Last night I attended a lecture by local historian Stephen Humphrey who discussed the general history of the Elephant & Castle, focussing more particularly on what he called its heyday (between 1850 and 1940). This is part of a week-long art project ( The Elephant Project ) hosted in an empty unit on the first floor of the infamous shopping centre, aiming to chart some of the changes currently happening to the area. When an historian starts talking about the Elephant and Castle, there is one subject he can not possibly avoid, even if he wanted to. Indeed my unsuspecting announcement on Facebook that I was attending such talk prompted a few people to ask the dreaded question: Where does the name of the area come from, for realz? Panoramic view of the Elephant and Castle around 1960/61. Those of us less badly informed than the rest have long discarded the theory that the name comes from the linguistic deformation of "Infanta de Castille", a name which would have become at
Maybe the whole nation of French should raise up against some of the candidates who are standing. But that would be against the whole ethos of the French. If the nation had an ethos, the whole nation would not have surrendered [twice] when there was a political argument.
ReplyDeleteChris Dobson-Furphy
77 Hampstead High St,
London NW3 1RE
yes, dear, that's nice, dear.
ReplyDelete*yawns*
phew. We can now breathe a sigh of relief that corruption has gone. And the killing of cyclists.
ReplyDeleteWe have a buffoon now, but I can stand the 4 year refreshment.
Until then I'll offer views, but not preach.
ahoj