Author, linguist and mediaevalist. I write about Hastings and City of London, theatre and linguistics, Vikings and lots more.
Hastings; City of London
Joined March 2009
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The house which I live in, in Old Town Hastings. Built 1648. (I’ve had it tree ring dated.) Tourists peer in the windows. Has resident death watch beetle. Jolly cold in winter as there’s not a whole lot of insulation. I love it!
I’m in an empty @CostaCoffee in Hastings. I suspect their prices have crossed a line and people just won’t pay. 🫤
I’ve been looking at the 1939 Register for Clifford’s Inn. The new building dates from 1937, so this is more or less the first residents. There are some interesting occupations.
A huge surprise is the number of closed records. In theory these relate only to children. There may be a small lag with updating, but the closed records should relate to those born after 1926, so 13 or under at the time of the Register. In many cases a child appears to be the sole occupant of a flat, and in a block that was essentially child free. The situation is implausible.
AI suggests: Were any special registration arrangements made under the National Registration Act 1939 for members of the Security Service, Secret Intelligence Service, or other government intelligence organisations, whereby their names or dates of birth were withheld or recorded differently?
These are the barriers in Oxford Street which are preventing ambulance access. It’s potentially a long stretcher to a place an ambulance can reach.
At Charing Cross there is no announcement that the @Se_Railway trains to Hastings depart Victoria. At Victoria the info desk knows nothing about @Se_Railway coming into Victoria though there have been several. I’be now just 11.48 left Victoria on a train which the train crew think is 1115 to Hastings running very late. The lack of information is overwhelming.
The British Museum has info about past readers in the British Library Reading Room. I’m not there! At least I’m real, unlike Sherlock Holmes.
I didn’t see reproduced the story about Karl Marx who habitually sat in the same seat in the reading room. Subsequent scholars would not sit in the adjacent seat because that was where the devil had sat to whisper in Marx’s ear.
The selection of readers the British Museum has decided to commemorate is inevitably political. I suspect the gender balance and ethnic balance displayed does not reflect that of past readers.
There’s a huge problem in choosing to commemorate Marx. His legacy is the murder of millions. If he is to be displayed this should be set out.
@britishmuseum
Super exhibition at the British Museum: Italian Renaissance Woodcuts. @britishmuseum
Graeme Davis retweeted
A great day at the @RoyalAutomobile and the St James Motoring Spectacle today. My little old car won the Historic Award!
Tonight as we all watch events unfold in Poland, it seems a good time to remember the long friendship of UK and Poland, and post here a famous Polish folk song. youtube.com/watch?v=ZzZ1qmXZ…
Where Shakespeare meets David Bowie! Take a generous measure of Hamlet, a smidgeon of Macbeth, cook on Glam Rock and get Space Hamlet @cockpittheatre
This is AmDram but it’s entertaining. Hamlet (Nic Gordon) can act. Indeed he’s holding the production together.
My pet grumble with many small London theatres: get the auditorium door open earlier! at Cockpit bar/lobby is a sauna and there’s a long queue, so standing. It’s not nice. @cockpittheatre play starts in 5 mins.
