Archive lectures and events

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Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, it's lovely to see all of you today and I hope you're going to enjoy your virtual visit to Hebden Bridge and I'm going to try and get in a bit of the history and a little bit.

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Little bit of interest with the filming that's happening a lot in our area at the moment. I do live in West Yorkshire and Hebden Bridge is my local town.

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But it could be, I think you'll enjoy it. So I'll start sharing my screen.

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There are lots of lovely photographs to look at and I will talk a little bit about all of them as we as we go along.

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Okay. So. There we go. Right.

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So this is a virtual visit, obviously. You're still in your own homes, which is always nice.

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So Hedonbridge is a small market town in the Pennines. It's, it's situated at the bottom of, the Calder Valley.

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Actually, it's, it's, it's at the base of the valley and it gets its name from the bridge in the picture.

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We're going to talk a little bit about that later. Hpton Bridge surprisingly as it is at the bottom of the valley, is actually about 300 feet above sea level.

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So it's quite high even though it's downhill if you see what I mean. So, there we are.

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Oh, and also we have 2 rivers. How long canal. So lots and lots of water.

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It is the Pennines after all. There's a lot of rain. There's a lot of water.

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But that's why Hebden Bridge is, where it is. So here we go.

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The 1st thing. So as with a virtual visit, we come by train. So we have arrived at train station.

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Train station. And it is it's quite authentically Victorian still. It does have one of those electronic ticket machines now so unfortunately it's not quite as authentic as it used to be.

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But I know about 20 odd years ago. I remember fetching my husband from the train in the evening.

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And the whole of the station was covered in, that fake so. And they've been filming.

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I don't know what they were filming. It's a really long time ago, but they were filming something.

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At the railway station. Mostly because it is such a small little station. It's so authentically, Victorian.

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I believe they probably changed the name of it. You know, but it's still got the Victorian signs as you can see in the The, we do, it's a man station and the people that look after the station generally, do beautiful flower displays and hanging baskets and so on in the summer.

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Okay, so we're going to walk from the station through the park. It's not as far as it sounds.

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The park is really quite small. But it's pretty enough. It's got a couple of tennis courts and so on and a play area for the children.

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And on the right hand side of the picture, and it's much nicer picture, that is the Rochdale Canal.

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And the building you can see, right in the center of the, picture these days is used as, flats, apartments on the top 2 floors and the bottom floor is used for various businesses.

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One of which is a lovely restaurant. So a lot of the mills in Hebden Bridge are now repurposed.

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They're not used as they used to be. And we're going to talk a little bit about that.

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But Heptonbridge is quite, the canal is very important to the town. It always was in the industrial age because obviously that was how goods were transported in and out of the town before the railway and and to a degree after the railway as well.

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But these days it's used mainly for pleasure. So you can hire boats, you can go out for the day, you can all of that type of thing on the canal.

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And there are some people not in the center of Hebdenbridge where that is because there's little Marina there as well.

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But further down. The canal, there are people who, who actually live permanently.

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In house folks on the canal. And, it's quite a thriving community.

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In, in an actual fact.

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Okay, so this is the main square of the town. No, when I 1st moved here over 20 years ago, there were roads through here.

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And it about a few years after I moved. They decided, town council decided they wanted to pedestrianize it, make it a bit safer, a bit more pleasant for people because Hpton Bridge is a is a place where visitors come.

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It it's lots and lots of visitors come particularly on beautiful days at weekends and bank holidays.

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It is absolutely packed. This is a quiet his picture was taken on early morning on a Saturday very very early nobody around because no number shops were open but it's full of shops.

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Hebden Bridge has lots and lots of independent shops. I think we only have 3 businesses which are larger concerns and all of the other businesses shops, cafes, pubs.

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Was built later and it started out as a little wooden corn mill. And behind the pub on the left hand side you can just see the top of the town hall.

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Lots of people come to see the town hall. It's okay. I'm just gonna say it's okay.

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So off. The, the square, we have this particular mill. You could, you saw it in the other picture.

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It was a rich, the very, very 1st mill was built around 1314 and that was a corn mill.

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Whole mill but really they would grind any any grain so it would have been probably mostly oats in this particular area.

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And we are in the Pennines. The farming land is quite high up it's quite steep.

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An oats grow particularly well in these sort of conditions. But there would have been some call in some And that the original mail, the original, would have been owned by the, you know, the big landowner and everybody would have had to take their, there and they would have had to give some of it to the landowner in payment.

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Then it was developed, it was built as a stone built, mill and it was, a text, during the Industrial Revolution.

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It was abandoned in the mid fifties. It wasn't the market for the text sales anymore and the textiles in this particular area were mainly things like cord Roy and Fustian, which is like mole skin.

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So they were actually cotton based textiles. And the mill was built there particularly because it's right next to the river.

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And it was originally powered with a water wheel. Which was actually replaced and renovated and only about 15 years ago by the current owners.

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So they're completely, excuse me, completely replace that. And, You can see the water will working if you go inside into the cafe.

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So this particular mill now is full of small businesses. That there are this one a couple of businesses on the ground floor and the multiple businesses upstairs.

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So it's, it's, and because they now have the water wheel and they've also instilled an Archimedes screw.

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So they are able to generate. A significant amount of their power.

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Okay, just off the square is, the market area. This, when there's no market, this is a car park, but it's, it's useful markets.

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At Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Thursday is the general market. And Friday second hand but Saturdays and Sundays are farmers markets and local makers markets they started off once a month but and so popular that they're now on every single weekend.

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Obviously it's quite quiet. It's 1st thing in the morning when I, yeah, there was some stress setting up when I took the photograph.

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So 1st markets in Hebdenbridge, began at about in about 1865 and that was a livestock market.

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It's rural area here and it's really good country for sheep and certain in cattle.

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The general market itself started around in the in the 1920.

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Yeah, this is the pack horse bridge. Now this is where Hebden Bridge gets his name.

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Because, this particular bridge, the stone built one, it's got 3 arches, replace the, the original wooden pack horse bridge in about in the 1,530, 15 hundreds.

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And the original wooden bridge was there purely for moving livestock from one part of the of the area to another.

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And while the wooden bridge was there, Heptonbridge really was. Nothing, there was nothing much here.

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It wasn't a town. The more important town was higher up on the hill on one of the hills place called hexen stall was really anything at that time.

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And hepton Bridge was basically a place to cross the river. This particular, river that it crosses is called Hebden Water.

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This is a, is a tributary of the River Calder, which is the main river that runs through the town.

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The river called. is almost parallel to the Rochdale Canal.

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Quite rainy, before I took this photo, that's quite high. The rid is quite high.

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Yes, you get go up onto the top of the pack horse bridge you can't you can't drive on it's obviously it's very very narrow and it's very very steep but you can walk up it's nice to walk along and you can see down here these are the wavy steps and the way these steps were built in response to the flooding that we had in, 2,000 and

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15. So hepton bridges as often flooded in the past. But I, since I've been here in the last 2, 20 odd years, it's, it's had some major floods and the last one, the 2,015, caused an awful lot of disruption.

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Many many of the businesses in the whole town in all of the shopping streets many of the businesses were flooded had to close.

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Try out, refit, and really, really struggle out to get insurance because of it. And in response a lot of blood prevention was put in place at that time.

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Millions of pounds have been actually spent. And wavy steps are one of them. So the steps at the bottom where the ducks are, they have, they've always been there.

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A favorite place for families to go and feed the dogs. But the way the steps are part of the flood protection.

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Okay.

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So these are some of the buildings in the town. Now, these are, quite interesting because, these buildings are, well, they just, I wanted to show you the different types of architecture within the town.

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So the top. Left picture is, actually what it used to be bank. It's now, it's now bar.

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Like so many others. We have a library just, on the right hand side. There's a library and in the far distance you can just about see the cinema and I'll talk about the cinema in a moment.

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So while in during the Industrial Revolution, Heptonbridge had a number of mills, many, many mills, and they were weaving, as I say, cotton cost.

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We are in Yorkshire, but actually we are very, very close to the border between Yorkshire and Lancashire.

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And so for this, particular town, the, the industrial industrialists. Decided that they would do they would do cotton.

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So, they're mainly cotton textiles. Here. Okay. The bottom left picture as far as i know and i've taken it because it's such a beautiful little building as far as I know that was the dwelling of, you know, one of the managers of one of the middle.

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So it's currently a lovely little cafe with flats above it. But it's just a very picturesque little, house, I think.

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And on the right hand side of the picture, that's 1 of the, one of the former, Mills.

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And like many of the mills, again the downstairs has been transformed and it's being used for small businesses.

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And the upper floors are all apartments. They were converted not that long ago. They won awards for the conversion because they were done in a very eco friendly, way.

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So Hepton Bridge itself. And it has a real decline in the 19 seventies because The mills were closing, the there wasn't the market for the cloth, you know, they were cheaper imports coming from other countries.

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So once the middle started to close there was no work. Because when, while the mills were open, it was It was a, they were huge employers in the area and people would come in from the local villages.

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Down to Hendon Bridge. And also there were some mills up on the hills. And people would walk up to those.

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So the employment, opportunities in the industrial revolution, beginning of the 20th century. Were amazing.

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But by the 1970, s you know, there was decline in the town. There was no, not a lot of work.

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Lot of people out of work and the the town really started to get quite shabby. People moving away from it.

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And at that point. It was very, very cheap to buy a house in Hebden Bridge.

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And so you started to get an influx of people that rather like a slightly alternative way of living. Some people would say, oh, the hippies came in, but it wasn't necessarily hippies in the way you might think.

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It was people who wanted to try and live in a different way who maybe didn't want to be so.

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Consumerist who wanted to be, to try alternative ways of living and eating. So, you know, that even now, but Hebden Bridge has many, vegetarian and vegan restaurants.

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We have a lot of people who, prefer to eat that way. And in fact, that little building at the bottom there, the one where I said is a cafe, that is actually a vegetarian cafe and it's well worth a visit.

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All cafes are pretty good. I have books just say that. So it's quite an interesting way that people started to move in in the seventies because they could afford to buy something without necessarily having to earn a lot of money.

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To afford it. A lot of creative people live in Hebden Bridge and during that time in the seventies and eighties, many creative people moved into the area.

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Partly because of the cheaper housing. You know, if you're if you're a writer or a poet, or a filmmaker, then you, you probably don't earn an awful lot of money.

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So you want somewhere that you can afford to live that you want to live in. And it is a beautiful place to live.

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Alright, and then to the next page. Okay, so this is the cinema. I'm so sorry about the state of this picture.

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It, It was very difficult to take because I had to quickly take it between buses and lorries and I wanted no people on it.

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And so it was very tricky to take. I'm sorry, it's so blurry.

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But Hepton Bridge Cinema was built in the 19 twenties. It was like many, many cinemas.

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Of that time, you know, lots and lots of small towns would have a cinema in the twenties.

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It was the big, you know, the time when the film, the film, the film industry was becoming so, large.

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People could afford to buy a send them a ticket. It was it was a cheap night out and it was a bit of a treat.

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So it was built in the 19 twenties and so it is actually an art deco cinema.

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And if you, when you go, if you just go in the doors. I'm so sorry about the picture.

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But if you go in the actual entrance, you go up the steps. And the doors are still the original.

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I mean, it been renovated a bit, but there's still the original doors, from the Art Deco era.

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And just to the. Right hand side as you walk up the steps, there is the original ticket office, you know, where you would queue up and buy your ticket from the person behind the window and then you go into the cinema itself.

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It's a cinema on 2 levels. It's got, an auditorium downstairs and it is raked.

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So you can actually see. And upstairs, he is a small balcony. They don't open it very often.

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The balcony hasn't been renovated as well as the, the downstairs.

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It's not used often. And I think they're restricted on how often they can use it, because the structural integrity of it.

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But I've been up there. It's, a bit the squeeze. But downstairs they have changed delay out slightly because originally this cinema would have seated probably 8, 900 people.

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These days because of insurance it's many venues like this have a limit of 500 it's to do with insurance So, what they've done is they took the old seats out, from the middle.

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And they replace them with nice new seats so Hebdenbridge cinema is a place where you can stretch your legs out even if you're over 6 foot tall like my husband.

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I've got plenty of room. And then nice and It is owned and run by the council.

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The local council. Which is unusual in this day and age. There's another one in another town not too far away that's owned by a council.

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But it's very, very unusual. And, the council have spent a lot of money on it and it looks beautiful.

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And I should have said there is wheelchair access round the side. You can actually going around the side, you have to tell them, but you can, it is accessible.

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It shows a variety of films. So all the big films, Contact and Bridge usually a couple of weeks later than the big cinema in Halifax, which is our next biggest town.

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And that's got a multiplex in it. But the big, the big films come to Hebden Bridge, but also they show a lot of live stream performances.

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And slightly more art house, films as well, or locally produced films that have on make one night every now and again.

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So they show a lot of, it's not, it's a little bit more, community based.

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Then maybe your big commercial enterprises.

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As you can see on the front of that building, the 2, there are 2 actual businesses, either side of those steps and they are nothing to do with the cinema itself.

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But there's a local taxi firm and another bar. And, it's, but it's a lovely place to go and visit.

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Oh, and they do Thursday, matinee. Performance where you get free cup of tea and biscuits.

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In a China cup. Okay, so we have here these are houses. And Hampden Bridge has some unusual houses.

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This the valley sides are quite steep. And if you look at the picture on the top left of your screen.

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It looks like those are forced story houses. But the not. They are, there's 1 house at the bottom with 2 stories.

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There's 1 house accessed from the other side. With 2 stories. My friend used to live in one of these on the other side.

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So if you have a quick look at the picture on the right hand side. You can see there's it's a street and it's the house and it's the right hand side of that big picture on the left.

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If you if you see that that is the same street. That so you can see it's just looks like a normal terrace.

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But then if you go down the hill around the corner and you see the bottom picture. And that bottom picture is the businesses at the bottom, the lower story.

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You know with where you've got the purple building at the purple and the red doors. Those are underneath those houses in the picture on the top right-hand side.

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And so they're underneath. So this particular bit on that side is a 2 story house above and a single story dwelling below.

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And most of those currently shops and they probably They probably always were shops down there. And possibly owned by the people that lived upstairs.

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I mean, that would be ideal, wouldn't it? Fantastic! So that is unusual.

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Now, a lot of people think that this top to bottom housing is because in there's hardly any room to build houses.

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So it was easier to build on top of each other. And that quite likely may have been part of the reason, but apparently, and if you were building houses, because these the slope is so steep you had to build.

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Extremely deep footings. You know, for, to support the house on top. And so the builders thought, well, we're spending all this money, you know, building, getting the stone, employing the people building these footings, we might as well just make them into a house.

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So obviously in this particular, example where we've got the house on the right hand side and little shop underneath.

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The little shop underneath goes straight into the hill. There's no windows on the back. But houses on the right hand side of the picture on the top.

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Sorry, the left hand side of the left hand picture. And those actually have entrances from downstairs and upstairs and the downstairs.

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Houses only have windows facing this street but the upstairs houses have windows on both sides.

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So I think it's it is unusual. And so there we go. The other thing that you have as well in Heddon Bridge is we have back to back houses.

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And these were really common in many towns in the industrial age. When you had one house, a terrace of houses built and you'd have a house on one, you know, street on one side, the street on the other and the party wall was was the back as well as the sidewalls.

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So it's quite, unusual to still have them in many towns. And cities.

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These back to back houses were, would knocked down. They were considered to be slums and they were knocked down for you know to create new housing or better housing housing with plumbing and water and so on.

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So it's unusual to still see them. Still standing and people still living in them. But, I think partly it is because, in Hebdenbridge, it's not a very big place, whereas in somewhere like Manchester or London when you have back to back houses.

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They were tightly packed together and then covered large large areas.

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But people still live in them.

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So this is just to show you a diagram to just just to really to show how those top to bottom houses were built.

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I didn't draw this. I'm just going to say that I don't really draw.

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So if you, if we start on the left hand side, so we've got Eiffel Street and that is a real street.

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And you can go in at the bottom of Eiffel Street. To your house, which is 2 stories with a seller.

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And if you then go down the road and up the hill. Turn the corner and go up the hill.

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You're then in Edward Street. And as you can see on the left hand side of Edward Street you've got again front end with a house with 2 stories and that one on the left hand side.

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Of Edward Street will have windows. Yeah. And then on the right hand side of Eiffel Street you, can again go into your own house, your own front door, again, a 2 story house.

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And that one will only have Windows. Facing the street. And then when you get up onto the Chapel Avenue Again, you've got your own entrance, you can get in.

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You can, and you've got Windows on both sides again. Okay, so that's sort of, I like the diagram, it just shows you how it sort of works because it's really hard to imagine if you haven't actually walked it and seen it.

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It's not so easy to see from, from photographs.

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Right, now I know lots of you are really really interested in filming in Heptonbridge. Yorkshire has a really really dynamic film industry many many series and films have been filmed here over the last sort of probably 1015, 20 years.

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We're getting really well known it wasn't that long ago he wasn't in hepton bridge but Tom Cruise was in the area filming his She is a mission impossible film, I think.

00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:37.000
But he was filming, but in Hampden Bridge, we're really well known for Happy Valley.

00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:47.000
And I don't know how many of you watch Happy Valley if you haven't watch it it's on the iPlayer watch all of the series go from the beginning to the end.

00:29:47.000 --> 00:30:12.000
And it is really really good really well made. And these are a couple of the filming locations so the top left hand picture is the back of the house that belongs to the 2 ladies 2 sisters in Happy Valley.

00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:17.000
And the ones played by, Sarah Lancashire and So that's the back of their house and the picture on the bottom is the front of their house.

00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:35.000
So this isn't a back to back. This is actually a rather nice street. And the for most of Happy Valley and most of the time you only ever see the back entrance.

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:47.000
And they go in through the back, they sit out in the back with company, and they chat, you know, after work and so on and you do see the front of it, the front of the house.

00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:53.000
In the last series. But I think that was the 1st time we'd seen the front of the house.

00:30:53.000 --> 00:31:01.000
I don't, I knew it was where it was filmed. But I wasn't sure if it was one of the back to back. But, I wasn't sure if it was one of the back to back.

00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:06.000
It isn't. So when we have filming in Hebden Bridge, you know, when this, the filming was done in this, this house because filming was done in one of these houses.

00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:23.000
And I think the interior shots were probably. Locked up a little bit, but all the exterior shots were, filmed, you know, in situ.

00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:34.000
And. But when they do film, the roads are closed. So the, these roads would have been closed.

00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:48.000
Full filming, the road joining them would have been, closed as well. And it so it's filming when it's actually in Hebden Bridge does cause quite a bit of disruption.

00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:57.000
In the top right. Photograph, if you have seen the 3rd series of Happy Valley, you will recognize this shop.

00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:01.000
I mean, and it wasn't a mocked up shop. They actually filmed in this shop.

00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:09.000
They just left it as it is. And they actually filmed, in, the shop itself.

00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:22.000
I can't remember who went in the shop. I don't think it was Tommy Lee Rice but it could have been but but there was a lot of filming done in there it's it's just a it's It's a nice, it's an independent shop.

00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:32.000
Selling you know Good groceries, really, groceries. And you know nice nice birthday cards and so on.

00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:48.000
But again it's a locally owned business. So that's nice. And can you see the, how the building, it's a little bit like that, that building that, it's a little bit like that, that building that was a bank and there's now, the bar.

00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:56.000
It's built on the corner and it is actually built. It's not quite square. It's, it's built to bit of an angle.

00:32:56.000 --> 00:33:04.000
So, so the rooms at that top corner, will, have angles, so be an unusual shape.

00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:13.000
They, the top 2 floors of that building are now flats. And there's a very nice clock on the top of that building too.

00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:23.000
So, and when that was, when that was being used for filming, the little streets down the side, you can't really see it, but there's a little street downside.

00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:39.000
You can just see the, the lines leading to it. That was completely closed. And there is parking on that street and that's 1 of the big problems when there is filming in the town because streets are blocked off.

00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:44.000
And the parking gets even more difficult than normal.

00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:57.000
But it's you know it's exciting. Acley Bridge also filmed here and I have seen not to speak to or anything like that but I saw Anton Du Beck.

00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:03.000
Driving down one of the streets in an open topped car. With somebody and they were filming one of these sort of travel type programs.

00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:17.000
But I saw Anton Dobeck going down the street in the car. So it's a really vibrant industry.

00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:26.000
I think part of it is, businesses, people are very open to filming in this area.

00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:34.000
We have a lot of very interesting buildings. And which can be used. I mean, in Happy Valley, Happy Valley was also filmed in the whole of the area around here.

00:34:34.000 --> 00:35:04.000
There was a lot of filming done in Selby Bridge which is just down the road. And you know we have a right a mixture of homes so obviously in the town itself it's they're older but there are more modern homes in in little towns around the area so you could get a proper and you can you can film in the area you can you can set up a base and there is a base they always set up not in

00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:15.000
Hebden Bridge because there's nowhere but in the next little village along there's a there's a community center with a very large car park.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:23.000
And that's where they always base the filming. So that's where they'll have, you know, the canteen and that's where they park all of the vans.

00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:40.000
And so on. And you know when they're filming because they're a little sign saying lock you know lock one lock 2 with arrows so the drivers can get them to the right locations for each of the filming, you know, filming things those those days.

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:41.000
So it is it is quite exciting. My, my son in law's brother is a cameraman.

00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:52.000
He's a, he's not long graduated, but he is an assistant cameraman. And he helped.

00:35:52.000 --> 00:36:15.000
He helped film. The The last series of Happy Valley. And in the very very last scene in the there's a car park and his car is parked in the car park because they needed a car and they needed one they could use and they sort of asked him and they paid him the paid in for parking his car in There are lots of jobs around.

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:25.000
In Manchester isn't very far away. You can get to Manchester easily on the train, and leads.

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:33.000
And in Manchester there's now There's a big. Area.

00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:41.000
Of whether the BBC is it's got a really really big base in Manchester.

00:36:41.000 --> 00:36:45.000
Channel 4 looking at they've got a basin leads ITV, they've got a base in Manchester as well.

00:36:45.000 --> 00:37:00.000
Salford is Salford in Manchester is where they do a lot of that. You know they've got and studios and all of that.

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:21.000
So it's not just independent film companies that come to Hebden Bridge. It's, you know, you've also got the, the main, Just down the road in, in Manchester and many of the people that work in those industries live in So I know people who are producers and writers and so on.

00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:22.000
Okay, right now we're going just a little bit out of Hebden Bridge because I thought I'd like to share this with you.

00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:35.000
You can walk to hard Castle cracks, but you, you can either you can drive or you could take a bus.

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:46.000
Hard fussle cracks is a, an area of it's woodland now. But it has an industrial past.

00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:50.000
So it was originally, used for quarrying. So there are still old quarries, small stone quarries.

00:37:50.000 --> 00:38:06.000
And around crags, you know, it is indicative of that. And stone. And, but there is also a mail which you can see on the right hand side of the screen.

00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:16.000
And that is called Gibson Mill. That was one of the original water wheel mills just like the the Hept and Bridge Mill.

00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:25.000
And, It's, this is a picture from the back of it because you can see the mill pond, cause it just looks lovely.

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:42.000
Many mill ponds around situated around the area. Obviously, because there's so much water in the area, that is why the mills originally were established in Hebden Bridge and the surrounding towns as well.

00:38:42.000 --> 00:38:48.000
This this mail this is hard class by the national trust now and they maintain it and they look after it.

00:38:48.000 --> 00:39:14.000
And, the mill, was refurbished. And there's now a lovely cafe in there and it is completely off grid completely off grid they they generate all of their electricity they have they're not on main drainage they have like septic type systems I think for the toilets.

00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:18.000
And, and they, they, They're not on mains water either, so the water is supplied.

00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:28.000
From from the river, they cleaned it. Obviously they clean it. You can have a cup of tea there.

00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:34.000
It's all cleaned. But it's very very interesting and recently they've always had a backup generator.

00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:43.000
You know, because they can have weddings and things there. But now they've just had permission to put, on the roof.

00:39:43.000 --> 00:39:50.000
And it's not just the mill, there's some little weavers cottages, as well in front of it.

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:59.000
And they've got permission to put, really, up to date, panels on the roofs so they will not need the generator as a backup anymore.

00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:08.000
So it's and it's very much of the, in this area, you want to try and make things as sustainable as possible.

00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:15.000
That river you can see on the top, that picture, that is the river, that's hebs and water.

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:30.000
So the water that we saw the original pack was bridge go over so that water runs off the hills goes down through the woodland and into Hebden Bridge and then it meets and joins with the Okay.

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:33.000
And I'm just going to finish. And it's a beautiful place to walk. I'm just going to say that before I go to the next photo, it's a beautiful place to walk.

00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:42.000
It's just going to say that before I go to the next photo, it's a beautiful place to walk.

00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:48.000
It's definitely worth a visit. And you can do a short walk. Or you can do a longer walk so you can walk to the mail and back.

00:40:48.000 --> 00:41:01.000
And you can do that along the road if you want to or down by the river. And but you can also go much much further my children's school used to take them for the day.

00:41:01.000 --> 00:41:14.000
Once once when they're in year 6. Their primary school they used to go one Friday in the months and they spent the whole day there and the rangers would have do stuff with them.

00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:27.000
It was really, really good. It's very pretty and this is beautiful because although the I didn't take this this year, this is what the hard castle cracks looks like at the moment.

00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:34.000
It is a bluebell wood. It's a very very well-known bluebell wood in the area.

00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:43.000
And you it's just carpeted it's just absolutely beautiful it's always May we are in the Pennines.

00:41:43.000 --> 00:41:55.000
And these are true but true bluebells they're not the Spanish type these are true woodland bluebells And if I take the picture, you know, say about a month ago, it would have been a carpeted in white.

00:41:55.000 --> 00:42:11.000
So it's, a garlic, wild garlic earlier in the year. And then earlier than that you see, the, So it is a very, very pretty place.

00:42:11.000 --> 00:42:20.000
And I just thought we would end our talk. Looking at the bluebells because Who doesn't like blue bells?

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:22.000
Okay. And. I just like to say thank you very, very much for, listening to the talk.

00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:34.000
And I really do hope that you enjoyed it. So I'm going to hand back to.

00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:35.000
At Funa.

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:42.000
Yeah, thanks very much custody. Let's go straight to some questions. We've got, we've got a few here for you, Catherine.

00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:50.000
And this is from Alfred's and sort of right at the start of the presentations you showed us a photograph of the main square in the town.

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:52.000
What is the sculpture that's in square?

00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:58.000
Oh, well, good question. And you know what? I wrote it on my notes and I forgot to tell you.

00:42:58.000 --> 00:43:05.000
The sculpture was it's actually sundial. So it's, it's a really, really big sundial.

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:25.000
So it goes, up in the air as you could see. And around it if there is a clock in the pavement there is a clock it was commissioned I don't I can't remember who actually sculpted it but was commissioned when the square was redone and they wanted it to look really nice.

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:40.000
And there were lots and lots of bids for the sculpture but that was the one that won so you do actually have the time around and if it's sunny you can tell the time.

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:48.000
Interesting. Well, there you go, Alfred. I hope that answers your question. Now, another question from Clear.

00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:57.000
And she was asking, how did we talking about the wave these steps? How did the wavy steps work as a flood defense?

00:43:57.000 --> 00:43:58.000
Okay.

00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:03.000
I'm not totally sure. I think I think what it is when they built it they built channels around the sides as well.

00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:14.000
So not just the steps, they actually widened the river, underneath, they dredged a bit, they widened the river, they deepened the riverbed at the side, you know, because it gets silted up over time.

00:44:14.000 --> 00:44:44.000
So the actual riverbed can now accommodate more water. But down the sides of the wind, the wavy steps, there are also actual channels where they, water, if it comes up over the steps it's sort of channeled back down where the river is a little bit wider because that point where the bridge is, the narrowest part of the river, which is why the bridge is there.

00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:50.000
So it's a bit of a bottleneck if, it's, if we have a lot of water.

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:56.000
So it's just, it's just a way of sort of channeling that water and then moving it back where the rivers are little bit wider.

00:44:56.000 --> 00:45:08.000
Hmm, interesting, you go clear. A question from Bill about the mills and were all mills water powered or did some of them move to steam?

00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:17.000
They all moved to Steam, because it was, it, you know, it was, you could get more power, it was more consistent.

00:45:17.000 --> 00:45:19.000
So they all moved to Steam and what's interesting in Hebden Bridge as well is that, I mean, you saw a couple of the mill chimneys.

00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:36.000
In the pictures, but we actually have quite a lot of mill chimneys still. Because you know in the I think it was in the sixties, seventies and eighties a lot of the middle chimneys were demolished.

00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:44.000
There was that the man on the telly and he was the expert at demolishing a chimneys.

00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:51.000
But in our area. And most of the chimneys are still standing and they're now listed so they can't they can't be taking

00:45:51.000 --> 00:46:08.000
Hmm. Okay, okay, there you go, Phil. And sort of a related question from David and he's asking It's the tradition of working with fire bricks and yarns continued amongst the creative people in Hibdenbridge now.

00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:18.000
I would say definitely, yes. within Heton Bridge, there are there are many small little, galleries.

00:46:18.000 --> 00:46:21.000
It's not just all shops and pubs and cafes there are some galleries and local people will exhibit their work.

00:46:21.000 --> 00:46:51.000
There's quite a lot of people who are artists. But they work with textiles so there is still that creative side to textiles and actually the the I think the last trouser mill to, to close was not in Hebden Bridge, it was just down the road and that close probably only about 18 years ago.

00:46:51.000 --> 00:46:56.000
And they were still selling Moleskin trousers. You could actually go in and buy some. If you wanted to.

00:46:56.000 --> 00:47:06.000
Hmm. Okay, interesting. There you go, David. Now a question from Castling.

00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:15.000
Doing off what the average price of a house is now. I guess it's probably a bit more than it used to be.

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:16.000
Yeah, Google one.

00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:21.000
Okay. I can't believe. A company even asking that because interestingly if anybody watched location location last night they were in West Yorkshire in this sort of area.

00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:34.000
And our house prices are lower than the national average. And I think the average house price is about 240,000.

00:47:34.000 --> 00:47:53.000
245. Obviously we have houses which are you know up to the 1 million part no problem but also a little bit cheaper so It's probably one of the cheaper areas to live in, but Hebden Bridge itself, it's probably one of the cheaper areas to live in, but Hebden Bridge itself, the house prices have gone up.

00:47:53.000 --> 00:47:59.000
So now, when I moved here, it was still quite reasonable. It's still quite reasonable compared to many parts of the country.

00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:12.000
But, it's more expensive now than the surrounding towns and villages. Well, not villages so much, but the surrounding towns.

00:48:12.000 --> 00:48:23.000
So cheap as in the average but prices have been creeping up. But difficult to find a house to buy at the minute actually.

00:48:23.000 --> 00:48:24.000
Hmm. No.

00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:31.000
Yeah, sounds a bit like, That's not cheap either. Okay, so I've got a few questions about these top and bottom houses.

00:48:31.000 --> 00:48:33.000
Yes.

00:48:33.000 --> 00:48:40.000
Right, so from Sue. Did those houses have plumbing originally when they were built?

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:50.000
I don't, I don't honestly know. I don't know. I would say probably not because they were built, during the industrial revolution.

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:53.000
So I would think and I. This is only what I think they wouldn't have had indoor plumbing.

00:48:53.000 --> 00:49:07.000
They would have been probably a pump. In the street. And some sort of Collections for night soil.

00:49:07.000 --> 00:49:17.000
As far as I understand, yeah. And, and there would have been, you know, little blocks of toilets on the ends of the streets as well.

00:49:17.000 --> 00:49:28.000
Live in Hampden Bridge, I live above it. And we've got some back to back houses just up the road from me and at the end of that row of houses, there, there is a building.

00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:37.000
I mean, people use it as a shed. They use it as sheds now, but originally those would have been toilets for everybody in that row.

00:49:37.000 --> 00:49:40.000
Those back to back row houses.

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.000
Hmm, okay. And, This is a question from Kirk, Carol. And do the lore houses have problems with dam?

00:49:44.000 --> 00:49:55.000
Because suppose when you think about it, a kind of, because suppose when you think about it, they're kind of built into the site of the valley, so.

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:56.000
Good.

00:49:56.000 --> 00:50:12.000
Yeah, I do. I don't know anyone who lives in one, but I would have thought, yes, they do because I mean, I'm sure now that people have made sure that they're properly tamped because they are the back of it is like a basement in that it's in in the ground.

00:50:12.000 --> 00:50:21.000
But originally they may well have been quite damp i don't know how they built them at the time what they did with damp proofing.

00:50:21.000 --> 00:50:27.000
But chances are there wasn't a great deal of damp proofing done when they were 1st built.

00:50:27.000 --> 00:50:31.000
So yes, I would have thought they were quite damply under and they're called the under dwellings.

00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:47.000
So they're the underneath ones are the under dwellings. And I think possibly they were not, you know, then with not quite as nice as the top ones because they didn't have windows both sides and they were probably a little bit damp and they tend to be a bit smaller as well.

00:50:47.000 --> 00:50:55.000
Hmm. Okay, right. And another couple questions about the houses. And Carol wonders where they hung their washing.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:56.000
In the school.

00:50:56.000 --> 00:50:59.000
And those houses quite a bit the practical question that but. Good question.

00:50:59.000 --> 00:51:08.000
In the street actually yes you'd have washing lines strong across the 2 streets and people would just hand their washing on the streets.

00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:14.000
It's not unusual to see that now. I, if you if you go through on a normal and nice day.

00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:30.000
Not, on the pictures of streets that I showed you there, but in other parts of the town and in other areas around here you see washing strong across the 2 streets.

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:40.000
Hmm. And also, and from validate. Do you know if people buy both the top and the bottom together and join them up?

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:45.000
As far as I know, no, no, I, I don't believe so. My friend that lived in a top dwelling.

00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:57.000
The one underneath her and I don't know how it quite worked but the one underneath her it was a single story.

00:51:57.000 --> 00:52:04.000
And she actually had, she went, you went in on the ground floor, what was effectively the ground floor, she actually had a basement as well.

00:52:04.000 --> 00:52:12.000
And then the top floor and an attic room as well. So it was at her top floor house was actually really big.

00:52:12.000 --> 00:52:13.000
Hmm.

00:52:13.000 --> 00:52:20.000
But most of them, most of the upper houses, the over dwellings, they don't normally have a cellar.

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:28.000
I don't know why she did whether or not previous people had bought it or maybe it was just built like that.

00:52:28.000 --> 00:52:29.000
Hmm.

00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:34.000
I'm not sure. But generally speaking, you know, it's. 2 separate and people keep it that way.

00:52:34.000 --> 00:52:48.000
Okay. Now a question from Clear. You talked, talked a bit about the filming that, takes place in the town or has taken place in time.

00:52:48.000 --> 00:52:50.000
Happy Valley. I would I would say exactly what, Catherine said, do watch it if you haven't.

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:53.000
Yeah.

00:52:53.000 --> 00:53:02.000
It's amazing. How's the time compensated for the disruption? Because I suppose when you think about, I mean, we have lots of filming in Edinburgh here, but we're fairly large city.

00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:03.000
Yeah.

00:53:03.000 --> 00:53:08.000
And in a small-time town like Hibden Bridge that that really must present some challenges.

00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:23.000
I think it sometimes it can. it seems to me when, I've been down because you know, I've been down and they've been filming, they seem to, when they block off streets, it's only tends to be a single street and they just film in there.

00:53:23.000 --> 00:53:37.000
And then it's opened up again. I think the, criteria of being able to block off streets is that they have to make sure that there's the buses can still get through and that people can actually get round the town.

00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:42.000
So generally speaking the streets are blocking off they're not they don't they don't ever block off the main road through the valley.

00:53:42.000 --> 00:54:12.000
That is never completely closed because it is such a busy road. Although there was filming a bit further out of Hebden Bridge, not so long ago, and they were using one of the houses on that main road and they did actually, they had traffic lights and they were just, they, they were just using one side of the off the road, but they wouldn't have got permission to

00:54:14.000 --> 00:54:15.000
Hmm.

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:18.000
take to close it completely because it would have caused far too much disruption. You know, to get round that would have been significant distances.

00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:29.000
It's not not that wouldn't happen. So generally speaking, it's the smaller streets and and they only really close off one street at a time to minimize the disruption.

00:54:29.000 --> 00:54:30.000
Hmm.

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:37.000
Probably more disruption is the fact that you've got the big lorries and the big vans and the taking up parking.

00:54:37.000 --> 00:54:57.000
Hmm, okay, right. And what we got next then, we still got a few minutes, from Angela, now you may have touched on this a little bit at the start, I'm not sure, but she's asking where does the name Hebden come from and is it connected at all with Heptan as in heptanstall?

00:54:57.000 --> 00:55:01.000
Hmm.

00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:02.000
Hmm.

00:55:02.000 --> 00:55:05.000
Oh, that's a question, isn't it? I have absolutely no idea actually. And I should know this because I have read this somewhere and I can't remember.

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:16.000
So I honestly can't remember. It may well be a corruption of Hector. They may well have they may have a common denominator, but I wouldn't like to say I have no idea.

00:55:16.000 --> 00:55:19.000
I wouldn't wonder perhaps that's a question we can maybe take away and have a look at afterwards.

00:55:19.000 --> 00:55:22.000
Yes. I'll have a look at that afterwards. Yeah, no problem.

00:55:22.000 --> 00:55:32.000
Magic. Okay, right. Let's see what else we have before we finish. Oh, let's have a look.

00:55:32.000 --> 00:55:36.000
And right, this is a question from Sue. Now this is something I wasn't aware of.

00:55:36.000 --> 00:55:48.000
She's asking what happened to the mill at the center of the asbestos scandal.

00:55:48.000 --> 00:55:49.000
Hmm.

00:55:49.000 --> 00:55:52.000
I do know that because I live in that village, that is where I live. That mail, was, demolished.

00:55:52.000 --> 00:56:21.000
Completely demolished. All of the everything from that mill has been buried in an area not too far from where I live and buried it's being capped with concrete and covered over it looks like it looks like field now but there is act that's where it is the whole site was so it was demolished, the whole site was cleared.

00:56:21.000 --> 00:56:32.000
It is currently It's just it's just grass at the moment. And I know the people who own it wanted to build on it.

00:56:32.000 --> 00:56:43.000
I cannot believe they tried to get permission because that was never going to happen because there is still asbestos in that soil even though the site's been cleaned.

00:56:43.000 --> 00:56:48.000
There will still be and if you start digging foundations you're going to get it back up.

00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:59.000
But the opposite that milk it was massive it was a massive mill opposite that mill was the canteen for the middle.

00:56:59.000 --> 00:57:19.000
And that does still exist and that was converted into into houses actually and you fact they are it is effectively back to back houses it's been converted into very very nicely done but if you look at that you think that was the mail because that's quite big in itself so it was a huge concern.

00:57:19.000 --> 00:57:22.000
People used to walk up from bridge and from the village is they used to walk up to work and they were there are paths that people would walk to work.

00:57:22.000 --> 00:57:36.000
It's a steep path. And my, my old next door neighbor grew up in this village.

00:57:36.000 --> 00:57:46.000
And he remembers waiting for the school bus in the winter. And they used to stand outside the vents.

00:57:46.000 --> 00:57:56.000
From the mill, from the asbestos mill because the venting was pumping out nice warm air and they used to stand under the vents.

00:57:56.000 --> 00:57:57.000
Okay, good.

00:57:57.000 --> 00:58:01.000
To keep warm waiting for the bus. And when you tell me that, he said, you know, if we'd known, if we'd known.

00:58:01.000 --> 00:58:12.000
So in the, obviously the accompanying, health conditions from working in the mill and from being exposed to.

00:58:12.000 --> 00:58:20.000
To the asbestos dust from maybe people in your family that worked in the mill, there are still many, many people suffering from.

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:28.000
Hmm. Right, well I think we're out of time everybody. And thanks very much for that, Catherine.

00:58:28.000 --> 00:58:36.000
That was great. And what a picturesque and interesting place historically. It's a place I've always wanted to visit and I think I want to go now.

00:58:36.000 --> 00:58:37.000
You need to come and visit, Hmm.

00:58:37.000 --> 00:58:50.000
I hope everybody out there enjoyed that. And obviously don't forget to look out for your through your email tomorrow morning details of WEA courses coming up that you might be interested in.

00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:57.000
And so thanks again, Katherine.

00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:16.000
Okay, thank you very much Fiona. And thank you for the invitation to speak. Just trying to.

00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:25.000
There we are. Hopefully everyone can see, my slides.

00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:26.000
Yes, we can.

00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:29.000
There we are. The sum. Well, you don't even have to look at it on a screen today.

00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:47.000
Although, I mean, I'm very cautious when I talk about the weather because it may not be the case all over the UK but here in the Midlands it is a lovely sunny day and as Fiona said you know in my life I've got 2 sort of memorable astronomical events both of which as a result of the sun.

00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:56.000
So the aurora and eclipses. So I'm going to talk to you about the sun today and as Fiona said it's some awareness week okay.

00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:07.000
The sun is all important to us here on Earth. It influences so many aspects of our life and of course it is the brightest object we can see in the sky.

00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:16.000
And what I'm going to do in this afternoon is is. Yes, say something about how the sun's formed and how old it is.

00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:26.000
How big it is, how does it compare with the stars that we see in the night sky. And how do we know so much about the sun and stars when we can't take actual samples?

00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:35.000
So. The sun lies, you know, part of the, the solar system and it is by far the largest object.

00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:42.000
And there's an image of the sun on the, the right of the screen there. We're going to actually be seeing some very up-to-date images of the Sun later on because there's a lot happening on the Sun at the moment and I'll tell you about that and how you can find out.

00:01:42.000 --> 00:02:08.000
More information about that. But over and over well over 99% of the solar system's mass is tied up in the sun and it's roughly a hundred 9 times the and we could actually fit about a million Earths.

00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:24.000
Inside the volume of the sun. Now that just sort of big numbers aren't they but in a minute we have some nice diagrams illustrating this but if you want to know what it's sort of actual masses well it's nearly 2 times 10 to the power 30.

00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:33.000
Which is 2 followed by 30 zeros kilograms. Which is over 300,000 times the mass of the earth.

00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:46.000
And the actual diameter is about 1.4 million kilometers. 865,000 miles and as we've already said we could fit over a million Earths inside the volume of the Sun.

