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Home , Florence Kahn (actress), Max Beerbohm, Zuleika (musical)

The Cherry Tree 1/2005

The Cherry Tree TheThe CCherryherry TTreeree A newsletter for the Cherry TTreesrees Residents’ Amenities Association A newsletter for the Cherry Trees Residents’ Amenities Association 1/2005 Editor: Thomas Blomberg Evenings: 7938 3775 Mobile: 07785 393 330 [email protected] Material for future issues can be sent to: Starting 12 July in the Town Hall: Flat 7, 18 Vicarage Gate, W8 4AA

The Cherry Trees Residents’ The big battle for Amenities Association Chairman: Willoughby Wynne the nursing home 39 Brunswick Gardens,London W8 4AW Tel: 7727 9786 n 12 July the Planning Inspectorate (the Double The aim of The Cherry Trees Residents’ Amenities Association is to improve our Government’s “appeal court” in planning mat- summer parties neighbourhood and to function as our rep- ters) starts its public hearing in the Town Hall resentative towards the Council and other O about the planning application for the Vicarage Gate a big success authorities in matters concerning the area Membership is open to all residents living House nursing home. The hearing, which is expected in Palace Gardens Terrace, Strathmore his year the CTRAA decided Gardens, Berkeley Gardens, Brunswick to last some ten days, is the consequence of the to hold two summer parties; Gardens, Inverness Gardens, Vicarage property developer Northacre’s appeal against the one in Inverness Gardens on Gardens, Vicarage Gate, Kensington Mall, T and on the eastern side of Kensington Council’s rejection of their application to replace the 24 May and one in the vicarage’s Church Street between Kensington Mall nursing home with a block of luxury flats. garden on 16 June. Both proved to be and Vicarage Gate. a big success, with the first attracting The Planning Inspectorate’s hearings are usually held at their offices 80-90 members and the second a in Bristol, but due to the intense public interest it was decided that this record 150. We now have hearing should take place in Kensington, to allow as many as possible As some could make it to one of our own website from the public to attend. It will be held in the main Council Chamber, the parties but not to the other, we starting at 10 am. he CTRAA now has its estimate that this dual party strategy All the resident associations in Kensington are strongly opposed to own website! It contains enabled some 200 members to attend Northacre’s plan, as there are several nursing home companies who at least one of the summer parties, T a presentation of the have expressed an interest in acquiring the site and building a new which is almost twice as many as association, contacts, tips for nursing home on it, which would be of much more value to society. usual. newcomers, useful telephone Although the hearing will mainly consist of a “fight” between the legal Beside the usual guests from the numbers, access to back issues representatives of Northacre and the Council, the Vicarage Gate House Police and the Council, the party of the Cherry Tree in pdf format, Action Group, which represents all the resident associations, will hope- in the vicarage’s garden recieved and a news page. fully be given a chance to present the view of the local residents. a quick visit from Kensington’s It’s still very much an experi- We urge as many as possible to attend the public hearing. As it is new MP, Sir Malcolm Rifkind. ment, and we’re grateful for any expected to last for some five days, most people probably can’t be there Tuggy Meyer’s Huntsworth Wine feedback, as we want to make every day, but will hopefully find the time to attend once or twice. suppled the wine to both parties it as useful for our members as The Inspectorate’s decision will be final, so if it supports the Council, at a very favourable discount, and possible. Northacre and their financial backers will have to find a way to restore Winkworth’s provided the superb You can access it at: the site to its former use. We will try to keep you updated during the food catering for the second http://homepage.mac.com/ The nursing home from an angle most residents haven’t seen... hearing days on the new Cherry Tree website (see the last page). party. cherrytreelondon Any memories Resident parking will cost at least £310/year from our area during the war? if we’re included in the congestion charge zone n my series of articles about n 4 July the conges- the plan to include our Borrough The western extension plan, High Street between 07.00 and the Cherry Tree area in the tion charge for central in the congestion zone is soon which now also includes North 18.00 (the new proposed end past, I plan to cover the war O London will increase by coming to an end. If you haven’t Kensington, can be implemented time), as some of the traffic not I 60%, from £5 to £8 per day. In received the questionnaire, you in January 2007. Provided that Mr heading for the current or the years as well, but for this I need help from those who lived here February 2003, shortly after can order it on 0800 028 5470, or Livingstone doesn’t increase the extended congestion charge then and/or have any pictures the launch of the congestion download it (or fill it in on line) on charge again in the meantime, zone will probably divert to the from the area taken during that charge, the Mayor of London, the Transport for London website or changes the 90% discount for new zone border streets A3220 period. Ken Livingstone, said, “I can’t (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/cc-ex/ residents within the zone, and and