The Emerald Forest

The Emerald Forest, currnetly on at the BFI, tells the story of a young American boy who was kidnapped by an Amerindian tribe called The Invisible People whilst on a visit to see the dam which his father was building in the Amazon jungle.   His father searches for him constantly for 10 years, before finally finding him, now a well-respected member of the Indian tribe, recently married to an Indian girl, and with no desire to return to his former life.   

However, when another Indian tribe, called the Fierce People, attacks their camp and steals all the young girls, including his wife, to sell them to a brothel, he decides to go and ask his father for help.

His father becomes disallusioned about the effects of encroachment on the Indians' lands, and the fact that the building of the dam will increase this encroachment, and during a tremendous storm, which threatened the stability of the dam walls, he ensures their destruction byblowing them up.

The film raises serious questions about the morality of destroying the lives and cultures of the Indians; although to our eyes, they may look terribly primitive, they may also be happy and unwilling to embrace the 21st. century, which contains bad as well as good aspects.

Sutton House

A bitterly cold, windy day, with just a few flurries of snow (again!).   Just the sort of weather to do something indoors, so i decided to visit another National Trust property, this time Sutton House in Homerton.

It was very easy to get to; a straight journey on the Overground from Shepherds Bush to Hackney Central, and then just a five minute walk through a very pleasant park called St. John at Hackney.

It's a rather ghastly area; Hackney Central station is on Mare Street, which is rather down-at-heel during the day, and rather creepy at night.  It's definitely not one of the nicer parts of London!   But in the early afternoon the streets were full of people rushing around, all wrapped up against the cold.

St. John at Hackney was once called St. Augustine's, but only the tower remains of the original church, and the new building is some distance away, and also very firmly locked - there was no opportunity to have a look inside.   I did, however, look at the Garden of Remembrance for the victims of the massacre at Lidice which is in the adjoining walled children's play area.

Sutton House is one of the oldest in the area, and although it is Tudor, has the distinction of being built of red brick, hence its earliest name of Bryk House - it has had many names since, before becoming Sutton House.    It was built in the sixteenth century by Ralph Sadleir in what was at the time a village outside London, and has had a very checquered history, having been used as a private residence by various people, a school, union offices, and a home for some squatters, who left their artwork on the walls.  Today it is open to the public, and is also the home of various community activities, including a writing group.

Set in an ordinary street, with a new secondary school just across the road, Sutton House has a lot of atmosphere; it isn't very big, but it has plenty there to keep you occupied for a couple of hours if you take the time to read everything and enjoy the sense of history which pervades it.    It is also very child friendly.

Youth Concert

The local Methodist Church, which was only re-built a few years ago on part of the land which used to be occupied by the old Methodist Church, is in the process of raising some money to improve the heating system, and this evening they put on the first of a series of three Youth Concerts under the direction of the R.A.Bobb Esq, MA, B.Mus., PGCE, FTCL, LRAM, LTCL - otherwise known simply as Mr. Bobb.

One might expect from the name and letters that Mr. Bobb would be a typical music teacher.  If so, one would be quite surprised on meeting him.   For Mr. Bobb is a shortish, stocky West Indian, with very precise speech and an obvious love of music, especially classical music.

Before the concert began, Mr. Bobb mentioned that there was a very special older person who was still working that he would like to congratulate, and I looked around to see if there was anyone who looked a hundred.   Then he announced that we would be singing the National Anthem in honour of the Queen.   All very fitting, as one doesn't hear the National Anthem much these days.   It used to be played in cinemas at the end of a film, but the only place I know of where that still happens is in either the Gate or Coronet cinema in Notting Hill Gate - I can't remember which.

The programme featured his students, ranging in age from 5 to 15.   The little ones were very cute and played very simple tunes on the piano, with Mr. Bobb sitting beside them and encouraging them; some of the older ones were very advanced, and also very musical, giving an adult standard performance.

The programme covered quite a wide variety of music, mostly classical but with a few fun pieces, such as Old Macdonald.

The children were all very professional; even the five year olds had practised their bows, and looked serious when they were performing.   I got the distinct impression that Mr. Bobb doesn't stand for any nonsence and that his students are expected to be hardworking and conscientious, striving to achieve the very best they are capable of.

In the interval there was food and drink, for which donations were invited if people wanted to give something towards the cost.   There seemed to be plenty of food; even though there was quite a crowd, with the church three quarters full, and most people seemed to have something, at the end everyone encouraged to take some food home, as there was quite a lot left over.    

