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Editor: Kate Hawthorne Art Director & Director Tim Epps Deputy Editor & Head of Business Development Dr Emma Trehane Business Development: Caroline Daggett, Niki Devereux, Antoinette Kovatchka, Architecture: Emma Flynn Art & Culture Editors: Don Grant, Marian Maitland Astronomy: Scott Beadle FRAS Ballet/Dance Andrew Ward Bridge: Andrew Robson Business: Gina Miller, Douglas Shanks, Chess: Barry Martin Contributing Editors: Marius Brill, Peter Burden, Derek Wyatt Classical Music: James Douglas Crossword: Wolfe The Dandy: John Springs Dining Out: David Hughes Editorial: Polly Allen, Ione Bingley, Judith Forte Natanael Mota, Fahad Redha, Events: Leila Kooros, Fahad Redha Fashion: Polly Allen, Lynne McGowan Feldman Reviews: Max Feldman Food & Flowers: Limpet Barron Beauty: Jayne Beaumont Horology: Jonathan Macnabb I wish I had written that: Dudley Sutton Motoring: Don Grant, David Hughes, Fahad Redha Music: James Douglas News, Online Editor & Arts Correspondent: Max Feldman Poetry & Literary Editor: Emma Trehane MA Ph.D Political Editor: Derek Wyatt Science & Technology: Ione Bingley, Natanael Mota Sub-Editor: Leila Kooros Sporting Calendar Compiled by Fahad Redha Travel: Cynthia Pickard
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Parliament Squared By Derek Wyatt
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n the 20th century, we failed to understand it until 1945. By which time we had had two different world wars within twenty years. After 1919, we looked backwards; after 1945 we began an NHS, a national transport system and much else. Elsewhere, a United Nations was born (in London in 1942). Other institutions followed; the World Bank, the IMF, UNESCO, the WTO, the WHO and more. Today, they seem tired and ought to be put out to grass. But no country has the will, the leadership, the interest or the solutions. We are asleep at the wheel: the crash is inevitable. Sixteen years into the 21st century and we look pretty shaky. Europe is a mess.The mass immigration from wars we started has no end. America is confused and appears to have lost its
Nobel Prize: Infinitely small steps for Science, huge leap for Peace By Natanael Mota
Medicine:
Yoshinori Ohsumi from the Tokyo Institute of Technology has received the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine on his work on cell degrading and recycling called autophagy - "selfeating". Yoshinori devised a series of brilliant experiments tying autophagy to specific genetic codes in yeast. Yeast was a lot easier to analyse than living human cells, and Yoshinori proved that virtually identical mechanisms regulate how a human cell deals with starvation or fights infection. Many diseases are caused by errors in genetic code. Yoshinori's work will help with further explaining mistakes in cell self-absorption in Parkinskon's, Hundington's, type 2 diabetes, cancer and age-related disorders.
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confidence. It is simply not possible to contemplate a Trump presidency. Into this void has stepped Russia and new hostilities have begun. It is the Boer War all over again. In the Far East, Japan worries about its near neighbour China. In less than twenty-five years China has become the major world player. Indeed, as we anticipate this century, she is the only certainty. She is the only country with a stake in the ground. This is a concern but we do not yet feel it in our high streets. Ponder then the state of British politics. In Scotland the SNP has been
holed by the drastic fall in the price of oil. And Brexit. Had they won their referendum two years ago they would already be asking London for a bail out. Brexit has stopped them in their tracts. As we contemplate withdrawal not a single Government department can tell you their strategy. It feels like the blind leading the blind. Poor Scotland: they voted Remain and now they will see an exit from the EU before they themselves exit from the UK. This is neither good politics nor sensible economics. As for the Government's own Brexit strategy it is a nightmare. You do not
Physics:
Peace:
David Thouless from the University of Washington shared one half of the Physics Nobel Prize with F. Haldane from Priceton and J. Kosterlitz from Brown University. All three were born in Britain. They were awarded for their work in applying maths of surfaces (topology) to correctly describe step-bystep changes in the electrical properties of ordinary materials and also especially thin films and chains of atoms. The community is happy to hear of the ‘richly deserved’ prize and envisions a future use of these thin films and atom chains in the next generations of electronics, superconductors and quantum computers.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in ending Colombia’s civil war with armed anti-government factions. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC is the largest leftwing guerrilla involved. After a historic ceasefire deal on the 23rd of June this year, plans to reinstate FARC as a special party for two years and forgive guerrilla fighters who had not commited war crimes was narrowly defeated by a 3% "No" majority in a public referendum vote. The war has raged on for more than 50 years, taken more than 220'000 lives and displaced more than six million people. It will be hard for Colombians Chemistry: to forgive the losses of their loved ones, Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J Fraser but as Mr Santos' government is working Stoddart and Bernard L Feringa have hard to show, peace and reconciliation is won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry a worthy price. for creating controllable nano machines The Nobel Prize is a set of annual capable of converting chemical energy international awards bestowed in a into mechanical action. number of categories in recognition From switches to motors and muscles, of academic, cultural and scientific these micro-machines have a future advances. It was established in the will of in smart materials, sensors and energy Alfred Nobel in 1895 and first awarded storage. in 1901. The molecular motor is in its infancy. As miniaturisation has caused a revolution in computing, smaller nanomachines have a similar potential The Nobel Prize for Literature for chemistry. will be announced later this month.
need to create three separate ministries. This was frankly bonkers. Aside from the inevitable turf wars and fallen ministerial egos we already know no-one is in charge. The Prime Minister should have proposed a Grand Committee of six EU ministers and six U.K. They should have been charged with resolving our Brexit with an agreed timetable for key decisions. Now, as it becomes obvious it will take more than two years to resolve we will nonetheless come out in that timescale with the worst results for our people. The reason? The PM has an election in 2020 and she does not want to go into that with Europe still an issue. Nor would she want voters to use it as a ‘second’ referendum. Mrs May can count her lucky stars that notwithstanding her problems she has no opposition in Parliament. The Labour Party has become a late night comedy act. Its own MPs have also been blown off course. A clear majority voted for a motion of no confidence against its leader. A re-election was ordered yet Corbyn won by a slightly larger majority. You could not make it up. Yet where were their leaders in their party? Hiding. They nominated Owen Smith, not someone we knew much about. So not an Umana or a Reeves or a Benn or a Watson. The party needs a 21st century set of solutions not a series of policies which failed in the last one.
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News KENSINGTON CHELSE A & WESTMINSTER TODAY • OCTOBER 2016
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Walking the Capital Ring Photograph © Geoff Halstead
By Max Feldman
Night Tube extends to Jubilee Line by Fahad Redha
The Jubilee line becomes the third 24-hour Night Tube line. One train will leave every ten minutes between Stratford and Stanmore. This includes Canary Wharf, Waterloo and, London Bridge, improving night links for passengers to the O2 arena and Wembley Stadium.
The Night Tube began on the 19th of August with the Central and Victoria lines transporting over 100,000 people on the first weekend. The Northern line will be the next to open its doors at night when it launches on the 18th of November, followed by the Piccadilly line in autumn. The Circle line is expected to be the sixth Night Tube line which will connect the 24-hour service to all mainline train stations. There are also hopes of bringing in the District and Metropolitan lines as well as Crossrail between Paddington and Abbey Wood when it opens in 2018. Night fares are set at standard offpeak prices and travelcards will be valid until 04:29. Bus services will also be extended to help the increased demand travelling to and from stations Photograph © TfL
strength to strength and we want to say a very big thank you to our readers for their ongoing support. In this issue and the next stage of the newspaper’s development we are pleased to announce the launch of our first supplement, Compendium. Everything that readers could want to embrace life within the core of the world’s most loved city and beyond. There are eight pages dedicated to life on the river, including featuring propertytoday future plans to build floating swimming pools on the Thames elcome to the October and bespoke river tours. The edition of KCW modern aesthete admires watches Today. As readers may and pens and we examine IQ2, be aware, in May this year we an events organisation who celebrated our 50th edition and stage some of the best debates in 5th Birthday. In 2011 we launched London, and Artinvest reviews as Kensington and Chelsea Today the pros and cons of investing and in 2014 took Westminster in art and artefacts in today’s on board and rebranded as uncertain world. Compendium Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster is the first of KCWToday’s series Today. Whilst looking to continue of quarterly supplements that keeping up the good work in the will feature a variety of different boroughs of Kensington, Chelsea topics including Arts and Culture, and Westminster we have started Property, Literature, Events, to expand into the City, and Education, Business and Finance, parts of Camden, Lambeth and Health and Travel and others. We Wandsworth and beyond. hope you enjoy our launch edition The paper continues to grow from of Compendium!
compendium
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he Capital Ring; an orbital walking trail mapped out by unusually driven ramblers in 1990, snakes around London for over 78 miles. As autumn takes hold, it can be easy to forget that London is one of the greenest cities in Europe, but the hotchpotch of parks, forests, cemeteries, docklands and leafy residential streets that make up the route bring home the sheer scale of nature to be found within the M25. Fully signposted and supported by Transport for London, the rather intimidating 126km route has been split up into 15 separate walks which is definitely the recommended approach for all but those masochistic souls who view 78 miles in a day as an effective way to work up a mild appetite. I took up the path after uncovering one of the distinctive lime green signs in Highgate and soon found myself on Parkland Walk, an old railway line that has since been colonised by roving bands of dog walkers. The ring is filled with these strange footnotes of London’s past from the Byzantine turrets of Joseph Bazalgette’s Abbey Mills Pumping Station (a relic of a time when it was deemed vital for sewer facilities to resemble surrealist castles) then onto a glorious view from Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Wharncliffe Viaduct and jaunt along the Grand Union Canal and the River Brent (which the truly unhinged could follow all the way to Birmingham if they were so inclined). Whilst it includes popular weekend wanders such as Crystal Palace, Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park the real charm of the route is how it leads the walker through parts of London that they’d be otherwise unlikely to encounter. London holds more hidden gems than most of its denizens will ever uncover; but for those who feel that their relationship with London has grown stale, the Ring offers a chance to re-acquaint oneself with the scope and majesty of the capital.
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News The UK’s first premium memory care residence
online: www.KCWToday.co.uk From left to right: Laurence Geller CBE Cllr. Maighread Condon Simmonds Guy Geller James Cook
London Home Football
with 24 hour nursing and memory day club
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helsea Court Place, the UK’s first luxury, purpose built residential and day care home for residents with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia celebrated its opening on Tuesday 20th September. Distinguished guests including Mayor Mrs. Elizabeth Rutherford, Jeremy Hughes, Chief Executive of Alzheimer’s Society, Vernon Hill Chairman of Metro Bank and Nigel Ward, Event Director of The Alzheimer’s Show joined a host of local medical and healthcare professionals to toast the opening of a unique addition to the Kensington and Chelsea community. The prestigious event was hosted
Synthetic alcohol could spell the end of hangovers.
Photograph © Wikicommons
By Max Feldman
A new type of synthetic alcohol has been discovered which could allow people to enjoy the sociable effects of a few pints after work, but without the resultant hangover. The product, which is referred to as ‘alcosynth’, is engineered to expertly mimic the positive effects of alcohol but without the dry mouth, nausea, throbbing head and crushing existential horror of the traditional morning after, according to its creator Professor David
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by the Innovative Aged Care team, the founders of Chelsea Court Place, including Chairman Laurence Geller CBE, CEO Guy Geller and Managing Director James Cook. Guests enjoyed an exclusive private viewing of the premium, boutique residence, which features 15 luxury, ensuite apartments, a spa and beauty salon, indoor garden, cinema and library room, 24 hour café and a 48 cover restaurant. Guests were also treated to champagne and a range of canapés created by award-winning, in house chefs, Matt Dodge and Alex Morte. The highly experienced care team, including General Manager Christine Bunce, were on hand to answer questions about the bespoke care provided and to explain how the facilities have been uniquely tailored to meet the needs of residents.
“We were honoured to open our doors to all our guests, including Councillor Elizabeth Rutherford along with many other distinguished names from the dementia community,” says Managing Director James Cook. “We’ve worked tirelessly to create a luxurious, state-of-the-art memory care residence for those living with dementia, and we are passionate about providing bespoke care on an unprecedented level, that exceeds all expectations.” Staffed by a rare team of dementiatrained professionals, Chelsea Court Place is the first facility of its kind to offer a luxury, 24-hour, bespoke service to memory care residents. The prime, Kings Road location enables local Chelsea and Kensington residents to remain part of the community, as well as offering easy access for visiting family and day care members.
Nutt. Nutt, who gained public infamy as the drugs tsar fired by the British government in 2009 for proclaiming that horse-riding is more dangerous than ecstasy, has stated that alcosynth engenders a ‘tipsy’ feeling rather than a full blown drunken state and removes the risk of liver toxicity, aggression and loss of control. Nutt has patented around 90 different alcosynth compounds, of which two are undergoing rigorous testing for clearing for public use, with the professor making the bold claim that he hopes that alcosynth could fully replace regular alcohol as soon as 2050. “It will be there alongside the scotch and the gin, they'll dispense the alcosynth into your cocktail and then you'll have the pleasure without damaging your liver and your heart,” he enthused, going on to mention that “They go very nicely into mojitos. They even go into something as clear as a Tom Collins. One is pretty tasteless, the other has a bitter taste." By researching substances that work on the brain in a similar way to alcohol, Professor Nutt and his team have been able to design a drug which they say is non-toxic and replicates the positive effects of alcohol. “So we know where the good effects of alcohol are mediated in the brain, and can mimic them. And by not touching the bad areas, we don’t have the bad effects.” Advocates of alcosynth
believe it could revolutionise public health by relieving the burden of alcohol on the health service. According to Alcohol Concern, drinking is the third biggest risk factor for disease and death in the UK, after smoking and obesity. “People want healthier drinks,” said Professor Nutt. “The drinks industry knows that by 2050 alcohol will be gone.” Early experiments into alcosynth, such as those reported on by BBC’s Horizon in 2011, used a derivative of benzodiazepine, the same class of drugs as Valium. Mr Nutt said his new drinks did not contain benzodiazepine, and their formulas would remain a closely guarded, patented secret. However, the huge cost of funding research into the drug and regulatory concerns mean it could be a long time before people can order an alcosynth cocktail at their local pub. There is some concern that alcosynth could potentially be classified as a ‘legal high’ and therefore be restricted by the new Psychoactive Substances Act, which came into force in May. Adam Smith Institute executive director Sam Bowman said: “It’s innovation not regulation that got us e-cigarettes. Regulation must be flexible and encouraging of new products that are safer than the vices they’re competing with. It is crucial the government does not stand in the way of hangover-free alcohol.”
October 15 Arsenal v Swansea 15:00 October 15 Chelsea v Leicester City 12:30 October 15 QPR v Reading 15:00 October 18 Fulham v Norwich City 19:45 October 18 QPR v Bristol City 19:45 October 19 Arsenal v Swansea City TBA October 22 Arsenal v Middlesbrough 15:00 October 23 Chelsea v Man Utd 16:00 October 25 Arsenal v Reading 19:45 October 28 QPR v Brentford 19:45 October 29 Fulham v Huddersfield Town 15:00 November 5 Chelsea v Everton 17:30 Compiled by Fahad Redha
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to combat global aviation emissions By Ione Bingley
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n an aviation climate deal with 190 other countries, UK airlines are to offset emissions aiming for carbon neutral growth from 2020 as part of the first worldwide scheme to address emissions in any single sector. “This is an unprecedented deal, the first of its kind for any sector. International aviation is responsible for putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year than the whole of the UK and yet until now, there has been no global consensus on how to address the growing problem of aviation emissions,” said Aviation Minister Lord Ahmad. It is the most significant global deal
on Lancashire fracking permission By Judith Forte on climate since the Paris Agreement last year, when the world agreed to pursue efforts to keep the global temperature increase well below 2 degrees. Aviation was one of two sectors not covered in the agreement. The deal was reached at the 39th Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal, following 3 years of negotiations. “For years, the UK has pushed to tackle aviation emissions globally. Now, 191 countries have agreed on a global measure and sent a clear message that aviation will play its part in combating climate change,” said Lord Ahmad.
Damian Hirst gallery
wins RIBA Stirling Prize for architecture By Ione Bingley
Architecture firm Caruso St John has won the 2016 RIBA Stirling Prize for their Newport Street Gallery designed to house Damian Hirst’s art. Newport Street Gallery involved the conversion of a railway line in Vauxhall into a free public gallery for artist Damien Hirst's private art collection. The winning design saw the remodelling of three listed, industrial, Victoria buildings and the construction of two new ones, one with a striking, spiky saw-tooth roof. The new buildings have a specially created, hard, pale-red brick finish to closely reference the original buildings, while a huge LED panel on the railway facade encourages passing train commuters to visit. This is the first time Caruso St John architects have won the RIBA Stirling Prize although they were shortlisted previously for the award for Brick House in 2006 and New Art Gallery in 2000. “This highly accomplished and expertly detailed art gallery is a bold and confident contribution to the best of UK architecture. Caruso St John’s approach to conservation is irreverent, yet sensitive and achieves a clever solution that expresses a poetic juxtaposition of old and new,” said the judges. Now in its 21st year, the RIBA Stirling Prize sponsored by Almacantar, is considered to be the UK’s most prestigious architecture prize. “With Newport Street Gallery, Damien Hirst has made an exceptional contribution to the UK’s strong history of private patronage of architecture. Not only has Damien opened up his enviable private art collection to the world, but he has commissioned a real work of art to house it in,” said RIBA President, Jane Duncan. The shortlist included: The Blatvnik School of Government, Oxford, City of Glasgow College, Trafalgar Place, The Weston Library, Oxford and Outhouse, a private property in the Forest of Dean.
Communities Secretary, Sajid Javid has decided to allow Cuadrilla to drill for shale gas in Flyde, Lancashire after the council formerly rejected the request. Westby Parish Council, Fylde Borough Council and Lancashire County Council all rejected the proposal last year with reasons cited including noise pollution and visual impact. Javid justified his decision to allow Cuadrilla’s appeal to go ahead after all saying “shale gas has the potential to power economic growth, support 64,000 jobs, and provide a new domestic energy source, making us less reliant on imports.” Anti-fracking group Preston New Road Action Group, which was set up by Flyde residents, is “devastated” by the sudden
UK to opt out of human rights laws
turnaround and objects to the denial of local democracy. “Dismantling the democratic process to facilitate a dirty fossil fuel industry when only months ago the UK committed to climate change targets in Paris is another example of saying one thing and doing another” said environmentalist and chair of Preston New Road Action Group, Pat Davies. Fracking consists of drilling down into the earth before pumping water, sand and chemical mixture at high pressure down into the rock to release shale gas inside. This can be done horizontally or vertically. The wells in Lancashire will be fracked horizontally. In the UK, fracking is still at the exploratory stage but in the US it has been employed since 2005. There are health and safety concerns that the process can cause earthquakes, pollute water making it flammable, and damage the development of the countryside. A second site in Lancashire has not been approved yet at Roseacre Wood but four wells will be dug at the new site on Preston Road at Little Plumpton. One new well was dug earlier this year in North Yorkshire.
job.” Investigations into offences by British troops in Iraq and victim compensation has cost the Ministry of Defence around £100 million since 2004. May speaks in agreement with previous PM, David Cameron, who also to protect UK troops, suggested that troops be excused from says PM legal accountability on the battlefield. Fallon also stood by Cameron in January By Judith Forte of this year as they both railed against claims of misconduct made against military personnel. Cameron made previous efforts to stop the Iraq Historic Allegation’s Team (IHAT) from investigating injustices, but was unsuccessful. May’s proposed law change seeks to “put an end to the industry of vexatious claims that has May made a statement at the Conservative conference in Birmingham pursued those who served in previous conflicts.” exempting military from human rights Fallon insisted that there is an laws to stop “left-wing human rights “industry trying to profit from spurious lawyers harassing UK troops.” claims.” Her announcement follows the Geoffrey Robertson QC agrees with closure of Public Interest Lawyers, which that those solicitors who fabricate claims filed thousands of claims against the against soldiers ought to be “drummed military after the Iraq War. Rumours out of the profession and drummed into stand that many of the cases lacked jail.” evidence. May’s proposal would allow soldiers in action to answer only to International Humanitarian law including the Geneva Conventions and UK criminal law. “Human rights lawyers are not necessarily either activist or left wing… they call for the prosecutions of those cowardly soldiers who kill their prisoners and torture or murder civilians,” said former United Nations’ appeals judge, Geoffrey Robertson QC. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon stood by May’s proposal: “It has cost the taxpayer millions and there is a real risk it will stop our armed forces doing their
Photograph © Hélène Binet
Communities Secretary U-turns
Photograph © Reuters
UK secures historic deal
Photograph © Eddie Winstead
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China launches world’s largest radio telescope
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Photograph © Xinhua News Agency
t 500m in diameter, the world’s largest telescope is now operational. Located in China’s Guizhou Province the telescope features a reflector the size of 30 football pitches and took five years and $180 million to construct. It is called the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope’s (FAST) and required the relocation of 8000 local residents to ensure a 5km radio silence zone. Around $269 million was paid in compensation to the villagers. The title of world’s largest radio telescope was previously held by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico that
has a 305-metre dish. FAST was built by the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and was first brought online in July for trial observation and received a set of data from a star about 1,351 light-years away. The instrument will be used to study gravitational waves, stellar radio emissions and potentially signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. “In theory, if there is civilization in outer space, the radio signal it sends will be similar to the signal we can receive when a pulsar [spinning neutron star] is approaching us,” said associate researcher with the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Qian Lei. China plans to use one of its best supercomputers, the SkyEye-1, to process the massive amounts of data supplied by FAST.
WHILE YOUR SPARE ROOM WAS EMPTY, SAM SLEPT ON THE STREETS Last year over 700 volunteer community hosts kept a young homeless person safe by offering them their spare room. Depaul UK London Nightstop Registered charity number 802384
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Statue & Blue Plaque
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Photograph © Losmi
nglish Heritage honoured Freddie Mercury with a Blue Plaque in September, this year. It was unveiled by Kashmira Cooke and Brian May, guitarist of Queen at 22 Gladstone Avenue, Feltham. West London. Mercury lived there as a young man when he came to England in 1964. He was a singer and song writer who became a legend and an asteroid was named after him. Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara, the son of Bomi and Jer Bulsara in Zanzibar. His parents were of Parsi descent and he was brought up in the Zoroastrian religion. They educated him at St Peter’s School, an English style boarding school, near Bombay, and most of his childhood was spent in India. The family moved to England and Mercury studied Art and Graphic design at Ealing College of Art. Mercury joined a Blues Band called Wreckage through which he met Roger Taylor and Dr Brian May, founder members of Smile. This band developed into Queen with Mercury as their lead vocalist with his four octave vocal range, dynamism and theatricality. EMI and Elektra signed the band which stayed together for twenty years. In 1973 their debut album, Queen was released and hailed as one of the most exciting developments ever in Rock Music. They topped the charts with Freddie’s song, Crazy Little Thing
called Love.They performed for huge audiences and were the prime developers of stadium rock. They performed for 231,000 fans in St Paulo. In 1985 their performance for Live Aid was unforgettable. Roger Daltrey famously remarked to Bob Geldof, as Mercury conducted the audience in the Banana Boat Song, “What you are seeing is the gentle art of the show being stolen”. Interestingsly, one of Mercury’s collaborations Under Pressure was with David Bowie, both doing so much to break down sexual stereotypes. It might be said that Mercury was the first truly international, openly gay, superstar to break into the States. Freddie Mercury wrote seventeen of Queens’ greatest hits. These included Bohemian Rhapsody and We are the Champions and many others. In 1980 he started to develop his solo career which ran in tandem with Queen. He collaborated with George Clark in 1986 for a recording of Time, a West End London musical. The following year he recorded with Montserrrat Caballe, the opera diva. The title song, Barcelona became the anthem for Caballe’s home city and theme for 1992 Olympics. In 1990 he recorded Innuendo with Queen. This legendary star of Rock Music had a close friendship with Mary Austin with whom he lived for some years in Stafford Terrace. Kensington. He loved cats and used to talk to his own on the telephone! His long term friend and partner, Jim Hutton nursed Freddie during his AIDs related illness and he died in 1991. A Zoroastrian priest conducted his funeral and he was cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery, London. Marian Maitland
STATUES
Duke of Wellington Joseph Boehm Hyde Park Corner
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efore the Quadriga was installed atop Decimus Burton’s Wellington (or Constitution) Arch in 1912, there was an enormous 8-metre high equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington by Matthew Cotes Wyatt. It was totally out of scale and was disliked by both the architect and even Queen Victoria herself, and it was moved to Aldershot Camp in 1887. It would be another twenty-five years before Captain Adrian Jones’s magnificent statue of the Angel of Peace descending from heaven onto the Quadriga of War was realised. A smaller equestrian statue of the Iron Duke was commissioned from the medallist and sculptor Joseph Boehm, a favourite with the Royal Household, having carved a marble statue of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle and the crowned Jubilee head on coinage. He also carved the statue of Thomas Carlysle on Chelsea Embankment. and another equestrian statue of the 1st Baron Napier of Magdala at the top of Queen’s Gate. The statue
depicts the Duke riding his charger Copenhagen, which carried him for sixteen hours at the battle of Waterloo, although the horse had since died when Boehm carved him, having previously been honourably retired to his 5,000 acre country estate Stratfield Saye in Hampshire, given to him by a grateful nation. The statue was recently moved to face Apsley House, with the singularly unique address of Number One, London, at the north end of Hyde Park Corner, and is mounted on a plinth of pink Peterhead granite from Stirlinghill Quarry in Aberdeenshire, with a dais made of grey Scottish granite from the same county. At each corner stands a soldier representing the British Army, a 1st Grenadier Guardsman, a 42nd Royal Scottish Highlander, a 6th Inniskillin Dragoon and a 23rd Royal Welsh Fusilier, who were cast from twelve French cannons captured by his forces at various battles. Wellington went back into politics after he retired from military service, holding the rank of Prime Minister from 1828 to 1830, and then again for one month in 1834 as an interim appointment while Sir Robert Peel was in Italy. He was also Leader of the House of Lords, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, and, when he retired from politics, he retained the title of Commander in Chief of the British Army. Joseph Edgar Boehm was born in Vienna of Hungarian parentage in 1834, but he moved to England in 1862, and became a British subject three years later. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1882, where he exhibited over 120 works, and he was created a baronet in 1889. He was a favourite of the Queen, whom he sculpted a number of times, and a favourite of his was Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, the Queen’s sixth daughter, who was also one of his pupils. Although married to an English wife, with four children, he had been having an affair with the Princess for some time. He had a heart attack in flagrante delicto in his Fulham Road house aged only 56, so he effectively came and went at the same time. Don Grant
Photograph © Don Grant
Blue Plaque Freddy Mercury
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Pagan Christmas and Secular Samhain By Max Feldman
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In a world where holiday festivals like Halloween and Valentine’s Day seem to primarily exist in order to justify executive bonuses for seasonal greeting card companies it’s easy to forget the murkiness of the origins of these consumerist bonanzas. Most people have a vague feeling that there was probably a ‘St Valentine’ somewhere in the mix (perhaps he converted a savage barbarian tribe whose religion revolved around pulling out the hearts of their enemies and gifting them to their *ahem* ‘sweethearts’?) but what about more obtuse celebrations like Easter where we teach children about the death and resurrection of Jesus by telling them that a magical rabbit left them chocolate eggs in the night? Even the most outside the box director might veto that particular adaptation as slightly too off the beaten track. This is because nearly all of our seasonal holidays (religious and secular) have their beginnings in pagan festivals that the expanding Christian church, too afraid of their enduring popularity to risk banning outright, simply aggressively co-opted in a manner similar to how the Labour and Conservative parties will immediately stea-*ahem*re-purpose any policy that seems to be gaining traction (regardless of how it might seem to contradict core party ideology). As a result our festivals are a grab-bag of any and all traditions that the early church wasn’t able to stamp out. Over 2,000 years ago, slightly before trick or treating came on the scene, October 31st was Samhain; a Celtic festival that marked the end of summer and beginning of winter, (the Celtic new year fell on November 1st). Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred and faeries and spirits walked the land. Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins and (rather similar to the modern day) would travel from door to door in their costumes and recite verse in exchange for some of the food and drink. After the Romans conquered the
Celts, Samhain continued, though it began to mutate as it took on new traditions, with apple bobbing being added as a tribute to the Roman Goddess of fruit and leaves, Pomona (whose symbol was an apple). By the 9th Century the Catholic church, sensing that Samhain wasn’t going anywhere and nervous about the potential challenge to Church theology, changed their newly established All Martyr’s Day into All Saints’ Day (a day which celebrated all of God’s chosen rather than those lucky few who had been boiled in a pot by cannibal heathens) and changed the date from May 13th to November 1st. In 1000 A.D, the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honour the dead. All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints’ Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from
Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called Allhallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Halloween took off in America thanks to the large quantity of Irish immigrants who helped revive traditions such as going door to door and performing in costume for food and drink which kept the traditions alive as they began to die out in the European heartland. Over time it slowly developed into the corporate behemoth of its current form (Rather terrifyingly one quarter of all the sweets sold annually in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween.) and was then exported back across the Atlantic to its European homeland, not that anyone who complained about the ‘Americanisation’ of British culture saw it as a triumphant homecoming. This model of stealing popular Pagan traditions in order to gain ideological
street cred wasn’t just limited to relatively theologically minor festivals like Samhain however. Even Christianity’s most holy days dipped deeply into the well of prior pagan institutions. and Christmas, ostensibly the birth of Jesus, is a complete hotchpotch of different traditions. Historians have great difficulty pinpointing the exact date of Jesus’s birth, but are in fairly unanimous agreement that it certainly wasn’t December 25th or even A.D. 1 (based on solar activity there is something approaching consensus that it was June 2nd A.D. 2). The date now occupied by Christmas was used by a huge number of pagan religions for their Winter Solstice, a celebration which (rather fittingly going by Christian theology) rejoiced in the rebirth of the sun and the renovation of life. Of these various festivals the Roman festival of Saturnalia in particular might seem familiar to those au fait with the Christmas spirit: “In private the day [Saturnalia] began with the sacrifice of a young pig...all ranks devoted themselves to feasting and mirth, presents were interchanged among friends, and crowds thronged the streets, shouting ‘lo Saturnalia!’” (Oscilla, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed, vol. 2). In addition figurines and masks, called oscilla, were hung on decorative trees, all traditions that would survive in a new Christian form. Ironically the Bible actually had some pretty sharp words about this sort of thing: “Learn not the way of the heathen… For the customs of the people are vain: for one cuts a tree out of the forest…They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.” ( Jeremiah 10:2-4) but why let the literal biblical truth get in the way of a good tradition?
Photograph Photograph © © Don Don Grant Grant
s costume shops and chocolate companies do a roaring trade in the lead up to Halloween and premature Christmas adverts are just around the corner Max Feldman searches for the origins of the Western World’s most popular festivals...
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October April/May 2016 2011
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Opinion & Comment
MARIUS BRILL’S
MEMEING OF LIFE Meme: An element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another...
It’s a Mad Mad Mad World
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Illustration © Alice Stallard. alicestallard.com
ll my adult life I’ve smiled wryly as the parking attendant, unable to work out the limits of a yellow signed zone, claims he can’t void the ticket he hasn’t yet issued; I’ve spoken with an exaggerated calm as the fourth tele-engineer in a row asks if I’ve tried turning it “on and off again”, even as my internal pedant screams “it’s off then on” –; I’ve nodded and grinned as other parents wax about their kids’ Grade Six bassoon knowing mine struggled to be the understudy for the triangle part in the school orchestra. But recently I have found myself less willing to take the deep breaths, less capable of blocking out the irritating, less inclined to hold back and not scream and
swear and threaten and release the dogs of roar. I feel like an electric whore, ever ready to blow a fuse. I thought it might just be middleage frustration, years of suppressed exasperation finally bubbling up. As Dylan Thomas advised, “Old age should burn and rave at close of day / Rage, rage…“ But this year I discovered I’m far from alone. Trump, Brexit, Euro-Nationalism, Black Lives Matter, imploding political parties, race hatred, global terrorism: the whole world is angry and ready to show it. Fury is all the rage. But why are we so mad? Who has lit our f***ing ire? The fact that we’re all becoming polarised and incensed has not escaped the mainstream gaze. Brain Dead, a recent tongue-in-cheek CBS drama, blames our rising tide of anger on alien ants, which, having arrived on Earth in the 2013 Russian meteorite crash, are now crawling into people’s ears eating
the reasonable parts of their brains. Obviously rising poverty levels and a growing global awareness of injustices was just a little too far-fetched. Psychologists list the most common causes for anger as grief, rudeness, tiredness, hunger, injustice, being teased or bullied, humiliation, embarrassment, deadlines, disappointment, sloppy service, failure and infidelity. Which not only sounds like most of my family dinners, it’s also an emotional tick list for the inciting incidents of almost every film ever made.
The whole world is angry and ready to show it. Fury is all the rage.
