Category: Culture

A mixture of pantomime, horror and absurdity, the Punch & Judy show in its portable format has been with us for at least 250 years. The jokes may be updated but the basic plot has never changed,  due partly to its finale of triumph over evil and partly to sheer practicality for the lone operator inside the booth, who is known as a ‘Professor’. He alone has the job of animating all the glove puppets but has just two hands with which to do it.

Punch, the main character, therefore eliminates each of the others in turn, starting with his wife, Judy (originally called Joan) and baby!

An Italian puppeteer performed the show for King Charles II (1630-85) in 1662 and over the next century Mr Punch became part of all sorts of marionette plays, most of which culminated in him killing the Devil. The travelling booth then appeared, which was much cheaper but not very profitable until the railways brought holidaymakers to the seaside, whereupon Punch & Judy enjoyed a new lease of life.

The bizarre-looking Punch bludgeoning his opponents (including law enforcement) with his ‘slapstick’ is a piece of historical anarchy that has somehow survived all criticism, perhaps because of its unworldly silliness.

(Top image: Christine Matthews at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

The world’s first weekly newspaper entirely devoted to music, ‘Melody Maker‘ (MM), began in 1926 and ended in 2000, when it was absorbed by its rival, the ‘New Musical Express‘ (NME), no slouch itself with its first publication in 1946 as the ‘Musical Express’. ‘New..’ was added after a re-vamp in 1952. It eventually ceased printing in 2018 and is now only online.

Although describing ‘Musical Express’, this quote can be applied to both MM and NME: “…[they] dealt with music like it was the most important thing in the world, and … the people who played it were an elect group, apart from everyday society” (Pat Long, 2012). In 1952 NME was the first to print a weekly Top 12 singles chart, compiled initially by phoning 20 record shops and asking for their sales figures. MM went a step further with a Top 20 in 1956, then an LP chart in 1958.

Bands would advertise for new members in the classified ads and careers were shaped by reviews and interviews gladly given to these music industry ‘influencers’ of the 1960s/70s. Both had their ups and downs but just when closure loomed, a new music genre or sub-genre would emerge and subject itself to the intellectual journalistic analysis that revitalised their teenage readership.

(Top images: 1980 and 1991 Melody Maker covers by badgreeb RECORDS at Flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0, 1961 NME cover by Bradford Timeline at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC 2.0 and 1993 NME cover by Adrian Brown at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

The Crystal Palace (a.k.a. ‘the Palace of the People’) began as a glass-walled, modular, 3-storey hall-cum-greenhouse in Hyde Park for the 1851 Great Exhibition. Bedfordshire-born Sir Joseph Paxton (1803-65) took just nine days to produce the design since he simply scaled-up the lily-house he had built at Chatsworth House, where he was Head Gardener.

The cost to build the Palace was £150,000 and it employed 2,000 workmen. The use of so much glass was unprecedented in Britain and it proved very popular. After the Exhibition, Paxton re-erected it on 200 acres now known as Crystal Palace Park on Sydenham Ridge, south London, in 1852-4, but the cost of his additions, including two extra floors, numerous fountains, courtyards, water towers and ambitious leisure facilities, went way over budget at £1,300,000 and employed 7,000 workmen and specialists. Debt hung over the enterprise for decades, partly because despite its wide-ranging attractions, there was no Sunday opening permitted in those days.

It suffered a big fire in 1866 but the fire of 1936 completely destroyed it. The operators had already gone bankrupt in 1911 despite all efforts, including hosting that year’s Festival of Empire. A few remnants of the Park’s heyday survive, including the TV transmitter, Sports Centre and the world’s first full-size dinosaur models.

(Top image of the re-built 5-storey Sydenham Crystal Palace: Andy Scott at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)

“We two matched for mating
Came, handclasped, at last,
Where the blacksmith was waiting
To fetter us fast . . .”    (Edith Nesbit (1858-1924))

From the poem ‘Gretna Green‘, these lines depict a love-struck couple who impetuously rush to Gretna Green’s famous blacksmith’s shop to be married. In fact, many thousands of ‘anvil’ weddings took place, so called because in old Scottish law neither a clergyman nor parental consent were required ~ just two people to witness the lovers’ declarations ~ and the blacksmith would simply strike his anvil and announce the deed done. Though rare, girls as young as 12 and boys of 14 could marry in Scotland until 1929.

By 1753 the problem of bigamy (divorce being very difficult to obtain) and reckless wedlock by teenagers, was such that an Act for the Better Prevention of Clandestine Marriages was passed in England. This stipulated that weddings could only take place on Church of England premises with the Banns read out three Sundays beforehand. If the betrothed were aged under 21, parents could refuse permission.

So it was that impassioned couples hit on the idea of eloping north to Scotland, by stagecoach or train, often hotly pursued by infuriated relatives. Today, Gretna Green remains a romantic location for many weddings.