Altogether quite an enjoyable evening - and although the money was being raised for the heating, and I had been warned to wrap up well, in fact the church wa spleasantly warm and I was able to take my coat off.

Fenton House

It was snowing lightly when I left Hammersmith, after going to the monthly Reading Group at the Library in the morning, and was snowing more heavily when I reached Hampstead, on my way to visit Fenton House, a National Trust property less than five minutes' walk from Hampstead tube.

Fenton House, bequeathed to the National Trust on the death its last owner, Lady Binning in 1952, was built, it is thought, about 1680/90, but the date is uncertain, as the land was owned by an absentee landlord and no records were kept.   It is a detached house, with its own larged walled garden; when it was built it must have commanded wonderful views in all directions, as it is quite high up.

The house itself is interesting, with most of the rooms painted in a different colour, mostly pastels.  Little of the original furniture remains; instead many of the rooms house early musical instruments from the Benton Fletcher collection.   I believe one of them is often played during opening hours, but there was no music in the background while I was there.

As well as the musical instruments, there are a large number of paintings on the walls, including the Peter Barkworth colleciton, and others on loan from the Sir William Nicholson collection.

Other items of interest include several display cases of fine porcelain - amazingly intricate figures that one would be loathe to even try and dust for fear of breaking something.

The portraits on the stairs include of the children of William IV, including a daughter of Dorothy Jordan, who lived in the house at one time.

Although the first known residents were the Fentons, English merchants who lived in Russia, the history of the subsequent residents is somewhat vague, as no proper records were kept.   What is certain is that it was not occupied continuously by the same family, like some houses from that period.

There is no cafe there, but there is a small shop selling books, souvenirs and honey in one of the rooms at the top, which were originally used as bedrooms; they are all small, with sloping ceilings and full of character.   In fact the whole house is full of chonaracter, with its alcoves and closets and handy window seats.

The snow continued all afternoon; by four o'clock the garden was a sea of white, and the branches on the trees carried a covering of snow.   The scene was a typically Christmassy one, only three months late.   It was also bitterly cold; even inside the house, you needed to keep your coat, and outside it was freezing.   But it was also absolutely beautiful.  

Fenton House is definitely worth another visit, preferably in the summer, when one can enjoy the garden as well as the house.

Good Vibrations

I went to a pre-view of the new film "Good Vibrations" this evening, I wanted to go to the West End venue it was showing at, but that was fully booked, so I had to brave the cold and a much longer journey to go to the Odeon in Wimbledon to see it.

Although it had a 15 certificate, there was really nothing in it that would put anyone off going.it got the certificate, I imagine, from a few swear words of the type that most of us have to listen to from the ment all the time at work.

Starring Richard Dormer as Terri Hooley and Jodie Whittaker as his wife, it tells the true story - although no doubt somewhat embroidered to make a better film - of the real-life Terri Hooley, who throughout the troubles in Belfast, sought to bring people together through punk rock.   

Utterly lacking in any business sense, he opened a music shop called "Good Vibrations", which lurched from one crisis to another, whilst Terri worked tirelessly to reach out to people from all communities to try and get them to enjoy music together.   Punk rock was to be the glue that joined communities and his enthusiasm for spreading the words knew no bounds.

His ventures were never a commerical success - "Good Vibrations" opened and closed several times over the years - but he did suceed in raising the profile of at least some of the musicians in Northern Ireland, who had been somewhat relegated to the backwaters by the music scene in the U.K.

A gentle film, with quite a lot of gentle humour, but also one with a message - that music can be the means of bringing people together.   Even if punk rock isn't quite my scene.

The Man Who Pays the Piper

Thursday evening, and an opportunity to see the  new play at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond.

The Orange Tree is a small theatre, seating only 172, and was the first one to stage plays in the round.   The stage is in the middle, with seating all around at ground floor level, together with more upstairs, again all round on a balcony.   Behind the balcony, there are also standing room places, with a very useful bar to lean on; if you are short, then it is quite comfortable, but thes tanding room area definitely isn't designed for the tall - unlike most places, which seem to think that no-one is under 5'10".

The current play is "The Man Who Pays the Pipe" by Gladys Bronwen Stern, a prolific novelist and playwright from the 1920 and 1930swho died in 1964 and is now largely ignored, despite the quality of her work.

"The Man Who Plays the Piper" focuses on the fact that the person, man or woman, who pays all the bills has power over those whom they support.    Economic power is real; if  you are not financially independent, then you aren't really in a position to make any decisions on how you want to live your life.   But it also show how this power can become addictive in those who have it, so that they come to enjoy exercising power for its own sake, knowing that those who are dependent on them are in the end powerless.

