Disappointing redevelopment proposed for Latchmere House

Just over a year ago I went to a public meeting on the future of the site of the former prison at Latchmere House that straddles the Kingston/Richmond border and now the application has come in. Or rather two have as the developers have submitted two similar schemes with one slightly larger than the other and with a higher proportion of affordable housing.

Frankly, they are very disappointing plans. I was worried that we might get something dull and that is exactly what is proposed. 

These are my thoughts on the various aspects of the schemes working from best to worst.

There is one good point to the schemes and that is their permeability. Good pedestrian and cycle access is proposed through the site with access points in each corner. This was proposed in the original planning brief and I am glad that the developers have taken this idea on board.

The design of the housing takes bland to a new level and this a good opportunity to do something imaginative seriously missed.

The current site has lots of green space beyond the prison walls, particularly along Latchmere Lane, and most of this will be lost to housing under both schemes. While I appreciate that developers need to make profits I do feel that they are often too greedy and build more in to the space available than suits the area. There are open green spaces on the other side of the road too and it would be a shame to lose them on this side.

The larger scheme is the more controversial as it proposes building an additional exit on to Latchmere Lane. There are several things wrong with this idea. The traffic report says that the new housing will generate less peak-time traffic than the prison did so there is no need for any additional road capacity. If another exit was required then joining on to Garth Road (which is planned to be passable to pedestrians and cyclists anyway) is a better than option than taking even more green space for another road which would join Latchmere Lane where it bends and narrows.

For reasons that I fail to understand, these views are not shared by some of my colleagues on the Kingston upon Thames Committee and it is possible that we will be supporting the larger scheme with the additional road. Obviously I am doing what I can to stop this.

A powerful Three Sisters at the Southwark Playhouse

It was Chekhov who first took me to the Southwark Playhouse with The Seagull in 2012 and it was Chekhov who took me back there this time to see Three Sisters. The same team were behind both productions and that was one of the attractions.

I had seen the marvellous version of Three Sisters at the Young Vic around the same time as I saw The Seagull but that was no barrier to seeing it again. I expected this version to be quite different (it was) and, besides, there is plenty of depth to Chekhov to justify a second viewing.

I also managed to maintain the tradition of seeing plays on their very last day.

It had been a long road to Southwark that had taken me via Brixton to Dulwich for some Hockney then on to a favourite restaurant (Brigade) at London Bridge before tracing the last few steps back to the theatre. I arrived in good time to grab a beer and possibly the last free seat in the bar area. It was busy.

The seat was conveniently close to the door through to the two studios so I was aware when the queue in had got sufficiently large for me to join it and so I was able to capture a preferred front-row seat.

This version of Three Sisters was set in the present day (the doctor read that day's newspaper to make the point) in some unnamed British Post-Colonial outpost where the sisters dreamed of being back in the London of their childhood.

Other than that it seemed like a fairly straight interpretation. The language was modern but not aggressively so and was close to my recollection of the previous version that I had seen.

The production was much simpler which helped me to differentiate the two performances, though there were some touches in this one that I felt were taken and adapted from the Old Vic production, e.g. the way that they sang Common People at the party.

With a simpler production the success or failure of the production was down to the cast and they did a fine job. Unfortunately the Southwark Playhouse Archive only lists the actors and does not say what roles they played, and I cannot be bothered to do the much research to find out so I can only make a few comments.

Paul McGann was masterful as the soldier who had to go home end and the woman he left behind, Masha, was played especially nicely by Emily Taaffe too (though some of the outfits she wore were a bit difficult to understand). In a large cast, the two other sisters and their sister-in-law also stood out. And those that did not shine as much were at least competent and often better. This was a fine cast.

There were some flaws in the updating that other reviewers have pointed out but these did little to lessen either the characterisations or the story which the play is all about. Though that did beg the question as to the point of updating the play rather than just, for example, relocating it; there is nothing particularly unusual about the period or the location that makes the original version difficult to understand.

