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Few years back, BBC History Magazine had an article on the Jacobean space programme. One of those articles where the title’s slightly better than the read (something you could never accuse this blog of), it concerned a seventeenth century gent who wanted to open trade routes to the moon, and designed a machine to get there.
The machine didn’t work. ‘Zounds, can’t understand it. I mean, it’s hardly rocket science, is it?’ ‘Wot’s “rocket science”?’
Better still, ‘Jacobean Space Programme’ is clearly the prog rock band that never quite happened. Everyone in the band with pointy beards. Lots of frilly shirt cuffs and long harpischord solos. The lead singer insists on signing autographs with a quill. People in the audience playing Air Lute. Jokey ‘B’side ‘You Never Look Tough When You’re Wearing A Ruff’ roundly hated by the fan club.
Jacobean Space Programme: for everyone who can’t be arsed to start a band, and is perfectly happy just making up the name.
Next month: we review difficult second albums from The Zippy Tortoises, Stalin Henderson, Cumberland Rat Station and The Flat Earth Surfers.
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
Snuffing Out Ghost Trains at Spencer Road Halt
Just inside the less obvious entrance to Victoria station is a map of the Southern Railways network which I would guess was painted onto the tiles in the twenties. It’s a handsome piece of work, and includes a number of long-dead stations local to The World of Quark such as Selsdon, the outline of which can still be glimpsed from Sanderstead trains, and Bingham Road Halt, where Tony Hancock filmed a scene for ‘The Rebel’.
More bewilderingly, it also mentions a mythical beast called ‘Spencer Road Halt’. This rather marvellous website reveals Spencer Road to have been only fleetingly in use, between 1906 and 1915; but rather than being pulled down, it seems to have been left to rot – and can still be found, just about, between two streets of houses, one of which is Birdhurst Rise, best known for a series of notorious murders a decade or so after Spencer Road Halt closed.
A footpath links Birdhurst Rise and the eponymous Spencer Road. Weaving behind houses, flats and a Scout hut, you suddenly come across a large metal bridge which looms improbably up at you, as if someone’s left it there by mistake. It’s impossible to tell it was a bridge over a railway track – nowadays, it overlooks a long stream of large trees, which have dramatically reclaimed the area.
Endearingly, someone at Southern Railways has taken the instruction ‘Catalogue everything we own, Nigel’ to an extreme and even though Spencer Halt is now just an inappropriate bridge glub-glub-glubbing under waves of foliage, the bridge still has an official number and the edge of each step has been carefully painted yellow, so that very lost people, the phantoms of commuters and Scoutmasters don’t come a cropper. Thoughtfully, someone has even dumped some bags of rubbish to give that authentic ‘old station’ feel.
And then out onto Spencer Road, with a slight feeling of: ‘Did that really happen…?’
More bewilderingly, it also mentions a mythical beast called ‘Spencer Road Halt’. This rather marvellous website reveals Spencer Road to have been only fleetingly in use, between 1906 and 1915; but rather than being pulled down, it seems to have been left to rot – and can still be found, just about, between two streets of houses, one of which is Birdhurst Rise, best known for a series of notorious murders a decade or so after Spencer Road Halt closed.
A footpath links Birdhurst Rise and the eponymous Spencer Road. Weaving behind houses, flats and a Scout hut, you suddenly come across a large metal bridge which looms improbably up at you, as if someone’s left it there by mistake. It’s impossible to tell it was a bridge over a railway track – nowadays, it overlooks a long stream of large trees, which have dramatically reclaimed the area.
Endearingly, someone at Southern Railways has taken the instruction ‘Catalogue everything we own, Nigel’ to an extreme and even though Spencer Halt is now just an inappropriate bridge glub-glub-glubbing under waves of foliage, the bridge still has an official number and the edge of each step has been carefully painted yellow, so that very lost people, the phantoms of commuters and Scoutmasters don’t come a cropper. Thoughtfully, someone has even dumped some bags of rubbish to give that authentic ‘old station’ feel.
And then out onto Spencer Road, with a slight feeling of: ‘Did that really happen…?’
Monday, 30 November 2009
Constructing the Dustbin of History
I think it’s time to stop dilly-dallying consigning fascism, communism, shoulder pads, teletext and most iterations of facial hair to the dustbin of history in merely a metaphorical way. Where’s the sense in that?
I think it’s high time we actually built the blessed thing, located it somewhere central so everyone could reach it and then got on with the business of consigning things to it in a very real and rather satisfying way.
Perhaps there could be litter bins of history too, to save people the journey if there were local things they wanted to consign. So for instance, the people of Barking might want to consign the fascism in their area to their litter bins of history, as distinct from fascism in its entirety, which of course would still have to be deposited in the main dustbin of history, sorry, DUSTBIN OF HISTORY™ .