A very thoughtful play, with much in common with the plays of other women writers from the suffragette period and just after who featured in the Orange Tree Theatre's season a couple of years ago for forgotten women writers.

Thomas Carlyle's House

A bitterly cold Sunday afternoon, with odd flurries of snow; the sort of afternoon when it is best to be indoors, and so a good opportunity to make a visit to Thomas Carlyle's house in Chelsea, now a National Trust property.

There is nothing remarkable about the house from the street; it is just one of a terrace of
similar houses of, I think, four floors and a basement.   But once inside, it is almost certainly very different to the rest of the houses, as it remains almost exactly as it was when Thomas Caryle lived there with his wife Jane and wrote all his books, from the kitchen in the basement to the specially constructed study at the top, with its skylight in the room.

Thomas Carlyle rented the house at 24 Cheyne Row because, prior to becoming a successful writer, it was all he could afford; later, he stayed there because it was all that he and his wife, who had no children, needed.

But although the Carlyles had no children, the house was often full of people; they were visited by numerous writers and artists and politicians; everyone who was anyone seems to have visited them at one time or another, even though Thomas Carlyle had a biting tongue, and was highly critical of some of his fellow writers' works, including those of people like Charles Dickens.   They, however, have the last laugh; although he was a prolific write, Carlyle's highly convoluted prose is now rarely read, whilst writers like Dickens are still very much in favour.

The house is very well laid out for visitors; everywhere there are sheets with information on the various rooms, and one needs at least a couple of hours to read everything, in additional to looking at all the items there, which include Carlyle's desk, on loan from the London Library which he founded in 1841, and whose current president is the playwright Tom Stoppard, a letter from Disraeli offering him the Grand Cross of the Bath in 1874 (he refused it), his passport (rather different to the small passports issued today) and various photographs, including one taken by Julia Margaret Cameron in 1867 at Little Holland House.

A statue of Thomas Carlyle, sculpted by Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm and partly paid for by Charles Darwin, Robert Browining and William Morris, and unveilled in 1882, stands in nearby Embankment Gardens.

Oxford Spezatti

Another concert by the Oxford Spezzati Soloists and Orchestra at St. Matthew's Church, Kensington Olympia.

The programme was quite varied, and the Oxford Spezzati were in fine form as usual, performing works by Charles Wood (Hail Gladening Light), William Harris (Faire is the Heaven) Herbert Howells (Take him, earth for cherishing) and three motets by Brahms, followed in mthe second half by Josef Rheinberger's "Mass in Eb Major "Canticus Missae"

But a special feature of this concert was a setting for John Donne's "A Hymn to God the Father" by an upcoming young composer, Jonathan Bridcut, who was also singing in the choir;

The Gospel According to Matthew

After a quick lunch at a little cafe called City Snacks, just round the corner from the Museum of St. John, I caught a bus to Waterloo to see a Pier Paolo Pasolino film entitloed "The Gospel According to Matthew", which was  showing at 3.00 p.m.   I just made it; getting of the bus at the last stop at ten to three, I hurried along Stamford Street, and then to the Embankment, and arrived at the ticket office with about two minutes to spare.   Fortunately, there was no queue and they had some tickets left for that performance, so I was in luck.

"The Gospel According to Matthew", which won praise from the Vatican,  is a beautiful film, shot entirely using untained actors, the dialogue is sparse and almost entirely taken from St. Matthew's Gospel.   The actors themselves play their parts convincingly, despite their lack of formal training; they are obviusly ordinary people, rather than professionals.   There was an otherworldliness  about the girl who played the angel, who first appeared to Joseph as a part of a dream. she later made other appearance, such as to the Holy Family in Egypt anf at the tomb.

If I have any criticisms of the film, one of them would be that the character who played Jesus was sometimes too forceful, as when he threw the moneychangers out of the temple; somehow, his language seemed to violent and forceful.

My other criticism would be that I wonder how much people would understand of the story if they did not know it already; to anyone familiar with the Gospel, it was easy to follow, but if one wasn't?Somehow I think they would go away very confused, wondering what it was all about.    But perhaps that is inevitable with a film of this sort.

Museum of St. John

I was up and out early, as I wanted to go to the Museum of St. John in Clerkenwell.   Although I used to be in St. John Ambulance (and enjoyed many an evening covering West End theatres and White City dogs, amongst other things) I had never been to the Museum.  The tours started at 11.00 a.m. and 2.30 p.m., and I wanted to have a look around the museum before the first tour started.