00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:59.000
But let's look at this from the point of view of diagrams. What we've got here is, diagrams showing the relative sizes of the Sun, Jupiter, the Earth, and Earth's moon.

00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:08.000
Now Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and we've got the sun here in the top right hand.

00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:17.000
Image. And the sun is so vast that we can't really show a reasonable scale representation of it in Jupiter.

00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:24.000
So we've just got, if you like, an arc of the sun there. And there's stupid.

00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:37.000
Okay. And if you put it another way, then there's the sun again. So we got all of us on this time, but we can fit about 10 or 11 Jupiter's across the diameter of the Sun.

00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:43.000
And when we come down here. Now what we're doing here is we're comparing the Earth.

00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:52.000
To Jupiter. And again we can get about 10 or 11 Jupiter. Sorry Earth's across the diameter of Jupiter.

00:03:52.000 --> 00:04:01.000
Like that, okay. So just give you some idea to the size of these objects and really how small the earth is compared with them.

00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:15.000
There is a feature on Jupiter called the Great Red Spot. And essentially what you're looking at there is the top of an enormous storm system, a sort of hurricane that's been going on.

00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:26.000
Jupiter but well the best part of 400 years probably longer but it's only in that period of time that we've had telescopes that have been able to see it.

00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:27.000
Okay, so, and you can see the Earth is this big spot, this atmospheric feature on Jupiter.

00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:38.000
You know, it compares very favorably with the size of the earth. And then over here just bringing things home a bit more.

00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:39.000
We've got the earth and the moon. So I think we've got about 10 or 11 moons across there.

00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:46.000
That would fit across 3 Earths. So hopefully that's given you some idea of the sort of scale.

00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:55.000
The objects that we're talking about.

00:04:55.000 --> 00:05:06.000
Okay. And again, just another because I do love the scale diagram. So I think it's Very, sorry, I moved this slide on one snake, okay.

00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:13.000
I'm just trying to get rid of that's it. Here you've got the, yeah, the smaller planets.

00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:17.000
Venus. Earth and Venus are pretty much the same size. And then you've got Mars.

00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:33.000
Mars is only about half the size of the Earth. And then you've got mercury and then Pluto which is best described these days as a dwarf planet but if we come down here We've got the sun again with the planets.

00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:43.000
And you'll see that you know the earth is again very tiny. Compared with the sun. So hopefully that set the scene for what we're dealing with.

00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:53.000
The sun is, about 150 million kilometers. 93 million miles from the earth.

00:05:53.000 --> 00:06:03.000
And that's a very important distance. This is the mean distance. That distance is the basis of what we call the astronomical unit.

00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:14.000
Which provides us the means of A scale if you like.

00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:24.000
But in fact, that is, as I said, an average or mean distance. In fact, the Earth's orbit around the Sun, like those of the other planets, is elliptical.

00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:45.000
And in fact, we are closest to the sun in January and furthest away in July. Of course you know it's not the the actual distance that determines the seasons it is the tilt of the Earth's axis and it just so happens that in July the northern hemisphere where we are is tilting more towards the sun so that's why it's summer.

00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:53.000
And this distance here, light, traveling at 300,000 kilometers per second or 186,000 miles per second takes over 8 min to reach the earth.

00:06:53.000 --> 00:07:07.000
So at the moment I'm looking outside. And all that light has taken 8 min to get here.

00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:17.000
The surface temperature of the Sun is about 5,700 Celsius. Now the sun itself doesn't have a surface in the perhaps the normal understanding of the word.

00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:27.000
And it's not a solid body, but really it's a sort of temperature of the outer layers and I'm sure there's got to be some specific definition relating to that.

00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:28.000
Because it's not a solid body, different parts of the Sun rotate over at different speeds.

00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:41.000
And so the average rotation period of the Sun is just over 25 days.

00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:56.000
No. Where's the sun in relation to other styles? Again, I've got a diagram of this in a minute, but the distance from the center of our galaxy is about 27,000 light years.

00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:09.000
And the light here is the distance that light would travel in one year. And again, I quoted you the philosophers for the erosity of light a few minutes ago.

00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:23.000
But essentially a light year is just under 6 million miles. Or 9 million kilometers. But you know they're just enormous numbers with lots of knots on the end so that's why astronomers like to use the light tier.

00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:30.000
So it takes light, you know, about 27,000 years to travel from the center of our galaxy to the sun.

00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:41.000
And I'll come onto the diagram now, but I'm going to talk about the time it takes for the sun to revolve once around the center of our galaxy.

00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:50.000
And that is, well, you see various figures quoted for this. And I think a lot of the numbers I'm telling you to.

00:08:50.000 --> 00:09:02.000
But it takes about 225 million years to complete one circuit of the centre of our galaxy and that is referred to as the cosmic year.

00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:09.000
And the age of the sun is approximately, you know, between 4 and a half and 5 billion years old.

00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:16.000
So it's big numbers everywhere you look.

00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:31.000
But it's a galaxy. The galaxy, we use to apply to a collection of stars and they're associated planets and moons and the associated planets and moons and all the the dust.

00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:39.000
And everything is bound together by a gravity. And you can see there's the center of our galaxy.

00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:46.000
Galaxies come in all sorts of sizes and shapes and our galaxy is what we call a spiral galaxy.

00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:51.000
And you can see you know the spiral shape there. It's a bit like a Catherine wheel.

00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:59.000
Now we're not in the center of the galaxy, which is just as well because there is an enormous black hole there.

00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:16.000
But we're sort of somewhere out here. In one of these spiral arms. And the distance that we are out It takes, as I said, this cosmic year, about 225 million years to complete one circuit of the galaxy.

00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:20.000
Now, to put this into perspective. And again, I'm going to use nice sort of round numbers just to make the maths a bit more obvious.

00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:32.000
Well, 225 million years. Let's call that 240.

00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:39.000
It may even be 240, I don't know, but, you know, these numbers are, estimates.

00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:51.000
Now, the dinosaurs, now everyone knows that the dinosaurs met their demise about 65 million years ago.

00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:58.000
Okay, well instead of saying 65, let's say 60. Because 60 goes into 240 nicely doesn't it?

00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:04.000
So it's a quarter of that, isn't it? 60 million years ago is a quarter of 240 million years.

00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:12.000
So what I'm trying to say here is the sun in its journey around the center of the galaxy.

00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:30.000
It was only a quarter of a cosmic year ago that the dinosaurs died out. And so I think that gives you some idea of the enormous periods of time that we are talking about.

00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:38.000
No, we've seen how the sun compares with the planets and, but how does it compare with other stars?

00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:52.000
Well, I've put on this slide here. A selection of stars. Some of you, if you go out and you're familiar with some of the constellations, you may be familiar with these, stars.

00:11:52.000 --> 00:12:01.000
Battle Girls or Beetle Juice is the bright red star in the constellation of Orion, you know, it's visible over the winter months.

00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:13.000
And, is an even bigger star that's visible in the summer months as we look south, it's in the constellation of Scorpius and we've got other styles here.

00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:17.000
Again, you may be familiar with some of these, but where's the sum? Oh dear.

00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:32.000
You see it's just that sort of tiny little, well I suppose pixel there. So compared with a lot of other stars Our sun is very small.

00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:42.000
Now, before this starts to give everyone an inferiority complex. Let's look at this.

00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:51.000
I'm sorry, sometimes, okay, now this is another one of these images showing the relative sizes of images showing the relative sizes of bodies.

00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:58.000
And we've got the sun in the top left-hand corner there. But what we got down here?

00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:05.000
Well, we've got this star here. Glza 2 2 9 a. Glees is a catalog number.

00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:12.000
It's named after an astronomer who investigated some of these styles, I think it early on in the 20th century.

00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:22.000
But this is a type of star called a red dwarf. Red dwarfs are in fact the most common type of star in the galaxy.

00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:34.000
Probably about 80% of the stars in our galaxy are these very small red 12 stars

00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:49.000
And, can actually hold its head up a bit. Yes, it's dwarfed by, you know, some of these giants that we looked at on the last slide, but it is larger than, you know, most of the, the stars in the galaxy, these red dwarfs.

00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:56.000
And it's also interesting that you can also get much lower mass, much cooler stars called brown dwarfs.

00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:08.000
But I'm not going to go into those the nature of those today, but hopefully that's, as I said, restored some of the son's pride in the pecking order of the stars.

00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:15.000
Okay, well what's it made of then? Well, the sun is composed primarily of 2 elements of hydrogen and helium.

00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:28.000
Hydrogen is the lightest element and it's the most abundant element in the universe. And helium is the second most abundant element in the universe.

00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:38.000
Now we know that these days, but it was only about a hundred years ago that these sort of facts became definite.

00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:39.000
Because before that, Strumbers just didn't know what made up the sun.

00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:49.000
It was obviously producing a lot of heat. So was it made of wood? Was it made of cold?

00:14:49.000 --> 00:15:02.000
And in the 19th century people were doing, you know, quite a few calculations. On this, they knew what the, you know, size of the sun was if it was made of coal, how long would it take for that coal to burn?

00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:28.000
It was made of wood, etc. So lots of, You know, calculations were going on, but it wasn't until the 19 twenties when, a woman astronomer, called Cecilia Panka Poshkin, and she was carrying out analysis of the light of stars and the sun and I'll say a bit more about that later on and she came to this conclusion that the

00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:46.000
sun and the stars were made primarily of these 2 elements and in fact it that was such a revolutionary thought at the time that these results were in put in her PhD thesis and because her PhD examiner that was indeed a very notable astronomer.

00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:56.000
He didn't quite go along with this. She had to sort of tone her results down. But even, you know, 2, 3 years later, this noted astronomer.

00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:07.000
Also said, along with this view, okay. So the last 100 years we've known that. And hydrogen makes up about 74% of the mass of the Sun.

00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:09.000
Helium accounts for 24% and the rest is made up of basically it's a mix of the other chemical elements.

00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:25.000
Obviously, you know, important ones and things like oxygen, carbon, neon and iron. But you know, it's a very small amount of those in the sun.

00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:34.000
And, you know, it's now established that, hydrogen and helium were made in the the Big Bang.

00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:50.000
When the universe came into being according to that theory. And the other elements, the oxygen, the carbon, the carbon that make you know you've got in every, you know, cell of your your body.

00:16:50.000 --> 00:17:03.000
And they were made up. By nuclear reactions that go on inside stars. And I'm not going to go into

00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:12.000
The in details that this afternoon okay but a lot of the heavier elements were formed in the cause of older.

00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:23.000
Now sort of long dead stars, many of them would have exploded and their contents would have been spread across the the neighboring universe and they would have collected together in molecular clouds.

00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:37.000
And it would material would have been recycled. And a star like the Sun was born. So, you know, interesting thought that, you know, we're all part of a big cosmic recycling experiment.

00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:44.000
You know, the oxygen we're breathing. That was, you know, the atoms that make those oxygen molecules up were formed actually billions of years ago.

00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:54.000
And if like me you're having a drink at the moment, you know, got some water there.

00:17:54.000 --> 00:18:11.000
The hydrogen in that water, yes. You know, came from the big bang. But the oxygen atoms We'll do been called in a later generation of stars.

00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:17.000
Well, how old is the sun? Well, it's a middle-aged star. It's approximately 4.6 billion years old.

00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:25.000
The universe. Well, you know, probably a currently accepted estimate for the age of the universe is about 13.8 billion years.

00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:35.000
So the Sun isn't 1 of the original inhabitants of the universe. It's probably sort of, you know, something like second or 3rd generation star.

00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:49.000
Well, how does stars form? Well, in the, when we look out into the cosmos, Even today there are large clouds of very cold gas dust.

00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:56.000
That's sorry, gas and dust. That gas is a lot of hydrogen in that with some helium.

00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:06.000
And if one of these Just clean there, styles that sort of exploded that have been traces of the other elements in there.

00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:19.000
And something happens to perhaps disturb this what we call molecular cloud to make it start contracting and it continues to contract under its gravity and if you like we get little pockets of stars formed.

00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:29.000
And when a body of gas contracts under its own gravity, it gets smaller, the pressure and the temperature in the central part will increase.

00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:37.000
And eventually if we've got enough mass that's contracted then the temperature can rise and pressure can increase so much.

00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:47.000
That we can actually get what we call nuclear fusion. And that's what's going on in the core of the sun and other styles that we see.

00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:54.000
As I said, I've just skimmed over that's a lot more detail that, you know, perhaps maybe might better look at that another time, okay?

00:19:54.000 --> 00:20:00.000
But what's going on in the sun at the moment in the core of the sun, the very central part?

00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:06.000
That the element hydrogen is being converted to helium.

00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:32.000
Okay. These particular reactions produce the energy that's released by the Sun. Because as these hydrogen nuclei and it is the nucleus, the central part of the atom that fuse together and they're able to do that at the very high temperatures and pressures in the boar as they fuse together it produces helium and as I said that produces energy that's released by the Sun.

00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:39.000
No, when the hydrogen nuclei about overall for hydrogen fused together to give you the nucleus of a helium atom, a bit of mass is lost.

00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:46.000
And in fact, it's that mass that's converted to energy. But this is an amazing fact.

00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:49.000
And every time I say it, I always have to check it that I haven't got it wrong.

00:20:49.000 --> 00:21:05.000
But every second as a result of these nuclear fusion reactions the sun loses. 4 million tons in mass.

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:16.000
4 million tons every second. So, have been talking and you think, well, that's a lot.

00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:18.000
It's been talking and you think, well that's a lot, it's not going to last long, but when you think back it was 2 times 10 to the power 30 kg.

00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:26.000
If you do the maths the sun's still got a lot of life left in it so don't worry about it.

00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:43.000
It's not something going to turn itself off. Now, this is sort of, you know, diagram, is this an artist's impression of course, representing the formation of the, the sun because this big molecular cloud.

00:21:43.000 --> 00:22:03.000
Once it started to sort of contract. You've got the central star in the middle but there would have been a lot of dusty material around and you know so these sort of been very small particles brains and it's from these that essentially the planets will have formed but I'm not going to go into sort of planetary formation tonight.

00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:07.000
No. I said that that was an artist's impression, so I mean, anyone could have painted that, however, with, you know, some of these very powerful orbiting telescopes.

00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:12.000
Like the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope.

00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:19.000
They've imaged. You know, systems that, you know, could look like that.

00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:31.000
The images aren't as good as that, but obviously they're open to interpretation, but this does seem to be a good picture.

00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:43.000
Okay, so the sun formed from a big molecular cloud. And no, well, there's absolutely little doubt that other stars would have formed from that molecular cloud at the same time.

00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:52.000
To form a cluster of stars. When we look out into the universe, in our galaxy, we do see lots of clusters of stars.

00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:59.000
But you know, remember I said the sun was moving around the galaxy. These clusters would move around the galaxy.

00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:19.000
And over a period of time they get disrupted so no doubt the sun you know has siblings but they long ago parted company because as the cluster moved around the galaxy there would have been interactions with other clouds of gas and, the cluster would have broken up.

00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:24.000
So our sun is now on its own.

00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:30.000
Now, when we talk about these nuclear reactions going on inside the core of a star, we call them burning. Okay.

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:38.000
So the sun has been converting hydrogen to helium. Yeah, the last 4.5 billion years and it's expected to continue shining in the same way for another 5 billion years or so.

00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:54.000
But, it's only in the core that these reactions occur and we've got, we'll have an expanded view of the sun later on.

00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:01.000
But once those reactions in the core stop. And the hydrogen once the hydrogen is used up. Then.

00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:15.000
There's another process that goes on. The core will contract. And becomes very hot, it becomes hot enough to use helium as a fuel and that will enable the sun to form heavier elements in its core like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen.

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:27.000
But it does mean that because this core is so hot, the outer layers of the star expand. The sun will become a red giant.

00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:33.000
And this again is an artist's impression of what the sun will look like as a red giant.

00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:40.000
It's, again, one estimate is that the diameter will be 2 astronomical units.

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:52.000
Remember I said the astronautical unit is the Earth Sun distance when the sun becomes a red giant It'll probably expand out so that, you know, it's outer layers.

00:24:52.000 --> 00:25:01.000
Are about twice as far from the sun. Then the Earth currently is. And again, you've got this diagram here.

00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:02.000
Again, we've got an arc of the red giant sun and that's what the sun looks like at the moment.

00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:15.000
And this word main sequence star, it really means it's just using hydrogen as its fuel. Okay, so that's the sun as it is.

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:18.000
Okay. So. Yeah, but don't worry about that.

00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:48.000
As I said, it's not gonna happen for another sort of 5 billion years. But in these red giants The outer atmosphere is very tenuous and after a period of time the outer atmosphere gets blown away into space and again becomes probably part of a cosmic recycling experiment and it means that in the central part there, and again I'm not going to go into the details, but we're left with what's called

00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:55.000
a white dwarf star. And, I'll come back to that in a minute.

00:25:55.000 --> 00:26:04.000
You know a white 12 star is a very compact, very dense form of matter. Roughly around the same size as the Earth.

00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:16.000
So there's our current son. It will then expand to become a red giant. And then after a long period of time, it'll become a white dwarf.

00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:25.000
White tours aren't producing any, they're not undergoing nuclear reactions, but they are incredibly hot because of the stored energy there.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:31.000
But if eventually they they cool down, they will radiate and eventually they become what we call a black dwarf.

00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:41.000
But no black dwarfs have been detected because the universe hasn't existed long enough for them to to form.

00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:53.000
And Just going back to the, the red giant stage. This obviously has implications for the planets in the, the solar system.

00:26:53.000 --> 00:27:00.000
And this at the top there you've got the current solar system. So you've got Mercury and Venus.

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:01.000
And then you've got the earth in what's called the habitable zone. And Mars in there as well.

00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:14.000
Can you see Miles there? You know, that's really the region around which liquid water can exist on, planets.

00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:24.000
Although with mars, you know, doesn't appear to be any liquid water as that there as such, but no doubt there has been liquid water on Mars in the past.

00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:33.000
But what happens when the sun expands? Well, it's sort of good by Earth and Mars and the habitable zone would extend out here.

00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:39.000
But you know, Jupiter and Saturn have got a very different composition than the rocky Earth and Mars.

00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:53.000
And but it may well mean that you know perhaps some of these moons of Jupiter I mean one of the moon of Saturn called Titan does actually have a nitrogen atmosphere on it.

00:27:53.000 --> 00:28:05.000
So you know people are looking at this at what's going to happen but Anyway, but as I said, you know, it's, Goodbye and life on Earth.

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:15.000
Right, so how hot is the sun then? Well, I said that the, surface temperature, well, again, I think, sorry, than the figure I quoted before, but about 5.5,000 degrees.

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:29.000
That's the surface, okay? But in the core where these nuclear fusion reactions occur, it's estimated to be 15 million degrees.

00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:35.000
Okay. And some also has an outer atmosphere called the corona. And that's the temperature there gets up to a few 1 million degrees.

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:46.000
And that's been one of the big problems really for solar astronomers to try and explain why this corona, the very outer atmosphere, has got such a high temperature.

00:28:46.000 --> 00:29:03.000
And the Corona itself again is very tenuous, but it's believed to be, you know, tied up with some sort of magnetic activity there.

00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:11.000
Thank you. Bye, the little, you know, cut away model of the sun, if you like.

00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:18.000
Now, this the court though, to see the court in the center there. That's where all the energy is produced.

00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:29.000
And once that energy is produced, it's got to get to the outer atmosphere. And then as I said, it takes 8 min to get from there to the earth.

00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:48.000
No. Once the energy has been produced inside the core, then as I said these zones that the energy at the photons if you like have got to get through and it's a bit of a struggle getting through some of these because on the time.

00:29:48.000 --> 00:30:01.000
These little packets of energy these photons are colliding with other particles so they don't have a straight path through and it's estimated that it can take about a hundred 1,000 years.

00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:13.000
For a little packet of energy, one of these photons to get from the core to the outer layers of the sun a hundred 1,000 years but then of course I say it's just straight 8 min to earth there are other features that, yeah, so that's the, and the inner part of the sun.

00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:27.000
Then there's the, the sort of photosphere. Which is what we look at that's the surface of the sun.

00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:34.000
But there are lots of other interesting features that can be seen on the Sun if you've got the right equipment.

00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:41.000
I mentioned this Corona, this outer atmosphere. The only time you can see that is during a total eclipse of the sun.

00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:49.000
But all these other features like sunspots and flares. So let's have a quick look at those.

00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:54.000
Okay, so there's just a bit more about the call and perhaps a close-up of that diagram.

00:30:54.000 --> 00:31:05.000
And the core is about, you know, 20 to 25% of the sun's radius.

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:18.000
I mentioned the Corona. Okay. The Corona, if you look at a picture that's many clips of the sun, it's this sort of white, lovely white, white feature around the sun there, okay.

00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:28.000
And I'm sure a lot of you looked at the images from the recent April the 8th total eclipse of the Sun that was visible from parts of North America.

00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:41.000
And in this diagram here. You can see this pearly white. Thin cloud around the edge of the sun.

00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:54.000
That is the Corona, the very outer atmosphere. But you can also see. These, if you like, things sticking out, these, we call these prominences.

00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:05.000
And these are tied up with the. The magnetic activity of the the sun. Sun is actually a very violent place.

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:13.000
I'll just click that for now actually. But just talking about eclipses, when can you next see a solar eclipse from the UK?

00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:21.000
Well, the good news is There will be several opportunities over the next few years to see good partial eclipses from the UK.

00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:31.000
And in less than a year's time, March the 29, th 2025. Okay, a mid morning partial eclipse.

00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:37.000
And how much of the sun is covered depends on, you know, from where in the UK you observe it.

00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:45.000
But even better, we can wait until 2026 and even better partial eclipse will occur from the UK on the 12th of August that year.

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:53.000
And in parts of the UK, particularly I think the sort of western and southern parts, 90% of the sun will be obscured.

00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:57.000
But if you want to see a total eclipse you need to go to Spain, northern Spain, parts of Portugal and Iceland, that sort of shaded swathe across that map there.

00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:13.000
Shows you the areas from which the total eclipse. And I think this one, and we'll see a partially clips.

00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:21.000
So that's good. But you want to see a total eclipse, don't you, from the UK?

00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:30.000
Well, It's 2090. September the 23.rd lovely image of the corona again in that image there.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:53.000
But, the be a line across southern England. Yes, sunset. And you know just think about what you'll be doing then but before I go on to my next slide I'll just say that with this and Corona here the reason we can't see it with a naked eye at any time apart from doing a total solar eclipse is of course you know it's it's

00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:59.000
swamped by the brightness of the sun. Good. Anyway, what will you be doing in 2090?

00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:10.000
Well, I will be pushing up daisies. I'm convinced of that. But What about analysing the light from the sun?

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:28.000
How do you do that? Well this uses a technique called spectroscopy. And what we find is that, this enables us to feel, think of, the chemical elements in the sun's, atmosphere.

00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:39.000
Because each chemical element in the sun gives us this unique fingerprint of lines in the spectrum. And by comparing these with samples in the lab, astronomers can deduce the elements present in stars.

00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:41.000
So unlike a biologist who can go out and, you know, pick a throb, frog from a pond and, you know, examine it.

00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:52.000
Or a botanist who can take a daffodil and examine it. Astronomers can't do that.

00:34:52.000 --> 00:35:04.000
They have to use some very clever indirect means. And in spectroscopy. Now you'll all be familiar perhaps with, you know, experiments that patch you did at school where you pass light through a prism ordinary white light.

00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:08.000
And it splits it up into, well, whip you like the colors of the rainbow. This sort of continuum.

00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:24.000
But each of these colors corresponds to light of a different wavelength. Down the bottom here you can see that red light Okay, has got a longer wavelength than the blue light.

00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:28.000
And that means that they've got different energies.

00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:35.000
Now, what happens if a astronomers use this technique on the sun and the stars? They don't only get the sort of rainbow background.

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:42.000
If you've got, you know, good enough equipment, you'll find that it's some spectrum is crossed.

00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:50.000
By these dark lines and these are called absorption lines. And it's these that help us to detect the elements that are there.

00:35:50.000 --> 00:36:00.000
So for instance those 2 lines there. A very characteristic of sodium. If I see that in the spectrum of a star, I know that the sodium present in its atmosphere.

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:07.000
So what's happening with these dark lines is that as the energy is released from these very hot core of the sun.

00:36:07.000 --> 00:36:13.000
It passes up through the cooler outer layers where you've got various atoms. And these atoms can absorb some of this energy.

00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:24.000
And as I said, Bye.

00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:32.000
And, you know, sodium atom always gives rise to those lines. It doesn't give rise to that line there because that's due to calcium.

00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:36.000
It's not due to the sort of makeup of the the atom, okay, which I'm not going to go into.

00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:41.000
But this is an invaluable way of, you know, as strummers getting information about the chemical composition of the sun and stars and also it can tell us information about temperature.

00:36:41.000 --> 00:36:55.000
Because again, just, you know, according to the species that give rise to what we call these absorption lines.

00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:01.000
And now, this is actually, the spectrum of the sun. So it's very, very complicated.

00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:13.000
And this is, if you like, an extremely long step, and it's been broken down into strips and then one strip placed on top of the other.

00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:22.000
But, you know, the spectroscopists are able to identify these and identify what, you know, the species that are present in the sun.

00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:32.000
So an extremely valuable technique. And in fact, the element helium was actually discovered in the sun before it's found on Earth because in the late I think it was the late 18 sixties.

00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:43.000
The Pierre Jansen and Sir Norman Lockyer in this country. They found lines in the spectrum of the sun that couldn't be associated with any element known at the time.

00:37:43.000 --> 00:37:51.000
So they thought, you know, it's a new element and they gave it the name Helium from the Greek word helios, meaning sun.

00:37:51.000 --> 00:37:59.000
And there's the Norman Lock here. Now if you're ever down in Devon in Sidmouth There is the Norman Lockyer Observatory.

00:37:59.000 --> 00:38:05.000
I think you have to get in touch with them to it's not open every day or anything like that, but you know get in touch with them.

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:14.000
It's well worth a visit. I think it's run by a society, but I think they've got some of luckier original instruments there.

00:38:14.000 --> 00:38:26.000
Obviously observing the sun never look at the sun directly through any form of optical aid or with an unprotected naked eye because doing so Well.

00:38:26.000 --> 00:38:40.000
Results in I damage. One way that you can observe what's going on in the sun is to project the image of the sun through a telescope or binoculars onto a piece of white card.

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:49.000
But check 1st of all that your telescope is suitable to this. But a good way might be to contact your local astronomical to society, see if they can arrange some sort of solar viewing sessions.

00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:58.000
Sunspots. What are sunspots then? Well, these are temporary spots on the surface of the Sun and they're darker than the surrounding area.

00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:09.000
And that's why they appeared darker because they're cooler than the the region around. And Awesome.

00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:28.000
The sun's got a very powerful magnetic field and these lines of force can become tangled. And if they come tangled just below the surface, it can stop some of the energy that's being released in, you know, the lower regions of the sun from escaping from that particular region.

00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:35.000
And so the area above it appears cooler and appears darker. Now, this is quite exciting at the moment.

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:40.000
Now, this, there's a big sunspot group on the sun at the moment and it's there.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.000
That was the sun on Tuesday.

00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:56.000
That was the sun yesterday. Okay, so you see that Southport group has moved. Appears to have moved due to the rotation of the Sun and that's it today.

00:39:56.000 --> 00:40:04.000
I took that off about half an hour before the talk. Okay, so you can see that sunspot that is a big one.

00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:11.000
So again, if you know what you're doing it you could project that or even if you've got some eclipse glasses it's reckoned that this is big enough to be seen with a protected naked eye.

00:40:11.000 --> 00:40:27.000
And they reckon that this is about 15 times wider than the earth. And people are comparing it with a very famous event that took place in 1,859 called the Carrington event.

00:40:27.000 --> 00:40:36.000
When, where there was an enormous spot on the sun. And this is Carrington's diagram superimposed against this one.

00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:45.000
And this was such an active sun spot because, you know, when you've got an active sunspot like this, it's spewing out material all the time.

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:53.000
And in fact in 1,859 as a result of this sunspot the aurora was visible.

00:40:53.000 --> 00:40:58.000
Down to the equator. Absolutely amazing. But I think these days an event like that would cause a lot of disruption.

00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:09.000
With satellites and, you know, so much technology we rely on. If you're interested in those images, look on this website.

00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:26.000
So, spaceweather.com. It's a wonderful website but it does have a daily image of the sun and at the moment there's a video on there that actually shows what we call a solar flare or a or mass ejection, the sun spewing out this material and sending it towards us.

00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:37.000
It might cause aurora's hit when I shouldn't think, you know, you know, we might see them from the UK, but certainly in more you know, very northly regions or southerly regions, they're likely to.

00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:44.000
The rotation period of the sun can be determined by observing sunspots. Again, I think we saw it on those images.

00:41:44.000 --> 00:41:49.000
I had of Tuesday, Wednesday and today. There's a big sunspot group. So people can work out how long, you know, the rotation period of the sun is.

00:41:49.000 --> 00:42:05.000
Oh yes, this animation does work. So there's spots. The position of them rotating around the sun

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:21.000
And that was the largest sun spot group that people have recorded seen in 1947. And that there does appear to be a cycle in the number of these sunspots, they vary over time and it's approximately 11 years.

00:42:21.000 --> 00:42:34.000
So you've got these peaks here in Sunspot numbers plotted against date. It's roughly 11 years sometimes it's as short as 7 might be as long as 14 okay But there was a period back here, the late 17.th

00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:41.000
Early 18th century when there were very few spots on the Sun and that's called the mourned a minimum.

00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:48.000
And it also coincided with very cold weather in northern Europe. Sometimes called the Little Ice Age.

00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:57.000
And you know people do try and relate sunspot numbers to well climate weather and other things as well.

00:42:57.000 --> 00:43:03.000
I'll skip that for now because of the time. Now this is interesting.

00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:17.000
Because back in 1128 One of these, Okay, This is supposed to be, this is from his chronicles.

00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:23.000
This is reported to be the oldest known diagram for sunspot. Now how did he see it?

00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:30.000
He didn't have telescopes. You can see naked eyes sunspots sometimes if there's a thin mist, but they would have to be big sunspots.

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:37.000
So that's what they reckon. And now I think, you know, that's a spot and that's a spot.

00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:43.000
Okay. But what is of interest is that a few years ago some astronomers at Durham and Warwick universities.

00:43:43.000 --> 00:44:05.000
They matched John's diagram up, so done in 1128, with reports that appeared. In a Korean manuscript in the 12th century because the reports of I mean this Korean manuscript was very carefully dated.

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:16.000
Appear from Korea. In, well, must have been 1128 and they've tied the 2 events sent together.

00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:24.000
So I think that's sort of amazing. Looking back in, records can give us information about astronomical events.

00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:32.000
And I mentioned people trying to tie sun spots up with other events. Well, this is, someone tried to link sunspot numbers to.

00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:40.000
Recession years in the economy. Well. All that. I'll let you investigate that one, further, but.

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:45.000
As I said, I've seen all sorts of things, people have tried to correlate with sunspots.

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:53.000
Anyway, so there's the sun itself. And, you know, one of these flares that that takes place.

00:44:53.000 --> 00:45:13.000
Where material is spewed from the sun often associated with them sunspots and some of these they're called eruptive prominences the material is spewed out but it haven't got enough force or it's captured by the sun's magnetic field and pulls it back in.

00:45:13.000 --> 00:45:21.000
But these prominences can be very big. There's 1 of them compared with the earth.

00:45:21.000 --> 00:45:33.000
And, this, is some, well, there's a spacecraft called Soho, which is able to, you know, take images of the sun with the sort of central bright bit shaded out.

00:45:33.000 --> 00:45:34.000
But this this shows material and so if you go into space weather. Calm you'll see this recent one that happened a day or so ago.

00:45:34.000 --> 00:45:55.000
So lots of material spewed out. And of course, if this material reaches the Earth, It can, again, I'm putting this very simplistically, but these, charged particles from the sun, very energetic.

00:45:55.000 --> 00:46:06.000
Can interact with the molecules in the Earth's atmosphere. These molecules, because of this sort of collision, they gain a bit of energy, but that's unstable.

00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:14.000
And then the molecules release this energy in the form of colored light and that's when you see the aurora.

00:46:14.000 --> 00:46:20.000
So the colors you get depend on, you know, whether it's the oxygen or the nitrogen.

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:21.000
I think it's also, you know, whereabouts in the atmosphere the interaction occurs. But there's a nice one.

00:46:21.000 --> 00:46:34.000
And there's a very nice one as well. Now, whether we're going to see anything over the next few days, I don't know, but look on a website like space weather that would give you an indication.

00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:42.000
And that the trouble is, you know, now it's some You know, the evenings are a lot lighter.

00:46:42.000 --> 00:47:03.000
We're not getting some of those truly dark. You know, evening so it would be more difficult to see the aurora but that's not to say it's impossible so and they're very good on the weather forecast these days I think telling you if there's likely to be an aurora so I wish you luck in them seeing that and I hope I've given you a flavor of

00:47:03.000 --> 00:47:15.000
what goes on in the Sun. It's the nearest star. We know a lot about it but there's still an awful lot we don't know but of course we base what we know about the sun that we can, you know.

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:24.000
You know pass that on to our knowledge of the other stars so a lot of what we know about stars comes from our knowledge of the sun.

00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:31.000
So thank you very much for your attention. I hope you found it interesting and I hope the sun is shining on you.

00:47:31.000 --> 00:47:38.000
Thanks very much, Anne. Let's go straight to some questions. We've got about 10 min, so.

00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:50.000
There's a couple of questions from Frederick actually. There was an image that you showed quite early on of our galaxy and showed the location of Earth, I think.

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:51.000
The sum, the sum. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:57.000
The sun. Was the location of the sun, cause that was what Frederick was asking about.

00:47:57.000 --> 00:47:58.000
Yeah.

00:47:58.000 --> 00:48:02.000
So, Luke, I hope that answers your question, because that photo was the location of the sun.

00:48:02.000 --> 00:48:14.000
But she's also asking about, if you could talk a little bit, little bit about and explain the difference between the Milky Way galaxy and the solar system and the sort of How they relate to each other.

00:48:14.000 --> 00:48:18.000
Right, okay. The solar system, consists of the sun and the planets, okay, and the planets orbit the solar system.

00:48:18.000 --> 00:48:24.000
Sorry, the planets all bit the sun. I mean, there's other things, you know, apart from planets in the solar system, of course.

00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:37.000
But, in our Milky Way galaxy is composed of billions of stars, many billions of stars and almost certainly many of those.

00:48:37.000 --> 00:48:46.000
Stars do have planets. So if you like, the galaxy is probably made up of mini solar systems.

00:48:46.000 --> 00:48:49.000
It's a bit like in the UK, you know, we've got this big land mass, but it's made up of towns and countries.

00:48:49.000 --> 00:48:58.000
So in some ways, sorry, towns and cities, the towns and cities are like the solar systems and the UK is like the Milky Way.

00:48:58.000 --> 00:48:59.000
And I'll probably be seeing if it's Federica that I'm thinking of Frederica.

00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:10.000
I know her. I'm probably seeing her later on. So, I can perhaps answer that in a bit more detail if that helps.

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:21.000
Okay, thanks very much. And we have another question from Joe. And we talked quite a lot towards the end there about the Sun's Corona.

00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:23.000
Yeah.

00:49:23.000 --> 00:49:34.000
Do we have any kind of idea as to how thick that is?

00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:35.000
I think so, yes.

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:38.000
By, thick, if you mean the extent of it, that there is, yeah, okay, it varies.

00:49:38.000 --> 00:49:54.000
I don't know offhand. No, I don't enough hand. I can look that up, but I know it does vary according to whereabouts in this solar cycle we are, you know, we've got a lot of sunspots.

00:49:54.000 --> 00:50:12.000
We're solar maximum. And when there are fewer sunspots and it is tied up with this you know the sun's magnetic field but I can look that up I'm sure it is known but I don't know if hand at the moment but it is varying because if you look at the pictures of the sun taken during total solar eclipses, different total solar eclipses, sometimes there's a very

00:50:12.000 --> 00:50:17.000
small corona, sometimes it's very expensive. So it does vary.

00:50:17.000 --> 00:50:19.000
Well, maybe try and get a bit more information on that. Start the recording and afterwards. So.

00:50:19.000 --> 00:50:25.000
Okay, yeah. Yeah.

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:36.000
I am now, what else do we have? No, from David. He's asking about helium and neon.

00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:37.000
That's correct.

00:50:37.000 --> 00:50:38.000
He understood them to be an art gases. Can you tell us a bit more about those? Do they burn, etc?

00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:44.000
Could you explain that a little bit?

00:50:44.000 --> 00:50:50.000
Right.

00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:51.000
Hmm.

00:50:51.000 --> 00:50:55.000
No, they don't burn. Yes, if you look on a periodic table, and because this is my other speciality, I am a chemist, because this is my other speciality, I am a chemist actually, I'm a chemist actually, because this is my other speciality, I am a chemist actually, so, they are, you know, down the very right

00:50:55.000 --> 00:51:17.000
hand side of the, the periodic table. And yes, I called the inert gases or noble gases because they don't react with you know other elements under normal conditions and some of them you can force to react with under low temperatures with some elements like oxygen and fluorine.

00:51:17.000 --> 00:51:23.000
But as I said, it's not under normal conditions. So yes, they they are very unreactive.

00:51:23.000 --> 00:51:32.000
Alright, okay, there you go, David. Now, what else do we have for you? Let me just scroll up and down here.

00:51:32.000 --> 00:51:42.000
Right. From Andrew. Would you be able to tell us a little bit about solar wind?

00:51:42.000 --> 00:52:00.000
Right, okay. The solo wind, and this is something that is, we've seen that, you know, the sun is, it's got an active surface and all the time it is ejecting, or charged particles.

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:01.000
Okay. And, you know, they, travel off, you know, from the sun and that is called the solar wind.

00:52:01.000 --> 00:52:16.000
And said that is just a natural sort of consequence of these, of stars. Like the sun but when You know, the density of this does vary.

00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:26.000
And you know, sometimes there are more particles, again, because there's higher activity on the sun, but it is essentially a stream of.

00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:33.000
You know, charge particles that, the sun is constantly producing.

00:52:33.000 --> 00:52:41.000
Okay, there we go. And Andrew. A question from Robin. Now this feels a little bit like a million dollar question.

00:52:41.000 --> 00:52:42.000
Oh, right. Okay. Do I get a million dollars if I answer it?

00:52:42.000 --> 00:52:48.000
How many galaxies are in the universe? That's a bit the tricky one probably I think.

00:52:48.000 --> 00:52:55.000
Oh, yes. Well. It is. And that being, you know, discovered all the time.

00:52:55.000 --> 00:53:05.000
I mean, I think if you looked at trillions, you know, it's that sort of order I think because you know some galaxies are very large.

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:06.000
And so, you know, through our telescopes, they're easy to detect.

00:53:06.000 --> 00:53:16.000
But some are actually very faint. Our Milky Way galaxy, actually is part of what we call the local group.

00:53:16.000 --> 00:53:27.000
This whole sort of cluster of these and some of these galaxies are very faint that even though they're close to us, it's very difficult to discern them against the background stars.

00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:40.000
And of course we've, you know, the, with the James Webb, you know, Space Telescope, that is also, you know, finding you know, galaxies much further back in time.

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:48.000
So, I think if you went for about a trillion, then I think that is As I understand it, that's a reasonable estimate, but.

00:53:48.000 --> 00:53:52.000
You know, who knows?

00:53:52.000 --> 00:53:53.000
It's quite staggering, isn't it?

00:53:53.000 --> 00:54:02.000
And again, I think it's 1 of these numbers that's going to increase because, you know, the, the, the, great our ability to detect these, we can detect painter ones and more of them.

00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:18.000
Yeah. Yeah. Okay, now here is a question from Jillian. Why are we only in the 25th solar cycle if the solar minimums and maximums occur every few years?

00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:22.000
Is it just to do with when modern records began?

00:54:22.000 --> 00:54:32.000
It is, that's exactly it, yes, that's right. Because although, you know, I showed that picture that John of Worcester did in the, the 12th century.

00:54:32.000 --> 00:54:56.000
It wasn't really until the 17th century that, when people used the telescope that they were able to see that yes there were spots on some you know quite a lot of the time and then it would probably been a few years after that that some would have said well, you know, maybe we ought to try and sort of catalog these and see about the pattern.

00:54:56.000 --> 00:55:08.000
One of the slides that I slipped over, there was a German astronomer called Schaba in the 19th century and he observed the sun over a long period of time and he came up with this idea that you know the numbers varied.

00:55:08.000 --> 00:55:21.000
Over time, but I think that's it. You know, we, you know, it was just an arbitrary date that someone decided to, you know, start recording these properly from.

00:55:21.000 --> 00:55:40.000
Okay, right. I think we may have got to the end of our questions there. And so thanks again for that, and it's absolutely fascinating stuff and it's quite Just some of the figures we've been talking about here, distances, temperatures, sizes, it's quite mind boggling.

00:55:40.000 --> 00:56:00.000
And to think of some of these objects that are up there alongside us. So I hope everybody Out there enjoyed that I certainly did and don't forget to look out in your for your email tomorrow, and that we've been sending out the details of other WEA courses that we've got coming up that you may be interested in.

00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:05.000
And so thanks again, Anne.

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Okay, your hello is happy to be back again. This is my 4th Talk, I think. So I'm getting the hang of her.

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Everything I hope. So I will. Share my screen and hopefully everyone be able to see.

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That first.st Slide.

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So is that okay, and can everybody?

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See that 1st slide, lovely. So this is, neurodiversity very much.

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And introduction. Because as I'm sure many of you will be aware. You know, diversity is a huge topic.

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We could every individual condition could be a talk of its own or course of its own even. I'm sorry, really am only able to introduce the concepts here.

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But you know, do you ask questions and I'll do my best to answer them. Either stale, later.

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In the members area. Right. So. 1st slide.

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I'm hoping to get through. What new ad of neurodiversity means? The names of some of the differences that we, have adopted over the years.

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Some definitions and descriptions, etc. And importantly, why it matters, newer diversity has become.

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Much more in the public eye of in recent years which is a really good thing. Amongst other things that are feeling.

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Become more well known. So you will recognize some of these conditions I'm sure and some of you will have experience of.

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Of these conditions in various ways as well.

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Oops, I'm sorry I'll jump to slide. I'm gonna go back. Hey, so obviously neuro refers to the nervous system.