Earls Court Road. There was a fair amount of conceive of any circumstances leaflet.shtml). The questionnaire disregarding any increases of the If the scheme is enforced, it bomb damage in our area, and in the foreseeable future where must be in by 15 July. resident parking charge between should be possible to convince several houses were apparently we would want to change the However, most expect that the now and then, this will mean that the Council that it should offer a taken over by various military charge, although perhaps 10 extension will come no matter the annual cost for residents in package deal, where the conges- authorities as offices. All this, years down the line it may be what the result of the consulta- our area to have the car parked tion charge is included in the and any other local information necessary.” tion will be. The result of the in the street will treble, from resident parking charge, as one will not be able to use a resident from that period, is of great inter- A 15% “discount” will be intro- limited consultation regarding £108 to £310, even if the car is est to us who weren’t even born the 4 July increase, shows that never used. In addition, every parking permit without also pay- duced for those who pay for a ing for the congestion charge. then, so I would be grateful for whole month or a year, which Mr Livingstone consults only year - and in addition every time any help. because the law requires him to one changes one’s car - one will However, right now the most means that such charges will important thing is that as many I can be reached on 07785 393 do so, but whatever the result have to fill in application forms “only” increase by 36%. This is residents as possible say what 330 or 7938 3775, or via email he carries on with his plans. and pay two different authorities: not due to any kindness, how- they feel about the proposed to [email protected] Transport for London’s own fig- the Council’s Parking Shop as ever, but because someone after extension. It may not make much or through letters to Flat 7, 18 two years has figured out that the ures show that there was a mas- well as Transport for London. Vicarage Gate, London W8 4AA sive resistance (75-89%) against difference whilst Mr Livingstone administration costs will go down But it may not be all doom and is in office, but in 2008 there will (a former bomb site). the forthcoming price hike from if people pay more less often. gloom. We may, hopefully, see be another mayoral election… Thomas Blomberg At the same time, the second all the different interest groups some reduction of traffic on The Cherry Tree Editor public consultation regarding consulted. Church Street and Kensington Page 2 The Cherry Tree 1/2005 1/2005 The Cherry Tree Page 3

was immensely happy about. During : the war years the now Sir Max gave several very popular radio talks and did whatever he could to help in the war effort, but in 1947 it was time for Wit, elegance him and Florence to move back to Villino Chiaro – and they were never to return to England again. Max was now 75 and Florence 71, and they and were both becoming frail. Elisabeth Jungmann On the 24th instant, at 57 Palace Gardens Terrace, In 1951 Florence died. A devastat- Kensington, the wife of J. E. Beerbohm, Esq., of a ed Max called Elisabeth Jungmann son.” This little notice, published in on in London a couple of days before, “ and she dropped everything and 26 August 1872, heralded that Julius Beerbohm and his took the first train to . Elisabeth second wife had finally succeeded in having a son, but was 25 years younger, a German it was also the announcement to the world (although lady of Jewish origin who had been nobody knew it yet) that “the incomparable Max” (George close to both of them since 1927. Bernard Shaw’s words 26 years later) had arrived. At the outbreak of the war she had fled to Britain, often visiting them Most people under 70 who pass 57 old his three half-brothers had all in Dorking, and after the war she Palace Gardens Terrace and notice moved out: the second oldest, had come to Villino Chiaro every the stating that Sir Max Herbert, had started calling himself Max’s first home was 57 Palace Max Beerbohm was always the well-dressed dandy: in 1885, at the age of 13 at Charterhouse; in 1910, at the age Max’s last home was Villino Chiaro summer. Beerbohm was born there, have and had Gardens Terrace. of 38, when he married; and in 1954, at the age of 82. in . Having sorted out the funeral, either never heard of him or vaguely embarked upon a theatrical career school he had just left, “my delight . When the liter- daily life of writing and drawing for described by a friend as “half an (except for a few shorter visits) until Elisabeth moved in and took care of recognise the name but can’t place that by the late 1890’s would make at having been at Charterhouse was ary periodical “” a few hours, followed by coffee at artist, with an artist’s high-strung 1935. Max and his visitors. During the war it. For those he can most easily be him the undisputed king of English far greater than had been my delight was launched in April 1894, the Café Royal and dining out or dinner self-dramatising temperament, and During their visit in 1935 Mussolini years Max had become something explained as “a witty dandy who theatre, and the third, the dreamer in being there.” outrage over the first issue brought parties in the evening. half an old-fashioned American attacked Abyssinia, and this put of a national figure, so in the early bridged the period between Oscar Julius junior, was pursuing a life as A young dandy both Beardsley and Max