Getting there was easy; the Hammersmith & City Line from Shepherds Bush Market goes to Farringdon, and from there it is just a short walk to the Museum in St. John;s Gate, St. John Street.  In fact, the journey took so little time I arrived before the Museum opened at 10.00 a.m., and a very kind member of staff, seeing me standing outside the door, let me in a bit early, which was much appreciated, as it was freezing.

The Museum of St. John isn't large, but is absolutely fascinating, detailing the history of the Order from its inception  to the present day.

The first hospital was opened in Jerusalem in AD 1080, next to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,  to care for sick pilgrims visting the Holy Land, which since the Muslims had taken it inAD  638, had often been difficult for Christians to visit.   It served both as a hospital and also a hostel, and the men and women who worked there were members of a new religious order, officially recognised by the Church in AD1113, and were known as the Hospitallers.   Other religious orders, such as the Knights Templar, guarded pilgrims, but initially the Hospitallers only cared for the sick. and the hospital was capable of looking after 1000 patients, or up to 2000 if the need arose.     Later, after the fall of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers took on a military role, and became known as the Knights of the Order of Saint John.   The Museum includes a model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which wealthy pilgrims would bring back as a souvenir of their visit.

The Hospitallers had some very modern ideas about the care of the sick - for instance, patients were served their food on silver plates, which were much more hygienic than wooden ones,  they believed that fresh air and good food were essential for the sick, and introduced the concept of quarantine.    In addition, the designs of their hospitals were based on what was best for the well-being of the patients.   They believed that patients should be treated as if they were Christ Himself and given the very best that they could offer.   As well as caring for the sick, they also looked after orphans, ran an ambulance service and buried the dead.

Other hospitals were opened in addition to the initial one at Jerusalem until, following the loss of the Holy Land in 1291, the Knights retreated to their lands in Cyprus and decided to found another headquarters in the east, which they did in AD 1310 in Rhodes, where they ruled 12 islands, minting coins, trading widely and defending the population from attack.

They had to move again in AD 1523, when Rhodes was captured by the Turks, and in AD 1530 settled in Malta, where the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, had offered them land for a rent of one falcon a year.    Quite a bargain!   By this time, the Knights were a trading and fighting force, capable of withstanding a determined attack by the Turks in AD 1565, so that Malta remained Christian.   her capital, Valletta, was named after Jean de la Valette, who sucessfully defended the island, although outnumbered more than three to one by the Turkish forces.   In Malta, the Knights became very much like monarchs, to the extent that Grand Master Manual Pinto da Fonseca wore a monarch's crown - there is a large painting of him with his crown.   The Knights stayed in Malta until ousted by Napoleon; from there they moved eventually to Rome, where their headquarters are today.

One of the most interesting items in the Museum is a short video about the experiences of two brothers, Claude and Rostand Meres, based on the 14 letters which they wrote to their other brother Frances and their father whilst serving as Knights.   The Meres family sent at least six of their sons and one of their daughters to join the Order.   But other items are also fascinating, such as the images from "The Siege of Rhodes" from AD1480, an illuminated manuscript by Guillaume Caoursin, the cannon which was dredged up from the sea, the various paintings on the walls, the coins from the Holy Land.

I had expected there would be quite a crowd on the tour at 11.00 a.m., but although there were a couple of large private tours, in the official Museum on there were just three of us with a very informative guide.  

Going on the tour meant that I saw parts of the Museum which aren't open to the public; we went through several locked doors which the guide had to swipe to open, and visited the Chapter House, the Old Chancery, the Council Chamber and the Malta Room with its beautiful Florentine table with an eight pointed star and paintings of Malta at the time of Jean de Valette and large herb jars.  The old spiral staircase from the original building, fortunately, now has guide rails.  

After leaving the Museum, we went to the Chapel and crypt, which is some distance away; the Chapel is still used for services, as is the crypt.   The crypt is from the original church on  the site, and includes various tombs and a stone taken from the pavement of the street by the Manger in bethlehem, when the paving was taken up in 1931.   Presented in memory of his wife and also of his son, who was killed in 1940, by E.Keith Roach, who was District Commissioner of Jerusalem from 1926 - 1943, it was the only piece that was saved.

The Chapel is new; unused from the 1540 dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, until Holy Communion was celebrated there again in 1905 in the presence of members of the revived order of St. John. it was destroyed during the War and almost completely rebuilt, as there was almost nothing left of the original.   

