Phoenix Garden Agricultural Show and St Giles Fayre

1 September was St Giles' Day, and the fourth Phoenix Garden Agricultural Show, held in the community garden and the churchyard, at St Giles' Church, near Tottenham Court Road. It's our third time there.

 

There were farm animals, a Punch and Judy, and the lovely Crystal Palace Brass Band.

Half the audience knew Myrtle by name, and she got some left-over sausages.

  

   
  
 As often happens, photos are of jigs...

  

  

The Fiddler's Elbow, 15 July

We opened a charity event at The Fiddler's Elbow, a music venue which like London Pride, is "legendary".


The event was in aid of the Children's Society's campaign to Make Runaways Safe. Runaway children are at very serious risk and youth work has been hit very hard by the government's austerity measures.

At the moment, local authorities are letting a lot of runaway children slip through the net.The Children's Society has put together a Runaways' Charter, and the campaign aims to get all local authorities to sign up to it.

We support this, and we urge you all to do the same.

The charity had laid on a day with 11 bands in ten hours, starting with us, outside the pub attempting to encourage people in.

We enjoyed it, and members of the audience were seen to be smiling and tapping their feet.

At least none of them actually ran away from us...

Chelsea, 10 July

We danced at the Anglesea Arms, Selwood Terrace, and then at The Scarsdale Tavern, Edwardes Square.

I don't have pictures form the Anglesea Arms - the usual moderately interested crowd - and I don't have pictures of the whole side dancing. Here are a couple of Nick dancing, and Peter playing, the Nutting Girl. 




We had an interesting talk after the dancing with a resident, who told us how Edwardes Square was the place where rampant over-development was first resisted in 1812, leading to the formation and preservation of this and other London squares.  Apparently Lord Kensington picked a Frenchman, Louis Léon Changeur, to do the redevelopment, and that wasn't very politically astute in those times... 

The Big Dance, Horniman Museum, 8 July

The Horniman Museum's Big Dance Picnic had to take place mostly indoors, thanks to the weather. We were there along with Bo Diddlers - we believe they are from the Royal Ballet - and the Old Palace Clog. 

We didn't get to see the other teams dance, but there are some photos on the Big Dance site.

And here are our own pictures. We danced outside, and then inside.... 

London's Answer to the Saddleworth Rushcart

(not any doing of London Pride Morris Men...)
I went around a corner on Sunday and bumped into a Juggernaut:

... Or more accurately a Jagannatha celebration I couldn't help thinking that there had maybe some synchronicity between this and the Saddleworth Rush Cart

Morris Dancer v Diablo

I have to share this image sent to me by Izaak:
(should I add that Diablo is a computer game that I have been known to play?)

More West Wickham Pictures

Ken Bryan and Lucy Wood from West Wickham have sent us pictures and thanks for our performance at the Diamond Jubilee Fair there. Here they are. Lucy's is the last one, the rest are from Ken. 

West Wickham Diamond Jubiliee

Saturday 2 June, we danced at the West Wickham Diamond Jubilee fete, ably supported by musicians from Jeremy's Black Pig band.

We started at the Swan for lunch and a show outside the pub, then headed down to the grass arena at the Coney Hall Recreation Ground.

The only photos I have are of Jeremy dancing to Peter's hurdy gurdy.

Thank you all for coming to my neck of the woods!

Angel Festival painting

Beryl Windsor who organises the Angel Canal Festival sent me a rather wonderful picture painted by her son-in-law Nick Walker of LPMM dancing in 2011
(apologies that it's taken a couple of months before posting it!)

We're dancing on the zebra crossing outside the Prince of Wales
Beryl has some photos too, she says: "the ones I like best are where there are no feet touching the ground!"


We'll be back this year on the first Sunday in September, looking forward to it

Notting Hill

We were in Notting Hill on Thursday, to the Elephant and Castle, where we've been coming for 50 years or more, since the legendary days when the club would retire to Webber's rooms locally, and the Gedford Bardens tradition was formed, and, to one of our favourite pubs: the Uxbridge Arms, in what locals call "Hillgate Village"
It's just tucked away south of Notting Hill gate itself but there's quite a different feel than the bleak modernity of the bit by the underground station

Here's a photo of us outside the Uxbridge Arms, which is all decked out for the Jubilee: