This weekend is going to be a scorcher and there are plenty of opportunities for summer fun.
“Nope, I’m not doing that. Not even for charity!” says respected PG resident*
The St John’s Church Summer Fete is back on Saturday, and promises the return of teddy bear absailing.
Apart from that, the theme is ‘vintage’, based on fetes of the 1940’s and 1950’s, including bric-a-brac, clothes, cake, gifts, raffle, plants, composting, and lots of games including bottle tombola and hunt for silver in the sand. There will also be entertainment in the church, strawberries and cream, BBQ and Pimm’s. The Fete runs from 12-4pm with David Burrowes MP opening the festivities. I do hope that he will be bringing his teddy.
Over at Walker School on Southgate Green the theme of this year’s annual Walkerbout is also the 1950’s – specifically, rock n roll. There will be more Pimm’s, by which time you might be tiddly enough to think you have seen a pink Cadillac and local residents jiving. And there will be plenty more games, food and stalls. Why not see if you can get along to both?
For those in search of art and culture, there are a range of other events on Saturday, in what must be the busiest weekend of the year.
The Principal Theatre Company presents The Comedy of Errors as part of its open air Shakespeare season at the Old Ashmoleans Rugby Club, the Bourne: Comedy of Errors
Sadly, its the last opening night at Space Art Gallery before it moves to new premises. The final show will be by Conrad Mecheski, about whom more soon.
The North London Symphony Orchestra http://www.nlso.org.uk/Concerts.htm plays Berlioz, Brahms, Elgar at the United Reformed Church, Fox Lane
* I am perfectly aware that a panda is not a bear, so please dont write in!
It was a month of highs and lows, and not only in the temperature.
The success story of the month surely goes to the Palmers Greenery team, who learned that they have the go-ahead to create a new community café in Broomfield Park. There has been a huge amount of work to get this far, and its great to see their efforts being rewarded and a new community amenity to look forward to. Further down south, we also heard that regeneration of Ally Pally was to be one of 6 major projects across the UK to receive Heritage Lottery Fund support.
At the Grovelands Festival – image Colin Younger
The Grovelands Park Centenary Celebrations will surely be talked about for years to come – the biggest gathering I have seen in all my time in the area, and full of colour, fun and a great musical line up, including the legendary Tornados of Telstar fame. Many thanks to Colin Younger for his photos of the day, which adorn this round-up.
Finally, the sad saga of the Poundland Bansky seems to have been concluded with its private sale at an auction in London, at which it fetched over three quarters of a million pounds. That’s 750,000 times the price of any article purchasable in Poundland. The mural is being taken to join a private collection of Banksy’s work in the USA – though Banksy is reported to have said that once a work is removed from its location its no longer a Banksy.
There is plenty to look forward to in June, starting this weekend with the Palmers Green Shopping Festival, our annual celebration of all that Palmers Green has to offer. Unlike many areas, we still have a reasonably thriving high street, with new businesses coming in, but like everywhere, the high street is at risk, and the shape of what it has to offer could change radically if we don’t support our local traders. Hazelwood Road will be closed on Saturday to host a day of entertainment, including the wonderful SOUP ukulele orchestra, local singers and Greek Dancing from Hazelwood School. There will be street performers, stalls, ice cream and a bouncy castle, and shops all over Palmers Green will be running activities and promotions.
Devonshire Road has long taken the lead in showing what can be done with a little bit of community spirit. Residents are currently exploring setting up a monthly ‘play in the street’ day, and this weekend they have come up with the fabulous idea of a draw on the pavement day. They also have a great Facebook page– come on the rest of Palmers Green, keep up! While you are out and about, why not also pop in to the St John’s Church Flower festival including work by local children, all centred around the theme All Things Bright and Beautiful.
Saturday 6 July 12-4 Walker School summer fete – celebrating the school’s diamond jubilee
Saturday 6 July North London Symphony Orchestra http://www.nlso.org.uk/Concerts.htm play Berlioz, Brahms, Elgar at the United Reformed Church, Fox Lane
Tuesday 16 JulyAround the Corner Cinema present F W Murnau’s The Last Laugh as part of the Mimetic Festival
The Wave is a modern German take on an incident that took place in 1967, at the Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California. World History teacher Ron Jones was asked about the Holocaust by a student “Could it happen here?”.
Jones came up with an unusual answer. He decided to have a two week experiment in dictatorship. His idea was to explain fascism to his class through a game, nothing more. He never intended what resulted, where his class would be turned into a Fascist environment – where students gave up their freedom for the prospect of being superior to their neighbours.
A terrifying and fascinating film, the Wave is the next film to be shown as part of Talkies’ First Thursdays season at the Dugdale Centre. There still a few tickets left for this Thursday’s showing at 7.30, but hurry. – book now
Around the Corner Cinema returns in July with two new screenings as part of the 2013 Mimetic festival.
As with February’s screenings, the emphasis is on the wonderful, silent and seldom seen.
“The Mimetic Festival aims to celebrate the very best emerging mime, puppetry and cabaret in the UK – its a fantastic programme of theatre and arts, and experimentatation, and we will be showing arguably two of the best silent films ever made,” says Around the Corner’s John Stewart.
