All text copyright Stephen Coates 2006 - 2015

LONDON AT THE LIBRARY


I am very pleased to be able to announce that Antique Beat's latest production is about to launch. It is called "LONDON AT THE LIBRARY" and it is a "Salon for the City".


London is such a large metropolis and such a vast subject that the city itself is the only remit here.  Anything goes. We are starting off on November 29th with the very entertaining and rather handsome Dr Matthew Green, writer and guide, talking on London's 17th century coffee houses followed by the mountaineer Marcus Risdell, curator of the Garrick Club speaking about the strange phenomenon of  London's Gentlemen's clubs.

But we won't be sticking to just historical themes: we have talks on the future of the city, the city at night, occult London, product placement in London theatre shows, life as a taxi driver with many more subjects planned. 


The salon is being hosted by myself and the very redoubtable Rossella Black who has been doing really extraordinary things at Westminster Arts Library for some time.


It will take place on the last Thursday of every other month. We will have two speakers on a connected aspect of the city and leave time to converse in a fairly informal atmosphere. Future speakers include authors Craig Armstrong, Anthony Clayton, Sukdev Sandhu, Glen Duncan, London Business School's Andrew Scott, storyteller Vanessa Woolf, fashionista Susie Ralph and host of others. Sometimes we will have performances and occasionally there will be a films.  There will also be our tiny London shop and I will be spinning a 'Soundtrack for the City' each evening.


Everyone is welcome but space is quite limited sadly.  There is more information and details of how to book here.  I look forward to seeing you there if you can make it.  


And, in the meantime..


13 comments:

Unknown said...

This sounds amazing - I would give my eye-teeth to be there!

Any chance of the evening's talks being recorded and released as a podcast?

clerkenwell kid said...

Hey - we would love to have you there Jane.
Yes we will record it and podcast it.
Matthew Green is great - very entertaining and byronic to boot

Unknown said...

I would love to be there - and I shall be, in spirit. I wish I could be there in a more corporeal sense - maybe one day.

Terribly cheered by the fact that I have podcasts to look forward to!

"Byronic" is a VERY good word!

clerkenwell kid said...

It really is - as is Brythonic whcich also applies here

Unknown said...

I looked up Dr. Green - you are correct (of course) in your assessment of his byronic tendencies.

The Brythonism goes without saying!

In light of all this Byron-chat this seems particularly apt: Shelly and Byron and Dreams

Empress Cixi said...

It is better than a masonic lodge ^^

clerkenwell kid said...

The London masons - now that is a good idea for a talk

Unknown said...

YES - I knew a girl who worked in their big old library. Oh, the stories she told me!

Empress Cixi said...

Mmmm... !
France loves to speak about the "masonic secret", as last year again there were cover magazines about it.

There is a big folklore around, but I mean, the only secret you could find is the ritual, the signs, passwords and the identity of your 'Brothers & Sisters'.
These "secrets" are revealed in books and on the web.
Everybody can become a mason in France, you only need to be in a kind of spiritual research and to believe in the mineral-vegetal-animal reigns, and in the "energy-shakti-god". Everything comes from Egypt.
The 'secret' is the transformation in your inside that occurs, thanx to your own spiritual work, as real Alchemists practice.
But, naturally, in all societies, in all human groups, lobbies, enterprises, there are links between people that are created, and everything can happen : the best and the worst. It is not only inside Freemasonry.
And Freemasonry has evolved by the time. I particularly like the Cagliostro story, written by Pierre Mariel under the direction of Louis Pauwels.
For me, the most interesting thing is the symbolism. It is very interesting.

clerkenwell kid said...

Yes, I find the symbols and signs the most interesting thing - even on purely an aesthetic level. Some of the other stuff seems a bit silly.

Mind you, The Masons hall in Covent Garden is quite something and far from silly:
http://www.ugle.org.uk/freemasons-hall/

There is also a wonderful masonic temple in the old Great Eastern Hotel (now the terribly re-christened Hyatt 'Andaz' - we used to do events there a few years back. Fabulous it is too.

Empress Cixi said...

God ! it is a whole building, very beautiful. I am impressed. They get a real mosaic floor. And it is for hire aswell ? that is fun.
It should be great to consult their library; have you ever gone there? It is open to public, as written on their website.

Waow, imagine all the Masons in the big lodge. There is an army in London!

The biggest Freemasonic place in Paris is the Grand Orient obedience, rue Cadet.
There is also the Freemasonry museum that you can see here
http://www.museefm.org/

In England, it is more serious than in France and quiet more difficult to enter in it. As I've been told.
But hey, I want to become a London Mason, in the cinema Lodge ;)

I believe in the Great Architect of the Universe.
I believe in the Father,The Son and Holy Ghost
And I believe in lager,
Cigarettes and dope
Yeah, I believe
I believe I believe in love ;)

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