DannyB

Radical St Pancras – Part 2

Friedrich Engels lived in 122 Regents Park Road from 1870 to 1895. Jenny Marx, the wife of Karl, had helped him house hunting. Jenny and Karl were frequent visitors, as were many members of the European revolutionary socialist movement. Wilhelm Liebknecht (‘Library’ as he was nick named by the Marx children), August Bebel, Karl Kautsky,Continue reading “Radical St Pancras – Part 2”

Abstraction, distraction

A different walk for a change of scene. I like all the abstraction and colour that can be found and how it changes with the light and tides. But this abstraction was in fact a distraction for things I should be getting on with. Still, it was pleasant to be absorbed in what felt likeContinue reading “Abstraction, distraction”

A Universe of Stone

We were in Norwich with plans. None of which involved the history of the city with it’s medieval churches and history of banking and insurance. Those must wait for other days. But we had to go into the town, and in the space of an hour managed to see a great deal. The city needsContinue reading “A Universe of Stone”

Look both ways

The relations of production are invisible. People work hereDesk topslaptopsendless powerpoint presentationsof great corporationscultureof great corporationsambitionsaims and objectivesmission statementsA red angle poise lamp In offices, at workstations,in the streetrailway stationsunderground andconstruction What strange symmetryof these contradictions and tensions

The Revolution could be televised

Does there need to be an explanation? I’m not sure myself how I came to be in St Pancras Way. There are of course factors. I had been to the office, had a ticket for a train, wanted a change of scene. On 99 out of 100 occasions when I arrive at St Pancras stationContinue reading “The Revolution could be televised”

These rafts carried life across dangerous seas

Toil and work are two separate things. Toil is what one must. For money. This critical fact is badly neglected. Whole books are written, television programmes, films, myriad newspaper articles without acknowledging this basic necessity. And yet even with immense amounts of toil immense numbers of people never have enough. And other people who toilContinue reading “These rafts carried life across dangerous seas”

The bus to Swingfield Street

There can be a certain camaraderie on an early morning bus. Today it was the driver, myself, a large man with a walking stick, two women in their sixties or seventies and a younger man covered in tattoos who spent the whole journey ‘doing something’ on his phone. Buses take you on journeys through aContinue reading “The bus to Swingfield Street”

Southwark Industrial

It is imagined that the destruction of London was in the past. That now a benign power rules the city and that only rational decisions are made. Decisions which only critical critics can make. But the city isn’t ruled at all. It is out of control. The power that shapes everything – regardless of aestheticContinue reading “Southwark Industrial”

HG Wells in Sandgate

HG Wells lived in three houses in Sandgate between 1899 and 1909. He initially moved to the seaside because of poor health and rented houses in Castle Street and Granville Road. He clearly liked Sandgate and following his earlier literary success he commissioned the architect CFA Voysey to design a house for himself and hisContinue reading “HG Wells in Sandgate”

Marx & Engels at the Seaside – Ramsgate Part One

Karl Marx and his family – Jenny his wife, their children Jennychen, Laura and Tussy (Eleanor) and live-in help and long-term family friend, Helene Demuth (Lenchen), all spent time at the seaside. Friedrich Engels too, with his long term partner Lizzie Burns and her niece Mary Ellen, known as ‘Pumps’. Marx sometimes went alone toContinue reading “Marx & Engels at the Seaside – Ramsgate Part One”