31
Oct
Film

The Wicker Man: essential Halloween viewing

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Alex

Crazy pagan dancing, a smattering of nudity, a great folky soundtrack and Christopher Lee in drag combine to make this 1973 chiller a cult classic. It’s essential Halloween viewing and makes the abysmal 2006 remake look about as scary as a salad.

When Sergeant Howie, a devoutly Christian policeman (Edward Woodward), travels to a small Scottish island to trace a missing schoolgirl, he uncovers ungodly rituals, loony locals and a beach-side barbecue that he’d rather not attend. The sizzling finale remains one of the most disturbing sequences on film.

You can follow in Howie’s timorous footsteps on a tour of these top Wicker Man locations:

Plockton, Wester Ross, Scotland
Sergeant Howie’s seaplane is shown touching down in the harbour at Plockton, a picturesque village in the North West Highlands of Scotland. It’s a beautiful spot with sea lochs, wild scenery and a colony of seals.

Plockton

Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
Pronounced kirr-koo-bree, this artists’ enclave in Dumfries and Galloway provided several exterior locations for the Wicker Man which you can easily recognise today. The High Street Gallery, High Street, became May Morrison’s (Irene Sunter) post office and sweetshop, where Sergeant Howie begins his search for the elusive Rowan (Geraldine Cowper). The bakery is the Harbour Cottage Gallery, Castlebank, off Harbour Square.

Culzean Castle, Ayrshire, Scotland
Culzean Castle, a fairy-tale Robert Adam mansion, southwest of Ayr, is the exterior of Lord Summerisle’s (Christopher Lee) mansion. It’s open to the public from the end of March to the end of October.

Culzean Castle

St Ninian’s Cave, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
Howie discovers Rowan alive and well at St Ninian’s Cave just before the film’s grisly climax. Christians believe St Ninian, the cleric who first converted the Scots to Christianity, landed here in the eighth century. Ancient crosses carved into the rock bear witness to the site’s holy pedigree.

Burrowhead, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
The eponymous Wicker Man was built on the cliffs at Burrowhead. Over the years souvenir hunters dismembered the remains of the prop (one of two made for the shoot) leaving only its legs. Sadly, even these were removed by vandals in 2006. Now all you’ll see are two sad looking stumps.

Wicker Man's legs

Images via: Alexandre Dulaunoy, gordontour, I like

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26
Oct
Architecture, Unusual

Halloween special: the UK’s most curious graveyards

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Alex

As Halloween lurches into view for another weekend of tricks, treats and silly outfits, join us on our morbid minibus for a tour of Britain’s grooviest graveyards. Yes, graveyards – great places to relax and soak up some local history.

Greyfriars tomb © Nick in exsilio

Highgate Cemetery, London
If you want a moment’s respite from living London’s rattle and hum it’s the perfect place to come. Sprawling, wild and gorgeously gothic, some of its more famous guests include Karl Marx, Malcolm McClaren and Douglas Adams.

Don’t miss the splendid funerary architecture of the West Cemetery, where highlights include the Egyptian Avenue and a lifelike lion crowning the tomb of Victorian menagerie owner, George Wombwell. Highgate was also the home of the ‘Highgate Vampire’ which reportedly haunted the cemetery in the early 1970s.

Lion (c) i_gallagher

Necropolis, Glasgow
Glasgow’s ‘city of the dead’ is a classic Victorian Garden Cemetery with elaborate mausoleums and tombs. Necropolis graves include crackers designed by Glasgow architects Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson.

Dog cemetery, Edinburgh Castle, Scotland
One of only two dog cemeteries in Scotland, this small patch with views over the city is the burial place of army officers’ dogs and regimental mascots. The pampered pets have been resting in peace here since 1746. You can’t go in but you can get a good view from the parapet above.

Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh
Edinburgh’s famous Greyfriars graveyard is notorious for hauntings, grave robbing, executions and other sundry scary stuff. Take a tour to enter the Black Mausoleum, layer of the malevolent Mackenzie Poltergeist. If you can’t take the chill explore the altogether cuddlier story of Greyfriars Bobby, the faithful terrier who sat on his master’s grave for 14 years.

Greyfriars Bobby (c) H4NUM4N

St Mary’s, Whitby
Inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula and with a wild seaside setting, St Mary’s has plenty of interesting graves. Don’t miss the weird nursery rhyme graves including an egg-shaped tomb for Humpty Dumpty and the grave of a young child marked as ‘Tom Thumb’.