Basically, anger is a toxic cocktail of pain and fear. And whether we own up to it or not, pretty much all of us are carrying it around, keeping it down, like model citizens… until some dick indicates left and turns right, and even though it’s Boris Johnson, we’re ready to jump out the car, right in the middle of the road, and thump him. Pain and fear shortens tempers and weakens patience. So simple everyday incompetence, avoidable mistakes compounded by repetition, instead of the farce it actually is, becomes a massive challenge to our world and a reminder of our own blind impotence to stop it. It’s not the pain or the fear that’s new. They’re as old as original sin, albeit nowhere near as fun. Some say that anger is our natural state. But our willingness to show our fear and pain, to act it out and react, that’s new. I mean it could be healthy. “Let it all out,” say the therapists. Which is great. Until everyone’s doing it. When we lived in the pre-internet geographical world, thrust together with others purely by accidents of birth and postcode, we couldn’t escape our neighbours. We’re a communal species, we gather and share to survive. We learned to tolerate the outrageous views of the people who happened to be around us. We learned to bite our tongues and live and let live. We all learned to moderate. And though it clearly wasn’t democracy, intellectuals, ever in the minority, had a disproportionate share of the discourse through educated eloquence, more leisure time afforded by higher incomes and a sense of their own superiority. In the 50s it blossomed into a relatively peaceful liberal tolerance. But now we’re living in a new and uncharted world. In our always connected networked universes, where different time zones have less and less meaning, who has the time for tolerance? Day or night, there’s always some part of the world on and broadcasting its most dramatic and compelling events. Most of
them terrible, terrible things. And if you don’t scream now it will be lost in the next atrocity and it makes you feel like your voice is so tiny unless you retweet or repost and traumatise someone else, as if the problem shared could ever be halved. It can’t. It won’t. More of us are more aware of injustice than at any other time in history. Every day I see black people being shot in the US by the police, I see bizarre tortures in Syria, I hear the pleas of Native Australians and the breaking of bones. The Windows 10 Welcome Screen, that I never asked for btw, feeds me a different photo every day showing how incredible the natural world is but the babies crying in South Sudan, or the frightened schoolgirls undone by Boko Haram, are nowhere to be seen. How long can any of us patiently stand by? Social media doesn’t connect us by geography, or the facts of our lives, but by the most vulnerable and unreliable parts of our identities, our beliefs and opinions. And no opinions are more powerful, capricious and ripe for persuasion than political ones. So now I’m emboldened by an online community of millions who share my own stupid and skewed vision, I feel the strength in our numbers. As Michael Gove said, we’ve “had enough of experts.” And I don’t have to tolerate the frankly barking views of my neighbour (even if he’s got a million people around the world agreeing with him), in fact my online community simply supplies me with more and more ammunition, ceaselessly, that proves my neighbour’s wrong and eventually I’ll bloody well show him. The erosion of geographical cohesion, not only in social and political terms, but also in globalised economics, such as Trade Agreements with clauses that override the sovereignty of nations so the wishes of corporations can overrule the political will of a country’s people, is, no doubt, next to Global Warming, one of the biggest problems the 21st Century faces. Right now countries and terrorists and the voters of America are all fighting, in one way or another, for the right balance between the freedoms of globalisation and the support of localised communities. As the stakes and the enemy get bigger and bigger, so does our individual impotence and there is only one way we know how to deal with that: get angry. Growing up after WWII, I was fine tolerating incompetent officials because, even if the parking attendants may be unsympathetic, stupid, jumped up, jobsworths, at least they didn’t wear jackboots. But time has passed, I am witness to the mad injustices of the world and as an empathetic human they are mine too. Now, like an easily distracted window cleaner, it doesn’t take much to make me lose my rag. The question, in the end is not why are we so angry? It’s why wouldn’t we be?
October 2016
Opinion & Comment Mark’s Munificence By Peter Burden
M
ark Zuckerberg is my friend. It’s true; when I opened a facebook account eight years ago (because my publisher asked me to, in case you’re wondering), Mark was one of the first people to claim me as a friend. That was kind of him, I thought, for, like most children of the baby-boom, I was suspicious of this new interweb wheeze, which my student issue had grasped so eagerly. Naturally, to have a fresh-faced, if sharp-eyed, young alumnus of Harvard University single me out for friendship was reassuring in an alien world….. until one of the issue told me disdainfully that young Mark was friends with every single one of the millions of users of his clever invention. Suddenly I felt less special. There are now 1.5 billion users; three times more subjects than HM the Queen ,even counting the inhabitants of former dominions who call her queen, although she has yet to send me a ‘friend request’. However, having just checked, I find that for no reason, I have been unfriended by Mark. That’s fair enough; I can’t claim to have been much of a friend to him either. I haven’t contributed a penny to the huge heap of dosh he has accumulated from his clever wheeze. I’ve never paid for a service, nor could any serious advertiser have identified me as an appropriate target for the promotion of their wares. And I’m about to become still less of a friend, first by questioning the inherent worth of this social gizmo that he has sold to the world, and then by querying the value of his pledge to donate $3bn (of the $54bn he has amassed) to fund research into the ultimate control of all diseases known to man by the end of this century. Meanwhile, the world at large is just beginning to understand that the net change in quality of life produced by the use of Facebook is negative. There is a plus side, certainly, in people’s enjoyment of mutually propagating and catching up on the minutiae of their personal lives, and sporadic items of real and otherwise unreported news. On the minus side, though, it spawns envy, a sense of exclusion and a resulting increase in loneliness, anxiety and depression from bullying, abuse from trolls and revenge porn, as well as a potentially dangerous lack of privacy. It has discouraged truly personal communication, as formerly achieved by letter or more recently by email (an excellent and immediate means of communications, albeit susceptible to invasion by the boys from Wapping).
In my own case, I will concede that I enjoy reading a little gossip among people I know as facebook friends, many of whom are not, by any standard, friends at all. From time to time, I have discovered important events that I may otherwise not have done. Just this week, for instance, I have seen a picture of friend’s one-year-old grandchild reading The Times; another friend is pictured drinking a bottle of Greek beer; and I have viewed a video of a ‘homeless’ man playing the piano quite badly, and another (along with 28mn other time-wasters) of an Indian runner duck chasing a dog around a rock; I have received an advertisement for a product describing itself as Liquid Joint Replacement (presumably as a result of an algorithm relating to my DoB.) I haven’t posted much; a few jolly shots of my wedding to Nina three years ago, and a couple of grumbles about the fundamentally undemocratic nature of the EU referendum, which prompted a few unexpectedly Brexit friends to creep from the undergrowth. There’s no doubt that, for some, it is a highly addictive activity that leaves one with the same sensation as that experienced in wolfing down a Big Mac; a short rush of fulfilment followed rapidly by a sense of vacuousness. There must be few whose life would have been significantly worse if they’d never signed up to Facebook while the rest of us, if we hadn’t, would have retained more privacy, and saved a huge amount of time. It feels, too, as if a new stage might have been reached in the public’s relationship with Mr & Mrs Zuckerberg (and, by extension, Facebook), triggered by this golden couple’s recent extraordinary display of hubris. It isn’t only the cynics among us that will have observed that Zuckerberg is not an especially lovable guy; that there is an understandable resentment towards any young fellow who has made so much money, apparently so easily, and that he has been for the last few years attracting increasing opprobrium over the lack of taxes his corporation pays in any of the communities where it operates. The US Inland Revenue Service claim that Facebook owes them between $3bn and $5bn in unpaid taxes. In the UK last year they paid just £4,327 in corporation tax while handing out bonuses of £35m to its 362 staff here. As a PR tool to counter these negative aspects of his public image, Zuckerberg’s pledge of a $3bn to fund health research looks like a caveman’s club, the kind of ploy that might have oozed from the unsubtle mind of Mr D Trump. It has been noted that this pledge represents less than 1% of the US government health research budget while in 2014 alone millions of ordinary Americans (excluding people like Bill Gates) gave $258bn to charities in general. Zuckerberg’s claim that his contribution is going to eliminate all infectious diseases by 2100 shows clearly
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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk that he doesn’t, in fact, know his bottom from his funny bone. That he evidently didn’t foresee the negative reaction it has provoked is evidence of the disconnect that makes him such an unpopular figure. The scale of self-belief that is key to the proposal that he and his wife, Chan, have the knowledge and experience to run a research programme on this scale is gasp-making in a way which will surely discourage significant numbers of Facebook users to continue being part of this global exercise in mutual egogrooming. Parallel to all that is the far bigger question about where this planned elimination of disease, and subsequent increase in human longevity would leave the human race, and our Great1bn Grandmother Earth. It is bizarre that a man of Mark Z’s presumed intelligence hasn’t worked out yet that deferring death on the vast scale he promises is overwhelmingly undesirable both for individual human beings, and for the wellbeing of the planet.
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DUDLEY SUTTON’S I WISH I HAD WRITTEN THAT Surely a lament for Brexit? DS London, 1802 by William Wordsworth
Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Have forfeited their ancient English dower Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; Oh! raise us up, return to us again; And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart: Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, So didst thou travel on life's common way, In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
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October April/May 2016 2011
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
Committee, this could further hurt their chances. Grandmaster Nigel Short said: “FIDE simply should not put chess players who dream of being world champion in the position of having to make moral choices about playing in such an unpleasant regime, they should be free to get on with competing.” Iran has operated a “morality police” since 1979 that enforces imprisonment for women that do not respect the rules. Iran has hosted women’s championships in 2007 and 2011 where the headscarf rule was enforced without formal complaints from players, but not without outside criticism. It’s not the first time the World Chess federation has been criticised for clothing rules or controversial host locations. China’s Hou Yifan is not competing. She has an ELO score of 2649 and is the current Women’s World Chess champion. “This is going to be the biggest sporting event women in Iran have ever seen; we haven’t been able to host any world championship in other sporting fields for women in the past,” Iran grandmaster Mitra Hejazipour said: “It’s not right to call for a boycott. These games are important for women in Iran; it’s an opportunity for us to show our strength.”
Portugal’s Virginity as an António Guterres entry requirement will be next UN to universities in Egypt By Judith Forte secretary
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International Female chess masters boycotting World Championships in Iran
Photograph © AFP
over mandatory hijab law By Natanael Mota
FIDE, the world’s chess federation, is being boycotted by multiple female grandmasters in the 2017 Women’s World Chess Championship in Iran next February over mandatory hijab laws. The Iranian federation offered to host the games in September this year. The matter was passed unopposed by any of the 159 international delegates, including the US. The Women’s World Chess championship was created to encourage female participation. There are no menonly chess tournaments. US international master Nazi Paikidze has become the figurehead of the recent protests against FIBA’s decision in 2016 to host the next 64 player knockout. In an online petition kick-started by Paikidze, she explains that as a sport, Chess should be free of “”discriminatory treatment for national, political, racial, social or religious reasons or on account of sex.” Yet, by awarding the Championship to Iran, it is breaking that pledge to its members and subjecting them to discrimination on all fronts.” FIDE has the goal of making chess an Olympic sport, and after past rejections by the International Olympic
Russia ‘moving nuclear-capable missiles into Kaliningrad’ claims Estonia
Estonian officials have said that Russia appears to be moving powerful, nuclear capable missiles into Kaliningrad, a Russian outpost province sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania along the Baltic coast. The Iskander-M missiles, which have a range of over 500km, are reportedly being transported by ship from the St Petersburg area. It had previously been reported that the Russians might seek to place the Iskander-M missiles in Kaliningrad but not until 2018-19. If confirmed, the move would be seen by western governments as another sign that Russia is seeking to establish an enlarged sphere of influence, from eastern
Europe to the Middle East, before a new US president takes office in January. An Estonian defence expert said: “This weapon is highly sophisticated and there is no comparable weapon in western armoury. It can carry nuclear weapons, change direction mid-flight and fly distances of up to 500km. As such it is capable of threatening Poland, including the US missile defence installations there. You would not change the date of the delivery of a system such as this on a whim. The intention is to make a strong strategic point.” Marko Mihkelson, the chairman of the Estonian parliament’s national defence committee, told Estonian news agency ERR on Friday that since the transportation of the system was now taking place with the help of a civilian vessel, he had reason to think that Russia was trying to take the missiles to Kaliningrad in secret. The Iskander-M, the Persian name for Alexander the Great, is a ballistic rocket system designed to destroy strategic targets, and its stationing is arguably in breach of the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty.
By Natanael Mota
António Guterres has been approved by a majority vote to be the next secretary of the United Nations. The 67 year old was Portugal’s prime minister from 1995 to 2002 and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to 2015. A physics and engineering academic by trade, António joined politics in the aftermath of Portugal’s “Carnation Revolution” of 1974 which ended over 40 years of dictatorship. Now he will succeed Ban Ki-moon in January 2017. “He [Guterres] is a superb choice”, Ban said. Many of those following the nomination were hoping for representation from either a female, a person from Eastern Europe, or both for the first time. Bulgaria’s Kristalina Georgieva’s very late entry fitted the description, but she received eight negative votes, whilst it was an unexpected pivot by the Bulgarian government that undermined the chances of UNESCO Director General, Irina Bokova, who finished fourth. Guterres received no negative votes from either Russia or China and had created strong bonds with former US president Bill Clinton in his prime minister days. Politicians around the world welcomed Guterres’ win, including Portuguese colleagues from both left and right, proud to have had a president of the European Commission and now a Secretary General of the UN. Former UN assistant secretary general Michael Doyle said: “We have someone who has great political capability, having been prime minister of his country. He is a strong multilateralist, having run the UNCHR at a time of tremendous challenges, and he has ways of communicating with an audience that are inspiring.” Guterres said he is “grateful and humble” for the nomination. He will have to deal with both inside problems like rape accusations of UN peacekeepers and corruption and ongoing conflicts like the crisis in Syria.
Egyptian lawmaker and MP Ilhami Agena has called for mandatory virginity screenings for all women seeking admission to university. Women’s rights group the National Council for Women was incensed by the suggestion and protested against it. The state-sanctioned group demands the expulsion of Agena and further criminal investigation into his conduct. Head of the group, Maya Morsi filed a legal complaint against Agena believing his behaviour to be unacceptable and harmful to the reputation of Egypt and its people. In response to critics Agena said “I did not make any demand. I made a suggestion. There’s a big difference between a demand and a suggestion.” Agena furthered his suggestion saying that universities ought to inform the parents of applicants who fail the virginity tests. Egypt is a conservative Muslim country and there women’s virginity is considered a matter of family honour. A woman’s sexual conduct can affect her “Miss” status, which Agena also commented on saying that women who want to study should prove they are a “Miss.” Typically, the term “Miss” is used as a euphemism for virgin. Agena’s remarks were made within a wider discussion about informal gawaz orfy marriages. Also known as urfis, these marriages are an inexpensive, religiously sanctioned way of having sex. Considered as a an easy route to marriage and sex, urfi marriages have grown in popularity as a result of high youth unemployment and a shortage of affordable housing. Muslim clerics largely oppose such arrangements and wider society views them as somewhat secretive and improper. Another objector to Agena, prominent Egyptian feminist Mona Elthaway tweeted “I see Egyptian parliamentarian…Agena’s obsession with women’s vaginas continues.” Agena made another suggestion to women a month ago that FGM may need to be enforced to curb sexual potency and balance it with that of men. Former examples of regulating women’s sexual conduct include what happened during the protest of 2011 in Cairo Tahrir Square. After the protest against Hosni Mubarak’s government at the time, the military conducted virginity tests on 19 arrested women. Several women were also sexually attacked that day and Amnesty International holds that these tests were in fact guises for possible rapes.
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October 2016
Business & Finance Dark tax
Phoytograph © Musee Capitolini
By John Handley & Douglas Shanks
O
ne day, sooner than they might think, like knights of old I will give up pretending to live the middle-class dream, and join the crusade for justice in tax. Do the good people that I believe most MPs no doubt are, honestly believe that it can be right for the executive to be allowed to let rip against taxpayers who have the temerity to challenge the regime? Can it be right for the government to help itself to 65% in straight tax of your income, then throw in another say 15% to cover your VAT, motor tax, car tax, fuel duty, and rates, not to forget the new dividend tax? And then if you challenge the government, for it to make up the rules as it goes? It’s insane. Once upon a time there was a device called a FURBS. If you’ve got one you probably know only too well what it is, and if you don’t, you can’t have one because the door was closed years ago. They’re still around, much to HMRC’s horror. We’ve been screaming about the flagrant abuse of the law that is the Accelerated Payment Notice, brought in to make sure that when the revenue isn’t winning you still lose. In their delight at being given this draconian new toy, the tax-funded gilt-edged-pensioned witches and wizards of Whitehall have been casting around for broader targets for their latest spells than was ever intended by parliament. Does that ring a bell? Don’t start me on immoral collection, but the irony is cast in …iron. We have been informed that HMRC are going to raise APNs on FURBS arrangements. Originally HMRC attacked the scheme by trying to get the PAYE from the employing company. Then things went quiet for many years. They realised that the trust was
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discretionary, so who could they tax? There wasn’t any further correspondence until very recently when HMRC simply wrote to the individuals saying that the new catch-all weapon of mass destruction, the APN, was going to be raised on them rather than the company. Some haven't even got an open enquiry so we do not believe HMRC can even issue APNs but on they go, running roughshod over people just to collect money. Qui tacet consentit. (Your silence gives consent.) Plato Don’t kid yourself it doesn’t affect you. I simply cannot understand why the courts have given in to the government on this. We need a radical overhaul of how we govern ourselves, but can’t be bothered, or more realistically have little faith in any alternative. It isn’t crafty taxpayers, least of all by the way Sir Crafty, who are a disgrace. It’s HMRC or their dark lords the Treasury. It would never have happened years ago, but since Brown’s changes, and the formation of Dave Hartnett’s Litigation and Settlement Strategy, HMRC have been on this ever more aggressive path. They’ll come to regret it. They’ve gone too far. The tide must turn. So much for the zealots, but we’re seeing even more blind incompetence. We sent in a batch of 2015 tax returns in the last week of January; all logged in electronically so acknowledged. For some reason HMRC’s computer did not acknowledge the returns, and we’re now appealing penalties issued of £1,200 on each. At least at that level they’re worth appealing. Three guesses whether or not the revenue will pick up the tab for the fees even if they’re in the wrong. They are trying to collect these penalties very hard. We wrote to them immediately, but on chasing a response by telephone we were told our post would not be answered until at least end of October. In the meantime further demands are issued virtually weekly since the tax-payers’ accounts are still shown as overdrawn. If you’ve read this far, you’re presumably sufficiently well-informed for it to have hit you that all this is on purpose. The delays are designed to drive a wedge between the tax-payer and his accountant. Do you remember the ultimate revenue scam? They want the power to help themselves. AND these are the people who want to go to quarterly returns for all taxpayers. Just google Tax Instalment Payment Plan Close your eyes and imagine what life’s going to be like once the government has given itself the power to go online, into your bank account and help yourself. What a shambles.
Active versus Passive investing Hobson’s Choice or a Real Choice?
Hello Plato. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
Research by the eminent Professor David Blake from CASS Business School tested two active manager’s scenarios to test their levels of skill when it came to producing outperformance. He found that 95% of managers were unable to outperform, net of fees, and in
John Handley and Douglas Shanks of DSC Metropolitan llp Chartered Accountants’ screams of outrage are still curdling blood at three hundred paces!
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How have the markets changed since the financial crisis in 2007 / 2008? A combination of poor corporate governance and inadequate regulatory supervision saw the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression (1929-39). At its core was the free-market, minimal state intervention that characterised the Thatcher years. Since then rules and regulations have been strengthened, and new legislation and authorities have been created both in the US and UK, to prevent such a scenario from happening again, for example: • Dodd Frank Act • Financial Service Act 2012 • UK Corporate Governance Code – August 2012 • The creation of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK - 2013 These changes were designed to reform the financial regulation landscape, with the intentional consequence of reigning in investment managers. The inevitable result is that active managers’ ‘edges’ have been eroded. This erosion or decrease coupled with the increase in scrutiny, transparency and risk parameters has created a fertile, level playing field that resulted in the growth of sturdy passive investment vehicles that are attracting a significant amount of the large outflows from active management: https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/ iqjWHBFdfxIU/ixkLCW4U51xE/ v4/488x-1.png
Are Traditional Asset Managers Behind the Times?
the second model almost none had the ability of outperformance. Research by Standard & Poors also found that 86% of active managers failed to beat the market in 2014-2015. In spite of producing poor performance, these active mangers continued to charge high active fees. The combination of high fees and low performance is a devastating for investors, and explains why investors – retail and institutional, are moving away from active funds, into passive ones. Add to this the entrants of new innovative financial technologies where online wealth managers and Robo-advice are becoming prominent players, and the threats to traditional active managers appear to be steadily increasing. As pressure continues to mount in terms of total fee transparency, irradiating layers of inefficiency and intermediation, as well increased guidance and regulation in terms of banning commissions, research payments and corporate entertainment (soft commissions); the question is how long can active managers continue to mimic ostriches and bury their heads in the sand? https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/ businessman-hiding-his-head-sand-sideview-50571513.jpg
The Transparency Tide
As with so many sectors and industries, transparency is key to enhancing consumer protection and treating customers fairly. Yet the vast majority of active managers are acting in a way akin to a cartel and refusing to grant their clients two basic consumer rights. The right to know what they are truly paying and the right to know what they are truly buying. But however much fund managers and pension funds drag their feet, the tide is changing. In 2018 a European Directive, MiFID II will take effect. As we are extremely unlikely to have left the EU by then, it will force the UK industry to be transparent as regard ALL charges, implicit and explicit, at ALL levels, in one total number.
Why is the active/passive debate not a binary one?
Active and passive investment styles are not mutually exclusive, with some companies posing as an active fund that actually invests in a passive way. This is known as closet indexing Closet Indexation is the practise whereby many active funds mislead investors by marketing themselves as active while holding a significant number of passive indexes in the fund or portfolio. In my view there is absolutely nothing wrong with these products. What is wrong with these closet indexing funds is that they are marketed as fully active, and charge investors fully active fees, which I believe borders on mis-selling.
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Astronomy
Supernova 1987A 30 years on By Scott Beadle FRAS
The Three ring circus surrounds SN 1987A. The rings are remnants of winds during the progenitor star’s later years, probably from mass loss when it was a luminous blue variable
the core temperature rose and the reaction rates spiked. It took hundreds of thousands of years to convert helium into carbon. The core silicon burned completely to iron in a few days. Throughout this process the ongoing reactions dumped ever increasing amounts of energy into the stars outer layers and it finally moved off the main sequence to become a blue supergiant. In the final days iron built up in its core. This is the end as iron is nature’s most stable element, so even as the core temperature went past a billion degrees nuclear reactions couldn’t supply any energy. Gravity was now the master. The pressure supplied by electrons, squeezed together as close as possible could no longer support the growing weight of iron ash being dumped on the core by silicon fusion. BANG, the core collapsed in less than a second at a velocity reaching a quarter the speed of light. Once the collapsing core’s density surpassed that of an atomic nucleus the material stiffened abruptly because
T
he date is February 23, 1987. The evening of February 1987 began like countless others. High in the Andes Mountains of northern Chile, astronomers prepared for another night of observation and research. Little did they know the events they were about to experience would mean there were no normal nights for a long time. Ian Shelton and Oscar Duhalde were observing at Las Campanas Observatory. Shelton was photographing the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) a dwarf satellite galaxy gravitationally connected to the Milky Way some 160,000 light years from Earth. Shelton had noticed a pinpoint of light on a photographic plate it shouldn’t have been there, could it be a flaw, it was bright enough to suggest it should be visible outside the observatory. Astronomers rarely go outside anymore when they’re at work but this was unusual so outside they stepped and lo and behold there it was a very bright point of light within the Cloud. The bright light turned out to be the first supernova in 1987 hence its designation 1987A. However supernova 1987A had an even more important accolade: it was the brightest supernova in 400yrs since the invention of the telescope, a real naked eye object, that lay close enough for really detailed observations that are difficult to achieve in the Milky Way due to interstellar dust obscuring many supernova which mostly lie in the equatorial plane. The intervening space between us and the LMC does not suffer this problem being relatively close and dust free so it is ideally placed for some really serious understanding of how stars die. At the same time as 1987A revealed itself, neutrino detectors buried deep underground in Japan, America and Russia, counted 12 neutrinos, 8
Wispy tendrils of gas in the LMC surround the explosion site of SN 1987A
neutrinos and 5 neutrinos respectively emanating from the direction of the LMC! This gives a total of 25 neutrinos detected on Earth out of the 10 billions of billions of billions of billions of billions of billions produced in the explosion. Neutrinos are extremely elusive particles of very high energy but which almost never interact with ordinary matter and can travel through the entire diameter of the Earth without being stopped. Even as you read this article or make a cup of tea countless millions will have travelled straight through your body. Still the two dozen detected were sufficient to give astronomers a perfect confirmation of the core collapse of a massive star. 1987A’s location was fortunately also near a massive star forming region known as the Tarantula Nebula which had been photographed many times so it didn’t take long to find the progenitor star responsible, a hot blue supergiant some 20 times the mass of the Sun and
catalogued as Sanduleak -69°202. This was a surprise as astronomers expected it to have been a cool red supergiant that up until then were the only known stars responsible for Type 1 supernova events. Sanduleak-69°202 had spent the bulk of its life on the main sequence, fusing hydrogen into helium in its core. The fusion rate however dwarfs the Sun, whilst our star will take approximately10 billion years to exhaust its hydrogen fuel, Sanduleak burned through its supply in just a few million years. When Sanduleak’s core ran out of hydrogen, the central pressure dropped. The weight of the overlying layers then compressed the interior. This raised the internal pressure and temperature until the helium ash started to undergo fusion. This process, the creating of ever heavier elements and then using them as fuel for further nuclear reactions, continued as first carbon; then neon, oxygen, and silicon formed. At each stage this stellar alchemy,
the neutrons couldn’t be squeezed any further. The collapse stopped and the core rebounded generating a shock wave that marked the birth of Supernova 1987A. It’s hard to believe but the arrival of the neutrinos verified theories on how stars blow up confirming that the core temperature reached tens of billions of degrees and that they carried away 100 times more energy than the Sun will generate in its lifetime. One day in the future the expanding shock wave may trigger another cloud of interstellar gas and dust to start contracting, the cloud enriched by heavy elements from earlier supernovae should produce a few stars heavier than 8 solar masses. Millions of years from now, stellar evolution will bring about the end of these massive stars. If our descendants are around to see it, they’ll likely know what caused the star to explode. And they can look back to 1987 as a watershed leading to their understanding.
Science & Technology Facebook’s Chan Zuckerberg initiative
pledged $3 billion to medical research & education. By Natanael Mota On the 21st of September, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged $3 billion of their Facebook shares to medicine and education work worldwide. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will be receiving $1 billion worth of Facebook shares for the next three years. It will not be operating as a charity; so Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan will have control on how their Facebook share money is used. Facebook is valued at $45 billion at the time of writing, with an income of $3.68 billion per year in 2015. The initiative was announced on 1 December 2015 in honour of the birth of their daughter, Maxima Chan Zuckerberg. The couple are part of the $365 million ‘Giving Pledge’ charity campaign started by Bill Gates and
Warren Buffet. Zuckerberg has also made new rules for Facebook’s stock which allows him keep the majority whilst selling and giving away shares. It can cost between $1 and $10 billion to develop a new drug and ten years to bring it to market. Zuckerberg and Chan have hired former U.S. Education Department deputy secretary Jim Shelton, who has experience working at the Gates Foundation. Bill Gates was quick to endorsed the idea and has personally donated £30 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Only through science can we get an HIV vaccine or a malaria vaccine” said Gates. “We desperately need this science. Their vision, their generosity, is really inspiring a whole new generation of philanthropists that will do amazing things.” “It’s going to be years before the first tools get built, and years after that before they actually get used to cure diseases,” Mark Zuckerberg said. A $600 Biohub project linking Stanford University, University of California and UC Berkeley is underway with planned funding for the next 10 years.
Magnetic bacteria
Martel. The scientists used Magnetococcus marinus, a species of bacteria that thrives in low-oxygen, deep water. To migrate whilst remaining in these regions, the bacteria rely on a two-part system. First, tiny magnetic crystals line up inside their cells like a compass needle pointing them North and second, sensors that detect oxygen levels allow them to stay within low oxygen areas. Dr Martel and his team directed the bacteria loaded with chemotherapy drugs by creating a magnetic field around the tumours. They then switched off the magnetic field and allowed the bacteria to use their low oxygen sensors to direct themselves to the centre of the tumours where the drugs were delivered, attacking the tumours from the centre and protecting the healthy cells from the effects of the drugs. “These bacteria are really the perfect machine. They replicate, they’re cheap, and we can inject hundreds of millions or more at a time,” said Dr Martel.
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RESEARCH NEWS
Tectonically Active Planet Mercury NASA:Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory
Mercury is the only planet in our solar system that has a moving tectonic plate system on top of a molten core. Like Earth, parts of its crust are slowly pushed up, changing the surface structure over time. The discovery will allow scientists to compare the Earth’s geology with another planet for the first time, possibly helping to understand why a dense atmosphere surrounds the Earth. NASA Eating raw apple and lettuce has been shown to deodorise garlic breath by researchers from Ohio State University. Chewing raw apple and raw lettuce significantly reduced the concentration of the volatile garlic compounds associated with garlicky breath. Raw mint leaves were also found to be effective, but Green tea had no deodorising effect at all. Journal of Food Science 12,000 people a year in the United States are diagnosed with Cat Scratch Disease (CSD) with 500 of those requiring hospitalisation. The bacterial disease comes from fleas living in the fur of cats. The fleas pass it on to their cat hosts that then pass it onto humans, if they are scratched or bitten by their disease carrying pets. The symptoms range from swollen lymph nodes to fever, fatigue and potentially death. Emerging Infectious Diseases
deliver drugs to tumours By Ione Bingley
Swarms of magnetic bacteria have been used to deliver chemotherapy drugs to tumours without exposing healthy tissue to their toxic effects in a groundbreaking study published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Researchers, funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), were able to show how bacteria could be used to efficiently deposit tumour-fighting drugs right to the low-oxygen centre of cancerous tumours. Nanocarriers do already exist that are able to deliver drugs to the cancerous cells, but only in very low quantities and never to the low-oxygen regions at the centre of tumours. “Only a very small proportion of drugs reach the hypoxic zones, which are believed to be the source of metastasis. Therefore, targeting the low-oxygen regions will most likely decrease the rate of metastasis while maximizing the effect of a therapy,” said lead researcher and Director of the Polytechnique Montréal NanoRobotics Laboratory Dr Slyvain
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Photograph © NASA
October 2016
First three-person baby using a radical new method has been born to a father and mother with section of genetic code from a donor to protect the baby from a rare genetic condition called Leigh Syndrome carried in the mother’s DNA, raising hopes for other families that carry genetic diseases. New Scientist It may not be possible to extend the human life span beyond the ages already reached by the oldest people on record. The maximum human life span has been set at 125 which has already been reached. Scientists believe that increases in human life span will slow and plateau. Nature A study has show that marijuana use may result in abnormal brain function and lower IQ. Participants who used marijuana from a young age had highly abnormal brain function in areas related to memory, visual processing and reward processing. Use of the drug was also shown to potentially exacerbate depressive symptoms. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Scientific detective work on fossils unearthed in Somerset in the Victorian times has identified two new species of Ichthyosaurus, the giant reptiles known as ‘sea dragons’ ruled the seas at the time of the dinosaurs. The surprise discovery brings the total to six known species. Papers in Palaeontology Scientists have designed a new generation of universal flu vaccines to protect against future global pandemics that could kill millions. Researchers have devised two universal vaccines, one that protects against 88% of known flu strains globally and a USA-specific vaccine that protects against 95% of known US influenza strains. Bioinformatics
Photograph © Nano-Robotics Laboratory. Polytechnique Montreal
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October 2016
Education Cambridge Festival By Max Feldman
C
Photograph © Damian Griffiths
ambridge Festival of Ideas 2016 presents a series of immersive artworks that cross the boundaries between the natural and the digital, and investigate what it means to be human now and in the future. The Festival, which runs from 17 – 30 October and hosts over 200 events, features a range of artists from across genres, including artists CJ Mahony, Thomson and Craighead, Joey Holder and photographers Toby Smith and Lala Meredith Vula. Running throughout the Festival at Wysing Arts Centre, Ophiux is a solo exhibition of new work by Joey Holder. This comprises an ambitious immersive installation and a film developed during her residency at Wysing in 2015 where she worked with scientists from the University of Cambridge. The work imagines a future in which synthetic biology has been fully realised and applied to both advance human evolution and increase life expectancy, and where human biology has been computer programmed. The work challenges our preconceptions of the ‘natural’ and the ‘artificial’. In addition to the exhibition, there will be a symposium on 29 October. Through a series of talks and a panel discussion with artists, writers and scientists, the Ophiux exhibition will be explored Speaking about the exhibition, Joey Holder said: “It seems as if everything has become a branch of computer science, even our own bodies probed, imaged, modelled and mapped: re-drawn as digital information. The installation will include larger than life-sized models of biological imaging machines as well as genetic sequencing equipment. It will simulate not only the collection of data from our own bodies but also the sampling of data from other organisms by a speculative pharmaceutical company: Ophiux” I am interested in the structures and
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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk hierarchies of the technological and natural world and how these systems are constantly abstracted. Mixing elements of biology, nanotechnology and natural history against computer program interfaces, screen savers and measuring devices, I see no object or substance in any fixed state or with any permanent definition, identity or order; everything is transforming and morphing into something else; everything is a mutant and a hybrid.” In another exhibition that runs throughout the Festival, artist CJ Mahony uses the iconic brutalist architecture of Murray Edwards College to present works that combine sculpture, sound and drawing. These Restless Objects investigates states of balance and disturbance, destruction and rearrangement, and the process of achieving solid form. On 24 October, audiences will have the opportunity to join artists Thomson and Craighead in conversation about their instructional artwork Stutterer – a poetry machine that uses the human genome like a music score to play back a self-assembling video montage spanning the 13 years of the Human Genome Project. Stutterer was started on Wednesday October 1st 2014 with approximately 500 video clips in its library, but this will be extended by the artists in the coming years, so that each time the work is exhibited there will be an increasing number of video elements to draw upon, offering an ever richer glimpse into a period in human history that begins in 1990 with the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in South Africa and concludes with the fall of Baghdad to a US and British military coalition in 2003. Festival favourite, photographer Toby Smith returns to the Festival of Ideas for his latest exhibition, Chasing Cuckoos, which also runs throughout the Festival period. Toby, who is currently Artist in Residence at the University of CambridgeConservation Institute, presents an exhibition of the Bateke Plateau and forests of Gabon. This unique and beautiful documentary series visualises the remote landscapes and people discovered on an expedition to the wintering grounds of satellite-tagged migratory cuckoos.
