Newsletter No. 75 – September 2012 Free to members Chairman’s Report In this Issue: Bob Flanagan • Medea in the A busy summer promoting the Cemetery as a cultural Conservation attraction: Colin Fenn has worked overtime in bringing NewsGreek Page Chapel 3 Page 3 the Cultural Olympiad to Norwood. • The Page 4 Firstly, Janet Haney of Speech Acts organised a perform- Curious: West ance of Medea in the Greek Chapel. Secondly, Jane • HenryNorwood’s Page 6First Millar’s Curious Art Trail and evening musical Art Trail Page 4 performance attracted over 4,000 visitors. I was unsure if • John Page 9 • it would work, but I was quite won over by many of the National Feder- art works, especially The Clearing, Laid to Rest, and You • Tap Page 12 ation of Cem- Are Here and You Want to be There on Doulton Path. • Ironetery Tsar Friends Page 13 Then there was the Streetscape Carousel in St Stephen’s AGM Page 5 Chapel, which featured steel outlines of notable buildings • The Page 14 • Thomas Lynn in each of the sev- • BristoweCemetery Page Page 7 en original London 14 commercial cemet- • Cornelius eries (the ‘Magni- • WheelerForthcoming Page 9 ficent Seven’). The • Events Page 15 Chapel provided Lovell Augustus an ideal venue for • ReeveA Bit of Page Mystery 11 the carousel, which Page 16 • Daniel Sturdy rotated to project ever changing ima- Page 13 ges onto the walls, • FOWNC a great hit with Christmas Cards children and adults Page 14 alike! Thanks to Ellen Barbet, volu- • Forthcoming nteers manned the Events Page 15 chapel 12.30-5.30 • Friday to Sunday Streetscape Carousel, St A Bit of Mystery until 9 September. Stephen’s Chapel Page 16 Streetscape Carousel: interior of St Stephen’s Chapel. Photo: Alasdair Kergon Cemetery Infrastructure Lambeth have yet again postponed the start of the much-needed roadway works to the area from Norwood High Street to the Gilbart memorial. We had been told that this was due to the extra visitors expected as a result of the Cultural Olympiad activities, but more realistically it is largely due to the loss of Byron Miller, Acting Head of Parks and Cemeteries, and the driving force behind all recent progress, and to the austerity financial regime imposed by the Council. Be this as it may, the understanding we and the Scheme of Management Committee (SoMC) had was that the roadway works would start in September, but this seems now not to be the case. The reason appears to be continuing uncertainty over the promised capital funding. Nevertheless, the procurement phase is underway and, subject to monies becoming available, we might see work start in the Spring. Repairs to the Gilbart memorial and the monument in front of the crematorium are still awaited of course… Even more worrying to me is a suggestion that the works might be further delayed/ compromised as a result of a Lambeth scheme which could involve the widening of Norwood High Street with the consequent loss of part of the Cemetery forecourt. I think it is vital that this area is preserved intact together with its historic (Grade 2 listed) outer gate as it acts as a buffer between the busy main road and helps protect the Tite arch. It also provides a suitably formal space in front of the Cross of Sacrifice and the screen wall that records the names of the service personnel buried or cremated in the Cemetery for whom at the time the memorial was built there was no other commemoration. - 2 - Visit of the Leader of the Council On 27 July, Nicholas Long, Chair of the SoMC, and I played host to Council Leader Cllr Steve Reed, Deputy Leader Cllr Jackie Meldrum, and Cabinet member for Culture, Leisure and the Olympics, Cllr Sally Prentice. This was the first such visit by the Leader of the Council in the history of the Cemetery, at least as far as we can remember. Whilst not wishing to seem over-optimistic, all three visitors seemed completely in tune with our aims and our position on the sensitive issue of re-use (no problem with re-use providing all pre-Lambeth monuments are respected/conserved, and no re-use of private graves unless their position can be identified accurately and the original burials commemorated appropriately). They were also very supportive of our long-term aims to conserve/enhance the Anglican Catacombs. We will see. But I got the distinct impression that Mr Reed was someone I would have no problem doing business with. FOWNC AGM - Saturday 20 October It is yet again time to thank the Committee and others who have participated actively in our events for their hard work during the year, and to extend this thanks in turn to all our members (now over 400). I am pleased to report that the Officers (see