The build-up to the endings and then the endings themselves were powerful and dramatic. I knew what was coming but was still swept up in the moment. Three Sisters is a great play and this production played to its strengths.

Hockney, Printmaker at Dulwich Picture Gallery

I enjoyed the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2012 so much that I was prepared to go to Dulwich to see another collection of his works.

The Citymapper app suggested several ways of getting there and I chose to go to Vauxhall by train and then to Brixton by tube where I caught a P4 bus to take me right to the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

That route also allowed me a little time to revisit some haunts in Brixton where I worked from 2003 to 2006. I was delighted to discover that my regular cafe from those days, San Marino, had moved to bigger and better premises and even more delighted that they remembered me. I had a panini there because that's what you do.

I got to Dulwich almost spot on 3pm which left me with 2 hours to see the exhibition, and it took most of that time.

The gallery had a very familiar feel to it, much like Tate Britain of the V&A, which is not that surprising as it was designed by Sir John Soane in 1817. It consisted of two long galleries divided in to sections each with a large skylight. The larger gallery had the main exhibition (I did not look at that) and Hockney was in the slightly smaller set of rooms that ran alongside it.

The exhibition was arranged chronologically and I was surprised at how much chronology there was. Hockney had done lots of work with prints when he first started and it was a medium that he returned to throughout his career modifying his technique and style as he did so.

I learned a lot about the arts or printmaking from the exhibition and I surprised myself by how interesting I found that. The knowledge helped me to understand some of the prints better as Hockney often used new ideas and mixed techniques in the same print.

The subject matter was something of a surprise too and many of his earlier works addressed homosexuality, which was still illegal in the UK at that time.

The early prints were usually in series inspired by literary themes so that they felt like book illustrations but without the physical constraint of a book.

It was only towards the end of the exhibition that some of the more familiar (to me) Hockney themes appeared with the subject matter changing from people to places and things and with more colour being used.

The famous swimming pool print above was one of a series shown how the final picture was composed from different layers with different colours.

The final set of prints included two stunning ones of the courtyard in a hotel in Mexico. I preferred the other print but could not find it on-line and I kept to the no photography rule despite very strong temptation.

This looked more like a painting than a print due to its complexity and the number of colours used. Hockney achieved this simply (!) by using a lot of layers.

The pictures that I have chosen are unrepresentative of the exhibition and that is partially due to personal preference but also due to what I could reuse from the internet. The earlier pictures were much simpler, not unlike the cartoons that we are used to in newspapers, but no less interesting.

Hockney Printmaker lacked the visual impact of A Bigger Picture but that would be an unfair comparison to make as this was a very different exhibition. Hockney Printmaker told the tale of his use of this medium intelligently and entertainingly. I could ask for no more than that.

Captain Lockheed's Mountain Grill and other nice hawky things

Somehow I had not managed to see The Psychedelic Warlords on their previous tour but things fell nicely in to place for this one.

They were playing in The Underworld in Camden which I had fond memories of having seen the reformed Sensational Alex Harvey Band there in 2004.

On this tour, The Psychedelic Warlords were playing two unusual albums, Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters (a Bob Calvert solo album with many guest stars) and Hall of the Mountain Grill, hence the title Captain Lockheed's Mountain Grill.

That was always going to be enough to get me there but things got even better when I learned that Hoaxwind would be supporting them. That meant that I made sure that I was there by 7pm to give me enough time to settle down (i.e. buy a pint) before Hoaxwind came on at 7:15.

I have seen Hoxwind many times so I knew what to expect, though they had to modify their set-list a little to drop songs that The Psychedelic Warlords were going to do.

Being the support band forced Hoaxwind to settle for the main band's set-up and the mix was not kind to them, I found the sound too loud (admittedly I started by standing right at the front) and Eugene's sax was so low it was almost inaudible even though I was standing next to it.I tried wandering around to see if the sound got any better but there was no noticeable difference so I returned to the front.

Luckily Hoaxwind know what they are doing and despite my reservations about the sound system they delivered a good set that was well received by the die-hard Hawkwind fans who had mostly come for the main act.