(Top image: Milivojevic at pixnio.com)

Where better to build an enormous structure dedicated to a moment in time than on 0° longitude just 3 miles north of the Greenwich Observatory? That is the location of the Millennium Dome (now called ‘The O2’). It was designed, engineered and built by the British companies of Richard Rogers Partnership, Buro Happold and McAlpine Laing respectively over the course of 1996-9, with on-site construction taking just 15 months. Many of its metric dimensions relate to time, e.g. the diameter is 365 metres.

The Dome was heralded as another ‘Great Exhibition’ for the UK and was managed by the New Millennium Experience Co.Ltd.. It was open throughout the year 2000 with ticket sales of £189,000,000 from 6,500,000 visitors. There were 14 zones around a central 20,000-seat arena where music by Peter Gabriel accompanied fantastic acrobatic performances. The zones were named:

Body, Faith, Home Planet, Journey, Learning, Living Island, Mind, Money, Play, Rest, Self-Portrait, Shared Ground, Talk, Work

The Dome is the world’s 9th largest structure in terms of usable interior space, which is 1,080,000 sq.ft.. With 12 supporting towers and 2,600 cables, it is a modern example of advanced engineering. Although its Teflon-coated roof is extremely lightweight it is strong enough to have people climb it, as if it were a hill!

(Top image: Ray Jones at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

‘Bunty‘ and ‘Jackie‘ magazines were both published weekly by the same company that produced ‘The Beano’ and ‘The Dandy’, namely D.C. Thomson. ‘Bunty’ had the longest run of any British magazine for girls, from 1958 to 2001, with 2,249 editions. ‘Jackie’ had the next longest run, from 1964 to 1993, with a total of 1,534 issues. Both are remembered fondly by women who read them as young teenagers, with ‘The Best Of…’ commemorative books being popular gifts.

They both featured comic-strip stories of life’s little problems at school, in friendships and family, but ‘Bunty’ also sometimes dipped into sci-fi, ghosts and witches. It had readers’ letters, competitions and puzzles and, on the back, a cut-out girl to paste onto card, with cut-out outfits tabbed to fold over the girl’s shoulders/arms/waist/legs.

‘Jackie’ aimed at the slightly older teenager and focused much more on boyfriends and romance, always in a light-hearted tone. It had beauty tips, knitting patterns, recipes, posters of pop idols and, of course, the problem page with letters that might begin:

“Dear Cathy & Claire, You’ve probably heard this a hundred times before but I’m absolutely crazy about David Cassidy. I’ve felt like this for ages, and, please believe me, it’s NOT just a childish crush….”

(Images: tilleysvintagemagazines.com, russell davies at Flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0)

In the land that produced Shakespeare it is unsurprising that many aspire to write their own masterpieces but, this being a solitary activity, Britain’s myriad of literary festivals, or ‘litfests’, is an important adjunct to their lives. Avid readers also gain much enjoyment and insight from these extravaganzas and can, of course, make purchases. Consequently there are around 350 litfests to entice all bookworms.

The oldest is the Cheltenham Literature Festival, established in 1949 and the biggest is the Edinburgh International Book Festival, running annually since 1983. These two have hundreds of events, including workshops, readings, book signings, selfies, on-stage interviews, debates, talks and question-and-answer sessions. One of the longest litfests is the month-long Essex Book Festival, achieved by spreading its events all round that county. Perhaps the most famous litfest, however, is the Hay Festival in Powys, begun in 1987. It has expanded its reach in several innovative ways.

The concept of literary festivals now also includes those dedicated to a particular classic author. For example, the Jane Austen Festival in Bath puts on 10 days of plays, readings, Regency music and costumes, and even Regency dance lessons. Naturally, Shakespeare is not to be outdone, with tributes such as the 8-week-long Cambridge Shakespeare Festival.

(Image of authors at Chiswick Book Festival 2021: Roger Green at Flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0)

After the WW2 bombing of London, the County Council decided that a new, up-to-the-minute, airy, Scandinavian-style concert hall was just the thing to lift people’s spirits. The Royal Festival Hall was thus sited on the southern bank of the River Thames in Lambeth. It was the only permanent building in the ‘Festival of Britain’ exhibition promoting British scientific and engineering expertise and in 1988 it received Grade I listing.

Some 63,000 cu.yds. of material were excavated and half that amount in concrete was put back during construction. Another major element was steel, 260 tons of it in the roof alone. Critics wondered whether the time and resources would be better used for much-needed homes and factories instead, especially during the severe winter of 1949/50 when no expense was spared to maintain the temperature required for concreting operations to continue.

Nevertheless, King George VI (1895-1952) opened it in May 1951 and it has hosted countless world-class concerts ever since. It currently has 2,410 auditorium seats, plus bars and dining areas off its large foyer and riverside balconies. The original contract price of £1,628,260 is dwarfed by the cost of several refurbishments (or ‘restorations’) it has undergone, but these have preserved its status as an uplifting refuge from city bustle.

