot wide by 4 foot high. It depicted the world with each country picked out in a colour denoting its governance. Proud to be pink was the order of the day – stretching across the entire map – for pink denoted countries belonging to the British Empire.

It was said by the English that the sun never set on its Empire, Indians from the sub-continent were given to remark: That God didn’t trust the English in the dark. Little did we know it then but just after the Second World War it really was the remains of the day for Britain’s Empire and the sun was indeed setting – those little pink shapes would be changing colour one by one.

It was rather different 100 years ago on 12th May 1911 when King George V opened The Festival of Empire at Crystal Palace, a rather self congratulatory piece of theatre. “The Festival of Empire, Imperial Exhibition and Pageant of London: Crystal Palace” to give it its formal title was originally due to open in 1910, but his father King Edward VII after only nine years on the Throne managed to eat himself to death.

With a budget of £½ million the Festival of Empire would stay open until 28th October 1911, giving visitors two main entertainments:

The Great Pageant of London and the Empire gave the Empire’s glorious development from the “Dawn of British History” to a Grand Imperial Finale, in which visitors from the Dominions joined with the English performers to provide a wonderful “living picture” illustrating the vastness of the British Empire. Upwards of 15,000 performers with music accompanying the scenes performed by a band of 50 and a chorus of 500. The Pageant gave visitors various scenes including: The Dawn of British History; Roman London; King Alfred and London; Danish Invasion; The Norman Conquest; Return of Richard I; Edward I; and The Days of Chivalry.

While the All-British Exhibition offered a cut down version of The Great Exhibition devoted to British Arts and Industries. The following sections were amongst some of those that were represented: Applied Chemistry; Pianos; Mining; Engineering; Shipping; Transportation and Motive Power; Decoration and Furnishing; Arts Crafts; Home Industries; Photography; British and Colonial Agriculture; Forestry; Fisheries; Sports; and Imperial Industries.

To reinforce the perception of Britain’s power and might the British Empire was constructed in miniature in the Palace grounds, complete with three-quarter size replicas of the Parliament buildings of all the Commonwealth countries. These replicas, their exteriors architecturally complete to the smallest detail, were built of timber and plaster. They depicted the Parliament Building of the Union of South Africa, the Government Building of Newfoundland at St. Johns, the Parliament Building of New Zealand at Wellington, the Federal Government Building of Australia at Melbourne, and at a cost of over £70,000 the building of the Government of Canada. For tuppence ha’penny a miniature railway would take the visitor around the exhibition to view a South African diamond mine, an Indian tea plantation, and a Canadian logging camp.

Unfortunately the British were celebrating the last gasps of Empire, three years later the Great War would see a generation of young men die in the trenches, the Wall Street Crash would help destroy Britain’s wealthy families, and in 1936, the venue, Crystal Palace burnt to the ground.

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The Festival of Britain

3 May, 2011 at 6:29 pm | Posted in With an artistic bent | 2 Comments
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skylonwetday

Sixty years ago on 3rd May 1951 King George VI opened The Festival of Britain declaring that it was “a Symbol of Britain’s abiding courage and vitality”. The Festival was originally planned to mark the centenary of the Great Exhibition – an event so popular that six million people would go there – amounting to an incredible one-third of Great Britain’s population at the time.

Planning for the Festival of Britain had started six years previously a few months after VE Day, and was intended to highlight a century of artistic, industrial and scientific innovation over the previous 100 years. A 27-acre site was chosen on what was later to become the South Bank, but was at the time a wasteland after the war, but at least had good transport links with Waterloo Station nearby.

Men had arrived home after the war swelling Britain’s population and coupled with the dreadful winter of 1946-47 which had led to fuel shortages followed then by horrendous flooding, Britain found itself in serious difficulties which resulted in rationing becoming even stricter than it had been during the war. Life in London at that time really was grim.