Eyam Parish Church, Peak District
In 1665, the small Derbyshire village of Eyam was hit by an outbreak of plague that killed 260 of its 350 inhabitants. The high death toll was, in part, due to the villagers’ courageous decision to self impose a quarantine to spare neighbouring villages. Villagers were forced to carve their own gravestones as the mason succumbed and a Mrs Hancock buried her husband and six children in the space of eight days. You can see their graves today.

Images by Nick in exsilio, i gallagher, H4NUM4N

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19
Oct
Architecture, Art & Design, Events

Illuminating York: festival of digital arts and lighting

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Alex

York’s annual festival of digital arts and light will set this beautiful city ablaze from 26-29 October. Rediscover some of York’s most famous buildings as large-scale lighting displays are projected in hypnotic patterns around the city. There’ll also be smaller lighting installations and special exhibitions to enjoy. For more information check out the Illuminating York website.

Illuminating York

Illuminating York

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12
Oct
Events, Food

London Cocktail Week

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Alex

This week is London Cocktail Week, a celebration of the capital’s love of hard liquor and high times. Over 200 bars have signed up as official stops on the London Cocktail Week bus tour. Simply register on the website, head to Selfridge’s on Oxford Street, pick up your wristband then hop on the booze bus and enjoy the ride. Each bar will be serving a bespoke cocktail for just £4. For bus timetables, check out the London Cocktail Week website.

Hendrick's Unusual Umbrella EmporiumAs well as the bus tours there are hundreds of other cocktail-centred special events happening across London. We’ve just come from the Hendrick’s Unusual Umbrella Emporium which is open for the rest of the week.

It’s showcasing weird and wonderful cocktail umbrellas created by some of the leading bars across London as well as bizarre brollies for dogs, parasols for smoking pipes and many more. There will, of course, be plenty of Hendrick’s gin cocktails to try plus gin-themed events including an exploration of gin in literature.

For more information and full listings of London Cocktail Week events, check the LCW website. If you’d like to know more about the best cocktails in London and where to find them, check out this great list in the Telegraph newspaper.

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5
Oct
Our faves, Tunes and playlists

Dan’s Jukebox: SBTRKT

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Dan
SBTRKT

Man in the mask, SBTRKT

You might have heard SBTRKT but never realised. (Given he relishes anonymity, it’s unlikely you’ve seen him sans mask, however.) He started out as a DJ at London’s Plastic People and he’s remixed the likes of M.I.A, Radiohead, Basement Jaxx and Mark Ronson.

His eponymous debut was released this year and it’s one of those brilliant albums that takes a whole range of influences - dubstep, Chicago house, electro, two-step -  and fuses them into something new and fresh. The album also features some great guest vocalists including Jessie Ware and Little Dragon lead singer, Yukimi Nagano.

SBTRKT is currently touring the UK, Europe and North America.

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29
Sep
Museums & galleries

Happy Birthday Horatio: Britain’s hero of the high seas

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Alex

Lord Horatio Nelson was born on this day 253 years ago. He’s one of the UK’s most cherished heroes, killed in action by a French sniper at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. He survived long enough to see his fleet clinch victory, and then died in his comrades’ arms.

He is the epitome of the plucky British hero – cool under pressure, devoted to King and country and an all-round jolly good chap. And, despite being a life-long sufferer from acute seasickness, he became the greatest naval hero the UK has ever known.

There are monuments to Nelson all over the world but here are the British ones worth checking out:

Nelson’s Column, Trafalgar Square, London
We all know this one, don’t we? London’s most famous and photographed square is named after the famous sea battle in which Nelson died. In the centre, a statue of him stands guard atop a huge column, looking south, forever protecting Britain from invasion.

It’s one of those sights Londoners are so used to seeing they rarely give it a second look. But did you know that before Nelson’s statue was hoisted into place, the stonemasons working on the column staged a celebratory dinner party at the top? There’s also a replica of Nelson’s ship, HMS Victory, in a bottle on the fourth plinth.

Nelsons Column

Nelson’s Tomb, St Paul’s Cathedral, London
Nelson’s body was transported home from Trafalgar in a barrel of brandy, then given a full state funeral before being laid to rest in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral in an imposing black sarcophagus. He was so loved by his men that the flag covering his coffin was torn to shreds as sailors vied for a keepsake. Nelson’s monument in the south transept is also impressive.

Nelson's tomb (c) Reverend Luke Warm
HMS Victory, Portsmouth
Nelson’s flagship at Trafalgar is a beautifully preserved example of a Georgian warship. Take a tour to learn the brutal reality of ocean-going warfare during the period and see the spot where Nelson fell.