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And in this context, the brain. And diversity is a range of differences, a range of ways in which that can be, sorted and utilized.

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So every single brain. Is unique. They are like fingerprints. The interactions, the neuro connections within them.

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Are unique to each and every person on earth. So the diversity refers to absolutely anything that might occur in your brain.

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So it could be. To do with thinking and memory. It could be emotional responses or interpretations. It could be the interpretation of sensory perception, sensory input.

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We're well aware of things like, you know, some people feel the cold. And some people appear not to fear the cold.

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The getting the same sensory input. But their interpretation of it is different. So neurodiversity.

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Happens all the time. In lots and lots of different ways that, that we think nothing of really.

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But some some people's diversity is great enough for us to see. Know, be aware of a difference and that's what we'll come onto.

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These days, thankfully, You are diversity. Looks into how we should recognize and respect the variances, the differences.

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We respect differences like gender differences, racial differences, sexual orientation differences, don't we? So why not neurological differences?

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I see this as, joining the protected characteristics in times to come to be honest because there are many, many more neuro diverse people in the world than you may think, you may even be one of them and not, not realize it at this moment in time.

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But, talking about newer diversity means recognizing The everybody's brain. Is unique and it works in its own way.

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We think nothing of him. Saying people have different personalities and levels of intelligence. Or ways of interpreting the world.

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You know, if you think about art, for example, artists see the world differently to non artists, don't they?

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So that's new. A diversity. So it's nothing new. Somebody said to me the other day when I was a teaching newer at a West.

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This is all all this is a new thing. It's not a new thing. It's a very old thing.

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It's just that we've given this a label now and it, you know, suddenly seems to pop up everywhere but it has always been everywhere.

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It really has.

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So the human brain, if you look at this diagram. It's a cartoon version of a brain obviously, not a Go to photograph.

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Everybody has, oh no everybody, there will be some rare differences. But on the whole, brains are divided into 2 hemispheres.

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And there's a little joining. Patch in the middle and it joins. About there in the centre of the brain.

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And that joining patch is called the corpus callosum. And that some of the differences in neurological differences between individual people.

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Would appear to occur there where it crosses over.

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So you might be aware, for example, that if you have a stroke. On your, the left hand side of your brain is the right-hand side of your body that's affected and vice versa.

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Because everything crosses over, it's a complex arrangement. And it's the corpus callosa that the crossing point.

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Which a lot of research these days is looking at. As to the source of some of like some of the variations that are in brain functioning.

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All the little wrinkles that you see on that diagram. Folds, they're all folded inwards.

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If you were to inflate a brain you know, and blow air into it and unravel all of those wrinkles.

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It would be enormous. So the wrinkles increase the surface area. Making, thousands and thousands of nerve, pathways possible.

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And it's how we're all wired that is different really. It's the wiring is so complex.

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So there are so many, possibilities. It's no wonder that no 2 brains are the same.

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So a neurological variation can affect how you think and learn. And how you process information.

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So, you know, we're all receiving. Inputs right now, sensory input, you can all see.

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Here and smell, taste, touch things. But how we interpret that information will be down to who we are.

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Individuals. And I have put some references on here so that if you want to have more detail and and look things up.

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You can, but they're all listed at the end.

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So.

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Let's move you the thumbnails so I can see this screen. So you may find Some things challenging.

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That other people find easy. And I'll give you an example. Do you remember Star Trek?

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And I'll just hold up my hand. Just remember. Leonard Nimoy was Mr. Spock and he used to hold up his hand and do that.

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And used to say live long and prosper. How many of you can do that?

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Have a go. How many of you can separate those fingers without the other fingers?

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Looks like my hands are on funny angle.

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Those that can are wired differently to those that can't. So a very, very simple test.

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To see if you are exactly the same as a person next to you. Is this can you all do that and if you can't all do it then you're definitely not all the same neurologically speaking.

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The reason is for some reason it doesn't it's nothing to do with intelligence or anything like that.

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It's not a gift. It's not really very useful. One of them will not really cling on me or whatever he was.

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Now, was he getting on? No, he was knickling on. A Vulcan, who was a vault.

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So we're not really, because we don't really need to do that. It's nothing to do with intelligence.

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It's to do with the way that, my brain is able to send the muscles into my hand and fingers in a way that means I can do that for some reason.

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And some of you will find that you cannot. Your brain for some reason is not sending exactly the same message to your muscles, of your fingers in your hand.

00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:09.000
And it's nothing to do with. Whether you're gifted or you know doesn't show autism.

00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:17.000
It doesn't show anything except that you have a slightly different brain. To the person if you can do it to the person that can't do it.

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It's the same as riding a bikes. Some of you will have learn to ride a bike incredibly easily.

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I struggle terribly to learn to ride a bike. Again, nothing to do with, intellect or bringing or you know environment or anything I didn't have a strange bike or anything.

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I just wasn't very good at it. Because I'm just wasn't wired for the coordination required to do that.

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Where's my sister? Just jumped on and immediately wrote it as if she'd always done it.

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You know, course it's all sorts of family problems, these kinds of differences. But all of these little things indicate You.

00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:19.000
There's a massive range of neurological variations. And I think there's little value in seeing them as disabilities or abnormalities.

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Or disorders. Because for the for the very very much the most part they're not They don't disable people per se, I think.

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The way that we frame it. The way that society has Perceived neurodiversity.

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Is disabling, but I don't think neurodiversity in its own right is disabling.

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It's just like anything else. You just Requires that little adjustment here and there.

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And nothing very difficult either to be honest, nothing terribly difficult.

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Again, there's a study here which is felt well worth a read if you if you're interested.

00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:17.000
In how we conceptualize neurodiversity as normal abnormal disorder, not disorder, and so on.

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So we know that the differences have names and you will know some of these for sure. Adhd lots and lots of children in school now with a diagnosis of ADHD.

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I think it's misunderstood that one terribly ADHD. A child who who has difficulty focusing for very long.

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And is fidgety and up and down and doesn't stay in their seat. In the bad old days, they would have, you know, been in terrible trouble.

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They wouldn't sit still. They wouldn't do as they're told. They didn't pay attention.

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It was nothing to do with their abilities or their perception of the classroom or attitude. Thankfully ADHD is you know seen in rather different way now.

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Thank goodness. And all of the autism spectrum conditions. A very broad range. On the spectrum at the very high functioning end right down to the the the lesser functioning end of the spectrum but again there are many qualities within.

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The way of thinking along the spectrum, many, many qualities. Incidentally, the high functioning autism.

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Used to always be known as Asperger's, but we don't use that term anymore.

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Because asperger for people on the autism spectrum, a Spurger has some very negative connotations because of who Asperger was and all.

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I'll leave it there because it's very controversial, but these days people who used to be.

00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:20.000
Considered to have a spurges are now just described as being at the Hi-functioning end of autism or social communication disorder or something like that where we don't use the term a spurge or as an angle.

00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:35.000
Dyslexia. Yeah, you may know. People with dyslexia, they, they, tend to get letters and words in a model, they may stop to spell, they may.

00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:43.000
Require special coloured glasses or foils over their work and things in order to see the page correctly.

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Dyspraxia. May not know so much about that one. Dyspraxia again in the bad old days.

00:14:51.000 --> 00:15:00.000
Was usually described as clumsiness. And children with dyspraxia were blamed for their clumsiness as if they could.

00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:07.000
Just try harder if they tried harder they wouldn't be so clumsy but the clumsiness that comes with dyspraxia.

00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:18.000
Is neurological and cannot be. Remedy just by trying harder. Discalculia, similar to dyslexia but for numbers.

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You might know that one. And Tourette's syndrome much.

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I'm always known about turrets these days. Even 20 years ago. Characterized by things like physical ticks.

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The inability to resist shouting specific words or terms. I love to. Motion in the body restless.

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It would, you know, comes across this restlessness to some people. And the tendency to shout in appropriate things.

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That will cause a little. Disturb or cause a reaction. Again, children or adults as well with turrets.

00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:17.000
In the past considered uncouth, rude, offensive. Which of course they are none of those things.

00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:26.000
People with duet syndrome are often absolutely mortified by the things that that they feel compelled to shout out and can't resist.

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They can't resist the impulse to do that. These are all listed in me. DSM and the ICD the diagnostic and statistical manual.

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Which they saw all the. Mental illnesses that we know about. It's got a very heavy American English bias.

00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:56.000
And the ICD 11 the international classification of diseases. Includes a section on mental health but it also includes all the other diseases that we know about across the world.

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Not really bedtime reading because it's a gigantic publication but you can look up the individual.

00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:11.000
Conditions.

00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:22.000
So a DHD. So at the moment, and I say at the moment because as our understanding of this changes very frequently.

00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:28.000
At the moment about 4% of the population have ADHD, that's 4 and a hundred.

00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:42.000
So I don't know how many people are at this. Just meeting right now. But if it's 2 or 300 That means there are, you know, 12 people with ADHD in the audience at least, doesn't it?

00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:49.000
It will affect. Focus, it's really, really difficult for person GDHD to sit still.

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And focus on one thing. For a length, any length of time and the amount of time they can focus will vary.

00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:05.000
From person to person. So I, I teach. Quite a lot of children with the ADHD.

00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:13.000
And some of them have a focal span of about 10 min. So you can do 10 min of something and then you have to stop and Have a little pause.

00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:24.000
And it can be really brief, Paul, but there has to be one. And if you try to force that 10 min into 15 or 20, all those horribly wrong.

00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:31.000
And it can look like Not paying attention and it can look like can't be bothered.

00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:43.000
Again, it's not that. It's, it's never that. It can look hyperactive, the person jigs about, moves around, stands up, sits down.

00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:49.000
Fiddles with things, picks things up, doodles, does things when they should be listening.

00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:59.000
In the bad old days where teachers We're much more horrid. They would have been in trouble all the time.

00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:07.000
Bless them for having ADHD symptoms. However, ADHD brings with it some of the most creative.

00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:13.000
People that you could ever wish for. On a team, let's say in the workplace or in school or college.

00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:23.000
University, the high energy. They will have, quite possibly a, a novel approach.

00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:35.000
To a problem and will bring fresh and new and unconsidered ideas to any projects. Lots of studies at the moment going on with ADHD.

00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:49.000
Show that, people with ADHD are I out of the box thinkers. And yet at the same time when there's a serious issue when there's a problem they can be incredibly calm under pressure.

00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:58.000
They have a different way of thinking about things. They see things from a different angle to the average sort of thinker.

00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:08.000
And they're able to put that diverse thinking into play. When things go wrong. So there is a really pressurising situation on an emergency.

00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:24.000
A person with ADHD is often. Exactly the person you'd like to have around because They can cope, they can cope with all the things coming at them.

00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:35.000
Autism a huge subject autism so I'm obviously I'm scraping surface just So about 2% at the moment, as I, as I say, is research, on we find out more.

00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:46.000
2% of the population is autistic. And this is Greater Thunberg, the, Climate change activists.

00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:55.000
Teenager. She's both autistic and has ADHD. And yet she has made a name across the world.

00:20:55.000 --> 00:21:05.000
For her thinking. And calm approach. To climate change. She has changed the way we think about climate.

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:33.000
For one so young. But at school she struggled to socialize She had to learn how to understand social cues like smiling and grimacing and crying and when there's good crying and unhappy crying and so on she had to learn the differences because the She did not perceive them herself.

00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:42.000
That she was able to learn them. People with autism can often be very sensitive to things like noise and light.

00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:52.000
The texture of things. The smell of something. Can be very distressing. They're in a room and they can smell.

00:21:52.000 --> 00:22:01.000
Whatever was cooked for lunch nearby, that can be very distressing and off putting. I teach.

00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:09.000
A couple of teenagers who have to have a desk in the middle of the room because they don't like the texture of the walls.

00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:16.000
In the room. And they can't if they accidentally touch the walls it's very upsetting so they sit in the center of the room.

00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:25.000
Making sure they don't touch the walls. Which sounds odd. But it doesn't actually cause me any problem at all, does it?

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.000
I can teach them in the center of the room. I don't need them to be near the walls.

00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:35.000
So small adjustments can make a huge difference. It doesn't matter to me face it in the middle of the room.

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:46.000
That's absolutely fine. And yet for them it makes learning possible. If I force them to sit near the wall so that they might accidentally touch the walls.

00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:55.000
That would make learning impossible. There very small changes can make a world of difference. So people with autism can be incredibly logical.

00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:09.000
Very very good at order organisation absorbing facts. Things that need to be remembered. Exactly for numbers, for example.

00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:22.000
Details, patterns. You know, half the code breakers. Were autistic. Because only somebody with autism can actually function.

00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:36.000
With the the level of data point, the number of data points patterns. Before their eyes most of us can't cope with that and somebody with autism might well be able to.

00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:50.000
In in many publications in the past. People wrote about the gifts of autism. Some people with autism, fantastic artists, mathematicians.

00:23:50.000 --> 00:24:00.000
Architects and so on. Which of course they're not that not everyone with autism is gonna have those skills.

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:05.000
But. To assume that, you know, they won't be a good member of a team.

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:11.000
Would be to to do very many people at disservice with autism. It's a very broad spectrum.

00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:17.000
And many of us will be on it without realizing.

00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:26.000
Dyslexia and this is more common is 10% at the moment. See it's a problem with processing language.

00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:33.000
So you may struggle to read, you may still able to write. You may start to spell.

00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:42.000
You may need longer to process information, but when you have processed it, you could do so at a very high level.

00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:52.000
You may struggle with the spoken language. Or the written language or both. You may have some difficulty in notice skills.

00:24:52.000 --> 00:25:02.000
Possibly. But similarly, just people with dyslexia are often very, very creative. They have a different view of a problem.

00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:11.000
I see, can often see a problem from the other side. How How many of us view a problem they'll be viewing it from the other way around?

00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:22.000
And they may have very novel ways of communicating. Which they have developed because of the the standard communication which they find so difficult.

00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:34.000
So they can be incredibly creative. About just over a 3.rd Of some of the world's best known entrepreneurs, you know, business owners.

00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:43.000
Have dyslexia. And it actually has given them the ability. To be successful. Not.

00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:53.000
A disabledment is not a disability to those people. This, this lady here is. You might recognise it from.

00:25:53.000 --> 00:26:01.000
Programs on television about. The planet about space. Maggie, and Puck, she's a space scientist.

00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:14.000
She has severe dyslexia. It takes her longer to process information than an average. Person but when she does so she processes it at a level which is beyond most of us.

00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:25.000
She has it in huge IQ. Score. I can process information far better.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:33.000
Dyspraxia, otherwise known as.

00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:38.000
Sorry, the thumbnails have gone over my screen.

00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:47.000
Developmental Coordination Disorder. About 6% a moment. So obviously to do with physical coordination.

00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:58.000
You may struggle to Drive a car, ride a bike. Learn how to do. Skill, physical skills with your hands knitting.

00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:05.000
So we might be really difficult. Looks a lot like clumsiness and in the past as I said.

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:12.000
Children would have been blamed for clumsiness that, you know, try harder. You could, wouldn't be clumsy, not true.

00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:21.000
So justpraxia reflects the, the motor skills. It could be fine motor skills like handwriting, tying up shoes.

00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:34.000
I bet some of you can remember struggling to learn to tie a bow. Tile shoes. And to do up tiny buttons or fiddly buttons.

00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:41.000
I remember it's, well there was a punishment for anyone who didn't tie, couldn't tie their shoes.

00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:50.000
Thankfully that's not true today. After endless trying, if a child can't tie this shoes, just give them shoes that don't tie up.

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:59.000
It's just not difficult, is it? Or give them elastic laces that you just, you know, you don't actually tie them, you just pull them up and then they're stretchy.

00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:12.000
You may struggle to catch a ball kick a ball. And I said children that perhaps struggle, it's more apparent in sport.

00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:21.000
That they may have. Dyspraxia. They struggle to coordinate themselves kicking and throwing and catching and so on.

00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:30.000
Again, it's, these are not things that are necessarily, disabling at all.

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:39.000
You know, you may not be good at football, but you might be a brilliant scientist. You don't actually need to be able to play football to do science.

00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:53.000
You may have terrible hand drives in. But have brilliant understanding. So, you know, get one of those computers that you can speak into and it types for you so that your handwriting is not a problem.

00:28:53.000 --> 00:29:06.000
These are not the issues that, that they were once perceived to be there, they are, they're not insurmountable, they, they can be.

00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:15.000
Dyspraxia, also manifests itself as, as chaos and disorganization.

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:23.000
Really messy house, really messy person. You know, always gets their paperwork in a big old model.

00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:29.000
That could be dyspraxia. But people with dyspraxia are very creative.

00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:35.000
Again, there's often a lot of creativity in neurodiversity. Very good.

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:44.000
At coming up with strategies to overcome the dyspraxia. And the best people.

00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:57.000
To ask you know what would be a good way to cope with your dyspraxia is somebody with dyspraxia we should always be consulting the people that are actually concerned, shouldn't we, and not developing strategies.

00:29:57.000 --> 00:30:04.000
That we can't understand if we don't have the condition ourselves.

00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:08.000
This is, Daniel Radcliffe.

00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:14.000
Severe dyspraxia. And he says that it's never held me back.

00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:24.000
And he's incredibly successful. Have you ever? If you ever watched a Harry Potter film.

00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:30.000
And thought he looks a bit clumsy because I haven't. And yet he's very, very messy.

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:39.000
He says very struggles terribly to organize things. And uses help, you know, has people.

00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:47.000
Remind and help about organisation. Has things very carefully labeled so that you can put them back into the right place and so on.

00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:52.000
But again, it hasn't stopped him, has it? It's It doesn't affect his acting ability.

00:30:52.000 --> 00:31:01.000
It doesn't affect his creativity. And his ability to learn lines and so on.

00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:07.000
And toet syndrome. This is Billy Eilish. You may or may not.

00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:14.000
No is very famous singer. I'm a songwriter. She has Tourette's.

00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:34.000
She had a very difficult education. Korea because of her turrets. Because it was a long time before anybody realized that her Outbursts as they were, verbal outbursts were caused by Teresa and not just her being difficult.

00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:54.000
So it's about 1% at the moment, You could have a sudden. Movement so it could be you know you suddenly put your arm up your hand out or your foot out it could be something physical like that, a tick like that, or it could be verbal.

00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:03.000
And Terets responds, You know, it's exacerbated, it responds to stress.

00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:13.000
So stressful situations make the tics worse, make the out. The verbal outbursts worse and more frequent, louder and so on.

00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:22.000
And this is in the past. This is what made people think it was attention seeking. That's what this one used to get called, Terrette's attention seeking.

00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:33.000
If you shout something. In the middle of the class. You get attention. But toouet syndrome is nothing about wanting attention.

00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:38.000
As I said, most people. That I've worked with the Tourette's.

00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:43.000
I'm mortified by some of the things they have shouted out and wish the ground would swallow them up.

00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:50.000
There's nothing to do with wanting to be looked at, laughed at. Or the centre of attention at all.

00:32:50.000 --> 00:33:04.000
But Tourette's syndrome, tends to come with. Abilities like a semblance, assembling sounds into words, really good at phonology.

00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:15.000
Very empathic, very emotionally intelligent people. Very, very understanding and caring of others moods and emotional states.

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:26.000
Very perceptive, in that sense.

00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:37.000
So. Why does it matter? Well, it matters because There are so many people. Who are neuro-diverse.

00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:43.000
It's just one of the another of the human differences. We're all unique in lots of different ways.

00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:52.000
This is just one of the ways. You may have a different. W of thinking your mind, maybe.

00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:59.000
You know, you may have some very special qualities and abilities and there may be some things that you struggle with.

00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:09.000
That most people don't. But The labels that we give things can sometimes be disabling in their own way, can't they?

00:34:09.000 --> 00:34:21.000
Sometimes being given a label is, oh thank goodness, now I understand. But at the same time, if you say to people, oh, I've just found out.

00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:28.000
That I've got autism I've just found out that I'm dyspraxic for some people.

00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:36.000
That causes prejudice and discrimination as well, doesn't it? So. We have to be careful with labels, I think.

00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:47.000
And recognise that they're supposed to make things. Easier to understand not you know, not be a platform for prejudice.

00:34:47.000 --> 00:34:57.000
So this the pro newer diversity approach recognizes that there are many differences in ability in the human genome.

00:34:57.000 --> 00:35:07.000
There are many gifts many contributions that can be made many different ways of looking at the same problem a neurodiverse.

00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:18.000
People in the workforce. Are often why some businesses are more successful than others. They have more neuro diverse thinkers.

00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:25.000
Because we need. All sorts of ways of thinking to solve all the problems that we have in the world.

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:32.000
So differences should be, you know, acknowledged. Just, you know, this is one way of doing it.

00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:37.000
Here's another way of doing it. There's a 3rd way of doing it. There's, many, many ways of doing it.

00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:50.000
Again, many, many. Studies on of. Diverse thinking or different ways of thinking. We all have different ways of thinking.

00:35:50.000 --> 00:36:02.000
We're all different people, aren't we? So you know you may not have a label but you know I'm not sure that necessarily is the point to the label, really.

00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:21.000
Imagine how different it could be at work. If everybody recognised Everyone's qualities. Determination and so on and focused on those things and not on, areas where that person's, not, doesn't do so well.

00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:27.000
Let people work to their strengths. Don't, make them work. In such way that reveals the weaknesses.

00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:38.000
It's, you know, counterintuitive. And schools and universities and workplaces are not always ideal.

00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:46.000
For diverse thinkers. Not because they can't be, just because. Traditionally.

00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:50.000
They have done things in a particular way. They're not necessarily open to lots of new ways of doing things.

00:36:50.000 --> 00:37:03.000
Those of different approaches. I think there's in the past there's been a focus on what can't be managed.

00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:14.000
I individuals rather than what can be managed by individuals. So if that person has terrible writing or terrible spelling.

00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:20.000
Introduce software that, you know, deals with that issue. It's not hard. It's not really difficult.

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:27.000
It's not even very expensive anymore. If that person's not based organizing things, then don't give them things to organize.

00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:35.000
Give that to somebody who's skilled at organizing and give them the you know pattern matching.

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:44.000
Task that everyone else hate because they're brilliant at it.

00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:49.000
Oops, sorry, skip tonight again. On Europe and diversity come to the really spiky IQ profile.

00:37:49.000 --> 00:38:03.000
Now that means that. You can be anywhere from the what we would call a low IQ end.

00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:13.000
Of the population right up to what we might have called in the past genius level. Says a very spiky IQ profile up and down.

00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:23.000
But. Again, IQ is a contentious issue. Do we believe? The IQ can be properly measured.

00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:30.000
Are IQ tests fair? You know, is it fair to say? That we can actually put a figure on intellect.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:41.000
I'm not sure we can. So consider some, standard job requirements. Typically I've just drawn these off

00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:51.000
Job purpose actually must be able to work independently and be a team player. Well, maybe that person will sometimes be in a team.

00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:55.000
But sometimes they'll be on their own. So the employer wants them to be good at both things.

00:38:55.000 --> 00:39:03.000
But maybe they aren't good at both things. So does a data analyst need to be a team player?

00:39:03.000 --> 00:39:14.000
If they're happy to work alone with the double screen computers and all the data. Crunching away looking for patterns and errors and aomalies.

00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:18.000
If they can do that perfectly and be accurate and efficient. What do they have to be a team player?

00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:33.000
Just don't give them team jobs. Must have good literacy. Again, may seem a bit obvious, you'd want good literacy, but do we always need good literacy really?

00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:39.000
Modern laptops and computers and phones do all kinds of things now, don't they? Speech to text.

00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:49.000
So you speak into the phone and it types for you. Spell check is very common. Who hasn't used a spell check when they've written something.

00:39:49.000 --> 00:40:08.000
So is there any value in limiting? Who you can employ. You know they can only have people who've got English GCSE suggesting that if they haven't got English GCSE, there's something wrong with them or they won't be able to do the job.

00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:17.000
Don't think that's true, is it? We live in an era where virtual reality is not.

00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:30.000
Just on Star Trek anymore. It we can have that. We can have virtual reality headsets. So at the moment, medical students are still tested.

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:39.000
With multiple choice quizzes in questions. These are the people that we trust our lives to. And hands on medical work.

00:40:39.000 --> 00:40:52.000
Is not literacy based, is it? You don't see many doctors in casualty. Stopping to consult a textbook when somebody comes in bleeding out heavily, do you?

00:40:52.000 --> 00:41:02.000
They're doing something. You know, very hands on. And they are relying on their instincts very often.

00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:14.000
Their visual acuity, can they see the issue? Can I see beyond the issue as to, you know, what the best thing to do is Can they process all the information that's coming?

00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:22.000
To them rapidly in a casualty situation. And accident and emergency kind of situation or on the roadside or whatever it might be.

00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:29.000
They're not stopping. To look things up in a book. So.

00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:45.000
Just because they're not very good at writing and spelling and English per se it doesn't mean they couldn't be a fantastic doctor or medic or nurse or whatever paramedic does it I think, sorry, making it sound like that.

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:48.000
That's my opinion.

00:41:48.000 --> 00:42:02.000
So. We can celebrate differences and challenges that people have. In your house, for example, there might be somebody who's really good at cooking and somebody who's really bad at cooking.

00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:13.000
But you don't sort of throw out the person that's bad at cooking. Do you just think, oh, well, I'll do the cooking and you do the something else, you know, you share the tasks that you're good at, don't you?

00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:23.000
And lots and lots of people who have struggled terribly at school and university and work in the workplace with these some of these neurodiverse conditions.

00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:36.000
Become very, very successful as we've seen. So we should probably be adjusting the, the school and the university in the workplace rather than expecting.

00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:48.000
All of the newer diverse people to adjust. How they manage. Can all work together, we can all make adjustments, rather than CDs.

00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:59.000
Conditions as disabilities or impairments or disorders. You know, we could see them as part of the sort of rich diversity of human nature.

00:42:59.000 --> 00:43:09.000
Which is what I believe them to be. And lots of successful people attribute their success to to the fact that they don't think life others.

00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:15.000
They are thinking out of the books, they have a new way of looking at things. And it's how we solve.

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:21.000
Some of the modern problems, isn't it? It's how we solve things like COVID-19.

00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:34.000
Looking at ways to work, how how to understand, how to prevent. And so on. We need unique thinkers for that.

00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:45.000
So all of these people. She may or may not recognize. Have a label of some kind but it hasn't prevented them from being in enormously successful.

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:58.000
And the Watson, you probably know ADHD. Einstein. Tommy Hill figure, incredibly successful businessman.

00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:08.000
Bill Gates of course. We'll know. The you know the labels that they individual people have carried have not stopped them.

00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:16.000
They have struggled. In the past but it hasn't stuck to them because it's within them to be successful.

00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:26.000
It's within all of us you know to pursue successes of our own kind, isn't it?

00:44:26.000 --> 00:44:36.000
And there's a list of sources. If you really interested in your diversity, some of these are really interesting to read.

00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:46.000
About how labels work and assessment works. And new out of diversity in the workplace and so on.

00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:58.000
And I think there's another page. Assessing. Work. What is in ethnic minorities that's very interesting.

00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:07.000
There's some very large differences. And that one. The Totten is excellent deconstructing normality.

00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:12.000
There is nothing normal, is there? None of us are normal. We should, you know, abandon that word.

00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:22.000
I think none of us know.

00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:31.000
There we go, that's the end of the presentation that I put together. I have had to brush through.

00:45:31.000 --> 00:45:39.000
Some very complex conditions there.

00:45:39.000 --> 00:45:40.000
Gotcha.

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:43.000
Thanks so much, John. It was so interesting. And, And then, yeah, a really great chat today.

00:45:43.000 --> 00:45:54.000
Thank you so much for sharing links and your experiences and. And kind of views as we go along to be really interesting to to take a look at as well as we've been hearing from Joanne.

00:45:54.000 --> 00:45:59.000
So. I'll get right into some questions. And we'll get through as many as we can in the time.

00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:07.000
We've got left. So, and It's not one with one from from Christopher.

00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:19.000
What is your view on medication for ADHD? Is it being over prescribed and does it tend to be more beneficial for those with the hyperactivity aspect or the tension.

00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:22.000
And deficiency.

00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:36.000
Deficit. Oh, that's a good question. I would say that I have seen a few individuals who have benefited enormously from from medication.

00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:48.000
Because it just gave them. Time to just and consider. The, you know, the difficulties that they have specifically for them.

00:46:48.000 --> 00:46:55.000
And how they could, operate in whatever it was, which one to do like school or work or university or whatever they were.

00:46:55.000 --> 00:47:03.000
But at the same time. I've seen some young people, teenagers on medication.

00:47:03.000 --> 00:47:14.000
And I haven't seen that benefiting them because what they actually required was more people around them. Who were ADHD aware.

00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:24.000
So I would say that we all need to be a little bit more ADHD aware to understand what it is.

00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:42.000
And what that, child or teenager or work colleague. Is trying to do. You know, so for example, I, I teach, a 16 year old lad with very severe ADHD.

00:47:42.000 --> 00:47:50.000
And we've discovered that if he crochets whilst I teach him. He's got something to do with his hands.

00:47:50.000 --> 00:48:03.000
And we have the added bonus that at the end of the term we will get a scarf. So he can he can sit there he can He can attend to the lesson, but he has to have something to do.

00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:11.000
With his hands. And so he crochets, scarves for everybody. So at the end of time, we, these scarves that have been made in the lessons.

00:48:11.000 --> 00:48:17.000
And it's, he says it's the rhythm and the counting and the stitches and so on.

00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:26.000
It just gives him it grounds him whilst he listens to the lecture or the lesson. So, you know, really.

00:48:26.000 --> 00:48:35.000
I was really chuffed with that outcome, you know, we discovered that this really helped. And he had previously tried medication and and it hadn't helped.

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:40.000
So. Sorry, I'm, about that.

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:54.000
No, that's great. So Liz asks, and that there are these names and recognized conditions that we now call neurodiverse, but this suggests that others who don't have them represent the norm.

00:48:54.000 --> 00:48:59.000
Yeah, you say that we're all neurodiversity. Does this make the term nor a diverse problematic?

00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:06.000
Hey, I believe it does. I think.

00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:20.000
I think it's really difficult. Not to use labels like neurodiverse. Because they they do provide a shortcut for the layperson especially to understand.

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:28.000
What your what your subject, what you're trying to say. The had to go into every nuance of what you meant by dyslexic, let's say.

00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:34.000
You're introducing yourself and you said, oh, I have and then you, you listed off, you know.

00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:41.000
Endless details of your own specific dyslexia. It would be really, really difficult. To get through your day.

00:49:41.000 --> 00:49:49.000
So if you're able to use a label and go I have very severe dyslexia. That at least the person has something.

00:49:49.000 --> 00:50:02.000
Has a notion of what you mean, but I but I think at the same time people's understanding of of these conditions is limited, which is why in the workplace.

00:50:02.000 --> 00:50:11.000
Hopefully now, some of you in the workplace. Will be being offered neurodiversity training. So that you understand.

00:50:11.000 --> 00:50:18.000
More what the conditions are and what that person is struggling with. I'm trying to do.

00:50:18.000 --> 00:50:25.000
So that you know that child that won't stay in their seat. Jumps up and down or doodles all over everything all the time.

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:26.000
Hmm.

00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:31.000
You know, I've kind of sit there and think, oh, that's okay, isn't it?

00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:43.000
Does it matter? You still, you know, still in the lesson, is still listening and still Does the work, he still knows the answers, I don't mind if he stands up and sits down and doodles and You know how much, how much of it is?

00:50:43.000 --> 00:50:49.000
Really problematic and how much of it is just goes against the kind of old school, I wonder.

00:50:49.000 --> 00:50:50.000
Thank you.

00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:55.000
Yeah, children should sit in their seats, they should stay still, they should listen, they should do.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:51:00.000
Should they? I'm not very good at doing any of those things either to be fair.

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:11.000
Hmm. I've got another one which is I think bit connected about kind of the language we use, from, Madelena who asks.

00:51:11.000 --> 00:51:17.000
If we're going to view you, you're a dabest here as normal. Why do we keep using the word disorder as a descriptor?

00:51:17.000 --> 00:51:27.000
Yeah, that's a very good question. I think it's historical. I think.

00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:43.000
Any old old school, diagnostic manual that, cause it hasn't. Has a new version every now and again so in the early versions the diagnostic manual disorder was was the term used.

00:51:43.000 --> 00:51:54.000
But anything that was not really average. And I think we've got a bit of a historical. Not the, where we've kept on the term disorder and it probably is time.

00:51:54.000 --> 00:52:04.000
That many conditions just dropped that notion altogether. 1,900, and, 69, being a homosexual was a disorder.

00:52:04.000 --> 00:52:12.000
You know, so, we've not only dropped the notion of disorder there, we've taken it out of the diagnostic manual.

00:52:12.000 --> 00:52:22.000
As a condition that needs to be cured. Or treated quite likely. So many, many things that are listed there as disorders.

00:52:22.000 --> 00:52:36.000
Should be a renamed and perhaps removed from the listing of, you know, an illness that needs to be treated and cured and made right that you know all these old-fashioned terms and approaches.

00:52:36.000 --> 00:52:46.000
There is no normal there is no right is there so you know what We're trying, we're pursuing the unpursuable there, I think.

00:52:46.000 --> 00:52:51.000
Thank you. I've, I've, I've kind of grouped a couple of questions together to ask at the same time.

00:52:51.000 --> 00:53:02.000
So. Got one about kind of linked. Conditions. So the 1st part is, is kind of bipolar disorder and OCD linked.

00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:14.000
To New, neurodiversity and the second one is I'm our personality disorder and epilepsy falling under that bracket of neurodiversity.

00:53:14.000 --> 00:53:23.000
I think technically technically they do. Not in the diagnostic manual, they don't, but technically they do.

00:53:23.000 --> 00:53:35.000
Because for example bipolar is characterized by periods of, of, you know, lower mood. And periods of Very high mood.

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:43.000
In which the person may be very, very productive and creative. But also very

00:53:43.000 --> 00:53:54.000
Unpredictable. And they may do, things in, in that phase. Which they regret to they look back on and think of course that was that was very dangerous or that was very unwise or whatever.

00:53:54.000 --> 00:54:05.000
But, but what is that if not the brain? That that particular brain just varying between ways of thinking.

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:15.000
So I would say technically they are new diversity, aren't they? But not in the diagnostic manual, they don't come under newer diversity.

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:30.000
But I think We're getting into sort of definitions a little bit. I would say that, you know, bipolar obviously can be, can be very difficult condition to live with.

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:40.000
But, but many of the difficulties. Are born of society's expectations of people. Rather than what that person actually does.

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:52.000
You know, a person, a bipolar person can be extraordinarily creative. In a in a high thinking phase.

00:54:52.000 --> 00:54:58.000
And then they may sink to, you know, dreadful loads. It's a very difficult life.

00:54:58.000 --> 00:55:07.000
But some of the most successful people have suffered from. Bipolar condition, Spike Milligan, for example.

00:55:07.000 --> 00:55:21.000
Winston Churchill was probably bipolar. You know, he came up with some of his greatest speeches and solutions whilst in a high thinking state.

00:55:21.000 --> 00:55:28.000
And he suffered terribly with the darkest deepest depressions as well.

00:55:28.000 --> 00:55:29.000
Thank you. So we want one from Linda who's asked, Joanne, have you ever watched Astrid in Paris?

00:55:29.000 --> 00:55:43.000
A crime drama set in yes, is autistic. I think it's an excellent portrayal and would be interested in your views and then also.

00:55:43.000 --> 00:55:44.000
I've not seen that, no, that sounds amazing, yeah.

00:55:44.000 --> 00:55:53.000
You know? And then, Rory also adds about Liskepaldi and another great singing song, Greater. Who has Teresa?

00:55:53.000 --> 00:55:54.000
Yeah.

00:55:54.000 --> 00:55:59.000
Yes. Yes, yes, Lou Skipodi. I think

00:55:59.000 --> 00:56:05.000
I think Louis Kapod has done something incredibly brave, which is to stand up in front of the world.

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:23.000
And say I'm struggling with Touet syndrome. And you know, he tweets and he writes his little blogs, doesn't he, about how he's been completely overwhelmed by the support and the love and the care and affection that has come back to him.

00:56:23.000 --> 00:56:34.000
From people all over the world. And also fellow sufferers and so on. So I, you know, I think he's done something incredibly brave there.

00:56:34.000 --> 00:56:42.000
Sometimes it takes someone to stand up and say You know, I have this. You know, but for people to think, actually.

00:56:42.000 --> 00:56:49.000
That wasn't quite what I thought it was, you know, I didn't realize you could do this if you had, you could do that.

00:56:49.000 --> 00:57:00.000
So it's incredibly brave of him. And it's a very visible struggle for him I think isn't it we he's had some very difficult moments in public, I think.

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:09.000
Bless, bless him. Yeah, but I admire that greatly. I admire his strength.

00:57:09.000 --> 00:57:16.000
Hmm.

00:57:16.000 --> 00:57:17.000
That's okay.

00:57:17.000 --> 00:57:21.000
Yeah, Bob. I'll just finish up with one more. I think we've got a few more in the chat that I don't think we're going to get around to today because we've got we've run out of time so I'll I'll send those over to you, after, Yeah.

00:57:21.000 --> 00:57:24.000
Of course, yeah.

00:57:24.000 --> 00:57:44.000
We'll, finish off with one here that's just come through. I'm Joan who asks, would you agree that there are distinct differences in communication methods between neurodiverse and neurotypical people, which makes it difficult for them to understand and to relate to each other without special training.

00:57:44.000 --> 00:58:07.000
I would agree. There are enormous differences in communication. And I think everyone could probably do better I think that some individuals do benefit from from you know training that helps them to understand how communication works because it doesn't come naturally to some people.

00:58:07.000 --> 00:58:19.000
You know, social skills are not necessarily there. But at the same time, We could all do better by not assuming that everybody's social skills are on some sort of a par with ours.

00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:24.000
People you know the way that people communicate Can vary? It doesn't all have to be the same, does it?

00:58:24.000 --> 00:58:38.000
You know, we'll accept. Regional accents for example and we'll accept you know, cultural differences in the way things are done.

00:58:38.000 --> 00:58:49.000
You know things are i don't know in this country will queue quietly for hours won't we but if you go to germany They look at you like what on earth are you doing if you try to queue in a bakery or something?

00:58:49.000 --> 00:58:55.000
It's just a different way of doing it. There wasn't a right, you know, we're not right there wrong or vice versa.

00:58:55.000 --> 00:59:07.000
But when you go somewhere where things are done differently you quickly learn that you know you have to respect where you are and the environment you're in and the people that you're with.

00:59:07.000 --> 00:59:18.000
And adjust your adjust as best you can accordingly. Don't you? So, you know, we don't Good to someone else's house and say, well, I never take my shoes off in my house, so I'm not doing it in your day.

00:59:18.000 --> 00:59:26.000
You don't do that, do you? You accept their rules.

00:59:26.000 --> 00:59:27.000
Hi.

00:59:27.000 --> 00:59:36.000
Thank you. Thanks so much, Juan. I just think It's just it's been a really fascinating eye opening lecture and the chat and everyone's contributions have really made it tonight.

00:59:36.000 --> 00:59:45.000
So. It's been really great to hear about the challenges of living with some of these conditions and the positives as well that I think you've demonstrated so well.

00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:50.000
Thank you. And thank you for the questions and really brilliant questions.

00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:08.000
Thank you very much. Nice to nice to see. Nice to see you all again. Nice to be here.

00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:15.000
Thank you for having me again. Afternoon everyone. I've got another film posters to show you.

00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:21.000
Once we get into it, you're going to see a lot of images from me. So this might be the only bit you get to see at me at the beginning and end.

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We might just stay on images on the screen for a big chunk of this. Why am I going to talk to you?

00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:43.000
About film posters. Why is it an interesting topic in itself? I think the film poster much like film itself as a topic of study exists at this really interesting meeting of art.

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And commerce. It is a film industry and they do want your money. They do want you to go and see the films.

00:00:49.000 --> 00:01:01.000
So film posters have always played a massive role in in getting you into the cinema and attracting you into the films often it's the first thing you see of a movie you see a poster or wonder what that is Hmm.

00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:10.000
And so they've become a really important part of marketing a film. They also, when you track them over the last 120 years or so, They sort of accidentally become a really interesting way of tracking the changes.

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Particularly in Hollywood of what's important in a film, how do we market a film, what kind of things do we tell the public about a film to get them to get them through the door?

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So it has that historical element to it which is which is absolutely crucial. Some of them are just plain lovely.

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Some of them are just plain, great examples of visual art and I'm definitely going to chuck a few of those in for good measure.

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Some of them are also highly collectable in that 120 years of cinema, some things, some film icons, some film objects have become hugely collectable.

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Big money spinners and, we'll see. Shortly some posters that have changed hands for ridiculous amounts of money, some which may send you scurrying to your lofts if you think you've if you think you've got one.

00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:15.000
Let me know if you do. Some of them, some posts that we'll look at are just playing weird, just playing weird and wonderful.

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So it's a bit of a rogue gallery, but there's, but there's plenty here for everybody.

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I want to jump in before I do too much explanation. I'm going to jump in. With a an image of the very first, the very first poster.

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For an individual film. That ever existed. So let me share my screen. Once I've shared this, we'll probably just stay on the images and I'll cycle through them.

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I've got over a hundred to show you. So we probably won't come back out and see me again.

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Until the end. But obviously put your questions in the in the chat like Fiona said and will and I'll definitely make time for them at the end.

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So if I share this first image. This is. This is the very first poster ever made for a specific film.

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Interestingly the name of the film isn't even on the poster. The name of the film is Arossay, which translates to the sprinkler sprinkled.

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If you look at the, the image on the screen within a screen. You can see what the film is it's a very short Lumiere Brothers film it's from 1,895 It's Lumia Brothers.

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It's a very short movie. It's a 1, a one shot gag. The, the kid stands on the hosepipe.

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The water stops coming out, the gardener looks down the hosepipe, the kid steps off the hosepipe and the gardener sprays himself in the face with water.

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It's the oldest, it's the oldest, the oldest trick in the book. The film is 45 s long, but this is 1,895.

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And although it's, You know, although although it's that old. It's still, it's still advertised in the same way that a modern film.

00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:08.000
It's with a poster. What's so interesting about about the about the poster to me is it doesn't so much advertise The film.

00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:15.000
Well, in that it does advertise the film, it totally spoils the film. It totally spoils the one gag of the film, which is that the, that the garden is going to get sprayed in the face.

