Xtra Diary - Fitting tribute to blind Torriano poet John Heath-Stubbs
Published: 22 October, 2010
ONE of our Grand Old Men of Letters, John Heath-Stubbs – once talked about as a possible poet laureate – will be remembered next Wednesday with the unveiling of a plaque outside his home in Artesian Road, Queen’s Park.
John, who died four years ago aged 88, was blind but got around to venues and readings with the help of friends.
Alan Brownjohn, a poet and novelist who became friends with him at Oxford, admired his “bravery” in dealing with his progressive blindness, which developed in the 1960s.
He said: “I always marvelled at how he handled life as a totally blind or 95 per cent blind man, still managing to get around London.
“I remember once I had arranged to go out for a meal in the West End with Dannie Abse and John.
“Dannie said to the chap at the door there is a blind man who’s going to be joining us in about 20 minutes.
“But somehow John managed to find his way to the restaurant and down into the basement without help.
“He knew London like the back of his hand.”
While in his 70s, John taught at Magdalen College, Oxford, regularly commuting there from Paddington station.
One night he tripped on the platform and fell onto the tracks, causing his friends to worry about whether he would be able to continue making the journey.
He kept on going.
“He was a traditional poet who got us all thinking about shape and form,” said Brownjohn, who will read from John’s work at the unveiling.
“He was a delightful man. You started talking to him and you got things from him that you didn’t get from other people.”
• The green plaque unveiling will take place on October 27 from 12.15pm at 22 Artesian Road, W2.
Artwork for miners
WHEN president Sebastian Pinera flew into London this week to bask in the glow of the successful rescue of the 33 miners in Chile, he brought with him a handful of stones to present to the Queen.
But while others were carried away on a tide of sentimentality following the “miraculous” rescue, Edgware Road gallery founder Robert Gordon McHarg III – known to friends simply as Gordon – was wondering why Pinera hadn’t painted faces on his gifts.
The Canadian artist runs the Subway Gallery, located in an abandoned kiosk in the Westway’s “Joe Strummer” subway.
As a tribute to the miners Gordon, who lives off Church Street, has created a new artwork that sits beside the others in his On the Rocks show, an exhibition of painted stones in his subterranean venue.
“It was something that just happened,” he told Diary on Monday.
“On the Rocks is the name of my exhibition and those miners were on the rocks.
Well, they were under them.
The show was inspired by cave man art, and if you think about it, scribbling on a wall is all about leaving information.”
“Cave art could be something spiritual,” he said.
“Or it could just be about saying, hey such-and-such happened today. Like journalism.”
His piece consists of 33 rocks with eyes painted on them.
“Some look like they are singing the Chilean national anthem,” said.
Now he wanted to send the piece to Chile so it could be presented to the miners themselves.
• The Subway Gallery is at the Edgware Road/ Harrow Road interchange near Edgware Road Tube. www.subwaygallery.com
Regicide revisited – on site
WHITEHALL’S famous Banqueting House will play host to a spectacular site-specific performance tonight (Friday) inspired by the death of a king.
The event is the brainchild of the Live Literature Company, who specialise in dramatising well-known literary works in the places they depict.
Tonight’s performance tells the story of Charles I in the hall the king was led through before his execution in 1649 after the bloody events of the Civil War.
It will also incorporate the political and poetic works of the republican John Milton.
Valerie Doulton, who founded the company, told Diary she hopes tonight’s performance will raise questions about the structure of our government today.
• A Political and Spiritual Challenge to the Nation by the Live Literature Company takes place today (Friday) from 7pm.
Tickets £25, including performance and dinner, available from the Banqueting House, 41 Whitehall, SW1, or call
020 3116 6153. email valerie.jarvis@hrp.org.uk
So who needs a Council House?
THE Marylebone Area Forum – one of a series of events where Westminster residents can confront their councillors – took place at the imposing Council House building in Marylebone Road on Tuesday.
Among the subjects up for discussion were the Olympic marathon route, parking and roadworks.
The next meeting in February promises to be livelier, however.
It will focus on the very future of Council House building itself and that of the library next door.
At Tuesday’s meeting chairwoman Councillor Audrey Lewis said the council was “currently only using 10 per cent” of the Council House site.
Did she mean the council was considering selling off bits of it or simply renting them out?
She would not be drawn on the specifics, simply saying that the subject would be at the top of the agenda at the next meeting.