Of course, before you knew it, a small industry would spring up around consigning things to history. Inevitably there would be a large outsourcing firm, probably called ‘Consign’, with distinctive purple dust carts (branded: ‘When it comes to rubbish, we’re history’). Maybe the ‘operatives’ would wear a different uniform each week from a different age – this week deerstalkers and capes, next week periwigs, another week doublet and hose. All topped with a bright orange vest, obviously.
Excellent. I’m thinking something gun metal, perhaps with bright lilac bunting. And maybe with a crack team of trombone players playing comic fanfares whenever there’s a new consignment.
Next week: genetically engineering the mother of all lottery wins.
I think it’s high time we actually built the blessed thing, located it somewhere central so everyone could reach it and then got on with the business of consigning things to it in a very real and rather satisfying way.
Perhaps there could be litter bins of history too, to save people the journey if there were local things they wanted to consign. So for instance, the people of Barking might want to consign the fascism in their area to their litter bins of history, as distinct from fascism in its entirety, which of course would still have to be deposited in the main dustbin of history, sorry, DUSTBIN OF HISTORY™ .
Of course, before you knew it, a small industry would spring up around consigning things to history. Inevitably there would be a large outsourcing firm, probably called ‘Consign’, with distinctive purple dust carts (branded: ‘When it comes to rubbish, we’re history’). Maybe the ‘operatives’ would wear a different uniform each week from a different age – this week deerstalkers and capes, next week periwigs, another week doublet and hose. All topped with a bright orange vest, obviously.
Excellent. I’m thinking something gun metal, perhaps with bright lilac bunting. And maybe with a crack team of trombone players playing comic fanfares whenever there’s a new consignment.
Next week: genetically engineering the mother of all lottery wins.
Saturday, 14 November 2009
Suicide Isn’t What It Used To Be
I was standing at the station this morning when quite without any advance notice a little old lady walked up to me and said: ‘Those rails are there to stop people jumping in front of the trains. Wasn’t like that in the old days.’
Tactfully, I bit back the temptation to say: ‘No – then people were free to jump in front of trains as much as they liked. Shocking abuse of our liberties.’
I stared obediently at the railings in question. As it turned out, they were smack in the middle of the platform. So would-be suicides would have had a spectacularly wonky sense of spatial awareness to let the railings come between them and train-shaped death. They’d basically have to run away from the onrushing train as if their lives depended on it, which sounds like a pretty poor definition of suicide to me.
The railings also looked Victorian to me. How old was this little old lady? What ‘old days’ was she referring to – the middle ages?
She might have had a point there: people threw themselves in front of trains a whole lot less then.
Tactfully, I bit back the temptation to say: ‘No – then people were free to jump in front of trains as much as they liked. Shocking abuse of our liberties.’
I stared obediently at the railings in question. As it turned out, they were smack in the middle of the platform. So would-be suicides would have had a spectacularly wonky sense of spatial awareness to let the railings come between them and train-shaped death. They’d basically have to run away from the onrushing train as if their lives depended on it, which sounds like a pretty poor definition of suicide to me.
The railings also looked Victorian to me. How old was this little old lady? What ‘old days’ was she referring to – the middle ages?
She might have had a point there: people threw themselves in front of trains a whole lot less then.
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
The Daily Quark: Always First With The Obvious
Here at The Daily Quark we grasp with both hands our responsibility to bring you the knee-jerkingly obvious, presented as news.
Our award-winning coverage of the hedge funds scandals, for instance: People Everyone Always Thought Were Dodgy Turn Out, Inevitably, To Have Been Dodgy.
And our eye-catching coverage of the economic crisis, which took our reputation for being ‘wise after the event’ to brave new highs: Even Though Nobody Could Possibly Have Known This Was Going To Happen, How Come Nobody Knew This Was Going To Happen…?
Next week we start a ground-breaking retrospective, blowing open the sordid world of media and the cartel of woolly liberals who seek to bring down western civilisation by producing programmes like Antiques Roadshow and Country File. First part: Contemporary Comedians Who Are Paid For Their Brand Of Offensive, Edgy Humour May Sometimes Be Offensive. And Edgy.
Our award-winning coverage of the hedge funds scandals, for instance: People Everyone Always Thought Were Dodgy Turn Out, Inevitably, To Have Been Dodgy.
And our eye-catching coverage of the economic crisis, which took our reputation for being ‘wise after the event’ to brave new highs: Even Though Nobody Could Possibly Have Known This Was Going To Happen, How Come Nobody Knew This Was Going To Happen…?
Next week we start a ground-breaking retrospective, blowing open the sordid world of media and the cartel of woolly liberals who seek to bring down western civilisation by producing programmes like Antiques Roadshow and Country File. First part: Contemporary Comedians Who Are Paid For Their Brand Of Offensive, Edgy Humour May Sometimes Be Offensive. And Edgy.
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Constructing New Ghosts
The drool-flecked shadow of Beeching still looms large over the UK’s rail network. Beeching’s talons did for some 3,500 railways stations, of which choo-choo expert Christian Wolmar reckons a third would be of real use today. There goes the environment.