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So it ruins the gag. But more than the film The poster is advertising. The experience of going to the cinema.

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At a time when the experience of going to the going to the cinema was new. Was novelty.

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Early film is so much about spectacle. It's so much about the experience of sitting in a room and seeing, talking pictures on the, on the screen.

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So you can see there's even a sort of, a sort of commissioner standing on the left of the screen.

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Even he's even he's enjoying seeing the film. If there really was a commissioner where the film was screened, it's only 45 s long.

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So probably see it several 100 times a day. I doubt it's still a doubt to still actually be laughing at it.

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But it's a crowd of well to do Parisians in 1,895. They've got top hats.

00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:16.000
They've got dressed up and they're enjoying the actual experience of cinema and that's such a crucial thing quite a lot of early film advertising becomes about advertising the experience and this carries on quite a lot quite a long way we'll see that we'll see ghosts of this going into the into later film.

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The posters by commercial artist, Marcelin Ozol. You can just about see his, signature there.

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Of course, there wasn't in this, in this early. Early days that wasn't some people someone's job wasn't just to make film posters as it were.

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It's so commercial, poster artists who did other types of we get, would get involved.

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Although this is the first the first poster to advertise. Broadly. A specific film. There is a poster that predates it by a year.

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And this is again for the cinematograph, Lumiere. This one is painted by, Henry Brisbane, who was a fine artist and painter from the same era.

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Again, for a Lumiere Brothers screening in Paris. And because this one doesn't Advertise a specific film this one just advertises the screening itself so it could be reused it's less specific but the same feeling is there where advertising the experience of cinema, that they're even having to turn someone away.

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It's so busy, people have got top hats on. This is, it's basically saying cinema isn't, it isn't trash.

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This is't, this isn't something, this isn't throwaway entertainment, this is something you put your top hat on to do or your special hat for the ladies.

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This is proper entertainment. This isn't just something rubbish. So it's it's treating cinema with a certain degree of reverence as a as an entertainment form.

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From the very beginning.

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Which is something sort of quite endemic actually of the of the French film industry in particular to begin with.

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So those 2 are really early. They're as early as we can get there as early as film posters will be, 1895 and I think they're both 1895 actually but I think this one might be starting the earlier.

00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:14.000
Should give you some introduction. Really. To film posters in general and what we say when we mean a film poster because Since about the eighties, film posters have pretty much been one size and shape.

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Until the eightys there were locked and lots and lots of different formats of film posters and for collectors the formats are really really important.

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What survived in the days of the multiplex was survived is what's called the one sheet. So in America it's about 40 inches by about 27 inches.

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It's the size of poster. That you would see. Outside of cinema.

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Now, it's the same as a what in UK we call it a UK quad. It's about 40 by 30 inches.

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And these are the ones outside the cinema and pretty much every film poster is designed to fit that format now.

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But Prior to the eighties, film posters would be all sorts of shapes and sizes and would be advertised all over the place.

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Some of them were, were enormous. You would get in the US, you would get, I think the biggest one might be a US US 6 sheet.

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So it's the 6 times the size of a 1 sheet which would be for the side the side of a building or there'd be, and we still have these, they'd be bus posters and posts on the tube and stuff.

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For collectors for people that collect posters in the modern age obviously the ones that have been outdoors in the elements.

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The really collectable ones because very few of them have survived in any in any meaningful way. Mostly they got they got trashed being out in the elements, only ones that would have been preserved under glass are under plastic or really the Holy Grail unused ones so ones that turn up in an office somewhere that's they're the real collectors things but but really the really huge ones the 6 sheets and so forth they are

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They are to collectors, collectors gold. The other reason why collectors love them is because Originally, posters were distributed and this happened on both sides of the Atlantic.

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Created and distributed, on a per cinema basis, distributed to the specific cinemas by an organization called the National Screen Service that had branches in in UK and US.

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And the idea was after each booking of each film you were supposed to take the posters, roll them up and send them back to the studio.

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They won't they weren't ever supposed to loiter around or get taken home or go into public hands.

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So they were supposed to be returned to the studio and destroyed or saved until that film was reissued.

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So that's another crucial thing for collectors. You're, if you're buying old film posters and collect them, you're trying to find ones that have escaped that.

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Escaped that fate. And escape having to go back to the to the national screen service. So that's have a look at some early posters from the, from the silent era because they're, this is a, this is very much the sort of the birth of the industry.

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We'll jump in about, 1,917 because I think they reveal really interesting things about how the industry, what they wanted to sell you and how they wanted to attract you into the cinema.

00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:13.000
We've seen the Lumiere Brothers idea of cinema as a real sort of destination.

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It's up there, it's up there with the opera, it's up there with going to see a play.

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It's not, this isn't, this isn't uncivilized. Yes, it's, yes, it's mass entertainment, but it doesn't have to be uncivilised.

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Once we get thicker into the into the world of advertising specific movies. We start to get posters like this.

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So this is a good one to start with. 1917. Cleopatra, sine theta barr.

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Theedbarra was one of the, well, probably the first proper named film star. Prior to this, not many film stars would be known to the public by name.

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It took quite a few years of the film industry for them to realize that actually the public might want to know who these people are.

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Of course, their name wasn't really The Dabara. Her name was Theodosia Goodman and she was from Pennsylvania, but the studio made up the name .

00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:17.000
And made up a whole pretend past for her to make her sound exotic and cast her in a lot of sound exotic and cast her in a lot of kind of early costume and sort of sword and sandal films, Cleopatra and the and the like.

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Almost her entire body of work, Advara, is lost. 85% of all silent film or their about is lost.

00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:37.000
So the 15% we have got is not necessarily a representative 15% and it's sometimes just includes the entirety of the work of someone who is huge in the silent era and Theeder Barra was enormous.

00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:43.000
Little scraps keep turning up for films. We've got more posters and we do films.

00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:57.000
But it's important, I think, to see. The first film Star being presented as such. And there's a real, on this poster there's a real hierarchy of data down there at the bottom.

00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:02.000
William Fox, his name is at the top because it's Fox Studios. But she's the star and then the film.

00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:08.000
And then the director down at the bottom staged by Jay Gordon Edwards. So the studio is the most important thing, then the star.

00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:16.000
So we're getting this early hierarchy of who's important in Hollywood. And we've got a very, you know, it's a very stylized image.

00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:21.000
It is a photo, but it's a photo that's been painted over. To make it to make it more colorful and more lovely.

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Don't forget this is the Arab and films of black and white so the posters can show much more color than the films than the films ever can.

00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:41.000
So that's. Barra, who Oddly, among early film stars actually had a happy life, retired at the top of fame and retired back into relative obscurity.

00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:45.000
But like I say, all her films are lost.

00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:46.000
Here's another data bar from around the same period. You see at the moment, at this period, there's no real standardization yet.

00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:51.000
Different cinemas are advertising the same film in really different ways. Here we've got a big, a big sort of strap of data at the top.

00:12:51.000 --> 00:13:00.000
The wear and the wind. That would be left blank. Sinemas to put that in.

00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:02.000
But then we've got the same Rocky at the bottom. William Fox, Theeder Barra, Cleopatra at the Vampire Supreme.

00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:18.000
How lovely is that? And then, you know, very stylized image justify. So those 2 are really interesting combination, I think, how different they are.

00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:41.000
Wings this a little bit later this is 1927 this is wings won the very first best picture Oscar at the very first Academy Awards making it the only silent film ever to win best picture because it's really the end of the silent era but it was an absolutely enormous film wings huge budget So we've got a poster that kind of tries to make that Try to make that point for you. This is going to be big.

00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:58.000
There's going to be aerial photography, dog fights. There's some stars that we that we know, although they're not they're not named on the poster where recognizing we're depending on the public recognising their faces, which is interesting.

00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:04.000
It's Clara Bow in the middle. But it's just it's a very stylized image, a very big title.

00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:12.000
You can't miss the name of the film from, no matter how far away you see that. So that's a, that's a, a fascinating poster I think.

00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:26.000
Do I have another, another wings one? Yes, I do. This one makes more of the presence of Clara Bow, which again I think a an overpainted photo or a painting done very closely from a from a publicity photo of the time but very evocative you know really Like I say, a lovely use of colour.

00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:33.000
I love leaves of color that you can't get in the film in the film itself, which is really important.

00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:42.000
And another one. Again, no consistency, but the promise of action. People falling out of planes, things on fire.

00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:53.000
And there is plenty of that in the film. It's quite action packed. It's quite it's quite a good early early drama and also the promise of a bit of romance and a human story at the middle of it and that is pretty much what you get.

00:14:53.000 --> 00:15:07.000
Interestingly, modern, actually, that one wins with with the slightly art deco looking. Device framing the actors in the middle it looks almost almost later than it is that that's more of thirty's designed than a twentieth design.

00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:20.000
So this one's a little better ahead of its time. The big parade, 1,925, did the best box office of any silent picture is the most commercially successful film made during the silent period.

00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:31.000
It's about the First World War. This is a very A lot of space given over in this poster here for that for text and information and then a not necessarily a representative image.

00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:42.000
Just a nice image of the 2 stars, John Gilbert and Rene Adairy. This one, it doesn't pump up the film quite as much as wings does, even though this became the best.

00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:47.000
The most commercially successful film of the of the silent era. Now, we're getting into the transition to sound at this point.

00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:54.000
So this is going to be crucial. How are we going to power we're going to press this idea of sound?

00:15:54.000 --> 00:16:03.000
Don One is one of the first films that has a sort of semi synchronized sound It's got a microphone desk that goes with it.

00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:07.000
There's no synchronized dialogue, but there is synchronized music and synchronized sound effects, which they don't really make a very big deal about on this particular poster.

00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:22.000
This is just This is just pushing the swashbuckling aspects of a very big. Very big John Barrymore and the text and a very small Mary Asta which is quite funny.

00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:23.000
Quite typical of the period. And again, a bit of a hodgepodge of what's in important, the director, the studio, big Warner Brothers in the top left.

00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:37.000
Studio power at this, at this point. So the first vitaphone sink, we're not making much fuss about it.

00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:54.000
Again, this is the same film. Presented in a really in a really different way. It's fascinating how how broad the presentations are at this point and again no no fuss made of the of the vice phone business that's happening.

00:16:54.000 --> 00:17:09.000
But when we get to the to the jazz singer i think everyone even even nonfilm buffs I think kind of know still that the jazz singer is the first film that has synchronized synchronized sound in it.

00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:14.000
It's not it's not all synchronized. It's not all all talking.

00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:32.000
It has it has silent stretches as well, but it's it's it's the first have actual synchronized lip movements and speaking on on screen and they present it here what about the supreme triumph Al Jolson in the jazz singer but it doesn't the post doesn't tell us why we're left with it's 1,927 we should know why we

00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:39.000
should be following the film press and we should know why this is one of other supreme triumph it's interesting how much this doesn't press the idea of it being a talking.

00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:47.000
It completely relies on us already on us already knowing. But then gradually the films are going to go for broke.

00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:48.000
So lights of New York. I'm sorry about the quality of this one. It's not as high quality as the previous one.

00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:52.000
Lights of New York is the first all talking picture. It's the first film with no subtitles.

00:17:52.000 --> 00:18:04.000
Everything is spoken on screen. And Warner Brothers are quite happy to put that on the poster.

00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:05.000
And now they're beginning to advertise Vitaphone down the bottom. Vitaphone is their sound technology.

00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:12.000
It's sound on disc, so the film comes packed with a little record that you play at the same time.

00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:21.000
It's it's it goes really wrong and they they swap it eventually for a different technology but they are pioneers at this point.

00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:29.000
Here's another for lights of New York, the first all talking picture. The post doesn't really give you much information what's going on.

00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:39.000
There'll be some dancing girls, there's going to be a club. But it's basically it's it's all talking and it's vitaphone and you want to see it is what the post is saying.

00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:48.000
We don't really need to tell you much more than that, which I think is, is, also, of how confident they were that sound was going to bring people in.

00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:54.000
There's another one. Lots of New York. Again, a completely different presentation for the same, for the same film.

00:18:54.000 --> 00:19:07.000
But phone and movie tone. First 100% all talking eyes of New York. Streak is a is a very early RKO picture.

00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:13.000
And again, 100%, 100% all talking sensation. Look at where they as they sort of press on with advertising.

00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:24.000
This one doesn't get much away. But as they get on with advertising on with the show. Which, sorry, on the show came out with the same, it comes out at the same time as a streetcar.

00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:34.000
The first 2. The of Warner Brothers. On with the show is presented as the first 100% natural color talking, singing, dancing picture.

00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:38.000
It doesn't tell us anything about what the film is actually about. It's just a dancing girl.

00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:48.000
There'll be some dancing and the title kind of gives away some of it on with the show. At the bottom we're told a chorus of 100 dazzling beauties, but the poster only shows us one.

00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:54.000
So it's vitaphone and it's technical and it is technical as well although the technical aversion doesn't entirely survive.

00:19:54.000 --> 00:20:11.000
But this poster is far more about what you're going to see. 100% natural colour talking singing dancing it's the content of the film is at this point unimportant compared to the technologies they've gone from being quite blase about the technology to really really pushing it.

00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:20.000
This is also quite typical of musicals during this period, which are huge, which just advertise themselves in very, very generalized way. They'll just be, there's going to be dancing.

00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:25.000
I mean, look, there's another post to put on with the show that does away with all that text and just shows.

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:32.000
A girl with a ruffle skirt who's obviously gonna do some in a decent dancing that's a very stripped-down version of the of the same.

00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:36.000
So this is all you would going for broke to get you through the door, advertising all these technologies. The studio system at this point is so tied up with the technologies and the things they're inventing.

00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:40.000
The studios own the cinemas and in most cases they own the new sound technologies as well.

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:58.000
So there's a lot of money. Riding on them getting the transition to sound right. And making it happen in a commercially successful way.

00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:06.000
In Europe, that's less important. There's less the studios have less of a hold over European film and sound doesn't come for an extra couple of years in Europe.

00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:15.000
So some of the posters that come out of Europe during this period Do it slightly differently. Creative in a very different way.

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:20.000
So it's a metropolis post. It's even a creative shape. It's tall and thin.

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:28.000
This is a this one is by a German graphic artist called Heinz Schultz Newdam.

00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:32.000
The, the international version of Metropolis, which I don't, no, I don't have to show you.

00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:48.000
But this is the international, this is the German one. The international version of Metropolis. One copy of that sold at Sotheby's in 2,005 for the best part of $690,000.

00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:53.000
The rumor at the time was that it, sold to Leonardo Dicaprio.

00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:59.000
Maybe it did. I don't think he'll ever tell us. So we're entering, we're kidding to enter the realm of collectable film posts.

00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:05.000
I mean, I think that most of the poster treatments for Metropolis are quite beautiful.

00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:19.000
Is really art deco stuff you know it's not those aren't strictly images representative of the film that they are partially but they are much more representative of the feel of the film and the subject matter rather than anything specific.

00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:22.000
That happens.

00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:29.000
Elsewhere in Europe, there's some really creative things happening. So Not with films that aren't quite as big.

00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:41.000
This is a film called The Green Spider. 1916 not much note about this one it's lost i just loved the poster and i wanted to show it to you posted by a theatre designer called Vladimir Igorov.

00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:46.000
I just, I just love it. The Green Spider, the poster could have been green, but it's not.

00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:54.000
Who knows what that was about, but it's a brilliant, very eye catching. Very much of its era.

00:22:54.000 --> 00:23:05.000
Battleship attempting this is one is interesting this is from 1,926 this is the Dutch release of battleship attempt and the poster is by I showed you this one because it's by poster artist called Dolly Rudman.

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:13.000
Who was the only woman working in the industry at the time in the poster art industry. It's like a lot of Hollywood.

00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:18.000
It's, it was a bit of a boys club, but Dolly Rubin, so she was Dutch, so they've done the post this poster specifically for the Dutch release of the film.

00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:37.000
But it's very striking, isn't it? Very, Minimalist on the on the text like a lot of European posters are and you know striking with one big solid color image very very expressionist in a way that Hollywood posters aren't.

00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:38.000
And have a look at these 2. Passion of Joan of Arc in 1,928.

00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:43.000
I've got 2 of these here. Rene Peron, it was a prolific post artist in France.

00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:51.000
This red one Is a French 4 panel. It's 94 by 126 inches.

00:23:51.000 --> 00:24:12.000
So it's enormous. It's the biggest format that the French had for film posters and it's it's fantastic that none of the you know none of the spaces is is is wasted it's all but it's all used up with this you know it's very striking kind of expressionist graphics and then all the text is squeezed into the bottom.

00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:13.000
But it's so big that that text wouldn't feel small if you saw it in real life.

00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:18.000
And again, big Great use of color, but color is like a big sort of shot in the middle of it.

00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:28.000
I think that's fantastic. And that's 1 of my favorites. Almost prefer the purple one.

00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:39.000
The pop one is a double grand or we should probably more probably call it a duple. 63 by 94 inches, same artist who's done something strikingly different.

00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:52.000
I like the text treatment on that one, but it's a little bit hard to read. So hugely creative and expressionist in a way that the Hollywood posters weren't necessarily going into this going to this period.

00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:58.000
As we go into the 30, s if we go back to Hollywood, they become much more about post has become much more about Dlama.

00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:11.000
And spectacle. But some of them begin to get a little bit formulaic. Nevertheless. This is where the thirties, this is where the big money is for poster collectors who are into buying and selling posters now.

00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:13.000
So Have a look at these 2. This is for, it's the first Fred and Ginger picture flying down to Rio.

00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:26.000
1933. This is painted by RCO art director Harold Seroy. The 2 sheet on the left.

00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:41.000
Sold for $26,290. In 2,008 in the same year the one sheet on the right sold for $239,000.

00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:50.000
Interesting, the one sheet isn't signed and it's probably not By Ceri, it's probably done as a copy of the one on the left.

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:59.000
But then spiced up a bit with a bit more action and a few more girls to make the film look even more even sillier than it is.

00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:09.000
But it went for much more at auction because it's the rarer of the 2. I prefer that I think I personally prefer the simplicity of the, the original 0 1 on the, on the left.

00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:13.000
But it goes to show that originality isn't always the thing collectors are looking for. Sometimes it's rarity, often it's rarity, with proper collectors.

00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:22.000
The one on the right is just this, this almost too much to say in, isn't it?

00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:28.000
Almost too much visual, visual data. Like I say, it's the first, it's the first Fred Fred and Ginger picture.

00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:35.000
It's not, it's not, promoted as such at the time because no one had any idea that they'd become this on screen pairing.

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:48.000
They only do one dance, they're not on screen together very much in this. But as the thirties progress we do get into the era of Fred and Ginger and we get post is like, well, let me show you a couple, top hats.

00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:56.000
And follow the fleet. I mean It's almost the same poster, isn't it? We get there's a real formula for advertising fret and ginger.

00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:02.000
You stick them together, you have them doing some dance moves and you create some sort of faintly art decoish.

00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:11.000
Stuff and and a sort of big icon whether it be a hat for top hat or an anchor for for follow the fleet.

00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:15.000
Slightly formulate as much as I love the Fred and Ginger pictures. They did it.

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:23.000
They did quite a lot in quite a short period of time. And so the advertising is It's a little bit cheap and cheerful.

00:27:23.000 --> 00:27:30.000
It's a little bit churned out, I think. You know exactly by the, by the second or third friend gender picture, you know, you know whether you want to see it or not.

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:37.000
You know exactly what you're what you're expecting. So there's there's a kind of reason for the advertising to be a little bit formula.

00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:41.000
What about this one from the same era? This is a Ken Gong of course, 1,933.

00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:58.000
This is the this is a style A. Style A 3 sheet one of these sold at auction in 1,999 for $244,500 this is the more collectable .

00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:08.000
And it's, I mean, it's a fantastic poster in that it It promises more than the film can deliver, I think, to some degree.

00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:19.000
Although Although Kong does climb to stop the end by state building and he does fight some bioplanes and he does take Fay Ray up there with him, it's never quite as exciting as it looks in the poster, although it is, it is great.

00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:20.000
Personally, I prefer the style B. Poster. I think it's much more, it's much more iconic.

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:41.000
And even less like the like the like the film itself is a fantastic con, isn't it? This one in the poster is not, not the, not the slightly, the slightly sort of stilted gong of the picture, although, you know, although I love it.

00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:47.000
So that's the less collectable version of adventure, but for my money, not the better one.

00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:58.000
The era of the horror film as well, the 30. Horror pictures coming out of universal. So the first Dracula this, a 2 sheet.

00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:07.000
Of this. Of this first Dracula picture from 1,931, sold in 2,009 for $310,700.

00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:13.000
It had belonged to Nicholas Cage of all people. I guess he just decided he was sick of looking at it and decided to part with it.

00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:18.000
So, Dracula if you've got one of these tucked away in your off somewhere these universal horror posters are highly collectable.

00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:30.000
Even though to my eyes they're a little bit hokey in places. They don't always capture the slightly baroque feeling of the films.

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:35.000
They're a bit more lurid. The big money though is the mummy. 1932.

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:46.000
The most expensive in the collectors market the most expensive US film poster ever sold. 435 US film poster ever sold, 435,000 in 1,997.

00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:57.000
Second only to the, to the metropolis post which sold in Europe. So we should more probably say the most expensive US poster sold at a US auction.

00:29:57.000 --> 00:30:06.000
Which is funny because I really don't like this poster. I think it's very unflattering of Zeta Johann on the right, the depiction of her faces, I think awful.

00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:12.000
I think if I was her agent, I'd be very annoyed on her behalf they've made her look so wonky.

00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:19.000
It's not a brilliant poster that lay out of the tech stuff is all a bit uneven but The collectors want today.

00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:27.000
And so, and so it sold. So that disparity between, I think, what is, what is sort of most visually.

00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:41.000
Please, and what sells at auction is that is I find that I find that really interesting and of course it's about rarity as with all collectors mentalities it's about having things that a lot of people haven't got I think to some degree.

00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:47.000
We've looked at some things here that the OVER Promise. As we go to the fortys, it's interesting to look at something.

00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:56.000
Let's mildly scandalous on its own. On its own merits. The Outlaw, 1,943.

00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:06.000
How are you, by Howard Hughes? The poster. Is racier than the film and I use the term racy advisorly I suppose.

00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:16.000
The film itself is a reasonably okay retelling of the Billy the Kids story and it's black and white.

00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:29.000
How would he was for somewhat obsessed with with Jane Russell? And I think Makes that quite clear in the poster the story, which may be apocryphal that Howard Hughes being an engineer that he built her.

00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:38.000
He built our metal bra to wear in the film to boost up her cleavage and she pretended she wore and threw it in the bin.

00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:51.000
I'm not sure if the story is popular or not, but it speaks to this idea of, of Hughes being obsessed, but also not being afraid to push the angle of sex on the public.

00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:57.000
Think about the outlaws. It was, its release was date was date was delayed.

00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:03.000
For 5 years because Howard Hughes couldn't get a production code, certificate on the film to say that it was suitable for all.

00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:12.000
And he himself deliberately stirred up the controversy about whether it was too rude to be showing because he knew.

00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:21.000
That if people were calling for it to be banned without ever having even seen it, it would just mean that when it was released, it would be an absolute money spinner.

00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:27.000
So, you know, Hughes was a, he was a businessman, he knew exactly what, exactly what he was doing.

00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:39.000
What's interesting is when you see the When you see the the photos that this that this poster is based on the picture that couldn't be stopped.

00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:46.000
And you look up that image of Jane Russell, which the poster artist has obviously. Used an image from that same session and redrawn it.

00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:55.000
She's wearing much more in real life. Hi, post artist has made our clothes much more revealing than they actually are.

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:56.000
It's, it's, you know, it's not an accident. It's a, it's a marketing.

00:32:56.000 --> 00:33:05.000
It's a marketing tool. To make her look more undressed than she actually is. And there's nothing salacious in the film at all.

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:11.000
The film is very much a you now, there's nothing in it that would shock a contemporary audience or even I think much of an audience at the time.

00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:18.000
It's a deliberately, it's a deliberately whipped up, controversy and the poster plays a huge role in doing that.

00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:25.000
And Hughes learns from that a few years later, when he presents, Jane Russell again in the French line.

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:47.000
Which is in 3D like a lot of so they, It's from, 1,953, sorry, the French line, which is the era of 3D movies as a big gimmick to get people to to not stay at home and watch their TVs which are tiny and black and white but come to the cinema where we've got widescreen

00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:58.000
and color and threed. So of course he has great fun. Sort of punning on this idea of Jane Russell in 3D and it will knock both your eyes out.

00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:07.000
It's really torturing, but there's loads of posters from the production of the release of the French line.

00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:12.000
That sort of keep making that same gag. Hughes has just learned that this kind of stuff is going to, it's going to sell.

00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:17.000
It's stuff you can't get at home on your TV.

00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:34.000
It's it was released the French line was released without a production code seal and the studio had to take a $25,000 fine and the Catholic legion of decency rated its C for condemned and it was banned in several states and only released in a truncated form and several others.

00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:42.000
It's just she does a little dance at the end in that in that costume. And it's a bit suggestive, but again, it wouldn't, it's nothing that wouldn't be a PG now.

00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:51.000
But he's using the poster again to spin up this idea of scandal and make it make more out of it than is actually there.

00:34:51.000 --> 00:35:05.000
So in the right hand, or you might consider it the wrong hands in many ways, but in the right hands the poster is an amazing marketing tool to get more more bums on seats than would necessarily have been on seats for just any other picture.

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:14.000
It's going to the fifties, we definitely get this idea of spec spectacle. I've talked about how I've mentioned how, a spectacle.

00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:18.000
I've talked about how I've mentioned how cinema artists were dwindling after the Second World War, dwindling after the Second World War artists were dwindling after the Second World War.

00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:21.000
People were staying at home. 1,946 were dwindling after the Second World War. People were staying at home.

00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:24.000
1,946 is the best year the cinema industry ever has. Going to the fifties people are staying at home and watching TV.

00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:28.000
And the thing that lures them Back to the cinema, it's going to be things like.

00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:34.000
Super wide screen cinema scope and colour and things that your TV at home can't do.

00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:40.000
So of course the advertising and the posters are going to make a big deal about it. So There's another the French line.

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:41.000
Sorry, for too much French line. I haven't made that big to that balance. What about this then?

00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:56.000
The robe from 1953 is the first film released in cinema scope. It's not the first film made in cinemasco but it's the first one released because they wanted a big a big epic picture to be the first one that comes out in cinemas.

00:35:56.000 --> 00:36:08.000
Cinemascope is not a curved screen, it's a flat screen. But the, the poster is trying to slightly trick you into thinking that it's that the screen has the curved effect.

00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:17.000
That's, that's cinerama, which the different technology. Cinemascope is trying to, by having that sort of curved device in the middle of the screen, they're slightly tricking you.

00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:22.000
The modern miracle you see without glasses, because audiences would have been going to see 3D films with polarizing glasses.

00:36:22.000 --> 00:36:28.000
And of course this isn't threed, it's just a wide screen, it's just a big wide screen.

00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:33.000
It is a fantastic looking film and when you see it on a TV screen, on a small TV screen, it does look a bit rubbish.

00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:38.000
You do, it is one that you should watch on the big screen. So they're right about that.

00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:44.000
But as you can see, the word cinema scope is as big as the title of the film.

00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:54.000
They're making, we're kind of back to these days of the, of the twentys again when they were pushing the idea of sound, but now we're pushing the idea of cinema scope and you know come and see it in the cinema.

00:36:54.000 --> 00:37:07.000
Another interesting element. On this film that you may not notice at first glance is that The the 3 stars are Richard Burton, Victor Mitchell and Gene Simmons there in the middle.

00:37:07.000 --> 00:37:15.000
But that's not Gene Simmons's face on the poster. Initially another act called Gene Peters was cast in the role.

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:24.000
She became pregnant and had to drop out, but not before they'd finished creating the poster. So her face remains on the poster.

00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:40.000
I guess twentieth century fox thought it was too much hassle to change her face for Jim Simmons's face and they're just sort of interchangeable heroines, but it's not very, very cool, that she remains there and Gene Simmons doesn't even get on the poster.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:47.000
Now I mentioned this, it wasn't the first film finished in cinemasco, the first film finished in cinemas scope was how to marry a millionaire.

00:37:47.000 --> 00:37:54.000
But it doesn't have this doesn't have the scope or breath of a of the robe.

00:37:54.000 --> 00:38:06.000
So it's pushed, it's pushed to second. It's still a great looking film and you still You still want to see it on the big screen, but the lure of seeing 3 women in her apartment in New York.

00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:17.000
In widescreen is less than the idea of saying you know the crucifixion in widescreen for example it's a start it's a different scale of topic of subject matter.

00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:31.000
The same period how the West was one this is Cinerama the mightest adventure ever filmed Cinerama was a technique that used 3 a curved screen and 3 projectors to show an ultra wide image and I think they make the most of it on the poster here.

00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:37.000
They absolutely go for it on the poster showing how wide the image will be. And again, that's that's all about spectacle.

00:38:37.000 --> 00:38:52.000
No one from the same era that's really interesting. Is Cleopatra I mean a big a huge a huge money pit for twentieth century Fox at the time Interesting to look at the comparison between how it's advertised in the states and how it's advertised in the UK.

00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:59.000
So this is the, this is the American poster which has got a few frames from the film down the bottom and that, and that lovely.

00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:09.000
Painting in the middle the the european poster looks like this this is a French version of the, all the European post has always used this image.

00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:21.000
What's lovely about this as a footnote to the Cleopatra story is that when the when the production of Cleopatra moved to Italy, they abandoned loads of costumes and loads of sets, leaving them behind in the UK.

00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:23.000
And that's how we get carry on Cleo because the carry on team were able to go in and use all the abandoned costumes and abandon sets, which is why Carry on Cleo looks so good.

00:39:23.000 --> 00:39:42.000
Sid James is basically wearing Richard Burton's costume. And the carry on team absolutely send that up in the in the poster for carry on clear which is basically a pastiche of the of the, poster.

00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:49.000
So they're having fun at the expense of that. Again, we've gone into the sixties now.

00:39:49.000 --> 00:39:50.000
An interesting, an interesting example is 2,001 a space odyssey on its initial release.

00:39:50.000 --> 00:40:08.000
It's considered to be, it's considered to be a Sort of a quite sterile, hard science fiction story about astronauts, very realistic, very Kubrickian and cold.

00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:16.000
But they realised after it's first released is that the hippies in the States are going out in the intermission.

00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:22.000
And dropping acid and coming back and enjoying the second half of the film on asset when it when it gets quite psychedelic.

00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:28.000
So when the film is reissued the following year It gets a new poster. The ultimate trip.

00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:33.000
So they absolutely lean into that idea and to represent the film, not as this cold sterile thing.

00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:34.000
But as something that you're going to want to watch, chemically, chemically altered.

00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:49.000
If at all possible. So they lean into that without ever saying it. So it's interesting to look at those 2, the sort of double release of those films.

00:40:49.000 --> 00:41:02.000
That takes us into the seventies where things change quite rapidly in the seventies with much more of a trend for single strong images on Seventies poster and there's some very stark images that come out of the seventys.

00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:11.000
I love this one. Philip Gipps, does this poster. He also does alien, which we'll see in a moment.

00:41:11.000 --> 00:41:17.000
You know, very strong sort of single or double image with the texts that have quite sort of artfully shrunk.

00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:27.000
Down there. This, you know, this leads to all sorts of quest of iconic sort of single image not not quite as depictive.

00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:33.000
Post it from around the same area like your main streets. Jaws of course, I mean it's basically one image, isn't it?

00:41:33.000 --> 00:41:38.000
It's basically just a shark. But it's very striking and it sticks in the memory.

00:41:38.000 --> 00:41:49.000
It's a film post that that everyone can certainly remember and likewise Philip Gibbs again. Doing alien, just a terrifying alien egg, which you don't even understand until you've seen the movie.

00:41:49.000 --> 00:41:59.000
So again, the trend in the seventies is for a single striking sort of sticks in the, sticks in the memory kind of image.

00:41:59.000 --> 00:42:07.000
Then Star Wars comes along, which is an homage to classic Hollywood in so many different ways, not least in the poster.

00:42:07.000 --> 00:42:14.000
This looks like a sort of classic film poster. And it leads the way in posters going for more painterly art again.

00:42:14.000 --> 00:42:23.000
Depending just swings back, we go back to more painterly posters and more complex montages will get sort of coming into the into the eightys.

00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:32.000
Although before we leave the seventys entirely The towering of Ferno is a fascinating one. It's the first example of a a diagonal billing.

00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:40.000
If you see Steve Mcqueen's name is to the left, Paul Newman's name is to the right, as are their faces, but Newman is higher than Mcqueen.

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:47.000
So who's the star? Because we read from top to bottom but also from left to right and they're agents have argued.

00:42:47.000 --> 00:42:52.000
About who's the who's film this actually is massively to get that to get to that compromise.

00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:59.000
And we end up with quite a hodgepodge of a poster. I think whoever Pope painted the original poster art which is reduced to that rectangle in the middle.

00:42:59.000 --> 00:43:09.000
Intended for that to be the poster. There's even clearly sort of space left for text at the bottom of that image, but it gets reduced in amongst all the legal wranglings about who's the star of the film.

00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:17.000
The image gets reduced. And shrunk down, which is a terrible shame. Of seeing that. Sort of properly realized.

00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:33.000
And the seventies King Kong is very much in the vein of spectacle. Again, it's, yeah, almost the past each of the original thirties, King Kong, you know, the Delorentis is that much of a sort of showman as well.

00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:40.000
It's just sort of King Kong for the modern age. There is still only one can call.

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:41.000
We should take a quick dip into the rest of the world while we're here and we've been very Hollywood and UK centric.

00:43:41.000 --> 00:43:51.000
I thought to show you some from Poland, the home of the home of great graphic arts, Poland.

00:43:51.000 --> 00:43:58.000
Most World War 2. This state-owned film, Polsky, didn't really care very much what the posters look like.

00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:02.000
They didn't really get publicity materials for when they got films to show. So they just kind of go a bit wild with abstractions.

00:44:02.000 --> 00:44:12.000
So this is for a later screen of Sunset Boulevard. I mean, so you have to look, you have to figure these out to some degree.

00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:19.000
Roman holiday that one's a bit easier to figure out but again it's quite it's more sort of suggestive than depictive.

00:44:19.000 --> 00:44:29.000
Like this one, the birds. Very simple, but, It almost feels like it's made by someone that hasn't seen the film.

00:44:29.000 --> 00:44:39.000
Rosemary's baby, which is very striking. Hugely colourful not in the spirit of the film at all but a really striking image.

00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:47.000
Cabaret, sort of cleverly using the dancers legs and the swastika, pretty much on the nose that one.

00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:53.000
One for alien again feels like it was done by someone who hasn't seen the film

00:44:53.000 --> 00:44:58.000
And one for a much later ratio of the film Black Narcissus. So this is what it looks like when countries show films that they don't really know what the films are and they have the licensed at this point.

00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:11.000
They've never, they would never happen now. But to show, you know, to create posters however however they want to.

00:45:11.000 --> 00:45:19.000
We should probably do this we should take a very quick dip into the wonderful world of posters of Ghana and I show these not to take the wonderful world of posters of Ghana.

00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:26.000
And I show these not to take the Mickey out of the Ghanaian film industry because I think these are fantastically creative but again they absolutely show The posters were often done by people that hadn't actually seen the film.

00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:39.000
So brace yourself. For Ghana and King Kong. Promising much more Then we'll be in the film, I think.

00:45:39.000 --> 00:45:46.000
Thanks, these get weirder. Ghana and Mission Impossible. Not very flattering over the cruiser.

00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:53.000
They still gonna get weirder. The Ghanaian, the Godfather poster. You guess is as good as mine.

00:45:53.000 --> 00:46:00.000
Why is the cat the one smoking the cigar? Why is the cat inormous? I can't, I can't answer that.

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:06.000
The Ghanaian poster for ET. Which gets weirder the longer you look at it.

00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:16.000
Magically, it includes Michael Jackson and an alien face hugger. God knows what they're what they're trying to achieve here and weirdest of all the Ghana and Mrs. Doubtfire.

00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:23.000
Obviously nothing like that happens in Mrs. Doubt fire. That just having a lot of sort of unlicensed fun.

00:46:23.000 --> 00:46:32.000
With, with the poster images. Oh, and the spy who loved me, which was obviously at 1 point called The Spy Who Love You.

00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:41.000
Very very odd. I thought it wouldn't be it wouldn't be a complete look at film poster art without dipping into the wonderful world of Ghana.

00:46:41.000 --> 00:46:46.000
I mentioned that we go into the world of eighties, but this is a bit earlier, but painted posters again.

00:46:46.000 --> 00:46:59.000
So Bob Peak is a big poster at start at this point. West Side Story is his first painted poster but he also has some great painter posters for Camelot.

00:46:59.000 --> 00:47:10.000
I mean that's fantastically detailed. Roller bowl. Apocalypse Now, which is both painted and has that seventys one image iconic thing happening, which is great.

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:20.000
And then he does a good start during the motion picture. And another, couple of names from that time, the eighties are Drew Strewson and Richard Amsel, who are painters.

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:27.000
We're going back to the painterly thing at this point. So Drew Strouzen does back to the future, which is, again, iconic.

00:47:27.000 --> 00:47:38.000
That's an unused back to the future. Which I quite like. And Richard I'm still radius of the lost art which is hugely iconic and very much in the spirit of the sort of thirtys swashbuckling posters.

00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:46.000
But again, you know, paint it is the crucial thing, not just a photo. Lots of the eighties painted ones are pastiches, so blazing saddles.

00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:52.000
It's a paste of Well, Rogers, the same sort of rearing horse in both.

00:47:52.000 --> 00:48:02.000
The Empire Strikes Back, which is a lovely modern painted poster, the central image of that Nicked completely from the ratio poster have gone with the wind.

00:48:02.000 --> 00:48:10.000
Hands out of Right there, Gabon, Vivian, Lee. So that's a, an absolute, an absolute lift.

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:18.000
From, a very knowing homage. National Lampoon's vacation. This is a an absolute rep on.

00:48:18.000 --> 00:48:28.000
Conan the Barbarian and that same image gets past each blows this particular this particular look right up to sort of modern ones.

00:48:28.000 --> 00:48:37.000
Something like the breakfast club gets paste pretty hard. As the Texas Chainsaw Mask up part 2.

00:48:37.000 --> 00:48:51.000
I mean that's that's a, any leave of its photo but it's It shows by this point, film posters are so in the public and the public's mind that you can pass these to them in a way that That's the public will.

00:48:51.000 --> 00:49:04.000
Well, absolutely understand. And just to sort of bring us right up to date, what are your modern trends in film, in film poster are definitely, now look out for these when you're out and about blue and orange.

00:49:04.000 --> 00:49:12.000
Blue anions, a handy guide to good and evil or just a neat way to make a striking, sort of left-right image, born entity.

00:49:12.000 --> 00:49:21.000
Jump at these or modern term legacy. They all This idea of half the image being orange, half being blue is a really a very modern take on the film poster.

00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:27.000
But it goes right back to something like show go in Hollywood. The 2 contrasting colors have always gone nicely together.

00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:34.000
And that's why. That same picture. The loner, the loner from behind, unforgiving.

00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:36.000
The line Dark Night. That's a popular modern meme as well for your film posters.

00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:45.000
The mismatch, 2 mismatched characters back to back, will they be friends?

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:51.000
Will they be enemies? Probably both. Gets pastaged all over.

00:49:51.000 --> 00:49:56.000
So there's nothing new. Black and white for action with a splash of colour.

00:49:56.000 --> 00:50:06.000
Gets used all over and over and over again and blue on a tilt for disorientation. That's absolutely, that's absolutely part of it.

00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:13.000
That really brings us out to date and I've gone slightly overweight I promise to go because I did promise that I would take some questions.

00:50:13.000 --> 00:50:15.000
So we've still not come up to date there. Comes a lot to fit in, wasn't it?

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:32.000
Will come out of this. I've been seeing things pop up in the chat, so I'm sure there are some, some, some great questions and we've come right up to the modern day so let me dip out of this and stop sharing it so you can see my face again which you've probably missed and here I am.

00:50:32.000 --> 00:50:45.000
Yeah, thank you very much for that. We'll go straight into some questions. Okay, so firstly from David we're going right back to the start of what you showed us the very first poster.

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:55.000
And man holding his top hat is kind of in the prime position within that photograph, What does that say?

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.000
It's interesting, isn't it?

00:50:59.000 --> 00:51:01.000
Can we have a little look at it again?

00:51:01.000 --> 00:51:07.000
Back, yeah, let me bring that single image back up again. There will be a second. You've caught me.

00:51:07.000 --> 00:51:18.000
You've caught me. Let me put let me bring back up here it is. So the very Yeah, the very first one, this, Hey, I want he is impromptu.

00:51:18.000 --> 00:51:24.000
I mean, it's a lovely layout. It's featured. It draws your eye right across the image, doesn't it?

00:51:24.000 --> 00:51:29.000
Right, so He is in prime position, but he's there with his family. I think it says something about cinema as family entertainment.

00:51:29.000 --> 00:51:38.000
And, he's gone in his top hat, he's well-to-do. The whole family are there.

00:51:38.000 --> 00:51:42.000
It's clever because the, the image, the image on the screen isn't central.

00:51:42.000 --> 00:51:47.000
The image on the screen is kind of at one side. So it's almost like we're in the audience as well.

00:51:47.000 --> 00:51:55.000
And what the poster is advertising is really the experience. The experience of being in the in the audience.

00:51:55.000 --> 00:52:06.000
So I, I, yeah. I don't think it's saying anything about cinema being, you know, a sort of exclusively male or exclusively sort of posh.

00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:11.000
Environment. I think it's saying far more that this is for, this is for sort of good upstanding family people.

00:52:11.000 --> 00:52:23.000
It's not, that it isn't, that there isn't anything sort of weird or salacious or odd or sort of haunted or creepy about cinema and moving pictures that this can actually be sort of family and statement.

00:52:23.000 --> 00:52:26.000
I think that's the sort of crucial message that's being sent out with this. And like I say, even the sort of concierge is sort of laughing at the picture, although, you know, it's a 45 s film.

00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:39.000
He must have seen it like a trillion times. Which I think is quite funny. But yeah, they're all there, the whole family.

00:52:39.000 --> 00:52:42.000
I think that's the, I think that's the message that's being got across there.

