Garcia at the Camden Eye

Saturday night and I was supposed to be going to a gig at the Garage. But it was suddenly postponed. A little digging on the internet explained why. A member of the Lilacs had just been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Damned good excuse for postponing a gig in my books!

So that left me kicking my heels. I looked to see if there was anything on at any of the pub venues that might appeal to me. Nothing much did, but the Camden Eye stated that they were holding an afternoon free gig. Given I have a freedom pass, I thought I have literally nothing to lose so would give it a go. No band or bands, or even genre, were mentioned, so truly lucky dip.

What I found was just one band, who as it turned out played more than an hour longer than advertised. The band was called Garcia, and they played sort of bluesy rock, a combination of a little of their own material plus a lot of classics, like Satisfaction, Jumping Jack Flash, Born to Be Wild. 

To put it mildly it was a slow start. Initially the band members outnumbered the audience. And they were a trio! But it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

As soon became clear, and they said themselves, this was partially improvised. Before every song there was a discussion, occasionally lengthy, about what they should play next. They made an unlikely looking group, the bassist looking like Chewbacca dressed up as as a hippie, Carlos nattily attired with hat and pencil moustache and Phillip on drums appearing not to have got the invite with the dress code (although comfortably the best dressed in my opinion in t-shirt and jeans. Keep it simple!)

So they did a set before going off for a fag break, by which time the audience was nudging double figures. The sort of crowd that if you left you felt you had to personally explain to the band why. As some people did.

At one point the lead guitarist, Carlos, walked to the back of the room (its not a big room) where a young man was standing with his skateboard, which,  he asked to borrow and while still playing proceeded to skate backwards across the room and attempt a flip.You wouldn't see a Gallagher brother do that! They also offered me a can of beer, which was sweet but I declined in favour of my pint of rhubarb cider.

What became clear to me very early on is that the three of them could really play, although not actually my preferred style of music. I decided on balance to get another drink and stay for the second session. And I was very glad I did as then the audience started to grow and the atmosphere warmed up.

One interesting aside, Carlos is Spanish and speaks with a distinct Spanish accent, Woody, the bass guitarist, has a strong Geordie accent, but none of this comes across in their singing voices at all. All three including the very good drummer had very decent voices. Also being a trio the drummer was rather more in the forefront than generally in four pieces where the drummer usually gets relegated to the background. Here he was literally centre stage (if there was a stage, which there wasn't😂)

By the end of the third session, during which I felt the need for a third pint (which was probably one too many) the place was really rocking. Just a very good experience, particularly as was free. And if I saw them playing again I would definitely be happy to pay admission.

Pimlico Walk

Nice morning, extended daylight hours, so I thought today was the day for a long walk. Pimlico was the destination.

Starting at Pimlico tube station, which includes one important piece of public art - this Paolozzi sculpture masking a ventilation shaft.

Bet you didn't know tennis had a father. Apparently this Pimlico resident wrote the modern lawn tennis rule book, and even took out a patent on it!

A cabmen's shelter (from the days when cab drivers drove horse drawn carriages) on St Georges Square

The characteristic of Pimlico is the Georgian Terrace, almost all designed by the great (and prolific) early 19th century builder , Thomas Cubitt. Below, at the edge of St George's Square is the childhood home of the actor Laurence Olivier.

Opposite stands St Saviour's, designed post Cubitt

Quite a few famous folk lived in the area, even if it never was the most fashionable part of town. 

St Georges Square Gardens are very impressive, but very much not square. Rather this is a long rectangular "square" behind the church, with long Italianate terraces down both sides,although one side has been partly taken out by WWII bombing. But it is joyously open to the public unlike many Georgian squares in London, including others in Pimlico. Still a bit early for much in the way of flowers, but the camelias are out in force.

Beyond the gardens is the Thames

And what would have been the outflow from the River Tyburn. By Cubitt's time it had been covered over and used a sewer

These two buildings, Rio Cottage and Tyburn House, straddled the sluice gate for the sewer

One can then follow the Thames Path

Pimlico Gardens forms a brief patch of greenery on the Thames. Below is a statue of the luckless statesman William Huskisson, in full Roman senator garb as befits an early 19th century politician. I say luckless as his lasting "fame" is that he was the first person in history to be killed in a train accident. Indeed killed by the first ever train - Stephenson's Rocket. He was apparently trying to cross the tracks to meet the Duke of Wellington but misjudged the speed of the locomotive, as well you might since motorised transport of any sort was a new fangled invention.

Further down the road is the massive Art Deco development of Dolphin Square, which has attractive gardens within

Almost next door is the even more massive post war Churchill Gardens Estate. Rather the opposite of the Dolphin Square development, it is very ugly and just looks cheaply built, as no doubt it was in that post war building boom necessitated by German bombing of this area of London. But you can't get a more striking comparison of cheap and awful on one side of the road, below...

..and the elegant terrace on the other, although both are examples of high density housing with the same number of floors. Design does not always advance for the better....

This particularly sweet little terrace is Thomas Parade

Below is the striking Italianate Western Pumping Station, from a time when you masked your grimmest industrial buildings to make them look like palaces.

Grosvenor Canal

Another example of highly decorous social housing from an earlier era - the Peabody Estate

Back to the Cubitt designed houses for the upper middle classes...

A bit of bomb damage opened up a spot for a catholic church - the Holy Apostles Church - by far the least impressive construct in the area

A rather nicer looking church, from a century before, is St Gabriel's

Next to St Gabriel's is another gothic revival building, but a secular one, built as an artist's studio as well as house

Warwick Square which is lovely, but its garden s are closed, so best I could do was hold the camera above the railings and shoot blind

Eccleston Square Mews, once stabling for the grand houses but now highly desirable housing itself. Would look much more attractive if not for all the cars parked in the narrow lane

The Marquis of Westminster pub, sweetly named after a teetotaller!

St James the Less, and especially nice looking Gothic revival church

Having completed that circuit of Pimlico I finished by visiting Tate Britain since I was in the vicinity.

They had a little Stubbs exhibition

Unfortunately the gallery of British art has been taken over by the Woke brigade so they have down graded the art bit and gone for puerile history. Captions that might once have pointed out some particular skill of the artist now just find any convoluted reference to the slave trade, sometimes speculating that some aspect might refer to slavery (or equally might refer to anything else), or some ridiculously contrived method of referring to it when painting has nothing to do with the subject, eg a painting of a tea party with the description noting that tea is a bitter drink, and needed to be sweetened with sugar, harvested by enslaved people etc. And rooms largely devoted to great artworks are leavened by shockingly rubbish modern works that frankly could have been salvaged from a skip, and would have been better left there.

On the plus side though, visitor numbers to the Tate have been much reduced as a result, so now I can wander around in almost empty galleries!