London Letter: Mandela Statue
Here's a welcome to a new Open Writing columnist. Henry Jackson will be sending a weekly letter highlighting news from Britain's capital city.
Henry is 95. Yes, 95!
He has been in the newspaper trade all his life, starting as a junior reporter on a local newspaper, then working for Odhams Press, the Associated Press of America, the Daily and Overseas Mail, the Sunday Dispatch and The Observer. He launched his own motoring magazine in 1953 and then added more titles which became the Bugle Press Group.
Mandela statue unveiled…Notting Hill Carnival…New Thames Barrier…More Tube strikes…The £100,000-a-year homes…More affordable Fortnum’s
The Government is investigating the need for building another Thames Barrier as fears grow that the present one built in 1983 would be unable to cope with larger volumes of water from about 2030 that would leave London under threat of flooding. The project is estimated to cost £20bn.
Comment: The site for the new project is at Barking.
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A 9ft high bronze statue of Nelson Mandela, former South African political prisoner, was unveiled today in Parliament Square and stands alongside statues of other world leaders like Sir Winston Churchill, Benjamin Disraeli, Abraham Lincoln and South African former statesman, Field Marshal Smuts.
Comment: Mr Mandela, who is 89, spent 27 years in prison as leader of the Anti-Apartheid movement.
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More than two million people took to the streets of Notting Hill in West London over the week-end to soak up the sun at the 43rd Notting Hill Carnival. Beautiful and bizarre costumes brought a tropical splash of colour and the music with pipes and drums added to the primitive scene. But the current threat of violence hanging over London reappeared and 166 people were arrested including three for attempted murder after a man was stabbed and two people were shot including a 14-year-0ld boy. Medical treatment had to be given to 160 people including six police officers.
Comment: People from the Caribbean and Africa remembered their inheritance.
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At the same time London’s East End was putting on its own carnival with Carter’s Steam Fair at Victoria Park in Hackney, the traditional celebration home for Cockneys. It included dodgems, antique rides and amusements, newly restored vintage fair organs and slot arcades. It all ended with a monster firework display on Saturday night.
Comment: Victoria Park housed anti-aircraft batteries in the last war.
London Underground rail unions will go on strike for 72 hours on September 3 and 10 in a protest against pay and conditions.
Comment: Traffic chaos lies ahead.
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Average household incomes in London’s wealthiest boroughs have exceeded £100,000 for the first time. A new survey shows that Kensington and Chelsea families average £101,600 a year and Westminster comes third with £81,425.
Comment: And they spend more, too.
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City of London Churches
St Mary le Bow
Bow Bells have long made St Mary famous. They rang nightly curfews for its citizens throughout the Middle Ages and they also recalled the legend of Dick Whittington summoning him many times back to London to assume the title of Lord Mayor. The later Plantagenet kings and queens presided over numerous pageants and processions from the stone pavilion outside the church. In fact, Edward III’s consort, Queen Phillippa, and many others were injured when the grandstand collapsed during the Black Prince’s birthday procession. Wren’s tower balcony was built to commemorate the 1330 tragedy.
In the crypt below the church is The Place Below Restaurant that serves delicious dishes made from natural ingredients.
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Poems for Posterity
On Being a Woman
by Dorothy Parker
Why is it, when I am in Rome
I’d give an eye to be home,
But when on native land I be,
My soul is sick for Italy?
And why with you, my love, my lord,
Am I spectacularly bored,
Yet do you up and leave me---then
I scream to have you back again.
Dorothy Parker
1893-1967
Dorothy Parker, American writer and poet, was best known for her sharp witted comments on modern American life.
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Fortnum & Mason, the up-market Piccadilly food store, has launched a much needed makeover after being in business for 300 years. While retaining its stocks of top grade products such as a jar of foie gras for £240 and a hamper costing £20,000 it will now be aiming to attract people of more moderate means with items of “affordable luxury” such as a hamper for £40 for people giving “flat warming parties”, and a decorative tin of tea or a bar of soap for £5. The store is owned by the Canadian Weston family that also owns Selfridges. They are also busy looking for new retail sites in Japan and Russia.
Comment: They are not hampered by price.
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This Week in History
79AD. The volcano Vesuvius on the southern tip of the Bay of Naples erupted and killed thousands of people in Pompeii and Herculanium.
And in 1883 a volcano exploded on the Pacific island of Krakatoa, west of Samoa, and killed 36,000 people.
1814. British troops set fire to the Treasury at the White House.
1932. Amelia Earhardt became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic---from Los Angeles to a field near Paris.
1944. Germany ended the occupation of Paris.
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Famous quotes
Bad art is better than no art at all---Oscar Wilde.
I’d rather be first in a village than second in Rome---Julius Caesar.
The people of Tasmania, who never committed adultery, are now extinct. -- W.Somerset Maugham, novelist
Husbands are generally good lovers when they are betraying their wives. Marilyn Monroe
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More On The Thames Barrier
With all this talk of a new Thames Barrier it was a strange coincidence that I went on Sunday with Giles and the children to the Thames Barrier Park on the site of the former Royal Docks at Silvertown, one of the many lungs that the increasingly well-to-do East End of London has to offer following the appearance of money mountains like Canary Wharf and Canada Square in the area. It occupies 22 acres of green and pleasant land and if you want to walk or jog round the whole circuit on a carefully maintained and dry track, it is exactly one mile. Or you can just sit still and admire the carefully maintained rows of yew and maygrove hedges and marvel at the Thames Barrier in comfort and in safety. And nearby is the Fountain Plaza where 32 jets spring from the ground.
One of the most attractive features of the park is the Green Dock that has been converted into a haven of colourful flowers and shrubs which reflect the river’s ever changing spectrum of tints, shades and shapes creating a micro-climate where varieties of plants and butterflies abound.
It is not a minor Disney attraction. Everything is free from beautiful lawns where children can race their cycles without danger, to a five-a-side football pitch, swings, roundabout, slides, netball shooting posts and a café where you can watch it all happening.
As we made our way back to the car we passed through a young oak plantation and every now and then a little green acorn crunched under our feet.