00:52:42.000 --> 00:52:48.000
Hmm, okay. And hope that answers your question, dude. Another question from Stuart.

00:52:48.000 --> 00:53:00.000
When you were talking about, the, and some of the earlier posters as well, the kind of first kind of proper film star.

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:01.000
Hmm.

00:53:01.000 --> 00:53:04.000
Stuart's asking about Florence Lawrence. You'd always thought she was kind of right up there.

00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:05.000
At that point.

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:11.000
Yes, Ch as you. She said about the same time Florence Lawrence, so she comes through the biograph studios.

00:53:11.000 --> 00:53:24.000
The thing about Theta Barra is that, and actually Thornton's probably does just about pred-date, I suppose the interesting thing about The Dubara is that she's not really the Debara.

00:53:24.000 --> 00:53:26.000
Her whole identity is made up. So it's in some ways it's a better example of sort of Hollywood star making than, than Florence Lawrence.

00:53:26.000 --> 00:53:39.000
Although Florence Lawrence is kind of She's, she's sort of made up as well to some degree and they It's the very beginning of the film press.

00:53:39.000 --> 00:53:44.000
So they the the biograph studios that own foreign sciences contract they make a big deal about putting stories in this contract they make a big deal about putting stories in the press. They make a big deal about putting stories in the press.

00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:53.000
They're about other stories. So they're about other stories. So they put stories in going, putting stories in the press. They're about other stories.

00:53:53.000 --> 00:54:06.000
So they put stories in going, oh, there was a story that something bad happened to Florence Lauren going oh there was a story that something bad happened to Florence Lawrence don't worry it hasn't here she is and it's the sort of war of this war of press once once you get these names but yeah absolutely France Lawrence is around in the US and about the same time as the state of

00:54:06.000 --> 00:54:08.000
Barra i guess they devara becomes the more exotic proposition because they make up a whole back story for her.

00:54:08.000 --> 00:54:32.000
You know, she's just from Pennsylvania and they make up the story that has, that her, she's the offspring of an Arab prince and a, and a, and a French woman has wandered into the desert and she's, she didn't speak English and they make, they make up this whole ridiculous back so that the public absolutely They absolutely lap it up, they love it.

00:54:32.000 --> 00:54:43.000
And even, you know, even though they know it's not really true, that it has that element of sort of Hollywood star making that I think is less present in the Florence Lawrence story.

00:54:43.000 --> 00:54:51.000
But Forest Lawrence is an interesting character. And, and yeah, very also very crucial part of early named stars.

00:54:51.000 --> 00:54:56.000
It's amazing that Cinema existed for so many years before somebody thought We should put the actors names on this.

00:54:56.000 --> 00:55:00.000
Like we could actually do something with this even from even as a kind of selling point, you know, it's it's a turning point.

00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:08.000
And it's all at the same time. So yeah, absolutely, Florence Lawrence.

00:55:08.000 --> 00:55:28.000
Okay, right question from, I think. I'm not sure which poster, referring to, but I think quite often in some of the posters that the actors names are not necessarily with their images and they don't seem to be in the right place.

00:55:28.000 --> 00:55:33.000
Is there a reason for that?

00:55:33.000 --> 00:55:34.000
Hmm.

00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:37.000
This is a modern trend as well. You'll see this all the time. It's been especially in the modern day.

00:55:37.000 --> 00:56:03.000
It's because the your actors agents will negotiate with the studio as to the order of names. And then they'll have separate negotiations about what image to use and the order that you, would appear in the poster if it's opposed to it like an ensemble cast of 3 or 4 people so because those 2 negotiations are both important it's important where you appear in the image and it's important where your name appears at the

00:56:03.000 --> 00:56:14.000
top. They don't always match up. So you might, you know, the studio, the studio might say, Yeah, your name can be second, but then you, but then you have to be fifth in the image.

00:56:14.000 --> 00:56:17.000
And so you end up with a weird situation where the names at the top but they're not above the right heads.

00:56:17.000 --> 00:56:29.000
It really annoys me. It does my head in. But it's it's it's it's not dissimilar to the Towering Inferno thing really where it's all it's all about It's all about, it's all about agents and egos and who's and who's the star.

00:56:29.000 --> 00:56:39.000
And, yeah, it really bugs me and, it's, I find it really frustrating.

00:56:39.000 --> 00:56:42.000
When you look at a bitch and it's like, and you're like, hang on, that's not Jennifer Aniston.

00:56:42.000 --> 00:57:00.000
Why does it say Jennifer Ashton about it? And because because it just is sort of transparently about clout and who's who's more important to have their name up there and who's more important to have their face there so yeah it bugs me wildly and it's always happened to some to some degree although it's much more of a modern phenomenon.

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:01.000
Awesome.

00:57:01.000 --> 00:57:04.000
Yeah, okay, right. Okay. A couple of questions from Mary actually, related to each other.

00:57:04.000 --> 00:57:16.000
She's asking where do these posters tend to get auction? Is it the usual big auction houses that you find these things?

00:57:16.000 --> 00:57:26.000
And what about damage posters? Do they sell? Are they worth selling? Do they?

00:57:26.000 --> 00:57:27.000
Hmm.

00:57:27.000 --> 00:57:30.000
I think Collect well collectors normally want the most the most pristine ones they can find. As with all sort of collectable things.

00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:38.000
You know, any amount of damage will halve and then quarter the amount you know it won't just take a bit off the price.

00:57:38.000 --> 00:57:48.000
If they're graded like like vinyl records or books in the only the best examples are really worth the big bucks.

00:57:48.000 --> 00:57:55.000
But I think, but yeah, for something really rare, I think if you had something really rare that had a little hole in it, someone would probably still off for you a good sum for it.

00:57:55.000 --> 00:58:03.000
If there are better examples around. And yeah, they do sell through the through some of the big sales have been through Sotheby's and some of the big America.

00:58:03.000 --> 00:58:08.000
Though this in the last 20 years a bit of a sort of ecosystem of online places have sprung up in America.

00:58:08.000 --> 00:58:14.000
There's a auctioneers called Profiles in History that exist in the States that You can look on their website actually and go back through all their previous sales and a lot of Hollywood memorabilia.

00:58:14.000 --> 00:58:31.000
Has come through there. There's a couple of, there were a couple of really big Hollywood memorabilia sales in the seventys when a lot of the studios were dumping their old assets and people bought all sorts of things cheap including posters.

00:58:31.000 --> 00:58:40.000
So yeah, but they are, you know. That, you know, they're approaching half a million, some of these posters, so Sotheby's and the like, they, they absolutely want, want a bit about.

00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:46.000
Yeah, okay. Right, we've got 2 3 more questions and then I think we'll start to wrap up.

00:58:46.000 --> 00:58:54.000
No, this is from Maureen, I think, let me just try and find the question.

00:58:54.000 --> 00:58:59.000
I think it was about the posters. Did they have the designers names on them?

00:58:59.000 --> 00:59:04.000
Some of them do some of the ones we showed there have got a little designer's name sneaked in and some of them don't there's no hard and fast rule.

00:59:04.000 --> 00:59:14.000
So those those 2 matching posters for flying down to Rio, the 2 matching posters for, flying down to Rio, like the second one is not signed.

00:59:14.000 --> 00:59:15.000
So So you don't know if that's a William C or or if it's not a C, right?

00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:23.000
Is it one that you forgot to sign or is it one that, you know, that's done by another hand?

00:59:23.000 --> 00:59:30.000
So, that is unfortunately very much on a case by case basis. It's obviously it's Fantastic if artists have squeeze their signature in somewhere and you can and you can identify who's done that.

00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:46.000
You tend to get Actually, now the minor, which I was going to say, the very early ones tend to have more signatures on, but it does just really just, yeah, it just really varies my studio and it varies by artist.

00:59:46.000 --> 00:59:49.000
So being specific to the post you were hunting down, I think.

00:59:49.000 --> 01:00:00.000
Okay. And I hope that answers your question, Maureen. And, another question from Joan.

01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:06.000
The censorship of poster seems to have been much more lax than for films, I guess, at a certain point of time.

01:00:06.000 --> 01:00:15.000
Some of you out there will probably remember the lecture we had on Hayes code. But it was your last one, Christopher.

01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:18.000
So yeah, it seems it seems to have been that way, you know, looking at the Jane Russell ones.

01:00:18.000 --> 01:00:28.000
Yeah, and it's interesting because they're right there is a whole sort of slew of posters that definitely in that period that promise more than the film could ever actually deliver.

01:00:28.000 --> 01:00:36.000
Whether, whether it be something that's a bit saucy or something that's a bit horrible or a bit violent.

01:00:36.000 --> 01:00:42.000
So, you know, it's sort of the sort of schlockier 50 things like creature from the black lagoon and so forth.

01:00:42.000 --> 01:00:48.000
They often they often over promise and they often show things that aren't in the movie. And some later films do as well.

01:00:48.000 --> 01:00:59.000
But you're right, the film, the posters themselves, Yeah, they pass less stringent checks before they kind of before they reach it out to the, to the public.

01:00:59.000 --> 01:01:04.000
There's much less of a furore over whether a poster is a little bit, revealing.

01:01:04.000 --> 01:01:10.000
Otherwise, you, you could never have advertised. The outlaw, like that because Okay, there's more flash in the poster than there is in the in the film.

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:18.000
But it's just, it's just marketing. It's just luring you in.

01:01:18.000 --> 01:01:27.000
Okay, final question. And this is from both Susie and Carolyn. They've asked the same question.

01:01:27.000 --> 01:01:28.000
May.

01:01:28.000 --> 01:01:30.000
And are you a collector of film posters? And if so, do you have a priced possession?

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:35.000
I'm not early because I haven't really got the space for them. I do have a couple.

01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:48.000
I've got a I've got, I'm not going to go and get off the wall and show you, but I've got, a Star Trek, the motion picture, foiled poster from, the British release of that in 1,979 and that's quite nice.

01:01:48.000 --> 01:01:50.000
Not hugely, not hugely valuable, but that is quite a nice one to have. There are a few that I would love to have.

01:01:50.000 --> 01:02:00.000
But they look So good when they're big. I think you need a lot of wall space.

01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:09.000
There's the few I'd love. There's I mean, something like a once upon a time in the West, the Sergio, that has a lovely, lovely poster.

01:02:09.000 --> 01:02:12.000
I'd love to have one of those, but lovely poster. I'd love to have one of those, but you, if it's small, it just doesn't come to you and it would take up a whole wall, but probably more than a whole wall.

01:02:12.000 --> 01:02:25.000
So, It's yeah, also I'm aware that it's a once you sort of open that box and you go into it suddenly you're a collector of things.

01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:36.000
I try and avoid being a collector of things, wherever, wherever possible. So no, I would love to be in another world where I'm much richer, I would, there's a, that I would want to have.

01:02:36.000 --> 01:02:44.000
But, I suppose my tastes change as well, like, Even putting together posters to show today for this, I was looking at some of the Polish ones and thinking, oh, they're brilliant.

01:02:44.000 --> 01:02:51.000
They're brilliant bits of graphic art. It'd be lovely to have one of those. But then you've got to look at some twentys and go, oh, it would be nice to have one of those.

01:02:51.000 --> 01:02:52.000
Where do you stop?

01:02:52.000 --> 01:02:56.000
So in some ways, Yeah, I'd have to decide. I'd find I'd run out of house.

01:02:56.000 --> 01:02:58.000
But it's nice to have, it's nice to have This

01:02:58.000 --> 01:03:04.000
Yeah. Okay. Right, well, thanks again, Christophe. We have to wrap it up there and some fabulous images.

01:03:04.000 --> 01:03:10.000
And I think you've jogged the memories of quite a few people out there with some of them.

01:03:10.000 --> 01:03:16.000
Really quite fascinating to hear that you know some of those early movie posters that really weren't about the movies at all that they were depicting.

01:03:16.000 --> 01:03:18.000
Hmm.

01:03:18.000 --> 01:03:29.000
And I have to say I'd never really noticed some of those trends that you showed towards the end there of the more recent trends in terms of the blue and orange and the tilt and all that kind of stuff.

01:03:29.000 --> 01:03:35.000
So I will certainly be looking out for that when I see all the buses going past and this is the city centre with all the movie posters on them.

01:03:35.000 --> 01:03:42.000
So. I hope everybody enjoyed that. We have run on a wee bit, but I think it was absolutely worth it.

01:03:42.000 --> 01:03:46.000
And as I say, don't forget to look out for your email tomorrow with some details of some related W courses that you might be interested in after today.

00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:14.000
Thank you very much, Fiona. Welcome to everybody from sunny Inverness. I see from some of your pictures that it's sunny where you are too.

00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:28.000
So that's great. So, I just wanted to start off by explaining that although this talk is very much about and the streetscape of Downtown in V.

00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:41.000
I'd like you to be thinking. As we go through this. About your own localities. Are there things in your areas along the same lanes that I'm talking about?

00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:47.000
That might be able to be made into the kind of successful project that we've done in Inverness.

00:00:47.000 --> 00:01:01.000
So let me just see if I can. Take care of the technology. So we can get, make a start.

00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:08.000
There we go.

00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:13.000
Oops. Is that looking good Fiona?

00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:14.000
Looking perfect, Norman. Thank you.

00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:23.000
Okay, thanks. So as you see, LAYER says it's a journey through the historic heart of Inverness.

00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:34.000
Discovering wild, mythical and domestic animals. Hiding in plain sight. Fiona thought and I agreed with her and there might be an idea.

00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:46.000
Just to make sure everybody knows where inverness is I know many of you will have passed through and your holidays on your way from somewhere to somewhere else probably.

00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:59.000
But it's working in local government in this part of the world. Certainly. Meant that you had to be able to drive a car and you had to be able to understand basic geography.

00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:08.000
How long it takes to get from one place to another. So I'm basically 3 and a half hours by bus from Glasgow or Edinburgh.

00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:17.000
13 h on a bus to London. Don't take the train much because in Scotland we have free bus transport for all these.

00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:23.000
So I take advantage of that as much as I can.

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And also just a quick map of Downtown Inverness. No, maps can be difficult for copyright reasons.

00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:38.000
So I've found this old map. Of downtown Inverness in 1,931.

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But just to indicate with my cursor the area I'm covering. It's basically that small area around the city centre.

00:02:49.000 --> 00:03:02.000
So the whole thing can be done. On the ground in just over an hour. And if you're looking after little ones, they'll be running about and might take even quicker than that.

00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:17.000
So. If we make a start with our our outdoor trail around downtown Inverness. It starts right in the middle of town.

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I had a feature that's known as the Millennium Circle. Because it was designed with Celtic not work.

00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:38.000
And created in the year 2,000. To celebrate Inverness becoming a city. In that year. I mean, some of us still think of Inverness as a a wee town in the Royal Borough.

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That's been a year since the Middle Ages. But the population has Oh, passed about 65,000.

00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:58.000
To the total population of our local authority of about 250,000. So, we will go down these steps to the Millennium Circle.

00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:10.000
And then we'll loop to our right. And we see these buildings. One old one new. Building in the background is Marks and Spencer's.

00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:21.000
And, as part of a Ginormous shopping. Centre that was created in the 19 eighties.

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Meant the demolition of an extensive area. Of basically tenement housing. That housed thousands of people.

00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:41.000
But that was all demolished and fancy new shopping centre was built in its place. And if you look at the building in the foreground.

00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:48.000
You'll see that over the front door. There's some kind of a carved feature.

00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:55.000
And if we get closer to that. You'll see what it is. It's.

00:04:55.000 --> 00:05:01.000
Court of Arms with a couple of animals and and a shield. And I'm just going to put on our bigger.

00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:09.000
Version of that. And I'm going to talk through. What we're looking at. So.

00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:17.000
The building is now the Trustee Savings Bank. And above the door there is this coach of arms.

00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:25.000
Which is a great way to start introducing. People to heraldry. Whether they're children or adults.

00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:30.000
This is a very typical example of a coat of arms.

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And the building. That this is on was bought by an Aboriginal bank. In 1877 And the name of the bank was the Aberdeen town and country bank.

00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:56.000
And believe it or not. The animals are a leopard. And a stag, a little deer.

00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:06.000
And the leopards represents the city of Aberdeen. And the stag represents Aberdeen Shire, the county of Aberdeen.

00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:14.000
The reason the leopard appears on the court of arms of Aberdeen. City and also of this bank.

00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:29.000
Is back in the middle ages. When England and Scotland had the occasional disagreement. One of those Scottish kings was captured by the English.

00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:40.000
And spent a long time in captivity. So, of the border. Not locked up in the Tower of London, he was actually part of the royal court and was treated rather well.

00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:51.000
But when the time came to negotiate a truth. And the Scots wanted their king back. They all had to contribute some money to pay.

00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:59.000
For his ransom. And to express is Gratitude to the citizens of Aberdeen.

00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:07.000
For contributing to his release. The king decided to present Aberdeen. With 2 leopards.

00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:13.000
Not sure why he idle leopards, but I suppose somebody must have gifted them to them.

00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:19.000
This was a quick way of getting rid of them. I suspect. So anyway, that's that's what happened.

00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:24.000
So. This.

00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:30.000
This leopard is quite unusual on a coat of arms. We're all used to lions and unicorns and so on.

00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:43.000
Even deer but a but a leopard is is quite unusual it's not unique and it does create some controversy when I was doing a similar talk.

00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:52.000
A couple of weeks ago. A gentleman waited until he ends and then novel me. And said he just wanted to take issue.

00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:59.000
Because it's not a leopard. It's a young lion. I said, no, no, I'm sure it's a leopard.

00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:05.000
No, he says it can't it can't be a leopard. And hierarchy and efforts are always lying down.

00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:14.000
And this one is clearly standing up. So it has to be a young lion. So at that point I didn't have a slide of the Aberdeen.

00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:22.000
City Court of Arms But you can see on there. That has not one but 2 leopards.

00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:31.000
And it has 3 castles. While on the Aberdeen town and county bank. There are 2 castles.

00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:40.000
Representing. Aberdeen City and a sheaf of corn. Underneath representing the countryside of Aberdeen.

00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:48.000
So I did manage to convince the man. That's it certainly is a leopard because of the Aberdeen connections.

00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:54.000
There's even a magazine to this today in Aberdeen. That's called the leopard.

00:08:54.000 --> 00:09:07.000
Which is a kind of local news magazine. So he accepted that. And we agreed to differ. And we, I said, well, maybe it's bad heraldry, but it's certainly a leopard.

00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:14.000
But an actual fact I think. I'm on, I was on pretty safe ground.

00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:24.000
So having looked at that. We're going to walk down the streets. That's the Trustee Savings Bank is on the corner of.

00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:36.000
In and halfway down Ingle Street on the left hand side. There's a bird. Which is an eagle owl.

00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:46.000
An unusual thing to appear. But the there used to be a charity in Inverness that looked after Burns of pre and collected money to.

00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:56.000
Take care of them when they were injured and so on. And we think. At the. May have, spent part of its life.

00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:05.000
With that charity and then eventually it died. And appeared on this this window cell.

00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:18.000
And it's, it's a very, very common all. In world terms. You know, it covers a vast area from Spain and Norway all all the way across to China and Korea.

00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:30.000
Very distinctive orange eyes. And the female as a wing span of 6 feet 2 inches. So it's a it's a big old And of course, in ancient Greece.

00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:38.000
They all was the symbol of Athens and the symbol of our Athena, the goddess. Of Athens.

00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:45.000
And when it was unusual, we, you know, this was included in the trail because it's there.

00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:55.000
And, we decided to use it. Unfortunately, the shop that it's on top of changed hands.

00:10:55.000 --> 00:11:04.000
And the owl disappeared. The spirit has flown, we said. And for over a year it had disappeared.

00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:13.000
Which was a bit of a shame because when the children were, were doing this trail on looking for The Spert that wasn't there.

00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:23.000
And then about 3 weeks ago, it reappeared. And it turns out That's It's been in our local pub.

00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:37.000
First of all, it was it was in the the honors house And then they honor us if the pub would look after its whale the shop was being converted.

00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:45.000
So they they decided to take the owl and look after it. And, eventually. It's, it reappeared.

00:11:45.000 --> 00:12:01.000
Just 3 weeks ago. 2 are great relief of of course. No, just to explain that The reason for this this project looking at all these animals and birds and so on.

00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:08.000
That we have a children's publisher. In Inverness, Pauline Mackay.

00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:15.000
We started a company called Eagle Kids Press. And she publishes children's books.

00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:23.000
In many languages, including Scott Scalic, but in French, German, Japanese, lots of languages.

00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:32.000
And she does very well. And has, premises. Just where we started on the market steps in Inverness.

00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:45.000
And, she came up with this idea. To see if we could find strange animals. Hiding in Inverness on on the buildings downtown.

00:12:45.000 --> 00:13:07.000
And use them to create a children's activity book. And I got to do the words for The adults, she did the words for the children and we had a very Good illustrator, Marjorie Tate, who, who illustrated the book.

00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:13.000
So we're all relieved about that. If we continue down Ingle Street. Leaving the owl behind.

00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:23.000
Get to the bottom of the street. We find ourselves. Looking at this enormous public square. With a big shopping centre.

00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:33.000
At the back and on the left hand side what looks like at holds. House or or business premises.

00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:41.000
In fact as part of a part of Inverness that was completely demolished. To make way for the shopping centre.

00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:57.000
And this was the one building that had sufficient architectural merit. To be taken down. Stone by stone and then re-erected on the edge of this Square, which is known as Falcon Square.

00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:06.000
And the reason for that is that there was a falcon foundry, an iron foundry. And the area that was demolished.

00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:14.000
Which is probably one of the earliest industrial estates in the country. Eighteenth century but it's gone.

00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:21.000
And in the in the middle of the square. There is this column. And on top of the column is a unicorn.

00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:33.000
And flying around the column. Are some birds. So. The unicorn of course is familiar to us.

00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:41.000
And, described as like a white horse with a single long horn, Cloven Hooves.

00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:51.000
And sometimes with a goat's beard. It was an extremely wild woodland creature. A symbol of purity and grace.

00:14:51.000 --> 00:15:02.000
And I could only be captured by a virgin. And at one of my talks somebody typed up and said, well, it'll be safe enough in Inverness on a Saturday night.

00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:12.000
In the Middle Ages. People believe that the unicorns foreign had magical properties.

00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:24.000
And could protect you from. Twice and water and it could heal sickness and disease. And there was a real trade in.

00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:33.000
Unicorns horn. Which was possibly started by Viking traders from from Norway in the north.

00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:43.000
Because they came across an animal calls the and this is the horn that was.

00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:58.000
Taken and traded in Europe. Especially to royal households and very important, people. And it was so it was often gifted to them as a unicorn.

00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:07.000
I was a real, symbol of importance and, and status. But of course, this was all a scam.

00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:15.000
It turned out that this was actually this, horn from the kind of whale called on.

00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:21.000
And it's not really a horn at all. It's actually a tooth. But, there we are.

00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:33.000
Hello, that's, That's possibly the natural history explanation of the unicorn, although it's hardly a woodland creature.

00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:42.000
When it comes to the Royal Court of Arms. It's different in Scotland to what it is in England.

00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:50.000
And England, the lion is always on the left and the unicorn on the right. But in Scotland it's the other way around.

00:16:50.000 --> 00:17:07.000
With the unicorn on the left and the line on the right. And that's that represents the fact that in in England the lion as the national animal whereas in Scotland It's the unicorn.

00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:18.000
So. Yes, the the birds are flying around the column. And what we have here is A Peregrine Falcon.

00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:31.000
Capturing its dinner. And this is something of Great interest to the children. Because of course they love the unicorn.

00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:45.000
But the falcon comes as a bit of a surprise. And the kind of trick question that they have to answer is How many birds are circling round the column?

00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:55.000
Well, if you count them, there appeared to be 4 falcons. And then the Falcons dinner making 5 bars altogether.

00:17:55.000 --> 00:18:04.000
But of course you could argue. More creatively. That is the same bird in different stages of its flight.

00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:10.000
So it's 1 bird, the falcon. And the second bird, it's, it's victim.

00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:21.000
So it depends whether you are counting literally or I suppose more. But there's the unicorn perched on the top.

00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:28.000
It's it's it's very very photogenic. There's a seagull that had a narrow escape.

00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:35.000
From the. But there there's a good, good picture of, the unicorn.

00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:45.000
You know, looking fierce with a bit of a beer. And on 2 legs.

00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:54.000
And from the other side. You can see him through the trees. Looking at looking across the road to Martin Spencer's.

00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:59.000
Which we saw at the beginning of course.

00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:08.000
So if we walk along Academy Street just for a hundred yards. From Falcon Square. We come to Station Square.

00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:19.000
Which is named because That's where inverse railway station is. And it's been there since the 18 seventies.

00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:28.000
And you can see. The the mess that they made when they built this. New entrance in the 19 sixties or seventies.

00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:36.000
There's a beautiful late Victorian building and in the background. Which was actually the headquarters of the Highland Railway.

00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:45.000
Right here. And then this monstrosity has this been bind up against that. Very nice piece of architecture.

00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:54.000
I understand there are plans to have it abolished. And reclaim the railway headquarters, which would be a really good idea.

00:19:54.000 --> 00:20:02.000
Because it's particularly ugly. But tonight we're interested in this chap. Here who is.

00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:06.000
Cameron Highlander, one of the Highland Regiments.

00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:20.000
In the 1880 s and 18 nineties. They were sent to Egypt and the Sudan. To take parts and in various military campaigns.

00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:29.000
You've probably heard of Garden of Khartoum. Good misfortune to have himself and his whole garrison slaughtered.

00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:39.000
By Sudanese tribes. In cartoon And one of the reasons the Cameron Highlanders ended up in Egypt.

00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:49.000
Was to take for the British Army to take its revenge for that. If you have a closer look at the camera and Highlander.

00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:57.000
We see that at his. Heels, there is a Sphinx, an Egyptian Sphinx.

00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:08.000
There is there. And that comes as a bit of a surprise. As well in the instant world.

00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:17.000
The Sphinx was another mythical creature, had the head of a human. Body of a lion and the wings of an eagle.

00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:26.000
And in in Greece, this things had the head of a woman. And was seen as treacherous and merciless.

00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:32.000
Whereas in Egypt, it was a man. A man's head. And he was benevolent.

00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:43.000
But with ferocious strength. And they were used in both countries to guard temples and important buildings.

00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:50.000
And you see that in Egypt, of course, he's close to the pyramids.

00:21:50.000 --> 00:22:00.000
And. Most Cameron Highlanders who went to Egypt for these campaigns. Would have passed through Cairo.

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:06.000
And seen the pyramids and the Sphinx. They would have landed by ship at Alexandria.

00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:17.000
And There was a big base just outside Cairo. So they would surely have seen the original Sphinx.

00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:31.000
The Highland railway company donated the lands in front of the station. To put the statue and it was sculpted in London by a celebrity sculptor called George Wade who did lots of important people.

00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:40.000
And it commemorates a hundred 43 officers and men and one boy. Good died in bottles in Egypt and the Sudan.

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:49.000
So, list the names there. So in 1882, 1885. 80 98 2 bottles.

00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:58.000
And the voice soldier was William Rules who was 17 when he died in hospital in Cairo of Typhoid.

00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:06.000
So they there is a slight mystery here because the monument was unveiled in 1893.

00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:14.000
After the battles in the 18 eighties. And of course later in the 18 nineties they went back to Egypt.

00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:21.000
And they had 2 more bottles where more people were, died. Not all of the 143.

00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:29.000
Man died in battle. In fact, I think over half of them died of disease. One form or another.

00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:42.000
And it's, you know, talk for another day, but. On the other side, a conservative estimate is that over 20,000 people were killed by the British Army.

00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:48.000
And in these military campaigns.

00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:55.000
Do we all know the riddle of the Sphinx? What goes on 4 feet in the morning.

00:23:55.000 --> 00:24:08.000
On 2 feet in the afternoon. And in the evening on 3 feet. And the answer, as I'm sure many of you will know, is A human being.

00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:13.000
Because we crawl on all fours as a baby. We walk on 2 feet as an adult.

00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:22.000
And we need a walking stick. Or hiking poles in old age.

00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:32.000
So turning our back on the camera on the islander and looking across the street. To the Inverness covered market.

00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:42.000
This is what we see. The every self respecting Victorian town had to have a covered market.

00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:53.000
And most of them in this country date from the last half of the nineteenth century. Harris was opened in 1,870, replacing street markets.

00:24:53.000 --> 00:25:00.000
Fish and and meat and vegetables and all sorts of things were actually sold on different streets around the town.

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:12.000
But in 1,870 they built This rather grand market which goes for a Quite a length from one street all the way through to a parallel street.

00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:21.000
And it was a great success commercially. Except that it had only been an operation. For less than 20 years.

00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:30.000
When there was a catastrophic fire in 1889. And it burnt to the ground everything except for the entrance.

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:38.000
With those archers and balustrades and so on. So the council decided to rebuild it.

00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:54.000
And you can see that the the original entrance was still in place. And in the in the sensor there's a bull with his horns and on each side of him there's a RAM's head.

00:25:54.000 --> 00:26:05.000
Representing the fact. That butcher shops where amongst the principal businesses in the market. I think there were at least 4 or 5.

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:10.000
Different butcher shops. At one time.

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:19.000
And that's what it looks like from across the road. Ironically, one of the most Famous animals in our history.

00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:27.000
Was involved in the fire. In 1889. It was a butcher's dog.

00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:32.000
We don't know his name, we don't even know what kind of dog it was.

00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:39.000
Although we suspect it was a collie. But anyway, when the fire took place This dog had been left overnight.

00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:46.000
To guards the the butcher's shop. And fire broke out as a result of a gas leak.

00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:56.000
And the dog was the only Casualty, the only fatality. And got quite a bit of publicity at the time.

00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:03.000
And and since he's he's been described as sort of the Greyfriars Bobby of Inverness.

00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:13.000
It stayed to guard his post and wouldn't leave and and was eventually overcome. By the smoke and the flames and burnt to death.

00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:16.000
But we don't feature him because he's inside and this is an outdoor. Trail.

00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:24.000
So we have to leave him to his fate for the moment.

00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:32.000
And then going further up. Academy streets back to where we started. We come to Union Street.

00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:43.000
Built in the 1860. Just when Inverness was developing to. A accommodate tourists from the the new railway that had arrived in town.

00:27:43.000 --> 00:27:53.000
I'm on the north side of Union Street in 1864. They built this extensive hotel.

00:27:53.000 --> 00:28:04.000
Called the Royal Hotel. And there are 9, 9 lions. The common threes. So there's 3.

00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:13.000
Here and over here and over to left. So 9 lines altogether. And the history of this is.

00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:21.000
Is quite interesting because It's, it was the, right up until the 19 seventies.

00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:27.000
It was certainly a hotel when I first came to Inverness. But it became the Clydesdale Bank.

00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:35.000
One of the Glasgow banks. And it was a clay sale bank until a couple of years ago.

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:43.000
Where it was taken over by Richard Branson. And rebranded as a virgin money shop.

00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:52.000
So it's not even a bank anymore, it's a shop. And understand that the nationwide building society has come to some deal.

00:28:52.000 --> 00:29:10.000
Whereby they're going to rebrand it again as part of their group. So it's had quite a complicated history as a building just as they Aberdeen, town and county bank card of course.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:20.000
So that's another that's another 9 animals to add to our collection. And if we continue down Union Street towards the River Ness in the distance there.

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:30.000
You see in front of you 5 Atlantic salmon. These are part of a public art project.

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:46.000
To do with the new flood defences that were built in the last decade. Vast expense to protect andverness from flooding, which it was a very sensible thing to do because it used to cause Lots and lots of damage.

00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:55.000
And hopefully if everything works properly and like able to find the people with the keys to the flood gigs.

00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:07.000
Then we should be safe enough in the future. And judging in the weather. Since the flood defenses were created with something that we really needed very, very badly.

00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:16.000
But it's, it's a bit strange. To be walking about and suddenly find some on at your feet.

00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:27.000
And then coming. Back to the main street of Inverness, which is called High Street. We see here the leaning tower of Inverness.

00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:37.000
Which is, the prison and toll booth dating back to the eighteenth century. And then here is the Caledonian Bank.

00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:50.000
2, 2 buildings down. And if we restore the tower to the perpendicular. You see a close-up layer of the Caledonian bank with its Very impressive.

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:59.000
Frontish with classical columns and carvings at the top.

00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:08.000
And on top of the, There is a So we add that to our collection. It's a a and building.

00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:19.000
Finished then 1792 with this gilded whether in on the top. 100 and 50 feet high.

00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:25.000
In 1816 we had quite a major earthquake and inverness which did damage quite a few buildings.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:33.000
Downtown. Add it twisted the stiff stipple. Which had to be repaired by stonemasons.

00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:43.000
One of whom was the property writer and journalist and geologist Hugh Miller. Who's very famous in Scotland.

00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:55.000
But in in scientific circles even today in And geology and earth sciences. Is still revered as one of the first people to introduce the general public.

00:31:55.000 --> 00:32:05.000
To the mysteries of fossils and the geological sequences which are such an important part of the Highland landscape.

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:10.000
So that's that's the. The copper roll under the steeple.

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:22.000
And. Coming to the Caledonian Bank. Which is now a pub. Built at 1847 as the bike headquarters.

00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:33.000
Hello to an in bank produced its own bank notes with pictures of inverness on them and I had this extremely impressive building.

00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:50.000
Right at the top and that triangular feature that's called a There are carvings. And there are a couple of halfway down the building which represents a Victoria and Albert.

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:58.000
And then on, on the. Streets floor, the ground floor. There are very ornate gates with eagles.

00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:04.000
In the gates. So the.

00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:16.000
Things that are up on the temperature. Are quite. Symbolic because of the Greek theme, they're represented as Creek.

00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:24.000
God has goddesses and gods. The lady in the middle is the goddess Caledonia.

00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:33.000
Representing Scotland. And she sees folding a very interesting stuff. Which is made up of separate individual reeds.

00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:42.000
All bound together tightly. To make a stuff that can be used in in combat with our points on the end of it.

00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:57.000
No, in Roman. Mythology as a fascist. Which is where fascism and fascists about the idea from Mussolini and and is cried in Italy, of course.

00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:03.000
So on on the on Caledonia's right is a goddess Ness representing the river.

00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:12.000
Yes, unlock Ness. And on her left is. Goddess representing. The fruits of the land.

00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:18.000
She's holding. What's called a coron eucopia, the horn of plenty.

00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:24.000
And. On either side, we have.

00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:41.000
Some of the activities that were taking place that the bank was servicing. So commerce and fishing. On the left hand side and agriculture and especially sheep, on, on the right.

00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:51.000
And you can see a close ups of the different. Different things there. The shepherd and his Sheep.

00:34:51.000 --> 00:35:06.000
Are pretty clear. On the left hand side is not. Particularly clear about the the fishing but there's a wiggly thing that might be a fish but we don't know what pain to fish.

00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:15.000
There the eagles on the gates very impressive gates for a pop. But not for a Caledonian bank headquarters of course.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:27.000
One of the 4 eagles is lost his head. Which is a pity. But the meeting 3 are rather nice and very well done.

00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:32.000
There in the past Ireland of course.

00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:42.000
And so we come to. Perhaps the most importance. Building in downtown Inverness, which we call the town house.

00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:51.000
And it's really a town hall, but in Scotland it's often called a townhouse.

00:35:51.000 --> 00:36:00.000
So it's an extremely impressive building. And just in the last 5 years. Yeah, it's been.

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:12.000
Restored and renovated. To its original glory. As it was getting a bit Tatty and pieces were starting to fall off which was quite dangerous.

00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:24.000
Behind it. On the left hand side You see, a strange building here on the corner with a kind of conical feature.

00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:36.000
This was built in the 1970, s replacing an older building which was demolished. To me, we're for the improvements of this part of Inverness.

00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:50.000
Hey, we won't have to do any advertising, but you may see at the bottom. At street level of that building there's a what I think are referred to as the Golden Archers.

00:36:50.000 --> 00:37:01.000
So that's what that building is doing today. Down here. But when it was built in the 18 it is.

00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:17.000
It was built as the headquarters of the Y.M.C.A. The Young Man's Christian Association. And on top where the statues of what we're called the Christian virtues, 3 ladies representing the Christian.

00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:27.000
Virtues of faith, open charity. The lady representing faith. Us holding a book, the Bible.

00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:36.000
Another one had the, the anchor of hope at her feet. And the third one representing charity was dispensing.

00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:47.000
Water to a child at her her feet. I'm when there was when that building was demolished in the 1970s they and replaced with this.

00:37:47.000 --> 00:37:56.000
Then. The, the, the statues were put into storage. And, in the Orkney Islands.

00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:04.000
Who had a big mansion house in the countryside there. And for a hobby he collected garden statues.

00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:12.000
And he heard the Inverness had a couple of extra statues, so he came down and persuaded the council to sell them to him.

00:38:12.000 --> 00:38:18.000
So he bought them and took them away to the Orkney Islands. And eventually, of course, he died.

00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:27.000
I went his estate was being broken up. Our council in its wisdom decided to buy the statues back.

00:38:27.000 --> 00:38:32.000
So they did that and they came back to Inverness.

00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:42.000
And they were re erected down by the river. Faith open charity in their original glory.

00:38:42.000 --> 00:38:52.000
No. Indonesians often have their own idiosyncratic ways of describing things in the local architecture.

00:38:52.000 --> 00:39:02.000
And in this case, they described the 3 Ladies representing the 3 virtues. As the 3 graces.

00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:14.000
And that term stuck. Nothing anybody could see to the country made any difference whatsoever. That is part of the whole redevelopment of Inverness.

00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:26.000
They start as a building these concrete things. Here these rectangular concrete buildings, which are local journalists.

00:39:26.000 --> 00:39:34.000
Crescent the 3 disgraces. And everybody thought that was very clever. Very very good plan.

00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:42.000
Good idea. But, they were built nevertheless, I think. There's actually planned for a demolition, but.

00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:45.000
Anyway.

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:52.000
Here are the 3 Christian virtues. Faith Hawken Charity.

00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:58.000
And the famous version, of course, of the 3 graces. Is by Antonio Canova.

00:39:58.000 --> 00:40:09.000
From 1814 you see them below. No, the idea that the young man's Christian association would have had naked Greek ladies on top of its building and inverness.

00:40:09.000 --> 00:40:20.000
It's just laughable. But, That's, Inverness for you.

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:28.000
Now around the side of the townhouse on Castle Street There is a dragon coming out of the side wall.

00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:38.000
So that's another. Mythical preacher. And there's another version of them and looking down Castle Street.

00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:47.000
I think you can see the Caledonian bank at the bottom. And the, I think, sorry, the, dragon, I think, is here.

00:40:47.000 --> 00:40:54.000
On the building. So that's that's rather nice.

00:40:54.000 --> 00:41:09.000
And in front of the town house itself. Lots of animals. Including the another unicorn. On top of the the old medieval market cross of Inverness.

00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:18.000
And that unicorn is holding a shield with the inverse coat of arms on it. And the base where it's standing on the plinth.

00:41:18.000 --> 00:41:25.000
There are more eagles. And you can see, another. 2 of them here. There are 4 altogether.

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:31.000
Including one that also has lost us, has said.

00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:40.000
And above the front door of the townhouse there's another version of the town crest. Showing an elephant and a camel.

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:49.000
With 2 humps, a battery and camel. And there's been lots of speculation about why Inverness has an elephant in a camel.

00:41:49.000 --> 00:41:58.000
Well, its coat of arms. And what idea is it represents trade. Another possibility is it might have something to do with the Crusades.

00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:06.000
But, There is a difference between a Alright, at a, of course, in geometry just has one hump.

00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:15.000
And the Bactrian camel has 2 humps. But our can't make up its minds, which it is because sometimes it has one hump.

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:25.000
And sometimes it has to. And surprisingly, there is a population. Of dramataries in Australia, 500 thousands of them.

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:34.000
Which, have descended from camels that were taken there. Because of course most of Australia. Is a desert and camels do well in that.

00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:44.000
And that environment. And right at the top of the town house. There were 2 stone dogs statues.

00:42:44.000 --> 00:42:51.000
And they went missing, they were taken down because they were dangerous. And they were put into storage. And then nobody knew where they were.

00:42:51.000 --> 00:43:02.000
And when the townhouse is being renovated. Where they were looking find out what had happened to these dogs and nobody could find them.

00:43:02.000 --> 00:43:11.000
Until about 2 weeks before the whole thing was supposed to be unveiled. To the general public. They turned up.

00:43:11.000 --> 00:43:23.000
Somebody remembered where they were. And they were put back on the top of course. But that created a problem because the council In the meantime, had commissioned 2 replacements.

00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:32.000
For the dogs and these are going to be 2 wolves. Which are going to take the place of the dogs right at the top of the building.

00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:39.000
And no, they've been relegated. To the ground floor level and they guard the entrance.

00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:46.000
2 the tone house at the the front door. But you can actually see them rather better than if they were right on the top.

00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:52.000
So maybe it turns out quite well for them.

00:43:52.000 --> 00:44:00.000
And also on the side of the townhouse there is another version. Of the Course of Arms.

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:09.000
And this one. Has. The elephants and the camel with I don't know, maybe one and a half hubs.

00:44:09.000 --> 00:44:18.000
Gives the the name and DNS with only one S as it was spelled in the seventeenth century and above and below.

00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:28.000
The name and the date. You see the ahead of a wild cut. And then the date and the numerals.

00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:35.000
My son lives in North America. And that's 1 of the few places left. And the world, I think.

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:44.000
Where you can guarantee that any primary school child We'd understand Roman numerals and be able to count with them.

00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:52.000
Or as I think in this country, it's pretty well died out. It's really a feature of the older generation to be able to.

00:44:52.000 --> 00:45:03.000
Decipher a Roman numerals. And the reason for that is the American Football championship that takes place every year and is called a Super Bowl.

00:45:03.000 --> 00:45:13.000
It's a major world TV event. And it's, as always used Roman numerals from the very start in the 19 sixties.

00:45:13.000 --> 00:45:20.000
I think they're up to 58. As we speak and of course everybody in North America.

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:26.000
Can decipher Roman numerals. Because of the American football championship.

00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:34.000
And lastly, we we end up with our near the end of our trail up at Inverness Castle.

00:45:34.000 --> 00:45:43.000
I'm in a medieval stone square keep. Hello up by the Jacobites in 1746.