Chelsea Nanny Party Planning
on Sunday. ‘My mind tends to block out trauma of that sort.’ I can see that the Eldest is not satisfied with the response but American Mom has swept out of the door to her Pilates class before he can interrogate her further. The Middle One, on the other hand, is ecstatic. Particularly when she discovers the party will be Great Gatsby themed. American Mom never read the book but she fancies Leonardo DiCaprio. When the film came out she was happy on two counts; the first being Leo and the second being able to pretend with much more conviction that she had read it, as she now has a vague grasp on the story. Evidently feeling that the guardianship of her Little Darlings isn’t stretching me enough, American Mom has also appointed me Party Planner. As far as I can tell, there is no specific budget. I use the old MTV show My Super Sweet Sixteen as a guide because watching it as a teenager is the only experience I have of organising opulent events on a large scale. With this approach I find myself considering some thrilling options, all of which are approved by the Small One.
A
merican Mom is having a party. She says it’s to celebrate her fortieth birthday but as the Eldest pointed out in a loud voice, the holiday to Tuscany was purportedly an indulgent nod to start of American Mom’s fifth decade and that was four years ago. Luckily, she had just left the kitchen when he made the observation. I wonder how best to explain to the Eldest about the mystifying process of ageing among certain people, usually female. Before I can decide on an opener, he has called out, ‘Mum, how old were you when you had me?’ There is a long, tense silence in which she doesn’t re-enter. ‘I simply can’t remember,’ comes American Mom’s reply. There is a strained, pretend-breezy quality to her voice that I recognise from when she’s lost at Tennis
Co-education is the key Alleyn’s School in Dulwich firmly believes that co-education can successfully prepare girls and boys for entry into a multi-gendered world Alleyn’s was one of the first Schools of its kind to become fully co-educational, back in 1976. Today, co-education remains at the heart of its ethos, at both Junior and Senior School levels. So much so that Alleyn’s Headmaster, Dr Gary Savage, spoke on the topic at the prominent Tatler Schools Live event that took place earlier this month in west London. “A co-ed school is a great place to begin the process, in a safe and supportive environment, of learning to manage all the ups and downs of real life”, says Dr Savage. He goes on: “I have always been struck by our boys’ and girls’ enjoyment and genuine appreciation of each other’s achievements and contributions. It is satisfying to see them grow in confidence as our coed community offers them a fabulous variety of ways to get involved, develop skills and cement lifelong friendships.”
American Mom vetoes the yacht up the Thames, which I suggested as a way for her to make a grand entrance. She also ignores my selection of possible venues and decides on High Road House (Soho House in Chiswick). I can’t think of anything less original but I’m learning that it is not the place of the event organiser to have an opinion on the host’s questionable choices. This restraint is truly tested when she appears in her outfit on the night. I’m about to ask if she borrowed her bejewelled bodysuit from Beyoncé (and whether or not it’s an historically accurate outfit) but the Middle One beats me to it with a gasp. ‘Mummy, you look amazing!’ It’s undeniable, for someone turning forty for the fourth time, she does look twenty. By the time they’ve finally driven off to the party, I look forty.
Dr Savage is no partisan, though. Educated at a co-ed school and university, he has also taught and been a governor at single-sex schools. “I know that either model can be a great fit for a particular boy or girl. Our job, working with prospective parents, is to identify those children who might be best suited to a co-educational setting, and help them to flourish.” The School’s approach seems to be appreciated by educational observers. The Independent Schools Inspectorate said: “The quality of the pupils’ personal development is outstanding by the time they leave, and is a great strength of the School.” (ISI, 2013) Whilst it has a tradition of strong achievement, the School is determined not to hothouse, and sets great store by its holistic approach, focus on wellbeing and extensive co-curricular offering. It is attracting increasing interest from the Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster area, where residents clearly agree with the Tatler researcher who noted: “[it is] a vibrant, down-to-earth School that I would dearly love to have on my doorstep”. Visit alleyns.org.uk for more information. Open events take place on 1 November (16+); 2 November (11+ and 13+); and 15 November ( Junior School).
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nomination process, to be the capital’s Young People’s Laureate. Femi will work with Spread the Word, London’s writer development agency, for a year on youthfocused residencies across the capital, and will receive a range of poetrydevelopment opportunities to assist his career progression. “I feel honoured and excited to be the first Young People’s Laureate for London. I know what a huge role it is and I am ready to give it my all,” said Femi. “I hope to re-engage young people, who have long been disenfranchised, through poetry.” The role was created to give young people a much-needed voice through poetry. Among the new projects to be led by Femi in his role as laureate are: Heading a panel of judges in The Young People’s Poetry Prize, working with established poetry mentors and practitioners to co-host a special development project: The Young People’s PoetryLab and curating and leading an in-depth development day featuring a showcase of the finest, new, young poetry talent in London at The Young People’s Poetry Salon. “I don’t see it as far-fetched to normalise poetry among all demographics of young people in
London. As long as you have thoughts you can have poetry. At its best, it allows us to communicate from an honest and safe place. And young people deserve to be included in such spaces,” said Femi Director of Spread the Word, Ruth Harrison believes that there is a culture gap amongst young people that needs to be plugged: “London is one of most exciting cities in the world for arts and culture,
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Caleb Femi crowned London’s first Young People’s Laureate
S
pread the Word, London’s writer development agency, named Peckham’s Caleb Femi the first Young People’s Laureate for London at Penguin’s Random House headquarters. The capital’s first ever Young People’s Laureate will be an advocate for young Londoners working to create opportunities for emerging writers, aged 13 to 25, across the city as part of a year-long programme of exciting and interactive activities, including regional competitions and prizes. Caleb Femi, a 26 year old English teacher, filmmaker, creative director, photographer and poet from Peckham, was selected through a competitive
Unlocking the Answers
Photograph © Lee Townsend
Education
yet engagement among young people with what is on ‘offer’ remains low, partly due to economic barriers and access. This is why London deserves a dynamic Young People's Laureate, who will have a positive impact on our young people's lives. Caleb Femi’s work is exciting, authentic, sophisticated and accessible. Most of all, he has a genuine desire to help young people discover their own voice in poetry.”
Professor Mark Bailey, High Master of St Paul’s School, speaking at the 2015 Independent Schools Show
The Independent Schools Show is the ultimate forum for parents to meet the biggest names in British education. Come and speak face-to-face with over 200 of the country’s leading schools at the world’s biggest open day. Hear from the brightest thinkers and most respected Heads at the renowned Education Theatre. when:
Saturday 12 November 10:00 - 17:00 Sunday 13 November 10:30 - 16:30 where: Battersea Evolution, Battersea Park, London, SW11 4NJ
in partners hip w ith
B A R R AT T LONDON
FOR TICKETS VISIT WWW.SCHOOLSSHOW.COM 260 x 160 half page landscape v1.indd 2
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October 2016
Education OctoberNovember Adult Education Listings byn Polly Allen
Not over-excited about the prospect of endless boxset marathons and the slow countdown to Christmas? Break away from it all and enlighten yourself with a workshop, masterclass or short course. This month’s topics range from business plans to flirting skills, so there really is something for everyone. Unless specified, courses must be pre-booked and are suitable for beginners. Art Macabre www.deathdrawing.com Email: deathdrawing@gmail.com Tickets: www.artmacabre.bigcartel.com Drawn at the Tower: Tales of Martyrdom Discover life models retelling the stories of four historic martyrs, including Sir Thomas More and Margaret Pole. The Tower of London forms the backdrop as you draw these distinctive scenes in a special outof-hours event. All art materials, including paper, provided. Suitable for ages 18+. 16th November 18:30-21:00 Location: Chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula, Tower of London Cost: £24 (including a drink), or three tickets for £60 by calling 0844 482 7777. Concessions: £20 (students, unwaged, under 25s, HRP and Art Macabre members). British Library www.bl.uk Email: bipcworkshops@bl.uk T: 020 7412 7901 Business & IP Centre The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB Raise Your Profile – Get Your Business in the Media, Part 1 Whatever your budget, PR expert Jessica Huie MBE can teach you how to get great media coverage for your business. Learn about ‘hooks’ when pitching stories to journalists and forming a strong PR campaign. 24th October
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10:00-12:00 Cost: £25. Writing a Successful Business Plan Pete Schonbeck, a Business Advisor and Growth Accelerator Coach at London Small Business Centre, leads a thorough workshop on crafting a business plan. This will include advice on writing an executive summary, a financial overview and gathering market research. 27th October 14:00-17:00 Cost: £25. City Academy www.city-academy.com Email: info@city-academy.com T: 0207 042 8833 33 Eyre Street Hill London EC1R 5ET Stand-Up Comedy with Beginners’ Showcase Work on your funny bone, get industry tips and develop new material on this short course, led by professional comedian Kate Smurthwaite. Participants can expect feedback along the way, and will learn how to deal with hecklers, before staging a showcase performance. 24th October - 5th December (7-week course, every Monday) 19:00-21:00 Location: The Joint, 1-6 Field Street, WC1X 9DG Cost: £219. Blogging for Beginners Ever wondered what it takes to be a blogger? Swot up on the creative content basics in just one day, tutored by author and blogger Shyama Perera. You’ll leave with both short and long-term strategies and campaign ideas to help your blog flourish. 6th November 10:30-17:30 Cost: £129. Cookery School at Little Portland Street www.cookeryschool.co.uk Email: info@cookeryschool.co.uk T: 020 7631 4590 15b Little Portland Street London W1W 8BW All Day Middle Eastern Food Add a range of Middle Eastern dishes to your repertoire, including pitta bread, spanakopita, a chicken tagine, and cardamom and rosewater ice cream. Every recipe will be made with sustainably sourced ingredients and (the best bit!) you don’t have to wash up afterwards. 22nd October 09:30-14:30 Cost: £175. Gluten-Free Cooking We all know someone who’s had to cut out gluten from their diet, and some substitute foods can taste lacklustre. This class focuses on additive-free alternatives such as cheese soufflé, polenta-based pizza, and upsidedown berry cake. Please note the class may not be suitable for those with severe coeliac
disease, as some ingredients may contain small traces of gluten. 29th October 09:30-14:30 Cost: £175. Guardian Masterclasses www.theguardian.com/guardianmasterclasses Email: masterclasses@theguardian.com T: 0800 088 2586 The Guardian Kings Place 90 York Way London N1 9GU Masterclass in Flirting Social and cultural anthropologist Jean Smith leads a practical evening class on the art of flirting, with methods based on scientific research. There will also be a Q&A. 19th October 18:30-21:30 Cost: £49, including drinks. Art Appreciation at the V&A Get an art critic’s perspective on one of the world’s best museums. Jonathan Jones, who writes for The Guardian and is the author of two art books, will explain how to interpret and appreciate artwork. 5th November 10:00-12:30 Location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL Cost: £99, including drinks. Hairy Goat Photography Tours and Workshops www.hairygoat.net Email: corinna@hairygoat.net T: 07540 832771 London EC3V 6LA Low Level Light and Night Photography This small group workshop teaches you how to take better photos at night, including capturing movement and dealing with artificial light sources, using locations between London Bridge and Tower Bridge. Bring your own camera and a tripod extending over 140cm. 19th October or 30th October 17:10-20:10 (19th October) or 15:5518:55 (30th October) Location: Meet outside Marks & Spencer, London Bridge Station Cost: £110. Inner Space www.innerspace.org.uk Email: info@innerspace.org.uk T: 020 7836 6688 36 Shorts Gardens Covent Garden London WC1H 9AB Relaxation Strategies Examine what’s really causing you stress, then apply tools and techniques to cope under pressure. A must for frazzled Londoners. 18th October (2-week course, every Tuesday) 18:00-19:00
Cost: Free, but donations welcome. Mary Ward Centre www.marywardcentre.ac.uk Email: Roz.Nyugi@marywardcentre. ac.uk (vocational and life skills courses), humanities@marywardcentre.ac.uk (humanities courses) T: 020 7269 6000 42 Queen Square London WC1N 3AQ Public Speaking Workshop Be ready to face any public speaking situation and speak with conviction after attending this two-day workshop. Master your vocal technique, including projection and breathing, to make an impact. 5th and 12th November 10:30-17:30 Cost: £53 Concessions: £19 (see website for eligibility). Whores, Heretics and Lepers Uncover the persecuted outsiders of medieval history and their representations in art, religious propaganda and literature, in just one day. 29th October 10:30-15:30 Cost: £35 Concessions: £19 (see website for eligibility). Royal Institution www.rigb.org Email: events@ri.ac.uk T: 020 7409 2992 21 Albemarle Street London W1S 4BS Introduction to Quantum Theory If your idea of fun is late night physics lessons, Christmas has come early. Learn about in-depth quantum information theory and its applications, such as teleportation, with physicist James Millen. Participants should have an A-level standard of maths. 7th-11th November (one-week short course, 90 minutes every evening) 19:00-20:30 Cost: £190 Concessions: £160 (members of the Royal Institution). Southbank Centre www.southbankcentre.co.uk Email: customer@southbankcentre.co.uk T: 0207 960 4200 Belvedere Road London SE1 8XX Dance into Winter: Tango If Strictly Come Dancing has left you longing to hit the dancefloor, now’s your chance. Pick up the tango with just two weekly lessons. Those who enjoy it could go on to master ballroom and swing in future classes (additional fees payable). Suitable for ages 16+. 7th and 14th November 19:00-20:30 Location: Spirit Level (Violet Room) at Royal Festival Hall Cost: £20 plus booking fee.
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Education Imperial College crowned London’s top University By Ione Bingley
I
mperial College has been named the top university in London according to The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017. Imperial’s research was found to have a greater impact on the economy and society than any other university. It had the best impact results in the country in eight of the 14 areas in which it submitted work, with 90% of its research rated as world-leading or internationally excellent. Imperial describes itself as the only university in the UK to focus exclusively on science, medicine, engineering and business. Never ranked lower than fifth position in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide league table, Imperial’s graduates have the best employment rate in the UK of any multi-faculty university and the secondhighest average starting salaries.
Regional rank
Name
National ranking
1
Imperial College
2
University College London
6
3
LSE
8
4
King's College London
27
5
Royal Holloway
34
6
Soas
35
7
Queen Mary
40
8
City
50
9
Brunel
=54
10
Goldsmiths
=54
11 12
St George's Middlesex
70 74
13
Roehampton
78
14
West London
84
15
Greenwich
107
16
Arts London
109
17
St Mary's, Twickenham
116
18
Westminster
117
19
London South Bank
120
20
Kingston
122
21
East London
123
22
London Met
127
Last year’s national ranking
5
3 10
2016 National student survey Teaching excellence (%) 74.8 75.5
2016 National student survey Student experience (%) 83.2 81.9
Graduate prospects (% in professional jobs or graduate-level study) 90.5 87.2
Completion rate (%) 96.4 95.7
9
68.5
73.1
84.6
97.6
27
74.9
80.3
88
94
36
81.9
83.9
69.3
93.8
44
79.5
83.1
70.8
84.3
34
76.7
80.7
79.8
90.5
=41
80.1
84.3
82.6
85.4
60
78.6
83.2
71.2
87.4
66
77.4
76.8
59.8
84
48
72.7
77.2
95.1
94.8
=85 78
79.3 77.4
82.3 79.8
70.3 64.2
74.7 78.7
121
81.9
84.4
68.9
74.9
106
77.3
80.4
66
83.2
99
76.4
73.9
61.2
83.7
79
83.3
70.1
81.3
100= 115=
73.5
81.3
58.1
81.5
120
77.1
81.2
75.4
73.2
111
75.2
79.7
64.6
81.3
127
79.9
82.6
52.3
73.3
125
77.3
81.4
59.2
71.1
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has moved up one place this year from ninth to eighth, despite the final year undergraduates putting the university in last place nationally for both student satisfaction with teaching quality, and their wider student experience. The school’s strength in other areas, however, ensured that it was still in the top 10
overall. The league table is made up of nine indicators including student satisfaction with teaching quality and their wider student experience, research quality, graduate prospects, entrance qualifications held by new students, degree results achieved, student/staff ratios, service and facilities spend, and degree completion rates.
Alleyn’s
Co-educational excellence in a caring community for boys and girls aged 11-18. “The quality of the pupils’ personal development is outstanding” - ISI, 2013
You are warmly invited to our next Open Events. The 11+ and 13+ admissions event will take place on 2 November at 2.00pm. Our 16+ event will take place on 1 November from 2.30pm to 4.30pm. Bursaries and scholarships are available; visit our website for details. www.alleyns.org.uk / 020 8557 1500 / Townley Road, Dulwich SE22 8SU
020 7738 2348
October 2016
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
Education ‘Application Apathy’ hurting Teachers and Schools • Two thirds of teachers say lengthy job application process has prevented them from applying for new positions • Roughly a third (34%) of teachers tend to apply for just one position because of the effort involved • Nine in 10 teachers want a simple, universal application process that is valid across all schools rather than specific to each. London, 22 September 2016. ‘Application apathy’ among UK teachers is disincentivising many from applying for new jobs, and potentially having a negative impact on school morale and pupils’ education, according to the results of a new survey* and report, The Invisible Barrier, by Randstad Education. Two thirds (66%) of the teachers polled by Randstad said they have failed to complete an application for a job because the process is too time-consuming and requires an energy they simply do not have after their teaching commitments. And even when they do complete an application, a significant percentage of teachers respond to only one vacancy: just
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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk over a third (34%) said they applied for one position alone because of the time involved. An overwhelming nine in 10 teachers, meanwhile, have said they would welcome a simple and universal application process that would streamline the entire process and enable them to apply for multiple jobs more easily. The latest findings from Randstad Education, published in two of the busiest months for teacher recruitment, September and October, follow a separate poll of 1365 teachers by the recruiter in March, where 30% of respondents said they are considering leaving the sector in the next 12 months. Stewart McCoy, Strategic Operations Director (Randstad Education), commented: “Application apathy is gripping the profession and is adding to the already drastic impact of teacher shortages on schools. At a time when many teachers are considering leaving the sector, having others languishing in roles and schools they would rather not be because they are disincentivised from applying for new roles cannot be good for either school morale or pupils’ education. “With a third of teachers tending to apply for just the one role, for schools themselves it is more important than ever to stand out from the crowd by clearly defining their vision, demonstrating their leadership and promoting their results. Failure to promote themselves could mean schools face a teacher drought and miss out on the dynamism and impetus that comes with new staff.”
Art on Show at KCC The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s Schools ‘Art on Show’ project celebrates work produced within schools in the borough, and aims to encourage children and young people to pursue and develop their interests and talents in art. Keiron Debruyne, a Level 3 Photography student, won first prize at the Art Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s Art on Show Photography Category. Photography / Digital Art Prize. So we decided to have a Q&A with Keiron to find out more: Describe Kensington and Chelsea College in 3 Words? No corners cut. Talk me through the exhibition: I’m putting on a piece based on a constructivist point of view of London. I’ve helped the class to create the website and
Based in the heart of Chelsea, a school with a long and proud history of academia, the arts, sports and music.
Early years | Pre-Preparatory | Preparatory
“Pupils’ success is the result of the excellent quality of teaching” Latest ISI Report
Excellent 11+ and 13+ entrance exam track record.
www.thehampshireschoolchelsea.co.uk 020 7352 7077
poster and any branding that we’re using across social media. We’re almost there, can’t wait really. How would you describe your photography style? My photographic style is quite raw and straight up. I don’t try and hide anything. This is probably because of my liking to portraiture and documentary photography. I find a lot of my strongest pieces are my black and white works. Key Inspiration behind your work? The main source of inspiration I’ve had for a long, long time is a UK based photographer called Jack Davison. I love his subject matter, style and aesthetic. He’s been featured in the BJP twice I think. Favourite photography of all time? Favourite photography of all time?? That’s such a hard question, seen too many images in only 19 years. I’d say my favourite photograph is probably one of Jack Davison’s documentary shots of two dogs in a field when it’s snowed. When I emailed him about it during a unit for an artist study he mentioned it may have been inspired by the relatively famous image by Kodelka. Final words on your time at KCC ? So glad I’m almost there (finally), but it will be sad leaving these great people I’ve met. Keiron Debruyne Portfolio: www.kierond.tumblr.com/
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October April/May 2016 2011
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
wipe us out. Protagonists in his stories had a tendency to end up either dead or hopelessly insane. Lovecraft’s world had sharp teeth just below its surface and civilisation was a tiny guttering candle in a vast darkness. Whilst he is now widely read and enormously popular, Lovecraft’s stories were never published in book
Right: Image © Arkham Society
www.KCWToday.co.uk
Literature The Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft By Max Feldman
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ith Halloween just around the corner Max Feldman takes a look at one of the foundational pillars of Horror literature; H.P. Lovecraft, whose resounding influence is felt more today than ever. “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” H.P Lovecraft Horror occupies a strange space in our cultural heritage. It’s mostly disregarded as a ‘serious’ art form, despite the fact that fear of the unknown and uncanny is one of the strongest and most primal instincts in mankind. In the early twentieth century, a deeply socially awkward American by the name of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, who scribbled down what he called “Cosmic Horror” made that fear his bread and butter. Lovecraft expanded the fear of the unknown into a world that teamed with unearthly creatures with inconceivable aims and motivations, who allowed mankind to exist simply because we are so far beneath their notice it hasn’t occurred to them to
Artwork by Dan Hillier
26 October –19 November
Written by John Milton Directed by Lucy Bailey
#Comus
shakespearesglobe.com
form during his lifetime, and appeared instead in the pages of pulp magazines with names like Astounding and Weird Tales. He died in almost total obscurity, convinced that his stories had made no impression on the literary world. Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine Lovecraft faced such poverty and lack of recognition; modern writers venerate Lovecraft with Stephen King claiming that “it is beyond doubt that H. P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the Twentieth Century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale." The World Fantasy Award trophy bears his likeness, his work appears in the Library of America, regions of Pluto are even named after some of his nightmarish creatures, and his face is printed on everything from beer cans to baby books to thong underwear. Lovecraft hasn’t just escaped anonymity; he’s reached the highest levels of critical and cultural success. Quite the coup for an author who stories bear such crowd pleasing titles as The Lurking Fear, The Dunwich Horror and The Rats in the Walls. Everyday scenarios held little allure for Lovecraft: “I could not write about ‘ordinary people’ because I am not in the least interested in them,” he once
wrote. And so, he wrote about the bizarre: cannibalism, reanimation, selfimmolation, murder, madness-inducing meteors, human-fish hybrids, aliens. His style, verbose and packed with archaic or obscure descriptors (you will never read an author who describes the moon as “gibbous” as many times as Lovecraft) but there’s something in the florid maximalist style that, rather than self-indulgence, lends his prose a kind of fever dream intensity. A deeply troubled man, he was not without his demons and it is impossible to escape the fact that Lovecraft was clearly deeply racist by both modern and even the contemporary standards of the early 20th century. The quality of his work is obviously no excuse for this but any student of culture looking for the origins of pop culture’s obsessions with the alien and the incompressible would do themselves a disservice if they have never cracked the spine on a Lovecraft. Recommended Reading: Lovecraft was a prolific short story writer and The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Rats In The Walls and At The Mountains of Madness are all excellent starting points for Lovecraft’s oeuvre.
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October 2016
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
Poetry
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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk
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UTUMN HAS ARRIVED and therefore we set the tone for this month’s poetry page with Keats’s ode To Autumn. This is one of the most widely anthologised poems in the English language. Seamus Heaney during his Nobel Peace Prize winning speech, summed up why this might be the case, claiming ‘Even as a schoolboy, I loved John Keats’s ode To Autumn for being an ark of the covenant between language and sensation’. Keats wrote To Autumn in 1819 when he was going through his biggest learning curve as a poet. Consequently, this is considered one of the most productive periods of his life and a time when he developed and refined a richness and musicality in his work that earned him such greatness. Following closely on the heels of the autumn equinox is All Hallows Eve. In stark contrast to Keats and in acknowledgement of this autumn tradition, we’ve included Shakespeare’s Song of the Witches from Macbeth. The three witches represent evil, conflict, chaos and darkness, and foretell the fate of the murderous Macbeth. Written during the reign of James I, the play warns of the dangers of excessive ambition. This is a dark and cynical play and reflects the political insecurities that existed at a time when Catholics were enduring ongoing persecution by a Protestant monarchy. The play was written in 1606, a year after an attempt by a small group of Catholic conspirators to blow up King James I and his Government, several of whom were known to Shakespeare. This leads us nicely to our final choice and the celebration of another autumn tradition, Guy Fawkes Day. On November 5th 1605, one of the Catholic conspirator, Guido Fawkes (despite being Protestant by birth), was foiled in the cellars of Parliament about to ignite two barrels of Gun Powder. The capture resulted in the conviction of all the conspirators for high treason and a trip to the gallows to be hung, drawn and quartered. However, despite his sentence, Fawkes did not die in the same manner as his co-conspirators. It is a little known fact that in an attempt to avoid a gruesome death Fawkes in fact leapt to his death and died of a broken neck. The Fifth of November, written around 1870, is an English Folk Verse and the source of the saying “remember, remember the fifth of November.” The traditional poem can be found in several variations and we have included this version here for the saying to be enjoyed in its wider context.
To Autumn
The Fifth of November
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
Remember, remember! The fifth of November, Gunpowder treason and plot;
by John Keats (1819)
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep, Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twinéd flowers: And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Steady thy laden head across a brook; Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours. Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, While barréd clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
Compiled & Edited by: Dr Emma Trehane MA PhD
English Folk Verse (c.1870)
I know of no reason Why the Gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot! Guy Fawkes and his companions Did the scheme contrive, To blow the King and Parliament All up alive. Threescore barrels, laid below, To prove old England's overthrow. But, by God's providence, him they catch, With a dark lantern, lighting a match! A stick and a stake For King James's sake! If you won't give me one, I'll take two, The better for me, And the worse for you. A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope, A penn'orth of cheese to choke him, A pint of beer to wash it down, And a jolly good fire to burn him. Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring! Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King! Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!
Song of the Witches:
“Double, double toil and trouble” an extract. by William Shakespeare (1606) Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg and howlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good.
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October April/May 2016 2011
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
www.KCWToday.co.uk
Dining Out Keeper of the Quaich
Photograph © Capital Hotel
Photograph © Rod MacClancy
By Rod MacClancy
beautifully arranged bar-side collection of whiskys, waters, fruits and cheeses. We were to be tasting three Single malts: a highland limited edition Glenmorangie, a 16 year old Speyside Daluaine and a 15 year old Islay Bowmore Black Rock. Cesar explained the fundamentals of whisky making and aging and ensured we started with a clean palate by eating frozen grapes and slices of apple, we started with the Glenmorangie a limited edition of unknown age but accurately described as a “Midwinter night’s dream” undiluted by ice or water on first sip a wonderful flavour that attacked the front of the mouth, before the second sip we were invited to eat some of the cheese which slightly coated the inside of the mouth and then on tasting again it felt like a smoother experience, more a seduction than an attack. I then added a few drops of the water sourced from close to the distillery (in fact all three waters were from the same source as each distillery used) The question of ice or no ice was countered by the provision of ice lump sized cubes of granite which if stored in the freezer could be used as coolers should you prefer them. The Daluaine was tasted in a
A family-owned and run boutique 5 star hotel in Knightsbridge
Your neighbourhood guest room With Private Dining by Michelin starred
The perfect spot for entertaining family and friends.
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hisky, one of the reasons God created Scotland, luckily the Scots magnanimously export it to the rest of us Sassenachs. Some of the best Whiskies reside in the bar of the Capital Hotel in Basil Street under the curatorship of Cesar Da Silva one of the elite group of whisky aficionados known as the Keepers of the Quaich. The hotel offered us the experience of one of their Whisky and Cheese Masterclasses, definitely not an offer to be refused. We arrived to be greeted by Cesar himself who immediately put us at our ease with an unusual whisky cocktail called a Glentini consisting of his secret blend of Glenlivet, apple and grapefruit juices sweated orange peel, orange rum liquor and topped with a drop of Lagavulin. Very refreshing! We were then presented with a
similar fashion and it was noticeable that it affected a different part of the mouth, another fine whisky. The cheese accompanying it was a three year old mature cheese from Davidstow a beautifully crumbly cheddar laced with salt crystals and which melted on the tongue (currently only available from Ocado at £4 per quarter Kilo) The final whisky was a smoky, peaty, seaweedy Islay Bowmore a fifteen year old and without doubt my personal favourite, but as Cesar so rightly pointed out different moods, different weather and even different companions may alter your choice of which single malt to satisfy your current desire. Should you wish to experience the Wine and Cheese Masterclass the cost is £45.00 per person and bookings should be made with the Capital Hotel Bar on 020 7591 1202
22-24 Basil Street Knightsbridge SW3 1AT
020 7589 5171
www.capitalhotel.co.uk
October 2016
Dining Out
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
at Lancaster London by Cynthia Pickard
I
Lutyens
85 Fleet Street Holborn, London EC4 T: 020 7583 8385 The old Reuters building at 85 Fleet Street (originally built to house the Press Association) was the creation of the British architect Edwin Lutyens, a visionary architect, who took traditional styles and adapted them for modern purposes and tastes. It is no coincidence that Sir Terrence Conran, a man of similar creative and entrepreneurial vision, chose to open a restaurant in this building and in the name of the architect. Lutyens opened in 2009 and was created by Conran. The main restaurant is light, airy and spacious and designed around some wonderful architectural features such as the building’s original structural steel columns. These are important details as we are reminded that while we are eating out at a modern British restaurant we are doing so in a place of some historical and architectural significance. Lutyens houses two bars, two restaurants and an outside terrace, four private meeting and dining rooms and a private members’ club. It’s open from breakfast through to late night cocktails. We started our
and bringing the tradition up to date, Lancaster London’s latest ARTea is a very creative Halloween Afternoon Tea staged in a wooden presentation box out of a miasma of dry ice with spiders peeking out of every corner. Including savoury classics with a fantastically frightful twist such as: Axe carved beef with horseradish, smashed egg and crazy wild cress on blood bread, Cucumber coffins and Devilled chorizo tartlets. My companion was treated to the vegetarian versions including a
delightful courgette and tarragon tartlet. (A gluten-free option is also available.) Ingredients are all top quality and prepared to order, the salmon is smoked on the premises and the honey comes from the hotel’s own hives on the fourth floor. Fresh out the oven pumpkin scones follow, served warm with cremated blood orange marmalade plus the winning idea of artists’ tubes of home-made strawberry jam and Cornish clotted cream. At this point one has to slow down and take
evening in the Wine bar and Bistro which offers over 40 wines. It’s a perfect place to have lunchtime or after work drink before moving on to the restaurant. On the other side of the building is the main restaurant which is a modern take on a classic French brasserie. The a la carte menu is extensive with a focus on seasonal Modern European cuisine. Where we were sat we had full view of the busy open kitchen (one of Conran additional design features) where you can amuse yourself watching the kitchen banter, they are clearly a very happy team. The waiting staff are second to none too and made the whole evening a real pleasure. For the first course we had octopus and chorizo carpaccio, cuttlefish, chilli, lime (£9) and cod fishcake fennel, samphire salad and tartare sauce (£9). The fishcake meal was full of coastal flavours and the fennel in particular set off the whole dish. We followed with new season grouse with glazed carrots, damsons and trompettes (£27) and suckling pork belly with black pudding, girolles and gooseberries (£23). The addition of damsons and gooseberries brought the meal to life and good sharp contrast to the meat. We finished with a baked malt custard with honeycomb, pecan and chocolate chip parfait (£7) which was superb although admittedly too rich for someone who doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth. The Sommelier chose the right wine to accompany the
meal. A classic crisp Italian white: Fiano di Avellino, 2011, from Campanina (£60). After sampling some other wines and champagnes in the Bistro before we dined it is fair to say Lutyens does have one of the best wine lists in the city as it claims on their website. Considering the quality of the food and wines and the fact you are dining in the city heartland everything on the menu (aside from the odd bottle of Montrachet) is very reasonably priced. From a personal perspective, this was an appealing venue in which to do a restaurant review. Besides dining in building of some note and with a unique relationship to the Press we were sat feet
it easy in order to make space for the host of spooky sweet treats that follow, such as Spider web lollypops, Shattered glass cupcakes, purple Frankenstein macaroons and Bloodied finger éclairs. If not one might end up in the Chocolate Graveyard, actually a delicious chocolate mousse with biscuit soil. To accompany this entertaining occasion there is a large and varied selection of fresh loose-leaf teas includes Spiced Chai, Persian Pomegranate, Pai Mu Tan, a rare white tea and Dragonwell Green. With the aid of a ‘tea-timer’ each type of tea is infused for the correct length of time before being poured into double skinned see-through cups. There’s also an option to take a glass of Champagne, which goes down rather well with this feast of a tea. Let’s hope such seasonal celebrations contribute to good luck throughout the Winter of 2016! The fun Halloween Afternoon Tea will be served in the four star hotel’s sumptuous first floor Lounge Bar from 2pm until 5.30pm. Available from 17 until 31 October 2016 and priced at just £35 per person. Throughout the year these creatively themed Afternoon Teas will continue, tying in with special dates, movie releases and London events.