HMS Victory
The Lord Nelson Pub, Norfolk
After all these tales of derring-do, you’ll be in need of a stiff drink. Admiral Nelson’s local, where he grew up in Norfolk, still has the benches that were graced by the naval hero’s behind as well as stone-floors, real ales and a warm welcome. Try the homemade ‘Nelson’s Blood’, a rum-based tipple inspired by the story of sailors taking sneaky sips from the barrel in which his body was preserved after Trafalgar.

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27
Sep
Unusual, Videos

Like cute animals? This post will make you happy

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Alex

A cynical attempt to use cute creatures to boost our ratings it may be, but I defy ANYONE not to find these critters anything but adorable. There’s also a serious point:

Red squirrels are native to Britain but their numbers have dwindled in the face of competition from the disease carrying and more robust American Grey.

These rare reds were rescued when the tail end of Hurricane Katia demolished their nest in Northumberland a few weeks back. Awwwwww.

To find the best places to spot red squirrels in the UK, check out this excellent BBC page.

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21
Sep
Architecture, Art & Design, Museums & galleries, Photos

Dennis Severs’ House: a magical journey into the past

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Alex

Two streets away, Liverpool Street Station swirls with grim-faced commuters; in the pub opposite, early drinkers dissect the working day over pints of lager, and a short stroll west, City traders still stare, transfixed, at banks of screens as share prices fluctuate.

But here down a cobbled street in East London, just yards away from the buzz and hum of the financial district, is Dennis Severs’ House, a refuge of stillness and soft, dancing candlelight. We explore in silence, a little guiltily, as the occupants appear to have just popped out. Meals are left half eaten and uncleared, the smell of spices fills the air and a fire burns merrily in the grate.

Dennis Severs bought the Georgian townhouse at 18 Folgate Street in 1979 and set about transforming it into a glorious stage set. Each room, decorated in a different style, creates a narrative, a journey through time where you experience the sights, smells, sounds and changing fortunes of a family of weavers through the ages. If you’re a Dickens fan you’ll love the top floor, a spartan, tatty garret that’s straight out of Oliver Twist.

It’s hard to envisage a more immersive, atmospheric trip into the past. If you want to experience the East London of your imagination, this is the place to do it.

Dennis Severs’ House is open Monday evenings 6-9pm (last entry 8.15pm, £12 per person), Sunday afternoon 12-4pm (last entry 3.15pm, £8 per person) and Monday lunchtime following first and third Sundays 12-2pm (last entry 1.30pm, £5 per person).

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16
Sep
Art & Design, Museums & galleries

Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Dan
Degas

The Royal Academy in London finishes the year with the exhibition, Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement.

The exhibition showcases the work of Edgar Degas from 1870 onwards, when the artist focused on the world of ballet and ballerinas and strove to overcome the technical limitations of capturing the movement of dancers on canvas. Degas’ drawings and paintings have a light, rich and luminous quality but also communicate the physical precision of the ballet. Onstage, his subjects are poised, elegant and graceful, while pieces like The Rehearsal and The Dance Class offer an unsentimental glimpse into the dancers’ private worlds.

Also on display is Degas’ sculpture Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen along with a series of rarely seen drawings of the sculpture taken from every angle, a method now more commonly associated with cinematography. Pieces by contemporaries working in film and photography, including works by Eadweard Muybridge and the Lumière brothers, demonstrate the influence of these burgeoning forms on the artist and put his obsessive devotion to movement into context.

The final room shows a single looping clip by Sacha Guivley of Degas, unaware he has been captured on film, as he walks down the street. It’s a fitting coda to a brilliant exhibition, that rightly celebrates Degas, ‘The Painter of Dancers’, as a master of movement.

Degas and the Ballet : Picturing Movement is showing at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, from 17 September-11 December.

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15
Sep
Events, Food

Britain’s smelliest cheese

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Alex

Consistently voted Britain’s most foul-smelling cheese, Stinking Bishop has to be whiffed to be believed. It’s been described as smelling like something between a ‘rugby club changing room’ and ‘old nappies’. I once bought some as gift and made the mistake of transporting it with me by train. There’s no containing the smell – even when the offender is swaddled in layers of plastic, a cardboard box and wrapping paper.

Stinking Bishop

So why has this cheese, washed in the perry from Stinking Bishop pears, become so popular? Well, surprisingly, it tastes delicious; more subtle than the odour implies, creamy and full. It also had a major helping hand when it featured in the 2005 animated film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit where its pungent powers are used to bring Wallace back to life.

You can try Stinking Bishop, along with 400 other British cheeses at the Great British Cheese Festival at Cardiff Castle on 24/25 September.

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