Bedside 11 12 03.Indd

Wandsworth SocietetyÈ ˘ ˘˘ ˘˘˘ ˘˘˘˘ ˘˘˘˘˘ ˘˘˘˘˘˘ ˘˘˘˘˘˘˘ ˘˘˘˘˘˘˘˘ ˘˘˘˘˘˘˘˘˘ ˘˘˘˘˘˘˘˘˘˘ The Bedside 1971 - FORTY YEARS ON - 2011 Mistletoe istletoe, forming as numerous illustrations show, it was remembered that a vile- evergreen clumps on the association of kissing and tasting tea, made from mistletoe apple and many other mistletoe was well established by which grew on hawthorn, was broad-leaved trees, Victorian times. used to treat measles. Other is a strange plant. It people have collected informa- Mabsorbs water and nutrients from tion on mistletoe being used to its host trees, but as it has chlo- treat hysteria in Herefordshire and rophyll it is able to make its own prevent strokes in Essex. food. If sufficiently mature seeds are Pliny the Elder in the first century used mistletoe can be easily A.D. described Druids in France grown on apple trees. Seeds cutting mistletoe from oak trees extracted from Christmas mistle- in a ritual which involved golden toe are not mature, so it’s neces- sickles, dressing in white cloaks, sary to collect berries in April, slaughtering white bulls. Because squeeze out the seeds and insert of this, mistletoe was considered them in a notch cut in the tree’s to be a pagan plant and banned bark. After a couple of months from churches. small plants emerge, but many of these seem to die within a Mistletoe was associated with year. Survivors grow rapidly and Christmas since the mid-17th live for many years. However, century. By the 19th century this mistletoe produces female and association was well established, male flowers on different plants, and people who had mistletoe- and although I’ve left a trail of bearing trees on their land were mistletoe plants behind me as I’ve bothered by people who raided The situation is complicated by moved around, I haven’t yet man- them. In 1876 it was recorded the fact that in some areas there aged to grow one which is a berry that one Lincolnshire landowner were decorations known as 'mis- producing female. hired 14 'watchers' each year to tletoe boughs' which appear to protect the mistletoe in her park. be identical to the kissing boughs The London Natural History Soci- and contained no mistletoe. ety has recently started work on Kissing under the mistletoe seems a new Flora of the London Area, to be a tradition which originated It is sometimes said that a berry and would welcome any records in the British Isles, but it does not should be removed every time of mistletoe plants in Wands- appear to be an ancient one. It anyone kisses under the mistle- worth, which might, of course, seems that it developed from the toe. be in private gardens, to which kissing bough which decorated recorders don’t have access. At homes in medieval times. This There are various beliefs about present I’m aware of only one consisted of a bunch of ever- what should be done with mistle- mistletoe plant in the borough greens, or a number of intersect- toe once Christmas has passed. (planted by me about 40 years ing hoops covered in evergreens, In some areas some was kept ago); if you know of any other which was hung from the ceiling, indoors throughout the year to plants, please contact me, letting and under which people kissed. ensure happiness, love, food and me know if possible what sort of At sometime, probably in the money throughout the year. In tree it’s growing on. late 18th or early 19th century, other places, Christmas mistletoe mistletoe became an important was burnt under the pancake pan Roy Vickery component of these boughs, and on Shrove Tuesday. eventually, by the mid-19th century, the other greenery seems Mistletoe doesn't seem to have to have become of secondary been much used in folk medicine. http://www.plant-lore.com importance, with the mistletoe The only remedy which I've col- The South London Botanical Institute becoming essential. Certainly, lected is from Somerset, where 323 Norwood Road SE24 9AQ. 2 Chairman Valerie Taylor 35 Fishponds Road London SW17 7LH 020 8767 3814 Wandsworth Vice-Chairman Phillip Whyte 49 West Side Wandsworth Common London SW18 2EE Society 020 8874 4745 Secretary John Dawson The Bedside 2011 210 Beechcroft Road SW17 7DP phone 020 8785 0077 here are those, even some in the upper echelons of Treasurer T Newsletter Press plc, who would have placed a serious sum Norman Holmes on The Bedside having been a a fixed star in the firminant Flat 7 Tiffany Heights 59 Standen Road London SW18 5TF since time immemorial, or if not then, days of yore, mists of Membership Secretary time, that sort of thing – apparently not. Gill Gray 1 Keble House Manor