After a little break (and another beer) The Psychedelic Warlords hit the stage. They were headed by ex-Hawk Alan Davey on bass with (going clockwise), Craig High on vocals and other stuff, Simon Wilkins on lead guitar, Zoie on keyboards and Billy Fleming on drums.

It took quite a while to get used to Craig as he reminded me so much of Max Maxwell of the reformed Sensational Alex Harvey Band. They shared stage craft, vocal and sartorial styles.

I had wondered how they would do Captain Lockheed as it contains a lot of spoken word. The compromise they reached was to drop the longer spoken tracks (e.g. Ground Crew and Interview) and to use tapes where spoken scenes were needed to put songs in context (e.g. Aircraft Salesman, Two Test Pilots and I Resign). It worked well.

I had forgotten how many solid rock songs are on the album (e.g. Aerospaceage Inferno, Widow Maker, The Right Stuff and Ejection) alongside the quirky ones (e.g. The Gremlin, Hero with a Wing and the closing song Catch a Falling Starfighter) and they also worked well performed live.

Hall of the Mountain Grill was a more obvious album to cover and I've heard songs like Psychedelic Warlords and D-Rider covered by other bands, notably Space Ritual.

The sound was a lot better for the headliners and I got heavily in to the music. Perhaps the beer helped but I was soon dancing enthusiastically with my characteristic lack of style. I was far from alone in dancing or lacking style and the floor was bouncing with happiness.

And that is what the evening was all about, lots of people having lots of fun with a good band playing great music.

I will most definitely go to see The Psychedelic Warlords again if I can and I am pretty sure that I'll end up dancing again too. You have been warned.

Exploring morals with The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith at Jermyn Street Theatre

The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith looked like the sort of thing that I ought to see and Jermyn Street Theatre seemed the sort of place that I ought to see it in, so I went to see it.

Its main appeal was that it was like watching the Orange Tree Theatre playing away from home and, as a proud season-ticket holder, it was almost my duty to go.

The likeness between the two theatres came from both the play and the cast.

The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith was written by Arthur Wing Pinero in 1985 and addressed the morals of that time. The Orange Tree has put on a few Pinero plays and the last one that I went to see was The Thunderbolt in 2010.

Two of the cast I recognised from the Orange Tree, having seen both Christopher Ravenscroft (pictured) and Robert Benfield play there several times. Robert was also in the last thing that I say at Jermyn Street, the wonderful The White Carnation.

The shocking situation that the play describes to us is that of a young politician with a promising career who has given up his wife and life in London for a Bohemian life in Italy with (the notorious) Agnes Ebbsmith. They talk of a future together where they live proudly unmarried and writing books.

Disrupting this dream is the call from home.

His uncle, the Duke of St Olpherts, who was played wonderfully by Christopher Ravenscroft, arrives on a mission to bring young Lucas back where he would maintain an empty marriage for the sake of his political career.

Agnes is pulled in a different direction by people she met in Italy, a widower and her priest brother. They are both shocked by the situation and sympathetic to the people involved. They develop their own plans for revolving the crisis.

Other people arrive, many discussions about the future are held, several people have big decisions to make and gradually a resolution, of sorts, is reached. Nobody gets what they really wanted but everybody can accept the compromises that have been arrived at. It could almost be seen as a happy ending though several dreams are lost along the way.

The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith is all about gentle conversations and a great deal is revealed about all of the characters, their pasts, their motivations and their aspirations. Events move slowly but forcefully. It is a play creamy rich in drama while remaining refreshingly modest in action.

There are some lighter moments too and the two servants in Agnes and Lucas' household were often at the centre of those. They also had lovely uniforms with little touches of decoration that brightened the stage whenever they were on.

This was an assured and confident performance that made the drama interesting and relevant despite being based on the moral standards of another age.

The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith was an immensely entertaining play that dealt with a difficult subject with sensitivity and realism. More like that please.