Photograph © Lancaster Hotel
online: www.KCWToday.co.uk
Halloween ARTea
always believed that Halloween celebrations, carved pumpkins and trick-or-treating were just commercial inventions imported from the USA, however the traditions are much older. Way back, starting in the 6th Century, the Christian All Hallows day was the time for remembering the dead. This led to the tradition of children going from house to house asking for ‘soul cakes’ in return for praying for the souls of the donors. There may also be Celtic origins relating to the end of summer and harvest time. From as early as the 15th Century in Scotland and Ireland poor people went from house to house ‘guising’, dressed up in costumes asking for food in exchange for receiving good luck in the winter ahead. Holes for eyes and mouths were originally cut out of turnips to make frightening skulls. Later when the Irish and Scots emigrated to the USA they took their traditions with them and the Americans used pumpkins instead. If you feel like having some fun
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www.lancasterlondon.com Lancaster Terrace, London W2 2TY T: 020 7551 6000 from Christopher Wren’s, St Bride’s, AKA the Church of the Journalists. We had a 7 foot view across the narrow outdoor passageway to an area that has been central to some of the most important moments in London’s history: the great fire of London, the invention of Caxton’s press, the rise of the British newspaper industry and the incendiary bombings of World War II to name a few. For the quality, price and sensory experience Lutyens is a must for anyone with an appreciation for fine food and wine and it comes highly recommend by KCW Today. Dr Emma Trehane Photograph © Lutyens
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October April/May 2016 2011
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
looking clouds in the eye, and giving the thumbs up to passing jet pilots. You can`t argue with the vista though, London has never looked so much like a 3D pop up picture book. Splintered prisms of light from the setting sun thread their way through the clouds to bathe the bar below, and selfies are taken by the bucket load. My equilibrium is helped by a beer, and M and I get on with the ordering. I’m beginning to get used to the idea of St Pauls appearing to be 4 inches tall. Eschewing the offer of bread, we elect to go straight for the starters, Dorset Crab and a Maple cure trout. Portions are fine dining size i.e. not likely to risk you
The cod was perfectly cooked, but only a couple of tiny shavings betrayed the presence of the octopus to the naked eye, which seemed a pity. There’s a bit of a debate about how much you let the main ingredient take centre stage, and how much the supporting cast is allowed to shine, but for me, although it was thoroughly enjoyable dish I would let the octopus out from the shadows a bit more. The same could be said of M’s dish, which was an interpretation of a hearty French and Italian rustic stalwart. Although we took great pleasure in cleaning the plate, the girolles barely made their presence felt. For desserts we shared the Red wine, poached pear, walnut crumble, vanilla and pear sorbet. Whatever else you feel about a meal, if you have an missing a course. The crab was delightful, absolutely perfect dessert the world takes on a benign glow. It might also be ably the smear of avocado a little bland, but assisted by a coffee and a grappa… the pink grapefruit a pleasing touch. It was well worth overcoming my The two tiny triangles of toast rescued initial disquiet over the seeming lack it from amuse bouche category. M’s of walls between me and a huge drop maple cure trout with taramasalata and to earth. Done well, the glass and steel radish had an almost confit-like quality, that purports to be modern ‘landmark’ complimented expertly with radish, a architecture can allow a view on the cobnut (?) crumble and golden beet. That’s the one to order on the next visit. world that is in its own way unique, and the chance to dine rather than just take a For mains we had chosen Peterhead snap and move on makes it so much the Cod with confit octopus & baby new better. potatoes and the Roast Caldecott This venue is very popular, so unless chicken breast with borlotti beans, you like queuing it’s a good idea to girolles & roasting juices. A bottle of contact Reservations on 0333 772 0020 Puglian Malvasa Nero is a gorgeously or restaurants@skygarden.london full bodied thing, so we ordered one!
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Dining Out Vertically Unchallenged
By David Hughes Darwin Brasserie, Sky Garden, 1 Sky Garden Walk, London EC3M 8AF
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s I pulled back from the glass precipice, I had one wonky eye fixed grimly on the ship moored serenely a couple of hundred feet below me, and the other on the forty foot drop to the bar on my right. As you might have guessed, I’m generally more in favour of terra firma, however on this occasion I braved the airport security detail on floor G and a few seconds and an ear pop later I stepped out at floor 35. A quick change of lifts or a couple of flights of stairs and you are at the eyrie that is the Darwin Brasserie on floor 36. Human beings will go a long way for a spectacular view; moderately unfit types stagger up to remote escarpments to gasp at sunsets, whilst the more hardcore will get out the climbing ropes and ice axes. Why did I climb Everest, K2 and the Matterhorn? Ah, well, the view is spectacular! My corner table right by the plate glass window is no doubt a favoured spot for thrill seekers. For me, it took a little while to get adjusted to
Capital recipes
by Nathan Outlaw & Tom Brown
Baked apple with vanilla-honey yoghurt Serves 6
Ingredients: 6 eating apples (score around the circumference of each with a small, sharp knife) 3 tbsp light muscovado sugar 1 tsp ground cinnamon 120g piece of butter 100ml Verjus 200g Greek yoghurt 40ml honey 1 vanilla pod Demerara sugar to sprinkle Method: Preheat your oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Sit each apple on the worktop and use an apple corer to remove the core from each one. Mix the muscovado sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl. Stand the apples, side by side, in a baking dish. Using your fingers, sprinkle the sugar mixture over the apples, using up all the mixture between them. Add an equal amount of butter to the top of each and then drizzle over the Verjus. Put the dish in the oven for 20 minutes or until the apples are cooked through. Meanwhile, place the yoghurt, vanilla and honey into a bowl and whisk together. When the apples are cooked allow them to cool slightly and serve on a plate with the yoghurt and the fruit juice from the oven tray juices.
Baked cod with green sauce Serves 4
Ingredients For the cod: 4x 180g fillets cod skin on Drizzle of olive oil for cooking Salt and pepper For the sauce: 100g smoked almonds 2 tsp capers 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped 1 shallot, peeled and chopped 1 handful of picked and washed flat leaf parsley 1 handful of picked and washed basil 200ml extra virgin olive oil 100ml Verjus Salt and pepper Method: Pre heat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Roast the nuts in the oven for 4 minutes. Remove the nuts from the oven and allow them to cool. In a food processor, add the shallot, garlic, capers, nuts, herbs and the Verjus and blend for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the salt and pepper. Start the blender again and pour in the olive oil. When all the olive oil has been added, stop the blender and transfer the sauce to a bowl and reserve. To cook the cod, oil the fish all over and season the fish with salt and pepper. Lay the fish on an oven tray lined with silicone paper. Place the tray in the oven and bake for 7-8 minutes until cooked. When the fish is cooked, remove the skin carefully and season with a little salt. To serve, place the cod fillets on 4 plates and spoon over 2 or 3 spoonful of the sauce. Serve with a seasonal salad on the side, dressed also with the oil from the sauce.
020 7738 2348
October 2016
Lifestyle & Fashion The History of Hatton Garden:
London’s Diamond District By Ione Bingley
W
ith development in the Capital hoisting up rent and rate prices, it looks like the golden era of London’s world-renowned diamond district, Hatton Garden, could be coming to an end. Since the 1870s, Hatton Garden has been known as London’s jewellery quarter and the centre of the UK diamond trade. It takes its name from Christopher Hatton, a handsome courtier of Elizabeth I. The Queen, impressed by Hatton’s dancing, gave him a house and grounds in Ely Palace in 1576. The once famous garden was converted into the streets and houses of today’s Hatton Garden in the midseventeenth century. Two hundred years later, in 1866, a farmer’s son found a brilliant pebble on the banks of the Orange River near Hopetown, South Africa. The pebble turned out to be the 84.5-carat (4.5g) diamond that marked the spot for the world-famous Kimberley diamond mine. Prospectors rushed to the mine, but by 1888, following a series of mergers with smaller companies, British diamond
magnate Cecil Rhodes had seen off the competition, winning a 95% monopoly over the World’s diamond market as De Beers Consolidated Mines. The Kimberly mine yielded three tons of diamonds before its closure in 1914. In 1890, Rhodes invited a group of ten Jewish firms based in Hatton Garden to form a purchasing syndicate. This meant that all the De Beers diamonds were to be sold only in London’s Hatton Garden through their wholesalers, who became the biggest diamond distributers in the world. By 1895 there were over 100 diamond merchants and brokers operating from Hatton Garden with many other trades such as cutters, polishers, goldbeaters, silversmiths and pearl merchants rapidly moving in as the industry boomed. By 1910 Hatton Garden was firmly established as London’s diamond and jewellery quarter with over 200 businesses and workshops related to the trade established there. In the 1930s, under their new chairman Ernest Oppenheimer, De Beers set up their own headquarters on Charter House Street on the corner of today’s Hatton Garden district. It was this historical building that two of the most successful advertising campaigns of all times were born: “Diamonds are forever” and “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”. More recently the reputation of the global diamond trade has suffered from stories of ‘blood diamonds’; those coming from war-torn nations that are sold to finance conflict. The international diamond
Back to flats
Everyday footwear for city folk By Lynne McGowan If you’re fed up with wobbling about on pencil stubs or clunking about on blocks, here is some good news – flats are back. In fact they never left but now they come in a dramatically diverse choice from every day sporty to sleek and pointy. From big biker buckles to multiple dolly straps, wafer thin slippers to platforms the size of doorsteps there is something for everyone’s taste and pocket. Athleisure flats predominate ranging from sneakers, sliders and ‘slip-ons’ to the ubiquitous trainer. Brands from Adidas to Zara are parading casual footwear, all fitting the criteria for having flat flexible soles able to absorb impact and meet the needs for those on the go, go, go. Aside from the ‘Big Boys’ trainer brands, Clarkes, Ecco and Geox offer a wide selection and long standing Russell & Bromley are prominent with elastic sided sneakers in suede and luxurious velvet. It all started with the good old plimsoll, a simple ‘wear all’, sounding all very ‘British Junior School’ and having a long history as Liverpool beach wear in the 1870s. The horizontal band around the shoe was named after the plimsoll line on a boat; below wet, above dry. US
versions were launched in the 1890’s and the plummy plimsoll was rebranded as a sneaky sneaker possibly referring to the soft rubber soles enabling naughty boys to creep around in silence. In the 1950s when I was at junior school they were also known as pumps but they are now known for quite a different flat shoe of course; delicate ballerinas, handily tucked into a handbag and worn after abandoning the high heels. Back in the US, Converse and Vans took the generic laced canvas shoe and made it cool with a high-top, thickened soles and associations with basket ball stars. The so called classics have lately made a come back with Vans calling one of their lines ‘Old Skool’ based on a
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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk community, however, has a zero-tolerance policy with a strict set of safeguards in place to stop these illegal diamonds from entering the supply chain. All the diamonds from Hatton Garden wholesalers and jewellery retailers must be purchased from legal companies with certification for the diamonds leaving a paper trail all the way back to the source. While Hatton Garden still hosts workshops and brokers, the area is becoming increasingly developed in favour of residential properties. This year De Beers even saw its legendary headquarters shut its doors as it moved its sorting and auction process to Botswana, where 70% of their diamonds are sourced. Lisa Levinson, Country Manager of the De Beers Group’s newest jewellery brand, Forevermark, laments the dissolution of the historic area, “Hatton Garden
is a neighbourhood of great historical importance to the diamond industry in the UK and worldwide. There are great benefits to having gemmology laboratories, mining companies, traders, wholesalers, designers and manufacturers in the same area; there is a natural dissemination of knowledge and expertise that is useful for the industry as a whole. It's important to protect the structures that further research and development in the industry. It's also important to encourage continued artistic expression and development of craftsmanship.”
traditional canvas tennis shoe. Worn on court or off tennis shoes are still going strong with the classic Green Flash Dunlops, originally worn by Fred Perry in the 30s and only costing around £30. Reeboks began as Foster & Sons in Bolton, Lancashire and developed athletic shoes for the track in the 1890’s supplying them for the Paris Olympics in 1924. Later in Germany, Adolf ‘Adi’ Dassler began his sport shoe empire from his mother’s kitchen in Bavaria, cleverly marketing his technical sports shoes to athletes in the 1936 Olympics. In the 1960’s as school dress codes relaxed and the leisure industry grew, athletic flat footwear sales expanded, assisted by life style habits like jogging and ultimately the trainer as we know it was born. So ubiquitous is this sports shoe that just about everyone in the world has a pair and is best summed up by Tony Turk as a ‘corner stone of popular culture, sport and style.’ The other perennial flat to have weathered the trainer onslaught is the loafer. Since Gucci stuck a snaffle bit small enough to fit a rocking horse on the front of these eponymous shoes, they have been consistently celebrated in some form or another and worn by many from lawyer to layabout. Originating in London in the 1840s as a country house slipper shoe and named after cow rather than aristocratic habits, the loafer evolved when a Norwegian shoemaker went to the
US and learnt to make Iroquoi leather moccasins. A picture of Norwegian farmers posing in a cattle loafing area, the row of straw beds for cows to have a siesta after milking, inspired the name. The Spalding family from New Hampshire seized upon the name and shoe, branding and manufacturing them in the 1930s. Before the Italian bits and tassels, John Bass introduced small flat strap across the top with a slit big enough to hold a penny coin, hence penny loafers, so useful for making those emergency calls from red phone boxes Who said shoes were only made for walking.
In spite of rocketing rent prices pushing the behind-the-scenes jewellery businesses out of the area, Hatton Garden will always hold a glittering place in London’s history books, but its days as the diamond capital of the world are over.
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Events October 2016 DANCE Ends October 15 Fagin’s Twist: Avant Garde Dance Company The Place The ’untold story of the notorious, complex and perhaps misunderstood villain’. Tony Adigun’s Company in this adaptation of the classic Dickens novel from an unusual perspective: evening of pure dance. 17 Duke’s Road WC1H 9PY 020 7121 1100 Ends October 22 Dance Umbrella, an international dance festival, celebrates 21st CenturyChoreography across the capital. danseumberella.co.uk/events Ends October 22 Le Fille Mal Gardee: The Royal Ballet Royal Opera House Based on an 18th century ballet, Frederick Ashton created one of his most delightful pieces, designed by Osbert Lancaster with music by Ferdinand Herold. Classical dance with elements from British folk and Music Hall. Covent Garden WC2E 9DD 020 7304 4000 October 12 -14 Dimitris Papaioannou: Primal Matter The Old Truman Brewery The director, dancer and choreographer uses his body in a personal response to the new politics and social realities of the modern Europe demonstrating the struggle between mind and matter, creation and creator. he uses his art ‘ to take story telling to a new level’. 91 Brick Lane E1 6QL October 13 - 14 Softmachine: Surjit & XiaoKe & XiZihan - Choy Ka Fai Lilian Baylis Studio A multi-media project that demonstrates the current status of dance across Asia in which Choy Ka Fai from Singapore brings together live performance and documentary footage and showcases the choreography and dance emerging from China and India. Surjit trained in the classical dance of India presents the difficulties of creating dance for European audiences. Rosebery Avenue EC1R 4TN October 14 - 15 Company Wayne McGregor: Entity Trinity Laban Theatre With a ‘pounding soundscape’ by composer Jon Hopkins, technically astonishing with an amazing combination of bodies, technology, lights and film, the work
apparently defies ‘categorisation”. Creekside SE8 3DZ October 18 & 19 Jerome Bel: Gala Sadler’s Wells A showcase of amateur and professional dance with everything in between. 20 dancers from London of various ages and from all walks of life; some young and fit, others old and not. They fill the stage and create an evening of both joy and passion and in some cases failure, Rosebery Avenue EC1R 4TN 0844 412 4300 October 18 - November 5 Burn the Floor: Fire in the Ballroom Peacock Theatre !4 world class dancers perform the Foxtrot, Viennese Waltzes, and other ball-room favourites using new choreography, admirable energy and a sense of fun with a live band and singers 0844 412 4322 October 19 & 20 Hege Haagenrud: Use My Body While It’s Still Young The Place Theatre Using four performers aged 65 to 79, who have all had long successful careers as dancers, the Norwegian choreographer Hege Haagenrud faces the preconceptions of ageing with the realities and sensualities of the actual state. Music is played live by the composer Rebecca Karisjord which accompanies video footage and recordings of personal stories. 17 Dukes Road WC1H 9PY October 20 - 22 Quarantine: Wallflower Battersea Arts Centre The show changes at every performance with a different dancer choosing from her memories of dancing; everything from a wedding waltz, to a drunken jazz evening. Lavender Hill SW11 5TN 020 7223 2223 October 20 - 22 Aditi Magnolias Dance Company: Inter_ rupted The Indian choreographer Aditi Mangaldas, regarded with some suspicion in her own country, because she consistently merges classic Kathak and contemporary styles and confronts modern social concerns Barbican Centre 0845 120 7550 October 22 De Dansers: Dream City Unicorn Theatre Seven musicians share the stage with the dancers who play games inciting chaos, daring and exuberance, discarding their costumes and putting on others like some mad costume party. 3.00pm & 7.00pm
October 30 London Russian Ballet School: Celebration Sadler’s Wells Theatre An exhilarating performance of both classical, and contemporary, new and rarely seen pieces, created by the Artistic Director Evgeny Goremykin featuring two rising stars of the Bolshoi Ballet with live music from the Royal College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music and the Orchestra of S Paul’s. Rosebery Avenue EC1R 4TN EXHIBITIONS Ends October 16 State of Mind: Tracing the Edges of Consciousness Wellcome Collection Featuring a series of changing installations, the exhibition explores such somnambulism, synaesthesia and disorders of the memory and consciousness, in particular when conscious experience is interrupted, damaged or undermined. the works of artists Carla `Mackinnon, Louise K Wilson A.R. Hoped, Mary Kelly and Aya Ben Ron are featured. 183 Euston Road NW1 2BE 020 7611 2222 21 October - 25 November 2016 Frank Avray Wilson: British Tachist Whitford Fine Art presents one of the most significant one-man show of British Abstract Expressionism in the capital with a major exhibition on Frank Avray Wilson (1914 – 2009). Whitford Fine Art 6 Duke Street, St. James's SW1Y 6BN, London UK Monday - Friday, 10am - 6pm October 21 - 23 Ew - Con - Figure Maxilla Studios An exhibition in which the distinctive practices of the artists involved are used to explore, re-imagine, reconstruct, or re-enact aspects of an original work. Workshops over the weekend will be open for the public of all ages to come and respond to the various works. Maxilla Walk W10 6NQ Open studio 11am - 5pm 22 &23 October. Ends October 23 Bjork Digital Somerset House An immersive exhibition including unseen works by the singer. Highlights include a film, and a one-on-one recital; the first track of the singer’s ‘Vulnicuro’ album, footage of Bjork’s mouth as she sings and other diversions. The Strand WC2R 1LA 020 7845 4600 Ends October 30 Rest and its Discontents The Art Pavilion A major new exhibition explores rest and noise, tumult and work through site specific installations, moving images, performance, drawing, poetry, data, sound
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08450 944 911 and music. Mile End E3 4QY hubbubbresearch.org Ends October 30 Sophie Michael: Trip Tate Britain The Light Fantastic: the artist-filmmaker uses her 16mm films to examine ideas around nostalgia and innocence. Milbank SW1P 4RG 020 7887 8888 Ends October 31 Henri Barande Saatchi Gallery Exhibiting in the UK for the first time , this French artist has produced over 40,000 sculptures in 50 years. Duke of York’s HQ Kings Road SW3 4RY 020 7811 3070 November 1 Christie’s Lates: Masters and Makers Join Christie’s for an evening dedicated to great masters and makers of decorative and fine arts. Christie’s specialists will be giving talks and test your knowledge on furniture, silver and porcelain with our Antiques Challenge. Artist Caron Penney will be giving a weaving demonstration works from our upcoming sales of Noble & Private Collections and Old Master & British Paintings will be on view to explore. 6.00 – 8.30 pm. Free entry, cash bar Christie’s South Kensington, 85 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3LD christies.com/lates Ends November 6 Anthony Gormley
Dance Around the World Festival of Traditional Dance
from Around the World Cecil Sharp House 2 Regents Park Road NW1 7AY 22-23 October - 10 am til 11 pm Continuous performances and workshops
No previous experience necessary No need to bring a partner
Saturday Evening -
Latin-American Spectacular plus a Cajun Dance
Sunday Evening -
Anglo-International Ceilidh plus a Tango Dance
£17 each day including evening
£10 evening only £30 weekend ticket (£2 reduction for concessions)
For festival information phone 07749007040 - 020 8769 3619 E-mail - danceoffice@waitrose.com For the programme and tickets see the website
www.datw.org.uk
020 7738 2348
October 2016
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Ends November 6 Engineering the World: Ove Arup and the Philosophy of Total Design V & A Museum Part of the Museum’s Engineering Season. the most influential engineer of the 20th Century was probably Arup ( 1895-1988). this exhibition focuses on his philosophy revealing how it was manifested in such projects as the Sydney Opera House, alongside materials some previously unseen archive materials and recent projects. The Porter Gallery Cromwell Road SW7 2RL 020 7942 2000 Ends November 27 Sunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost Worlds British Museum The lost cities of Heracleion and Canopus recently rediscovered under water at the mouth of the Nile by archaeologists using the latest technology. Some beautiful objects show the relationship between ancient Egypt and the Greet world. Great Russell Street WC1B 3DG 020 7323 8000
Ends December 31 Cubism Tate Modern An exhibition that explores the concepts of this art movement and apparently the name was originally used as an insult. Bankside SE1 9TG 020 7887 8888 Ends January 2 2017 Abstract Expression Royal Academy The first great American art movement was associated with 1950s New York and was born from the common experience of the artists who lived in the 1940s and had experienced the Great Depression atomic destruction, and the Cold war. It ignored representational art. In this exhibition De Kooning, David Smith, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell and many others are on show to “confront you” which is what Jackson Pollack said Abstract Art should do. Burlington House Piccadilly W1J 0BD 020 7300 8090
Ends October 16 States of Mind: tracing the edges of consciousness Wellcome Collection Featuring a series of changing installations, the exhibition seeks to explore such phenomena as somnambulism, synaesthesia and disorders of memory and consciousness in particular when conscious experience is interrupted, damaged or undermined. The works of artists Carla MacKinnon, Louise K Wilson, A.R. Hoped, Mary Kelly and Aya Ben Ron are featured. 183 Euston Road NW1 2BE 020 7611 2222 Ends October 30 George Shaw: My Back to Nature National Gallery The title of the exhibition alludes to the artist’s theme of woodland which is the subject of his two-year residency at the National Gallery Trafalgar Square WC2N 5DN 020 7747 2888 Ends October 30 Rest and its Discontents The Art Pavilion A major new exhibition exploring rest and noise, tumult and work through sitespecific installations, moving images, performance, drawing poetry, data, sound and music. Mile End E3 4QY hubbubresearch.org Ends November 13 Crossing the Circle Drawing Room Works on Paper by Philippe Vandenberg(1952 - 2009) are powerful abstract and figurative images about sex, death, good and evil which express his “despair about the world, as well as his dark sense of humour.” Unit 8 Rich estate 46 Willow walk SW1 5SF Ends November 27 Sunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost Worlds British Museum
RHS
LONDON
Ends December 31 Around Abstract Art 1920 - 1935 Tate Modern An exploration of the development of Abstract Art. Bankside SE1 9TG 020 7887 8888
Ends October 31 Henri Barande Saatchi Gallery Exhibited for the first time in the UK, this French artist in 50 years has produced 40,000 sculptures! Duke of York HQ Kings Road SW3 4RY 020 7811 3085 Ends October 30 Rest and its Discontents The Art Pavilion An exhibition exploring the dynamics of rest, stress, exhaustion, noise, work and mind-wandering in an ‘evolving laboratory of moving image, performance, drawing, poetry, data, sound, music and debate’. features work of over 25 contributors. Mile End Park Clinton Road E3 4QY
SHOWS
RHS London Harvest Festival Show Tue 4–Wed 5 October Tue 4 October RHS London Harvest Festival Late
RHS London Shades of Autumn Show Fri 28–Sat 29 October
Royal Horticultural Halls St James’s Park London Victoria Public entry £6 in advance, £9 on the door, RHS Members free
rhs.org.uk/londonshows #RHSLondon
RHS Registered Charity No: 222879/SC038262
White Cube Two labyrinthine sculptures: with Sleeping Field, 600 small iron sculptures form 15 chambers which one can wander through and Passage is a 12 metre long tunnel which is shaped like a tunnel and ‘offers a journey into the unknown’. 144-152 Bermondsey Street SE1 3TQ 020 7930 5373
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020 3553 7147 waellis.com
Great Russell Street WC1B 3DG 020 7323 8299
The lost cities of Heracleion and Canopus have been recently rediscovered underwater at the mouth of the Nile by archaeologists using the latest technology. Some wonderful objects show the relationship between ancient Egypt and the Greek world. Great Russell Street WC1B 3DG 020 7323 8000 Ends January 2 2017 Abstract Expressionism Royal Academy The first great movement American art movement was associated with the 1950s New York and was born from the common experience of artists who lived in the 1940s and had experienced the great Depression, atomic destruction, and the Cold War. it ignored representational art; in 1950 Pollock said Abstract Art “confronts you”. De Kooning, Jackson Pollock, David Smith, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell and many others are all on show. Burlington House Piccadilly W1j 0BD 020 7300 8090 Ends January 8 Opus Anglicarnum: Masterpieces of English Medieval Embroidery V & A Museum An exhibition that highlights the superb of
exquisite luxury embroideries of England made between the 12th and the 15th centuries. Many of the pieces were given by the kings of England to the Popes, Cardinals and other kings. The world that created them will be explored. The Cromwell Road SW7 2RL 020 794 2000
Ends January 29 Touch: Maggie Hambling British Museum Works on paper by the artist who is also known for her sculpture, paintings printmaking and installations, but drawing remains at the heart of her work. On show here are drawings and prints many not exhibited before. Great Russell Street WC1B 3DG 020 7323 8299
Ends January 15 2017 Bedlam: the Asylum and Beyond Wellcome Collection The exhibition traces the rise and fall of the mental asylum and how it it has shaped the complex landscape of mental health today. It interrogates the original ideal that the asylum represented; a place of refuge, sanctuary and care, and asks whether and how it could be reclaimed.
Ends February 5 Picasso Portraits National Portrait Gallery A major exhibition of over 80 works focusing on the artist’s portrayal of family, friends and loves and reveals his creative processes as he moved freely between drawing from life, humorous caricature and expressive painting from memory. St martin’s Place WC2H 0HE 020 7306 0055
Ends January 29 The French Portrait British Museum the Exhibition showcases the BM’s fine collection of French portrait drawings chosen to illustrate the development the medium from the Renaissance to the 19th century: portraits on paper to formal enamels , Francis Clouet to ToulouseLautrec. Well know portraits to some never before exhibited.
Ends February 12 2017 Scots Jew: Belonging and the Future Jewish Museum Through the lens of a photographer Judah Passow explores Scotland’s diverse Jewish community which dates back to the 1700s and is the largest nonChristian community in the country.In 80 photographs, the story of the community and how it has maintained its traditions while embracing Scottish culture is told. Raymond Burton House 129-13 Albert Street NW1 7NB 020 7284 7384 Ends February 26 You Say You Want a Revolution 1966 -70 V & A Museum The focus is on particular moments/ environments that defined that period including clubs and counterculture like the Paris protests of May 1968, world Fairs, and the Woodstock Festival of 1969. It will feature objects relating to music, fashion, film, design and politics from Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come, and the Who’s My Generation. it was a time of hope. Cromwell Road SW7 2RL
HEAR, HEAR Book your tour today
Ends March 12 2017 Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear V & A Museum The fascinating and sometimes controversial tale of underwear with over 200 examples of men and women’s underwear from about 1750 to the present day. Historically underwear was designed to protect or enhance the body. Cromwell Road SW7 2RL 020 794 2000
020 7219 4114
October 12 - January 15 Beyond Caravaggio National Gallery Caravaggio influenced many of his contemporaries and a multitude of others after his death. This exhibition brings together examples from the work of artists both in Italy and beyond. Trafalgar Square WC2N 5DN
WINTER PROGRAMME 13/10/16 VANISHING POINTS – THE ORIGINS OF PERSPECTIVE IN RENAISSANCE ART | ANDREW SPIRA | COURSE DIRECTOR AT CHRISTIES EDUCATION, LONDON 19/10/16 MAKING MONEY IN A MAD WORLD | JUSTIN URQUHART STEWART | CO-FOUNDER & HEAD OF CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT 01/11/16 THE HISTORY OF LONDON IN THREE DRINKS | EMMA PARKER | OWNER OF COUTOURS 08/11/16 WHAT NEXT - IT'S NOT WHAT YOU DO, BUT WHO YOU BECOME | LORLETT HUDSON | THE WHAT NEXT COACH 17/11/16 FORESIGHT NOT HINDSIGHT - IN THE WORLD OF ART | JOHN BRANDLER | DIRECTOR OF GALLERY 22/11/16 PETAL PERFORMANCE | ELIZABETH MARSH | ENTREPRENEUR AND FLORAL DESIGNER 30/11/16 TALENT UNLIMITED - AN EXCLUSIVE RECITAL | ANNA QUIROGA & VALENTINA CIARDELLI | HARPIST & DOUBLE BASS PLAYER ALL LECTURES - 6:30pm- 8:30pm V E N U E : 9 I LC H E ST E R P L AC E , LO N D O N W 14 8 AA LECTURES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. PLEASE CHECK THE LATEST SCHEDULE ON WWW.THELECTURECLUB.COM FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
020 7747 2888 Ends October 27 - February 26 South African Art British Museum The first major exhibition to use objects to tell the story of South Africa’s art heritage and history over three million years showing some of the earliest known artworks as well as showing the precolonial impact of non-African artistic influences. Great Russell Street WC1B 3DG 020 7323 8355 October 20 - january 22 2017 Rodin and Dance: the Essence of Movement The Courtauld Institute of Art The first major exhibition to explore Rodin’s fascination with dance and bodies in extreme acrobatic poses. In these experimental sculptures, known as ‘The Dance Movements’ a rare glimpse into the artist’s practices can be seen: terra cotta and plaster alongside remarkable drawings. Somerset House, Strand WC2R 0RN 020 7848 2777 October 29 - January 29 2017 Intrigue: James Ensor by Luc Tuymans Royal Academy the Sackler Wing Burlington House Curated by the artist Luc Tuymans, the exhibition celebrates the life and work of James Ensor whose macabre paintings of skeletons, crowds and carnivals made him one of Belgium’s most famous painters of the 20th century. Burlington House Piccadilly W1J 0JB FAIRS AND FESTIVALS OCTOBER 2016 October 14 - 16 The Chocolate Show Olympia Learn about chocolate from bean to chocolate in all its many manifestations; truffles, ice cream, desserts, cocktails and sculpture.Celebrity chefs demonstrations, workshops, masterclasses, tastings, top chocolatiers and Great British Bake Off winners. National Hall Hammersmith Road W14
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October 2016
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Tickets 99 Kensington High Street 020 7937 7994
8UX 07867 387 868 Ends October 16 London Literature Festival Southbank Centre Authors, poets and speakers with live readings, talks and workshops. Belvedere Road SE1 8XX 0844 875 0073 Ends October 29 Oktoberfest at Bieerschenke An authentic Oktoberfest experience where all the fixture and fittings are imported from Munich. German staff in lederhosen and dirndis serving Bavarian beer, meat and sausages, and the Bavarian Strollers will sing authentic songs. 4 London Wall Buildings Blomfield Street EC2M 5NT October 15 Africa on the Square Trafalgar Square A celebration of African arts and culture with music, dancing and a talent show as well as an African market with food stalls, fashion show and fun for the children.12.00 - 6.00pm WC2N 5DN 020 7983 4100
October 16 Diwali Festival Trafalgar Square A celebration by Hindu, Sikhs and Jain the Festival of Lights which symbolises the victory of love over hate, light over darkness, reflection, forgiveness, and knowledge. Music, food, and activities for the family, WC2N 5DN October 17 - 23 Kneads You! Great Ormond Street Hospital Hold a bake sale and raise some dough to help children at the hospital. bakeitbetter.org October 21 - 23 The Mind Body Soul Experience Alexandra Palace A chance to “Experience the esoteric, the mysterious and the exciting”, and go into the OM Yoga Show in a neighbouring hall. Alexandra Palace Way N22 7AY 020 8365 2121 October 28 &29 Halloween Special at the Roof Gardens BBQ, music and Dress to look scary.