(Top image: Paul Robinson at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Edward Benjamin Britten (1913-76) was born in Suffolk and spent most of his life there. In 1948 he co-founded Suffolk’s Aldeburgh Festival in a venue close to his childhood home and from 1957 he lived in a 17th-century Aldeburgh farmhouse with 5 acres, together with his partner, tenor Peter Pears (1910-86). On being awarded a life peerage just before his death, he chose the title ‘Baron Britten of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk’, so great was his affinity for the area.

Britten began composing from the age of 5 and grew up knowing exactly the career he wished to pursue. At age 16 he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music and by the time he turned 18 he had written over 700 musical pieces. He was influenced by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell (1659-95) but was rather dismissive of later luminaries Elgar and Vaughan Williams.

Britten played piano and viola, and wrote song cycles and orchestral works but his most celebrated compositions were his 16 operas, the first of which was ‘Peter Grimes’ (1945), the last being ‘Death in Venice’ (1975). With these he began a new English-language pathway for the genre. His musical style was characterised by clarity and tension provided by contrasts, laced with childhood reflections.

(Top image: Wikimedia Commons / Public domain)

The UK’s Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) community is roughly estimated at 120,000-300,000 people. They have the poorest life outcomes of all the minority groupings, with the shortest life expectancy, lowest educational attainment, more health issues and a high crime rate leading to over-representation in the prison population.

The sudden arrival of GRT caravans, trucks and cars on public parkland is almost always greeted with police visits and dismay from neighbouring householders. To tackle the problems of discarded rubbish and invasion of amenity space, local councils provide facilities in designated spots around their districts, but these may already be occupied or insufficient for a particular travelling group.

GRT families will often stay long-term if someone is old, ill or completing school exams, and many now opt for permanent bricks-and-mortar, though this may never feel quite ‘right’. Apart from New Age Travellers originating from the 1960s’ hippy culture, GRTs have a centuries-old history. Some came from northern India via Europe and it is said that people thought they looked ‘Egyptian‘, which morphed into ‘gypsy‘. Their nomadic way of life was well suited to seasonal farmwork, for example. They were skilled in various manual trades and crafts, but these are more regulated today.

(Image: Peter O’Connor aka anemoneprojectors at Flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Lord Robert S.S. Baden-Powell (‘B-P’, 1857-1941) was born in London but always enjoyed being outdoors, immersed in nature. He joined the Army, served in Africa and India, and worked his way up the officer ranks for 34 years. His experience led him to write many practical books on tracking, surveillance and survival skills, his first being ‘Reconnaissance and Scouting’ (1891) aimed at other officers.

After running a trial camp for 22 boys in 1907 on Brownsea Island, Dorset, he wrote ‘Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship’ (1908) and from this sprouted the Boy Scout movement. It became popular very quickly and numerous boy scout troops were set up by enthusiastic adult volunteers. However, the London regional leader, Sir Francis P. Fletcher-Vane (1861-1934) from Dublin, seceded a sizeable membership into the affiliated ‘British Boy Scouts’ in 1909 as he feared B-P’s main organisation was becoming too militaristic.

Although Fletcher-Vane did much to spread Scouting at home and abroad, he was never re-admitted, though some of his ideas were incorporated, such as having a junior section. Today, there are the Squirrels (4-5 years old), Beavers (6-8), Cubs (8-10½), Scouts (10½-14), Explorers (14-18) and Network (18-25) and there are over 54 million Scouts worldwide. In the UK, girls were permitted to join from 1991 onwards.

(Top image of painting of B-P in Africa: J. Matthews at Wikimedia Commons / Public domain)

The oil paintings of John Constable, RA (1776-1837) were ground-breaking in their day. He rebelled against the teaching of the Royal Academy of Arts in terms of subject-matter, painting technique and working methods, and was a key figure in the Romanticism movement. Today, his work attracts the ‘chocolate box’ label, but this vastly downplays his talent and pioneering spirit.

Born in rural Suffolk, Constable soon realised his artistic calling. His father supported him financially while he began his prolific output of paintings of the surrounding landscape. After his father’s death his income came from portraits, of which there are over a hundred. Yet his passion was for depicting meadows, trees, cloudy skies, rainbows, cottages, mills, boats, farmwork, streams, rivers and churches, all painted from life rather than imagination.

He was also unusual in making full-size preliminary sketches of his larger paintings (‘six-footers’) such as his most famous, ‘The Hay Wain’ (1821). His French counterparts quickly took to this new style, but Constable vowed never to cross the Channel, so did not develop this fanbase himself. Instead, he enjoyed his eventual election as a member of the Royal Academy in 1829 and continued painting until his sudden death in his London studio at age 60.

(Image of ‘The Hay Wain’: Wikimedia Commons / Public domain)