Every picture tells a story

Two pictures, one location. On the way in and out of Finsbury Park.   Everybody loves a sunset.....

....but what's the story of this load of old rubbish?   Sigh.

'Thatcher Halts Survey on Sex' !

The Sunday Times, 9 September 1989.  This was a bit of a break for me - the splash that brought together Margaret Thatcher, sex, Aids and politics in one front page story.   Thatcher was determined to prevent the Department of Health from commissioning a survey into what the British actually got up to in bed, our sexual habits and lifestyle, even though the Aids scare was at its height and it could have helped save lives. I got to hear about it, and the result was my story in the Sunday Times headlined "Thatcher Halts Survey on Sex".   It led the broadcast news bulletins all day and was the story of the week.

It was a very easy story to write - everything was confirmed very quickly with the Department of Health and Number Ten, I did a couple of phone interviews with the main people, and then the story just wrote itself.   

What subsequently became the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles was soon after funded instead by the Wellcome Foundation, and is still in business.  My Sunday Times story of 1989 is now part of the 'Institute of Sexology' exhibition at the Wellcome Foundation gallery in London, and a copy of the paper is on display there in a glass case.  Creepy!  This is me with the exhibition catalogue today.  Yay!

Oh dear......

Why?    This is the end of my street this morning, it's been like it for a fortnight, and - whoever is doing this - it ain't good.

A life cut short: Great-Uncle Stanley 1900-1916

This is my great-uncle Stanley David Nickolds, who died in the First World War.   He was killed on the Somme on 12th September 1916.   He was just 16.

He must have lied about his age when he enlisted.  On the war grave stone in France and on a family headstone in Enfield Highway century, his age is given as 18.       RIP.

Stanley enlisted as a rifleman in the London Rifle Brigade.  He was from Enfield, son of Thomas and Louisa Nickolds - he had 13 brothers and sisters and lived at 11, Totteridge Road.  His father was a well-known local figure, an engineer who became a senior manager at the Royal Small Arms Factory and died in 1903.   His mother had died only in 1915.   One Stanley's older brothers was Charles, my maternal grandfather.

The subject of my next book

Here's a charity clothes recycling box - the subject (in part) of my next book.   Being written - have yet to negotiate publication.

There is one just like this outside the filling station in Stapleton Hall Road, near the end of Victoria Road, Stroud Green, N4

Mayor and Corporation of Stroud Green - 26th July 1773

This is the Stroud Green Badge (1773), now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.   The badge is a pendant meant to be worn around the neck, and marks the day on 26th July 1773 when an election took place for a "Mayor of the Ancient Corporation of Stroud Green", which most probably took place at the Stapleton Hall Tavern.

The "Ancient Corporation of Stroud Green" was a late eighteenth century gentlemen's drinking club which met in the taverns of Islington, Canonbury and the country parish of Stroud Green from around 1750 to 1780.  Its headquarters was the Stapleton Hall Tavern (then called the Green Man) at the bottom of Crouch Hill, which was a country pub.  There was even a special Stroud Green Song.

The badge is made of enamel and coloured glass with an inscription engraved on a brass on the back, and is about 10cm across.   The front has an image of St George and the Dragon with the words JUSTICE, TRUTH AND FRIENDSHIP.  

The inscription on the back reads: "The Right Worshipful Sir Thomas Legg, Knight of the Oak, Elected Mayor of the Corporation of Stroud Green on Monday July 26th 1773”.

And here are the words of the Stroud Green Song**:

Song for the Ancient Corporation of Stroud Green

Set to Music by the Author

Ye Sons of Jollity and Mirth

Of each denomination,

Attend, while I declare the worth,

Of Stroud Green Corporation:

Tho' weak my Verse, 'tis strictly true,

And Free from adulation,

The praises then let me pursue

Of Stroud Green Corporation.

To fair *ASTREA's name we pay

Respect and veneration,

Of her we tune the vocal Lay

At Stroud Green Corporation

Long may She here with us reside,

And know none alteration

+May She still flourish far, and wide,

Like Stroud Green Corporation.

When met to take a cheerful Glass

In mutual recreation,

How sweetly do the minutes pass

With Stroud Green Corporation:

Each Alderman his quota pays

And that's in moderation,

No longer than he like, he stays

With Stroud Green Corporation.

For Albion, happy would it be,

Were those in higher station,

From Brib'ry, and Corruption, free

At Stroud Green Corporation;

But such high Crimes we're taught to shun

At out Initiation,

Which, brighter than meridian Sun

Makes Stroud Green Corporation.

The mirthful Scenes we here enjoy

Exceed all expectation,

And Pleasure, which do never cloy,

Attend out Corporation;

For to improper Company

We ne'er give invitation,

Lest they disturb the Harmony

Of Stroud Green Corporation.

What *ORDER can with this compare,

And boast such regulation?

Or such immunities does share

As Stroud Green Corporation?

In Brimmers since there's no deceit,

Take each a fit Potation,

'Twill make our happiness complete

At Stroud Green Corporation.

* Justice

+ from the motto of the Corporation

Justitia floreat, ut noi ab origine

** Located in City of London archives by historian Andrew Pink

The Year of the Bus