Writing Spaces
Over the last few weeks I’ve expanded my living room by looking for other spaces in which to write. This has led me to those apparently unsung heroes: libraries. All the boroughs have a number of libraries, with a couple of larger ones in each of them. You used to have to live or work in the relevant borough to get a membership card, but no more! Now you only need a UK address to join any of them.
I have mentioned earlier the lovely reference libraries and writing spaces at Marylebone, Paddington and Westminster Reference Library (all part of City of Westminster Libraries). Now, I have added City of London Libraries to my list of Spaces. I spent some time at the Guildhall Library, which has a brilliant and extensive specialist collection about the history of London and is a great space in which to write: modernity among so much history. Lovely bookshop too; I bought a postcard of Fleet Street from c1905.
Similarly, the Barbican Library has a splendid London collection and a huge range of books covering hundreds of other subjects. The Barbican itself is intriguing (an iconic 1960s living space and arts centre built on the ruins of the bombed area of Cripplegate). You wander along the Moorgate Highwalk to get to the arts centre and are entering a special concrete space.
The thing that’s struck me about all the different libraries is just how well-used they are. Westminster’s are busy on Sundays with teenagers doing homework and noodling on laptops. The City’s libraries have a broader range of people there at any given time than I had anticipated. So, you might need to wait for that desk or one of the computers. But this is a good thing, right? These are important public spaces that are being well-used by, well, the public. Long live it. It seems the libraries are not such unsung heroes after all.
I plan to investigate the Bishopsgate Institute next. These spaces are important.
Anyway, it’s nearly Easter. The weather is (inevitably) somewhat blustery and rainy. And the libraries are closed for four days now.
A Small Sniff of Spring (14 March)
Chilly it may still be, but the skies are brightening up and there was some lovely sunshine to be had today at 12°C.
Trinity Square Gardens, EC3
Trinity Square EC3 is opposite the Tower of London and is the location of Trinity House (designed by Samuel Wyatt, 1796) and the former Port of London Authority. Trinity Square Gardens (1797; restored 2003) has a beautiful memorial to the 24,000 merchant seamen lost in two word wars “Who have no grave but the sea”. There is a memorial pavilion to WWI (by Sir Edward Lutyens) and the memorial garden to WWII (by Sir Edward Maufe).
These are the Names... Trinity Square Gardens
Huge plaques bear the names of the ships and the men, the writing raised from the surface, tactile and alive, running on and on in huge saddening lists. Every so often there is a poppy or a small wooden cross left by a loved one next to a name. They are stuck on with blu-tac and flutter poignantly in the faltering spring breeze. Some are faded and have slipped down from the name to which they were affixed. The plaques are separated by beautiful relief sculptures on sea-faring themes and the space is simple, calm and reflective. Really beautifully done. Opposite, the Tower looms and the Thames glitters.
There is something startling about the fact that that these gardens and the plush surrounding buildings cross two of London’s boroughs. The plush buildings are in the City of London, while the park itself is in Tower Hamlets. Here are two very contrasting boroughs (and the City really does contrast with everything around it) and you slip softly from one to another.
Rock Chicks
This is quite splendidly mad and I utterly approve: At the Barbican, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot has set up a walk-through aviary for zebra finches, with electric guitars and other instruments and objects. As the birds go about their daily routine (perching, feeding and so on) their presence on the various pieces of equipment creates a live soundscape. Fabulous.
Disappearing London: 1
In the library, I found a fabulous quote about London by Henry James:
It is difficult to speak adequately or justly of London. It is not a pleasant place; it is not agreeable, or cheerful, or easy, or exempt from reproach. It is only magnificent.
From the window of the bus at Paddington, I saw a woman in a long dark fur coat, perhaps aged about sixty. She hurried along with a slightly care-worn look. She had no luggage, so I presume she lived locally. She seemed adrift and slightly out of time; a person one sees increasingly rarely almost as if they are disappearing from London. People like this fascinate me and have long been one of the things informing my writing: Who are they? What were they? What are they?