October 28 - 30 The Classic & Sports Car Show Alexandra Palace 300 beautiful machines on show: classics and super and a special exhibition of important racing as well as road cars. Alexandra Palace Way N22 7AY 020 8365 2121 October 31 Ghosts of the Docks Museum of London An after-dark or midnight two hour tour through ‘the most haunted spots’ of the 200-year-old building. £25 includes a refreshment. 150 London Wall EC2Y 5HN 020 7001 9844 October 29, 30, 31 Fright Flight Learn about the spooky parts of London from the air with a commentary about “..murder, mayhem and…Shiteburn and Pudding Lane. Costumes encouraged. A not so ghostly £150. London Helicopter, Battersea thelondonhelicopter.com October 31- November 6 Spirit of Christmas Fair Olympia Grand 750 independent boutiques have brought
their wares to this Fair. A food hall restaurants and a champagne bar to refresh the weary after the wanderings among the stalls of unique gifts; everything from fashion items to jewellery, toys and games, artisan food and drink. House and garden workshops and the “Luxury Travel Fair”. Olympia Way W14 8UX 0844 412 4623 November 4 & 5 Firework Festival Alexandra Palace The annual stunning display of fireworks and lasers to mark Bonfire Night with sweeping views across London. something for all ages. Alexandra Palace Way N22 7AY 020 8365 2121 November 5 Regent Street Motor Show the Street is pedestrianised from 10.30 16.00 The event showcases veteran, vintage, classic and modern cars in a time frame of 125 years. regentstreetmotorshow.com November 5 & 6 Renegrade Craft Fair Old Truman Brewery A chance to buy christmas gifts, DIY workshops, food and drink, seasonal music. Brick Lane E1 6QL 020 7247 9191
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book email enquiries.In@field-studiescouncil.org
autumn 2016
RCm PRize WinneRs FRee monday lunChtime ReCitals at the Royal College oF musiC 1.05pm every Monday from 26 September – 28 November
Just getting a place at the Royal College of music is in itself a feat only achieved by outstanding musicians, but this lunchtime concert series showcases the best of the best: winners of the RCm’s major prizes. Free, no tickets required Royal College of Music, Prince Consort Road, london sW7 2Bs 020 7591 4314 | www.rcm.ac.uk/bestofthebest
November 11 Silence in the Square The Royal British Legion leads a two minute silence for Armistice Day at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month in the square. After the event the public can place poppy petals in the fountains as a symbolic act of remembrance.. WC2 5DS 020 7983 4100 (10.00 - 11.45 HORTICULTURE Ends December 23 Pollination Trail Royal Botanic Gardens Follow the trail around the gardens to learn about pollen and its relationship with bees and plants. Kew Richmond TW9 3AE 020 8332 5655 Ends March 2017 An exhibition celebrating the richness of Japanese native flora and its influence on horticulture in the West. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Richmond TW9 3AE October 14 Compost Clinic Chelsea Physic Garden “Lift the lid on the world of compost” and
learn how to make ‘black gold’, improve the quality of your soil and help the plants to flourish with Michael Holland. 10.00am - 1.00pm 66 Royal Hospital Road SW3 4HS 020 7352 5646
October 28 & 29 London Shades of Autumn Show Lawrence & Lindley Halls A celebration of autumn colours with planting ideas to extend the gardening season. An opportunity to buy a wide range of bulbs and garden accessories and art. Everton Street SW1P 2QW 020 7821 3043 November 3 Tea, Cotton, Rubber, and Quinine: the Garden at the Centre of Change Chelsea Physic Garden From the 18th century, the Garden has been a centre for the cultivation of important economic plants. Letter Jones explores the key role plant hunters and gardeners such as Philip Miller and Robert Fortune played in shaping the history of the Garden. 7.00 - 8.00pm Ticket price includes glass of wine. 66 Royal Hospital Road SW3 4HS 020 3176 5800 November 12-13 RHS London Urban Garden show Lindley Hall The show features tropical and subtropical lush plants that grow indoors and offers a chance to question experts on how to cultivate and care for them with seminars and work shops. it is Browse and buy plants from some of the best plant growers for small gardens, balconies and window
Opera Gala
to raise money for the Trussell Trust at St Lukes, Redcliffe Gardens Wed 19 October 2016 Melinda Hughes & Dingle Yandell
October 25 Art of the Garden Chelsea Physic Garden A tour around the Garden seeing vampire plants, spiky Catci, medicines, perfumes, worms, tadpoles, seeds, vegetables, ferns.”Help will be on hand develop your artistic skills..’Try printing, painting, sketching and model and mobile making using natural and recycled materials. 10.30am - 2.30 pm 66 Royal Hospital Road SW3 4HS 020 7352 5646 October 27 Discover Autumn Regent’s Park With a display of wonderful colour, the family can join this Walk in the Park to investigate the plants and animals that can be found at this time of year. . Discover more about the trees and seeds and the animals that depend on them. £15.00 for family of 2 adults and up to 3 children For further information the course or to
S
oprano Melinda Hughes who studied at The Royal College of Music has a busy career as an international opera singer. She says: “We’re all delighted to raise money for the Trussell Trust; they do wonderful work, not only with their foodbanks but also give financial
sills and indoor plants including orchids, citrus, olives, chills and exotic ornamental plants. Part of the Greening Grey Britain campaign. SW1P 2QD 10.00am - 5pm with November 11 late event 6.00pm - 10pm 020 3176 5800 MUSIC The Royal College of Music holds Lunchtime concerts (1.05pm) and Rush Hour Concerts (6.00pm) at St Mary Abbots, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Charlton House, Lincoln’s Inn Chapel, Regent Hall and St James’s Piccadilly. St Paul’s Cathedral has a series of Sunday Organ Recitals where some of the world’s finest organists play; Tom Daggett, Stephen Moore, Joseph Beach, and Matthew Jorysz. Most Sundays. 4.45- 5.15pm Ends October 26 Don Giovanni The Coliseum Mark Wigglesworth conducts the perennial Mozart favourite for the ENO with Mary Bevan as Zerlina, Christine Rilce as Elvira, Christopher Purves as the Spanish seducer and Clive Bayley as the clever servant Leporello. St Martin’s Lane WC2N 4ES 020 7845 9300 Ends November 9
advice and cookery courses, which create a lasting impact by addressing the underlying causes of poverty.” She has organised numerous fundraising cabarets at the Pheasantry as well as “A Celebration of Chelsea” at St Luke’s Sydney Street, which saw more than four hundred people attend. Hughes says: “The Celebration of Chelsea concert was a real coming together of a community. It was a highly spirited evening and I want to recreate that magic.” She will perform together with Baritone Dingle Yandell who was a Young Artist at The National Opera Studio. He also has an international career as an opera singer and was part of the award -winning group Voces 8. They will present arias and duets by Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Puccini and Gershwin. The concert will take place at 7.30pm in St Luke’s Church, Redcliffe Gardens (SW10 9HF) the home of Kensington & Chelsea Foodbank, one of the projects supported by The Trussell Trust. Their foodbanks provide three days’ nutritionally-balanced food and support to people in crisis in the UK. For more, visit www.trusselltrust.org Tickets cost £15-20, and are available for purchase online at http://www.seetickets.com/event/operagala/st-lukes-redcliffe-gds/1009777/ or by calling 0115 912 9000 www.cheyneproductions.com
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Russell Square WC1H 0XG 020 7898 4500
The Nose ROH A new English translation by David Pountney and a new production of Shotakovich’s surreal satire, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher. Bow Street Covent Garden WC2E 9DD 020 7304 4000 Ends December 3 Tosca The Coliseum Puccini’s tragic story of love and betrayal with Keri Alkema as the unfortunate protagonist in the innovative production by Catherine Malfitano. Gwyn Hughes Jones as Cavaradossi and Craig Codough as Scarpa. St Martin’s Lane WC2N 4ES 020 7836 0111 Ends June 25 2017 Film Scores Live Southbank Centre From Kubrick to Hitchcock, cinema’s most memorable soundtracks in a series of live orchestral performances. ]Belvedere Road SE1 8XX 020 7960 4200 October 12 National Gugak Centre An intimate acoustic performance involving the wind music of Korea with the two main instruments are the ‘pier’, a double reed oboe and the ‘daegeum’ (bamboo transverse flute).They will play ‘sanjo’,a folk-based form of music that encourages improvisation. Kings Place, (Hall Two) Kings Cross 90 York Way N1 9AG October 12, 14, 17 19 Cosi Fan Tutti Royal Opera House A new staging of Mozart’s complex, subtle comedy with Don Alfonso sung by the leading German baritone Johannes Martin Kranle and American soprano Corinne Winters. Live cinema relay: October 17 Bow Street Covent Garden WC2E 9DD 020 7304 4000 October 14 Tippett and Beethoven Britten Theatre RCM musicians pair Tippett’s Second String Quartet with Beethoven’s Second Rasumovsky Quartet, and then Tippett’s String Quartet No 1 with a complementary Quartet by Beethoven in this first of 5 concert series. Royal College of Music Prince Consort Road SW7 2BS 020 7589 3643 October 14 Royal College of Music’s International Double Bass Festival Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall A Double Bass Masterclass with coprincipal Bassist at the Oslo Dan Styffe.
Royal College of Music Prince Consort Road SW7 2BS 020 7589 3643 October 16 Freedom First - Remembering the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Cadogan Hall The Muzsikas Folk Ensemble, dances and singing: music with zither, gardon, double bass, koboz, pipes and mandolin mark the 60th anniversary of the 1956 revolution against Russia. 5 Sloane Terrace SW1X 1DQ T: 020 7730 4500 October 16 Royal College of Music International Double Bass Festival Renowned bassists from around the world will flock to the RCM for a unique day of masterclasses, seminars and performances. 11.00 a.m. Prince Consort Road SW7 2BS 020 7589 3643 October 18 Renaud, a popular French singer, songwriter and actor with a distinct ‘broken-voice’ style. Eventim Apollo 45 Queen Charlotte Street W6 9QH 0844 249 1000 eventim.co.uk
October 21 Danpyunsun and the sailors + Asian Chairshot Rich Mix Asian chairshot is one of Korea’s biggest rock bands and Smashing Pumpkins helped them breakthrough; they were described as “Black Sabbath playing Radiohead.’ 020 7613 7490 35-47 Bethnal Green Road Shoreditch E1 6LA October 22 11.30am & 23 3.00pm Nash Ensemble Wigmore Hall The Ensemble launches its Viennese series with three composers associated with the ‘city of music’. Mahler’s only surviving chamber work dates from his precocious teenage years at the Conservatoire, and Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night dates from the same year as Freud’s The Interpretation of Dream, The second evening the Ensemble plays Strauss II Emperor Waltz and Brahms’ Piano Quartet No 1 in G Minor Op 25. 36 Wigmore Street W1U 2BP 020 7935 2141 October 22 Amir Elsaffar: Noor Festival Royal Albert Hall An Iraqi-American trumpeter, saunter player, vocalist and composer has mastered
October 19 Dido & Aeneas St Luke’s Church Henry Purcell’s opera of the tragic lovers with Melinda Hughes as Dido and Dingle Yandell as Aeneas and the Cavendish Ensemble singers conducted by Manvinder Rattan. Redcliffe Gardens SW10 9HF 0115 912 9000 October 19 - December 2 The Pearl Fishers The Coliseum A life-long friendship has existed between Nadir and Zurga, the pearl fishers, until the arrival of the beautiful Leila tests their bonds. Spectacular staging by Penny Woolcoc, conducted by Roland Boer with Claudia Boyle as Leila, tenor Robert McPherson as Nadir and baritone Jacques Imbrailo as Zurga. St Martin’s Lane WC2N 4ES 020 7845 9300 October 21 Nepali Folk Music Reinvented Brunei Gallery The only London-based Nepali band is committed to raising the profile of their music in a global context. Ganga Thapa has gathered all the best Nepali musicians to make the music more accessible by fusing indigenous traditions with global influences to create a soundscape with inspirations from west Africa to South America. University of London Thornhaugh Street
diverse musical traditions and combines Middle eastern music with jazz and other contemporary music. Kensington Gore SW7 2AP 020 7589 8212 October 26 My Great Orchestral Adventure Royal Albert Hall A half-term family concert aimed at children 3+ as an introduction to a symphony orchestra. Singing and dancing. Kensington Gore SW7 2AP 020 7589 8212 October 27 Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse Royal Albert Hall The author reads his moving novel accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic featuring a specially-arranged score by Adrian Sutton and John Tams inspired by the music from the N.T’s production, while drawing live on stage Olivier, Tony and OBIE award-winning British designer Rae Smith creates animated illustrations of the book. Tim van Eyken and London Voices sing the original songs from N.T’s production. Kensington Gore SW7 2AP 020 7589 8212 October 27, 28 & 29 Great Fire Opera: And London Burned The Temple Church Commissioned to commemorate the ending of the Great Fire ‘on the roof of the Inner Temple Hall’.
Sunday 30 October, 5.30pm Royal Albert Hall
Join a fantastic celebration of dance Dance schools from across the globe showcase a wide range of dance styles
Featuring guest acts World Ballroom Champions Warren & Kristi Boyce and The Royal Ballet
Tickets on sale now 020 7589 8212
royalalberthall.com
#DanceProms
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October 29 Carmina Burana Royal Albert Hall ‘400 voices in monumental harmony’ with Andrew Greenwood conducting, Fflur Wyn Soprano, John Graham-Hall Tenor, Benedict Nelson Baritone and Daniel Hope on the violin. the programme also includes Rossini’s “thieving Magpie overture’ and Bruch’s violin concerto No.1 Kensington Gore SW7 2AP November 2 Handel: Israel in Egypt Cadogan Hall The London Concert Choir with Mark Forkgen conducting the period instrument ensemble in the great oratorio which Handel composed three years before ‘the Messiah’, part 1 covers the succession of plagues that led the Pharaoh to release Moses and his people. part 2 is really Moses’ song of praise to the Lord for their deliverance. 5 Sloane Terrace SW1X DQ 020 7730 4500 November 4 London Bach Society Bachfest St John’s Smith Square The Steinitz Bach Players perform Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, A concerto movement from Sinfonia in D, a Concerto for three violins and strings in D and the rarely performed secular Cantata BWV 206. Smith Square SW1P 3HA 020 7222 1061 or Book on line or by email November 6 The Revolutionary Drawing Room St John’s Smith Square SW1P 3HA 020 7222 1062 November 7 - December 3 The tales of Hoffman ROH Vittorio Grigolo and Leonardo Capalbo share the title role in Offenbach’s fantastical operatic drama with a cast which includes Thomas Hampson, Sonya Yoncheva, Christine Rice and Sofia Fomina. Live cinema replay November 15 Bow Street, WC2E 9DD T: 0320 7304 4000 November 8 - 19 oreste Wilton’s Music Hall Jette Parker Young Artists in a blackly comic production of Handel’s masterful ’pasticcio’. November 9 Faure’s Requiem and
Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate Westminster Abbey Choir of Westminster Cathedral with Sophie Bevan soprano conducted by Martin Baker. Vctoria Street SW1P 1QW doors open at 18.30, concert starts 19.30 0844 844 0444 tickets also at door until all sold out November 9 - 19 Lulu November 16 Marvellous Miller For almost 40 years audiences at the Coliseum have been moved and entertained by Miller’s work and this is a chance to relive many of moments while fundraising for ENO’s world class work. Excerpts from his productions and interviews with the man himself will feature, and performers like Bonaventura Bottone, susan bullock, andrew Shore, jean Rigby, Richard stuart, Alan Opie and Sarah Tynan and others to be announced. November 16 JS Bach’s B Minor Mass London Oratory Church (Brompton Oratory) The boys of the church Schola Cantorum, the St Cecilia Players on period instruments, Charles Cole conducts, sing the famous mass in the baroque splendour of the Oratory. 19.00 Brompton Road SW7 2RP Book by email: schola@yahoo.co.uk tickets at door until all sold out.
18 OCT - 5 NOV peacocktheatre.com
November 22 - December 12 Manon Lescaut ROH Antonio Pappano conducts Sondra Radvanovsky and Aleksandrs Antonenko in the first revival of Jonathan Kent’s thought-provoking production of Puccini’s first operatic triumph.
LIVE ON STAGE
based on Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman Music and lyrics by Howard Blake
TALKS OCTOBER 2016 October 12 The Rhythm of Life: The Beat and Dance of the Heart Museum of London Professor Martin Elliot describes how the basic rhythm of the heart is generated, and has been used as a soundtrack to evoke romance, terror and horror. With the help of the percussionist, Nick Buxton of La shark, and a dancer, he will demonstrate the evocation of the emotions and what happens when the heart goes awry. 6.00-7.00pm 150 London Wall EC2Y 5HN 020 7001 9844 October 12 Microplastic Wellcome Collection Tiny pieces of thrown away plastic have been found throughout the natural environment and even in the guts of
© Snowman Enterprises Ltd 1982, 2012
Music by Matt Rogers, Libretto by Sally O’Reilly, directed by Sinead O’Neill, designed by Kitty Callister. Temple EC4Y 7BB 020 7427 5641
DED O O S L B L L “A FU STOPPER”DAILY EXPRES SHOW
“Sheer theatrical magic. Go see The Snowman and melt” The Times
g Featurin
‘Walking in the Air’
15 ET ONLY £1 FAMILY TIstCincKlud e at least one child 4 tickets, mu
Max £3 Transaction fee applies.
23 Nov - 1 Jan
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October 2016
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system to fight disease which is among the new approaches revolutionising a group of diseases once regarded as incurable. 150 London Wall EC2Y 5HN 020 7001 9844 shellfish, environmentalist Stephanie Wright talks about the under-researched area of what micro plastics mean to human health. 183 Euston Road NW1 2BE 020 7611 2222 October 17 Edouard Manet, A Bar at the FoliesBergere (1882) Courtauld Institute of Art Stephanie Christodoulou gives an informal lunchtime talk about the painting. 1.151.30pm Room 6 Somerset House Strand WC2R 0RN 020 7848 2777 October 20 The Great Fire of London 1666-2016 Guildhall Library Author Ian Doolittle describes the history of the Great Fire over 350 years: How it became a party-political issue, and why the Roman Catholics were still the official scapegoats in 1830 and more. 6-8.00pm. Booking essential Aldermanbury EC2V 7HH 020 7332 1869/1871 October 21 Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane
Celebration! Sadler’s Wells
October 30th 7.30pm Patron Dame Gillian Lynne
With Artists from the Bolshoi Ballet and London Russian Ballet School
O
n October 30th at 7.30pm at Sadler’s Wells, two young dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet will dance alongside LRBS students, accompanied by award winning musicians in front of an audience to include over 500 underprivileged children from Lambeth, who will attend for free. This is an incredible opportunity
National Gallery The speaker Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the themes of his book about the artist who lived “the darkest and most dangerous life of any of the great painters,”6.30 - 8.00pm Trafalgar Square WC2N 5DN 020 7747 2888 October 24 Spaceman: Mike Massimino The Theatre The speaker spent 18 years with NASA and flew on two shuttle missions in which he performed space walks to repair the Hubble SpaceTelescope. Join Chair Helen Keen for an evening when he looks back over his 18 year career as an astronaut. 7.00 - 8.30pm Royal Institute 21 Albemarle Street W1S 4BS Call Ahead to Avoid Disappointment 020 7409 2992 October 26 The Treatment of Cancer Museum of London The treatment of cancers has been transformed in the last two decades, and Professor Christ Whitty discusses how a better genetic understanding of the disease has resulted in harnessing the immune
to see artists from the Bolshoi Ballet in this ambitious extension of LRBS outreach work in front of children who could never ordinarily have dreamed of a theatre experience, so imagine the impact on them when world class Russian ballet dancers will share their art with these London youngsters. LRBS is a vocational Russian ballet school with a wonderful heritage and strong tradition of training. The performances form part of the LRBS approach to the formation of their students as artists. This is combined with a very successful and compulsory academic programme. Auditions for LRBS take place in January – March 2017 and there is an extensive scholarship programme. The evening is part of a series of performances with the Bolshoi Ballet and LRBS to engage young people from poor backgrounds in the world of ballet and music. Art has no boundaries and Dame Gillian Lynne, acclaimed international director and choreographer, believes art is an expression for all. Dame Gillian will be choreographing a new work for the series in 2017. Please consider sponsoring a Lambeth child. You may buy tickets by searching Celebration on the Sadler’s Wells website. VIP tickets at £100 are available through LRBS (info@lr-bs. com; Tel: 020 7498 0498; website: www. LondonRussianBalletSchool.com)
October 27 The Josephine Hart Poetry Hour: The Poetry of W. H. Auden The British Library An evening devoted to the beautifully observed, rich and diverse poetry of that poet. 7.00pm Conference Centre S96 Euston Road NW1 2DB Booking 01937 546546 November 1 “I Capuleti: Bellini’s dissonant bel canto style” Royal Court “ Inside the Score” with conductor Lewis Gaston Bellini composed in a markedly different style to Donizetti and Lewis will talk through the orchestration and vocal parts using the score of one of Bellini’s best works to show how his approach to composing was radically different from his contemporaries. Ticket price £25 to support Singer’s Friends Fund Telephone 020 7183 7323 for mor information. November 2 Jameel Prize Resident Artist: Noor Ali Chagani
V&A Free Lunchtime Lecture : The artist will talk about his research in the Museum’s Miniature Painting collections and his work as a sculptor using hand-made miniature terracotta bricks. The Lydia & Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre Cromwell Road SW7 2RL 020 7942 2000 November 3 & 4 Cities and Disaster: Urban Adaptability and Resilience in History The conference explores the ways in which cities across time and geographical regions have experienced and been shaped by natural disasters and “shocks’. 10.00am 7.00pm Wolfson Suite Institute of Historical Research Senate House Malet Street WC1E 7HU Check website for admission details: events.history.ac.uk/event 020 7862 8790 November 9 Climate Change and Antarctica: the Great Ice Sheet in the Past, Present and Future The Geological Society Benthan Davies, a glacial geologist, specialises in ice-sheet and glacier reconstruction and is particularly interested in glacial processes at the ice-bed interface. Burlington House Piccadilly W1J 0BG 020 7434 9944 THEATRE
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The Gate Crashers October 24 - 29 10.00am - 6.00pm Gate Theatre: not a play, but a chance for young people aged 17 - 19 to experience a taster week of all aspects of the theatre with workshops and more. If interested fill out Gate Crashers Application Form and the Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form. submit them to suzy@gatetheatre. co.uk Ends October 29 The Mountaintop The Clare Young Vic Katori Hall’s intimate look into the quieter moments of Martin Luther King’s life at the height of the civil rights movement. The Cut Waterloo SE1 8LZ 020 7922 2922 Ends November 12 A Man of Good Hope Young Vic The true story of one refugee’s epic journey across Africa, brought to life with rooflifting music by the Isango Ensemble. The Cut Waterloo SE1 8LZ 020 922 2922 Ends November 19 Travesties Menier Chocolate Factory
A revival of one of Tom Stoppard’s most entertaining plays, set in Zurich in 1917 with a cast that includes Lenin, James Joyce and the Dadaist TristanTzara, all revolutionaries in their own way. Patrick Marber directs Tom Hollander, Freddie Fox and Amy Morgan. 53 Southwark Street SE 1 1RU 020 7400 1257 Ends December 3 One Night in Miami Donmar Warehouse The world would come to know him as Muhammed Ali, but on February 25 1964, a 22 year-old Cassius Clay celebrates his world heavyweight title in a hotel room with friends Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke and American football star Jim Brown. Kemp Powers’ fictional account of a real night, taking us to the heart of a pivotal movement in this history of a nation. 41 Earldom Street Seven Dials WC2H 9LX 0844 871 7624 October 20 -29 Harrogate Jerwood Theatre Upstairs After rave reviews at the Hightide 2015 Festival, Al Smith’s seminal play has a
limited run at this theatre. The play “ is a brave piece of writing plunging into some of the least palatable aspects of male sexuality - particularly the tendency towards young women.... It’s profoundly poetic about the passing of time; the way people, places and things change, but not all at the same rate.’ Whatsonstage Directed by the talented Richard Twyman. Sloane Square SW1W 8AS 020 7565 5000 October 18 - November 26 The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures. Hampstead Theatre Tony Kushner’s latest play is the story of a family grappling to find the meaning in a land-scape they no longer recognise and an exploration of humanity’s search for Utopias, both personal and political. Eton Avenue Swiss Cottage NW3 3EU 020 7722 9301 October 25 - December 2 King Lear The Old Vic A quarter of a century after she gave up acting for politics, Glenda Jackson returns to the stage with a very testing role; a woman playing King Lear. 103 the Cut South Bank SE1 8NB 0884 871 7628
November 10 - December 3 I Call My Brothers Gate Theatre A car has exploded and a city is crippled by fear. Amor walks the streets for 24 hours trying to blend in, and we walk with him and find the lines blurring between criminal and victim, fantasy and reality. Writer Jonas Hassen Khemin explores what you might do when everyone thinks you look like a terrorist in your own city. 11 Pembridge Road Notting Hill W11 3 HQ 020 7229 0706
Compiled and edited by Leila Kooros. With assistance from Fahad Redha
turn with a conversational interview featuring Michael “Eddie” Edwards, who in an enjoyable and (perhaps surprisingly) enlightening interview gave a funny run-through of his life story and the skiing that made him famous. He brought home just how much dedication was required for him to achieve his dreams, including scavenging food from bins and sleeping rough in order to
conserve enough money for the necessary training. By the end of the interview, a man who’d often been held up as a punchline had quietly proved that whilst he might be funny, he definitely wasn’t a joke. The Amber Trust finished off the first half on an emotional high with Ashleigh, who was born three months premature totally blind, closing with a solo piano version of ABBA’s The Winner Takes It All. We were welcomed back by soaring sounds of the Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Choir’s version of Something Inside So Strong which was soon followed by the rapid change of pace of Che Lingo, a 24 year old rapper representing the Regenerate charity (who work to serve young people in local communities) whose sly delivery and wicked wit soon won over a crowd who didn’t look like natural rapophiles! He was followed by Derek Paravincini, a piano playing virtuoso who wowed the crowd with a performance that encompassed everything from Leonard Cohen to Al Jolson. The evening was rounded off by magician Magical Bones who managed to put on a magic show, breakdancing symposium and stand-up comedy routine all at the same time It was a pleasure to attend such an emotional night and the knowledge that all of the money raised would be paid into such worthy charities couldn’t help but make the feeling all the more special. Roll on next year!
at Cadogan Hall, Chelsea Monday 3 October 2016 By Max Feldman
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staid evening and (more importantly) the audience. Following Reeps’ vocal assault was the heartwarming sing-alongs of the PIPsters, who with songs like Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds had the crowd on their feet and singing on for the duration (no mean feat in the rarefied environs of the Cadogan Hall) and clearly had a blast doing so. The program took a more relaxed
October 27 - December 3 Kiss Me Hampstead Theatre Downstairs Richard Bean’s new play is an unorthodox love story about two people struggling to escape the cult and ghosts of the past, set against the shifting world of London post WW1. Eton Avenue Swiss Cottage NW3 3EU 020 7722 9301
October 25 - November 19 Magnificence Finborough Theatre Originally premiered at the Royal Court in
Real magic is changing lives
hilst charity begins at home, it certainly doesn’t have to stay there and on the 3rd of October it took centre stage of the Cadogan Hall as philanthropist and founder of the True and Fair Foundation Gina Miller hosted their annual Charity event, Real magic is changing lives. Attendees of the exclusive event were treated to a riotous and esoteric evening of acts connected to the charitable foundation that was wildly unpredictable Miller, whose True and Fair Foundation supports all the charities represented that evening, kicked off the evening by introducing twice winner of the UK Beatbox championships Reeps One who sculpted a pulsing dance track using only his voice before demonstrating an entire orchestra’s worth of berserk electronic noises that he had to repeatedly assure an incredulous audience was entirely created in his throat with no technological assistance. By the time he left the stage he had blown away both any expectations of a
1973, Howard Brenton’s brilliant play set in the London of the early 1970s has lost none of its power or relevance. 118 Finborough Road SW10 9ED 0844 847 1952
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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk Photograph © Royal academy
Arts & Culture
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
Abstract Expressionism
Royal Academy Until 2 January 2017 Admission £19 www.royalacademy.org.uk
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he immediate effect of walking into this show could have been summed up a decade later by the Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. WOW! If not WHAAAM! as it hits you right between the eyes. One can only imagine the initial reaction to some of the images in the 1940s and early 1950s, as America adjusted to this explosion of colour, shape and dynamism, having been isolated in a cultural backwater since the end of the Second World War. The sheer scale of the exhibition is breathtaking, with one gallery devoted to one painter, one after the other. The rock stars are all there; Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning; but Franz Klein vies with Clyfford Still to surprise and delight. Abstract Expressionism was not a cohesive movement, like, say, Surrealism or Cubism, or even Futurism, but all had a role to play in the fluid way it was adopted by the European emigrants, like Fernand Leger, Piet Mondrian, Arshile Gorky and Max Ernst, all fleeing persecution, deprivation and repression in pre- and post-war Europe and places like Armenia.The curators have managed to produce a thread of chronology and groupings, so that the so-called ‘colour-field’ painters, like Rothko and Barnett Newman, are separated from the ‘action painters’, like
Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, who seemed to be the last to shrug off figuration, clinging onto eroticallycharged images of women. Clyfford Still is a revelation in his power and stark imagery, being one of the pioneers of the movement in the 1940s, breaking away from the more traditional and realistic way of seeing and concentrating on a view that disregarded figurative imagery and established techniques. He used a trowel to apply his paint. At the heart of Abstract Expressionism is the ‘human condition’, and each artist in the loose movement had an interest in life and death, spirituality, power, struggle, and a range human emotions. Still’s paintings have been loaned by the museum in Denver, which holds virtually all of his work, so we have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to savour his uncompromising views on life. Jackson Pollock, along with
Rothko, is possibly the most celebrated painter in the show, highlighted by the monumental Mural, painted for Peggy Guggenheim’s apartment in New York in 1943 and Blue Poles, painted in 1952, shown in the same gallery together for the first time, on loan from the National Gallery of Australia. It is not just the big hitters who make their mark on a big scale; artists such as Lee Krasner, who was married to Pollock and had an enormous influence on work, and vice-versa, and introduced him to many artists, collectors, and critics who appreciated abstract art such as Willem de Kooning, Peggy Guggenheim, who along with Betty Parsons were two of the most powerful and influential women in the art world, and Clement Greenberg, the essayist and critic. Other artists included are Helen Frankenhaler, who sadly has only one work on display, Europa, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans
Hofmann and Ad Reinhardt, who abstracted virtually everything from paintings, ending up with his ‘ultimate’ work, a black square. One wonders how he would have reacted to the super-black paint Vantablack, which absorbs 99.96% of light, and to which Anish Kapoor has exclusive rights, much to the disgust of fellow artists. Dotted around the galleries, and with four large pieces in the courtyard, are playfully prancing works by the American sculptor David Smith. There have been a few murmurings about hanging so many Rothko’s in the rotunda, and so close together, rather than the almost contemplative cathedrallike display in Tate Modern, but I think they work well together, albeit on a different level. The de Kooning gallery is a triumph, as are those featuring Klein and Still, and Robert Motherwell gives a good account of himself, while Arshile Gorky is well-represented, having had a knock-out retrospective show at Tate Modern in 2010. Philip Guston has an enormous canvas some 3m. wide entitled Low Tide, which looks for all the world like the heels of four hob-nail boots stuck in red sand. Finally, there are a number of AE photographs, including Harry Callahan, Herbert Matter, Barbara Morgan sitting alongside Aaron Siskind and Minor White, with ‘action’ stills of Jackson Pollock in action. One of the curators of this big and brash show is the author of the nowstandard textbook Abstract Expressionism, David Anfam, which was first published sixteen years ago, and he has also edited a heavy, sumptuous and comprehensive tome that is the catalogue, which weighs in at just under 5lb. and costs forty quid for hardback and £28 for soft, which will be a reminder in years to come, what a stunning eye-opener this exhibition was. Don Grant
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Photograph © Wellcome Collection
Arts & Culture
Bedlam: the asylum and beyond Wellcome Collection
Until 15 January 2017 Admission free wellcomecollection.org
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cartoon by Berger and Wyse appeared in the Guardian a couple years ago, depicting a slice of fruitcake, some nuts, crackers and a banana waiting outside a building, entitled ‘Support group for food used as a metaphor for mental illness’. A sign
hanging on the door says ‘Out to lunch’. Other euphemisms for madness range from ‘a few stops short of Upminster’ (Barking), ‘raving’, ‘loony’, ‘bonkers’, ‘batty’, barmy’ and cuckoo’, to ‘wacko’, ‘round the bend’, and ‘mad as a hatter’, so called because of the highly toxic element mercury used in the production of felt hats. Mental illness, or what used to be called madness, is on the increase, and this exhibition examines the manner in which society has come to terms with the medical, psychological and environmental dimensions of this challenging, and often misunderstood, subject. The asylum used to be a refuge, often a religious sanctuary, where ‘mad’ people were sheltered from the rest of society, who regarded themselves as ‘sane’. Lunatics were locked up in asylums, not just to keep them off the streets, but to give them therapy, care,
diagnosis, treatment and medication. Asylums still exist, but their role has altered from the somewhat outmoded, scary and inhumane places from history. Bethlem Hospital, a corruption of Bethlehem, was known popularly as Bedlam, becoming a by-word for chaos, and was founded in 1247 by a London alderman Simon Fitzmay, after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land Since the 17th century, Bethlem was in three separate locations, each dealing with aspects of mental health issues. The site at Moorfields was epitomised as the classic 18th century ‘madhouse’, as depicted in Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress, while Bethlem in St George’s Fields, Southwark was a ‘lunatic asylum, and now houses the Imperial War Museum, and Bethlem in Beckenham was a model of the 20th century ‘mental hospital’. They each fulfilled a role in society, balancing therapy with restraint, creating
a safe haven and reintegrating patients back into society. Thomas Tryon, an early self-help author and vegetarian, said in 1689, ‘The world is but a great Bedlam, where those that are more mad, lock up those who are less.’ The section dealing with Moorfields traces how madness was first defined by the law, and reveals how the asylum was open to public visitors, inspiring numerous plays, ballads, poems and artworks. The ‘fairy painter’ Richard Dadd was an inmate, having stabbed his father to death, believing he was the devil incarnate, He was later incarcerated in the newly-opened Broadmoor Hospital as an ‘incuable lunatic’, where he continued to paint, thanks to the enlightened views of his doctors. His portrait of Sir Alexander Morison, Bethlem’s governor, is on loan from the Scottish National Galleries, and depicts a view the subject, standing in a highlydetailed Newhaven landscape, hat in hand, with two female figures and boats on the Firth of Forth in the background. Dadd based the image on a drawing provided by Morison’s daughter. There is a good deal of other art on show, including an affectionate etching by Vincent van Gogh, his only one, entitled L’homme à la pipe, a portrait of Dr Gachet, who he immortalised in two fine paintings of the man who looked after him after he left the asylum in SaintRémy to stay in Auvers, north-east of Paris. The world-renowned ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky suffered a breakdown after a row with Sergei Diaghilev and left the Ballets Russes, never to dance again. He was committed to a number of asylums, ending up Bethlem during the second world and produced many obsessive works on paper, including Mask, one of many of his drawings which included stylised human figures and portraits, all based on the circle. There are a number of poems, including The Hanging Man by Sylvia Plath and an exquisitely written and illustrated Epitaph, of My Poor Jack, Squirrel II by James Hadfield. A halfhour film, called Caligari and The Sleepwalker by Javier Tellez, based on the German Expressionist film Cabinet of Dr Caligari by Robert Wiene, was filmed in the Erich Mendelsohn’s eccentrically curvacious Einstein Tower near Potsam and is obscure to the point of imponderability. Eva Kot’átková’s Asylum, is a mixed media installation, a work which was inspired by conversations with psychiatric patients and features live performers. It has the look of something on its way to Upminster. The final work in the absorbing exhibition is Madlove: A Designer Asylum, a collaborative project between designers, an illustrator and over 300 people with lived experience of mental distress who are revisiting and reimagining the asylum as ‘a safe place to go mad’. It has a clarity of thought and explanation that makes this project so fresh and worthwhile. It is certainly a sane approch to madness.
