Remember John’s fight for the Meeting House

Published: 25 February 2010

• CAMDEN has lost a great man in John Rety.
All poets who knew him, admired and respected him and his Sunday evenings at the Torriano Meeting House were not to be missed.
He was a unique and fascinating man, who nurtured new talent and brought to the public’s attention many already established poets like John Hegley or Danny Abse.
I am extremely grateful that I was fortunate enough to get to know John Rety, even though I could see that he was worn out by spending so much time of late, fighting Camden Council for the very survival of the Torriano Meeting House and the punitive rent increases imposed on it.
His struggle to keep the arts alive in a small corner of Camden, against the odds, is to be applauded.
I hope that in his memory Camden Council respect this centre of excellence, which flourished under his stewardship. We will all miss him.
JEAN HALL
Hampstead Lane, N6