p. 16) are willing to continue in their roles for another year, subject of course to the AGM. Sadly the impasse with Lambeth over grave re-use remains and effectively blocks long-term progress in safeguarding the Cemetery, but FOWNC itself has never been stronger. I cannot overemphasise that it is only the presence of FOWNC together with the actions of the Archdeacon of Lambeth and of Nicholas Long and the Scheme of Management Committee over the years that means that there is still a Cemetery worth fighting for! Association of Significant Cemeteries in Europe The AGM this year takes place at Maribor, European Capital of Culture 2012, in Slovenia. Sadly no one from FOWNC will be able to join in what looks to be an inter- esting programme, which includes a guided tour of Maribor's Pobrežje Cemetery. It is unfortunate that we have had a limited role in ASCE up to now, but hopefully things will change with progress on the European Route of Cemeteries, for example. Medea in the Greek Chapel Review – Bob Flanagan Following on from last year’s presentation in St Stephen’s Chapel (see Newsletter 73, January 2012), on Sunday 1 July Speech Acts, with guidance from Colin Fenn, presented a dramatised reading of (a modernised version by Stevie Hughes of) the classic Greek tragedy Medea by Euripides. Blood and guts aplenty at the end of course, as with all good tragedies. Medea was based upon the myth of Jason and Medea, and first produced in 431 BC. Myth to us, but doubtless very real to the original audience. The plot centres on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason, who has betrayed her for another woman. No change there then. - 3 - What could have been more appropriate than a presentation from the classical world for a mini- Parthenon which, despite its Christian symbolism, is a classical building throu- gh and through? The act- ing was uniformly excell- ent, with Medea (Caron Kehoe) outstanding to my mind. A minor quibble was that one or two ultra- modern phrases seemed out of place, but all in all a very successful evening Medea – The Audience gather prior to the performance played to a full house. Performance credits: Nurse: Sue Blundell; Tutor: Lionel Monks; Creaon: Steve Williams; Jason: Mike Savill; Aegus: Arthur Rochester; Messenger: Richard Stewart; Chorus: Janet Haney, Lorraine Spenceley, Sue Jacobsen. Thanks to all, including the Greek Cemetery Trustees and the FOWNC stewards, who helped make the evening such a success. West Norwood’s First Art Trail Jane Millar From 22 June–20 July visitors could pick up a free map at the main gate and follow a trail that took in 25 art works placed throughout the Cemetery. Curious was a response to my 2010 research into how historic burial grounds can be interpreted. My primary aim was to attract a new audience of all ages to the Cemetery. The mixture of the tangible (landscape, architecture), and the intangible (the lives of those buried or otherwise comm- emorated, the beliefs and energy of the people associated with the Cemetery, and the varying fortunes of the Cemetery itself) also caught my imagination. In developing this work, the artists and I were greatly assisted by the support of the Cemetery staff, and by the historical research of FOWNC members and their sensitive approach to clear- ing and conserving memorials lost in the undergrowth. Despite the very wet weather, the event attracted around 4,000 visitors, many of whom had not considered visiting the Cemetery before. The works included: a carving of the The Clearing 2012 - 4 - Tate mausoleum from sugar cubes, by Northern Irish artist Brendan Jamison, shown in the Maddick Mausoleum with an animated film by Jo Lawrence; a millstone grit slab inlaid with ceramic plaques depicting quarries in Yorkshire by Judy Tucker, interpreting the Britton burial; and a series of cinerary jars by Julian Stair in the Columbarium. You Are Here and You Want to be There, a London bus stop on Doulton path by Martin Grover, proved to be very popular. Nigel of Bermondsey’s song and The Clearing, Clare Burnett’s steel grave outlines, acknowl- edged the tombs that were removed in the 1970s and 80s; Robert Dawson’s coffin on rockers all- uded to a lost childhood; and Georgia Wright’s carved wood, iron, and steel lace-work expressed the mother, father and child commemorated by the Farrow tomb. My own piece replaced the lost headstone of Alexander Parkes, inventor of the first plastic. A huge ship by Marc Elmes was worked on by visitors to The Portico Gallery, Knights Hill, and displayed in the Greek section. On 1 July, visitors were treated to rides on Tim Meacham’s pedal-powered train carriage.