Made in 1924 and showing at Enfield Grammar School Hall on 16 July, the Last Laugh follows the story of an elderly doorman at a famous hotel who is demoted to washroom attendant and tries in vain to conceal his shame from friends and family, with tragic consequences – or are they?
The film was highly praised on its release, and is unusual in using almost no intertitles – more unusual still, when they are used, they do not represent dialogue on screen. Director F W Murnau described his story in the Last Laugh as absurd – on the grounds that everyone knows that a washroom attendant earns more than a doorman!
This screening will feature live, improvised piano accompaniment from British Film Institute silent film pianist, Costas Fotopoulos who works internationally as a concert and silent film pianist, and as a composer and arranger for film, the stage and the concert hall. There will also be an introduction from Pamela Hutchinson; Editor of Silent London, and Features Production Editor for The Guardian.
Showing on July 25th, also at Enfield Grammar School Hall, the Kid is one of Charlie Chaplin’s most celebrated and most personal feature films. The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) and an abandoned child (Jackie Coogan) triumph over life’s hard knocks in the landmark film that changed the notion of what a screen comedy could be. An award winning short film (The Girl is Mime) directed by Tim Bunn, and starring Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, The Office), will be screened beforehand.
The Thatched Cottage in 1903, image by kind permission of Enfield Local Studies and Archive
It may seem hard to imagine it now, but once upon a time Palmers Green was famed for a quaint rural attraction. Until 1938, the site of Palmers Green’s excellent hardware store Westlakes was occupied by “Ye Old Thatched Cottage”, a local landmark.
Alan Dumayne in his book Once Upon a Time in Palmers Green says that in years gone by the mere mention of the Cottage would bring a faraway look of sweet remembrance into old Palmers Greeners’ eyes. The cottage had been built in the late 18th Century by the Governor of the Bank of England Thomas Lewis as a lodge to the big house, The Lodge, which once stood on the east side of Green Lanes.
The Cottage lost its rustic gardens to the widening of Green Lanes in 1906 and had begun to look a little sorry for itself by 1911 when it was rescued by one Percy Whellock, who had it as a garden shop and nursery (there were two acres of ground behind). The cottage was a well-known attraction, with colourful and abundant bedding plants in front setting off its attractive rural thatch. It was demolished to make way for a branch of Burton’s gentleman’s tailors in 1938.
Well established and possibly at their zenith when they came to Palmers Green just before the Second World War, Burtons were founded in Chesterfield in 1903 by 18 year old Montague Burton (then known as Meshe David Oskinsky – legend has it that he chose his new name having spent several hours on Burton on Trent Railway station).
Burton’s aimed to be an ethical employer by the standards of the time, giving generously to support the arts and even playing a role in the founding of the United Nations. One of Montague Burton’s mottos was ‘Good clothes develop a man’s self-respect’ and a full, smart but affordable three piece suit became known colloquially as the Full Monty.
Burton’s foundation stone. Image (c) S Beard
It was a Burton’s tradition that the foundation stone for each new store should be laid by a member of the family, and Palmers Green’s stone, laid by Montague’s son Arnold James Burton, can still be seen. Far from being an elder statesman, Arnold was just 21 when he wielded the ceremonial trowel in Green Lanes.
If you ask nicely, Westlakes’ staff will proudly show you a picture of the Thatched House and remains of the original fittings from the 1930s store, including a fine parquet floor. They will also cut your keys, supply you with a new phone, and give you DIY advice and the tools to transform your home, and do it all with a friendly smile. You don’t get that at Homebase.
For more information about Montague Burton, see http://www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/histories/jewish/working_lives/montague_burton1.htm#
The Grovelands Park centenary celebrations continue this bank holiday weekend with three walks lead by City of London guide and storyteller Joe Studman (Jaywalks) in association with the Southgate District Civic Trust.
The weekend kicks off on Saturday with a spooky foray into the Dark Side of Winchmore Hill, including stories of old railway workers, black dogs and sinister doings in the woods. Meet at Winchmore Hill Station at 8.30.
On Sunday, Joe will be regaling fellow walkers with some nuggets from the history of Palmers Green including Billy Biscuit of Cullands Grove (the alleged coiner of the phrase ‘readin, riting and rithmatic’), John Donnithorne Taylor’s one man green belt policy, and Palmers Green’s links with the Spencer family of Cannonbury Tower including a touching story of kindness from Elizabeth 1. The walk starts at 2.30 from Palmers Green Station.
Joe’s final walk of the weekend tells the story of Southgate, including its gradual emergence from two villages, and some of the characters who have lived there and shaped its history – the owner of the first motorcar in Southgate, the lawyer who played with matches and got burnt, and the Walkers and how they shaped the area. Meet at Southgate Tube at 2.30 on Bank Holiday Monday.
Tickets are £5 – visit the Jaywalks site for further information, or just turn up on the day.
A highly entertaining way of spending the Bank Holiday.
Over at Walker School on Southgate Green the theme of this year’s annual Walkerbout is also the 1950’s – specifically, rock n roll. There will be more Pimm’s, by which time you might be tiddly enough to think you have seen a pink Cadillac and local residents jiving. And there will be plenty more games, food and stalls. Why not see if you can get along to both?
