Archive | December 2019
December 10, 2019  

Review of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

On Friday, 29/11/19, we went to see a revival of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. This iconic play of the 1970s was written by Peter Nichols, one of the lesser-known so-called “kitchen sink” dramatists. The synopsis, telling of a marriage under strain as husband and wife struggled to bring up a disabled adolescent daughter, was hardly encouraging – it didn’t look like the stuff of a great evening out. How wrong can you be?

Sensational acting from Toby Stephens and Claire Skinner lit up a hugely sympathetic, humane and understanding work. The dialogue was very funny despite, or was it because of, the totally unsentimental script. It was not surprising to discover that the content was partly autobiographical.

Bri, played by Stephens, was racked with frustration and guilt over his inadequacies as a father. Predictably the male lead was pre-occupied, though understandably, in essentially egotistical concerns; the female lead, as so often in life, was pre-occupied with keeping life tolerable and even livable, even whilst stoking her husband’s jealousy about the time and concern she lavished on Joe.

The two well-meaning friends were hopelessly adrift in a sea of emotions quite beyond their life experiences and, in truth, they were less well-written or liked by both the author and the audience.

The staging was simple and effective, the directing sharp and precise. It was, we agreed, the most moving and commanding performance we had seen since Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.

December 9, 2019  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea December, 2019, Newsletter (# 126)

  1. This November was going to be a quiet month, and so it started. Penny was in China on a Presidential tour for her 18th century historical society, including lectures in Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing, so I got myself invited to a “drinks social” on 7th with Christine, dinner with Sarah on the 8th and the Providence House Fund Raising dinner on Saturday, 9th. This was only the second time that Providence House has tried a relatively expensive fund-raising dinner and there’s no question that this was a significant step up from 2018. Providence House dinner _ 191109The meal was exquisite, prepared and cooked by Hadas Hagos – quite a feat with a guest list of well over 100; the entertainment was provided by friends and members of Providence House, the largest and best youth club in Battersea.
  2. I went to St. Mary’s Remembrance Day Service on 10th November and then the “real thing” on 11th November in Battersea Park. The St. Mary’s Church service was very special and very moving. The front cover of the service programme had a photograph taken at the firstRemembrance Day Armistice Parade in Whitehall in 1919 – a new photo to me. The reading was from US Marine, Sergeant Jonathan Kirk Davis, on returning from combat to “home” – again new to me and very moving. And as for Canon Simon Butler’s own sermon, it managed to be moving but neither sentimental or jingoistic, to be full of religious feeling but totally acceptable both to an atheist like me, and I would have thought to those of different faiths. I am sorry to say that the following day’s service, organised by Enable on behalf of Wandsworth Council, was less successful. The presence of local school children was good and appropriate, but the format of the occasion is rather dated and needs review. The weather was, however, fantastic; very cold, very breezy, very autumnal.
  3. On 13th November I went, with Marsha de Cordova, to the Wandsworth Civic Awards Ceremony. I had a particular reason for going because my old friend (we met in 1967, I calculate) Ron Elam was receiving one. Ron has been a school governor for the best part of 50 years, including a long spell at Chesterton Primary. He kindly “blames” me for getting him started on this path – if so, then I did state education a service, as Ron has been a dedicated governor and also a constructive Ofsted inspector.
  4. On 16th we went to Newark, Nottinghamshire, for the week-end. Why Newark? Penny was chairing a public lecture given by fellow historian, Professor Norah Carlin, on petitioning during the Civil War (1640s) – the one which finished with the execution of Charles I. The petitions, which were essentially about what to do with the then constitutional crisis (sounds a bit like 2019!), and they came from all over the British Isles, very definitely including Ireland, and seemed to be targeted at a much more united set of kingdoms than exists today.
  1. After the lecture, we went to Newark’sNewark 13 Palace Theatre to see a production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – a nice if slightly sanitised production featuring an unusually youthful Scrooge. What the unreformed Scrooge would make of today’s marketised Christmas one hesitates to speculate but safe to say that he would certainly have exploded “Bah! Humbug!” The next day, we had a quick tour of the town, which took in the Castle, which was destroyed in 1646, and a visit to the National Civil War Centre, before returning to Battersea.

  2. On the afternoon of 21st November, I attended a very special War Memorial at Christ Church & St. StephenChristchurch Christchurch modGardens. It commemorates civilians, who died in the Second World War, and is held in Christchurch Gardens, the site of the first V2 bomb to land on Battersea at the old Church exactly 75 years earlier on the afternoon of 21st November, 1944. The church was a grand nineteenth-century building; and I am afraid, that its relatively modern replacement lacks a similarly iconic presence!