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Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk Wifredo Lam - Horse-Headed Woman, 1950 The Rudman Trust © SDO Wifredo Lam
The EY Exhibition: Wifredo Lam
Tate Modern Until 8 January 2017 £16 tate.org.uk
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o be honest, I never liked Lam’s ‘spikier’ modernist art, so redolent of Picasso, it is almost a pastiche. As he did with many young artists, the great Spaniard took those that he admired under his wing and Wifredo was one of those in Paris. He introduced the young painter to the avant garde and the beau monde of Paris, and he soaked up and adapted the Master’s style of painting as well as that of Matisse and Dalí. Although unmentioned in the catalogue, Graham Sutherland was patently an influence on the young Sino-Indio-Afro-Cuban artist in the late 1940s and early 1950s: one only has to look at his Thorntree drawings and Standing Forms to make the connection. Before Paris, he was in Madrid, where he married and had a child. Tragically, both died of tuberculosis, and Lam enlisted into the Republican cause fighting Franco’s forces in the Spanish Civil War. He worked in a munitions factory for 6 months, but became ill through handling toxic substances, and went to Barcelona to recuperate. While there, he met and befriended the sculptor Manolo Hugué, known simply as Manolo, who urged him to leave Catalonia and gave him an introduction to his friend Picasso, who introduced him to African tribal and ancient Greek art. When the Germans occupied Paris in 1940, Lam fled again, this time to Marseilles, where there was an artistic community, including André Breton, Oscar Dominguez and Joan Miro, Primitivism and a fish of surrealists, all waiting to leave France. After 8 months in the port, passing the time by doing collective drawings and painting his mistress Helena Holzer, whom he had previously met in Barcelona, they managed to get on a cargo ship bound for Martinique, along with 300 other intellectuals fleeing the Nazis. Unfortunately, the island was under the Vichy regime, and they were interned in a camp for a month when they arrived. Five months later, they left for Cuba, a country he had not seen for eighteen years, and he was immediately struck by how much poverty, racism and corruption there still was in his homeland. He absorbed the landscape and became interested in the Santería religion, which was a curious AfroCuban amalgam of Catholic and Yoruba. For the next ten years, he infused his
paintings with the imagery of Santería, which included devilish, eroticallycharged, hybrid figures, some against a jungle landscape, others set against dark brown backgrounds. In two paintings from the forties, The Eternal Present (An Homage to Alejandro García Caturla) and Bélial, Emperor of the Flies, hybrid human creatures and animals wander through the undergrowth, with strange plants with breast-like appendages, buttocks, elongated limbs and phallic forms protrubing from them, symbolic of fertility. One figure is identified with Santería Orisha in the horned head of Elegua, the Messenger-God, while Changó, the God of Thunder. holds a double spear. These ritualistic depictions borrowed symbols from Cuban Occultism and Vodou from Haiti,
and in related works such as Altar for Elegua,1944 and Altar for Yemaya, 1944, Lam suggests an atmosphere of mystery rather than illustrating a particular ritual, which he painted with a certainty and precision. His polymorphic The Jungle is probably his most famous work, but is too fragile to travel. In 1952 he left again for Europe, when Fulgencio Batista, former President until 1944, elected himself Dictator and started a reign of terror through the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities, and carried out wide-scale violence, torture and public executions. Batista was buoyed up by the Americans, whose Mafia controlled all the racketeering, drugs and prostitution on the island. In 1959, Castro’s revolutionary forces rolled into Havana,
seven days after Batista fled with his booty of $300 million to the Dominican Republic and then on to Madeira, where another repressive dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar, gave him refuge. While Batista ended up in Andalusia, Lam ended up in Albissola, a quiet seaside town near Genoa in Italy, where he worked for the rest of his life, producing ceramics and prints. This retrospective from the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Reina Sofia Museum in Spain, displays over 200 paintings, drawings, photographs and prints, and serves to explain how Lam maintained his position near-ish to the centre of cosmopolitan modernism, with his brief forrays into Surrealism, Primitivism and Cubism in a post-colonial world. Don Grant
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Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
www.KCWToday.co.uk
Arts & Culture
British Museum. Room 91. Great Russell street. London. WC1B 3DG Until 29th January. 2017
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hadow Puppet Theatre shows are performed at weddings, funerals, harvest celebrations and fulfilment of vows in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and many other countries. It is an ancient intriguing art form which spread to Europe. It may have originated in China during the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD). Traditional stories performed include the ancient Ramayana and Mahabharata epics that originally arose in India but were retold in South East Asia. For example, one of these tells of the adventures of Prince Panji, a legendary hero of South East Asia. New stories have developed expanding the older tales and also examining modern life. These feature aeroplanes and mobile phones! Shadow Puppet Theatre is very popular in South East Asia and its imagery is re-used in sacred manuscripts and protective charms. The advent of television has not destroyed this art form which remains part of the artistic, spiritual and political life of many people in South East Asia. Audiences recognise the traders, politicians and royalty being represented by the puppets. All are there and humour is provided by the clown puppets. Verbal and visual jokes are in the performance. This type of entertainment spread to Europe in the mid 18th century and is known in Turkey, France and Greece. French missionaries working in China took the idea to France in 1767 and it was very popular in Paris in the 19th century. During the time of the Ottoman Empire, Puppet Theatre was prevalent in Turkey and the characters represented all the major and ethnic groups of that culture. In 1910 the German animator, Lotte Reiniger pioneered silhouette animation, the tradition survived and has been adapted to computer animation. Shadow Theatre performances involved the manipulation on sticks of 2-D puppets, made of hide, moving between a light source and a white cloth screen. Early screens were made of
mulberry paper and the light was a flame, recently replaced by electricity. One man operated the show and conducted the orchestra at the same time. The audience watched from both sides, so, for this reason the puppets were decorated on both sides. Some puppeteers own over two hundred puppets and are local celebrities. The Exhibition at the British Museum draws on its own unique collection of South Eastern Asian puppets and the Javanese Puppets of the Raffles Collection which dates back to 1800 and is the oldest collection of puppets in the world. The Exhibition is curated by Alexandra Green and is accompanied by a full public programme of performances and lectures. Originally a performance could last for six hours! This Exhibition has an aura of tradition and legend which is embedded deeply in South East Asia and it emphasises the skills necessary for puppet shows of this kind. The exhibits are both charming and amusing. For Example, Aria Bima is made of perforated hide, has a pandchanaka in each hand and a twin eyed garuda on each thigh. He hails from Java and is seventy five centimetres high and thirty eight centimetres wide. Abiyasa is made from painted hide and horn and is also from Java. He is elaborately decorated and has a long black nose and an extended neck. He succeeds in looking threatening. Another exhibit is a Thai Military General in a formal green uniform with epaulettes, smart black boots, and sporting a moustache. The Thai Princess, Sita, in her pretty dress and fancy head gear has a lively appearance. Togog, the clown , with his crocodile mouth, check trousers and wide red eyes is a quaint, quirky figure. The Exhibition has a varied display of puppets from the Museum’s fine collection and one can imagine why these shows remain popular as these figures walked, danced, fought, nodded and laughed between the paper screen and glowing flame.
Photograph Š British Museum
Shadow Puppet Theatre from Indonesia, Malaysia & Thailand.
UNESCO has designated Wayang Kulit, as Shadow Puppet Theatre is known in Indonesia, as one of the masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity. Marian Maitland. Information: e-mail. britishmuseum.org T: 020 7323 8181. Free Admission.
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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk Photograph © Museum of London
Arts & Culture
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
“Fire, Fire!”
Museum of London 23 July 2016-17 April 2017 Child: £4-8; Adult: £8-12 www.museumoflondon.org.uk/ museum-london
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long the banks of the River Thames with its tidal ebb and flow, the great Medieval city, London, arose. It was built of wooden structures, with overhanging upper storeys, all closely knit together. In the space of a square mile, enclosed by a Roman wall, a tide of humanity struggled for survival and life ebbed and flowed with births, work, disease and deaths and the all-consuming desire for commerce and wealth. Dramatic tragedy struck the city suddenly three hundred and fifty years ago in 1666. Fire consumed most of the city as it raged along the narrow streets and back alleys with the flames fanned by strong winds following a hot, dry summer. It did not respect homes, churches, government buildings,
warehouses or Livery Companies. All were consumed along with the stench, sewage, disease and rats. Yet, the spirit of the legendary Phoenix did not desert the great city and it rose again out of the ashes and continues to develop today. The informative Exhibition, “Fire! Fire!” at the Museum of London tells the tale of how the fire started in Thomas Farriner’s Bakery in Pudding Lane. It seems the fresh wood laid out ready for the next day’s baking caught light. Apparently the raking out of the previous fire was not done properly. A servant was awakened by smoke and alerted the owner. It was contained for a while by locals filling buckets of water from the Thames, but eventually the nearby warehouses caught fire.The Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Budworth refused to demolish surrounding buildings to stop the fire spreading. Apparently the landlords could not be found. The Exhibition details how Samuel Pepys, the great Diarist observed the progress of the fire from the battlements of the Tower of London. He saw houses burning along the bridge and the Tower of St Lawrence Pountney come tumbling down. Pepys went to Whitehall and
informed King Charles II of the fire. He suggested demolition and using the troops. Crowds were fleeing en masse to outlying areas such as Moorfields, which were fields where they set up camps. The Duke of York, James, brother of the King was put in charge of fighting the fire. He press ganged volunteers in return for a reward. St Paul’s Cathedral was burning along with 13,000 homes, 87 churches, 44 Company halls, 3 city gates, the prison, the Royal Exchange and the Customs House. The Exhibition describes Medieval fire engines well. They were heavy tanks with manual pumps on wheels and a precarious platform for the man directing the water. They were drawn by eight men or several horses.Their speed was hampered by fleeing residents carrying their possessions. Severe heat prevented their reaching the flames and some engines fell into the river while endeavouring to fill the tanks. The London Museum went to great lengths to reconstruct an early surviving fire engine of those times. It was made by John Keeling in London in 1678 and restored with the support of Croford Coachbuilders who maintain the Lord Mayor's coach. Pepys Library in
Cambridge had a drawing of a working model. The reconstruction is supported by the Radcliffe Trust and several Worshipful Companies. London was rebuilt more or less following the original Medieval plan. Christopher Wren designed the new St Paul's Cathedral and other beautiful churches in the city. This interactive Exhibition, mainly aimed at children is noisy with church bells ringing, babies screaming and cats mewing. It is quite a cacophony. However, we are spared the smells of rotting rubbish which was part of Medieval London. I liked the moving map of London showing the progress of the fire. The illustrations on the walls were based on woodcuts of the period. The silhouettes telling the story worked well as did the accompanying noise of the roaring fire. The Exhibition is sponsored by Eversheds, the Media Partner is the Evening Standard. It is supported by themed fire walks, workshops, childrens' sleepovers and festival days. A visit is informative and enjoyable. Marian Maitland. Box Office: 020 7001 9844
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October April/May 2016 2011
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
www.KCWToday.co.uk
Plus One Gallery
(CLASSICAL) MUSIC
Grand opening by The Worshipful Mayor of Wandsworth Councillor Richard Field Trafalgar House, Juniper Drive, Battersea Reach, York Road, London SW18 1GY 20 September 2016
BY JAMES DOUGLAS
Divine Comedies, a mythological double-bill Bampton Classical Opera
Philemon and Baucis GW Gluck
The Judgment of Paris
Thomas Arne St John’s Smith Square 12 September 2016
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he date had been in my diary all year. Bampton has become a must-see, with Arne living locally in London during St John’s Smith Square’s construction, and Gluck was only four years younger. There is a very real sense of harmony and occasion at these performances, as is fitting in a building that has aged as well as the music it was hosting. In their bumf Bampton refer to a real ticket cost of about £100, so great value at an average seat price of about £20; deeply discounted high art for less than a cheap round. For once there’s no need to proselytize: the place was packed, and it’s a grand and cavernous venue. Bampton do get the music right, and their Divine Comedies (hoping
that’s a nod to Neil Hannon as well as Dante) were excellently played and sung. The real challenge with comic opera is the humour. Brits take their comedy very seriously, and with some justice think they’re good at it. What we’re taught young is that it’s all in the timing. But so’s the music, so there’s a clash of priority. A joke can be stretched to breaking, while the all-important music catches up. Bampton manage this dichotomy brilliantly. They did it last year with Trofonio and they’ve done it again with the Divine Comedies. Bampton director Jeremy Gray agreed: “Opera is constrained by the music and the text, shaping what we do. The humour emerges throughout rehearsal. The cast has a good instinct of what works; the singers especially are really clued up”. Philemon and Baucis is not only the later work, but also lighter and shorter which begged the question why it was first on the night:
“It’s set in the departure lounge, outside customs, while the text of The Judgment of Paris, with gods and goddesses descending by machines or contraptions, invited the setting in the plane. We extended the metaphor to include the airhostesses trying in vain to catch our attention during the safety announcements. We thought about it, but decided Philemon and Baucis was the logical projection from departure lounge to the flight itself ”. It also worked artistically. It would have asked a bit much of the Gluck, to follow the more intense Arne, and the evening’s punchline was most definitely Venus and Paris joining the mile-high club. “The whole production came from the words,” Gray commented. “It helped that the sets of what does work as a double-bill, were almost interchangeable, in the never-ending battle with our budget” The production felt so right that one was left feeling mildly surprised that both of these are original productions. Bampton really is a very good house indeed. As much out of genuine personal interest, as toadyingly offering a plug, I asked what was coming up: “Last year’s production of Trofonio has generated a huge amount of interest in Salieri. Salieri’s work stands up on its own, but also it’s likely he was a significant influence on Mozart, and indeed vice-versa. We’re hoping to raise the funds to put on La scuola de’ gelosi (The School of Jealousy) in the near future. It’s worth noting that it preceded Così fan tutte (The School for Lovers), enjoying considerable success” I’ll be watching out for Bampton Classical Opera productions generally, and Salieri in particular; I suggest you do too. It was Plus One Colin who first switched me on to Salieri, and indeed accompanied me to St John’s, so it follows...
I don’t normally let my jejune accountant alter-ego stray onto this hallowed turf, but KCW Today has a properly highprofile new neighbour, that happens to be one of his clients. It’s hard to overstate the importance of Plus One Gallery. Quite simply it is the leading European centre for Hyperrealism. Co-founder Maggie Bollaert’s book Exactitude is not only gorgeous, but is a leading text on the subject. Wandsworth welcomed this latest arrival with no lesser personage than Ravi Gavindia, Leader of the Council, supporting the mayor, with Wandsworth Chamber of Commerce represented by Chief Executive Steve Pinto (supported as it happens by his jejune chairman, who was given the honour of welcoming the mayor). With a number of the paintings reflecting urban river-landscapes, and with guests packed into their new vast impressive space, it really did feel like Plus One Gallery has come to its natural home, overlooking the Thames at Battersea Reach. The
ultra-modern paintings sit particularly well alongside the usine à gaz feel, echoed somewhat surreally by the attendance of fan, friend and patron, architect Mike Davies, who as a partner in Richard Rodgers was actively involved in the creation of the Pompidou Centre. Many congratulations to Colin and Maggie on a night which was a thumping success for them, and another milestone in the development of the Nine Elm’s corridor, snaking its way east from Wandsworth Bridge, to the Battersea Power Station development, and of course the American Embassy. Do pop in and see them; they’ll give you a good welcome. It’s on the river side of the Wandsworth Bridge roundabout so easy to find and good parking; also handy for The Ship pub. As a footnote Plus One Colin also gave me my gorgeous dark burgundy gold-capped Parker 51 (see property supplement page 25).
Photograph © Plus One Gallery
Arts & Culture
October 2016
Arts & Culture
Photograph © Bill Cooper
BY ANDREW WARD
online: www.KCWToday.co.uk
La Fille Mal Gardée. A triumph of quintessentially English ballet. The Royal Ballet opened the season with Sir Frederick Ashton’s La Fille Mal Gardée, The Wayward Daughter. A crowd pleaser since the day it was premiered in 1960. Ashton’s gem is a quintessentially English ballet with pantomime comedy, romantic young lovers dancing for joy, dancing chickens, maypole dances and clog dancing, and that’s all in the first act. Designs by Osbert Lancaster take you right to the heart of life in the country on a hot summer’s day
Silent Echo, choreographed by Russell Maliphant, a seasoned contemporary creator, did get part way to exciting the senses with both Osipova and Polunin dancing with fleeting moments of passion. Polunin, with an amazing God like physical form, did soar through the air performing jumps with twists and turns like no other dancer of today. Even great artists need artistic direction… in ‘Strictly’ terms this was close to a disaster that without the last piece would have been a crash landing!
OCD Love
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ritian’s Dance House, Sadler’s Wells, led by Alistair Spalding, takes a leap into the unknown and should be congratulated on many levels as few Londoners will be familiar with the thriving dance scene in Israel. A packed opening night audience, with tickets at just £18, experienced 55 minutes of super intense and exhilarating contemporary dance. Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar served up an amazing concoction of high octane dance and pulsating music with tribal beats providing the dancers with the platform to hold the audience at the edge of their seats. Eyal and Behar launched their dance company L-E-V in 2013 with the aim to introduce new audiences to their very own distinct combination of movement and percussive music combined with digitally manipulated sounds and lighting with a night club feel. OCD Love was inspired by the poem OCD by Neil Hilborn who himself suffers from obsessive-complusive disorder. The piece starts with a female dancer clad in stockings and leotard, giving a somewhat sexual display of distorted adagio extensions, with her long limbs oozing her pliable body from one movement to the next. Mesmerising to a degree… she was then joined by a bare chested male who walked slowly around the stage in an aloof, almost ghostly manner. The beams of light kept the eye checking out the next hyperextended slow lunge with arms behind the head creating a hypnotic experience. The piece develops the OCD theme with the remaining four dancers manipulating her body as she seems, at times, to try to escape the pulsating rituals as they take control of her destiny. A captivating piece by a duo that will take centre stage again!
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Photograph © Regina Brocke
BALLET
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
Carlos Acosta. The Classical Farewell
both at the farmhouse and out in the cornfields before the storm takes centre stage to end the first act. Music by Hérold and arranged/orchestrated by John Lanchbery. Ashton was a genius to commission Lanchbery who created the music for all the numerous mime scenes and the infamous comic scene for Alain, the village idiot, featuring a solo for the bassoon that matches the essence of the comedy and has the audience in hysterics. The opening night cast danced with flying colours: Laura Morera danced the wayward daughter, Lise, with sublime radiance; Vadim Muntagirov portrayed the young farmer, Colas, with panache and astoundingly high leaps and landings as soft as a feathered pillow; Thomas Whitehead played Widow Simone with wit and comic timing like panto was his day job; Paul Kay as Alain and Gary Avis as Thomas were Oscar winning supporting character artists; and finally The Royal Ballet danced the villagers and harvesters with gusto. A triumphant start to the season. Runs till 22nd Oct. www.roh.org.uk
Osipova takes a leap into the dark
What could go possibly wrong? Take an international ballet star, Natalia Osipova, and give her a carte blanche opportunity to take a right turn away from her classical ballet roots and present an evening of contemporary dance. She was joined by one of the world’s top ballet dancers and her real life partner, Sergei Polunin. In Baseball you have two strikes and then you are out. It was not till the last piece of the triple bill presented at the trendy Sadler’s Wells theatre that Osipova even got close to a home run. After the first piece, Run Mary Run, choreographed by Arthur Pit for Osipova and Polunin the gentleman sat close by said “Well what was that all about… it certainly dragged on.” The next piece, Outb, choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui fared no better. Without Polunin, Osipova performed with two bare chested dancers but the result was the same with little to get the piece fired up to even get close to first base. The evening ended on its highest note.
After a year on tour Carlos Acosta returns to London’s Royal Albert Hall for the grand finale on a Classical career that will be remembered by many adoring fans for years to come. At 43, Acosta had his farewell performance with the home team, The Royal Ballet, with his very own production of Carmen last December. A fitting venue to end on a high even though, not surprisingly, Acosta’s once soaring leaps could not reach the cosmic heights that audiences would gasp at on a daily basis. Classical male dancers, like athletes and tennis players, peak at the young age of 24 to 29. Just as the dancer starts to grow artistically the body is already starting to decline. Acosta has looked after his body better than many but his saut de basque and cabrioles are not the same anymore. Sadly there is not a seniors tour for dancers like in golf or tennis! Acosta was joined by a small group of friends from The Royal Ballet and Cuba. Honours even to Sarah Lamb and Marianela Nuñez who were the stars of the show. Acosta will be following the well-trodden path laid by Baryshnikov and Guillem with contemporary dance being his new menu of the day. Watch this space as Acosta hasn’t taken his final curtain call!
Photograph © ROH Tristram Henton
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Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
www.KCWToday.co.uk
Arts & Culture Dellasposa Fine Art
presents Face Time pop-up exhibition By Ione Bingley
Above: Simon Davis paints his subjects with a muted pallet and subtle, introspective fashion.
Left: Emma Hopkins depicts the raw humanity of her subjects with great intensity.
Below: Italian artist, Sabatino Cersosimo, centres his art man’s psychological and relational complexity. Surveying the practice of portrait painting in contemporary art today.
Following in the tradition and techniques of the Old Masters, Isabella Watling portrays her subjects in the most elegant and refined manner.
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ellasposa Fine Art challenges self-perception in a ‘selfie’ world in the new portrait exhibition, Face Time with a portion of the proceeds to be donated to the charity, Resources for Autism. The exhibition aims to unite past and present by presenting some twenty paintings by contemporary artists that echo the memories of the Old Masters whilst challenging traditional notions of portraiture. Curated by Dellasposa Fine Art, Face Time is to provide a 21st century take on an age-old discipline. Among the issues explored in the exhibition is the way in which portraits engage with identity as they are perceived, represented, understood and constructed, and how portraiture represents a particular occasion that transcends a single moment in time. “Face Time is led by a selection of outstanding new works by a group of phenomenal artists who are re-examining the tradition of portrait painting in contemporary art,” said Curator and Director of Dellasposa Jessica McBride. “Beyond the digital age, it is fascinating
to see how portraiture captivates audiences today in remarkable new ways. We are incredibly excited that our inaugural exhibition opens by shining a light on these amazingly talented and insightful artists.”
Isabella Watling
In using the same methods and materials as the great portrait artists of history from all the way back to Titian in 17th
century Venice, Isabella Watling hopes to give her work a force of integrity that comes through a feeling of timelessness. Watling’s principal focus for her portraits is to capture something of the character and life of the sitter. For her, each portrait is a concentrated response to her impression of the person she paints. In working from life in close collaboration with the sitter, the picture becomes a living artefact of her experiences of the model during the time spent in the studio.
Sabatino Cersosimo
With his psychological and relational complexity, man is the centre of Sabatino Cersosimo’s interest. Following a line that has its roots in expressionist painting
and the Viennese Secession, Cersosimo’s paintings blend his interests in realism and expressive gestures. Developing his own technique, Cersosimo paints on a steel surface, while he explores attraction by experimenting with the effects of oxidation, obtained with water and other natural elements.
Emma Hopkins
Based upon her understanding and knowledge of the human anatomy, Emma Hopkins allows parts of her work to revel in the deep analysis of concrete substance; skin, flesh, and bones. By focusing on the parts of the body that we use most to express our thoughts and feelings, the face, hands, and eyes, she simultaneously allows her work to flow freely in between as if the blood is feeding oxygen to a preserved life force. “I work with subjects that have, in their own right, fascinated me,” Hopkins explains. “I tend to paint these subjects more than once to mirror our multifaceted nature and to allow me to explore themes that I fear the most; hidden motives, illness, and death.”
Simon Davis
Inspired by often quiet and unassuming moments of introspection, Simon Davis paints the gradual revelation of gravity and melancholy found in portraying others. He paints enigmatic portraits with an atmosphere of tension, reflecting an attempt to represent the female form in a serious and unsentimental way. “I want my paintings to have gravity and strength and not fall back on decorative solutions,” says Davis. “Painting to me is a constant battle to simplify.” Face Time will feature 20 paintings by emerging and established artists, and is open to the public from 4-10 November 2016, at 90 Piccadilly, London, W1J 7NE. Information: www.dellasposa.com Enquiries: contact info@dellasposa.com
October 2016
Arts & Culture Curiocity: In Pursuit of London
Henry Eliot and Matt LloydRose Particular Books 452 pp. £30 ISBN: 978-1-846-14867-5
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Photograph © DonGrant
he sheer amount of research that went into producing this fascinating book about London is eye-watering; the range of subject matter is gob-smacking and the amount of cross-referencing, jawdropping. The authors have suggested ways of navigating it: a simple A-Z approach; drifting randomly; following the footnotes; reading the 26 maps and following a route. They were amazed that, in a single day, you could ‘swim with coots in the Hampstead bathing ponds, eyeball a mummified merman in Forest Hill, manhandle yams at Brixton Market and witness laws being forged in the Supreme Court. It is the perfect place to drop into and let the book do the work, jumping from one topic to another, from underground London, with its tunnels, wells, cellars, vaults, bunkers, lost rivers and the tube network, to hagiolatry, dealing with saints, celebrities, floriography (which is the art of using flowers symbolically), national treasures and English Heritage blue plaques. In the chapter entitled Isle, we learn that there are 190 island dotted along the Thames from source to sea, with Frog Island in Essex not a haven for amphibians, but being used as an internment camp for French prisoners during the Napoleonic Wars. One problem with a book of this
sort is that a city as vast and complex as London is in a constant state of flux, with buildings being demolished, tunnels being dug, burial grounds being excavated and miriad other changes. The Couper Art Collection is no longer housed on moored barges between Albert and Battersea Bridges, as it states in the text, but has been dismantled and moved after protests from the chippy architect Norman Foster and wealthy residents like Ruby Wax, saying that it was ‘ugly and spoils the views’. The book points out the existence of ‘the seven noses of Soho’, one cast high up on a building at the corner of Meard Street and Dean Street, another above the frontage of Quo Vadis, and yet others on Endell Street and Great Windmill Street, put there by the artist Rick Buckley in 1997. The chapter Mint deals with new and old money, banking, bellygods, bibbers and slubbergullions. The money gallery at the British Museum has a banknote on display from Hungary’s period of hyperinflation after the Second World War, worth 100,000.000,000,000,000,000 pengos. Number 25 Bank Street in Canary Wharf now housing the London offices of J P Morgan, had been earmarked for a subsidiary of Enron before the company’s fraud was uncovered and it went bankrupt in 2001. Lehman Brothers subsequently moved in, and we all know what happened to them in 2008, triggering a global financial crisis. Apparently, there is no commemorative plaque at this historic location. Although virtually every page throws up a little nugget or two, after a while one can suffer from ‘fact fatigue’, and one has a need to put the book dow, But where? It’s too large for the downstairs loo and two cumbersome for the bedside table, but anyone interested in art, culture, people, myths, mysteries and stories should find somewhere on their bookshelves for this rich and quirky compendium. Don Grant
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk Photograph © P&P
020 7738 2348
Obsession
304pp. £45 + P&P www.northcote.com/gifts/ obsession-16-cook-book/ ISBN 999-8-7777-6666-5
This is the only possible title for this richly-flavoured and well-stuffed tome. Take 18 chefs from around the world, holding 17 Michelin stars between them, stick them in a luxury country house hotel in the Ribble Valley in Lancashire, and stage a gargantuan gastronomic extravaganza lasting 16 days. The whole beano was dreamed up by Nigel Haworth Chef Patron of Northcote, now in its sixteenth year. The book celebrates this year’s beanfeast held in January with menus, recipes, and behind-the-scenes photographs of the chefs and their teams at work in the kitchen, and of the dishes, in food-porn detail. The dishes themselves are mostly modest in portion, and look both delicate and delicious, with no soupçon of the gluttonous gourmandising in the 1973 French film La Grande Bouffe. If you are inspired to use this as a cookbook, it woud be wise to check your larder for such delicacies as sachets of squid ink, geranium and nasturtium leaves, agar agar, beetroot juice and red kiwicha before starting to cook. This is not a book for the Jamie bish-bash-bosh cookery school with his 15-minute four-course meals. The dishes here are aimed at committed foodies, who delight in complex tastes, stunning presentation and obsessive attention to detail. There is nothing more frustrating
than speed-reading a recipe, and then coming across a phrase such as ‘leave overnight’, ‘cook at 85°C steam for 6 hours, allow to cool. or ‘brine 1kg suckling pig middle, bones removed, for 12 hours, then place in a vacuum pouch and cook for 6 hours at 85°C.’ To be fair, this is probably aimed at the more professional cooks amongst us, as there some ingredients that this amateur cook has never heard of, such as 50g onion ash. Angelo Sabatelli and Marco Stabile, with a star each, offered an amuse-bouche with scampi, almond and lemon, which looks and sounds delicious, but I was confounded by ‘Sea liquorice powder’. All you need is 100ml seaweed (liquidised), 100ml squid ink, ultratex (a modified starch used as a thickener) and 50ml sea urchin. Blend the ingredients to a fine paste, which is then spread onto a non-stick baking mat and dried at 60° for 4 to 5 hours, after which it is pulverized in a spice grinder and kept in a glass jar until required. One imagines that some of the people who buy this book are those who have eaten at the restaurant and want to have a momento of their evening. The featured dishes are all photographed by Allan Markey, who has his own signature style of sharp focus and massive closeups of, say, a crab or fish scales. Each chef is given his own potted biography, portrait, an airline-style baggage label, stating place of birth, a passport-style stamp, as well as a map showing their journey and a piece about their favourite ingredients. With only four of the eighteen chefs women, it is remarkable, as Matthew Fort points out in his foreword, how many of the dishes were inspired by their mother’s cooking. except for Marco Stabile, who affectionately remembers his father in one recipe. Don Grant
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October April/May 2016 2011
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
www.KCWToday.co.uk
Photograph © V&A Museum
Arts & Culture
Feldman MAX
REVIEWS
V&A: You Say You Want A Revolution? £16.00
I
t’s hard to not approach the V&A’s multimedia extravaganza du jour without a leaden feeling of cynicism. You Say You Want A Revolution? feels like a fairly transparent attempt by the V&A to follow up 2013 eye-wateringly successful David Bowie exhibition by taking what was successful about David Bowie Is (Rock N’ Roll! Sex Appeal! Rebellion! Costumes! Experimental words and music beamed into distractingly bulky headphones!) and expanding the focus of the exhibition from one man to a cross section of the entire cultural zeitgeist of that most rebellious and rock and roll (and most aggressively analysed and catalogued) decade of them all: The 1960s. Only the deliberately contrary would argue that the Sixties as a decade doesn’t have an embarrassment of riches for an archivist: fantastic music (admittedly along with oceans of dross thankfully forgotten by history), burning social upheaval and a kaleidoscope of almost unthinkably influential fashion, ideas, films, architecture and all that stuff that looks good in a coffee table book. The issue is that almost all of it has already been printed in so many coffee table books that you could probably build a ladder to the moon if you stacked them on top of each other. The Sixties, fuelled by aggressive baby-boomer selfmythologising, have become less a period of time and more of a mental theme park. Forget “you just had to be there”, exaggerated portrayals of the decade have been shoved down pop culture’s collective throat for so long that most millennials feel that they have such a thorough understanding of the Disneyland nostalgia version of it that they might as well have been. As a result for an exhibition of the decade to truly stand out as exceptional, it needs to peel back the nostalgic façade and expose what the decade was really like behind the Greatest Hits style collection of well-worn cultural touch-stones like Woodstock and free love. You Say You Want A Revolution? has absolutely no interest in this kind of revisionism: “The Sixties were great! If you were there fantastic, if not then you missed the most important cultural shift in human history and you might as well
give up now because nothing will ever be this good again! That’ll be £16.00” is very much the message of the exhibit so punters should be warned against expectations of potentially learning something about the era that they didn’t know, rather impressions of the time will be shored up as though they’re castle walls before a siege. All of that being said though, the V&A have clearly thrown everything up to and including the kitchen sink into this exhibit: Everything from John Peel’s record collection to AstroTurf fields for visitors to recline on whilst watching excerpts from Woodstock makes for an exhibit that is practically bursting at the seams with content. Said content is delivered via a sensory bombardment that is delivered with the force of a nuclear powered battering ram; a recreated Vidal Sassoon hair-salon rubs shoulders with the costumes used in the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover and CIA distributed handbills that attempted to sow dissent among the ranks of Black Panther activists. Bright and appropriately psychedelic colour schemes are the order of the day and coupled with the V&A’s seemingly ubiquitous Senheisser headphones that blast a disorientating medly of sixties classics that shift depending on where you’re standing, the expedition can end up feeling appropriately hallucinatory. The exhibition is split up into individual ‘revolutions’ (e.g. one revolution covers British fashion and swinging London) and predictably some work better than others with the highlight of the exhibition unquestionably lying in the rooms that cover the era’s social upheavals; civil rights, gay rights, second-wave feminism,
Vietnam, Paris 1968, which feature ceiling and wall mounted screens blasting machine-gun speed montages of soaring bombers, pumping chopper blades, chanting crowds, injured protesters and bursts of TV static become an enveloping cacophonous nightmare. On the ground, surrounded by a berserk collection of Maoist tracts, military uniforms and unnerving propaganda (from both counterculture and government) it’s easy to get a picture of a society that seems closer to an actual civil war rather than a love-in. The sheer quantity of individual exhibits means that there’s an actively intimidating amount of stuff to read. This wouldn’t be such a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that the V&A seems to feel its solemn duty is to make the twists and turns of the exhibition as awkward and liable to bottleneck crowds as possible whenever they put together a large scale exhibition. Considering that much of the material on display is basically meaningless without the explanatory text it might be wise to pack some sharp elbows and a ruthless streak if you plan on going through the exhibition faster than a snail’s pace. In its later stages, the exhibition
shows a few signs of becoming more ambivalent than the simple hagiography for its subject that the it seemed to have previously settled for, with little touches such as a section on the evolving techniques used in advertising being dominated by mirrors in what seems to be a rather unsubtle probing of the late sixties rampant lust to buy. However probing of the less glamorous side of the decade (though Mad Men would beg to differ) is swiftly abandoned in favour of claiming that every major discovery and movement since the hallowed decade was directly inspired by the cultural shifts in these brief few years (to the point where the modern culture of in-house tech start-ups apparently owe their existence to the Californian hippie communes of yore). As you leave the final revolution, the exhibition sees fit to serenade you with an apparently unironic blast of John Lennon’s Imagine as you exit into an extremely large (and high priced) gift shop in what serves as a rather unfortunate metaphor for the entire exhibition. The V&A have put together quite the fairground ride to celebrate the 60’s but there’s nothing filling behind all the bells and whistles, only candyfloss.
