theoldmortuary has been a blog for about five years. It has evolved into an almost daily event. Pondering on the things that are inspired by my daily life. Often mundane, sometimes repetitive I swerve from hyperlocal activity to big and small thoughts without blinking an eye. I am an artist and writer. My hometown is Plymouth in South West England, part of me will always be connected to London and another part loves to travel.
Golden September, this time of year we are usually starting to raid the holiday box for clothes appropriate to September in Greece. This year of curiousness found us delving into the box earlier and for hometown pleasures.
We’ve been regularly sea swimming for the last 6 weeks. The recent good weather has expanded swimming time right up until the last moments of daylight.
Last night we realised that we are swimming far later into the day than we ever would on a holiday. It was nearly high tide when we swam last night and the promenade above the rocky coves of Devils Point was crowded with people who had taken, or were about to take, a sunset dip.
One local resident was puzzled by the large amount of humans.
He didn’t have too long to wait before the sunset chased us all out of the water.
As a non-Plymothian my interaction with Union Street in its prime was very limited. Visits to friends in the city nearly always took in a trip to the famous Plymouth Street, but it wasn’t until the eighties when I moved to the area that it became the location of work nights out.
There was a film made in 1982 set on Union Street that was part of the early output of Channel 4 . Remembrance must have done the rounds at Arthouse cinemas because although I’ve seen it I’m fairly certain there was no Channel 4 coverage in Brighton, where I was living at the time. It was filmed only a couple of years after I had last visited the street as a tourist and before I lived locally. It is the story of a last night out for naval ratings prior to a six month deployment in the U.S. It does not end well.
Last run ashore is also the subject of the lyrics of Union Street ( Last Post) by West Country Folk band, Show of Hands. The playing of the Last Post, in this song, is a chilling reminder that Union Street would have been the ‘Last Run’ not only ashore but also in any earthly Pleasure Dome for many serving servicemen.
Union Street was not always a street famous for night clubs and evening shenanigan’s although that is what defines it. When the street was first built in 1815 to link three waterfront towns it housed prosperous families. Later when the Theatres were built the area began to attract other venues and providers of after hours entertainment. Union Street become known for drunkenness and libidinous behaviour long before Plymouth, formed of the three towns of Plymouth, Devonport and East Stonehouse, became a city in 1928.
The area was heavily bombed in the second world war but Union Street as a destination for a night out thrived and grew out of the rubble. Nightlife always creates a heady mix of pleasure and excitement but there is usually a side order of lawlessness and aggression that is not so comfortable. In the ‘good’ times both regular and military police patrolled the area. Nearby residents were uncomfortable in their streets and many stayed safe indoors on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
It was the hedonism of 90’s club culture that tipped the balance for Union Street. Clubs and bars started to close as the drug culture changed the way things had always been. Lifestyle changes and technology around dating combined with massive cuts in the numbers of people employed by the Navy also fueled the slow burn demise of Union Street as a party place.
The residents are still there though amid the shadowy and decaying grand buildings, awaiting a master plan, people still go about their daily lives . For the last few years people rather than partygoers are shaping the area. Local residents held their annual street party last weekend.
Coronovirus restrictions made it less vibrant than the last few years but it always brings a smile . It is the most multicultural part of Plymouth and the smells wafting from the street food stalls demonstrate this better than anything. The weather was kind and people were happy. Union Street is waiting…
Lockdown @theoldmortuary changed many things , some things stayed the same.Today we received half of a prize that represents change and we await the half that represents no change. This is to encourage anyone who sees those ‘share and comment’ posts on Instagram for a chance to win a prize. The prizes are real and random people win them.
Our reading habits changed during Lockdown. Hannah completely lost the ability to commit to a book. I lost the focus for the kind of books I like to read and developed a thirst for foreign based detective drama. We weren’t unusual, everyone in my book group reported changes in genre choice. None of us managed to read the classics or ‘ difficult’ books that you might imagine time and limited life choices might allow.
Today we received the first part of our prize. 4 books fromhttps://www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/ Neither of us are thriller readers but with changes in reading style so fresh in our minds and a gift of books, now must be the time.
Coffee and the pursuit of excellence is unchanged @theoldmortuary . Our prize will come from https://extractcoffee.co.uk/ A company we have used to send us lovely coffee by post.
What a clever coupling, books and coffee. Perfection would be enjoying both in a foreign place beside a pool. What may well happen is a flask of good coffee, a book and some warm clothes after a swim at the only pool available to us.
Tidal Pool, Devils Point, PlymouthTidal Pool, Devils Point ,Plymouth
A vision of the Mewstone means that @theoldmortuary it is dog grooming day. Now we are addicted to sea swimming it no longer means coastal path walks and coffee. It means 2 hours of swimming without dogs waiting not so patiently for us on the beach. Serendipity is a funny thing, when I was doing training at The Box, mentioned in Pandemic Pondering #220 I met a woman who had lived close to us in London, we discovered this when she commented on my tote bag.
East Dulwich Tote Bag
In London we lived 2 miles apart, in Devon/ Cornwall 13 miles divides us. We met for the first time last Thursday and today by complete co incidence we sat next to each other on the beach at Wembury. Tomorrow despite neither of us wishing to work at The Box on a Tuesday we find ourselves both rota’d to do our first days work, in the new museum and art gallery, as you read this blog. It seems we were destined to meet somehow. Luckily neither of us were hiding behind the ubiquitous British windbreak. Less about protecting from the wind and more about defining territory I often think.
September 13th often gives us the gift of sunshine. It was Hannah’s mums birthday and we were always able to plan a birthday picnic for her, safe in the knowledge that the sun would shine.