  1. On Sunday, 24th November, I was Banana Park 1invited to a key soccer match for all-conquering Battersea FC’s U13 team at the new Falcon Park all-weather pitch. Their opponents were an equally successful team from Lewisham and appropriately enough the result was a hard-fought 1-1 draw. Some Latchmere residents (and others) were unhappy with the installation of this “un-natural” pitch but, on a day when every other pitch in the Borough was water-logged, we three spectators were happy to see the match proceed. Marsha de Cordova is on my left and Queenstown councillor, Maurice McLeod on my right.
  1. A week later on 27th November, I had the Planning Applications Committee (PAC). There were several applications, which attracted interest and concern in Battersea. The first was for the use of the Thames slipway, next to St. Mary’s Church, as a launch-pad for the amphibious tour boats that can be seen on the Thames nowadays. This particular application was withdrawn but I am sure it will come back to the Committee in the near future. Two others were the redevelopment of the two industrial sites in Ferrier Street, next to Wandsworth Town station, and Jaggard Way, next to Wandsworth Common station. The Ferrier Street application included 102 residential units of which, forty-one are to be affordable, along with a modern replacement of the industrial units. This development was approved but only possible by providing the residential units in a 10-storey block, alongside the Station, just about opposite the Alma pub. The Jaggard Way application was, however, rejected because it was over-large and dominant next to the Common, despite the fact it included 72 residential units in four 4-storey blocks. I was unhappy with both decisions! The first, because I think a 10-storey block is too high to fit into the Old York Road environment; the second, because I did not consider four-storey blocks to be over-large for a site separated from the Common by a four-track railway line (though to be fair there was a specific objection about the unreasonable impact on one particular neighbour).
  2. On Friday, 29/11/19, we went to see a revival of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. This iconic play of the 1970s was written by Peter Nichols, one of the lesser-known so-called “kitchen sink” dramatists. The synopsis, telling of a marriage under strain as husband and wife struggled to bring up a disabled adolescent daughter, was hardly encouraging – it didn’t look like the stuff of a great evening out. How wrong can you be? Sensational acting from Toby Stephens and Claire Skinner lit up a hugely sympathetic, humane and understanding work. The dialogue was very funny despite, or was it because of, the totally unsentimental script. It was not surprising to discover that the content was partly autobiographical. I will be doing a review on this play, which will be on https://tonybelton.wordpress.com/
  3. Finally, a word on the election. I know that for some Battersea residents this poses a really difficult question. What do Remain-inclined Tories do? And Labour folk concerned about Jeremy Corbyn’s “extremism”, or Lib/Dems who want a plague on both “major parties”, or Greens for whom the only priority should be climate change? But the only certainty in Battersea is that the winner will be either Labour’s Marsha de Cordova or Tory’s Kim Caddy. In 2017, Labour had 25,292 votes as opposed to the Tories 22,876, with the Lib/Dems back on 4,401 and the Greens 866. The only real impact vote switching could have in Battersea would be to the current Prime Minister’s benefit – is that the impact any doubtful voter really wants?

My Programme for December

  1. December is all about the General Election on Thursday, 12th!
  2. Not even the Planning Applications Committee, “the committee that never stops”, is meeting this month!
  3. Though, of course, there will be the usual round of Xmas parties and drinks. As for me, I will be having a quiet Xmas day, with Boxing Day in Winchester and then a few days in Bath, taking a swim or two in the hot mineral springs that have attracted tourists ever since Roman times.

Do you know?

Deferred this month: back again after the Election!

December 9, 2019  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea November, 2019, Newsletter (# 125)

  1. First a brief note about my email address. On 10th October, BT abruptly ended my btconnect.com email, because I am not a business! So, 1) I do not have access to any of my past correspondence unless I “saved” it and may have lost your email address, 2) I may also have completely missed recent emails, so please forgive me if I haven’t replied to you and 3) my email address is now tonybelton99@gmail.com.