Clement Attlee’s Labour government had gained power after the war and Attlee’s number two was Herbert Morrison who was put in charge of organising the Festival. He soon realised that the Festival needed to be more than just a celebration of 100 years of Britain’s achievements and set about raising the tone of the exhibition. When he was asked his views on what the Festival would achieve he replied simply “I want to see people happy”.

Over the next few years the Festival’s organisers encouraged more than 1,500 towns and villages to stage miniature celebrations of their own to coincide with London’s event.

It was to be a schoolboy’s dream. Funded by the Festival authorities a 400-seat, state-of-the-art cinema was specially designed to screen both film (including 3-dimensional films) and large-screen television. The newly constructed escalator on the South Bank had Churchill riding up and down like a delighted child. With exhibitions on the theme of discovery, The Dome of Discovery which had a diameter of 365 feet and stood 93 feet tall making it at the time the largest dome in the world, showed the Living World and the Sea to the Sky and Outer Space. A Lion and the Unicorn Pavilion was steeped in patriotism; Alice in Wonderland, Shakespeare, the King James Bible, paintings by Gainsborough, Constable and Turner. The most memorable sight was the futuristic Skylon [pictured] a vertical steel cylinder which appeared to have the ability to float unaided in the air.

By the time the Festival of Britain closed in September almost 10 million – a quarter of Britain’s entire population – had visited its pavilions.

The Festival captured the public’s consciousness at the time, renewing a feeling of patriotism at a time of severe austerity. One can’t help comparing the National psyche then and now. Will the Olympic Games light our national flame next year? I doubt it.

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The Right Type

6 July, 2010 at 12:45 am | Posted in With an artistic bent | 2 Comments
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Johnson Sans

You probably haven’t heard his name before and after reading this will probably never again, but Edward Johnson has given us a symbol for London every bit as iconic as a red bus or my black taxi, and we hardly ever notice it.

A font designed nearly a century ago was adopted as the Underground’s corporate typeface and almost subliminally its usage has given an identity to London Transport and is now used for all of Transport for London’s media. With its distinctive sans-serif font for years known as “Underground” it has capitals based on roman square capitals and a lower case said to be taken from 15th century Italian handwriting. A perfectly round “O” the unusual use of a diamond dot above the “i” and “j” and with a capital M its diagonal stroke meeting at its centre, its design quite simply would change the way we read today.

By 1913 Johnston was a man already making a name for himself in the world of type. Then 35, Johnston had only really discovered his talent for (and love of) typography in his mid-twenties. By 1906, however, he had already been recognised as a man who had almost single-handedly revived and rediscovered the art of calligraphical type and lettering, and was the much-loved teacher of many of print’s future greats, his book, Writing & Illuminating & Lettering would be (and indeed still is, I should know, having once been a typesetter) one of the “must read” texts for anyone in the typographical world.

His brief was that the typeface should have “the bold simplicity of the authentic lettering of the finest periods”, it should also be easy to read from a moving train and in bad lighting, be noticeably up-to-date with the times, and yet also be completely different from anything found on other shops and signage” and finally, Johnston was told that each letter should be “a strong and unmistakeable symbol.” It took him three years (in fact all likelihood it probably didn’t – Johnston was notorious for leaving commissions until the very last minute), but in 1915 Johnston delivered a character-set that met every single one of those demands.

What Johnston created was, in effect, the very first modern “Sans-Serif” typeface which are “fonts without the little kicks.” Open up a word processing program and print out this article (CabbieBlog is set in 10pt Trebuchet MS if you’re interested), first in Times New Roman, then print it out in Arial (or Helvetica if you’re on a Mac) and look at the difference – you’ll see that the letters in the “Times” version are slightly more ornate around the edges. This is because Times is a “Serif” font and Arial is Sans-Serif. In the simplest, most generic terms, this is the difference between the two families.

