End of term

Sunday past to the Wigmore Hall for the last outing of the season. We still have a land slip just outside Epsom station, on the Waterloo line, so we settled for the Victoria line - via Norbury, where I once lived for a year or so as a student - just down the road from a very good English baker - by then a dying breed. A rather long way round, but there was a half hour service.

Digger action

Raptor?

Circus one

From the town end of platform 4, we were treated to our first site of digger action at the landslip, which looked substantial and included the arrival of a quarry lorry full of something or other. And as we left, a dead bird tucked under an electrical connection cable. It looked a bit like a raptor, but given the state it was in, it was hard to be sure. And anyway, how did it get under the cable?

Circus two

There was also some debate about whether the advertised circus would be on the big stage, of the RFH, once pretty much reserved for performances of classical music for the educated minority. I voted for yes, and in the event was proved right, as neighbours took children. It seems the animals - puppets with people inside - were very good. But I think I might miss the atmosphere of the tent. Which this morning leads me to wonder in what sort of place the Moscow circus performs when it is at home? Proscenium arch or in the round? A few moments with Bing and Wikipedia said that the answer was in the round. The only remaining puzzle being why what was said to be its home tent was labelled in English.

College

A close encounter with the other side of the Battersea Power Station redevelopment, some of which seem to be actually finished, although still no construction activity that we could see. We also noticed the elaborately named 'Sir Simon Milton Westminster University Technical College', which reference 2 suggests is a rebranded version of what was called 'the tech' in my school days. Now also rebranded, as the Anglia Ruskin University. As far as I can make out the Milton one is grant funded, rather than some private operation.

Arrived at Victoria Station to inspect the small size Christmas tree. But it came with pedals and handles to work the lights, so we had a go at that. And they worked. As did some rather tiresome music.

Station relatively quiet, tube busy, Oxford Circus quiet, with shops not on stream. Made our way to All-Bar-One where BH was pleased to find that smarties were back on stream, although we wondered whether the glass they came in had got smaller, it now being a small shot glass with a big steal.

The archived programme

The saved programme

For the first time ever the concert was to be given by a chamber group, the Cassadó Ensemble, of which a majority were people of colour, African colour to be precise. People of such colour are rare enough in the audience, and even rarer on the stage. Limited, as far as we could recall, to the occasional singer. We learned that this particular group got about a bit, so perhaps the musical establishment was making good use of what little diversity it had. Hopefully they won't be overexposed and spoiled. On this occasion the hall was full and we have even been bumped down to the relegation zone, that is to say row 'M', rather than our usual row 'I'. A modest number of people of colour in the audience - and given their youth, possibly even doting families, but we did not actually spot any such.

The programme was a Fauré trio, Op.120 (unknown to us) and a Dvořák piano quintet, Op.81, (very well known to us). We both found the performance of both rather loud and jangly. Lots of youthful energy. Some glitter on the ladies. Not without merit, but certainly in the case of the Dvořák, not what we were used to. The encore, something to do with Dvořák and the moon, possibly an arrangement of the 'Song to the Moon' from his opera 'Rusalka' (drawn from a Czech fairy tale), was much more what we were used to. The rest of the audience was very enthusiastic about all of it.

Decided against lunch in town in favour of a return visit to the Clapham Junction of reference 1, which we made by 1330 or so.

The M&S warehouse turned out to be much more like a regular M&S inside than I had expected, with most of the sort of stuff on offer here at Epsom. Good wine selection, poor spirits selection - and no Calvados. Tried Waitrose where there was lots of fast food, a good wine selection and a very poor spirits selection - and still no Calvados. Do the bright young things of Clapham not do spirits at home?

Top half of an original door

Fancier dome than the Falcon

General view

The back stairs

Settled for lunch in the very pleasant cafeteria at Debenhams, that is to say the once grand Arding & Hobbs. A good quality baked potato with cheese and beans, pleasantly served in a quiet cafeteria, with just a hint of background music. Much evidence of former grandeur visible in and around the building. We wondered what the cafeteria had started life out, with its fancy, domed ceiling. Had it started as a tea room with waitresses togged out in lacey whites and gradually morphed into the present operation? Was the lift shaft in the back stairs original? State of the art when it was put in in 1910 or so?

But, sadly, a big old building ripe for redevelopment. Past its sell by date, the efforts of the man from Sports Direct notwithstanding. Efforts which included a chunk of its space being given over to said Sports Direct, despite their being a proper branch across the road, and an even bigger chunk of space being given over to TK Maxx.

Poked our heads inside the Falcon but found it busy with afternoon football, from what seemed like a lot of screens. We passed, and pushed on to Epsom, scoring a couple of twos while we waited. Sky conditions good, horizon conditions bad. And by the time we got there I could not be bothered to try for Calvados at Waitrose.

PS: as it happened, a few days later, I found that the Epsom Waitrose was not selling Calvados either, at least not for the moment. It does seem to come and go. See, for example, reference 3.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/12/back-to-falcon.html.

Reference 2: https://www.westminsterutc.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/02/click-ncollect.html.