     

  2. On 1st October I was invited to talk to an 1801audience of Battersea residents, invited by Big Local, on The History of Battersea, 1800-2019. There were about 50 people there, from the local estates, Providence House, the Katherine Low Settlement (KLS), the Battersea Society and the Rotary Club amongst others. I really enjoyed the illustrated talk and the audience seemed to enjoy it too. If you would like to hear my views on the social history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, then I would be game to repeat it.
  1. The following day, 2nd October, I went to the KLS Annual General Meeting. KLS makes a point of keeping the business down to just a few minutes, which can surprise those of us, who come from a political background! Instead, KLS concentrates on socialising or as we say nowadays, networking. For those of you, who do not know KLS, it is a brilliant organisation, which runs social and learning events for, in particular, the young and the elderly of Battersea. The community spirit is great. Fellow Councillor Fleur Anderson works for KLS in a community support role and, at present, she is fighting to win the Putney Parliamentary seat for Labour in the next General Election. If she wins, then she will be sorely missed, but if she does not, she is not going to suffer for a lack of things to do at KLS.
  1. On Friday, 4th October, I went to theIMG_4410 twelfth century St. Peter’s Church on Hayling Island, normally something I would enjoy but on this ocassion it was, sadly, for the funeral of my old friend, Peter Taylor, except, at the age of 39, the last thing he was, was old. Some of you may remember that he stood as a councillor for Queenstown in the Borough Election of 2010. He was also the Secretary of the Battersea Labour Party for some years. Peter will be remembered by those, who knew him well, for his very dry sense of humour, his sociability and his enormous breadth of knowledge, especially of recondite political facts.
  1. On 5th October I went to IMG_4416the Art Workers Guild in Queen Square, Bloomsbury. I was there to mark the 60th anniversary of the 60th year of the Poetry Magazine at the invitation of a college friend, Timothy Adès. We heard eight poets eloquently reading a selection of their poems. The interior of the guild’s hall was a splendid throw-back to the nineteenth century; and the event was suitably celebratory.
  1. The next day, we went to the Silver SundayIMG_4418 tea dance in the Town Hall’s civic centre. It was a great success and much appreciated by some 100+ dancers. It was not exactly Strictly Come Dancing standard, but many of the participants have clearly spent many an evening at the old Hammersmith or Wimbledon Palais. It was fun to see people showing their prowess at ballroom dancing as well as jive and cha-cha – and we had a go too.
  1. Last month I said that on 9th October I would be going to the Corporate Parenting Panel. As it happens, I did not go, largely because I think it is an almost total waste of time. The Panel was a “Tony Blair” initiative to try and resolve some of the issues that Britain has in providing for our most disturbed children and young people. Being taken into care is almost always a last resort and is usually a predictor of low educational qualifications, poor job prospects and a difficult life. Blair, perhaps in desperation, tried to resolve this problem by making all members of local authorities (that is councillors) corporate parents with all the responsibilities of parents. But in reality, what kind of real parenting can 60 councillors do, if and when they have no control over the budget and virtually no contact with the young people concerned? Not for one minute do I decry the work and the effort put into corporate parenting by some people like ex-councillor Kathy Tracey, but giving responsibility without power to 60 disparate councillors is, in fact, giving responsibility to no-one. Corporate Parenting needs to be re-thought.
  2. The next day, I had lunch with 50 or so “mature” members of the 07 Club. To be a member one had Nedto have worked for one of London’s local government organisations, such as the London Fire Brigade or the City of London. Most of us had, however, worked for the Greater London Council, and the Club had originated in its predecessor the London County Council in 1907. I wouldn’t want to pretend that it was a totally sober event, though one of my old friends, who I have known since the 1960s, rather incredibly combines coming from rural Ireland and being a lifelong teetotaller! Ned is the middle one of these three.
  3. I caught an early flight from Stansted IMG_4491to Stockholm on Friday, 11th My partner, Penny Corfield, had been invited to give a keynote lecture to the Swedish Eighteenth-Century Society and I joined her for the Conference dinner and a pleasant weekend in Stockholm. The weather was largely bright and sunny but not on the day when we went to see the iconic Civic Hall, where the Nobel Prize dinner is held every year. It looks splendid, even in the rain, with its mix of Nordic and Venetian architecture, so suitable for its waterfront site.
  1. On Wednesday, 16th October we had only the fifth Council Meeting of the year. There were some good speeches on food poverty, housing, private education and policing. Essentially, each of these “problems” comes down to the one issue: the widening gap between the comfortably well off and the poor. Wandsworth has one of the greatest disparities between rich and poor in the country. Not, I am afraid, that the Council Meeting is as relevant to these issues as it once was; after all, it was only the fifth meeting of the year and one of the others was totally ceremonial!