October 2016
Arts & Culture Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Skeleton Tree Bad Seed Ltd Price: £9.99
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Photograph © Bad Seed Limited
ow can you rate sorrow? Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds began work on the album that became Skeleton Tree in 2015, but whatever form the record was originally envisaged was thoroughly eclipsed by the shattering event of Cave’s son Arthur’s tragic death at that year’s end. Every song on the finished Skeleton Tree is shot through with that trauma to the extent where it’s impossible to imagine the album outside of that context. The excellent companion documentary One More Time With Feeling shows Cave as a man unmoored, with the record serving as an unintentional emotional barometer of someone going through the kind of trauma that no parent can possibly prepare for. Bursting out of the box with the swirling ambient drone of Jesus Alone, Skeleton Tree opens with a burst of snarling aggression that the album never attempts to reach again, utilizing a more mournful approach. Squirming synths and spastic percussion form a sickly rumble that is overwhelmed only by Cave’s voice floating magisterially above the chaos. Whilst most of Skeleton Tree shies away from directly addressing the circumstances of Arthur’s death, the opening lines of “you fell from the sky/crash-landed by the River Adur” put you immediately into the vortex of
Cave’s personal life, whose sucking pull only relinquishes its grip by the record’s end. Ruminating on the impotence of spiritual figures (Cave’s theology has proved incredibly elastic over his three decades in the business, but the levels of disillusionment expressed here are unheralded), the twisting edge of his stream of consciousness lyrics shows an artist with his defensive edges sanded off. After the turbulent hiss of the debut track the album settles down somewhat, the follow up Rings of Saturn is perhaps the easiest to imagine as it would have sounded in the album’s original nontragic context. Bouncing along a synthline that sounds closer to something out of the Drive soundtrack than The Boatman’s Call, the song begins an album long trend of Cave imploring female figures for understanding. Women have always been the ultimate arbiters of truth and comfort in Cave’s oeuvre (when they’re not being murdered that is) Distant Sky is another stand-out track, where the gentle backing vocals (courtesy of Else Torp) bring a ray of optimism to Nick’s story, and a genuine glimmer of hope to the album, be it only for the sake of the listener. Whether it is through a resonant piano chord, or a guitar plucking gently away in the background, Skeleton Tree is a collection of songs that sound incredibly textured, with a full, thorough production style. However, it goes without saying that Cave is the true star of this album. The depth of meaning behind his lyrics will surely provide fans with countless ways to interpret this album in years to come. The attention to detail is staggering, but never takes away from the personal tone of these stories. Nick Cave leads you by the hand through his twisting narratives, but leaves you to tackle the emotions alone. At the end of the day Skeleton Tree is simply one of those albums that remind us why we listen to music.
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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk Photograph © Outré
020 7738 2348
Danny Says
Running time 108mins
The music industry hasn’t traditionally earned much fame for its behind-thescenes players, perhaps because the rock stars actually making the music are particularly difficult to outshine. Sure, the music biz has its share of names that don’t actually play instruments or produce records, but how many immediately spring to mind? Beatles manager Brian Epstein, maybe; Colonel Tom Parker, Interscope impresario Jimmy Iovine? But even those titans of the industry aren’t household names, or even close. Danny Fields, the subject of Danny Says, and of the Ramones song that gives the documentary its name, is several steps below those players on the fame ladder, though Brendan Toller’s film posits that he’s no less vital to the history of popular music. To hear Fields tell it, and a lot of Danny Says features the man himself telling his own stories, he had great taste in forward-thinking music, and he was in the right place at the right time, many times. Like the Forrest Gump of proto-punk, he partied with Andy Warhol at The Factory, lived with Edie Sedgwick, befriended Lou Reed and Linda Eastman (who’d later be Linda McCartney), and introduced Nico to Jim Morrison. That’s not all. He got both The Stooges and MC5 record deals with a single phone call to Elektra Records shortly after seeing them play for the first time. He introduced Iggy Pop both to cocaine and to David Bowie. And in one of the last huge moments of his career, he guided the Ramones to their earliest
fame, sending them to England where they hung out with Paul Simonon, whose band The Clash was afraid to play live because they weren’t technically skilled enough. (The Ramones taught them they didn’t need to be, apparently.) The stories wouldn’t be half as fun if Fields weren’t so refreshingly cynical and candid. Unabashedly gay at a time when that was a considerably rarer thing to be, Fields spends nearly as much time talking, mostly in generalities, about freewheeling sex as he does about the music he was witnessing and helping to promote. He came to grips with his sexuality in college and dove right in, and he’s perfectly New York in describing those years, talking with a smirk about how he “hung out with dissolute faggots, shoplifted, and fucked a lot.” He’s also hilariously unafraid to call bullshit on things he didn’t connect to in his career: He can’t even remember which Winter brother he briefly helped out, so he dismissively says stuff like, “One of the albinos was playing.” In other words, he’s kind of an asshole, but the mostly likable kind. Fields’ actual roles were widely varied: As an editor at a teen magazine, he brought the Beatles’ “bigger than Jesus” controversy to the public eye and helped end their touring career. Sometimes he was a journalist, sometimes a publicist, sometimes a manager. But in every role, his goal was to, in his words, “see a miracle and encourage it to be miraculous.” It effectively makes the case that popular music would have been considerably different without his enthusiasm and support. He’s described by friends and colleagues as both a catalyst and a midwife, helping spur on and birth music that unquestionably had a lasting impact. If he had done that with a little less brio (and maybe more tact), Danny Says wouldn’t be nearly as fun. Then again, if he were a guy with a little less brio and a little more tact, he probably wouldn’t have had the impact he did.
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October April/May 2016 2011
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
www.KCWToday.co.uk
Photograph © Club Hotel & Spa
The Club Hotel & Spa, Bohemia Restaurant, Jersey By David Hughes
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estled in Green St, St Helier, The Club is one of those Tardislike hotels that turn a deceptively small frontage into a spacious and contemporary space that not only holds the Michelin starred restaurant Bohemia, but also a very well-equipped Spa. After checking in around lunchtime, we spent the better half of the afternoon in the Spa: M had her feet buffed, polished, manipulated and toenails painted a sultry shade of red whilst I surrendered myself to a Pure Detox Envelopment. Generally I’d say I was more proficient at racking up the toxins, so I was very happy to be in the hands of the lovely Emilia to try to reverse this a bit. Being a bit of an amateur in this field I arrived in my spanky new Speedo’s (not the “budgie smugglers” you’ll be relieved to know) and was immediately told to get out of them in favour of some disposable grannie pants. A bit harsh on the style front, but after the initial salt rub, things get messier. Intertwining each stage of the treatment there`s some soothing massage to supplement the low lights and “100 most soporific tunes” soundtrack. 50 mins of salt, mud and seaweed, and a 10 minute trip to the steam bath leaves me with skin as soft as a baby’s bottom, and a mild desire to play 10 minutes of Motorhead quite loud. I was very relaxed and detoxed though. My generally unpampered bod now had a taste for this, so I lounged around on the hydro bench in the pool, went back to the steam room for half an hour, then headed for the Experience Shower; 6 side jets that chimed in with the overhead deluge. My new, radiant self was now ready for some Michelin dining. After a little discussion, we decided to go for broke: the Prestige Menu at £85 per head. Hell, I’ve spent all afternoon training for this! Being Michelin, some jewel-like amuse bouche greet you, along with the fresh rolls in a hessian sack, sitting on hot pebbles to give a seaside soundtrack. This is echoed in the sea shell cones of butter, one seaweed, one plain. St Helier is a port town, but nowhere in Jersey is far from the sea.
Above: Outdoor pool Left: Royal Bay oysters, cucumber and fennel Right: Afternoon tea!
Between various amuses and stages there are 11 plates and bowls that are put before us, plus optional cheeses (£15 supp) This starts with Sweet & Sour Beetroot, Horseradish and Dill; a complex range of flavours designed to play in your taste buds for the challenge ahead. On the sommeliers recommendation we had chosen a South African Chenin Blanc, aged 1 year in oak, which was ideal, and a good bridge to the Butternut, Parmesan, Nasturtium and Quail’s Egg. The quail’s egg is covered in fine chocolate powder, the nasturtium is the quenelle of ice cream, the parmesan and the butternut is a hot sauce poured out at the table, plus there appear to be some fine cobnut particles scattered around too. Madness or genius? Well, a bit show-off, but a very technical and imaginative marriage. The lingering taste is of parmesan. Now we pull things in slightly for the Oyster, Dill, Cucumber and Caviar. Time for chef Steve Smith to release the foam over a couple of incredibly plump and creamy oysters. First class execution, with the pickled cucumber providing the slightly tart foil to the richness of the foam. We are far from done with richness however: the following crab custard and tart with peach and lemon verbena is another technical tour de force, with the white meat on the thinnest of crispbread
imbued with the lemon verbena. The brown meat is a paste in a pot, surmounted with a peach gel. I’m beginning to look for a little more simplicity, but that’s a course away. Next is the stunning miniature garden that sits on top of the foie gras. It’s a sea buckthorn, kumquat and duck salad that must have been put together by very nimble fingers and a dainty pair of tweezers. Tiny, perfect, and a very imaginative interpretation of a duck a l ’orange sitting on top of a decent spoonful of excellent foie gras. Dover Sole, Sweetcorn & Black Garlic. The essence here is the welcome return to a simple ingredient that is allowed to come through unfettered, backed only by a few squares of crispy skin. It’s now time to pick out a red wine, and though there’s some big names on the list, those on a budget will be thrilled with the Montes Alpha, a Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile with plenty of layers and depth. A dinky Waldorf salad now sets us up for the mains of Venison Loin & Sausage, Beetroot, Black Pudding & Kale. It’s a picture almost too perfect to eat, but I clear the impeccable plate, wanting only for a little more Kale, but knowing that would spoil the look. Sometimes you have to suffer for your art. Another raid on Lilliput sees a tiny pot of Pineapple, Coconut and
Photograph © David Hughes
Photograph © Club Hotel & Spa
Photograph © David Hughes
Travel
Coriander put before us, followed by the Peach Bellini, sitting on the world’s thinnest meringue. The work to make these dishes would set most tables with a meal for 4. As you might have guessed, by now we were slightly struggling, but we are not quitters. Pop Corn, Salted Caramel (can you even get it unsalted these days, except by sucking on a Werthers original?) and Lime was terrific, but several of M’s tiny slivers of cheese a bit bland for her. After 3 hours and 5 minutes coffee and brandy were beyond us, and we had to leave space for breakfast in a few hours. Breakfast was followed by a drive round the island, and a walk. Tomorrow we would take afternoon tea, another spectacular. It starts with the usual finger sandwiches, which are great, but the real artistry is reserved for the pastries, works of art that could easily reside in a gallery. They also look rather good exhibited on your plate, and temptingly, are so much more accessible. The Club’s combination of saintly spa and somewhat sinning foodie heaven is a hard one to resist, and the two days was barely enough for us. The Club Hotel & Spa Green Street, St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, JE2 4UH 01534 720371 www.theclubjersey.com
020 7738 2348
October 2016
Travel
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
online: www.KCWToday.co.uk
New Saruni rhino camp
launches first on foot black rhino tracking experience in East Africa
S
aruni, the portfolio of luxury properties in Kenya, is launching the first ever opportunity in East Africa to track on foot the majestic black rhinos. Opening in February 2017, the new safari property is called Saruni Rhino and is located in Sera Community Conservancy, a vast wildlife reserve 350,000 hectares large situated in the spectacular Northern Kenya region. This marks the return of the endangered black rhinos to the land of the Samburu warriors after an absence of a quarter of a century and marks a historical achievement for conservation in Kenya. Sera Community Conservancy is the first community conservancy in Africa to own and operate a sanctuary dedicated to the conservation of this iconic species. The relocation of the black rhinos from other parks and reserves in Kenya has been facilitated by Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) in partnership with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and others. NRT is an umbrella organization
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that since 2004 has been the model of community-based wildlife conservation in the country. After years of hard work, substantial investment, passion and determined commitment by Sera Community members and Northern Rangelands Trust, this has led to creating the Sera Rhino Sanctuary in May 2015. Saruni is proud to have been chosen by Sera Community as their partner in opening their pioneering conservancy to tourism. Saruni Rhino will offer a unique walking safari experience tracking black rhino on foot, accompanied by an expert Saruni guide and a highly-trained Sera Community Conservancy ranger. Along with using traditional Samburu tracking methods, the rangers will be
equipped with transmitters that are connected to a microchip inserted in the horns of the 11 rhinos and that communicates their GPS whereabouts throughout the spectacular 54,000-hectares fenced sanctuary, which is surrounded by Sera Community Conservancy. This will enable guests to track within metres of the rhinos. The memorable experience will endeavour to educate and encourage the further protection of the species for future generations. In participating in the experience, Saruni Rhino guests will actively contribute to the long-term protection of the black rhinos. Saruni Rhino will be initially comprised of two stylish ‘bandas’ (open stone cottages) which sleep 4- 6 and a main
‘mess’ cottage just outside the sanctuary. An additional tented camp inside the rhino sanctuary will be added soon. Guests will be able to dine and relax at their leisure in the camp surroundings which are true to Saruni-style: elegant but simple in a harmonious blend with the natural environment and in celebration of local craftspeople. Nestled amidst the swaying doum palms dotted along a large dry river bed, the cottages have sweeping views of a nearby waterhole which is a popular stop-off for a diverse range of wildlife including the indigenous “Samburu Special Five”: the endangered Grevy’s zebra, the long necked gerenuk, the reticulated giraffe, Beysa oryx and the Somali ostrich, making it great ‘bush TV’ from the comfort of each cottage’s veranda. Saruni Rhino is located within driving distance of sister property Saruni Samburu, allowing guests to top or tail their experience in style. Considered to be the “best property in northern Kenya”, Saruni Samburu comprises six luxury eco-chic villas subtly located on the top of a stunning rocky kopje overlooking 200,000 acres of unspoilt wilderness. The property has recently launched a unique experience for Kenya: an elephant-proof, open ground level hide based at a waterhole, where both keen photographers and wildlife enthusiasts can quietly enjoy the animals just metres away.
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October April/May 2016 2011
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
www.KCWToday.co.uk
Health
KA O BO
UR O T
W O N
The UK’s first premium memory care residence with 24 hour nursing is NOW OPEN
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LIBRARY & CINEMA
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To enquire now & book a tour call us on 03331 221 598 234a King’s Road, Chelsea, London | www.chelseacourtplace.com
October 2016
Health
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
online: www.KCWToday.co.uk
New memory residence in Chelsea
redefines round-the-clock care By Ione Bingley
O
ffering tailored, 24-hour support from professionals trained in Alzheimer’s and dementia care, Chelsea Court Place is the UK’s first premium memory care residence of its kind. Having observed the effects of Alzheimer’s in his own family and with an impressive career behind him in senior healthcare, Managing Director James Cook was able to realize his dream of delivering dedicated, round-the-clock, memory care finding a rare property right in the cultural heartland of Chelsea. Without a single step on the main floor, the site has been cleverly designed to feel homely whilst avoiding any of the potential confusion linked to memory conditions. The 15 outside facing rooms are spaced along a wide corridor that encircles the central communal areas. Every detail has been carefully considered with even the room numbers colour coded in hues that are the last to be
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lost in the progressive stages of dementia. Situated on Chelsea’s Kings Road , the unique city placement facilitates visits from friends and family and allows the residents to continue to attend their favourite cultural activities, providing a home away from home. “People are asking for very specific things. We had a lady who called up who wanted her mother to be taken to the opera once a month, another lady who wants her bridge club once a week, that’s what this is all about, giving a really bespoke level of care that we can create for residence and their families,” explains James.
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Specially trained in memory care, all the staff have been hand selected from the best candidates available in the country. Coming from Coombe Hill Manor Signature Senior Lifestyles in Kingston, a residential care and nursing home with a separate dementia facility, and with a long history in mental health and psychology, General Manager Christine Bunce is well suited to head the professional team. Before moving into Chelsea Court Place, Bunce and the team employ a system called dementia mapping to understand each resident’s condition. By visiting them in their homes, talking to their family and
friends, and learning their habits, they are able to create a detailed care plan that is shared with the carers. Tailoring the room and services to the needs of each resident and slowly familiarising them with their new home and the staff, Bunce hopes to make every move seamless. “With the care plan, the carers know exactly how to care for that person in the they want to be cared for, not how we think they should be cared for, which is a huge difference in a care industry that can treats everyone the same,” says Bunce. “What’s exciting for us is that, because we’re only supporting up to 17 people at any given time, we’ll be able to bespoke the care so that it’s very individualized. It’s about them, it’s not about us, it’s not about the business, it’s absolutely about the person with dementia.” The residence features all the charm of a premium property with the facilities of a luxury hotel. A cinema room with a large flat screen TV, comfy sofas and shelves packed to the ceiling with books annexes the 48-cover restaurant catered by two award-winning chefs. With friends and family welcome for breakfast, lunch and dinner, pets allowed to visit and all the conveniences of the city right on the doorstep, the memory care service offered by Chelsea Court Place is unparalleled. For further information visit www. innovative-agedcare.com
Photograph © Chelsea C,ourt
020 7738 2348
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October April/May 2016 2011
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
www.KCWToday.co.uk
“Our profession feels battered and bruised.” By Eoin Dinneen
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ecently I penned an article for the Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today that tried to communicate my vacillations on whether to join the strike against the government again over the imposition of the now infamous ‘Junior Doctors Contract.’ As you may well be aware, especially if you are reading this in a hospital waiting room or similar, the looming winter of industrial discontent has been shelved. For now. September began with the announcement by the British Medical Association (BMA) of escalated action including unprecedented five-day strikes each month from September to December by junior doctors in England. Supporters felt this was the only way to oppose the contract. Critics of the strike complained they were potentially pyhrric, certainly vindictive and definitely dangerous to patients as cold winter pressures crept ever nearer to a healthcare joint near you. In the midst of this ugly, complex contractual
dispute another intellectual and frankly emotional challenge arose as individual doctors, patients and the general public were asked (again!) to examine their own values and maybe their own valuations to decide what side of the picket line they stood. However, in a succession of moves the BMA called off September’s week of planned strikes effectively binning the plan. Anger, contempt and latterly mirthless laughter came from junior doctors. Efforts not to sound triumphant from the Secretary of State; BMA issuing parlous emails with subject headings such as ‘We urge trusts to delay not impose.’ Nervous glances and desperate sighs from the Consultants whose new contract is stuck on the negotiating table. Adding insult to injury came the annual BMA subscription fee (too much for some of my colleagues many of whom have since quit the Association). And… new contract? Well actually yes, kind of. But before I reflect on the current state of play, allow me pause to point out one recent exemplar of legal acrobatics in the High Court. Justice for Health, a group of five crowdfunded junior doctors, challenged the legality of contract in the High Court last week. Surprisingly, QC for the Secretary of State for Health informed the Court that the Minister is, in fact, not imposing the contract, that the Minister never was going to
impose the contract, that he never meant to suggest he was going to impose the contract and that no-one ever thought he was going to impose the contract. (The records show there were gasps in the courtroom). This seems a far way from the strong rhetoric and bullish threats of imposition previously delivered in parliament and elsewhere over the last year. Alas, there is neither merit nor mileage now in crying saline over these footnotes. Mr Hunt has the backing of both PM and party. What is the outlook for the junior doctors? Will we be satisfied with grumbling and begrudgement? Will we even remember
New research development gives gope to Parkinson’s sufferers
identify the right strategies to target it as a therapeutic approach to Parkinson’s,” said study co-author Dr Alfonso De Simone, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College. Synthetic vesicles were created in the laboratory and then exposed to alphaesearchers at Imperial College synuclein as part of London and Cambridge the study. University have become the first When the crucial to intensively study a protein which, protein malfunctions, when malfunctioning, is a trademark of such as in the case of Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s sufferers, The specific protein, alpha-synuclein, the brain is less able has long been associated with the to signal between disease’s early onset familial forms. By neurons. The disease observing alpha-synuclein in healthy is often marked by an conditions, the researchers hope to better excess of the protein understand the faulty counterpart seen in which the researchers Parkinson’s patients. believe could cause Alpha-synuclein assists neuroexcess membrane transmitters, which carry information binding of the vesicles, around the brain. This protein ensures leading to reduced flow and less effective the right number of synaptic vesicles neurotransmission. In cases of hereditary are in the right place to release Parkinson’s, the compromised behaviour neurotransmitters across the synapses. of the protein is affected by genetic One part of the alpha-synuclein will alterations. bind itself to vesicles and keep them in The full study, Structural Basis of reserve, whilst another part releases them. Synaptic Vesicle Assembly Promoted by “We needed to know what alphaAlpha-Synuclein, has been published in synuclein actually does in order to the journal Nature Communications.
this past Christmas on-call? Or will we die in the trenches fighting for this cause? I think there is certainly relief in many quarters that those radical strikes were called off. Frankly, the majority of us, especially those with children, simply could not afford to strike. Striking is miserable, boring, disruptive and seemingly ineffectual. The profession feels bruised and battered. Perhaps some will feel we have dragged our professional reputation through the mud. Others will be proud of the Spring-Summer season of cohesion that did bring about some very limited improvement in the terms and conditions. Personally, I am pretty downbeat on the effects all of this will have on recruitment and retention of the best, brightest, most motivated and caring young people into medicine. The dust has not yet settled on the dispute. The BMA still plans to resist the contract, though God only knows how. It is early too take stock from an emotional point of view of what has been an exhausting collective experience. For now though, we will take solace and enjoyment from getting back to doing what we want to do and what we do best, which is looking after our patients with pride. Eoin Dinneen is an Academic Clinical Fellow of Urology from University College Hospital uk) and the Southbank (contact info@ rambert.org.uk). The English National Ballet commissioned Roehampton University to study its Dance for Parkinson’s classes between 2010-2014. Tamara Rojo, artistic director of the ENB, has pledged that the classes will remain in place when the ENB moves to its new East London home in 2018. • In America, the Michael J. Fox foundation is collaborating with Intel to develop wearable technology which will monitor symptoms and create detailed data records of motor functions, bridging the gap between medical appointments. The organisation is currently seeking volunteers for clinical trials and is also testing an app, called Fox Insight Mobile, to be pre-installed into a smartwatch. The app not only monitors patients but issues reminders to take medication.
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Three other Parkinson’s research projects • Patients and their carers can already benefit from a range of dance classes for wellbeing up and down the country. London opportunities include Chiswick (contact classes@ballet4life.com), Kensington (contact learning@ballet.org.
• Parkinson’s UK revealed findings in September that high caffeine consumption could slow development of the disease after diagnosis, to the point where medication can be introduced much later than in patients with low caffeine consumption. As the research is at an early stage, the charity’s Head of Research Communications, Claire Bale, said: “These findings are interesting but we need to see more evidence from larger clinical trials before we can recommend that people with Parkinson's should drink more coffee.”
Photograph © Ben Matthews
Physician Strike Thyself
Photograph © Eoin Dinneen
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Special Footwear: The Fine Art of Stylish Orthotics
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ccording to the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, 75-80% of adults have some kind of foot problem. Whilst some of these may be temporary ailments, others need long-term treatment and even surgery. But how do you alleviate pain and correct the problem without resorting to cumbersome ‘sensible’ shoes? Special Footwear has worked on the solution for 56 years, providing custom-made shoes and boots, as well as insoles, at its New Cavendish Street shop. “The shoes people get from hospital can be ugly, heavy and clumpy,” Anthony Andrews, founder of Special Footwear, explains. “The last thing you want is to look awful! We know people want modern styles, and there’s a big demand for it. “Some customers even come over from Australia, America and Europe, because so few people do this work. When they leave with their new shoes, they tell us they’ve got their life back.” Common complaints include bunions,
dropped arches and hammertoe; older customers can also find walking more uncomfortable due to gradual tissue loss. “We put a special material in our insoles so customers aren’t in pain, it’s like walking on a cloud,” says Andrews, a member of the Guild of Master Craftsmen. He’s even prepared to offer home visits, and thinks nothing of travelling to Scotland to discuss a customer’s needs.
However, it’s not just everyday walking that can be improved here. With London’s running enthusiasts busy planning their marathon calendar for 2017, the gait analysis service at Special Footwear will appeal to those plagued by issues like the dreaded ‘runner’s knee’. Whatever the problem, the key is to find a solution without compromising on style and personal taste. Whilst bespoke orthotics or insoles are a priority,
customers have over 20,000 finishes to choose from, and the health benefits remain discrete. Hence why Special Footwear has served celebrities and royalty, and featured in the BBC’s Inside Harley Street documentary series last year. You could opt for colourful leather or nubuck, but the more unusual choices such as stingray and ostrich are equally appealing. Your lifestyle is always taken into consideration, whether you need a golf shoe or you’d like a built-up heel added to your new pair of designer trainers. Don’t tell your shoe-addicted friends, but you can also shop here without having a foot complaint at all. In fact, with so many design options, plus the chance to explore the workshop and see what goes on behind the scenes, you might never get shoeaholics off the premises. Another of the company’s specialities is theatrical footwear, supplying the perfect shoes for a period drama or the best boots for an actor to adopt their character’s limp. As for the most unusual theatrical request? “We did once make a shoe for a dog,” says Andrews. “We haven’t made an elephant’s shoe yet, but you never know…” This, unquestionably, is the place where no footwear challenge is too complicated and no material is too obscure. “We can accommodate everybody. We always go with Plan A there’s never a Plan B.”
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October April/May 2016 2011
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By Ione Bingley
T
he new Breast Centre at King Edward VII’s Private Hospital excels in quality of care, offering clinical excellence within a culture of kindness. The Breast Centre provides an efficient and holistic service where patients can make same-day appointments to see a consultant. All the specialists are hand picked and invited to work at the Hospital, ensuring the patients are seen by some of the world’s top breast cancer professionals. “In most breast cancer cases the patient has found a lump themselves and this can be very unnerving, so it is important that they are able to come and see a consultant straight away,” says specialist breast surgeon and researcher at King Edward VII’s Hospital, Giles Davies. “More often than not it’s to find out there is actually nothing to worry about, but letting people know that it’s not cancer is just as important.”
KEVIIs Breast Centre Half Pg Ad 260x160 OL.indd 1
Photographs © KE VII
King Edward VII’s Breast Centre of Excellence After the initial consultation and screening, each case is reviewed individually by a whole team of professionals. While each patient is guided through the treatment by one dedicated consultant, their case is discussed and carefully considered by a dozen specialists. The exceptional patient care at the
Breast Centre is overseen by Matron Caroline Cassels. Clinical Director of the centre, consultant radiologist and breast cancer specialist, Dr Anmol Malhotra, believes that King Edward VII’s matronled system and nursing team sets them apart from other breast cancer facilities. “The quality of nursing care is exceptional, the patients always comment on this. Matron knows every patient by name and everything that’s going on. She hears the flutter of a piece of gauze before it reaches the ground. As they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Patient satisfaction surveys have consistently ranked King Edward VII’s Hospital as one of the best hospitals in the UK. The Hospital attributes this to the holistic nature of care at the Breast Centre. The expert team of specialist
consultants, breast care nurses, and other clinical professionals provide the wrap around care designed to meet their patients’ physical and emotional needs. “Our patient satisfaction surveys always praise the team as a whole, it’s not the individuals, it’s the system that’s working,” said Davis. “Everything is contained in this unit, the consultation, the screening, the biopsy, the surgery. The patients aren’t being passed around different departments like in most hospitals.” King Edward VII’s Breast Centre uses cutting-edge technology designed for the earliest possible detection and treatment of breast cancer, coupled with an unparalleled care system to remain at the forefront of its field.
