Random reflections on culture, life and the Universe.
Warning: will regularly include Scottish actors.
Friday, September 24, 2010
London pictures - Eltham Palace - Art Deco Heaven Saturday 11 September 2010
Eltham Palace in Kent London, definitely in LONDON, ine the lovely borough of Greenwich, is just DIVINE. Taking a medieval palace and making it an Art Deco heaven was a stroke of genius on the part of the Courtauld family.
Is there a reason we're arbitrarily using 1889 as the date by which we locate places' affiliation in the world? Did you guys declare it '1889 Day' and not tell me again?
Oh crap! Now he knows! We need to find a new year now, guys..
Actually, I was just pointing out that places and affiliations are pretty arbitrary themselves. My grandfather, for example, was born in Carmarthenshire and my mother was born in Wolverhampton. Now I get automatic computer corrections saying they were born in Dyfyd and West Midlands. (Actually, I think it's back to Carmarthenshire now, isn't it?)
I think Lisa has got a Tardis without telling us and she really was in Kent...
And yes, we'll have to change away from 1889 day! Darn!
(PS Persephone - Wolverhampton? Boy Cloud is a Wolverhampton boy, albeit via born in Croydon, but he was brought up in Wolves)
PPS the whole Eltham Kent/London thing... thanks Persephone for taking us to 1889 day as it made me feel better for getting Eltham in Kent [sorry, it's LONDON now]
Good and logical point. Affiliations do come and go. But current ones are important. Tell an American he's really British, or a Welsh person they're really English because historically the US was part of Britain or Wales was part of England and see how far that impeccable logic goes.
London's very tribal, too. To an outsider, 100 years might not seem that long, but neighbourhood allegiances will arrive within minutes of a new estate being built here - people living on the new estate in Hither Green (now five years old) aren't really considered part of Hither Green and probably won't be for a good decade or so, but no one would consider them part of Lewisham either, even though that's a minute down the road. I wouldn't want to tell anyone on the Ferrier Estate in Kidbrooke that they're really living in Eltham, even though that's two minutes' drive down the road and Kidbrooke was mainly built in the 1920s as part of Eltham.
I don't think this is an especially London issue though - this happens everywhere. You can probably get a great big treatise out of a local on the whole Rutland county issue, which called epic amounts of resentment for decades: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutland#History
Yep, Lisa, I've got Wolverhampton ancestors stretching back into the mists of time (okay, the eighteenth century -- they were probably there before then though). Mostly publicans. Also Stafford. Other branches go way back in various parts of Wales, Scotland (mainly Perthshire), Devon, Bedfordshire, Derbyshire. And of course, London. (But not Greenwich).
The Resident Fan Boy's ancestors go way way back in Kent. (But not Greenwich.)
13 comments:
What
The
Fuck.
"Eltham Palace in Kent"? Kent?
Come here and say that.
Eltham Palace is in Eltham which is in London. Zone 4. London Borough of Greenwich. Two miles south of Woolwich on the Thames.
London. London. London.
Not that those of us from Eltham are at all touchy on the subject.
Well, maybe a little bit.
Please do not hit me!
Borough of Greenwich. Duly noted. I will make appropriate amendments.
So, when did you live in the palace Rob?
;)
Are the hiccups gone yet?
Wasn't Greenwich in Kent before 1889? Wouldn't this mean that Eltham was in Kent a lot longer than it was in London? Just askin'...
Wouldn't that make Canada part of Europe?
Not in 1889, it wouldn't...
Is there a reason we're arbitrarily using 1889 as the date by which we locate places' affiliation in the world? Did you guys declare it '1889 Day' and not tell me again?
Oh crap! Now he knows! We need to find a new year now, guys..
Actually, I was just pointing out that places and affiliations are pretty arbitrary themselves. My grandfather, for example, was born in Carmarthenshire and my mother was born in Wolverhampton. Now I get automatic computer corrections saying they were born in Dyfyd and West Midlands. (Actually, I think it's back to Carmarthenshire now, isn't it?)
I think Lisa has got a Tardis without telling us and she really was in Kent...
Damn! You found out about the TARDIS!
And yes, we'll have to change away from 1889 day! Darn!
(PS Persephone - Wolverhampton? Boy Cloud is a Wolverhampton boy, albeit via born in Croydon, but he was brought up in Wolves)
PPS the whole Eltham Kent/London thing... thanks Persephone for taking us to 1889 day as it made me feel better for getting Eltham in Kent [sorry, it's LONDON now]
Good and logical point. Affiliations do come and go. But current ones are important. Tell an American he's really British, or a Welsh person they're really English because historically the US was part of Britain or Wales was part of England and see how far that impeccable logic goes.
London's very tribal, too. To an outsider, 100 years might not seem that long, but neighbourhood allegiances will arrive within minutes of a new estate being built here - people living on the new estate in Hither Green (now five years old) aren't really considered part of Hither Green and probably won't be for a good decade or so, but no one would consider them part of Lewisham either, even though that's a minute down the road. I wouldn't want to tell anyone on the Ferrier Estate in Kidbrooke that they're really living in Eltham, even though that's two minutes' drive down the road and Kidbrooke was mainly built in the 1920s as part of Eltham.
I don't think this is an especially London issue though - this happens everywhere. You can probably get a great big treatise out of a local on the whole Rutland county issue, which called epic amounts of resentment for decades: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutland#History
But Eltham's definitely in London. So there.
For now...
Yep, Lisa, I've got Wolverhampton ancestors stretching back into the mists of time (okay, the eighteenth century -- they were probably there before then though). Mostly publicans. Also Stafford.
Other branches go way back in various parts of Wales, Scotland (mainly Perthshire), Devon, Bedfordshire, Derbyshire. And of course, London. (But not Greenwich).
The Resident Fan Boy's ancestors go way way back in Kent. (But not Greenwich.)
"For now...."
Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!
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