The royal wedding somehow reminded me of Tancredi’s betrothal to Angelica in The Leopard and the famous quotation: “se vogliamo che tutto rimanga come e’, bisogna che tutto cambi”.
Archibald Colquhoun translates it in the first English edition (Collins and Harvill Press, 1960) as “all will be the same though all will be changed”. Meghan and Angelica certainly share the same dark beauty and less than aristocratic ancestry. The story of the British monarchy in some respects bears out Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s Delphic prophesy but I’m looking closer to home this morning.
I rather like the idea of being il gattopardo of Barons Court. As you can see a gattopardo or serval is more of a big cat in a fancy coat than a leopard. But to business. Much change has taken place locally even in the short life of this website. The north lodge at Margravine cemetery has had a huge underground extension. I don’t think I told you that it almost immediately started leaking. The large semi-derelict houses sandwiched between Margravine Gardens and the tube lines have all been converted into flats; the retail landscape at Barons Court crossroads has altered; the new theatres and rehearsal rooms at LAMDA are complete; the Riverside Studios will be open again towards the end of this year.
I have not mentioned Charing Cross hospital because it has become a political football being kicked around by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and the recently re-elected (with bigger majority) Labour council. It beats me why the council wont accept the rational proposals the Trust have been trying to implement; proposals that have now been delayed for years.
Well, now there is a new local upheaval. Opposite St Paul’s Studios is Hammersmith and Fulham College, built on the site of St Paul’s School – now across the river in Barnes. It was not completed until 1980 so I suppose was a building site when I lived in Margravine Gardens in 1976. The architecture reminds me of mini-bricks, a sort of Lego which didn’t catch on. Pevsner, of course, expatiates:
The new structure, which is faced entirely in hard ruby red brickwork, still a novelty for modern-minded architects at this time, and used here with the exhausting insistence of the newly converted. The brick is relieved by the well-detailed bands of windows, with a strong rhythm of black vertical mullions. A dramatic approach up steps leads to a main entrance facing a formal paved piazza. From this centre each college fans out in an irregular horseshoe, stepping down from seven to four storeys, looking out to gardens to east and west. In practice this is more confusing than it looks on a plan. As a further complexity, two paths run through the buildings, in an effort to provide some urban continuity between the college and the housing which occupies the north part of the old school site.
I love Pevsner’s disapproval, shared by my in-house architect, Robert. Here are some pictures I took so you can see what it looks like.
I think it is good design and should be preserved. What lies in store?
To be continued …
Lies!
(This is not an accusation of mendacity)
I have changed “lays” to “lies” although I’m not sure which is correct.
I can hear my old English master bawling out ‘chickens lay dear boy’.
Lay is a verb and needs an object, lie does not have an object. ‘Lay ahead’ is past tense, ‘lies ahead’ present tense. Thus no one knows what lies ahead of them; I did not know what lay ahead yesterday.
“Lay” requires a direct object (pace Bob Dylan – though “Lie, lady, lie” would now sound a bit odd).
“Lie” is intransitive but becomes “lay” in the past tense.
So “ I wonder what lies ahead”, but “I wondered what lay ahead”.
Of course American usage may differ.
I do not think il gattopardo accurately portrays the author. All that garish leopard print is rather more East End than refined W6. I would suggest a better illustration would be ‘mischievous (though wholly lovable) pussycat’.
Lampedusa was, in effect, merely a gifted amateur author, yet his writing is perceptive and powerful (much like that of this blog), even if, on the surface it appears to be filled with domestic details (the correlation continues).
I have quoted and applied that text from The Leopard frequently on life’s journey, although I always understood it to be rendered ‘if we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change’, am I in error?