This morning we started the day with a sunshine yellow breakfast. Sweetcorn fritters, bacon and egg.
A morning spent doing Sunday stuff, including clearing up fragile, ageing, yellow roses.
Then a trip to Union Street for a Street Party, more about that later in the week.
Sunflowers bought on Union Street replaced the discarded roses.
We drove home to Cornwall through Dartmoor to hunt out some overnight stops for a future staycation.
Driving into Widecome was beautiful this morning. I was probably about 10 when I last visited , not much has changed which is as it should be in a National Park.
Home to find the Order of Service for my Uncles funeral had arrived in the post.
The Pandemic has certainly altered our way of marking death. As previously discussed in Pandemic Pondering I wonder how things will be when we have shrugged off the restrictions imposed by Covid-19.
The current restrictions of only 30 mourners means that for many people the receipt of an order of service is the only connection possible to celebrate the life of someone important.
I’m not sure grief in isolation is a good thing, something we are all getting used to but not a practice that will be good for us as a society or as individuals in the long run. Memorial services may help but as the numbers stack up of people we’ve loved and lost in 2020 the unreality of the situation becomes quite abstract.
When life is tough on the mind taking a little time out with a puppy is a lovely treat.
Today was a personal grooming kind of day. The eyebrows that scatter themselves around my supraorbital ridge need corralling into tidy brows every now and again. They also require dyeing to give my ageing face some defining features. It never ceases to amaze me that so much eyebrow is removed with waxing, plucking and threading and yet I leave the calm of the salon with freshly honed eyebrows that look thicker and more verdant than I walked in with.
It is described as a lifestyle store and cafe, both of these functions are gloriously styled with idiosyncratic lighting, fixtures, merchandise and fittings.
There is an intoxicating smell of good food, coffee and old leather.
The old leather is the smell I wish I could link to. It instantly transported me back to a time when close proximity to leather clad musicians or art students was a thing. The vibe at Rust and the Wolf is more biker really but where a smell takes anyone back to is a personal thing.
How this wonderful place emerged in Ashburton, a town that feels genteel,is slightly puzzling. The coffee , food and the Lifestyle store is a heady mix of sensory pleasure that is a little rougher, in a good way than you might expect from a small market town.
Today was filled with training at The Box. Internal photos are top secret until the new gallery/museum/cultural centre opens properly to the public. Where once there was a building site there is now a nearly ready gallery, museum and archive.
Now the building is all fitted out the room plans and layout make much more sense than they did in the days of hard hat tours, and wearing comfy shoes was so much more pleasant today than steel toe capped wellies of my previous visits.
What is The Box?
It is a museum, gallery, and archive in the centre of Plymouth, and is the biggest cultural initiative in the U.K to be opened in this memorable year of 2020. Covid-19 restrictions have caused the opening to be delayed and guest numbers will be restricted for the foreseeable future.
The original City Museum and Art Gallery has been extended and now it hi incorporates the old City Library. Both of these historic Plymouth buildings have a shining ‘ Box’ behind and above them. The eponymous box houses the Archives and gracefully imposes itself on the city skyline above the new main entrance. Outside the main entrance there is a new car-free, paved Plaza that will be the location of outdoor events in the future but also links the new Contemporary Art space that was formerly St Luke’s Church.
While we are only able to think outside of the box, I wonder what my fellow ‘word nerds’ think about this foundation stone?
Proper job or not proper job? *
* ‘Proper job’ in this part of the country is a term of praise, sometimes extended to ” Proper job, ‘ansome’
Follow the link above to read about the thoughts behind the Artwork.
Briefly Speedwell was a ship destined to make the journey to the New World but was considered not to be seaworthy. The Mayflower was used to sail the settlers to the New World and grabbed the headlines.
Three words are illuminated in a random sequence and are there to provoke thoughts about many things both historical and contemporary.
The installation will be in situ for 3 months. The words do make you think, particularly on a day when Britain tightens controls on public freedom as part of the Covid-19 restrictions.
Thought provoking enough whenever this artwork was commissioned , unexpectedly pertinent currently.
No New Worlds is a new art installation in Plymouth it has a profound message which deserves its own blog. Contrarily @theoldmortuary has discovered new worlds while the installation was being constructed. We first encountered it when we went on the Dockyards and Warships boat trip. A New World, or an old world rediscovered for us. The installation was being constructed on the Mountbatten Break Water, we saw it as we sailed out of Plymouth Sound, at the time we didn’t know it was a significant commissioned Art Work.
Another New World for us is open water or Wild Swimming. We can see the sign from many of our new found bathing spots.
As an aside I had a very strange swim today which was also a bit of a new world. Maybe a little Queen World.
While swimming at Devils Point I was suddenly surprised by HMS Albion steaming towards me, towed by two powerful tugs. It is not every day that I am saluted by an entire ships company as I bob along in the sea. Obviously they were doing the salutations just for me. I so enjoyed the moment I couldn’t take a photo until the ship had passed by. A ship’s backside is an interesting change from the usual dog bottom in this blog.
Apparently this ship is the Swiss Army Knife of the Royal Navy. That’s quite a claim, I wonder where the corkscrew is?
I can say that not only did I experience a moment of Queenliness with the delightfully polite young persons saluting me. I also experienced a bit of Dolphinliness, the ship created quite a vibration in the water and some waves.
Another New World for @theoldmortuary was visiting the Mount Batten Breakwater, a place we had never visited before. We went to be up close to the Artwork to research and photograph for the proper blog tomorrow.
theoldmortuary.design 