Category Archives: History

The Queen’s Head II

I had a look at the planning application for the Queen’s Head this evening. Regrettably, the application is for a proposed conversion to 14 (yes, 14) bedsits.

I’d clearly misread the Council notice in the street, concluding that the proposal related to flats. Since this is a conservation area, there aren’t major exterior changes.

The pub may have been pretty nasty, and it’d be wrong for an old building (already in a poor state of repair), to slowly fall apart. But a conversion to bedsits feels to be simply a money making venture, with little regard to either the conservation area or the community.

The Queen’s Head

The Queen’s Head, just down the road, has never been my most favourite pub. It clearly had a good life in the 80s, judging by the decor, but has since been sadly neglected.

But, old pubs (I must confess that the above is a five year-old picture from the internet) should have a future; they should have a role in the community. And maybe make a profit too. The Queen’s Head hasn’t been doing very well of late, customers were few in number over the past year or so, then the bar closed a little while back.

Just a year or two ago, the place was really busy, so I don’t quite understand what went wrong. The recession?Â But the beer was cheap. Bad (and changes of) management, I think. The Traveller’s Rest is at risk too, I suspect.

You know when a pub is nearing the end when there’s a karaoke most nights. I’m not exactly sure when theÂ Queens actually closed, but it was pretty recent.

The sad thing is that, prior to it’s 20th Century modernisation, the pub was pretty lovely. The top floor is clearly a modern addition, but I’m unclear as to when this was added.

I have to admit that I’ve been hoping for years that someone would spend a little money and restore the building to its former glory. But that’s not going to happen.

I guess it’s irrelevant now though; the place is closed and there’s an application to convert it to flats.

The Old Cannon, just a bit further down the road, and with a lot more history (just look it up), closed some time before the Queens. It, however,Â (and, fortunately) has no rear access for parking, so I’m hoping it may survive.

Mars

A view of Mars in a hundred years or so.

Well, a view of the future from 1960. Apparently, the Earth is at risk of becoming ‘a mass of boiling mud’. A rogue spaceship, controlled only by its ‘electronic brain’, is destined for collision. Fortunately, an attempt is to be made to reach the spaceship, Alpha Two, from Venus. And Venus is just a short trip from Mars.

Oh, a detour must first be made to rescue people from a lost ‘space taxi’.

Assignment Outer Space (1960). I need to stop watching this rubbish; I’m not twelve any more.

The pit

Quatermass and the Pit, that is.

Quatermass

Or rather, Quatermass ii. The whole series, from 1955, is on YouTube. The film quality isn’t brilliant, but it matches my (very young) childhood memory. The sound’s surprisingly good though; I’m assuming it’s been cleaned up.

It’s so bad, it’s actually quite good. Quatermass and the Pit next I think. It won’t take long to watch this series, since they’re only half hour episodes.

Before you consider viewing too, be warned that it’s unsuitable for children or those of a nervous disposition.

Hoppity (and Sara)

Recent events brought back old memories of (very) early childhood TV viewing. As a young child, I found TV quite boring. Children’s TV, that is. I pretty much tolerated Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men, possibly only because Little Weed was kind of cute. In a British middle class sort of way.

I never understood Bill or Ben though.

I also struggled a little with Sara and Hoppity.

Sara Brown has a toy as naughty can be, and he starts to sing when you wind up his key. One leg is much shorter, but give him a chance, and he will tell you how he can manage to dance;

Dear old Hoppity, naughty Hoppity, there is no toy as naughty can be;

Clever Hoppity, lovely Hoppity, he sings tiddly dum and he sings tiddly dee …

And it goes on in some weird, demented kind of way. That was a tiny piece of the theme tune: a tiny piece is enough.

The series was made in 1960, slightly before my time, but there was a lot of repetition on TV in those days. To me, in around 1965, it was new. And horrible. One can’t help but wonder how anyone could have imagined that such shit could have been of benefit to young children.

There’s a video or two on YouTube; I couldn’t bring myself to add I’m sure that such programmes must have damaged many children, now middled aged adults.

Red Alert

I’m not really into computer games, but I did once have a favourite; Command & Conquer, Red Alert. That was a long time ago, the late 90s, early 2000s. I often played the game with my youngest child, across our home network.

It wouldn’t compete nowadays, although there have been several more modern versions.

Anyway, there’s now openra, a cross platform browser based incarnation. It uses reverse engineered code and works pretty well too. Best of all, it runs fine under Linux.

Well worth a look, it’s free after all.

The auction chairs

While living at the old house in Washington, I think it was around 2002, I bought some chairs in an auction. I’d not actually seen the chairs, since the auction was in Welwyn Garden City and I was home at the time. And phones generally didn’t have cameras in those days.

I bought the set of four chairs for twelve quid; cheap, but they did look a bit rough. Someone had attempted to replace the seats (an old man in Kent, I believe) and there’d been a degree of butchery involved.

They might have been a little messed up, but I loved them. I’d guess they’re early 1900s, but they’re made from decent hardwood.

Life was pretty busy at the time, so I stored them in the loft until there was time to do something with them. But they were still there when I moved to this house a couple of years later. And so they were transferred to another loft.

Where they’d since remained until today. After eleven years in this particular loft, I’ve retrieved the chairs because my sister has a use for them.

I’d have loved to keep them, but I bought them for a much larger house and they simply wouldn’t fit into our tiny abode.