00:45:43.000 --> 00:45:54.000
Just before the Battle of Cologne. And it remains a ruin until the 1830. When the site was completely cleared.

00:45:54.000 --> 00:46:02.000
Of what remains of the ruins of the castle and all stone work. And they built a new courthouse which you see in that picture.

00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:09.000
And then in 1846 they built a new prison as well. This is Flora McDonald.

00:46:09.000 --> 00:46:20.000
Who's famous in history. For helping Bonnie Prince Charlie. Charles Edward Stewart to escape from Hebrides across to the Isle of Skye.

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:26.000
When he was being pursued by the Red Coats after the Battle of Culloden. In 1746.

00:46:26.000 --> 00:46:33.000
And that's her feet as a collie dog. And she's looking down the glen.

00:46:33.000 --> 00:46:41.000
Waiting for her prince to return. The the plaque says. It's a court from Samuel Johnson.

00:46:41.000 --> 00:46:48.000
Her name will be mentioned in history. And if courage and fidelity be virtues mentioned with honor.

00:46:48.000 --> 00:46:58.000
So instead of turning. Only Prince Charlie in to the government and pocketing 30,000 pounds. Which was a lot of money and 70 46.

00:46:58.000 --> 00:47:06.000
She helped him escape by dressing him up as a maid. And and a woman's clothes.

00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:12.000
And put into a swell board. And transported across the mensch to the Isle of Skye.

00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:23.000
When he was when he eventually he got away. She was one of the people that was rounded up and taken down to London and put in prison, but in 1740.

00:47:23.000 --> 00:47:29.000
Ni don't understand. She was released. She and her husband then emigrated to.

00:47:29.000 --> 00:47:38.000
North Carolina. That's what the castle looks like today. I've given up trying to see that it's not a castle.

00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:42.000
It's a courthouse. That's what it was built as and that's what it is.

00:47:42.000 --> 00:47:49.000
But everybody calls it Inverness Castle, so that's another battle. That we've lost.

00:47:49.000 --> 00:47:58.000
There you see a closeup of. Flora and her dog. But a translation of the Gallic.

00:47:58.000 --> 00:48:06.000
Part of the inscription.

00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:15.000
No, there is there is one animal. A bird. Which we had to leave out. Of this outdoor trail, although it's almost always.

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:23.000
So, with Flora McDonald. And of course, a seagull. But you can't guarantee that it will always be there.

00:48:23.000 --> 00:48:33.000
Unfortunately so it would be a pity of kids turned up wanting to see. The seagull and it hadn't arrived that day for some reason.

00:48:33.000 --> 00:48:44.000
I thought it would be useful to support in a few. Basic dates about the Jacobite. Risings or rebellions.

00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:54.000
If you think they were. Campaigning against. They the rightful government, then it was a rebellion.

00:48:54.000 --> 00:49:01.000
If you think they were campaigning to restore the king to his rightful throne. Then it was a rising.

00:49:01.000 --> 00:49:11.000
And of course there were several attempts. After the 1688 glorious revolution brought in William and Mary.

00:49:11.000 --> 00:49:17.000
And deposed the Stuart James the Second. There were various attempts to to regain the throne for the Stuarts.

00:49:17.000 --> 00:49:27.000
We all ended up. And failure, of course.

00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:36.000
Addis if we make our way back to the Millennium Circle. Where we started. We passed the Royal Tartan warehouse.

00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:47.000
And, Although this is not an animal. It is a ghostly feature that we always promised children.

00:49:47.000 --> 00:49:58.000
We don't say it's a ghost, just a ghostly feature. The ghostly feature is that on this building that was built on the 1880.

00:49:58.000 --> 00:50:05.000
Across the middle of it, you could just make out the words. The Royal Tartan Warehouse.

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:14.000
In that space across the middle of the building. And if the light is good. You can see the words.

00:50:14.000 --> 00:50:23.000
You can't always see them. But so they are they are. And they've they've survived the slunk.

00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:36.000
So here is the. Publisher who thought upless projects called in Mackay. Connie was a member of the WA Local Association Committee in the Highlands for years.

00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:41.000
Ended up as a convener. And represented in Vlas on the and the Highlands on the W.

00:50:41.000 --> 00:50:53.000
E. Scott of Scottish Committee. And that's her in the middle there. Clutching a copy of the book that was published, the children's activity book.

00:50:53.000 --> 00:51:01.000
And there's me and also the illustrator, Marjorie Tate. And we're looking down the market steps where we started.

00:51:01.000 --> 00:51:10.000
And that area. Just down at the bottom is where the millennium circle is.

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:18.000
So, there's a picture of the. Poster on the cover for the book. And if you're interested in her publishing.

00:51:18.000 --> 00:51:35.000
Efforts she has a website I know the book. Purchase from from the website. You can get in touch with me if you have any questions or if you want any.

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:48.000
Further detail about anything there's my email address And, along with the book that comes, a a little folded which is designed for adults.

00:51:48.000 --> 00:51:55.000
It's got some of the gorier historical things in it that were thought perhaps not suitable for children.

00:51:55.000 --> 00:52:02.000
I mean the children love them but the parents get a bit twitchy sometimes. About some of the things that went on.

00:52:02.000 --> 00:52:06.000
But there's a, there's that, there's a guide for adults with a map.

00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:17.000
That comes free with the book. And as I said in the beginning, You know, have a think about whether you could do something like this in your own littleities.

00:52:17.000 --> 00:52:24.000
You know, some of you will have a man on horseback and there'll be royal courts of arms with lions and unicorns.

00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:30.000
But there were all sorts of things, maybe in cemeteries or in shops, on crests, on banks.

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:39.000
All over the place you might find these. And it's a great way to introduce. People to their local history and to engage with it.

00:52:39.000 --> 00:52:45.000
Whatever their age. It's not just the young ones that are interested in this. The adults get interested too.

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:54.000
And of course they all they all say that they pass these things every day and never notice them. So you end up with very strong neck muscles.

00:52:54.000 --> 00:53:01.000
And a better understanding of your local history. And on top of all that, it's great fun.

00:53:01.000 --> 00:53:07.000
Doing something like this. So. Highly recommended. And we'll leave it at that.

00:53:07.000 --> 00:53:12.000
Thank you very much. I'm, over to you, Fiona.

00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:18.000
Thanks very much, Norman. Do you want to stop sharing your presentation and we'll we've got a few minutes people will do a few questions and then we'll wrap up.

00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:26.000
So. Thanks very much. Norman. Can I take you back to the start?

00:53:26.000 --> 00:53:37.000
And we've got a question from But, you talked about the leopards, being the leopard being gifted, to Aberdeen.

00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:40.000
Do we know which king it was that did that?

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:45.000
We do, yes.

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:53.000
The numbering gets complicated because you know we have different ways of numbering. Kings and in Scotland.

00:53:53.000 --> 00:54:07.000
It was James the first of Scotland. He was King of Scotland from 14 0 6 to 1437.

00:54:07.000 --> 00:54:09.000
James the first of of Scotland.

00:54:09.000 --> 00:54:21.000
There we go, Miranda. There you go. James First of Scotland. Now, another question, from let me just find it, from Marie.

00:54:21.000 --> 00:54:34.000
She's got a question about the townhouse. Looks French, any connection? Now I know you said that it was kind of built in the sort of, Flemish baronial style, which I guess is kind of near-ish France.

00:54:34.000 --> 00:54:40.000
Do we know why? And kind of what the what the connection is there.

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:46.000
Well, yes, it's the connection is that it's. It's a Victorians showing off.

00:54:46.000 --> 00:54:53.000
Showing how is Inverness showing how cultured and sophisticated it is.

00:54:53.000 --> 00:54:54.000
Which of course it still is to this day.

00:54:54.000 --> 00:55:05.000
Of course. Okay, there you go. No, from David's we've got a couple of questions about Inverness.

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:15.000
Hassell. No. So 2 questions. Do we know if we built it and why?

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:16.000
Yeah.

00:55:16.000 --> 00:55:19.000
Now, I guess that goes for both what exists now and perhaps the original castle that had been there before.

00:55:19.000 --> 00:55:34.000
Yes, well the original Castle has associations with Macbeth. Who you may remember that Shakespeare called him the Than of Codor.

00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:35.000
I know it well.

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:40.000
But Carter is a village just outside Inverness between in. You do, yes. So, the, would have been originally your Norman.

00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:49.000
Temper of Palisade and moaned. And then a stone keep was built. Thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

00:55:49.000 --> 00:56:02.000
Survived right up until the eighteenth century when the Jacobites blew it up. And then it was it was replaced, it replaced the Tall, tall booth and steeple on the high street.

00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:16.000
Which was the main courthouse and prison for Inverness. Right up and until they replacement was built on the castle site in 1832.

00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:27.000
So that's that was the reason for it was to build a new complex. With a courthouse and, prison.

00:56:27.000 --> 00:56:35.000
In, in a dungeon beneath. And many important trials were held there. Especially connected with the Highland clearances.

00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:49.000
And just on the last 5 years. Inverness has opened a new. Justice centre it's called which is joining the police headquarters out just outside the town centre.

00:56:49.000 --> 00:56:58.000
And contains a new courthouse. And, new, sales for people being kept there.

00:56:58.000 --> 00:57:07.000
And a new prison is also being built in so we have a long history of. We keep rebuilding and rebuilding prisons.

00:57:07.000 --> 00:57:15.000
And the the court house it was built in 1,832 is going to be turned into this.

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:23.000
Cultural hub and tourist attraction. With a lot of the internal features preserved. So it's going to be rather wonderful.

00:57:23.000 --> 00:57:28.000
Yeah, and I think a really good use of the building given it's prominence within the city, I think.

00:57:28.000 --> 00:57:30.000
Yeah.

00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:44.000
Okay. And the secondary question from David about the castle was after Cologne did did the English ever occupy the castle but I guess the answer to that probably has to be no

00:57:44.000 --> 00:57:45.000
Exactly. Hmm. There we go, David. Okay.

00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:52.000
No, because the Jacobites blew it up. Before the battle. Yeah. Yeah.

00:57:52.000 --> 00:57:53.000
Right, so let me have a little look. I actually think that might be all our questions, although hold on 1 s.

00:57:53.000 --> 00:58:05.000
We've got a supplementary question from Miranda. So James the First. And the leopards.

00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:13.000
Was he the one that lived at Stirling? And said he kept unicorns.

00:58:13.000 --> 00:58:14.000
Yeah. Yeah.

00:58:14.000 --> 00:58:19.000
Well, he would have left it sterling. Yes, that was a major royal castle. I don't know anything about James the First and and unicorns.

00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:20.000
I only know about inverness and unicorns.

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:24.000
Hmm. Hmm. Oh well, there we go.

00:58:24.000 --> 00:58:30.000
I'm not going to get into a discussion of unicorns. Because you're in dangerous territory especially.

00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:36.000
You're in the Santa Claus area of difficulty so we won't go there.

00:58:36.000 --> 00:58:43.000
Okay, right. Well, thank you very much for that, Norman. We're pretty much out of time now.

00:58:43.000 --> 00:58:56.000
Some really interesting stuff there and I've certainly learned quite a few things about a city I know very well or so I thought I had never noticed the Sphinx on the statue in Station Square.

00:58:56.000 --> 00:59:01.000
Hand on heart and I have walked past it thousands of times as I'm sure you have Norman.

00:59:01.000 --> 00:59:09.000
And as Norman said, I think we often forget to kind of take, take the time to look around ourselves when we're going about our daily business.

00:59:09.000 --> 00:59:16.000
So hopefully after today I hope you're all a little bit inspired to do just that where you are.

00:59:16.000 --> 00:59:21.000
Okay, so I hope you all enjoyed that and don't forget to look out for your email tomorrow morning.

00:59:21.000 --> 00:59:34.000
And that will have details of W courses that you might be interested in after after this lecture. So thanks again, Norman.

00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:13.000
Thank you, Fiona. Thank you. Hello everyone, welcome. Thank you so much for being here this evening.

00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:19.000
So, you know, so many of you, it's very good to be able to talk to you again and to share, you know, another subject.

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It's a rather novel subject of interest for me, which is architecture, and among architecture, the skyscraper.

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So I hope you'll enjoy today's lecture on this very, very interesting type of modern buildings, the skyscraper.

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So first, just coming back on what is the skyscraper? Just to be sure we are talking about the same thing.

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We're talking about a very tall, habitable building, nearly always in an urban context. So the Ethel Tower, however tall it is, doesn't count as a skyscraper.

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It has to be habitable. And we'll see that often skyscrapers to start with were office buildings, corporate buildings.

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These, you know, these buildings to start with, so for example in the nineteenth century when they were first built at the end of the nineteenth century they weren't as tall as we would expect to them.

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So they were, you know, 35 meters in above, 10 to 20 stories high. This was considered a skyscraper.

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The word was invented, was not invented, it was taken from the nautical vocabulary at the end of the 18 eightys in the US to designate very tall buildings and so by the standard of the nineteenth century these very tall buildings were 35 meters and above Today these buildings wouldn't be considered skyscrapers.

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They would be considered high-rise buildings. Today, a skyscraper to be called a skyscraper must be at least 100 meters in height.

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Some would say at least 150. So there are no no official definition of the skyscraper but at least a hundred meters in height but just know that to start with, they were indeed much lower.

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So in this talk, today we're going to discover the history. We're going to focus a bit on the history of the skyscraper.

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We'll have a look at the first ones in the US in the 18 eighties. We will then look at some notable remarkable skyscrapers from the twentieth century such as the Chrysler and will conclude by looking at some some contemporary developments where I will speak a bit about Birch Khalifa.

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I will speak about the Gherkin in London and I will tell you a bit what is the future of skyscrapers and some contemporary challenges.

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When we go through all of this, we'll consider the skyscraper from different angle or points of view perspectives.

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We'll have a look at structure and materials. How are they built? How do they stand? And we'll consider their shape and the aesthetic.

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Is there indeed an aesthetic approach in decorating ornamenting these skyscrapers and of course I'll come back on the function which is always very important when we consider architectural works of art or architectural works.

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And you might have recognized on the slide an illustration showing Birch Khalifa in Dubai, which is still to this day, the taller skyscraper.

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So let's have a look at the first ones. The first ones will build in the US in the 1,800 eighty's.

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So the picture on the slide right now, this is the Chicago's home in Trent building. It was built in 1,885 and it's considered as if world's first skyscraper it doesn't exist anymore as it was destroyed in the 19 thirties.

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It was initially 10 story high, 42.5 meters. Today, again by today's standards, it might not seem very high, but at the time in age 85, this was really tall.

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And it was again quite a feat of engineering and building. So this is in 1885 in Chicago.

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The first skyscraper ever built and it will be in the context of Yeah, St. Louis in New York that the word skyscraper will be used to designate such buildings.

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They were soaring towards the sky. This is one of the oldest ones still existing. Today this is the Wen Wright building in St.

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Louis, Missouri. It was built in 80 91,891. Again, it stands story high.

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It's an office building. So exactly as the previous one, it's 41 meter high it's an office building so exactly as the previous one it's 41 meter high.

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It's designed by Dankma Adler and Lewis Sullivan. And Sullivan, in particular, if you are interested in the history of skyscrapers Lewis Sullivan is a very important architect.

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Who was an American architect who really thought about the architecture of these office buildings, these early skyscrapers, and who thought that they were very particular buildings, they were special buildings and as such they required a special aesthetic, special form as well that would in particular enhance their heart that would let the people you know on the ground floor marvel at how high these buildings were how much they were launching towards the sky.

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So Sullivan, Lewis Sullivan, just no years one of the earliest designers of skyscrapers but also one who wrote about the skyscraper at a as a particular form in architecture a particular type of building.

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So let's have a look at why these buildings were, you know, started to appear in this part in that part of the world and at that time the first thing is to consider how they are built.

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They are built using a lot of steel. These early skyscrapers are using a steel frame and a curtain wall.

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So it would be really hard to build, such a tall buildings with load bearing walls made of bricks for example and so here the steel frame is making you possible to build higher to build a much higher building.

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So we have a steel frame which you see here on the photograph. You see the steel frame with the steel beams.

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And that you know that steel frame will be closed with something that is almost like an envelope by what we call a curtain wall.

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So the wall and here it's made of bricks, this wall does not carry any of the load, any of the weight of that building, if these walls are not load bearing, which is why it's called a curtain wall.

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So a curtain wall can be made of bricks. It can be made of glass. We'll see some example with some glazing as well for the facet and again of course the glass doesn't carry any of the load so it really is the steel frame that is Pierre key in, you know, carrying the weight of that structure of the building.

00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:12.000
So this is the basics, basic structure for the skyscraper, a steel frame and a curtain wall.

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The steel frame was met possible by advances in the manufacturing of steel. So really skyscrapers are and this is why they're so iconic of modern architecture.

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Skyscrapers are a product of the industrial revolution, they sort of come out of the industrial revolution both in terms of function, the office building, you know, sort of the rise and development of the capitalistic society, but they also in terms of materials they were made possible by advances in the manufacturing of steel, much high strength steel, which was made, you know, which happened in the nineteenth century.

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And so these steel beams are essential and you can see here an example of still beams connected. Either by welding, by bolts and nuts, or by rivets.

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There are different ways to assemble the steel frame. And here just I thought I would put a few footows of these no workers, who manufactured, who assembled these manufactured pre-anufactured steel beans to, you know, really risking their lives working on these skyscrapers.

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These 3 photos are from the construction of the Empire State Building and you see they're moving moving beams away above the sky but also you know tightening tightening the bolts.

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And riveting, riveting, some elements as well to these beams. Also really working at tightening this entire structure and after it will get its own curtain wall.

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So a steel frame and a curtain wall. And I've mentioned the importance of the Industrial Revolution in making skyscrapers a possibility as a possibility as a possibility as a structure.

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And making skyscrapers a possibility as a structure. The other thing that you need to have a skyscraper is a possibility as a structure.

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The other thing that you need to have a skyscraper is a passenger lift and a safe passenger lift.

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Lifts have existed, you know, for centuries like platforms really to be raised up and down through, through pulleys, through, you know, steam and etc.

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But a safe lift, this was only possible from the 18 fiftys when a safety system a good safety system was in the 18 fiftys.

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So it's only from that moment. That it's only from that moment that it was possible to install safe elevators or lifts in these high-wise buildings.

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And it's considered that if you know if you are going to go up and down the floor several times a day working in office, then you need a lift after 6 floors.

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If there are more than 6 floors, then a lift is essential for people's comfort. So this is another element that is absolutely necessary if we are to think of buildings and our 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 floors and of course more.

00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:13.000
And today they are in many many lifts in in skyscrapers in new skyscrapers.

00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:34.000
They're absolutely essential. So here a key element needed is the invention of a saved lift. Which happened in the 1850 s and the lifts were first placed you know in office buildings in the US from the 18 seventys.

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The safety system is basically blocking that platform if you know if the ropes are breaking then a system of bricks come into play and blocks the platform the left from preventing it from falling down and crashing to the ground.

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So the still, you know, improvements in the manufacturing of steel, improvements from the use of iron before.

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So steel frames and the importance of the Industrial Revolution. I've then mentioned the importance of the left as well in making such high buildings.

00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:20.000
Possible. The other thing I wanted to mention is the fact that these early skyscrapers, they're not residential buildings.

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They're not you know libraries or let's say senates and you know parliaments they are office buildings the first skyscrapers they are meant for people to come and work you have new newspapers for example that are commissioning the buildings of the stall, you know these guys papers, you find shipping magnets for example or car manufacturers that are financing the construction of

00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:56.000
skyscrapers. So these really are corporate buildings, office buildings. It's the case for the Ren Wright building that we're just looking at.

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And so you see here on on the screen you see some of the floor plans, the ground ground floor on the right the left hand side sorry that would be the ground floor where you would have shops as well on the ground floor some shops and above many floors so 9 floors of officers and so you see indeed these offices here and there was a sort of house not sure how to call it almost like a courtyard just to make sure that

00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:42.000
you'd have windows as well, and that each of this it office in this building would have its own natural light its own windows and this was quite important as well and the lifts were indeed in the center here and staircases.

00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:49.000
Alright, so the office building is a type of I would like the Ren Wright building. Here it is.

00:12:49.000 --> 00:13:02.000
Yes, so offices, the need for more offices in places like St. Louis, New York, Chicago is also a consequence of the Industrial Revolution.

00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:17.000
It is also, you know, it's the sign of a booming economic where, you know, more and more jobs are created, business is indeed increasing, and there's an influx of people towards, you know, cities like New York, St.

00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:26.000
Louis and Chicago, but also, yes, an influence of people and workers and these This business has to happen somewhere.

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The space is limited. Hence the building upright building in height as the it was impossible to spread further to spread horizontally.

00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:47.000
So again, the Industrial Revolution, this economic development that is the gilded age in the history of the US at the end of nineteenth century is another factor or cause in the development of the skyscrapers at the time.

00:13:47.000 --> 00:14:07.000
And requiring so there was this requirement for more and more office rooms more and more offices. So office buildings to start with.

00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:19.000
These early skyscrapers, often designed by someone like Sullivan in particular, these buildings are not, I mean they are very, very practical, very functional buildings.

00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:23.000
But they're also very well ornamented and they're very beautiful on their, you know, exterior, the facade, they're carefully decorated.

00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:36.000
And this detail from the Wen Wright building illustrates this. You can see an active detail, you can you can also see the bricks.

00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:42.000
You can see the bricks right here and so it shows you that the curtain wall here is in bricks.

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You can see the little bricks here and there, but you also have these elements here that are actually interactive and have been opposed onto the facade.

00:14:52.000 --> 00:15:01.000
You see them here as well on this upper side. You see them here as well, on this upper level, right under the corners, which is also very beautifully ornamented.

00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:11.000
So there is a great interest in making these buildings very beautiful. As well. On the, you know, on their FASA, but also on the inside.

00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:27.000
And we'll come back on that you'll see your examples from later where the ornamentation will completely go And this is another example from this early time, this early, you know, first phase of building a skyscrapers.

00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:33.000
It's the guarantee building in Buffalo. It's also designed by Sullivan with Adler.

00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:54.000
And it was completed in 1896. And here you see something that Sullivan insisted on in, you know, showing that this building is very tall by elements from the facade and in particular used these lines and interrupted vertical lines.

00:15:54.000 --> 00:16:07.000
Can you see here these lines? So from very separating the windows. Not arsenal but vertically, it's an interrupted here from above the shops all the way to the corners or to these circular windows.

00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:15.000
And so it creates very long, very thin and slender, vertical elements, almost like piers or columns.

00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:25.000
That are very tall and are enhancing the verticality of the building making us look up, making us look towards the sky, enhancing the height of that building.

00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:34.000
Sullivan really believed that The role of the designer here was to enhance the loftiness.

00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:42.000
Of the skyscraper to make of it a soaring thing. Everything in this building should enhance its height.

00:16:42.000 --> 00:17:10.000
So there's a great symbol here as well in terms of again development in terms of group. In terms of power as well, the ability to to create to design to erect, build such structures was absolutely remarkable by the standards of the time and left many many people in awe of what people could do in the eightys, 18 nineties.

00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:15.000
Here you see a detail or it's not real detail but a different perspective on, on this building, the guarantee building.

00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:32.000
Which again lets you appreciate this verticality. This you know sort of vertical energy that we feel on the facade which is really a results of these thin lines.

00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:44.000
Going up and interrupted which again enhances the verticality of the building and you can also see how beautifully decorated it is on this slide.

00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:54.000
Lots of elements interracutta once again opposed onto the facade to create this very elaborate decoration.

00:17:54.000 --> 00:18:03.000
Well, so this was 1896 in Buffalo, the guarantee building. Which again still exist as well today.

00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:18.000
So again, by today's standards and these are not skyscrapers proper, but at the end of the nineteenth century these are the buildings for which the word skyscraper was used in an architectural setting.

00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:25.000
And just a few more details. Just couple more details. From this building as I believe the ornamentation here is quite extraordinary.

00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:45.000
One wonders what you see from the floor, you know, from the ground floor whether you can actually appreciate how beautifully decorated the colonists is in on that corner for example at the very top of the building.

00:18:45.000 --> 00:19:01.000
So one, another last example from the nineteenth century. It is from 1895 where this time where New York City is the American, so shirty building, which was completed, sorry, in 1,895.

00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:08.000
It was a hundred 3 meters tall and so at the time it was indeed the tallest building and remained so for many years into the twentieth century.

00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:16.000
So this time we're above a hundred meters, the critical height of 100 meters and we are in 1895.

00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:20.000
So it's quite a it's quite a landmark. It's quite it's still exists.

00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:33.000
As well this building and again it is dwarfed of course today by some of the tallest skyscrapers around it.

00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:43.000
But again, by the standard of 1895, this was absolutely awesome. A feat of architecture of building.

00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:53.000
So I won't know, now that we've seen, you know, where this guy Squipper came from, and also in which context they had they were created the need for more offices as a consequence of the industrial revolution and really a booming economy.

00:19:53.000 --> 00:20:07.000
I want to look at some iconic skyscrapers from the twentieth century. I can by no means really, you know, mentioned all of them that are interesting.

00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:22.000
I really can't. I've just selected just a few. I like the Chrysler building, which is such an icon of twentieth century architecture and our deco architecture.

00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:30.000
So this is in New York City. It was designed by William Van Allen and finished in 1,930.

00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:36.000
1,900, and 30, when it was completed, it stood at 319 metres high.

00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:46.000
It had 77 floors and was the tallest building in the world. It remained the tallest building in the world for just a few months.

00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:54.000
Because just a few months after, the Empire State Building was completed and the Empire State Building is a little bit taller.

00:20:54.000 --> 00:21:00.000
But at 390, 19 metres, it was again, absolutely extraordinary. This I showed it to you here.

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:17.000
My first photo is quite an old photo because today you have you know new buildings around it and they're not quite as tall but they do obscure or hide the Chrysler buildings shape.

00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:29.000
So I really wanted to show it to you, and to reveal its shape. It's sometimes, called a wedding cake topper or decoration because of the setbacks.

00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:42.000
They're like creating these very peculiar shape. But many skyscrapers will have a similar shape as the Chrysler building with a set backs sort of narrowing it's becoming narrow as it goes up.

00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:55.000
And let's see. So this shape, the shape that it has with the setbacks, this actually is a consequence of a law that had been passed in New York in 1,916.

00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:12.000
And before, 1,916, so between between the 18 nineties and 1,916, New York was changing and many many high-rise buildings were changing and many many high-rise buildings were being constructed and many of them many high rise buildings were being constructed and many of them were very bulky.

00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:29.000
And they were you know getting higher and they were very very bulky I mean you've seen for example the Ren Wright buildings and even you know the American Shirty building here or the guarantee building they're quite bulky the wolves raise the side, you know, the pavement.

00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:37.000
Straight up vertically, there is no interruption, it doesn't set back, it's just you know, one vertical wall.

00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:59.000
And you can imagine this getting higher and higher and higher. It's 42 meters. It's 1 thing when it's 100 meters it gets you know higher and so by 1,916 they were really a lot of concerns about the fact that New York some streets in Manhattan were becoming like the Great Canyon, they were becoming very dark.

00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:14.000
They were becoming very windy. And so they passed a law in 1,916 preventing the construction of skyscrapers that would go you know straight by vertically enforcing some volumes.

00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:26.000
Like stuff like limited volumes to maintain a level of sunlight on at ground level at street level. So these, you know, the size.

00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:41.000
Of these waltz here the facade the volumes of the skyscrapers were defined by the width of the street and how close to the pavement, the sketch paper, started, or was built.

00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:50.000
And so it defined the shape of skyscrapers when we go back to the Chrysler building, for example, they could build high.

00:23:50.000 --> 00:24:04.000
A certain level and then they had to set back. So that they could respect this zoning law from 1916 and make sure that discern light wouldn't be blocked higher her than this level.

00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.000
Alright, and after this level they had to set back again. And so on. Again, to make sure that they were within the limits.

00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:21.000
Defined by the zoning law. Which the goal of it the purpose of which is to preserve sunlight at street level.

00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:27.000
Here is another photo. It's a, it shows Mintan Midd, Manhattan in 1,932.

00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:37.000
It's taken from the Empire State Building and it shows you know you you will have recognized the Chrysler building and many other skyscrapers around it.

00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:49.000
And some of them show the sort of the setbacks. You can see here this sort of almost like a stepped pyramid shaped many skyscrapers and high rise buildings do have this shape.

00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:59.000
This one too. This is a consequence of that zoning law, which, prevented building just straight up.

00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:09.000
From the ground all the way to the top and imposed the setbacks. So the Chrysler building is also renowned for its Art Deco architecture.

00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:19.000
It's absolutely fantastic and it's appearance both inside and outside and here you see an example 2 examples of features on the building and in the building you have the elevators here.

00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:30.000
With their doors and it's it's very expensive in size of the materials are very expensive the marble and the wooden leaves all of it is very very luxurious and the shapes.

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:46.000
The aesthetic is a need completely odd eco again inside and outside on the outside I think the clearest article feature is sort of the same burst motif that crowns the building.

00:25:46.000 --> 00:26:10.000
Sort of You know, a growing, growing and expanding, but in the narrowing as it goes up, and again, giving us this feeling of verticality of rising up and up and up and really almost without any limits.

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:11.000
So this is a MED or so with a, you know, there's also a steel structure behind it.

00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:27.000
You have a brick walls, some stones as well on different levels, on the lower levels. You have some glass of course for the windows and here you have stainless steel.

00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:36.000
So there's the crowning here is met with a panels of stainless steel, which were it was quite a new sort of recipe.

00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:47.000
If you will, for stainless steel at the time and many of the panels were cut onside under 65 60 fifth floor while you know while the building was made.

00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:51.000
So for the Chrysler building as well, which was financed by Walter Chrysler, there are lots of references as well.

00:26:51.000 --> 00:27:01.000
To cars in particular. These decorations around the corner, several corners of building that are of course reminiscent of radiator caps.

00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:31.000
So therefore, so for giving a wing to to the car industry to the car manufacturing industry. So here you see one of them and then a detail from a different perspective on the right hand side but you might also have notice the circular motives, which might also evoke a wheel, a will, and maybe a speeding car based on the way the pattern is made.

00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:50.000
Of different colors. You might have noticed as well the show role motives, these chevrons, it's also a very typical art deco, a motif that you'll find in many article elements of design and architecture.

00:27:50.000 --> 00:28:00.000
Which is here also present on the facade of the Chrysler building. So really, really iconic, absolutely iconic building, very beautiful to this day.

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:29.000
It's an important element of the New York skyline. So, being competitor to the Chrysler building, and so these 2 skyscrapers were being built at the same time the Chrysler building and the empire still building there was a fierce competition between you know between the 2 groups building them and here the group behind the skyscraper is the empire state group.

00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:34.000
Empire State State Incorporated, which was an investment group of, you know, wealthy private honors from Manhattan.

00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:56.000
And they developed this building and the goal was to build the tallest skyscraper and the spire on top and antenna allowed for this, you know, really topping above the Chrysler building.

00:28:56.000 --> 00:28:59.000
This was completed in 1,931. It remained the tallest building in the world until 1970.

00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:29.000
Again it is high it is 381 meter high. This is the roof and so the tip with the antenna is 443.2 meters it has 102 floors and you find here again this said backs feature in its design is so if you look all the way down to ground level at the bottom here of the screen you can see the street.

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:39.000
You can't really see the street actually because of older high-rise buildings around it the street is almost completely obscured or obstructed.

00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:45.000
But here you see just a little bit of the street just to locate ground in the ground.

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:56.000
Yeah, the, and so you have a high rise to start with or first you know few levels that are rising from the pavement straight up and then a set back.

00:29:56.000 --> 00:30:18.000
On several sides is said back then it writers up again set back and so on so again this is imposed or it's a consequence of the zoning low low from 1,916 meant to to allow for tall buildings without losing too much sun night at ground.

00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:24.000
So we've seen here, we've seen some of the few, the early skyscrapers from the nineteenth century.

00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:30.000
We've seen the R decour skyscrapers with the Chrysler building and the Empire State Building.

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:38.000
And so this as in the models of the setback, skyscraper, which is a very frequent form for skyscraper.

00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:51.000
Now I wanted to show you 2 examples of, a modernist skyscraper or we could also say they are from the international style or their example of the international style.

00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:56.000
And here the the aesthetic or the approach in designing is completely different. The style is now functionalist.

00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:07.000
The idea here is that the building, it's beautiful because it is just purely, simply functional. There is no decoration, no ornament on the facade whatsoever.

00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:22.000
I'll show you an example, another example right away. The C. Graham building. So now when the 1950 s and of course again the aesthetic has changed.

00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:37.000
We don't find all the annual decoration from, you know, Sullivan's designs in the 1,800 eighty's and 80 nineties, we do not find all the very modern lines and fun designs from the art deco.

00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:48.000
Moment now in the 19 fiftys with the international style it's functionalists in style. The idea is that beauty comes from function.

00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:58.000
If something is functional than it is beautiful. So there is indeed very very little, if any, ornamentation on these buildings.

00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:10.000
So the 2 examples I have are Lever House, again in New York. Completed in 1952 it's 94 meters high it has 21 floors and it has a glass curtain wall.

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:18.000
It is another change. We don't have a brick curtain wall. We have a glass curtain wall in this case.

00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:24.000
And here you have the Sea Graham building, which has 38 floors, 157 meter high.

00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:33.000
Also in the York, completed in 1,958. So these are really emblematic of the post war.

00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:41.000
Skyscrapers, they're often going to be blocks like this with glazing as a facade.

00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:51.000
And this is a very, very good example of it. It's also a very important building because it was designed by a key architect coming from the bar house.

00:32:51.000 --> 00:32:58.000
Miss Van Dahoe, Ludwig, Miles Van Daho. Here's another view from the C.

00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:14.000
Graham building again completed in 1958. So on the facade it glass. For the windows and the span rules between the windows are made of bronze actually their bronze panel which was very very expensive to build.

00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:20.000
But this was a prestige building for the C. Graham Corporation. It was meant to be its headquarters.

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:38.000
So once again, it's a corporate building or meant to house offices. This is a photo and the floor plan and it allows you to see how Miss and theahu dealt with the constraint of the zoning law.

00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:47.000
The zoning law still applied, even in 1958 it still applied. And so, Vanda Whoa could not build.

00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:57.000
Miss could not build straight up from the street. So you can see here his plot. Actually covers all of this.

00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:05.000
Alright, this is the entire plot. That you had to work with. But he did not build his skyscraper straight from the edge.

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:13.000
He is stripped from the pavement. He started a little bit further away from, you know, from the pavement from the sidewalk here.

00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:35.000
Which allowed him to build straight up. And not to have to do setbacks. This is another option to leave like a square or piazza in front of the skyscraper and again this is quite prestigious so look curious because you also so sending the message that you can afford to leave some space burn built.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:45.000
And And even though again, the space here in Manhattan is extremely expensive and very, very desired, very Oh yeah, very desolate.

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:58.000
So you can see what it does. That it also gives us a bit of space to see the skyscraper, a bit of perspective on it, therefore to enjoy it's very very basic, very basic, very functionalist shape.

00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:07.000
On the Sea Graham building. You see the piazza here again. Could have started the base for his skyscraper is right here.

00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:18.000
And then use setbacks, but of course it would have been in a different style. It wouldn't have been too decorative, too weird and odd a shape.

00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:29.000
And Miss Van Dahoe wanted very, very simple pure shapes in this highly functionalist style.

00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:41.000
So again here when we look at the structure and the materials we find as a very, you know, the base here, is of course concrete foundations, reinforce concrete.

00:35:41.000 --> 00:36:00.000
We find of course a steel structure and here you see the photograph with the steel structure. You see the metal steel beams assembled and Then we have reinforced concrete, floors that are, you know, poured in, in place left to cure in place.

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:10.000
You can see some of the floors have been already pure. Port, a here and at the top is still just the metal structure.

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:17.000
And so and after you have a structure on which the glazing will be attached. And so the glazing is a need for windows, glass windows and you have bronze panels.

00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:32.000
These are made of bronze. Again, they're quite heavy and they're they were very expensive, but they do give a so that luxury feel to the facade and again a certain color and sheen as well to the facade which is quite unusual.

00:36:32.000 --> 00:37:02.000
And very interesting. Put this this detail here this photograph here from again an unusual perspective but just to show you this verticality something that ms and de-hour sort of took as well from Sullivan really enhancing this Movement upward, of the skyscraper by using these beams to It's almost as if he took beams and you know pasted them, glued them onto the facade.

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:22.000
They do not carry anything. This is a carrying beam. Here structure and it's really massive. But here these are just decorative and they're a way to create these slender elements rising to the top, uninterrupted.

00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:32.000
Highlighting the verticality of the building. If I put back a photo here, now maybe we do see actually this very, very thin vertical lines.

00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:40.000
I'm going from the first law to the first level to to the top of the building.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:46.000
There's the Sea Graham building from 1,958 by design by Ms. Van Dahura.

00:37:46.000 --> 00:38:00.000
A design here. Okay, there are lots of issues with blinds, blinds, curtains, a good thing Miss Van Der Hor did not like blinds at all because they do sort of ruin the design and the purity of it.

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:22.000
At least the initial purity and and yeah, ideal design of the buildings. Alright, so I'm now have to you know I have to sort of move on a bit and and go to the conclusion I wanted to to just come back on a few developments or yes a few developments for skyscrapers mentioning the future.

00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:29.000
Oh, skyscrapers. First, I want to say that we do continue to build higher and higher.

00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:40.000
So there is still a competition and the world, you know, today to build the highest. Skyscrapers, which are the competition that started in the nineteenth century?

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:48.000
Because these buildings are prestigious and they're a way to express once power once, you know, money, wealth, etc.

00:38:48.000 --> 00:39:03.000
So there is still today this incentive to build higher and higher than before. Today, the record is being, you know, is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

00:39:03.000 --> 00:39:07.000
It was completed in 2,009 as you know and tops at 829 meters.

00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:13.000
With a massive spire and an antenna. It has 144 habitable floors and 9 floors amendments.

00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:29.000
It's corporate and residential with of course an observation deck as well. And it is to this day, Skyscraper.

00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:45.000
Just a view here. It has a fuss out of glass and aluminium. For the facade but it has a reinforced concrete core and a metal tubular metal structure of steel.

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:56.000
In the UK, the tallest building is the shop. Which is 309 metres high, which was completed in 2,012 and designed by Renzo Piano.

00:39:56.000 --> 00:39:59.000
Again, a corporate, mostly a corporate building, so to this data tallest in the UK. So we still have again this incentive to build higher and higher.

00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:23.000
It is iconic. It is an expression of wealth. Of economic wealth. Here is just a photo showing you the different elements making the shop the concrete core you have the reinforce concrete core.

00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:32.000
And right here, which of course tools are stands on concrete foundations. You can see, you can just about guess.

00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:35.000
We can just really just guess the concrete floors. The metal structure and the glazing. You part of the glazing is already being posed.

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:47.000
Onto that facade. So very, very key. Elements to skyscrapers up to to this day.

00:40:47.000 --> 00:41:08.000
The world of skyscrapers or designing skyscrapers today. They are quite a lot of innovation happening and these innovations can sometimes lead to unusual unusual forms and the gurkin or 30 that sent Mary Acts in London is a very good example of this.

00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:31.000
This was opened in 20 or 4. It is a hundred 80 meter high, 41 floor. So by skyscraper standard is just like a medium skyscrapers and today this is actually disappearing in the skyline of the city because many other taller buildings are being built hiding the girkin in the middle of this forest or skyscraper.

00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:47.000
But it has, it has remained quite iconic, the Gherkin. Oh, originally, after the bombing of the Baltic exchange in 1,992 the RAA or or a build bombing of the Baltic exchange.

00:41:47.000 --> 00:41:56.000
Which stood at 30 St. Mary Acts. The Baltic exchange is computer, you know, it's wiped out.

00:41:56.000 --> 00:42:08.000
It cannot be rebuilt as is. So the land is sold and faster. Norman Foster and his practice are tasked with creating a skyscraper for an insurance company.

00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:15.000
He came up first with the project for Millennium Tower, which you can see here, which was to be 386 meter high.

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:23.000
The project never get, never got planning permission. It was rejected. Because it was thought to be out of scale with the rest of the city and with the rest of London.

00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:36.000
So Norman Foster had to redesign his, you know, project for tower in this very place.

00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:47.000
And this is when you came up with, you know, with the concept of the gherkin. With the concept of this tower that we is now nicknamed the Gurkin.

00:42:47.000 --> 00:42:54.000
This shape is really interesting. This shape is actually not just a matter of aesthetic. It actually is very functional.

00:42:54.000 --> 00:43:09.000
In particular, it deals with one massive problem with scarecrowers, which is wind loads and wind deflections creating hurricane strength winds at ground level.

00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:11.000
And the gurkin's shape. Allows to reduce the wind deflections and it also offers minimal resistance to wind.

00:43:11.000 --> 00:43:24.000
So what happens with squippers and so it happened really badly in Leeds with Bridgewater Place.

00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:51.000
It's a hundred 12 metres high it's like a massive wall right and it's very high when though if it's in the wrong place in the wind corridor the wind will hit The building it hits the building and It actually goes down and as it goes down and accelerates and as it goes around the corner of a building it accelerates once again and it creates as I said potentially, hurricane strength wins, which can

00:43:51.000 --> 00:44:05.000
be very dangerous for pedestrians at ground level. You can see here, I mean, they've actually to do a whole change at ground level around Bridgewater Place because of the winds and the strength of the winds down there.

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:13.000
They had to add structures to break these wings and you can see indeed the signs as well beware risk of gusty winds.

00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:18.000
So the Was it much more aerodynamic shape? It's odd cylindrical shape that tappers at the bottom and at the top.

00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:30.000
Is actually really good at this deflecting wind. It allows the wind to go all around it rather than hitting it and going down.

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:40.000
So it's much more efficient when it comes to dealing with wind, which is a massive issue for skyscrapers.

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:50.000
Also, it's, it's really interesting design. Norman Foster also in his practice also always emphasized the sustainability of the gherkin.

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:59.000
It has however been quite limited in reality. But But originally the building was designed with sustainability in mind.

00:44:59.000 --> 00:45:09.000
And the idea was to reduce the energy the building uses on a daily basis, in particular by using natural ventilation.

00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:19.000
For the windows can actually be opened. And most people do not open the windows when they work in this office and these officers and they actually use the mechanical ventilation.

