Living in Laandan..

[Who2]

Sorry, for my lackadaisical attitude but...
I've been 'binge-watching Netflix's House of Cards..
Understanding American politics ready for Tuesday, I'll bet Trump watched every episode...
Kevin Spacey's best ever performance until, his fall from grace...

Anyhow a walk up to Islington's chapel market, our 'crib is 'merlins cave top of the hill.
Henry Hunt 'radical reform party, got p*ssed from a top window and harangued 20,000 people for hours,
probably all just as p*ssed, who all later went on a drunken rampage, 1850 and something..

This is our dairy or was our dairy, hairdressers now..

The Castle PH, famous for the planning of the Hatton Garden Safe Depository heist
by Brian Reader & Terry Perkins, a pair of local lads..
The 'old bill had the whole place wired. 'silly old oap's..but a highly viscous pair of oap's.

And this is a guy making a dog out of sand, hoping it doesn't rain before he finishes..

Simona is taking our 2nd lockdown seriously again, she gone out to book, a hairdresser's appointment !
And probably to do some hoarding..

Opps! just received this, it's next to Cafe Kick, which she informs me is open! tara...


Ps: dateline update...'horror of horrors 'no hairdressers appointments anywhere, now it's panic time....

[Who2]

Just to add, it's not all boozing around here, there is a lot of thinking that goes along with it as well..
Not forgetting, Marx, Lenin, Engles, Thomas Paine, George Orwell, Me, Joe Orton, Poliakoff, Dickens, Daniel Defoe, Cromwell and many many more, But my favorite...
Elizabeth Wilkinson (1700s), English bare-knuckle boxing champion, known to be the first female boxer.
"Oops, 'I forgot that fun loving Stalin...

Ps: "The Spa Fields Riots were interesting as they show that the road to parliamentary democracy with universal suffrage was a long one, with many false starts and incremental progressions along the way. The reforms the protesters were demanding did not come about until many years later, but they might not have come about at all without protest. The riots are also interesting because they show how any cause can be riven with splits, something anyone who has been involved with politics will be familiar with.
'So there, bet you didn't know that!...

Pss: Oh! and to make you laugh, Grimaldi the 1st 'white faced clown,boom,boom..

"another boozer obviously..
P*ss: He's standing in-front of the riverhead with St James behind him, not a lot of people know that!

[Who2]

Years ago when we got the funding for the Yard, we called in the London Museum and excavated using our kids.
We or rather they located the well and loads of other old stuff.
During this time, I located a graphite drawing of the back-yard as seen from Amwell St.
See the washer-women located near the spring. The shadowing indicates it's about 11ish..

And here is a picture of Henry Hunt MP 'the orator'

'ruddy troublesome northerners, coming down here with there jarrow marches an all!....

[Who2]

As those winter nights draw in one looks for a pub with a real fire.
My old local The Three Kings of Clerkenwell has been closed since 1st lockdown.
The only other in my manor is the little known *Harlequin hidden behind Sadlers Wells it only opens
in the evening but it also has a smoking yard, plus a roaring fire.

*It's once a part Grimaldi played, I believe...
Ps: local gossip, 'one of the Hatton Garden Safe heist oap's was living upstairs with the landlady!
Told me by another local landlady,'true!
Just found this:
A more recent and notorious resident of The Harlequin was Brian Reader,
mastermind of the infamous Hatton Garden hole in the wall gang,
who lived for a while with the landlady in the upstairs flat!

[Who2]

Hi Grandad, Canterbury I hear you say.
I used to party at The Bridge Country Club back in the 60's.
They had 2 Great Danes who used to occupy the space in front of the open log fire,
one I remember, named 'Beckett.

This came up today after the Pig @ Bridge won a new 3 star AA award...

[Grandad]

@Who2
HaHaHa! Might have even seen you there
We were married at that time and those were the days before drink driving regs came in....so.....we would drive over, have a few bevvies and drive home. Who were the spoilsports who put an end to all that
We would have gone at the weekends but I seem to remember Tuesday evening was 'Singles Night', or better know as 'Grab a Granny Night'

[Who2]

This came up on FB today.....
"One such place is The Bishops Finger . This 16th century traditional pub is in the heart of Canterbury, a short walk from the historic cathedral and the city’s major attractions. In the 16th century, Ellen Blean, housekeeper to a Canon, discovered he was having an affair with a younger woman. She poisoned them both with a meat pie and then disappeared. Her body was shortly discovered afterwards, walled up at a house near this pub called Dark Entry, where she had been buried alive. Every Friday night her ghost is said to wander this street and then manifest in one of the front bars of this inn.
She has been portrayed as a plain faced, fat woman in a long, wide skirt and a mobcap.....

[Grandad]

Who2 it is just down the road from where I live. The sign in your picture is better than the current one. The sign is not too clear in this picture but The Bishops Finger nestles between a small gift shop and a Turkish restaurant and to the right is The Falstaff Hotel. A little part of old Canterbury.

Never heard that story before, must look it up. Newcastle did put an explanation for the name as referring to the signs of a pointed finger used to direct pilgrims to Canterbury.

20140516 The Bishops Finger.jpg

[carrie]

Think that's where I had my Shepherds Neame Grandad.

[Who2]

So tonight lockdown and time for a drink...
Simona dragged me out,
I had already been out at 'luncheon time, to 'commiserate with my bar owning mates..

9pm: The market was heaving every place full to capacity, obviously social distancing being observed,
After 10 months everyone is an expert around here..

Couldn't get a drink, standing room only, all restaurants fully booked, except....
Simona's fav local, The Wilmo.
It used to be a great music venue once, now owned by some corporate co..
But the staff are lovely, we left fully loaded dead on 10....
........
We had a bubble of 5 around here afterwards, 3 yanks, 1 transylvanian, 1 normal (me)
Funny f**kers yanks, I love em...

Ps: nb: 'For the next month, george will be experimenting with sourdough.....oh!
and mushroom cultivation in our basement, I've convinced our west coast yank.

( I 'innocently called him a 'septic, he asked what ?
after 15 minutes later having explained 'Cockney rhyming slang to him,
He lapped it up 'septic ? tank = yank = american...
funny f*ck*rs yanks, I once built tennis courts in west palm.funny f*uc... trust me, and stupid beyond belief...
'And, he didn't even know what psilocybin's were ?..ffs...

[newcastle]

'septic ? tank = yank = american...
funny f*ck*rs yanks, I once built tennis courts in west palm.funny f*uc... trust me, and stupid beyond belief..

How do you think they managed to elect Trump.....and are trying very hard to do so again?

[Who2]

My mate Barb popped round last as I was about to post thanks to Newcastle, sorry I lost the post.
Barb knows alot about alot, she once worked for 6 different museums.

Anyhow I stuck up a story on FB about New Merlin's Cave, tons of responses from old jazz fans and artists.
I showed Barb this picture of Merlin's Cave, trying to figure out the background.

She pointed out it was the 2nd to last Merlin's Cave looking south, where our block now stands.
Showed her this of the Merlins Cave 1763 looking downhill.

And this looking up hill.

The last New Merlin's Cave was to the right of the old one..Barb say's she was living here in 1987.
And that George Melly owed a cumulative £600 bar tab.!!!


I still have no pictures of the outside, but I'm working on it...
'good eh?

[HEPZIBAH]

And that George Melly owed a cumulative £600 bar tab.!!!

A hobby of his.
A demanding, rude man.