Beerbohm During this period he published his lady, scrupulous, tender-hearted, such a strain on the diplomatic rela- 1950’s there was a steady stream of Wilde and Noël Coward”. explorer in Patagonia in southern English-speaking visitors to Villino Charterhouse, however, gave instant fame: Beardsley for the two first written books (books with his frightened of the animal side of tionship between Italy and Britain Max Beerbohm didn’t write plays, Argentina. Chiaro, ranging from people like him his first chance to become the “depraved” illustrations and Max had been published ear- human nature and with very little that they extended their stay for a didn’t act and didn’t sing; but he Orme Square School Somerset Maugham, , dandy he had dreamt of being since for his ironic essay “A Defence of lier): a collection of essays entitled sense of humour.” whole year. It was during this stay wrote many essays, a few novels, and Truman The family had moved to Palace he was a child. Whenever pos- Cosmetics”, which the critics misun- “The Works of Max Beerbohm” and They were probably well suited that Max was invited by the BBC to was famous for his caricatures, Capote, to relatives and students. Gardens Terrace in the early sible, he was immaculately dressed derstood as an encouragement for the novel “”. to each other. Not only did they talk on the wireless. The programme became a popular radio talker – and Max continued his radio broad- 1860’s, following Julius marriage in dazzlingly white Eton collars, a men to wear makeup, when in fact it These confirmed and established enjoy each other’s company, but was a big success and was followed he was a friend and admirer of both casts for a few years, but they were to Eliza Draper, his first wife’s sis- well-brushed short jacket, smoothly ridiculed the use of cosmetics even his literary reputation. Max’s disinterest in physical love by two more before he and Florence Wilde and Coward. becoming more and more of a strain ter, but by the time Max started pressed trousers, top hat, and a among women. Replaced Shaw and Florence’s fear of it meant that returned to Villino Chiaro in 1936. Youngest in the family neither needed to feel any pressure for him. school the family had moved on to flower in the buttonhole. It was also Toured with his brother In 1898 Britain’s leading literary The Second World War Max Beerbohm was the runt of Clanricarde Gardens (on the other from the other in such matters. Buried in St Paul’s Cathedral at Charterhouse that he started In 1894 Max left and settled magazine, the “Saturday Review”, But dark clouds were amassing the Beerbohm litter. His father, a side of Notting Hill Gate, opposite drawing his famous caricatures and down to a leisurely life as freelance asked if he would like to succeed Best to live abroad on the political horizon once again, In 1956 Max had a serious asthma successful grain merchant from the Kensington Palace Gardens). The had them published in the school writer and caricaturist. He published as their dra- Max realised that Florence would and by 1938 it was obvious to Max attack and had to be moved to a East Prussian town of Memel (today school was Orme Square School, magazine. The very popular carica- drawings in various magazines matic critic, which was an enormous never enjoy his very social life in that a new war was imminent, so in clinic in Rapallo. It was obvious that the Lithuanian seaport Klaipeda) a small establishment with only 20 tures of pupils and teachers, and the and wrote several pieces for “The honour for a young man of 26. It was London, and as he also had begun the autumn he and Florence once he wouldn’t recover, so Max asked who was attached to today’s Baltic pupils. fact that Max was witty and quick to Yellow Book” (each essay attacked Shaw himself who had suggested to tire of it, he came to the conclu- again packed their suitcases and Elisabeth to marry him, to ensure Exchange, was 62 when Henry When Max was 13, he was sent to joke about his own idiosyncrasies, by “Punch” and thus increasing his it. The idea of a steady job didn’t sion that a life with Florence abroad came back to England. As Max said that she would inherit his estate Maximilian was born, and his oldest Charterhouse, the famous boarding was probably why this dandified, fame), before his brother Herbert in appeal to Max, but he realised that could be the best solution. to a friend: “When England is in instead of his relatives and be able half-brother, Ernst (when Julius’ first school that had moved down to detached and unathletic very short 1895 asked him to come along as the income would be welcome for He visited Portofino, near , danger, I like to be there.” They first to stay in the house. They married in wife died he married her sister), was Surrey in 1872, There he spent five boy wasn’t mobbed by the others, private secretary when his theatre his mother and sisters (his father in 1907 and thoroughly enjoyed stayed at 62 Inverness Terrace in the clinic on 20 April, and on 19 May 22 and had emigrated to the Cape years among 400 other middle-class but rather liked and respected. company embarked on a tour of had died in 1892), so he reluctantly himself, so in 1908 he proposed to Bayswater, but after a few months Max Beerbohm died, three months Colony, never to return. boys, subjected to a Spartan regime The family moved from Clanricarde America. accepted. her and suggested that they should Max felt that the hectic social life before his 84th birthday. Max grew up in a matriarchy, sur- of discomfort, athleticism and clas- Gardens to Hyde Park Place in While Max was in America, the In