00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:32.000
So they use air con. But in theory, windows can be open and natural ventilation can be used to lower the, you know, the cost in, in mechanical ventilation.

00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:46.000
So that's quite an interesting feature as well. Sustainable design. This is absolutely a very, very important challenge for the design of skyscrapers is to design them more sustainably.

00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:58.000
To make sure that they are less energy greedy. That they use less energy in their you know maintenance and the use of these buildings when they're in use but also in their manufacturing.

00:45:58.000 --> 00:46:08.000
Using less you know less steel using less concrete creating structures that are lighter the weight of the skyscraper is of course always a massive massive issue.

00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:22.000
So if you can lighten that load, the weight of it, you are creating a building that is, more sustainable.

00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:39.000
So this is again a challenge and a development for the future of skyscrapers. Is to create things like biocimatic, skyscrapers, this is a concept developed by the Malaysian architect Kin Fi Young.

00:46:39.000 --> 00:46:51.000
Young is a pioneer of thinking, architecture in the light of climate change and so thinking of buildings in terms of ecosystems and buildings in their environment.

00:46:51.000 --> 00:47:01.000
So this is a concept. It hasn't been built. It's a concept for an eco tower, it hasn't been built, it's a concept, for an eco tower, an eco skyscraper. It's a concept for an eco tower, an eco skyscraper.

00:47:01.000 --> 00:47:19.000
It uses a lot of vegetation. It uses a lot of natural light rainwater and and and many other elements to create a much more sustainable tower because high rise and skyscrapers are very important for the future of building.

00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:23.000
It is more economical, it is better for the planet to build high than to give everybody one house with a garden.

00:47:23.000 --> 00:47:39.000
It's better to build high-rise buildings. But it has to be done with fewer concrete in particular, reinforced concrete is a nightmare in terms of the environment.

00:47:39.000 --> 00:47:52.000
So buildings with fewer materials, so fewer steel, you know, lighter, lighter structures using fewer steel beams using less concrete but also using vegetation and also using wood.

00:47:52.000 --> 00:48:08.000
There is today a lot of interest in building towers, high-rise buildings and skyscrapers in wood and there it's been nicknamed the Ply scraper.

00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:15.000
It is of course quite, surprising as we all think, but this is a massive fire hazard.

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:34.000
Fire is the greatest greatest risk and by far is the greatest risk to skyscrapers it is fire but this the wood that is used here is of course heavily engineered and it doesn't burn or at least you know it doesn't burn as you'd imagine the wood burning it will char if there is fire inside, wood burning, it will char if there is fire inside and it actually can withstand a fire quite well.

00:48:34.000 --> 00:48:54.000
So today These structures are much lighter than the concrete and steel structures. They are very well insulated as well, so they require less, you know, material as well.

00:48:54.000 --> 00:49:04.000
So it is an interesting development. That again is becoming more and more popular in the world of skyscrapers on the wood skyscraper.

00:49:04.000 --> 00:49:11.000
All right, I'll finish here and maybe have a look at questions and continue discussion through your questions.

00:49:11.000 --> 00:49:13.000
Thank you, everyone.

00:49:13.000 --> 00:49:20.000
Thanks, much, Caroline. I'm going to go straight into some questions. We've got a few here, so we're going to get through as many as we possibly can.

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:29.000
Thank you.

00:49:29.000 --> 00:49:30.000
There you go.

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:40.000
We might run on very slightly folks, so. Okay let's start sort of if you want do you want to take your presentation down just now Caroline just so that we can see it no, A question, start with a question about the actual construction of the the early kind of Hi, ized buildings, skyscrapers.

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:48.000
A question from Lovell. Was there a high death rate in the early constructions? I can only assume there was.

00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:50.000
What's your idea in here if you know? Oh, yes.

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:55.000
A high death rate. We saw some of the pictures of these guys on the beams.

00:49:55.000 --> 00:50:00.000
Yeah, I don't have any numbers, but yes, accidents were frequent, very actually, yes.

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:05.000
Okay. And this is an interesting one from Stuart actually.

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:19.000
I don't know if you'll know the answer to this one. Is it true that the Mohawk Indians where are the best skyscraper steel rigors because of a physiological quirk which means they are less affected by vertical.

00:50:19.000 --> 00:50:24.000
That's an interesting one.

00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:25.000
This one for your research then, isn't it?

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:30.000
I do not know. Hi, I do not know. That's a good question. Yes, I'm, I'm writing it down.

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:31.000
Interesting question, Stuart. Thank you very much. I'm sorry we don't have the answer for you.

00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:41.000
Just now. Okay, so let's talk about the actual structures then. A couple questions which I'm going to roll together actually.

00:50:41.000 --> 00:50:53.000
And there's a question from Ruth. And a question from Elizabeth respectively. Now from Bruce.

00:50:53.000 --> 00:51:04.000
She is asking, did they are early, early buildings always have at least 2 staircases? Was that to do with fire regulations, safety reasons, etc, etc?

00:51:04.000 --> 00:51:11.000
And then from Elizabeth. Did the windows actually open and those earlier buildings?

00:51:11.000 --> 00:51:13.000
Yeah, yeah. The window I know, absolutely. The windows open in these early buildings. Absolutely.

00:51:13.000 --> 00:51:14.000
Okay.

00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:22.000
It's only really when you start having these, you know, glass facades.

00:51:22.000 --> 00:51:35.000
That then the windows don't open at all and you have air con and we're in the 19 fiftys and it's you know it's much more frequent but yeah before that the windows open I still the staircase, I'm not sure.

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:44.000
I haven't seen like many of the full plans for the earlier ones. I said it's quite still a new interest, you know, research for me. I'll have a look.

00:51:44.000 --> 00:51:47.000
I don't know. I can't and and so for sure. As to the safety and the staircases, sorry.

00:51:47.000 --> 00:51:57.000
Okay. Right, there we go, Chris and Elizabeth. Now, question from Pat. And again about the early, early buildings.

00:51:57.000 --> 00:52:03.000
Did they have flat roofs? And if so, how did they drain the rainwater away?

00:52:03.000 --> 00:52:13.000
So not all of them had flat roofs. Do they have showed you indeed had? Yes, so you had a slight, you know, slight, how you call that, like a slight.

00:52:13.000 --> 00:52:34.000
Slope too indeed to you know get the water into drains and then when you look closely for example the Chrysler building you can't actually see some drains letting the water and then sort of you know pushing it away from the flat roofs of the terraces that are on different levels.

00:52:34.000 --> 00:52:38.000
Yes towards the street.

00:52:38.000 --> 00:52:39.000
Yeah.

00:52:39.000 --> 00:52:43.000
Okay, and do you go, And a couple of questions again that I'm going to roll together.

00:52:43.000 --> 00:52:51.000
It was when you were talking about the guarantee building in Buffalo, the one with the amazing the, on it.

00:52:51.000 --> 00:52:52.000
Hmm.

00:52:52.000 --> 00:52:58.000
And do we know how that decoration was made? And that's from Marilyn and from Kathleen.

00:52:58.000 --> 00:52:59.000
Yeah.

00:52:59.000 --> 00:53:04.000
What's it done after the construction was that sort of put on after the construction and who did it?

00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:05.000
Do we know who the designer was?

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:19.000
Yeah, so it's it's met rather industrially actually because you know the scale is searched that and there's you know these buildings had to be cost-efficient as well often so you can't go and ask someone to carve everything by hand.

00:53:19.000 --> 00:53:25.000
So these were actually made with terracotta that was poured in 2 mols before being fired.

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:39.000
And so they're met in a more industrial way, I guess you could say. And it's the same one that's repeated all the time actually because they use these malls to create them and then they were like affixed to the facade.

00:53:39.000 --> 00:53:44.000
Yes, they're, they're not, not made by hand or, you know, hand carved.

00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:49.000
They just pre-manufactured and then effects onto the facade.

00:53:49.000 --> 00:53:55.000
Hmm. Okay, there we go. Right. What we got next?

00:53:55.000 --> 00:54:04.000
Let's, You talked about, we talked about the early, the early buildings and then we talked about the Art Deco ones.

00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:05.000
Hmm.

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:14.000
How did this may be a difficult question, but how did you know that? And we talked about that international style as well that came through in the fiftys.

00:54:14.000 --> 00:54:25.000
How did that international sort of style, that sort of more kind of plain kind of style How did that compare price wise with what had gone before?

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:26.000
Yeah. So.

00:54:26.000 --> 00:54:30.000
Particularly the art deco because obviously that looked hugely expensive.

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:40.000
Do you know it depends because so the, the Si gram building, this was massively expensive because it used bronze on the facade which was really expensive.

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.000
And the used you know all sorts of stones in the low B, which were really expensive as well. So it was actually very, it looks very simple.

00:54:44.000 --> 00:54:54.000
It's very luxurious because of the materials chosen, so it was expensive. It costs a lot of money to build.

00:54:54.000 --> 00:55:04.000
So the same way you could find, you know, earlier on, you could find buildings, high-rise buildings that were built for lesser costs.

00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:22.000
Because you know there wasn't that much money and you could find some like the Chrysler building which were obviously again a prestige project as well for Chrysler and where lots of decorative elements were added that sort of money but were very expressive in terms of you know his wealth.

00:55:22.000 --> 00:55:41.000
And he was and what he could do. So you have and with all the different styles you have examples of luxurious projects that were extremely expensive and you have more efficient, more cost-efficient ones, more economic economical ones.

00:55:41.000 --> 00:55:42.000
That's okay.

00:55:42.000 --> 00:55:47.000
Okay, right, interesting. Okay, this, so that's your answer, Dorothy.

00:55:47.000 --> 00:55:54.000
Okay, now. Again, we're talking about the steel beam structure, which is the basically the base of all of these buildings.

00:55:54.000 --> 00:56:05.000
Yes.

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:06.000
Yes.

00:56:06.000 --> 00:56:15.000
And what happens with that structure? And we're thinking of buildings that are in countries where there are earthquakes, how does that structure kind of work in that kind of environment and of course we've just had you know the other day yesterday even the earthquake in Taiwan.

00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:21.000
Yeah, so yeah, so one way to deal with that is to make sure it's extremely extremely tight.

00:56:21.000 --> 00:56:31.000
So we need to tighten everything as much as possible to use welding as well to make sure the core steel core is extremely yeah, tight.

00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:47.000
But they are like experiments to they in California and in Tokyo with architectural structures inspired by wood architecture, so wooden architecture, in particular the architecture of pagodas.

00:56:47.000 --> 00:56:48.000
In Buddhist temples because these pagodas have been, you know, standing for 8 centuries in some cases.

00:56:48.000 --> 00:57:18.000
They're 42 meters high. And even the we stood earthquakes very very well they're swaying with you know the earth as it shakes and so to them they are several structures again in Tokyo and in California that are using the architecture of Pagodas wooden architecture which is an architecture that doesn't have any metal at all because the metal is too rigid.

00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:19.000
Hmm.

00:57:19.000 --> 00:57:20.000
It doesn't move. It doesn't move very well. It can't, yeah, it's not as flexible as wood.

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:33.000
So, Again, wood is an interesting resource here. To create buildings that might be better for certain contexts.

00:57:33.000 --> 00:57:35.000
Like earthquake prone areas.

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:44.000
Hmm. Hmm. And related to the sort of structure, from Davis. How deep do the foundations need to go?

00:57:44.000 --> 00:57:49.000
I mean, is that directly in relation to the heights or

00:57:49.000 --> 00:57:50.000
You know.

00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:56.000
Yeah, the weight. It's it's in in relation to the weight. The weight of the buildings, which of course is a factor of the heights, but not always.

00:57:56.000 --> 00:58:06.000
But yes, so it's more the weight that is really important as well as the height and so then the other factor for the foundation is the type of rocks.

00:58:06.000 --> 00:58:19.000
No, you are actually digging in and you're building on. So, you know, you've got to go and hit, you've got to be able to dig and hit some really solid rock.

00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:34.000
Level or strata in in the ground to pour your foundations in. Which was a problem for birch caliph for example because birch khalifa is built on sand and to go get this rock foundation or this, you know, this rock bed.

00:58:34.000 --> 00:58:41.000
On which to to push your foundations a text it took a lot of digging going quite quite far down.

00:58:41.000 --> 00:58:53.000
So yeah, it's it's more the quality of the bedrock that is really important and indeed the weight of the structure when it comes to the foundation and how Deep they have to go and how big they have to be.

00:58:53.000 --> 00:59:00.000
INSTEAD, the hope that answers your question, and the original question about the, from Stella.

00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:06.000
Right, okay. Okay, the World Trade Center. We can't avoid that one.

00:59:06.000 --> 00:59:12.000
A couple of questions, one from me actually, and one from Cas Flynn. My question is, I'll roll these 2 together.

00:59:12.000 --> 00:59:27.000
My question is, Obviously the architects of the World Trade Center back in the sixtys and seventys couldn't have foreseen what was going to happen to that building.

00:59:27.000 --> 00:59:42.000
One But do we know to what extent or what to what extent do you think the very nature of its structure, and contributed to the that the sheer scale of the destruction that actually happens.

00:59:42.000 --> 00:59:56.000
And from Kathleen. She is asking in the aftermath of it. Was there any thought given to external fireyscapes?

00:59:56.000 --> 01:00:04.000
That you I think were required in smaller buildings. So I don't know what your kind of thoughts are on that.

01:00:04.000 --> 01:00:06.000
Certainly the first question is quite a big one.

01:00:06.000 --> 01:00:15.000
Yes, so, yeah, so the metal structure, obviously, you know, is what failed ultimately with the World Trade Center.

01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:23.000
But when the plane hit if it just had been the plane the structure would have actually, you know, remained standing.

01:00:23.000 --> 01:00:32.000
The 2 structures would have been standing, even though this was a massive impact. But it was actually under what had been planned for in terms of wind, for example.

01:00:32.000 --> 01:00:38.000
So it broke a few columns, absolutely, like, the curtain wall, in, in some places, but the other columns, steel columns, could take over.

01:00:38.000 --> 01:00:52.000
They were designed to take over so that an impact like this would not make the structure fall down. The problem was the fire, the fuel that were, you know, that was in the plane.

01:00:52.000 --> 01:01:01.000
There was so much of it. It got fire and the fire got really hot. And so the steel, it's, you know, it indeed softened.

01:01:01.000 --> 01:01:10.000
But it simply didn't it's not just software and it twisted and this is where the structure failed but I just as I was highlighting to you earlier it took 56 min.

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:19.000
And for the steel to indeed to fail, which everybody that was under, most people that were under the point of impact had time to evacuate, which is the key thing.

01:01:19.000 --> 01:01:24.000
It's time to evacuate. So you need a structure to hold long enough. To evacuate the building.

01:01:24.000 --> 01:01:35.000
So yes, the steel ultimately is what failed because of heat. Because of the way it was distorted by the intense heat of that fire.

01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:36.000
Hmm.

01:01:36.000 --> 01:01:47.000
In the wake of you know of this massive catastrophe. I think what changed is it has to do with fire safety.

01:01:47.000 --> 01:01:55.000
Ultimately it is fire safety the massive massive problem and evacuation. So it's more changes into the evacuation proceedings.

01:01:55.000 --> 01:02:06.000
Containing the fire being able to contain the fire and giving everybody a chance to evacuate. But I don't think there are any likes of outdoor.

01:02:06.000 --> 01:02:12.000
Structures. Planned to know. I don't think so. The heights are so intense.

01:02:12.000 --> 01:02:21.000
It's incredible when you think about how high some of the buildings are. It does present this massive risk in case of fire indeed.

01:02:21.000 --> 01:02:29.000
Yeah, okay, right. I'm gonna finish off with one question, one final question from Peter.

01:02:29.000 --> 01:02:32.000
Which is your favorite skyscraper, Caroline?

01:02:32.000 --> 01:02:39.000
Oh, oh I don't know. I think I really like the girl can. I absolutely do like it.

01:02:39.000 --> 01:02:54.000
I think it's such a fun, you know, it's a fun structure. And the shot I think the shot is it's it's really nice in London probably the girken if I could choose.

01:02:54.000 --> 01:02:55.000
Yeah.

01:02:55.000 --> 01:02:57.000
If you like it. It's fun and different. Yes, yes. And you with one thing we haven't looked into is protected views as well.

01:02:57.000 --> 01:03:13.000
Just thinking about London and the city. There's a fascinating story about protected views and how it defines the shape of those because Sand poles can't be blocked obstructed by the construction of tall buildings.

01:03:13.000 --> 01:03:15.000
Based on certain vintage points. So have a look at that as well if you're interested.

01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:17.000
Protected views.

01:03:17.000 --> 01:03:35.000
Hmm. Yeah, okay. Well, thank you very much for that, Caroline. That was absolutely fascinating stuff.

01:03:35.000 --> 01:03:36.000
Hmm.

01:03:36.000 --> 01:03:37.000
I actually had the pleasure of going up the building a long long time ago, way back in 1,997.

01:03:37.000 --> 01:03:39.000
An iconic and a stunning building both inside and out I have to say and if you ever go to New York you must know.

01:03:39.000 --> 01:03:49.000
But really interesting to hear about how the design of these remarkable buildings is evolving. And to try and meet the economical and environmental challenges that we're all facing.

01:03:49.000 --> 01:03:50.000
Hmm. Yeah.

01:03:50.000 --> 01:03:58.000
So it's really interesting stuff. I hope everybody enjoyed that. So thanks again, Caroline.

01:03:58.000 --> 01:04:04.000
So welcome, welcome. Thank you so much, everyone. For being here this evening. Thank you.

00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:09.000
Oh, thank you Fiona and welcome everybody. It's a terrible day here in Surrey.

00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:25.000
So I hope you're nice and warm and ready for a for a talk. And, and, and, the, the, the, I, in her introduction that I now have a chance to indulge my passion and I have a guilty secret about this course.

00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:30.000
Up until 3 weeks ago if you asked me about Jen I would be saying oh I hate Gin it's horrible perfume that I don't know how anybody can can drink it.

00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:36.000
I found when staying with a friend in Norfolk and she gave me a sip of her, a craft gin.

00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:54.000
I found myself saying, oh that's really nice. So I'm a convert. And so, you know, you might think that I'm gonna drink a drink of water, but you never know.

00:00:54.000 --> 00:01:01.000
So. Of course there's a bit of a red night. Great, Laura.

00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:06.000
Yeah, it's been a very nice sauce, isn't there? So I'm going to share the screen now.

00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:14.000
And tell you if you facts and figures. On the gin, front.

00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:21.000
So just send that slide on.

00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:33.000
So. There's been a huge explosion of gin production in the last few years and I'm sure everybody's been aware of that lots of fancy bottles.

00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:41.000
And a plethora of new distilleries. So before, 2,008, only 12.

00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:48.000
Gently. Now, and this is a figure from a couple of years ago, there are over 800.

00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:57.000
So what's happened here? And about 80 million bottles. Sold. Oh, were sold a couple of years ago.

00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:04.000
And gin's leapfrogged all the other spirits to become the most popular spirit.

00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:10.000
And that, leads us to sort of really to speculate, well, What's happened here then?

00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:21.000
Why is this suddenly? Suddenly happened. And in order to find out a little bit more about that, we have to was a bit like a sharing Doctor Who, isn't it?

00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:33.000
Travel through time and space to how it arrived in Britain in the first place. Have to go back to the beginning I think to to find out what what happened with this.

00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:47.000
Spectacular rise. So as some of you probably know, it's this guy who's responsible largely for introducing a gin to England.

00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:57.000
So this is William the Third who comes to the throne in 1,688. And he brings a taste for gin with him.

00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:07.000
It had been drunk before, so Charles II had got a bit of a taste for it when he was exiled during Cornwall's.

00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:15.000
Period in the Commonwealth. And he was staying in the Netherlands so he got a taste for it.

00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:29.000
But of course in the 16 sixties and 1670, s it was unpatriotic to drink gym because we happen to be at war with Holland so it didn't really catch on in Britain initially.

00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:35.000
And it's when William the Third comes in onto the throne with Mary. That he positively encourages the consumption of gin.

00:03:35.000 --> 00:04:05.000
And it's it's quite often known as Geneva or sometimes Holland's. And it had been various drinks of this sort had been about for centuries, but it's Dutch physician who's really credited with introducing it and he's in the seventeenth century and he advocated it as a cure for almost anything.

00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:20.000
Including plague. Which of course was a massive selling point for anything at that point.

00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:40.000
And the, the physician was the one who really fine tunes if you like the recipes so produces it with grey in juniper berries and of course various other extracts.

00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:53.000
As well. So at this period, William the Third introduces legislation which lowers the duty on spirits from English grain.

00:04:53.000 --> 00:05:10.000
And he raises it on other spirits and bear. And he's got a you know he's got a cunning plan really and what he's trying to do is really make it difficult for people to or uneconomic rather for people to Drink.

00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:28.000
Brandy because he's, his big enemy is France of course, so anything that he can do to make So people would drink gin and the plus point of course is that they'll be the gin will be made from English grain.

00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:36.000
So it's a kind of win-win situation. They won't be buying, They won't be buying branding.

00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:46.000
And gin is produced everywhere. You don't need a massive amount of equipment. You can set up a steel quite easily.

00:05:46.000 --> 00:06:04.000
And of course the the sort of drink that they produced was quite often heavily adulterated. So sometimes for example, turpentine is substituted for juniper.

00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:10.000
I wouldn't have thought that tasted very nice. Maybe that was what I tasted initially. When I was put off.

00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:23.000
And it and it becomes very popular Because it's quite cheap, of course it's drunk, it's a working class essentially, drink.

00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:46.000
Particularly popular with women. And quite often it was known as Madame Geneva. All mothers really and in fact that term mother's ruin stays on for for decades and decades still use it's certainly in the last century and to describe Jen.

00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:57.000
And English soldiers had got the idea of drinking gin before a battle. And of course they they got this idea from Dutch.

00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:06.000
Troops so it was called Dutch courage you know taking a drink before battle or taking a drink before anything stressful.

00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:17.000
Was described as as Dutch courage And even children, we drinking gin in those early days.

00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:27.000
And the link very early on, was made between drinking gin. And the increase of infant mortality.

00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:36.000
So a few, facts and figures and, in terms of what was happening at the time.

00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:47.000
Enormous amounts of, Jin were being, consumed within, you know, 50 years or so of the legislation that, well, 40 years of the legislation that William the Third had introduced.

00:07:47.000 --> 00:08:04.000
And, and, 5.5 million gallons were being produced largely in London so the trade was huge in London.

00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:23.000
And estimates at time. Were reporting that there were nearly 9,000 shops selling gin in London and Henry Fielding, he's best known for writing the novel Tom Jones.

00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:48.000
But he had a an interest, he was also a magistrate, so he had an interest in looking at the population who was particularly concerned about what he saw as increases in robbery at the period and puts part of the reason for that down to the fact that people would drinking huge amounts of gin.

00:08:48.000 --> 00:09:00.000
And of course they had to even though June was cheap they had to fund that habit. Any comments, there would be few of the common people left to drink it.

00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:25.000
If the situation continued. So what they didn't know at the time, but, but recent studies have, have shown is that even though huge numbers of people were moving to the capital because it seemed to offer opportunities that country districts didn't to the same extent.

00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:37.000
The population in London wasn't increasing at this period. There because so many people were succumbing to the effect of So why were they doing it?

00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:51.000
As a quotation here from a guy called, Brance's Place, who's writing actually about 40 or 50 years later.

00:09:51.000 --> 00:10:05.000
And he's describing why people were so addicted to this drink. And for the poor man of the period, none of the animals numbered the animal sensations are left.

00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:14.000
To these he's enjoying joinments are limited and even these are frequently reduced to 2. Namely, sexual intercourse and drinking.

00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:22.000
Of the 2 drunkenness is by far the most desired. Since it provides a longer period of escape.

00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:30.000
And only costs a penny. And there was a, there was a well known, slogan.

00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:44.000
A drunk for a penny, dead drunk, and straw for nothing. And that was, you know, that was reported, by Hogarth.

00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:54.000
And if you think about how much was a penny worth, well if you compare it with beer. You could but a quarter beer was about fourpence.

00:10:54.000 --> 00:11:11.000
So gin is much cheaper. And if you went to if you wanted to go to a non alcoholic drink it would cost you about 5 shillings or more for some coffee, a pound of coffee.

00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:24.000
And tea was even deer. So this is the only drink really. If you wanted to get dr that, very poor people can afford.

00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:38.000
And was you know very popular as you might imagine. And of course the government starts to debate. What they're going to, do about this.

00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:48.000
And this comes up in Parliament several times. And there are virtually 2 arguments that are put forward at the time.

00:11:48.000 --> 00:12:00.000
The government's aware that the, gin drinking is doing harm to the working class population particularly.

00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:09.000
But of course the people that sit in parliament are landowners by definition. You have to be, you have to own land to be able to to be enacted.

00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:14.000
And by the way, MPs aren't paid, so you need to have an income as well.

00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:20.000
And they have a vested interest in because they will be growing the grain and so on. In keeping things as they are.

00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:36.000
So the debate really centers from, well there's nothing centers around, well there's nothing wrong with the trade, it's just these poor people who are irresponsible in getting drunk.

00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:51.000
And the other side of the argument of course is that well you know we as a government we must do something because this is affecting the working population, it's increasing.

00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:59.000
The number of robberies, the amount of crime, the number of children that are dying, prematurely, and so on.

00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:13.000
And of course the other thing that comes into the debate too is well, if we, if we, stop, if we regulate the production of gin, what's going to happen to all this grain?

00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:25.000
What about the farm workers? Are producing this grain? They'll all be made unemployed. So there's quite a lot of debate around what do we do about this.

00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:48.000
And so the first thing that the government tries to do is raise the tax. On June. And that they're doing that by, by asking asking, gym producers to, get a, get a license.

00:13:48.000 --> 00:14:02.000
But the the lowest that the licenses are so dear that I think only 2 were wherever wherever purchased it it goes underground at that point.

00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:28.000
And several other, acts. Try and regulate the industry as well. I mean there are various ways that the producers of genes people that have stills get round it as well they almost described the gin as medicinal.

00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:32.000
This isn't gin, this is a medicinal product. And the first vending machine actually is a result of some of this legislation.

00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:47.000
So there is a gin trader who has a shop on Blue Anchor Alley in London.

00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:56.000
And in the wall of this shop, he puts a plaque of a cat out of the cat's mouth as a little tube.

00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:07.000
And you put a penny, in a slot. Above the cat. And through the tube comes your measure of gin.

00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:15.000
And so people can. Go there and it gets round the legislation. So this is a complete a waste of time really.

00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:23.000
And in fact the the guy in blue anchor alley was such a draw for people.

00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:31.000
People were so interested in what you said this novel way of buying gin. That they used to go down and try out.

00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:39.000
And for a while, the gin itself was known as Puss. Because that's how people were were buying it.

00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:58.000
And in other parts of London, riots took place because people, they're working-class people particularly that were using Gin as a way of getting out of a dreadful situation as a way of getting some release from very hard lives.

00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:08.000
Were really angry about an attempt to take this one thing away. So there were riots and deaths even.

00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:19.000
Yeah. In Spittalfields and Shoreditch particularly at the government's at the government section and the amount of June that's consumed actually goes up.

00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:48.000
It doesn't come down as a result of the various legislation the government tries to put in place. And there is a, there is a third, attempt, which I'll, look at, in a second, but First of all, I wanted to share a print which I'm sure people will have seen before and this of course is Hogarth's Gin

00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:56.000
Alley. And he, produces this, painting. In 1751.

00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:07.000
And this is interesting because this is the day of the last piece of legislation which is more effective. And Hogarth is a friend of fielding.

00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:20.000
So fielding as I mentioned has written this particular article about the effects of gin and how it leads to increased robberies.

00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:44.000
And his friend, Hogarth, if you like, picks up this. Produces a series of 2 paintings and this is an engraving from from the first well from gina alley this was actually intended to be shown second but I'll show you this the other way around just to make a a makeup point.

00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:50.000
And in the full ground, you can see, a woman there with her baby falling, down.

00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:55.000
From where she's sitting to the belt to fall to its death. And she is obviously a prostitute.

00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.000
They're a syphilitic sores on her, legs, babies falling to its death.

00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:25.000
I showed this, But, particular, engraving, actually, to, to a class on one occasion, we had a midwife in the class who told me that the If you look closely at the baby, you can identify the fact that this baby has been born to an alcoholic mother.

00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:37.000
So how gloss? Would have seen babies like this. Although of course this is a horrific pain and engraving which shows the, you know, the worst effects of gin drinking.

00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:54.000
So you've got a skeletal, ex soldier sitting below the prostitute and on the left there are people selling their tools in order to get money to buy a gen.

00:18:54.000 --> 00:19:17.000
In the background, of course, the only everything is very badly maintained in the in the city this is St Giles it's a notorious slum and one in proper one in 6 properties at the time sold in so this is the worst area really.

00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:27.000
For, gin consumption. There is, there are various horrific scenes. The undertakers doing well, there is somebody who's hung themselves in a room.

00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:43.000
On the right hand side. So a very disturbing. Picture and he Okay, also paints a companion piece.

00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:50.000
And this is the companion piece. This is Beer Street. Not so well known as the other one.

00:19:50.000 --> 00:20:00.000
But his intention was that people should look at Beer Street first. And then look at Gen Ali.

00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:13.000
And this is set in the same area. If you, some of the things to notice here is that, people are still drinking, of course, drinking beer, though.

00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:18.000
And in this case, they're all very well fed. There's food around, there are books.

00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:27.000
And in contrast to the last picture. And the pawnbrokers is doing badly.

00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:37.000
The porn brokers is one place that isn't well maintained. And what is depicted here is a celebration.

00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:45.000
It's, it's George the Seconds birthday. So people are celebrating, the birthday of the king.

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:56.000
And it's all very harmonious and there's a sense in which He's almost drawing out, well, you know, a celebration of Englishness as well.

00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:04.000
To King's birthday, everybody's drinking beer, as lots of food, and this is the way to, this is the way to go.

00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:12.000
And there was a concern, Hogarth was also, involved with the Foundling Hospital.

00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:27.000
Which had been set up in 1739. And they, had received a big uptick in the number of babies that were being left, with them.

00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:36.000
And even though, you know, how, what the painting of, Genale that, How gas page is horrific.

00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:59.000
There were lots of reports, in the courts of mothers who had One particularly shocking one of her mother who had left her baby to workhouse went to collect it later it had a new set of clothes and she sold the clothes and murdered the baby.

00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:11.000
So there were all sorts of cases which came to the attention of the authorities which pinpointed how terrible effects of drinking gin.

00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:25.000
To this extent were And this pushes the government, not Hogarth particularly, but the the situation itself pushes the government into taking action.

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:30.000
And they introduce the

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:40.000
And what this does is it Low is the license, fees, which they weren't selling anyway.

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:46.000
And it encourages, it means that respectable gins, gin sellers can, buy a license or 10 pounds a year and you had to be a certain size.

00:22:46.000 --> 00:23:11.000
Well, it's trying to Stamp out the kind of back street, stills. And the other thing that happens at the same time which arguably is more effective and legislation.

00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:24.000
Is that green prices are beginning to go up. So landowners aren't worried about getting rid of surplus grain because, that there isn't so much of a surplus.

00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:32.000
And there is a series of bad harvest. So, and which obviously means the grain prices go up anyway.

00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:46.000
So gin itself begins to get. Much more expensive. So. The gin craze has mostly come to an end by 1757.

00:23:46.000 --> 00:24:02.000
Partly through the. Actions of the government partly because as the population rises and there are bad harvest, there is less surplus, of grain.

00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:13.000
And, and there is a period where the government attempts to ban manufacturers of spirits from domestic .

00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:18.000
Okay, So we see at this point it's kind of, it, there isn't the consumption on the level that there had been before.

00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:35.000
It it's kind of gone out of the working class diet if you like for a period.

00:24:35.000 --> 00:25:05.000
So by the time you get to 1840, you know, 90 years on. The same amount of gin is consumed, but of course, the population is much much larger so in proportion the consumption by individuals is much less after the, what the one thing that people did continue to do was to buy smuggle.

00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:10.000
And, I've got quote here from Parson Woodford who's a lovely guy.

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:18.000
If you've not if you've not read his diary he's passing in Norfolk.

00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:28.000
When I say lovely, he's very honest in the same way that, Samuel Peaks is and tells you all's all about things that he probably shouldn't admit to.

00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:49.000
But he's talking about buying tea from a smuggler. He buys all sorts of things from smugglers, T, a whole plethora of things, bought from smuggler.

00:25:49.000 --> 00:26:01.000
And what he's saying here, this is this is in 1777. And Andrew's smuggler, bought me this night about 11 o'clock, a bag of highs and tea.

00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:09.000
So he's buying some tea. He, to, a little by whistling under the parlour window just as we were going to bed.

00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:22.000
And the next sentence is interesting. I gave him some Geneva. He's, Given him, in which he's called, Geneva, and he's, bought that from another smug.

00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:36.000
By the way so it just shows how even in respectable circles People rely quite heavily on getting these particular grids, gin particularly.

00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:49.000
From illicit sources and course from the, the French, encourage this because it meant that the you cut away really at the income of the British government.

00:26:49.000 --> 00:27:04.000
So it's a good way of doing that by encouraging Okay. To production but they're smuggling of June rather.

00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:14.000
Otherwise they would buy it. Legally and have to pay, the appropriate, duty on it.

00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:27.000
Things change in the early part of the next century. So there is an act, a beer act in 1830.

00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:44.000
Which allows anybody to buy a cheap license to to sell bear. And needless to say, this isn't, particularly popular with anybody that's trying to produce.

00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:54.000
And so the industry fights back. And it's still a working class as beer is, is still predominantly a working class drink.

00:27:54.000 --> 00:28:19.000
But they're trying to move it up market. So what they do is consciously create a number of what what a commonly called June palaces and this is this is on at Homage to Fiona this is Cafe Royal in Edinburgh.

00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:34.000
And this is the sort of thing that they were setting up. So, you know, we're talking about the early Victorian period and the way that they they make it, in a better comes of palace.

00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:39.000
East Boy, really fetching it out with, a lighting lots of reflective surfaces.

00:28:39.000 --> 00:29:05.000
Silver glass, tiles and it The idea was it was make it into a much more attractive venue for people to go to and civilized and particularly for women that they were they were thinking that, you know, this would get people.

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:21.000
Back into gin drinking. And they needed to act actually because the beer act had meant that about 45,000 new outlets for for selling beer had opened.

00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:31.000
So they had to go back really. And the gin palaces were seem to be glamorous and exciting.

00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:45.000
I mean there is a quote having said that there is a quote from Dickens where he says well despite the fact that these are supposed to be new and palatial and exciting.

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:50.000
It's the same old same old customers. He's not putting it in those words, but that's the gist of it.

00:29:50.000 --> 00:30:00.000
You know, you still get the same working class customers. Coming along and having a drink there.

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:19.000
And it you know so it they might feel differently but actually the reality isn't different and gin drinking particularly for women Still is regarded as Quite risque.

00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:32.000
You know, if you were drinking Jen, even with in company in a Gin palace. It could be you know you could people would read things into that.

00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:38.000
Okay. But it was the. The way to.

00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:51.000
And they were using the most. Up to date and, really exciting materials they could to make these attractive.

00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:58.000
And there's another way that, Gin, affects, British history.

00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:08.000
And this is just send these slides on to give you a a little. Quotation here.

00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:14.000
Beware, beware of the bite of an in where few come out, though many go in.

00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:31.000
The nineteenth century, of course, is a period where Britain is we've already of course been active in India for a long time by the mid nineteenth century.

00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:40.000
But we're on the cusp, in the mid, nineteenth century of, colonizing Africa.

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:53.000
And yet there is a big issue, of course, in terms of malaria. So if you look at the early, expeditions and.

00:31:53.000 --> 00:32:06.000
In in Africa and a living stone springs to mine. I mean he is aware Obviously, as a medical man, of malaria.

00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:20.000
And knows about but they, he and others don't quite know, haven't quite grasped how, you know, how you should administer it, what's the dose.

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:28.000
In fact, his wife died of malaria. And even in about, 1860.

00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:42.000
When we were sending troops out to the Gold Coast about 60% of them, would expect to, no, sorry, I've got the pickers wrong.

00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:48.000
There about 48% of them would be expected to succumb to, malaria.

00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:55.000
And you know, you may or not may or may not recover from that. So the death toll for malaria.

00:32:55.000 --> 00:33:07.000
Was dreadful, really, really, punishing. And it meant that if you wanted to appoint governors for example of a particular territory.

00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:16.000
People were very reluctant to go because they knew that the chances are that, you know, a number of number, they may be unlucky and contract malaria or some other, tropical disease.

00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:30.000
So as I mentioned these, these, the Spanish particularly had known about Quinn for centuries.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:43.000
And we had started to be aware of how this could protect against malaria. But the was a problem as well as not knowing quite how, what the dosage should be, how you could, administer it.

00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:58.000
It was very bitter. And, Hey, people weren't particularly keen to, to take it.

00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:09.000
Until, They realize that you could actually, mix this, with, you know, make, make it into tonic water and sugar.

00:34:09.000 --> 00:34:28.000
And, that, and add that to a gin. So it meant that, what was, If you like.

00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:40.000
Predominantly a protective measure that became useful as a social social drink. And so mixed with soda and a gin, it was very popular.

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:49.000
So,

00:34:49.000 --> 00:35:19.000
It meant that, you know, there's no barrier then, to expanding, the British Empire, or less of a barrier, should I say, because of course you can you can have this very nice drink and we all sort of aware of those images of people particularly in India sitting in a sort of sitting with a pith helmet and servants coming out and giving them a gin and tonic.

00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:37.000
And of course it was as I mentioned then as now it was a huge, killer or huge numbers of imperial staff at the time.

00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:48.000
And this was recognized, you know, this, impact of, Jin, was recognized, at the time.

00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:56.000
And of course, you know, even now, I understand, you know, the numbers of deaths from malaria.

00:35:56.000 --> 00:36:05.000
Oh, more than just coming up to, half 1 million a year. But I got quote here from Winston Churchill.

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:13.000
And this is quite interesting and he's writing, you know, as a young man, a relatively young man here.

00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:23.000
The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen's lives and minds, then all the other doctors in the Empire.

00:36:23.000 --> 00:36:39.000
So this is very much a kind of homage, if you like, to the fact that the quinine can be, diluted and made.

00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:44.000
Palatable. So.

00:36:44.000 --> 00:37:03.000
I'm coming back. Now to, what we started with in a way so And why have we got this huge impact of

00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:18.000
Jim production now. One of the reasons, of course, was the fact that, you

00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:27.000
The gin producers are wanting to do the same. They're wanting to diversify.

00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:45.000
But the legislation from 1751 is still there. So the legislation from 1751 says that you can't unless you have a distillery of a certain size, and you can't.

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:58.000
Qualify to get a license from HMRC to distil gin. And it and it isn't until following on from the craft beer.

00:37:58.000 --> 00:38:10.000
Episode. It isn't until about 2,008. That this is challenged. So the HMRC is taken to court.

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:17.000
By by distiller to say you know, this legislation, you know, this 250 year old or or more legislation is really archaic.

00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:33.000
It doesn't apply now. And Hey Presto. You know they won the case So then that that then allows.

00:38:33.000 --> 00:38:44.000
A whole plethora of specialist producers. To come in and produce craft gin.

00:38:44.000 --> 00:38:47.000
With, you know, lots of fancy bottles and, you know, we see them now, farmers markets, don't we?

00:38:47.000 --> 00:38:59.000
Supermarkets, farm shops. And they offer, what I I love this quotation.

00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:11.000
This is Pen Voga from a book called Scoff. So they're offering, what she calls a dirty flirtation with the past.

00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:18.000
And a clean filly finish. So how, I've given you a clean finish.

00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:29.000
And I should be there next time I visit my friend and I should be there next time I visit my friend and go into these craft I visit my friend and I should be there next time I visit my friend and going to these craft markets and trying out this craft.

00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:33.000
But if you deny to, take any. Questions. And that you are not promising to answer them, but I do my best.

00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:40.000
So thank you very much.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:41.000
Thank you very much. Kate, right, let's go straight to some questions because we've got a few here.

00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:51.000
So I'm just going to start from the top everybody. Now let me just find the top.

00:39:51.000 --> 00:40:04.000
Okay. Anne was interested in knowing we've actually got a couple of questions about the actual gin production, which I'm not sure, I know you're not an expert in that, but but let's ask them anyway and we'll see where we get to.

00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:13.000
So Anne was interested in what grain was used. And the, the early gin production and from Jane.

00:40:13.000 --> 00:40:19.000
Do we know what sort of strength the early gin was?

00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:36.000
That is good questions. I'd I'm not sure about I mean the The strength would vary because there's no, there's no standardization, there's no, you know, so if you had a still you would Just produce what you.

00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:49.000
You know, what you wanted really. There's known, regulation. There already is now, of course, but in the early days, you just produced something, it and it was likely to be a adulterated too.

00:40:49.000 --> 00:40:52.000
So you're just as likely to fall in after drinking it as to get a nice reaction to be honest.

00:40:52.000 --> 00:41:04.000
I'm not sure. Whether they used a particular, I know they do now, I've used a particular, I know they do now, I know they do now, use particular, grains.

00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:09.000
I think most of it imported, but, I'm not sure what they were using at the time.

00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:10.000
Hmm.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:16.000
Sorry, that's, that's, Okay.

00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:17.000
Yeah.

00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:20.000
Okay. And Google might know that one. Okay. From Chris.

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:27.000
And you talked about the sort of infant mortality in in the seventeenth century and the horrific thought.

00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:43.000
Children in drinking gin. Chris is saying, the infant mortality also could have been because of the mother's drinking gin during pregnancy and maybe that then also links in with the nickname.

00:41:43.000 --> 00:41:44.000
Is really?

00:41:44.000 --> 00:41:48.000
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah, that was a fact and that was identified.

00:41:48.000 --> 00:42:03.000
I mean, I think there was a quote from fielding where he talks about They mothers, you know, in pregnancy and afterwards, you know, after the child was born.

00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:19.000
Contributing to that. Infant mortality. I mean, infant mortality of course was shocking anyway, but it was even worse for those people that were consuming the gin.

00:42:19.000 --> 00:42:27.000
Okay. I'm from Kasoline and in those real early days. We are they drinking?

00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:32.000
Where, I mean, obviously we know about the gin palaces that came along later, but Where were the drinking back in those early days?

