The 4 Best Seasons Of All Time: 1 Autumn

Sunday October 12, Sydenham Hill Wood, 10:15am.

Landcroft House Is On Holiday

We're off - see you in a week!

It's Called "Work", Apparently

Silvana's gone to Pamplona for some jolly-up job for Delicious. She sent this this morning. Looks nightmarish, doesn't it?

Minehead Bonus Material

From March, 1964: "The Beatles - Allison Clark of Williton, Somerset meets the Beatles at Minehead railway Station, Somerset." Beatle Paul has some serious eyeliner on. Ringo really has got a seriously big nose...

Landcroft Picture Services: 3 Butlins Minehead

The third in our occasional series: this has been requested by Davy H who asks, "Do you have any pictures of Minehead Butlins? I went there when I was six - in 1971. I joined the Beaver Club and everything..." Well Davy, I don't have anything Beaver related, but here's three ladies on a canoe. "Butlins Holiday Camp in Minehead holiday resorts in Britain. Having fun paddling in a pool June 1962"

I also have a picture of The Beatles helping a little girl off the train in Minehead in March 1964, but I'm sure no one wants to see that...

War Is Stupid (But Posters Aren't)

Is that not one of the single best posters you've ever seen? Loads more American WWII posters here...

Eye, eye...

Whose eyes are these? He's in the pop game, but he's not a pop star...


EDIT: Well done, Ally! Clearly still holding a flame for the big guy, there...

People You Didn't Know Were Great Mates With Roy Castle From Record Breakers: 1

Eartha Kitt

Landcroft House: Behind The Scenes

Silvana, Rob and Scrap (in glasses) prepare exciting new content on state-of-the-art blog-o-matic Computatron950.

Dulwich Mirror Pictures Gallery: 5

Another belter from the Daily Mirror's picture archive. The lad on the left - Terence Taylor - has such a great haircut - rarely seen from that day (my guess is about 1954, but no date is given) until Barney Out Of New Order resurrected in 1983. Nice fish too.

Reference Number WA452232
"... Parents can bring children to family services at St Peters Church Dulwich regardless of how young they are The Reverend Norton recently announced that he would be holding these services monthly and that children could bring pets if they wished. Twelve year old Michael Pickup of Dulwich brought his goldfish in a jam jar in the first of these services and is seen with fish Peter and John and friend Terence Taylor at prayer..."

I wonder if this is Michael today? Or maybe this is? As for Terence Taylor...

Dulwich Mirror Pictures Gallery: 1

I have decided to post all the pictures that include the word DULWICH in the very excellent Daily Mirror picture library (or as many as I can before I get caught).

This absolute classic is Reference Number WA447362
CAPTION: Keith Richards (Rolling Stones) with German actress Anita Pallenberg and eight day old son Marlon leaving Kings College Hospital Dulwich London.

Now, I'm guessing here, but they mean Kings College Hospital, Camberwell, right? Like the Kings College Hospital, Camberwell where Landcroft House's own son and heir was born? How rock and roll are we again?

More tomorrow. PLUS: some exclusive tittle-tattle with George Clinton.

1997

I've always been a bit of an archivist, always trying to capture and document a moment in time. Maybe it's because my parents came to England from Italy before I was born with no heirlooms and took very few photgraphs as we all grew up and perhaps I'm trying to make up for it. So, our house is stuffed with scrapbooks and photo albums of pictures of my dinner and people I met only once along with notes on days out, tickets and programmes. It's lucky then that I, the archivist who loves to log everything, happened to marry a nostaligist who loves nothing more than to pull out an album or two from the collection and reminisce about the good old days.

Ten years ago, I started the Polaroid dairies. I took one photo every day and stuck it in a small album with the date and a note. I never missed a day and over the course of the year ended up with eight albums. At the beginning of the second album is a picture of Robert so the diaries also chart out first year together when we lived at my old flat. I have a similar photo album charting the first few months of Fabio's life, how much he weighed, how much milk he drank etc. I'm glad for these things more and more as time passes and I guess that blogging is just a continuation of the same.


I dug the polaroid diaries out this morning and on this very day 10 years ago, Ian and Jo moved into the flat they'd just bought in our block. Ian is from Derby and Jo Gordon is a famous knitwear designer now (she was clearly brilliant even then). We moved to East Dulwich and soon after, they moved to a big house in the road I covet in Dulwich Village.


Anyway, it was an interesting year 1997 and my diaries have recorded a lot. I didn't drive, I look 2 stone lighter and 15 years younger, I spent a lot of time in pubs, in clubs and on care-free holidays (Paris, Carribbean & Australia in one year!) and had a lot more money to fritter on massages and lipstick than I do now. Princess Diana died and Tony Blair became Prime Mininster and Robet and I met. What do you remember of 1997?