Next to the Chapel is a garden, with a large crucifix with two angels above at the far end, a fountain in the middle, and and a few flowers .   The whole place has an air of peace and tranquility; it must be lovely in the summer and I wondered whether many of the peop,e who work in the nearby offices and shops come and sit and eat their lunch there.

After the tour, which lasted about an hour, I returned to the Museum to have a look at the rest of the exhibits; there is plenty to occupy a couple of hours, or more if you want to take everything in.

And although the headquarters of the Order of St. John, both the revived English one and the continuing one in Rome, have not been based in Jerusalem for hundreds of years, they can still be said to have a base there in the presence of St. John's Eye Hospital, which was opened in 1882 on land which Sir Edmund Lechmere had obtained from the Ottoman Sultan.  

Altogether, the Museum of St. John is a little gem, tucked away largely out of sight, but wellworth the effort of finding it.

Concert

Not to St. George's Bloomsbury this time, but to St. Pancras, which is just opposite St. Pancras station, to hear the BBC Elstree Concert Band.

St. Pancras in Euston Road is an interesting church.   It is named after St. Pancras, the orphaned son of a Phrygian nobleman who was brought up in the court of the Emperor of Rome and was beheaded at the age of 14 for refusing to offer incense in worship of the Emperor Diocletian on 12th May AD304.   A basilica was later erected on the spot on the Aurelian Way where this occurred.

The original church in the parish is reputed to have been built just ten years after Pancras's death, on the site of a Roman encampment overlooking the Fleet River.   It was rebuilt in medieval times, and then again in 1848, and still stands in the old churchyard in Pancras Road, behind the station.

But by the end of the 18th century, it was beginning to be very run-down (hence the rebuilding in 1848) and the folk in the big new houses in Bloomsbury naturally wanted somewhere better to worship that the rather tatty church in Pancras Road.    So they petitioned for a new church, and after much opposition - the Vestry was very unwilling  to spend money on a new church when the existing one, due to ancient endowments, cost them nothing - permission was granted, and over thirty architects submitted proposals for the design.   The contract was awarded in 1819 to local architect William Inwood and his son Henry for a Greek-revival design, and the new church was consecrated by the Bishop of London, William Howley, on 7th. May 1822.

One of the first things that strikes you on entered the church is the semi-circular apse, surmounted by what look like six huge marble columns, but are in fact fake.   The second thing that strikes you is the lighting, which consists of  groups of seven large round lights suspended from the ceiling.   The third thing which attracts your eye is the statue of the Crucifixion of Christ the King, which was carved by sculpter Fenwick Lawson for the University Chapliancy.   The cross is made of sycamore and the figure of Christ of laburnam, and it aims to express visually Christ's Kingship in relation of the suffering of the cross, and is a sign of his triumph over evil, which thus offer us hope and assurance.   The fourth thing you notice is that all the pews are boxed.

The concert was entitled "Into the Light" and was conducted by Andrew Morley, with the witty Keith Clement announcing each piece.

From small beginnings in 1986, the orchestra has grown considerably,with over forty musicians taking part in the concert this evening.   Most were youngish, with just a sprinkling of older members.

The Band has played in a wide range of venues, both here and abroad, and have been broadcast nationally and globally through the BBC World Service.   They have also provided music for a major BBC1 documentary and made several recordings, the most recent being for a Radio 3 programme.   They also give regular concerts to raise money for the Voice of the Listener Trust, the North London Hospice and several other charities, so they are well-worth supporting.

The pieces chosen were varied: selections from Les Miserables and Cabaret, Diamonds are Forever from soloist and sax player Sam Duffy, oboe solo of Gabriel's Oboe, excerpts from A Chrous Line and The two Imps to name just a few.  

I had a seat very near the front; originally I was near the end of the pew, with a slightly restricted view.   However the couple next to the aisle wanted to move so that they could see their friend who was playing, and asked to swap seats.   So I had ended up with a perfect view directly in front of the orchestra.  

The music was stirring; loud, but not too loud, and played with a great deal of enthusiasm.   The pieces were so varied one could not possibly be bored with them; each piece, introduced so ably by Keith Clement. provided something different to the one before.

During the interval, I had the chance to have a good look around the church; unlike most London churches, it is served by two women, the Rev. Anne Stevens and the Rev.Jenny Welsh, and it seems quite an active and lively parish if the notices and leaflets lying around are anything to go by.  

The Band's next concert in London is on Sunday 29th.June, when they are taking part in the Proms at St. Jude's in Hampstead Garden Suburb - a bit of a way to go, but worth it to hear them again.