A couple of years ago I saw an exhibition at the Tate in Pimlico called How We Are: Photographing Britain. It affected me enormously, much more than I could have anticipated. The photographs therein not only form an important document of changing social history, but there, staring out at us, are faces and types of people that are disappearing and that we may never know again. I remember one series of photographs about a factory works outing from the 1950s, with lots of women lined up in front of the coach. There were fearsome matriarchs among them who had a look about them that was absolutely of the era and of their time. Not only are they almost certainly no longer alive, but these women as a particular type no longer exist.
Reading London
An early(ish) jaunt to the LSE to hear a lecture delivered as part of their Reading London event (Cities Programme). The event covered literature, social history and architecture in an attempt to ‘read’ and describe London.
The discussion covered land ownership in Bloomsbury, Christopher Wren (of course!) and how the metropolis has managed to develop, rather than sticking to any major plan. Along the way, we learnt about Wren’s great plan for London (it was all going to be so neat and orderly, apparently; I think London’s organic and somewhat haphazard development has been to its great credit. Imagine all those nooks and crannies being neatly ironed out and not being, well, nooks and crannies any more..). We also discovered that Peter Pan is set in Bloomsbury because Roget (of the Thesaurus) once lived there and provided many a guiding light.
And then there was the news that the British Museum has some hidden doors in it (well, imagine if the dear BM didn’t hold such secrets). I have noted the locations of these and shall do some discreet prodding of walls next time I’m in there. Hope I don’t get thrown out.
Alexander McQueen: 1969 – 2010
The death of Alexander McQueen today is horrible news. Too often these days people are feted without discernible talent or genius. Alexander McQueen was not one of them.
An enfant terrible without ever being immature. A bright star, a big loss and a bloody shame.
Lady Gaga wears his completely mad and utterly fabulous lobster shoes in her Bad Romance video.
The Guardian‘s obituary is here and The Times has its obituary here.
Research in Westminster
Now that I’ve been bitten again by the writing bug, it’s good to explore other writing spaces and to research ideas. So this week I joined Westminster Libraries (one of them is a good research library too). Off to lovely Marylebone to collect my card and explore the facilities. The upstairs has an extensive research collection and study area and I sat for a while reading up on John Dickson Carr and locked room mysteries.
Then I hopped on the bus to Paddington to look in another of the borough’s libraries. All fab again. Both are in lovely old buildings. I shall look in the Charing Cross one and the Westminster Research Library this coming week or at the weekend (although I have an LSE lecture and a friend’s play on Saturday).
This is intriguing, too: Westminster’s Archives Centre is serialising an 1846 diary written by Nathaniel Bryceson, a Victorian clerk in Pimlico. His mother was born in 1797 and Nathaniel himself died in 1911. That’s just two generations crossing a very significant period of time. Incredible. I look forward to reading the entries.
When I left the library in Paddington, the day had become suddenly spring-like.
Gloucester Terrace, London W2
Porchester Square, London W2
Royal Court at Elephant
The Royal Court Theatre is staging four plays in the Elephant and Castle shopping centre. Excellent. This is a brilliant idea:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8496070.stm
80s Indie Electronica Girl
I love this footage of Gary Numan and Little Boots doing Venus in Furs and Are Friends Electric.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/events/hub/artists/nuboots.shtml
I’m still that 80s indie electronica girl at heart.
And there’s more…
The snow is back, announced the radio this morning. I was expecting a fine dusting, or nothing at all. 
In fact, a fair amount had accumulated overnight. Nothing on the scale of last week’s snow (and just as we were getting used to walking around safely), but a decent amount of fluffy stuff to trudge through. I took this photo (left) outside Euston station. The snowy branches make striking patterns.
Further on (right), Bloomsbury was dusted with a decent coating of snow, lending it a silent air, as in this picture looking towards Gordon Square.
Tavistock Square (left) with the statue of Gandhi visible beyond.
Russell Square with frosted trees (below).
I’ve been cooking and eating splendid soups all week. Tonight: leek, potato and pepper with a smigeon of chilli.