Beeching created a host of ghost stations. As your freshly rebranded 8:14 swishes past, there it is - an incongruously flat space, overgrown with grass, reclaimed by creepers and brush. A tell-tale car park space, maybe even a derelict waiting room and ticket office. Hell’s that ticking sound?! Nothing more sinister than phantom commuters, tutting like metronomes as their own 8:14 is announced to be five minutes late.
And perhaps we are in the business this year of creating new ghosts up and down the country. Just as ghosts stations haunt our suburbs and villages, so on the high street, I guess the new ghosts will be the forgotten branches of banks…
Expect high streets otherwise lively with debt collection agencies, discount supermarkets and charity shops to be blighted by desolate former banks, five pound notes blowing disconsolately, leaf-like, across deserted counters before settling on yellowing cardboard cut-outs advertising the latest 0% credit card.
That’ll do nicely.
Beeching created a host of ghost stations. As your freshly rebranded 8:14 swishes past, there it is - an incongruously flat space, overgrown with grass, reclaimed by creepers and brush. A tell-tale car park space, maybe even a derelict waiting room and ticket office. Hell’s that ticking sound?! Nothing more sinister than phantom commuters, tutting like metronomes as their own 8:14 is announced to be five minutes late.
And perhaps we are in the business this year of creating new ghosts up and down the country. Just as ghosts stations haunt our suburbs and villages, so on the high street, I guess the new ghosts will be the forgotten branches of banks…
Expect high streets otherwise lively with debt collection agencies, discount supermarkets and charity shops to be blighted by desolate former banks, five pound notes blowing disconsolately, leaf-like, across deserted counters before settling on yellowing cardboard cut-outs advertising the latest 0% credit card.
That’ll do nicely.
Monday, 28 April 2008
The Silent Death of John Smith
Recently a pal from University, who I’d lost touch with, tracked me down through a couple of Google searches and a hopeful phone message. The mobile number he left didn’t work, so I retaliated and searched for him in turn. Two hits later, turns out he’s now married, to someone from Southampton; is a hotshot lawyer; and is still the handsome devil he ever was.
It’s a familiar story. However, both searches were helped by the fact neither of us have particularly common names (makes you wonder how effective similar searches are in Wales). Which, coincidentally, is an emerging trend. As the lust after individuality which began in early modern times now licks its own mirror to the tune of our celebrity culture, parents are opting more and more for less obvious names. It’s thank you and goodnight for John Smith, and hello Sunshine Turtle-Harrison.
Which in turn will feed Facebook, Bebo - and whatever comes after them and makes them look like electronic post-it notes. The balloon of social networking gets punctured by the pin of a common name: put in ‘Peter Williams’ and you can hear it pop and deflate. Fortunately, even surnames are changing, probably more than they have for five hundred years. There are far more double-barrelled names, either through divorce, or a more equal divvying up of parents’ monikers; the double barrelled name now has nothing to do with class. Has it, Kylie Duncan-Flap?
In short, when it comes to names, you’re going to need something a little bit more individual if you’re going to play any part in mainstream society in the future (*licence for dubious argument pending). But never fear, largely because we’re more self-obsessed, vain and increasingly rubbish at marriage, individuality can be yours (in name, at least).
It’s often said that today’s “selfish society” could never fight a World War. Once conscription was announced, too many people would explain that war “wasn’t right for them” or that it “didn’t fit with their personal brand”, which of course would be fair enough. On a brighter note, assuming that were true, with our funky names and our social networks, at least it would be easy to make contact with the few survivors.
It’s a familiar story. However, both searches were helped by the fact neither of us have particularly common names (makes you wonder how effective similar searches are in Wales). Which, coincidentally, is an emerging trend. As the lust after individuality which began in early modern times now licks its own mirror to the tune of our celebrity culture, parents are opting more and more for less obvious names. It’s thank you and goodnight for John Smith, and hello Sunshine Turtle-Harrison.
Which in turn will feed Facebook, Bebo - and whatever comes after them and makes them look like electronic post-it notes. The balloon of social networking gets punctured by the pin of a common name: put in ‘Peter Williams’ and you can hear it pop and deflate. Fortunately, even surnames are changing, probably more than they have for five hundred years. There are far more double-barrelled names, either through divorce, or a more equal divvying up of parents’ monikers; the double barrelled name now has nothing to do with class. Has it, Kylie Duncan-Flap?
In short, when it comes to names, you’re going to need something a little bit more individual if you’re going to play any part in mainstream society in the future (*licence for dubious argument pending). But never fear, largely because we’re more self-obsessed, vain and increasingly rubbish at marriage, individuality can be yours (in name, at least).
It’s often said that today’s “selfish society” could never fight a World War. Once conscription was announced, too many people would explain that war “wasn’t right for them” or that it “didn’t fit with their personal brand”, which of course would be fair enough. On a brighter note, assuming that were true, with our funky names and our social networks, at least it would be easy to make contact with the few survivors.
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