Fields No - a bit of a shock to the system, but it has only been some Putney Hill SW15 3LS forty years that The Bedside has brought the comfort, joy and phone 020 8780 0866 solace that only the packed pages of a Bedside can bring, and when you’ve said that, why what more can one say? (Quiet Committee at the back there …) So, top up the glass, light that pipe, pull Sheila Allen up a chair, settle down, put your feet up, stretch contentedly 13 Earlsfield Road SW18 3PB – throw another log on the fire, I believe there’s a good film on phone 020 8874 2341 the other channel … Bruce St Julian-Bown 39c Heathfield Road SW18 2PH phone 020 8874 6966 Contents Iain Gray Studio 8 Royal Victoria Mistletoe 2 Patriotic Building SW18 3SX The Phantom of the Cinema 4 phone 020 8870 4567 Linda Ulrich London’s Greatest Cowboy 6 6a Spencer Park SW18 2SX A visit to West Norwood Cemetery 9 phone 0208 - 874 5648 Separation & Silence 11 The Banting Brothers 12 Meetings Team Valerie Taylor - Wendy Cater History of May Day 16 Brenda Ferry - Jenny Massey Conflicted in the country 19 Catherine Headley - Diana Godden St Peter’s Hospital 22 How we were … 24 Newsletter Team Peter Farrow Iain Gray Wendy Cater Furnishing a Legacy 26 Great concerts in Wandsworth 30 Distribution Team Edward and Helen Thomas 32 Paschal Allen - Iain Gray Jan Passey - Wendy Cater A strawberry and (limewash) cream treat! 37 The Society Soirées 38 Sub-Committee Convenors Events dear boy … events 39 Roads and transport Women as Spies 40 Harry Waddingham Gray’s Eulogy 42 61 Magdalen Road London SW18 3NE 020 8874 8784 AFC Wimbledon 2011 The Dream 45 Wandsworth Environmental Update 46 Open Spaces Transition Town Wandsworth 48 Bruce St Julian-Bown Thereby hangs a Tale. 50 Planning A True Love Story 52 Phillip Whyte The bird recorder of the Commons 54 Planning matters 57 The October Soirée 58 The Society’s website is Flying on West Hill 59 www.wandswothsociety.org.uk Diaghilev, all debts and charm 61 3 The Phantom of the Cinema a Christmas ghost story empty building and undoubt- edly looking forward to return- ing to the warmth of his home and family. Shining his torch into the gloomy shadows around him, he walked into the dark- ened tea lounge – and as he did so he was shocked to see a figure approaching him. His first thought was that he had disturbed a burglar. He turned his torch directly into the face of the figure, and its light revealed what seemed to be an elderly man dressed in a long white gown. The gown’s hood The birth of Streatham’s Odeon cinema was was pulled up, and the figure’s a glorious affair. arms hung stiffly at its sides as it drew closer to Amis, seeming to glide across the floor. As it n 30 June 1930 more than 2,500 peo- neared, Amis caught sight of the face beneath ple attended the opening night of the hood, describing this to a reporter two days what was then the Astoria. They had later as ‘a wizened, wrinkled face (with) a short ostensibly arrived for the screening beard’ (Daily Mail, 28 December 1933). Oof the musical comedy Paris, but they had also come to marvel at the building itself. Standing Then the figure turned away from him, moving at the junction of Streatham High Road and towards a flight of stairs that led down to the Pendennis Road, and designed by the architect vestibule. Nervous, and uncertain as to whether E. A. Stone, the cinema’s magnificent interior he had encountered a phantom or a mortal was modelled on an Ancient Egyptian theme, intruder, Amis followed it downstairs towards with dramatic red, green and gold paintwork the large wooden fire-doors that led through enhanced by cleverly concealed lighting, and to the stalls. Egyptian-styled bas-reliefs decorating the circle walls. As Amis explained to the reporter, these doors were ‘heavy, strongly fastened, and three men It was all highly glamorous and it gave the would have a job to get them open.’ Yet, as the building a frisson of thrilling mysticism, evok- figure neared them the doors swung open. ing a sense of Ancient Egypt’s mystery and magic. But the uncanny event that occurred at Amis’s sense of unease grew. Nevertheless, he the Astoria a few short years after that opening followed the figure as it passed through the night seemed related not to distant Egypt but open doorway and down the centre aisle of the rather to the very ground on which the cinema auditorium, and he watched in disbelief as it had been built. then ‘leapt, or rather floated, across the orches- tra pit, landing behind the footlights in front of It happened on Christmas night, 1933.

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