Sans-Serif typefaces, therefore, are those “flourishless” families like Verdana, Arial, Helvetica and the ubiquitous Comic Sans, faces that bless documents everywhere and virtually the entire internet. Sans-Serif faces are, in many ways, the living embodiment of text in the 20th Century and Johnston, with the typeface that he delivered, almost singlehandedly revived them as a valid and useful style. The typeface now renamed as Johnson Sans, has been subtly updated by Eiichi Kono in the late seventies.

The London Transport Roundel again designed by Johnson who took an existing design of the YMCA logo and turned the basic bulls-eye into the clear and strikingly handsome symbol we see today, and like his typeface was tweaked over many years by Johnson, a process which continues today even now.

The London Transport signs are made of vitreous enamel requiring a process of silk-screen printing and five separate firings in a furnace. Incredibly all are made by a third generation family A. J. Wells & Sons of Newport, Isle of Wight.


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Becoming a girl

29 June, 2010 at 12:40 am | Posted in With an artistic bent | 2 Comments
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Bear with me on this one, but I fear I might be turning into a girl. And while I realise that I might possibly be reacting in a slightly hysterical manner about this, obviously this only confirms my suspicions that I might be right. Are you with me so far?

Coutts Elephant Right, so there I am, working away driving around London, and everywhere I look are little girls looking and touching these little two metre high elephants which mostly come in two poses, standing and sitting. And you know what I rather like these 258 individually artist-decorated fibreglass creatures that have appeared on London’s streets. The Elephant Parade which is organised to raise money for the endangered Asian elephant has brightened up our streets these past six weeks. I presume most of the elephants are female as they are tuskless, only the male of the species has tusks, and with their cute decoration they are clearly designed to be attractive to little girls . . . and me.

Their appearance across London can be seen as a unifying spirit behind London’s sprawling diversity and at time drab greyness. These little creatures have started people organising mini safaris with tourists and Londoners alike trying to spot (and photo) as many as the little darlings as possible. We can’t call these elephant hunters’ twitchers so should the elephant groupies be named pachydermions?

A group of these little animals in Trafalgar Square are decorated as Indian Premier League cricketers, while in Berkeley Square a straight line of elephants stands on parade, as if from a scene from Disney’s Jungle Book.

Coutts Elephant 2 Still in touch with my feminine side my favourite is the pink diamante encrusted one on a revolving stand inside Coutts Bank on the Strand. If you didn’t manage to bag all of them they are being herded up and taken to Royal Hospital in Chelsea to be auctioned on 3rd July. You know I might make a bid for one so I can stroke it in the privacy of my own home. A pink diamond encrusted one should appeal to my feminine side, as least that one is a boy, it has tusks.

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On location in London

26 March, 2010 at 2:33 am | Posted in With an artistic bent | Leave a comment
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London has always been a producers dream when looking for locations for their latest project. If it wasn’t for the weather, which of course is why Hollywood was originally chosen, many more cinematographic delights would be shot here in London.

So today I give you CabbieBlog’s top 10 films shot on location in London.

Brannigan Brannigan (1975)
John Wayne as Jim Brannigan who is sent to London to bring back an American mobster being held for extradition, but when he arrives, the prisoner has been kidnapped.

I think the producers of this film were the London Tourist Board, for every time Brannigan steps out of his flat in Prince of Wales Drive, Battersea we are treated to views of London. The speed of the cars is remarkable, one minute we are crossing Chelsea Bridge and seconds later Tower Bridge has miraculously appeared ahead of us. I wish driving in London was that easy, but there again I’m not “The Duke”.

Notting Hill Notting Hill (1999)
A tousled haired tosser living the life of a simple bookshop owner has his life changed when he meets the most famous film star in the world, he’s in love but will she fall for him?

Richard Curtis wrote this script around his own neighbourhood and in the process substantially increased the value of his own house and focussed attention on what is one of the most overrated districts of London. In the film Hugh Grant lived at 280 Westbourne Park Road, sadly, the blue door has now been replaced.

