May Talk

London’s Lost Worlds Of Sound

Rarely-heard and never-heard archival recordings of vanished customs and daily life from the 1920s to the 1950s. Performing dogs, fortune tellers, Mike Stern the mayor of Petticoat Lane, lavender sellers, the singing sewer workers of the New Kent Road, Commander Daniel’s noise nuisances, Godfrey the bagpipe king and the secrets of the Tower of London’s Ravens.

Plus folk customs from Essex.

Presented by Ian Rawes of The London Sound Survey

Talk is at 8pm on the 9th of May in the upstairs room of the Old King’s Head, Borough

£2.50/£1.50 concessions

We are lucky to have the excellent storyteller Helen East sharing London Folktales , legends and fibs from her new book (History Press) plus some that couldn’t be pinned down onto pages.. and reflects on collecting/hearing some of these, and other stories and bits of ‘folklore’ from Londoners over the years ….

“London stories told by and for real Londoners… “ (Steve Roud)

Copies of London Folktales will be available on the night at a special SELFS rate.

Talk starts at 8.00pm in the upstairs room of the Old King’s Head, 45-49 Borough High Street, London, SE1 1NA Lon

£2.50/£1.50 concs

Seeing as SELFS falls on Valentines Day this year it seems appropriate to have Catharine Arnold, the authoress of the truly excellent “City Of Sin: London and its Vices” to give a talk. The description for her book reads thus…..”If Paris is the city of love, then London is the city of lust. For over a thousand years, England’s capital has been associated with desire, avarice and the sins of the flesh. Richard of Devises, a monk writing in 1180, warned that ‘every quarter [of the city] abounds in great obscenities’. As early as the second century AD, London was notorious for its raucous festivities and disorderly houses, and throughout the centuries the bawdy side of life has taken easy root and flourished. In the third book of her fascinating London trilogy, award-winning popular historian Catharine Arnold turns her gaze to the city’s relationship with vice through the ages. From the bath houses and brothels of Roman Londinium, to the stews and Molly houses of the 17th and 18th centuries, London has always traded in the currency of sex. Whether pornographic publishers on Fleet Street, or fancy courtesans parading in Haymarket, its streets have long been witness to colourful sexual behaviour. In her usual accessible and entertaining style, Arnold takes us on a journey through the fleshpots of London from earliest times to present day. Here are buxom strumpets, louche aristocrats, popinjay politicians and Victorian flagellants — all vying for their place in London’s league of licentiousness. From sexual exuberance to moral panic, the city has seen the pendulum swing from Puritanism to hedonism and back again. With later chapters looking at Victorian London and the sexual underground of the 20th century and beyond, this is a fascinating and vibrant chronicle of London at its most raw and ribald.”

This promises to be a treat.

Upstairs at The Old Kings Head, Borough at 8pm ending 10pm
£2.50/£1.50 concs

At SELFS this December come on a proper London Magical Mystical Tour. A virtual bus tour of London?s sacred spots with the opportunity to sing along, distract the driver and act up at the back. Just like a real bus tour only with better bar and toilet facilities.

SELFS and Chris Roberts of London Street Tours present an evening of London focused folk tales, pagan practise and wiccan motoring, putting the cult in occult you might say.

Tour starts at 8pm sharp from the upstairs room of the Old King’s Head 45-49 Borough High Street, London, SE1 1NA

Bus Tickets are £2.50/ £1.50 concs