28/09/2016 16:09
October 2016
Health & Beauty
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
online: www.KCWToday.co.uk
Massage Masterclass
at the K West Hotel By Cynthia Pickard
H
ours of sitting with less than perfect posture at the keys of the computer have made me a grateful recipient and fan of a good massage. I’ve been the recipient of several different styles over the years, from the slow dripping onto my head of spicy Ayurvedic oil to the tiny acrobatic Thai girl sitting on me and attempting to force my leg round the back of my head. So the chance of learning how I’d really like it to be done, and the possibility of being able to practice it myself seemed like a great idea. My companion and I headed for K West Hotel, the revamped historic haunt of rock musicians such as Bob Marley, Bowie and the Kinks, in a quiet road off Shepherds Bush, a stone’s throw from Westfield Shopping Centre. K West Spa’s Massage Masterclass lasts for two hours during which time not only do you give a massage but you also receive one. This is the ideal experience for a couple, family or two close friends
who will be able to carry on what they have learnt together afterwards. Our delightful Brazilian therapist tells us that before training as a masseur he used to work in a call centre. What could be more of a contrast, and a relief I would imagine, than to spend one’s working day in the relaxing and peaceful atmosphere of these luxurious surroundings? K West’s holistic Spa was awarded Best Spa in London at the Good Spa Guide Awards 2015. We first learn the benefits of massage as well as the circumstances of when
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and who shouldn’t be given a massage. We choose which Russie Blanche oil we would like used on our bodies, either relaxing or invigorating depending on our state of mind. Then our therapist demonstrates, and taking it in turns we copy the pressure and actions using not only hands and thumbs but also the forearms. We learn the names of the various massage movements, such as ‘cupped hands’, ‘thigh wringing’ and ‘circling effleurage’, working from the toes, up the legs and back, right up to the base of the skull. He shows us how to use
the smooth black stones that are heated up to massage the body too. Both his method and his instructions are calming but firm and correct and definitely worth learning, the massage is enjoyable both to give and to receive, and we certainly locate all those horrid knotty lumps in the muscles caused by computer use. Our Masterclass includes all day use of the K Spa, the Sauna and Steam room, the bubbling water massage of the Hydrotherapy pool with its stainless steel recliners, the gentle heat of the aroma scented Sanarium and London’s first Snow Paradise. Chilled to -15ºC, this cabin is suitably bracing and is encrusted with real snow. This is the answer to the spa’s hot-cold therapy, the change in temperatures stimulates body circulation and is highly beneficial to your immune system. It’s actually more pleasant than you might imagine. After all this activity you can nod off in the isolated area of the Relax Zone. Included in the package is either a light lunch in the Studio Kitchen, possibly a far too healthy Superfood Salad or a satisfying Burger or you can go mad and opt for the Glam Rock afternoon tea. The Massage Masterclass package costs £99 per person. Many other exciting treatments and packages are available. K West Hotel & Spa, Richmond Way, Shepherd’s Bush, London W14 OAX 020 8008 6600 www.k-west.co.uk
Photograph © K West Hotel Spa
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How ‘Cool’ to ‘Sculpt’ your body without pain or diet By Jayne Beaumont
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ne of the most distressing results of being well disciplined in counting calories and regularly exercising, is that fat doesn’t always disappear from the most obvious places. Your thighs are still bulging, your midriff remains stubbornly stuck and you’re losing weight from your face but not your jowl! Unfortunately, getting rid of fat from these areas is almost impossible to accomplish without outside advice and intervention. A personal trainer with expert knowledge of exercises and diet could assist in achieving results or you could find a technology that focuses on those ‘stuck’ areas. One of the most successful and safe methods is known as Cryolipolysis that was developed at the Massachusetts General Hospital and has been cleared by the FDA. The most innovative procedures often come from the USA! However, it all began long ago in 1970 when researchers noticed that children developed dimples when they sucked on ice-lollies! The idea
that cold could selectively affect fat inspired Harvard scientists to research and develop the technology known as Cryoliposis. The procedure for its use commercially began 10 years ago. It literally targets and cools fat cells non-invasively to temperatures that trigger fat cell apoptosis or ridding the existence of fat cells in the treated area. There is no effect on other tissues in the selected spot as fat cells crystallize at a different temperature to other cell tissue. The ‘dying’ fat cells are then gradually removed over the following weeks by another non-evasive method that is part of the same treatment. The number of treatments required, of course, depends on the amount of fat that needs to be removed and from which area. However, more often than not results can be seen after 8-12 weeks following a single session and more quickly after two sessions. Most encouragingly, the body continues to lose fat from the treated areas for many ensuing months and importantly, stays away. The final result is a significantly reduced layer of fat without the appearance of lumps, folds or bulges. This treatment has had huge success with globally more than 3 million treatments performed in doctor’s practices since its inception. One of the least expected but popular areas where it’s applied is under the
chin as the skin there can easily sag or fold. This is medically known as the ‘submental’ area. Otherwise, the more obvious places are the abdomen, the sides of the body; thighs, love handles and back folds such as around the bra line as well as at he top of the inner thighs and the bottom. Just about any place where fat can become difficult to remove. Finding new ways of attaining a better shape is not just the preserve of women. These days many men also take advantage of this science as their appearance and health has become so much more in focus. Using Cryoliposis is certainly a pain free and time conserving way and is approved and available in the UK. Visit www.coolsculpting.com for further information.
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Kensington & Chelsea Today Oct 2016
Helping you take care of yourself World class clinical care in west London Kensington’s Bupa Cromwell Hospital offers an exceptional healthcare resource for Londoners. Whether using private health insurance or ‘selffunding’, our world-renowned services are available to everyone, and just a five minute walk from Kensington High Street, Earl’s Court or Gloucester Road. private GPs with walk-in appointments the latest diagnostic technology, with no waiting times and quick results London’s leading consultants, with appointments available at short notice health screening packages to suit every budget Women’s Health Centre with female-only specialists Call us on 020 7460 2000 or email info@cromwellhospital.com to discuss your healthcare needs.
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Wellington Hospital appoints new CEO The Wellington Hospital, London, part of HCA Healthcare UK, has appointed a new Chief Executive Officer Sarah Fisher on October 3rd. Sarah joined The Wellington Hospital as the Chief Nursing Officer in 2002. Sarah has held numerous clinical and managerial roles within the NHS and moved into the private sector in 1997. Her earlier roles were with the Nuffield group in the position of Matron, Director of Clinical services and General Manager. Sarah commented: “I feel privileged to be in the role and having the opportunity to lead The Wellington Hospital and having been Chief Nursing Officer here from 2002-2006, I have always had a close affinity to the hospital, and I now feel as if I have come home. “It’s been a recognised institution within the community over the last 42 years and I want to ensure that the hospital is able to provide services, not just for the local community, but also further afield.
“The biggest priority is about availability, and patients having access to our services in a seamless way. I want the patient experience to be exceptional. Whether or not patients need simple or complex care or procedures, we can cater for them.”
Knightsbridge Medical Centre A busy GP Surgery with 13,000 patients.
We are looking for a highlymotivated, IT literate, reliable, hard-working person to work with the Reception Manager in leading the reception team within our friendly NHS practice. Experience in a supervisory role is essential. Typical duties will include; organising cover when a receptionist is absent, providing administrative support to specific GPs within the surgery and training new staff, as well as basic reception duties. The position is for 38 hours a week, annual salary £21,000. To apply for this position, please email your CV and a covering letter to katieconnell@nhs.net
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Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
to stay with Grannie and Grandpa in Bearsden, there would a mad rush to the newsagent on the Milngavie road to get the The Sunday Post which featured two comic strips, The Broons and Oor Wullie. He had spiky hair, dungarees and began and ended each strip sitting on an upturned bucket, saying something along the lines of ‘I nivver get ony fun roond here!’ In the interim, he was running about the streets getting into scrapes with his gang, consisting of himself, Fat Bob, Wee Eck, Soapy Joe and Primrose Paterson, an annoying girl, from the same mould as Violet Elizabeth Bott. Whereas Just William was irredeemably middleclass, Oor Wullie was defiantly working class, as were The Broons, who lived nine-up in a very small tenament flat in the fictitious town of Auchentoogle. They also owned a wee cottage in the highlands called The But ‘n’ Ben near Loch Ness, to which they used to go at weekends. Every year there was an biennial alternating between each strip, and there were no surprises on Christmas morning when my brother and I were given one to share, which did not always work out as an equitable arrangement. After the war, dad continued to do the occasional drawing for the Scottish papers and magazines, but he began to do more writing, and after a few years, he and Eba, our mum, came down to London with their two children to seek their fortune. By 1950 he had decided he could produce a better motoring magazine than was available, and so, on the kitchen table of 91 Willifield
Way in Hampstead Garden Suburb, the first issue of Autosport was produced. We would frequently go to sleep to the sound of dad on a well-used Remington portable typewriter bashing out letters with two fingers on each hand, and the thumbs to operate the space-bar. He played barrel-house boogie-woogie on the piano with much more dexterity, although he had neither typing, nor piano lessons. When he started going on trips abroad to cover the Grand Prix in Europe, he would pack up his machine into its case, load up the car and set off for Lydd Ferryfield where he would drive to a Silver City Bristol Freighter to Le Touquet. he also wrote motoring books, the first being British Sports Cars published by Foulis in 1947, followed by Modern Motorcars published by Temple Press in 1949 and, while he was editing the paper, wrote 500cc Racing in 1950, The Boys’ Book of Motor Sport in 1951, Formula 2 published by Foulis 1953. He designed and drew the cover of British Sports Cars himself, even producing his own hand-drawn lettering on the cover. It was subsequently replaced by ‘proper’ type and photographs. From 1955 until 1966, he co-wrote with John Bolster, his technical editor on Autosport, and produced High Performance Cars, an annual round up of new cars, road tests, racing and rallying, which was a great success with his readers. In 1958, he wrote the then definitive book about the eight years since the inception of the Formula One World Championship, when Mike Hawthorn
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Motoring From the Back Seat Part 36 By Don Grant
I
always thought my dad was just a writer/journalist/editor and rally driver. After he died, I inherited an Imperial quarto cloth-bound scrapbook that his mother had kept up-to-date with clippings of all his work from 1935 until the outbreak of the Second World War. In it were dozens of cartoons, caricatures and illustrations from a number of Scottish newspapers, including the Glasgow Evening Times, The Evening Citizen and The Bulletin. He also drew and wrote for The Light Car and Popular Motoring. The caricatures in The Bulletin were mostly sportsmen, including footballers, cricketers, rugby players, golfers, hockey and tennis players, as well as musicians, such as Fritz Kreizler and film stars, like Charles Laughton and the Marx Brothers. A typical caption would read, ‘An impression by Grant of Greta Garbo as she appears in Queen Christina’, or ‘Alfred Hitchcock, as seen by Grant.’ The caricatures were of a style that befitted that period, with large heads and little bodies, and they displayed a certain affection for the subject, unlike artists before, such as Gilray, or after, like Gerald Scarfe. The drawings in The Light Car were all to do with motoring, including illustrations for articles, caricatures of drivers, cartoons and vignettes, all done in black and white, pen and ink with a easy style and fluidity. Dad’s absolute hero was the Yorkshire-born Punch cartoonist Phil May, who had an ecomony of style that grew more spare as he grew more spare. Whistler famously said that you could sum up black and white art in two words, ‘Phil May’. It was his fluidity that dad admired, and also his humour. His studies of the London guttersnipes and the coster-girls made him famous. His huge sense of fun and the absurd, his genuine sympathy with his subjects, and his kindly wit, made him a popular artist amongst his peers at the London Sketch Club and Chelsea Arts Club. He was legendary drinker and consummate clubman, regularly sacheying between those two clubs and the Savage, occasionally on horse, which he frequently mislaid. One of dad’s favourite cartoons depicted a rather dour old lady in black offering a diminutive whisky to her gardener, saying ‘There, Dennis, that whisky is twenty years old!’ ‘Is it that, Marm? Sure, ‘tis mighty small for its age!’ When we travelled up to Scotland
won it in his Ferrari. Mike and dad were great mates, and he even named his beloved boxer Grogger as a sop to dad. He had asked Mike to write the preface, which he duly did into a tape-recorder from his home in Farnham, which was then transcribed and approved by him before it went to press. Two tragic events unfolded. First, he ran over and killed his dog Grogger outside the Barley Mow pub in Tilford. Then, in a still mystifying accident on the Hog’s Back outside Guildford, he lost control of his 3.4 Jaguar on 22 January 1959, on his way up to London, and was killed instantly when it left the road at high speed and hit a tree. It was alleged at the time that he was dicing with Rob Walker, the suave privateer team manager in his gull-wing Mercedes-Benz 300SL, but he denied that he was racing Hawthorn, although many years later he said they were. Dad used the preface in his book, having consulted with his mother Winifred. The irony of Mike’s death was that he had retired from racing after winning the Championship aged only 29, but there are still rumours floating around that he was suffering from black-outs and also from a kidney disease that would have killed him anyway within three years. There was one card left at the internment that was picked up by Louise, the widow of Peter Collins, who was Mike’s ‘Mon ami mate’ and who died at the Nürburgring the previous year. She did not want Winifred to see it, as it was from his half-French illigitimate son and it simply read ‘À mon papa, Michael.’
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Photograph © Aston Martin
Motoring Mercedes announces hybrid hypercar
While BMW’s M division has exclusively tuned existing BMW models (at least in modern times), Mercedes has, on two occasions, given AMG free reign to design its own supercar. The first of these was the SLS. Launched in 2010, it was the first Mercedes since the 300SL of the 1950s to have ‘gullwing’ doors. Under the bonnet lived a 6.2 litre V8 making 563hp, sending power through a
Following in the footsteps of McLaren, Ferrari and Porsche, Mercedes-AMG has revealed that it would be unveiling a limited production, hybrid ‘hypercar.’ The new model was announced at the 2016 Paris Motor Show, as well as the all-electric EQ concept. AMG is Mercedes’ in-house performance division. It has been responsible for a range of high performance saloons, the most powerful of which had a twin-turbo V12 with 621 horsepower and a scarcely believable 738 lb-ft. of torque.
7-speed dual clutch transmission. It was replaced in 2014 by the GT. Unlike its predecessor, this model was aimed at a lower price point so its V8 had less power. Rivalling the Porsche 911, this was built to be a more userfriendly grand tourer, unlike the SLS which was known for being a handful. The newly announced model would do battle with seven-figure cars like the McLaren P1, LaFerrari and, Porsche 918. Expect to see it unveiled sometime in 2017 and with a price tag north of £1m.
Your boat is ready Mr Bond By Fahad Redha
A
ston Martin has taken the wraps of a 37-foot long powerboat at the Monaco Yacht Show. The AM37, so called because it measures 37feet long, brings the luxury brand to new territory. Power comes from a choice of either two 370hp Mercury diesel engines, or two 430hp Mercury petrol engines in the AM37S. This allows the latter to reach speeds approaching 50 knots. At the helm is a carbon fibre dashboard that the company says “echoes styling elements from Aston Martin’s most advanced sports cars.” The interior also features leather as well as the steering wheel, throttle handles and joystick in
polished metals. The navigation system is integrated with the control monitor and entertainment systems, much like the infotainment system in a car.. The exterior is a more simple and elegant approach that includes a wraparound windscreen crafted from a single piece of glass. Sliding deck technology allows owners to cover the cockpit of the boat completely at the touch of a button. This isn’t the first time a car manufacturer has entered new waters. Earlier this year, Mercedes unveiled the Arrow460-Grandturismo, its first yacht, also at the Monaco Yacht Show. Dubbed the ‘silver arrow of the seas’, there will only be 10 of the $1.7 million boat made. And in January 2016, Honda began production of the Hondajet, the company’s first aircraft. The plane has been in development since 2012 and has gone on sale for a price of $4.5 million.
Photograph © Mercedes Benz
By Fahad Redha
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COLLECTION AND DELIVERY
May April/May 2016 2011
Sport
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
online: www.KCWToday.co.uk
Eton Fives
Sports fixtures
M
London Football
By Freddie Rowe
aking use of inner city spaces is an issue that involves most of us town dwellers. Usually we moan at what the planners think are good ideas. The landscape is constantly changing but what about those almost forgotten spaces under motorways? Usually grim and dank, at first sight the M40 Interchange, squirming into an overhead tangled mass of thrusting concrete right above the Westway sports centre, seems to offer little to dispel that. But many of you will have ventured there to try out football, tennis or rock climbing but for a number of years two types of handball games have been gaining momentum there. And for these there is no racket required. Just a sense of adventure, a bit of mobility and a liking for fun. Even more fascinating is that the roots of ‘Fives’ and ‘Wallball’ come from two ends of the social spectrum. Fives began as a schoolboy game in that bastion of privilege; Eton. Still popular at many public schools it is now becoming absorbed into popular culture. And it should appeal to every British eccentric. A three-sided court that includes two steps, a buttress, a pepper pot hole and many ledges and bevels. The game is played by two teams of two hitting what amounts to a golf ball with hands ensconced in padded leather gloves. Bizarre, baffling, bonkers yet brilliant. It’s called a ‘game of hazards’ and whilst at first sight looks fraught with danger it very rarely amounts to anything more than an occasional knocked finger. (You can find out more at www.etonfives. com) Drop in sessions on Monday and Thursday evenings from 7.30-9.30 for anyone and everyone and a Saturday morning kids club
at 10.30-12. At these gloves and balls are provided and the first session is free. Wallball comes from New York and is a terrific street game. At first it looks ad hoc, any wall could do. Played as singles or double against one wall with a ball slightly smaller but softer than a tennis ball it’s a game of pace and intrigue. Playing this under a flyover or on half a tennis court and you realise how its appeal attracts every urban guerrilla who wants to try something different. Its popular all over the world and has its own World as well as UK and European championships for all levels and ages. Picking up the game takes five minutes but putting it down takes a lifetime. It’s addictive. There are club sessions every Tuesday 8-10 and again the first session is free. Oh, and the coach is either a world champion or part of the England team. More info can be found at www.ukwallball.com Both games that can be played by young or old, male or female. Westway, Fives & Wallball are trying to encourage everyone of whatever ability – turning up is the only real requirement – to forget about armchair procrastination and to get up and get on with it. As additions to a bucket list these oddities may just give your next pub conversation something that no one else can match. Oneupmanship! How very British. Further details on Westway and its charitable connections can be found at www.westway.org.
The Walter Lawrence Trophy By Kate Hawthorne
The Walter Lawrence Trophy Award is awarded to Tom Kohler-Cadmore for his 43-ball hundred. Now in its 82nd year, the Walter Lawrence Trophy, awarded for the fastest hundred of the season, is open to all domestic county competitions as well as One-Day Internationals, T20 Internationals and Test Matches in England. Tammy Beaumont, England opener, is the winner of this year’s Women’s Award with a innings of 168 not out, scored against Pakistan Women in the Third One-Day International at Taunton on June 27. Tammy is the fifth winner of the Walter Lawrence Women’s Award since it was introduced and wins a special silver medallion and a cheque for £500.
www.KCWToday.co.uk
Loughborough MCCU’s Rob White has won this year’s MCC Universities Award with a score of 174, made at Haselgrave Ground, on June 8 against Leeds/Bradford MCCU. The Walter Lawrence Trophy awards encompass four distinct areas of cricket: the fastest century of the season; the MCC Universities award for the highest score by a batsman from the six MCC Universities against the first-class counties or in the MCCU Championship; the batsman who makes the highest individual score in a season from the ECB Women’s One-Day Cup and all England Women’s matches played on home soil, and, the Walter Lawrence Schools Award for the highest score by a school batsman against MCC.
October 15 Arsenal v Swansea 15:00 October 15 Chelsea v Leicester City 12:30 October 15 QPR v Reading 15:00 October 18 Fulham v Norwich City 19:45 October 18 QPR v Bristol City 19:45 October 19 Arsenal v Swansea City TBA October 22 Arsenal v Middlesbrough 15:00 October 23 Chelsea v Man Utd 16:00 October 25 Arsenal v Reading 19:45 October 28 QPR v Brentford 19:45 October 29 Fulham v Huddersfield Town 15:00 November 5 Chelsea v Everton 17:30
Rugby
October 8 Amersham & Chiltern v Westcombe Park Dorking v Shelford Hertford v Chichester Southend Saxons v Colchester Sutton & Epsom v Guernsey Tonbridge Juddian v Guildford Westcliff v Wimbledon October 22 Chichester v Southend Saxons Colchester v Tonbridge Juddian Guernsey v Hertford Guildford v Westcliff Shelford v Sutton & Epsom Westcombe Park v Dorking Wimbledon v Amersham & Chiltern October 29 Amersham & Chiltern v Guildford Hertford v Shelford Southend Saxons v
Guernsey Sutton & Epsom v Dorking Tonbridge Juddian v Chichester Westcliff v Colchester Wimbledon v Westcombe Park November 5 Chichester v Westcliff Colchester v Amersham & Chiltern Dorking v Hertford Guernsey v Tonbridge Juddian Guildford v Wimbledon Shelford v Southend Saxons Westcombe Park v Sutton & Epsom
Motorsport
October 13-16 Rally Catalunya October 16 6 Hours of Fuji October 16 World Superbikes, Jerez, Spain October 21-23 USA Grand Prix October 27-30 Wales Rally GB October 28-30 Mexican Grand Prix October 30 World Superbikes, Qatar November 6 6 Hours of Shanghai Red Bull Air Race October 15-16 Las Vegas
Golf in September
Courtesy of BBC Sport October 13-16 PGA European Tour, England October 20-23 PGA European Tour, Portugal
Tennis
Courtesy of BBC Sport Until October 9 China Open Until October 9 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016 October 9-16 Shanghai Rolex Masters October 17-23 Stockholm Open October 17-23 European Open October 17-23 VTB Kremlin Cup October 24-30 Swiss Indoors Basel October 24-30 Erste Bank Open 500 October 31-November 6 BNP Paribas Masters
Horse Racing Ascot October 15 QIPCO British Champions Day October 29 Halloween Raceday and Fireworks Spectacular Kempton Park October 12, 18-19, 26 AWT - Twilight October 16 Jump Sunday October 31 Afternoon Flats Newmarket October 19 Two Year Old Day October 28-29 The Final Meeting Windsor October 3, 10, 17 Autumn Afternoon Racing
Marathons in the UK
October 8 Run, Wimbledon Marathon Wimbledon, Surrey October 9 Isle of Wight Marathon Ryde, Isle of Wight October 16 Eden Project Marathon Eden Project, Cornwall October 16 Rannoch Marathon Kinloch Rannoch, Perth & Kinross October 22 Endurance life Suffolk Marathon Dunwich, Suffolk October 23 Abingdon Marathon Abingdon, Oxfordshire October 23 Leicester Marathon Leicester, Leicestershire October 29 Beachy Head Marathon Eastbourne, East Sussex October 29 Snowdonia Marathon Llanberis, Gwynedd October 29 Pumpkin Marathon Lightmoor, Shropshire October 29 Spooky Halloween Challenge Lightmoor, Shropshire October 30 Dartmoor Vale Marathon Newton Abbot, Devon October 30 Town Moor Marathon Newcastle, Tyne and Wear marathonrunnersdiary.com Compiled by Fahad Redha
Photograph © Freddie Rowe
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October April/May 2016 2011
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
www.KCWToday.co.uk
Crossword & Bridge Across
This is the fiftieth Wolfe Cryptic Crossword
M
rs Sue Donovan of Towcester was last month’s winner (one of the other repliers was from Eastbourne!) Congratulations. I hope you enjoyed last month’s edition. Please let me have any comments or suggestions you may have. Remember, even if you haven’t totally finished the whole crossword still send in your grids either by post to Wolfe, at Kensington,Chelsea & Westminster Today, 80100 Gwynne Road London SW11 3UW, or scan it in and send by email to wolfe@kcwtoday. co.uk. as the first correct or substantially correct answer picked at random will win a prize of a bottle of Champagne kindly donated by: Lea and Sandeman. www.leaandsandeman.co.uk/Fine-Wine. 106 Kensington Church St, London, W8 4BH. T: 020 7221 1982. Contact Sandor. 1
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1 Maintain ones position in life just off the motorway. (7,7) 10 Ssh! it’s understood. (5) 11 Does centre of the river merit dams perhaps. (9) 12 Whatever reports horsefood to heart of Plymouth. (5-2) 13 Character stained fame out east indeed. (7) 14 Male bird on the bowling green. (5) 16 Duty of trust messed up icy fraud I created. (9) 19 Ring before frantic activity loses its head discussing the truth. (9) 20 The pens wordsmith describes his weaker rival. (5) 22 Bar old partner heard given hints. (7) 25 Infradig Italian using his fingers. (7) 27 I intend to re-arrangement of the ivories. (9) 28 Nothing empty is shell shaped. (5) 29 I decree cellist may provide energy sources for train. (6-8)
West 3♠ All pass
North Dbl
East 4♠
South 6♥
AJ 974 9765 A Q 10 9
West’s 3♠ opener showed a weak hand with seven decent spades; North’s double was for “take-out”, showing an opening hand with short spades and support for the other three suits; after East raised the ante with 4♠, South deduced, holding four spades, that his partner was void in the suit. He was therefore playing with a thirty point pack, of which his partnership held at least 24. His jump to 6♥ was thus an excellently judged bid. West led ♦3, and declarer counted ten easy tricks in the red suits. He needed to trump two spades in dummy to bring his total to the required twelve. He won ♦J, trumped ♠4 with ♥J, led ♥5 to ♥10, trumped ♠5 with ♥K, led ♥6 to ♥Q, and drew East’s ♥9 with ♥A. He cashed ♦A, led ♦8 to ♦10, and cashed ♦KQ discarding ♠86. He conceded a club trick but was left with two trumps in hand. 12 tricks and slam made. ANDREW’S TIP: Are you playing with a “thirty point pack”? If so - be bold!
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Let us say that there is a suit in which partner has no cards (a void), and you have no honours in that same suit. Assuming your partnership declares in a reasonable trump fit, there are only 30 out of the 40 high-card points in the pack that will play a role in taking tricks; the 10 points in that suit, all held by the opponents, will be useless. In such situations you are playing with what is descriptively termed a “Thirty Point Pack”. Only about 18 points will be required to make game (instead of the normal 25), and only about 24 points will be required for a small slam (instead of the normal 33).
♠ ♥ ♦ ♣
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left out. (9) 7 Girder one might smile at. (1-4) 8 Maybe made any one personally 2 Each lad in Mexico made a rolled celebrate a saint then. (4,3) tortilla (9) 9 Desperately wanted to get married 3 Animal doctor joining church becomes losing its head. (6) common pea (5) 15 Take the life of about four members 4 Dismount? You’ve got to be joking! of the board. (9) (4,3,2) 17 Cultural decline shortly enclosed in 5 Supported but not backed. (5) ten years (9) 6 Point and shoot in astronaut of locus
with Andrew Robson
♠— ♥ KJ65 ♦ K Q 10 4 2 ♣ KJ65 ♠ K Q 10 9 7 3 2 N ♥ 3 W E ♦ 3 S ♣ 8742 ♠ 8654 ♥ A Q 10 8 2 ♦ AJ8 ♣3
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West deals N-S Vul
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18 Confuse orator if I used stronger argument. (1,8) 19 Feared a dead red was involved. (7) 21 Pull the wool over the confused huddle losing head before going east. (6) 23 Stick around nothing on the river. (5) 24 Firstly exceptional lives in this exceptional group. (5) 26 Greek equivalent of Brexit between the tiles. (5)
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British Red Cross launches Hurricane Matthew appeal British Red Cross has launched a Hurricane Matthew emergency appeal in response to the devastation wrecked by the category-four storm. More than one million people have been affected by the hurricane – 350,000 people in Haiti alone are in need of aid. Red Cross teams in the town of Jeremie, one of the worst affected areas in Haiti, have reported massive destruction. Water and electricity supplies have been cut off and medical services are no longer functioning. The town is only accessible by helicopter. Other remote areas have yet to be reached. David Foster, from the British Red Cross emergencies team, said: “Roads, bridges and communication lines have been wiped out in Haiti, which has made access to affected communities very difficult. Widespread flooding means there is the potential for waterborne diseases, while we are also concerned about life-threatening mudslides. There is a desperate need for emergency shelter, clean drinking water, sanitation facilities, food and health services.” More than one million people were evacuated in Cuba, and the town of Baracoa has seen 90 per cent damage to buildings. Areas of the Bahamas have also seen power outages and damage to roads and housing. To donate to the British Red Cross Hurricane Matthew appeal go to: www.redcross.org.uk/HurricaneMatthew Phone donations: 0300 456 4999 Postal donations: The Hurricane Matthew Appeal, 44 Moorfields, London EC2Y 9AL
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JUMBLE SALE Saturday 29th October St. Paul's Knightsbridge 77 Kinnerton Street S.W.1.
10.00am - 12 noon Admission:£1 Refreshments available
October 2016
Chess CHESS
By Barry Martin
Get closer to the action than ever before
“W
elcome to the New World of Chess Broadcasting”, says FIDE and Agon in their pre-World Chess Championship literature for the forthcoming New York-November clash. They claim that this is the first world championship to be broadcast in virtual reality, and that you can experience the tournament,‘...as if you had not just one, but all the best seats in the house!’ The Video 360° system to fulfil these tantalising dreams is stated as enabling you to enjoy panoramic views of the players arena from any smartphone, tablet and computer, and get the closest view of the match that you can imagine!’ I’m not sure getting that close to ‘the match’ will make anyone any wiser about each particular game or player’s plan, but since we live in a media hype time where looking close-up into every nook and cranny of someone’s physique is deigned to be useful in giving us a clue about their politics, for example, so be it. I’m sure the voyeuristic urge amongst us, and the fashion fashionistas and the advertising media medias will have a field day! On a more positive note their interactive dashboard has,‘ a best class analysis engine, a predictive move system, and commentary section where,’..experts and viewers can discuss the game in real time..’ .The interaction goes further with a computerised board that,‘..lets you replay each move, and try your own move to see how it can impact the outcome of a game and share moves on social networks.’ This latter activity should be a great hit for all ages, and most likely and hopefully for the organisers, encourage many more people who usually find chess off-limits and a foreign if not hostile country, to take an active and participatory interest. As Agon has said,“ This is going to be the first World Championship match for the smartphone generation!” Beam me up, Scotty. Both Carlsen and Karjakin were in action in the recently concluded 42nd Chess Olympics in Baku, each representing their country in the Open Section on board one, Norway and Russia respectively. Russia finished 3rd with 18pts and Norway 5th with 16pts. which was an excellent result for the latter. China who had a pre-match rating of 3rd finished surprisingly in 13th position, whilst the USA, 20 pts won their first Olympic title since 1976, beating Ukraine 20pts on tiebreak. England 16pts finished in the top ten
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk at 9th., with Peru 10th 16pts. 150 teams from around the world competed in the Open Section, with a number of African countries failing to make an appearance, some with visa difficulties, but who had already been paired to play. The Maldives finished at 150th bottom position, with a pre match rating position of 154th so they did better than predicted! England’s 9th position was enhanced with strong performances from Michael Adams 6/9 pts with no losses on board one, Gawain Jones 7/9, and Nigel Short 6.5/9, with David Howell and Luke McShane making heavy weather of it with 4/10, and 3/7pts respectively. Carlsen and Karjakin and their respective countries didn’t meet over the boards on this occasion due to the pairings, but this would have been hotly anticipated had they done so. Roll on November! Congratulations to our men’s team in the ‘Open Section’ for maintaining a high standard, since the bottom seven teams in the top ten places, from India 4th to Peru 10th all scored 16pts with tie-break criteria deciding the final places. Pity then to go onto the ‘Women’s Section’ where our women’s team finished in a lamentable 59th position from a field of 140 teams! Congratulations to the Chinese team who were decisive winners with 20 pts, 3pts clear of their nearest rivals Poland 17pts. China were the pre-match favourites to win, with 3rd Ukraine 17pts, 4th Russia (defending champions) 16pts, 5th India 16pts, 6th USA 16pts, 7th Vietnam 16pts, 8th Azerbaijan 16 pts, 9th Israel, 10th Georgia. Again, it’s interesting to note that from Russia down, the number of teams scoring 16pts. Of more interest is that 5 of the top teams in each of the two sections are from the same country, that is the USA, Ukraine, Russia, India and Poland, and it would have been 6 had the Chinese men’s team not finished 13th in the Open Section! The Ukraine won the coveted ‘Gaprindashvili Cup’ for their excellent performance in both of the sections. Perhaps representatives from those countries, who train and organise their womens’ teams could attend discussions in London about the ways and means of their successes and our failures, since English chess has deteriorated since our heady and 2nd place, silver medal position at the 1976 Chess Olympics in a truly remarkable manner. The English teams first round whitewash over the United Arab Emirates team of 4-0, must have seemed as though those halcyon days of 1976 had returned, and not before time! However the next three rounds proved otherwise with 2 losses and a draw leading to a depressing situation. The overall results of 5 wins, 1 draw and 5 losses would seem, as statistics, palatable. However, when examined in detail the 5 wins were over teams, who in the main, had their individual and average ELO ratings set at several hundred points lower than that of the English team’s on every board. The
UAR’s team a case in point. Similarly the 4-0 win over Zimbabwe where the average rating difference between boards was even larger, with some 500 ELO points difference in our favour. Decisive victories in these situations could hardly have had any other outcome. Our game losses occurred where the individual ratings between the teams was much closer, and it is there that wins give medals! Our women’s team is punching far below the weight it should be, and is cause for concern, and has been for far too long. Perhaps it is time for a separate women’s national organisation to be formed, with its own management and training staff for English Women’s Chess. After all, English women’s achievements in practically every other sporting activity and connected with Olympiads over the past decades have risen to the top world ranks. English women’s chess has perversely been consistently running in the opposite direction, downwards! The following game puzzle is from Emilio Cordova versus Michael Adams. White (Cordova)
has just played his Queen to e3 giving her (the Queen of course) greater control over the centre of the board, and lining up with the Black Bishop on the c1h6 diagonal. Adam’s next attacking move gave Black the possibility of two advantageous positions, each needing White to further entrench his defences. What was it? (It should be noted that at this point Cordova’s clock was down to 1min. 30secs. whilst Adams had 6min. 40secs. left. Not a lot of time to think in deep strategic thoughts before being relieved as the time control kicks in). Answer upside below. 37. Qe3, Qe5!, attacking the white pawn on f3 and threatening check on a1. 38. Kf2, defending f3, Qb2, doubling up to attack the Bishop on d2. 39. Ke1,to defend said Bishop, Qb1+. 40. Bd1, time control reached, each player receives 30 min. plus on clock, Ra1. 41.Qf3, to defend White’s Bishop, Qc2 and white resigns as the Bishop on d1 will be indefensible with Black’s white Bishop coming into play with c4-b3!
020 7738 2348
The Author playing chess with Mme. ‘Teeny’ Duchamp, wife of the artist Marcel Duchamp on a chess set specially designed by him, without a cross on the king, to reflect his anti-orthodox and anti-establishment views.
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October April/May 2016 2011
Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today
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