The_Lavender_Hill_Mob The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
Filmed at a time when Clapham was not regarded as South Chelsea, it was then just a working class area with chirpy London crooks. Looking at it now you realise just how grim London looked after the war.

Alec Guinness plays a bank transfer agent who has overseen the taking delivery of gold bullion for the past 20 years. One day he befriends Pendlebury (Stanley Holloway), a maker of souvenirs and together they plan to forge the stolen gold into harmless-looking toy Eiffel Towers and smuggle it out England into France.

Ealing Studios while planning the bank-robbery film, asked the Bank of England to devise a way in which a million pounds could be stolen from the bank. A special committee was created to come up with an idea, and their plan is the one used in the film.

10 Rillington Place 10 Rillington Place (1971)
Based on the true story of British mass-murderer John Reginald Christie, (played brilliantly by Richard Attenborough), who drugged, raped, and strangled eight women (one of whom was his wife) between 1940 and 1953, hiding their bodies in the garden as well as in a large cupboard, which he then covered up with wallpaper inside his home.

A place of such great infamy that following the John Christie murders (and Sir Ludovic Kennedy’s book) the road was renamed Rushton Close before being pulled down completely. Today part of Bartle Road occupies the site.

Alfie Alfie (1966)
With the Sixties in full swing and London the centre of the Universe, Michael Caine shot to stardom as a callous Cockney womaniser.

Filmed around King’s Cross with the famous Victorian gasometers much in evidence in the background the gasometers  are now being reinstated behind the station. Alfie’s seedy bedsite at 29 St Stephen’s Gardens hasn’t really changed at all, apart from the inevitable gentrification Notting Hill.

My-beautiful-laundrette My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Writer Hanif Kureishi deliberately spelt launderette incorrectly but we can forgive him with this feel good film set within the Asian community in South London during the Thatcher years. Displaying those values expounded at the time of money, hard work and ”anybody can make it”. The young Asian entrepreneur employs his school friend Daniel Day Lewis (before he became a Mohican) to help run his business.

Set around Wandsworth it depicts this area of south London area perfectly in the 1980s and of Londoners attitude towards the growing Asian population.

Shaun-of-the-Dead Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Hold on, a British comedy that’s smart, not by Richard Curtis and funny? Based on the simplest of premises: In a city packed with blank-eyed wage slaves and whacked-out club heads, how long would it take us to notice the arrival of George A. Romero’s lumbering, flesh-chomping undead? Filmed around north London with extras looking like some of my passengers on a Saturday night.

Mona Lisa Mona Lisa (1986)
With Bob Hoskins and Michael Caine in a film of London gangsters how could I leave it out of my top ten? A sad and sensitive portrayal of a small-time crook trying to fit into a world that simultaneously rejects and baffles him following his belated release from prison. He takes the only job he can get to ferry high-class hooker Simone (Cathy Tyson) between assignations in a melancholically sleazy London. Avert your eyes in the torture scenes.

Shakespeare in love Shakespeare in Love (1998)
This is multi-Oscar winner one of my favourite films of all time. Young aspiring playwright William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) struggles to write Romeo and Ethel, The Pirate’s Daughter and aristocrat Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) defies the convention by wanting to act. Although the drama takes place in London the “Rose Theatre” is a set built for the movie. The real Rose, where Shakespeare’s earlier plays were first performed, was actually uncovered during building work in Southwark in the late Eighties, and a massive campaign was launched to preserve it. The property developers eventually agreed to preserve the theatre in the basement of the new building. The Rose Theatre site is now operated by the Exhibitions Department of Shakespeare’s Globe who offer tours of the site with their guides.

Elephant Man Elephant Man (1980)
Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick, played by John Hurt (once a passenger of mine), a 19th-century Englishman afflicted with a disfiguring congenital disease. The film captures our idea of Victorian East London; monochrome, foggy and extreme poverty. Filmed at the old Eastern Hospital on Homerton Row, Lower Clapton which has now been replaced by the spanking new hospital. The Eastern stood in for the “London Hospital” on Whitechapel Road where Merrick ended his days.