00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:34.000
Were there pubs back then?

00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:42.000
Okay. Oh yes, yes. I mean, yeah, but if you were drinking gin quite often you would.

00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:49.000
You wouldn't necessarily get you buy it from shop quite often. And then you just drink it on the street.

00:42:49.000 --> 00:43:08.000
I mean, you wouldn't it wasn't, it would be very crude. You know, I don't mean the drink itself, but, you wouldn't be sitting down somewhere necessarily you'd probably you know they'd have an area bit like a smoking area now I guess where you could drink it and then go off you know you didn't you wouldn't you wouldn't

00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:22.000
have a, an establishment necessarily. So they talk about them being shops, usually. Rosa, I mean they're all in, at the same time they tend not to sell.

00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:40.000
The June shops are small usually and they're in poorer areas So, yes, it is later on you get a, you can sit down somewhere very, very nice and, much more comfortable.

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:45.000
Okay. We'll hope that answers your question, Katherine. From Jenny.

00:43:45.000 --> 00:44:04.000
Back in those early days was it generally drunk neat? And when was it that I mean you may be touched on it slightly later on in the presentation but when was it that it started to be drunk with you know I guess what we know now?

00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:06.000
Tonic or soda.

00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:13.000
In the early days it would have been neat. I mean, you probably very unwise to drink.

00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:25.000
Well, you wouldn't put water with it, for example. I mean, that Nobody you'd you'd Nobody wanted to drink water, it's not really drinkable, it's not really safe.

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:31.000
So yes, and it's Victorian period that people start adding different things to it.

00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:39.000
No, this is an interesting question. This is from Laura. Why?

00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:49.000
And when? Did royal naval officers become associated with drinking pink gin?

00:44:49.000 --> 00:44:50.000
Yes.

00:44:50.000 --> 00:45:07.000
That was in, yes, I think that's in Victorian times. They produced, they produced a variety which was intended for the, for the Navy.

00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:15.000
I haven't got the dates to, but I can look that up. Yes, but it's not in the eighteenth century.

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:18.000
It's a bit later.

00:45:18.000 --> 00:45:26.000
Hmm. Okay. Right, now here is a question from. All done seconds.

00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:32.000
From Sue. Does modern tonic still have queen in it?

00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:39.000
I think some of them did not necessarily but some of them do still I think I in fact I did somebody put pop something in the chat just

00:45:39.000 --> 00:45:49.000
Yeah, and it's from Laura actually, list, fever tree, that's my favorite actually.

00:45:49.000 --> 00:45:50.000
Hmm.

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:58.000
Fever tree list quinine as a natural flavoring. So this possibly maybe not quite as much in it as though there would have been in the past perhaps.

00:45:58.000 --> 00:46:06.000
Okay, right, what have we got next? So, got a question here from Stuart.

00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:16.000
Do you think the gen panic was essentially London centric and rather exaggerated by governments terrified by the threat of social disorder.

00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:24.000
And mushrooming urban growth with no civil police force. There was no gen panic in the Northeast.

00:46:24.000 --> 00:46:25.000
Interesting.

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:31.000
I think it, yeah, it was in London phenomenon largely.

00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:40.000
I'm not sure it was exaggerated. I mean, they certainly were worried about the impact on, you know, the robberies and so on.

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:46.000
So they were looking at it through this. Lens of This is terrible because these people are liable to.

00:46:46.000 --> 00:46:56.000
Still to fund their alcoholism. And so on. So I'm not sure.

00:46:56.000 --> 00:47:10.000
I mean, obviously Hogarth is exaggerating it in his in his pictures, but there are all sorts of accounts of the effects that it was having in London and and there was rioting.

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:16.000
When the government was, attempting to tighten up earlier on before the gen Act.

00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:24.000
So, but it is a London phenomenon Were they terrified of, insurrection.

00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:36.000
Yeah, they probably were. But equally they were quite slow in doing anything about it because there were a number of vested interests in selling the grain.

00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:53.000
To produce a gin. So it's always a balance. So. You know, should we do anything about it or should we just kind of clamp down on the people obviously if you were caught writing if you were then the punishment would be really severe.

00:47:53.000 --> 00:47:59.000
And it would obviously as, as you should probably know, be the troops that be responsible for.

00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:02.000
Quentin.

00:48:02.000 --> 00:48:09.000
Hmm. Okay. There we go. So, now, question from Marilyn.

00:48:09.000 --> 00:48:22.000
When did the addition of new flavours and colored gins? No, I'm assuming that's part of the recent renaissance that we've had in the last sort of 1015 years.

00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:28.000
Yes, I mean, yes, I mean, there were a very small number of producers before that.

00:48:28.000 --> 00:48:42.000
So the whole thing is mushroomed, since then. I, so I mean in the, before the legislation changed, There is nothing to stop the big distilleries.

00:48:42.000 --> 00:48:52.000
From diversifying their brands so they could produce another brand. But again, the probably wasn't incentive either.

00:48:52.000 --> 00:48:57.000
You know, because if people were buying gin, So yeah, so I think it's certainly mushroomed.

00:48:57.000 --> 00:49:10.000
I'm just trying to think if there's anything. Particularly significant before that.

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:15.000
Call't think of anything off hand. Before the change in the legislation.

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:24.000
Okay, so the answer your question, Marilyn. No, I think that's all of our questions, I think.

00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:30.000
Let's have a little look at maybe some of the comments that people and have put in.

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:39.000
And from Laura, she had thought that Jen was called Mother's Ruin because you drank it to get rid of your unborn baby.

00:49:39.000 --> 00:49:46.000
Well, that people did, yes, people did try that. Yeah. And again, that's something that fielding talks about how you can.

00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:56.000
Use that to sort of procure. An abortion. I know I don't know whether that worked or not but that was suggestion.

00:49:56.000 --> 00:50:02.000
Yeah. Yeah, I don't know what the I mean that it was known as, mother's ruin.

00:50:02.000 --> 00:50:05.000
Very very early on. And I guess you could have, you know, those things could be true, couldn't they?

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:18.000
That, you know, that you could use it if you had no wanted pregnancy. And, and if you were drinking it as a mother.

00:50:18.000 --> 00:50:25.000
Then the chances are your parenting skills wouldn't be terribly wonderful.

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:30.000
Hmm. Hmm. Yes, okay.

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:40.000
Yes, another interesting comment from Laura. She was given sprout gin last Christmas. The flavors didn't go.

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:47.000
That doesn't sound very nice, I have to say. However, the gift of a Christmas cake, of Christmas cake gin made up for it.

00:50:47.000 --> 00:50:49.000
Well, that sounds an awful lot better, doesn't it?

00:50:49.000 --> 00:51:08.000
Okay, I did notice actually that. When I was, looking at some sources for the tour that there's a This is gin spa where you can you can you can have various treatments connected with and we're talking about gin foot treatments and all sorts.

00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:19.000
Presumably I hope you don't drink the gin after you've had the bit, but But it has, you know, it has, this kind of, crisis gone out in all directions, doesn't it?

00:51:19.000 --> 00:51:20.000
Yeah.

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:28.000
But I think different is that you know whereas in the eighteenth century it's very working class now it's moved usually up market.

00:51:28.000 --> 00:51:35.000
Hmm. And here's another comment from Anita actually. This is really interesting. And Portsmouth gin.

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.000
Or it's gin is made to a recipe from the sunken Mary Rose.

00:51:39.000 --> 00:51:40.000
Oh, that's interesting.

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.000
Fun.

00:51:44.000 --> 00:51:45.000
Okay.

00:51:45.000 --> 00:52:00.000
Hmm, that's interesting. And that's That's for the traditional, I'd be interested to see what's in that because that's pre the traditional day of the invention of modern gin.

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:01.000
Hmm.

00:52:01.000 --> 00:52:10.000
Which is in the seventeenth century. So that's quite interesting. I mean, I imagine it's a, spirit producing grain of some sort which has got a resemblance.

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:16.000
Hmm, okay. Right, everybody, I think we've got to the end of everybody's questions, I think.

00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:27.000
So thanks, thanks again, Kate. I suppose it's quite a grisly story behind all of these fancy bottles that we now have in our cupboards, isn't it?

00:52:27.000 --> 00:52:28.000
Nice to see the cafe royal in Edinburgh as well. I've not been there for a while.

00:52:28.000 --> 00:52:45.000
So good to see it. I hope everybody enjoyed that. And As before, don't forget to have a look out in your mailbox tomorrow with details of other WBA courses that are coming up in the related and to what we've been talking about today that you might be interested in.

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:58.000
And so do keep an eye out for that, probably be around lunchtime and tomorrow. So thanks again, Kate.

00:52:58.000 --> 00:53:04.000
You're welcome and I hope everybody has a lovely stuff. With lots of gin to drink.

00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:05.000
Absolutely. Thank you.

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Okay, Welcome. Just to warn you in advance, if you put in questions in, If you're about mythology, fine, I'll do my best to answer them.

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It's about astronomy. You can put them in, but you're not going to be getting useful answers from me.

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Maybe somebody else in the audience can give you answers in chat. But I'm afraid I can't.

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Not my area of expertise at all. So, let me find some slides.

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Okay, hope that's all visible.

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It is. It is.

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I'm sure Fiona would have said something. Right. Okay, so, a boy for 7 sisters.

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And a few other bits as well.

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So, I, and the hunter. If one of the easiest constellations to identify, But there are some quite interesting mists behind him.

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Like we know it's a hunter. Who is he hunting? And We talk about the 7 sisters.

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They're one of the possible options, but we can only actually see 6 of them. Quite a lot of early civilizations thought they were so important they refer to them as the start.

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Despite them being really quite small obscure and hard to find. And I don't know if you'd noticed, but yesterday is the spring equinox.

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And yes, that is related to all of this. Now that picture you've got there That's from a set of Cards produced in Victorian times called Arania's Muir.

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They printed them and they have little holes in. If you can see my cursor here. But there's a little hole in the card there and there pointing out where the main stars in that constellation are.

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So you could hold them up to a light and get an idea of how the picture related to what you could see in the sky.

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You can find them online.

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So there he is in the sky. Normally what you see in the sky doesn't have those pretty little dotted lines, but They, it's really fairly obvious that you can look at it and figure out where the dotted lines ought to be.

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Unlike quite a lot of other constellations. The belt is obvious, the body is obvious. The arms and the bow aren't normally quite as obvious.

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And the sword hanging down from the belt. Usually a bit more visible in reality than that picture suggests.

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Especially since it's got the Ryan's nebula part way down it And that's an object that White enough.

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It makes astronomers all excited and interested in anyway. Now, in fact, just the sword. Has its own identification.

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Mythology in some cultures. Not very much in ours, but in Australia for instance. You've got to form the stars forming the belt and the sword is sometimes called a pot or the saucepan.

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Which is a little confusing because we have our own saucepan. Otherwise known as the plough or sometimes the great bear.

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South Africa, those 3 stars on the belt are known as the 3 Sisters. Spain, Latin America, they're called the 3 Marias.

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So those 3 stars on their own. Often, given their own name. Apparently I discovered today there's some theory that they line up with these 3 pyramids in Egypt.

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Oh, apparently this only works if they were the wrong date by many thousands of years. And also you put one of your maps upside down, but the theory was there.

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They tried. On the Aztecs, look at that built-in sword and call the whole thing the fire drill.

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Them rising in the sky, signals are beginning as a new fire ceremony. It's a ritual they perform to postpone the end of the world.

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Which obviously works because the world hasn't landed, at least not when I was looking. And if you're wondering what a followed, Will is other than asylum goes off and we all have to leave the building.

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It's a stick that you would between your hands and have the bottom end in a hollow in another piece of wood with a bit of kin doing that.

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And the friction starts a fire.

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Now, the sumerians. Which is a very long time ago. Looked at this constellation and said that's our great hero, Gilgamesh.

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He's fighting the bull of heaven. Ansible is represented by the constellation Taurus, the bull.

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You might have heard of that as being one of the signs of the zodiac. And they had their own name for while.

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Which meant the light of heaven. And they had their own name for Tallus, the bull of heaven.

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And then a little Babylonians who again had their own name for him. The true shepherd of Anu.

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So that's late ones H. And they associated the whole thing with again their god, Anu.

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One of the main gods. Egyptians linked it in with Osiris, so another. Again, one of them major gods.

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Through that identified with the last Pharaoh of the Fifth dynasty. Who apparently ate the pressure with enemies and devoured the gods themselves.

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In order to become right. And he then travels through the sky to become this particular lot of stars.

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Weird locked the Egyptians. And then in Hungarian mythology. One is called Nimrod.

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Apparently if you're into the Bible, Old Testament, New Or is a famous hunter there.

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And that music we were listening to in the waiting room. That is the Movement from Elgar's Enigma variations.

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He called it Nimrod. And that's also a reference to a friend of his. Called Jaeger, which is German for Hunter.

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So he was obviously into bad puns as well as mythology. Just a lovely bit of music.

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So, a lion story in Greek mythology. Which is for the mythology that I think most of us are usually more familiar with.

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Well, as we start with most Greek heroes, he was the most handsome of men. All Greek heroes are the most handsome of men, just like all princesses in fairy tales, of the most beautiful woman.

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He's the son of the sea-god, Poseidon. Now as Neptune to the Romans.

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A lady who was the daughter of King Minos of Crete. He gets described in the Odyssey by Homer.

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We're told there that he's exceptionally tall. And he's armed with an unbreakable wands club.

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Some saucy, saying he was a giant. Not just exceptionally tall but actually a giant. And some that due to his father being the god of the sea keep a walk on water.

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And his nose hunter.

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Who, what's the hunt? What's an interesting question? So the constellation in the sky does face taurus.

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And the earlier myths talk about him hunting a bull. And It's that one. But we don't seem to have any great myths about a lion fighting a bull.

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He's weaponry is also a bit confused. We've got Ptolemy, one of the earlier writers.

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Describing him with a club and a lion's pelt. And we know he had a bronze club.

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But that health and club and normally associated with Heracles. Or Hercules if you prefer the Roman version.

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What we don't have is any evidence whatsoever. There's any link between this constellation and Heritage.

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He's got his own constellation, but I made deal with in a different course sometime.

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He did have to face a bull at one of his labours, Heracles did, and that may be a connection.

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But it's all a bit vague and indistinct. As a hunter in some of the stories about of Ireland He had serious as his dog.

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And that's another constellation. Constellations the star is in Canis Miner and Canis Major, the big dog and the little dog.

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They chase another unknown constellation called Lepus the Hare. Although some critics writing stories said if Ryan is the greatest hunter ever to have him hunting a mere hair is ridiculous.

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He's got to be pursuing Taurus the bull instead. That's a much more heroic thing to do.

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But I'm afraid that like an awful lot of Greek heroes and Greek gods The prey of iron is hunting in most of his stories is women.

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Now, since he could walk on water. Because his dad being got o the sea. He walked over to an island where he got blind drunk.

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As Greek haloes tend to. And, had an encounter with a lady called Merop who was daughter of the ruler there.

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It sounds as if it wasn't all that consensual because Her father took vengeance on the whole thing.

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And blinded around and drove him away from the island. He stumbled somehow or other. Called a place called Lemnos.

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We're Hefastus, the Smith-god. He's known as Vulcan to the Romans.

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That's where he had his forge. And he took pity on him for some extent. And he told his servant to guide a lion to the utmost east.

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Orion carrying the servant on his shoulders for most of the journey. And there he met Helios the sun.

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Who of course comes up from the east. And he healed him. The sun god being very much linked to sight.

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And blindness and things like that. So, Orion came back to Chios to punish the king who blinded him.

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But he hid away underground. And so Ryan couldn't find him and beat him up. Now there are some versions of the story that countless is being married to, Paul Oldmorope.

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And then talk about other wives before after him. But let's be honest, marriage really isn't what happened there, unless your definition was, really rather odd.

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Ancient values are not ours.

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Now, the other main story about a blind hunting women. Is the one that got him killed. We've got a few different versions of this.

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But basically he got involved with a goddess called Artemis. She's known as Diana to the Romans.

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She's the virgin huntress. And getting mixed up with her for a man is very rarely a good idea.

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She tends to take offence. If men see her, she objects. You see interact with her. She objects.

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Basically if they breeze while being male, she objects to it. Now in this case, you went to have a chat with Artemis.

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And her mother, And one of his chat up lines was that he could defeat any beast on earth. Which might well have been close to true.

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Now, Gaia the earth goddess. Who of course had given birth to any beast on us.

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Heard him saying this and decided that she really didn't like having him run his mouth off like this.

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And so she sent a scorpion. Beast of the earth which he could not defeat and he stung her.

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It's possible, according to some stories, that the scorpion was actually attacking Lito.

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Who was the mother of the lady who tried to chat up? And therefore he tried to protect her from the scorpion.

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And another version says he simply tried to force himself one Artemis without benefit of chat up lines and then she summoned the scorpion.

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But whatever happened in detail The scorpion stung him. And he died of the poison. And these all explain why if you look up in the sky and find Scorpio the constellation It's the opposite side of the sky from Orion.

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They don't like each other. And they're never seen in the sky at the same time.

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Now it does seem to me that this is a story designed to explain the constellations rather than the constellations actually being in that picture because of the facts of what really happened to real.

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Which way around the Greeks believed it is of course a separate question. We do have another version about his death which doesn't give us a scorpion.

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Again, he had an encounter with Artemis.

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Despite being the virgin goddess. Who objects to men in any way shape or form, she fell for him.

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He was after all most handsome man on earth. And her twin brother Apollo. Didn't want her to be tempted into breaking her rows of virginity.

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So he came up with a cunning plan. And because they were both archers and tended to compete with each other, He pointed out a very small black target far out to sea.

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And dared her to shoot that. Is that was in fact a lion having a swim? And she did manage to hit him and shot him dead.

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She was then rather upset by this.

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Now the other ladies he's said to have pursued I'm 7 Sisters. You are others?

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But the 7 sisters are really quite interesting. So now we move on to a different constellation.

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IDs. Or 7 sisters, they are a group of stars. Vaguely in the Taurus area.

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And if you look with a telescope, there are a lot more than 7. If you look with the naked eye on a nice night with no clouds Just like we don't normally get around here.

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You'll probably see 6. And name, retold comes from their mother, Pleon. And that tends to mean either sailing or many.

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The sailing reference might refer to when the Plaid is wise. Because when they rise, that tells you when it's fine nautical weather in the Mediterranean.

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Which if you're an ancient Greek sailor is a very important thing to know. But it does rather sound as if they invented the name.

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The other way round as with many other stories.

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So, Greek mythology. Pleiades, the Southern Sisters. We know who their mother is, even if we've never heard of her before, and probably never will again.

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Their father was a titan called Atlas. Now the titans were a group of Giant-type monsters.

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Who wore left permanently at war with the the gods who lived on Olympus. This is after the great Titan War.

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And a Titan called Atlas had been punished for a belling against the gods by being told he had to hold up the sky for all eternity.

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And you can see pictures of him holding up a globe in some artwork. So he's keeping the sky and the earth separate and making sure there's a gap in between for us to live in.

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Really quite handy. So that's his job. But because he stuck there doing that He can't protect his daughters when any random Greek hero idiot is trying to chase them.

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So in order to save them from being attacked by the Hunter alone. Zeus took pity on them.

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And transformed them into stars. But according to the story, one of the sisters Helen loved with a mortal and went into hiding.

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And that's why we only see 6.

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Which is a nice little story until you realize that The Greeks made up these stories in order to explain what they saw in the sky.

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It wasn't in actual fact. That the youth really did find 7 sisters and do some rescuing.

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Let's take a quick look. How many other civilizations knew about the Pleiades? And considering they're not all that distinct.

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Half-hour back to these stories go. And the answer seems to be a very long way.

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So in the last scale caves There's a Stone Age painting. It gives you a nice picture of a bull.

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And people can go on about hunting bulls and how they're doing it and what species of bull that actually is.

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But the interesting bit here is that there were 6 dots there. And if you interpret that as being tall as the bull and is quite a good representation of the constellation.

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Those dots are in just the right place to be the pleiades and there's the right number of them.

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And you may notice the 6 of them.

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And they're also used as an important date marker by Chinese, Native Americans, Egyptians, you name it.

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People in New Mexico they call them the seed stars. Because when it disappears in the evening sky every spring, that's a good time to start planting your seeds.

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And when you're in an ancient civilization That's a very important thing. Now what does get interesting is quite a lot of these myths.

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Describes them as being 7 sisters fleeing a hunter. Or sometimes a group of hunters.

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And then quite often they have a bit of a story that says, now you can only see 6. But there used to be 7.

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They have various reasons. We've got one Greek one that says one of the sisters is mourning the fall of Troy.

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The abolition is about their own version as well. But there's always this business about one of them has vanished.

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In the far distant past.

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So one sister hiding, that is not just Greece. We've got the, Australian, Aboriginal ones, they're also saying that one of the sisters has died or she's hiding.

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Or she's too young or she's been abducted. And we've got similar ones.

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But that one of her sisters had been lost. You appear in Africa, Nation, Indonesian, they all over the place.

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And I've got this story to say why the seventh one is invisible. And those stories have been in Aboriginal culture long before we in the modern Western world made contact.

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I've been separated from us. For round about 50,000 years. Which is really a very long time.

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So how on earth can they possibly have or to have effectively the same stories?

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Unless the story of course is more than 50,000 years old.

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And at this point we go into astronomy. I look up Google and learn some very interesting things and think, gosh, there are some clever people around here.

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
There's a few astronomical theories about this. One of them is that one of the stars is a variable.

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Which is great except that I'm told the period is a bit wrong to work as an explanation. But the clearest is that the stars have actually moved relative to each other.

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Which stars do just very very slowly. So you Gay our Space Telescope and a few others.

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
They do show that the stars and pleiades I'll slowly moving in the sky. And they're moving relative to each other.

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So really very slowly because they are actually all one group. And one of them is now so close to one of the others that they look like a single start of the naked eye.

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So there's a picture over on the right. What they look like in 2020 and I think most of us would agree that That looks like one.to us.

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And the other one is if you look at what we think is happening. And wind back our time machine.

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Then that's how far you get back. When you start to think, actually those are 2 dots fairly close to each other.

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And that was about a hundred 1,000 BC. Although about which is a very very long time indeed. Now, what the human race was doing round about then was leaving Africa.

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And splitting up. We weren't even necessarily homo sapiens at that point. It's that early in our prehistory.

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And if that's the only is right then this is the start of the story of 7 sisters traced by a hunter.

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And one of the sisters vanishing later on. And that means it's probably the old story in the world.

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Because it goes back to the old stone age.

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And I think that even if that isn't actually true, it's such a wonderful story that it really does need to be spread.

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And after all that's the point of mythology that the story behind it to the meaning of the story.

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Is a really good story, not necessarily that it's actually true. But that's a good.

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Right, now yesterday as I say was the Spring Equinox.

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And if you're wondering what an equinox is You just, should top into 2 and translate.

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Equity, equal, knocks, night. It's the date when day and night of equal length.

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And I'm sure if you'd suffer around yesterday checking exactly when the sun set and rose and had a stopwatch with you and compared it with the day before.

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Somebody saying in the chat they thought the equinox was the 20 first So did I. Apparently it's usually round about the 20 first and there is a little bit from one year to the next.

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I gather that the actual memory. Meringue has to be done at about 3 o'clock in the morning.

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So I wasn't checking. An I certainly wasn't taking a stopwatch to events for many nights in a row.

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Because that's how you'd really need to find out. Now in this modern age isn't really all that important except of a possible excuse for a party.

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But in ancient times it's very important to know what the date is. And so things like wind plant crops.

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What the weather is going to be, which is important for sailing. Even now it's a general morale boost.

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From now on, the day is always going to be longer than the night. Even if it is veining for most of it.

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It's a bit of a morale boost. You can feel happier about it. And if you're medieval You're now looking forward to be able to harvest some food.

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Rather than feeling extremely hungry and getting very tired of dried peas and beans. Because that's probably all that's left in your stores.

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So how do you tell when day and night are of equal length? I was saying you could sit around every night with a very accurate clock.

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If she'd invented one which you hadn't. But one year, in a row of doing that would be quite enough to be going on with.

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Much better would be to watch the stars. And know that there's a really reliable marker that turns up and is clear and visible on the right date.

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So if you look up the astronomy The March Equinox technical words coming up here I'm afraid.

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Is when the sun appears to cross the celestial equator northward. And in the northern hemisphere we call it the Vernal Point.

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The time and the precise direction in space where the sun exists at that time. And if you're wondering how you spot the sun in the night sky

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Then. You know when they say in astrology the size in such and such a constellation.

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It's the same sort of reference. Whatever they mean by that is the same meaning here. So we want a nice marker in the sky for that vertical point.

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Today I'm afraid we don't have anything all that clear. But you go back to ancient Greece.

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And there's a beautiful marker. The pleiades, the 7 Sisters They were right in the right spot to be a marker for when we get the equinox.

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So did people take any note of this? Well, yes, they did. And it took a lot of notice of the pleiades.

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So there is an object from the early Bronze Age. Is called the Nebra Sky disc.

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Nebrew, I believe, being where I found it. And it shows what they thought were very important.

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Astrological objects. So you've got the sun. You've got the moon. You've got some arcs showing the summer and winter solstices.

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And you've got the pleiades. Yes, a group of stars up there. Interestingly, I think I can see 7 of those.

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Which rather puts a damp on the earlier theory. Still, we've got a collection of Babylonian texts.

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The among other things, try to synchronize the solo and lunar calendars. We've been struggling with this problem for ages.

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Which is why we now have a single de leap year. Somebody's mentioning that in chat and I don't have an answer to that question.

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So a lunar gear is 354 days multiplied the number of months. And so on.

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And it's 11 days shorter than a soul the year. So according to one of the 7 rules in this compendium for how to try to get round this problem.

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You need to add a leap month when the Pleiades appear next to a crescent moon a few days old in the spring.

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And that's what that picture is meant to be showing. And that happens roughly every 3 years. So they didn't have a leap year with an extra day every 4 years.

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They have complete leak months every 3. Which sounds completely wrong and very confusing to me, but It worked for them.

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And if you can actually read those texts which I certainly can't not being able to read early bronze age script.

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Or Babylonian. What they called the Pleiades was The stars or literally star star. And there is what it looks like if you write it down.

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See pretty picture bottom right. They're the first star in their list of really important stars. And as a most well-known star to the pre-Islamic Arabs as well, they just called them Z star.

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Despite being a group of stars and not even close to being the bitest. Nice thought of them as being really, really important.

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And quite a lot of civilizations. Started their new year at Spring Equinox. And they used the pleiades to tell them when that was.

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There was a, a google doodle came up, I think it was yesterday.

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About some celebration. He's name, I'm afraid I couldn't pronounce.

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But apparently that was another good excuse for party if she wanted to celebrate. It was a new year. Persian nothing.

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Greek poet Hesiod. You is about 700 BC, so still a very long time ago.

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Oh, interesting stuff about leap years coming up in chat which is all news to me Oh, well, play these.

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The doctors are atlas, rising. Begin your harvest and begin your ploughing when they are going to set.

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40 nights and days thou hidden. Suspect here that 40 days and nights is one of those magical numbers.

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If you remember, that's how long the Ark was sailing for. So for 40 nights and days they're hidden.

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And they appeal again as the year moves round. When first you sharpen your sickle. This is the law of the plains and of those who live near the sea.

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And to inhabit rich country the lands and hollows far from the tossing sea. Stripped a sew and slipped a plough and stripped to reap if she wished to get in all of the metres fruits in due season.

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And each kind may grow in its season. And the metre was the main Greek goddess of fertility.

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So that's very important stuff there. You want a good harvest and to not staff that tells you exactly when to do things.

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Speaking of the matter that is who the Greeks celebrated at the start of spring.

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So to fill you in on her? She's the daughter of youth. And his older sister. Persephone, daughter is youth and his older sister.

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And she was the goddess of agriculture and the harvest and fertility. Yes, I'm afraid Zeus was getting together with his sister.

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Possibly due to a lack of other playmates at the time. He later on got married to a slightly younger sister.

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And here I pulled the first used to be the new year. It still is the start of the tax here.

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For those of us who have to do tax returns, this is why we tend to do edit.

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Anyway, Persephone was of course a beautiful young goddess. Because aren't they all?

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And Hades, King of the Underworld? Known as Pluto, if you're a Boma.

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He saw Persephone gathering flowers. And he abducted her. Having first asked, You know, she didn't ask her mother's approval and he didn't ask for her approval.

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He just asked for the father's. Which is no way to go on but ancient Greece. So, Tomato was absolutely distraught at her daughter's disappearance.

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And she searched everywhere for her. There's a lot of stories about her hunting for her daughter.

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And getting help from various other heroes on the way. But the important point from everybody else's point of view is she was neglecting her duties of goddess of agriculture.

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The plants stopped growing. Food became terribly short. He's all a very, very bad thing.

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And Zeus realizing that this really wasn't 1 of his intended consequences. People were starving and for humans is a bit of a problem.

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Ordered Hades to give Persephone back again. Well, when I say ordered, there are roughly equal power, so he withdrew from and asked nicely.

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I don't think either of them wanted a war over, let's face it, a mere woman.

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But while she'd been in the underworld, and there were rules about this, Persephone had eaten pomegranate seeds.

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Now if you accept food from your host. You have accepted hospitality. Rules of hospitality start to apply.

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So she could return to her mother. But from then on, she had to go back to Hurricane.

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Let's call him husband for one to a better word. She had to go back with many months.

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As there were seeds. You had to go back as Queen of the Underworld. And while she's down there, it's winter on earth.

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Because her mother, Demeta, goes into warning. And when she returns it spring again.

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So there you go, that is what the Greeks used to celebrate. If what we could celebrate yesterday if we wanted to.

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Find some excuse for celebrating Spring and Persephone. And I'm afraid that's all the slides I've got.

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What out rather early as I expected. Sorry about that. Fiona, is there anything you'd like me to fill in or add to?

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Well, we've got a couple of questions here, so we could have a look at those first and everybody, we've got plenty of time here, so send your questions into the chat and we will cover those.

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And Jane, I wonder if you want to take your presentation down just now and we'll look at a couple of questions.

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Yep. Down it goes.

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So what we got here, question from Madeline. Did the Greeks worship Orion and ditto for other ancient peoples by their name for him?

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And subsequently, so second part to the question. Why did they, why did they all give names to groups of stars anyway?

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You know, the constellations.

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Hmm.

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Some very good questions. I do like them. Right, Worship of Ahne as a God? No.

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He technically counted as a demigod. He got put into the sky by the gods. You are much more powerful than mere demigods.

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But as a demigod he was more powerful than your average human

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Yeah.

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And I can see another one just coming up, which is very quick, is a wine sugatorious.

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No, he isn't. Totally different person. Sacatorius is one of the Kentaws, I believe.

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So that's an easy one. And again, that isn't the God either. It's a demi-god.

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Now, the way the Greeks treated their gods It isn't, it was never really worship in the way that and more modern.

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Single God, religions, think of it. It wasn't this God is meant to be almighty and all knowing and all powerful and Perfect in every conceivable way.

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What they were were an explanation of natural forces. Insofar as they could without a knowledge of modern science.

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So you've got an explanation of the sun. You've got an explanation of sun doing lightning and really bad weather.

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And things like that. And it's generally an explanation of why terrible things happen to us that we can't control.

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And trying to predict them and doing what we can to alter them. So it's more population than worship in many ways.

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What you do is make a sacrifice to the gods. You want them to favour you. So if you're going on a journey, you'll do a sacrifice to God in charge of journeys.

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If you want justice, you'll do a sacrifice to the Godal Goddess in charge of justice.

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Which may vary in your area.

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If you want to have decent weather. Then if it's at sea you'll do a sacrifice to Neptune.

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If it's on land, you'll probably have words with Jupiter was used as being in charge of the brain and that sort of thing.

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You want decent crops. You talk to the goddess of agriculture? All that sort of thing.

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Now if there's something you specifically want where you think a lion might be the best person to talk to.

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Or you think a wine might intercede with one of the other. Gods for you, then you might have a word.

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I mean, Artemis, Diana is the great huntress. So if your woman wanting to go hunting.

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Then be nice to Artemis. If you're a man you might feel a little bit nervous about that.

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So you could sacrifice tomatoes. Or you could have a word with somebody who might intercede on her behalf.

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And if your local village happens to be sitting right next door to a shrine to a vine where somebody claims he was born.

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Did an important hunt or something like that. And maybe you can point to the geological feature and say, look, that's where a lion's arrow landed.

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That's why there's that big hole in the rock. Then you'll probably appeal to a lion and ask him to have words with somebody else and give you luck in hunting.

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But you'd honestly be better off. Talking to a much more influential god. Personally if I were a bloke I'd probably have words with Apollo whose Also a great hunter.

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Or maybe hell a clues who did eventually rise to be a god and on Olympus. I was also pretty good at hunting monsters.

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Yeah. And.

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So I hope that's answered the question. We use a very big question. Now the one about wide stars got their names.

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So.

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Yeah, well, names to the groups of stars, so I guess it's I guess it's the constellations, isn't it?

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It is, yeah. And I wish I knew why, but an awful lot of civilisations seem to have done it.

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What really puzzles me is when you look up at the constellation and they're saying, well, obviously this looks exactly like a bear.

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And we look at some random dots and think, no it doesn't. It doesn't look anything like a bat.

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So why they did it, it may just be It's easier to remember them that way. So if it's important to you to recognise a certain star.

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Know when it's going to rise when it's going to appear when it's going to be in line with other things.

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Like if one of planets is in line with one of the constellations. Then that would be it would be quite important you could point out that star And if you can look out up to the sky and say, look, you see that shape there that looks a bit like a W.

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Well, look at the. Top end one of the W and that's the star I'm talking about.

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And then you want to give the one that looks a bit like a double you, a name that means something to your culture.

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Bearing in mind you're probably not literate. And then you might say, well you could also interpret it as being a very beautiful lady sitting down combing her hair.

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So we'll call it Kassiopia. And then make up a lot more story about that.

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He's all linked in with Perseus and his story. These days, if you want something that's really changed its name, it's a thing that we call, we often refer to as the plough.

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And you may have been told it's a good way of finding North. But if you look at it as a medieval person, then yes it probably does look like a plough.

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Not that many of us. Look at or see every day a medieval style plough. We're more likely to look at a field and see a combine harvester.

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And it doesn't look like one of those at all. But what you can do is look at it and say, well you could call it the ladle or saucepan.

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Or the Big Dipper. You think of a dipper as being something that you use to skim stuff off your your cooking pot.

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Well than being some kind of fairground attraction. So these days you can look at it and say, yeah, that's the saucepan.

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But then they picked things that were familiar to them. And when we look, quite honestly, the things that we're no longer familiar with, and so they make no sense to us.

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Why does that help?

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Interesting, I hope that answers your questions, Madeline. We'll move on a little bit. This was from Carol.

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This was to do with the date of the equinox yesterday that we were we were just talking about earlier.

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Yeah.

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And obviously this year is a leap here. And or has been a leap here. Would that make a difference to the date of the equinox slightly changing from year to year, do you think?

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I'm afraid this is one of these points where I have to say I am not on astronomer.

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Yeah.

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I find out about these things by looking it up on Google. And while I can say that seems likely to me, that's just on the basis of general common sense.

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Hmm, seems plausible, doesn't it?

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Yeah, it seems plausible to me, but that isn't really saying anything. So sorry, can't help.

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Yeah. Yeah.

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But I think if you scroll through the chat, I saw somebody coming up with some very knowledgeable looking stuff about.

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The exam.

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Yes, from Lavin. From living so Okay. Now. You talked just a minute ago about when talking about whether the Greeks worshiped Orion you talked about.

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Yes, and can be asking what they made.

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Making sacrifices. What's that sacrifices to the Greeks? Yeah, what did what did this sacrifice?

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Well, when you hear about and making sacrifices in stories, they're usually sacrificing an animal.

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Oh, thank you for that. We've got more interesting things about the mists behind the plough.

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Hmm. I can maybe talk about that in a minute.

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Just come in to chat. I'll be my Yeah, yeah, sorry. Yeah, what LAY sacrificed?

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It was usually animals. And you try to sacrifice the best animal you can possibly get. Which can cause some problems if you've had to steal that animal from somebody else in order to get it and then they object.

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But normally yes, it will be animals. And you'd find that the blood might go to the god.

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Or sometimes the best part would be burnt on the altar and then everybody else got to eat the best of the body.

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There's actually a story about how Prometheus told humans how to do their sacrifices.

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And trick the gods a little bit in the process. He. Slaughtered a prize bull and laid out 2 different piles.

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Where one of them had all the best bits obviously on the surface and the other one looks like it was all nasty bones and skin and stuff like that.

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But he'd actually got it the one way round. So we asked you, which of these piles would you like?

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And he ended up accidentally choosing. All the bit that wasn't all that good to eat. Humans were very happy about this, the use was a lot less so.

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See you may have gathered in many stories isn't all that right. But what was being sacrificed was definitely an animal or parts of an animal.

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Sometimes you'll find different gods have different preferences. So Artemis has got a thing about deer for instance.

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Although they're all so sacred to her and you may get into trouble if you nick one of her dear and sacrifice it to somebody different.

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But just pouring a little, ovation of wine on a stone can do if that's what you've got.

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Like, what's your hit next?

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Hmm. Right, what we've got next, and we've got a question here. From, Is there a reason for there being 12 signs of the zodiac?

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12, and, and Natalie saying 12 for each month. Seems plausible again.

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It does. I should probably point out that a astronomy and astrology are different things.

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Yeah.

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And almost certainly have different reasons for them. And also that What we commonly refer to as constellations these days technically aren't, they're asterisms.

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The pretty shape in the sky that you can have a story about and recognize is an asterism and a constellation is an area of the sky which probably has an asteroid in it.

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This is when some astronomers took the sky and divided it into 12 areas and said right those are constellations.

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Hmm.

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And now we can say exactly where we're putting the boundaries between them. Where was the constellations have tended to alter quite a bit with time.

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The Victorians altered them, some of them have been split up in about the 17 hundreds. So constellation doesn't mean quite what it used to.

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Hmm. Okay.

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Well, I think just cause it's a nice thing to divide things by. Despite the decimal system being lovely, If you want to divide things by 3 or by 4, then working in base 12 makes life a great deal easier.

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Hmm. Okay. A few comments here. And I don't know whether you have any thoughts on these.

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I'll read them out to you. You can let me know, but what thoughts you have in this.

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Hmm.

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So this was from Laura about the plough. Scandinavians calling the plough Carol's Wayne, IE.

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Yep.

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Carl's Wagon. I'm probably talking included the plow in the simulian as a star device to keep a demon at bay.

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Yes, I'm talking knew his North mythology is very, very well indeed. So that is interesting.

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Hmm.

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That tells me that there is a North link to keep demons at bay that I probably want to look into.

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Hmm. Hmm.

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Carl's wagon. You know, I'm sure I've heard some Kyle about it being

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No, sorry, that was a different consolation. There are a few things in the sky that are meant to be a wagon drawn by a certain number.

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Of oxen. And that would link in there. And in fact our word for North. Coming through from lat in Latin.

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Is length to there being 7. Oxen drawing a wagon through the sky, so possibly there's another link there.

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Hmm, that's fascinating stuff. Also, from Laura a bit, there's a book called 7 Stars.

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By Hugh Colbert, ancient astronomy and the English public house. Interestingly, many old pubs call the play and we know there's lots of those.

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Hmm.

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Had their sign painted as stars but later changed them to a medieval medieval picture of plough.

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Bizarre. Really?

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Hmm.

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Yeah, he is. The only explanation I can come up with from the point of view of a very bad painter.

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I would find it far easier to put about 7 blobs of yellow paint on a blue background and get them in roughly the right position.

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Then I would to draw a picture of a plow that anyone would recognize as a plough. Especially if you wanted me to get a recognizable ox into the picture as well.

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I'm not give it the right number of legs but that's as close as you were going to get.

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Hmm.

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Hmm.

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So maybe it is just limitation. I've seen. Of the one other questions coming in here as well about Wow.

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Yeah, yeah from Rob and this might be more of an astronomy one which might be a bit of a challenging one but is the deploy visible in harvesting?

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Very, very much so. The plough is always visible. This is why it's so useful for finding North.

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Because if you look at the plough and think of it as the saucer. Have a look at the far end of the sauceman from the handle.

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There's 2 stars. Follow them up across the sky and the next bright star you meet is Polaris.

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Hmm.

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That's the all star. And that marks due north. Always visible and the plough is always visible.

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Well, I'm talking cloudy, of course. Yes. Yeah.

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Well, there we go. So it will be, it will be visible in harvest time. Many pops are called the 7 stars.

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Isn't amazing how we've got from Orion to pub names. In the space of an hour.

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Anyone would think we were British.

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Is how we do our navigation from Pub to Pub.

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Yeah. Okay, no. I think we've pretty much got through all the questions and unless anyone has any last minute ones that they want to pop into Robin saying about Orion love the pub.

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I think you probably would have.

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Yeah, probably. Well, considering the one story we've got about him pursuing a young lady starts off with him getting blind drunk.

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Yes, I think you probably might.

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Yeah. Yeah. Okay, let me just see if there's any other comments in here that might be worth having a little chat about.

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Yes, yes.

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See, I'm using stars for navigation. Yes. And again, making easy to label them is very important.

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Yeah.

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Oh, and how, oh, Pub. I think that's just to do with the importance of agriculture to be honest.

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Cause that's 2 agricultural implements.

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Probably.

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Hmm. Hmm. Okay folks, I think we're probably done for today. And thanks very much for that, Jane.

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Really interesting to hear the story of Ryan. It's Greek mythology is something I know very, very little about so I've particularly found it really interesting myself.

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And that, you know, why, you know, the 7 Sisters was so important to early civilizations.

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It's absolutely fascinating stuff and also that connection with the Spring Equinox as well that makes it very timely.

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And for having this talk today. So I hope, I hope everybody enjoyed that I certainly did and tomorrow you'll possibly have noticed if you've been on the last couple of lectures that You'll receive an email tomorrow.

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With details of, of some related WEA courses that are coming up that we think you might be interested in.

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So keep an eye out for that. Probably come out round about lunchtime. So if you've enjoyed this, you might enjoy those as well.

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So I think it just remains for me to say thank you very much, Jen. That was fascinating.

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Right? So yeah, I ran a bit short but I'm used to doing things as a tutor and therefore having a lot more interaction.

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Thank you. Thanks