LONDON DAY OF THE DEAD

October 12th at 33 Fitzroy Square.
How to die In London

Antique Beat have programmed an incredible day of Death and the City related things for the Hendricks Carnival of Knowledge in a gorgeous Grade I listed Robert Adam house in central London.

At one of our Salons for the City at Westminster Library earlier this year, I asked the question of the audience:  "How many people think they will die in London?".  Surprisingly few responded in the affirmative.  I wasn't sure sure whether that was because most people plan to leave at some point - or whether they don't think they are going to die anywhere..

The latter possibility is leant weight by the fact that two thirds of people here haven't made a will.  We became intrigued by this a few years back and included a lovely free Last will and testament form in the special edition of The Real Tuesday Weld album "At the End of the World'.  Despite that, most of my friends still haven't made one - although in the light of the most superficial questioning they seem to have quite strong preferences for what should and shouldn't happen to them and their stuff when they are gone!  I see planning your end as an enjoyable, creative exercise - like designing a party.  It is salutary, sure,  but in a positive way.  You feel rather refreshed and ready for action when its done - and also much more likely to stop dicking around and get on with what you really should be doing.

Anyway,  when Hendricks asked us to put together a day for their Carnival as part of London Cocktail week, it seemed a perfect opportunity to explore London Beyond London in some detail.

So there will be a series of talks - arranged as our salons are with two related speakers followed by conversation.  And it is an incredible line up - Historian of Death Robert Stephenson, Curator of Osteology Jelena Bekvalac, London Way of Death's Brian Parsons, Londonist's Matt Brown, Future Death expert Dr John Troyer, Fashion guru Amber Jane Butchart, the BFI's Will Fowler and Dead Social's James Norris.

They will cover everything from the mediaeval way of death to the future of cemeteries. We have death mask making workshops, we have Dresses to Die for.  You can spend time in a coffin, you can meet an Undertaker, make a will (provided), find out what will happen to your Facebook account when you are gone, learn how to carry on updating it from beyond the grave - and of course drink cocktails.

My only regret is that I will be MC-ing rather than just hanging out.

Several things are free and drop in, others require booking.
Full details and reservations here

See you on the other side then..

LONDON BEYOND US

"The Future's not what it used to be Mr Angel" says the mysterious Robert De Niro character in one of my favourite films and in London that has certainly always been (and will always be) the case.  Walking around the town, I often think about things the way they might have been.  There are two aspects to this - firstly, if the Luftwaffe hadn't bombed us and if the post-war planners hadn't had their way, London would be a very different place.  Better? Perhaps - certainly if you read the book "Lost Panoramas of London", it is tragic to realise just what has gone.  

At one of our Salons for the City recently, St Etienne were talking about the excellent 1960s documentary "The London That Nobody Knows" narrated by James Mason.  Certainly that is in part a mourning for a London that was passing away but as Bob Stanley said: "You are also struck by what a shit hole much of the city was!". St Etienne's "Mervyn Day" film documents the area of East London which became the Olympic Park.  Whilst the park itself seems like some other-worldly Huxleyian Utopia detached from London proper, I can assure you from personal experience that what it replaced was hideous and not to be mourned.  I briefly lived in a house on a hill which has been completely obliterated by the very groovy Velodrome. (I was actually more shocked by the  removal of the hill than of the house until I discovered that it was only a Victorian rubbish dump..).

The Olympic Park is a vision that has actually been built but the other thing about London not being the way it might have been, is the ghostly presence of all the plans and dreams that were never realised - either for lack of will, money or conviction, occasionally because the citizens successfully resisted them or because they were completely barking mad.

Mile high towers, gigantic pyramids of death on the Thames, a 75m statue of Britannia on Greenwich Hill, Jetsons style monorails, a motorway through Covent Garden  - it could have all been so much...different.  Of course the visionaries are still at it. At our next Salon, Matt Brown of Londonist and London planner Andrew Collinge will be discussing some of the crazy and not so crazy ideas that have, or haven't, got off the drawing board.

But we all know one thing for sure about the future don't we?  That is that it will end - well at least from our point of view.  I don't think even religious people believe that time persists after death do they?  This of course, along with the city itself, has long been of fascination to me so I am very pleased that we have programmed a London Day of the Dead as part of the Hendricks Carnival of knowledge at a beautiful Georgian house in the centre of town.  It will be on October 12th and I have to say it looks absolutely fabulous.  


Hendrick's Carnival Of Knowledge from Hendrick's Gin on Vimeo.

LIFE AFTER LONDON

Death has rather been in the air of late.  Despite the sunshine that has finally blazed London in light and with Andy Murray radiating health, victory, success and all that, I seem to have been involved in some rather morbid activities.  And I mean that in the most positive way.

Did you know that it is perfectly legal in the UK to bury someone in your garden?  But only one person.  Beyond that you would have a cemetery - which requires planning permission.  Oh and you have to mention it on the Property Deeds which apparently reduces the value of the place  (although not for me, I have to say).  I learned this fact from the very lively Dr John Troyer of the Centre for Death Studies at one of the excellent Morbid Anatomy series curated by Joanna Ebenstein at The Last Tuesday Society. 

For sometime, I have been mulling over what I would like to happen to my mortal remains and now I know.  John mentioned various techniques as  alternatives to cremation.  One  is an incredible sort of steam punk machine which sort of sucks your juice out.  Didn't quite fancy that but I do like the technique where you (or the ex-you) is freeze dried in nitrogen until you are very brittle. Then a sonic boom

is fired at you and 'puff!' you are reduced to a pile of something rather like coffee granules.

Then we were down at West Norwood Cemetery for a London Dreamtime event last weekend.  The cemetery is one of the 'Magnificent Seven Great Gardens of Sleep'  built by the Victorians to solve the terrifying problem of London's dead in the nineteenth century.  It is quite posh and well kept, certainly much more so than the crumbling gothic Nunhead - its only neighbour south of the river.  I haven't been before and was keen to see if I could find the teleportation chamber built by Bonomi and Warner (more on that here).  I think it may be in the Greek quarter.

Speaking of South of the River, if you live in London you will be aware of the great divide.  South definately feels different than North - which has often spuriously claimed to be posher, more sophisticated, somehow more London.  This may have its roots in that during the eighteenth century, bodies found floating in the river were allowed to be used by surgeons for anatomical experiments.  Those landed on the north bank fetched a better price for those who dredged them as there was a greater demand from the northern hospitals..

Tomorrow I am filming a trailer for Hendricks Carnival of Knowledge for which we are programming a London Day of the Dead in October.  It will be "a guide to what to do in London the day after you die" and will be chock full of information, entertainment and hopefully a taste of the afterlife (or at least of Hendricks).  More on that soon.  

If you can, I hope you will come - assuming we are all still around by that time that is ..