his farewell article Shaw wrote: settle down there. As Florence’s (“everybody” wanted to meet him) A month later his ashes were buried rounded by his mother and three sical learning. This was not little 1887, and in 1890, at the age of 18, scandal broke in “The younger generation is knock- attempts to find acting work had was too much for both of them, so in St Paul’s Cathedral, something he sisters. His elderly father spent Max’s idea of an agreeable exist- Max left Charterhouse for Merton London, with Bosie’s father, the ing on the door, and as I open it become increasingly more difficult, when friends offered to lend them probably would have been bemused much of his time in the City, and ence. He later wrote that when from College at Oxford. Marquis of Queensberry, accusing there steps sprightly in the incom- she hesitantly agreed. a little cottage near Dorking, they but also very honoured by. Except by the time Max was six years Oxford he had looked back at the Oxford was for Max everything that Oscar of being a sodomite, and parable Max.” In April 1910 Max wrote his farewell accepted. It was to be their home for for the two war periods he had lived Charterhouse was not, and his time Oscar in turn (egged on by Bosie) Max remained dramatic critic of article in the “Saturday Review”, several years. in Italy for more than 40 years, but Famous quotations by Max Beerbohm there was to form the rest of his life. suing him for libel, which became the “Saturday Review” for 12 years, and on 4 May they married at the This period saw a revival of Max’s he had always been a true British “To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect He called it “the little city of learning Oscar’s downfall. He was a funny but very moral Paddington Registry Office. After popularity, culminating with a knight- patriot – so much so that he never he produces on other people. A conceited man is satisfied with the effect and laughter”. Stood by Wilde critic, clamping down on humbug, 38 years Max was no longer a hood in July 1939, something he bothered to try to learn Italian... bachelor. he produces on himself.” Friend with Oscar and Aubrey Many close friends quickly dis- clichés, hyperbole and inconsisten- “To give and then not feel that one has given is the very best of all ways Having Herbert as a brother and tanced themselves from Wilde, but cies. He disliked much about the Settled in Rapallo of giving.” Alfred Douglas as a fellow student Max, who had not been that close, new Edwardian England, It was an They arrived in Italy in July 1910 “Good sense about trivialities is better than nonsense about things that at Oxford, made it natural that Max immediately rallied to his support unsettling time, and Max liked things and found a house to let in Rapallo, matter.” during this time would befriend his when he came back from America. orderly and unchanging. Most of all near Portofino. Max had planned for “People who insist on telling their dreams are among the terrors of the idol Oscar Wilde, almost 20 years He attended the trials every day he detested Edwardian vulgarity: a life of semi-retirement there, but breakfast table” his senior. Herbert produced Wilde’s to give Oscar moral support, took Kipling’s militarism, Wells’s hostil- found instead that he was actually “Only the insane take themselves seriously.” play “A Woman of No Importance” part in a deputation to Scotland ity to ancient culture, and the com- more productive than he had been “One might well say that mankind is divisible into two great classes: hosts in 1893 at his Haymarket Theatre, Yard to alleviate his stay in prison, mercialism that was defacing the in London for many years. It was and guests.” and Alfred Douglas was of course and when Oscar was released two country with advertisements and here he completed his most famous “You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind legs. But by Wilde’s lover, the famous Bosie. years later he tried to help him out tearing down beautiful buildings. novel, “ Dobson”. standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men.” Max revelled in the circles of Wilde of the country. All this without any When broke out, he felt “The past is a work of art, free of irrelevancies and loose ends.” and Douglas. Although not homo- consideration to his own reputation, In 1910 Max’s life changed dras- a need to be in England, so in 1915 “There is much to be said for failure. It is much more interesting than sexual himself (if anything, Max and although he was strongly criti- tically. In 1904 he had met an they left their beloved house, Villino success.” Beerbohm was probably asexual), cal of Wilde’s way of life. American actress, Florence Kahn, Chiaro, for four years, first staying “Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best.” his dandyism and attitude to life In 1897 the family moved from Hyde and through the years the friend- in a cottage in Gloucestershire and “People seem to think there is something inherently noble and virtuous in made it inevitable that many of his Park Place to 48 Upper Berkley ship had turned into deep affec- later in Bloomsbury. But at the end the desire to go for a walk.” friends were. Street (east of Edgware Road). tion. Florence was a very intelligent of 1919 they were back in Italy Max was married to Florence Kahn ...their mutual friend, Elisabeth “Great men are but life-sized. Most of them, indeed, are rather short.” Another friend from this time was Here he continued his unhurried but also extremely shy person, again and wouldn’t return to Britain for 40 years, and when she died... Jungmann took care of him.