  2. Like many other fans, I was up Kyle Sinclair, the Tooting Tankearly on 19th October to see the Rugby World Cup Quarter-final in Japan between England and our old friends and enemies, the Australians. It was a tense and exciting match, if not quite a great game. England appears to have a very strong and powerful pack, with a starring role being played by Kyle Sinckler, known as the “Tooting Tank”. Sinckler, who went to Graveney School, joined the Battersea Ironsides Club and played his early rugby in the Burntwood Lane sports club. Here he is shown triumphant, having scored England’s first try in the game, which England won 40-16.
  3. I had the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) on 24th There was not one application of major significance, although every application is, of course, important to both the applicant and the objectors, if any.
  1. On the Friday, we went to see Judy,Judy the film about the life of Judy Garland. An accurate historical account of the life and loves of the Hollywood mega-star, it was not, BUT ….. It was, however, a vehicle for a superb performance by Renée Zellweger, shown right playing the part. The comic (and musical) star, probably best known in the UK for Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) and its sequels, proved beyond doubt that she really is a great actor. The film also made it very clear that some Hollywood moguls viciously exploited their young, and possibly their not so young, actors mercilessly.
  2. And then England really turned on the style with a simply pulverising performance in the Rugby World Cup Semi-Final with a 19-7 victory over the New Zealand All Blacks, with the Tooting Tank starring once again. Now all they need to do is finish the job by beating South Africa in the November 2nd Final.
  3. I can’t let the month go by without recording my current thoughts on the political crisis that we face. In some optimistic moods, I like to think that Brexit will simply disappear into history. But, at other times, I have the more pessimistic view that the British Isles will soon break-up into its four separate entities of Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England. If that were to happen, then I suspect that Ireland and London will both manage quite well (Ireland because, most of the island, has had 100 years of getting used to standing on its own feet; London because of its sheer size and economic power), but I would expect a rockier future for other parts of the UK. Anyhow, we shall see!
  4. On Tuesday 29th, the Boundary Commissioners published their proposals for Wandsworth’s new ward boundaries and immediately after that it became clear that the major political parties had decided to have a General Election on 12th First things first: the ward boundaries. The published proposals are for public consultation, which thanks to the Election decision, might be for a slightly extended period. For those of you, who want to see the details, look up https://consultation.lgbce.org.uk/. The commissioners have brought forward interesting proposals, which would result in the disappearance of some old names, such as Latchmere and St. Mary Park and their replacement by Falconbrook and Riverside. Personally, I don’t much like Riverside; it may be descriptive but it’s hardly specific – there must be hundreds of Riversides up and down the country! But many of us won’t be too worried about the nomenclature but much more about the political implications. Everyone is invited to comment on the boundaries and/or the names.
  5. As to the General Election, my main hope is that it will exorcise us of the poison that the Referendum and Brexit has imposed on the country for the last three years. However, I rather fear not, as all the indications are that we will still be dealing with all the ramifications from Brexit for at least another decade – now there’s a gloomy thought!
  6. Stop Press. On 30th we heard that theIMG_4526 national Labour Party had decided to launch its General Election campaign in Battersea Arts Centre on the 31st. At the launch, our MP, Marsha de Cordova, introduced Jeremy Corbyn, who in turn launched the Election campaign. Marsha was as enthusiastic and engaging as ever, Corbyn was inspirational – not something one could always say but there is no doubt that he comes to life during election campaigns; he is literally transformed from his performances in the House of Commons. My picture shows some of the Shadow Cabinet on the stage at the Arts Centre.

My Programme for November

  1. On 9th November I will be going to the Providence House fund-raising dinner, where I am sure we will be entered by an interesting youth club show.
  2. The next day I will be attending the Remembrance Day Service at St. Mary’s Church, and on the 11th the traditional open-air Remembrance Day Service in Battersea Park.
  3. On that same evening, I have the Strategic Planning and Transportation Committee.
  4. On 23rd I hope to attend the London Summit at the Guildhall in the City. Every councillor in London has been invited and we will discuss the issues of the day BUT probably not Brexit.
  5. The Planning Applications Committee, “the committee that never stops”, is on 27th

Do you know?

Last month I asked

  • Where was the Portsmouth and Southampton railway’s first London terminus? The answer is Vauxhall.
  • When was Waterloo station opened as a replacement for the first terminal; 1848, although it was never intended to be a terminus with the original meant to cross the Thames and terminate in the City, and
  • When did the last steam train puff its way out of Clapham Junction? 1967.

This month: my question is Do you know many films were shot at least partly in Wandsworth? I know of some; I’ll list them next month but how many can you add. And I’ll start with an easy one we have all seen Love Actually, but which was the Wandsworth scene and where was it shot?