Other films with London places in their title:

Balham Gateway to the South (1971)
Les Bicyclettes de Belsize (1968)
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (1979)
The Bermondsey Kid (1933)
Imelda Marcos of Bethnal Green (2004)
The Britannia Billingsgate (1933)
The Blackheath Poisonings (1992)
Tilly of Bloomsbury (1921)
Bond Street (1948)
84 Charing Cross Road (1987)
Chelsea Girls with Andy Warhol (1976)
Joe Brown at Clapham (1965)
The Courtneys of Curzon Street (1947)
Deptford Graffiti (1991)
The Girl from Downing Street (1918)
Duchess of Duke Street (1976)
East End Hustle (1976)
Greek Street (1930)
Greenwich Mean Time (1999)
The Lonely Lady from Grosvenor Square (1922)
Half Moon Street (1986)
The Foxes of Harrow (1945)
The Monster of Highgate Ponds (1961)
Hyde Park Corner (1935)
No. 5 John Street (1922)
The Kensington Mystery (1924)
The Lambeth Walk (1939)
It Happened in Leicester Square (1949)
A Murder in Limehouse (1919)
East of Ludgate Hill (1937)
Murder in Mayfair (1942)
A Park Lane Scandal (1915)
Die Ballade von Peckham Rye (1966)
Piccadilly Playtime (1936)
Passport to Pimlico (1949)
Fly a Flag for Poplar (1974)
Horace of Putney (1923)
The Duchess of Seven Dials (1920)
Siege of Sidney Street (1960)
Emmanuelle in Soho (1981)
Soap Opera in Stockwell (1973)
The Stratford Adventure (1954)
Victoria (1995)
Waterloo Road (1945)
Mr Palfrey of Westminster (1984)
The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1941)
The Wimbledon Poisoner (1994)
Barretts of Wimpole Street (1956)

Though these images may subject to copyright, the author of CabbieBlog believes they may be used on this post because: they’re a low resolution copy of a film poster; it doesn’t limit the copyright owner’s rights to sell the film in any way, in fact, it may encourage sales; because of the low resolution, copies could not be used to make illegal copies of the image; the image itself could be a subject of discussion in the article; and the image is significant because it was used to promoted a notable film. For further clarification click this link.

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Only in England

28 July, 2009 at 9:00 am | Posted in With an artistic bent | Leave a comment
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plinth_bigger At the time of writing this post there have been 528 people standing on The Plinth in Antony Gormley’s One & Other. We have had among others Lord Lucan, Elvis Presley, a gorilla and a pigeon. So far they have braved thunderstorms, torrential rain, unseasonably cold weather and heckling from patrons of nearby hostelries.

In total 2,400 Plinthers (they now have a name) will stand 23ft above Trafalgar Square protected by safety netting or is the netting to stop the public climbing up to stop them? Four security guards and a cherry picker crane helping them to the summit, carrying what props they need for their “15 minutes of fame”.

When Sir Charles Barry designed Trafalgar Square in the 1840s he included four plinths. One carries a statue of George IV while two others have statues of the generals Sir Charles James Napier and Sir Henry Havelock.

The fourth plinth, in the north-west corner, was intended to hold a statue of King William IV on horseback but the money ran out. To this day no agreement has been reached on who should be celebrated there.

True to British propensity to compromise, in the mid-Nineties the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group was set up to fill the gap with a series of temporary art commissions, the most controversial being Marc Quinn’s sculpture, Alison Lapper Pregnant. One & Other is the site’s most ambitious project to date, and will run until October 14.

Antony Gormley who’s art always seems to depict the human body has struck a blow for the ingenuity and the eccentricity of the British, with One & Other it is a glorious celebration of all things we love. More tea vicar?

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