Somebody emailed me this picture a while ago, and soon after I heard the news that the conservationists in SW Brisbane had won their fight to preserve and protect a little pocket of bush wonderland from developers.

Hidden amidst the urban sprawl, away from the hustle and bustle of city life lies 200 hectares of secluded natural bushland and forest.

The locals treasure this place for a tranquil secluded walk or cycle, and they call it "Pooh's Corner"

 

www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/south/see-the-last-of-br...

……………………………………………………………………………

 

My little story of yesterday feels like it came out of Pooh Bear's collections.

A tiny turn of event that puts one offtrack from the usual quiet routine and gives one food for thought.

 

But one could read too much into these occasions I think… draw on insights, perhaps presume on a change in life direction ..

Just best to receive it as it is.

A little sparkle that just comes and goes.

The Tao of Pooh..

 

In short, came across a wild bunny in the park.

And I got to hold it.

( And for the wise guys out there, yes it was actually a hare.

I Choose To Call Them All Bunnies )

 

Afterwards as I sat cuddling Miss Woolly later on her sofa and looked up through the window at the moonless black night sky, the clouds had disappeared from that wild storm we had, and all the stars were twinkling so brightly .. something Pooh would enjoy ..

………………………………………………………………….

 

Which brings us to yesterday.

 

For some reason I was ahead of the Girlz in the park for a change, detoured towards a tall clump of stringy yellow wild flowers, stood there contemplating a photo possibility, though without the camera at that point, would bring it back tomorrow.

Risk in that, as quite often, they'd either be mown down or died off a bit by then..

 

Why did I look down? Just a habit in snake season, I s'pose.. a little patch of brown in the shadow of the scrub, with only a few inches growth of grass around it.. Perhaps thought it was a cow pat, to be avoided, it wasn't moving …

 

There he/she was, a pretty as a picture, a little bunny, nestled in the grass..

Well, ok, they are actually hares, but I Call Them All Bunnies ..

 

At first, thought it was dead… no movement at all, eyes were open, unblinking… didn't dash away..

Maybe died from fright of the thunder in the afternoon storm, soaked from the rain, out in the open.

 

There were habitat shelters feet away, so if it was alive, wouldn't he have hunkered down dry in these places ?

 

For a few seconds, I stood there, sadly pondering this sweet little guy and his short life… then there was a twitch of the nose !

…and another !

Was he injured? He still wasn't moving ..

And a credit to the Girlz, as they did obey when told not to come over..

 

Someone else would've walked on…

But I was stuck with doing nothing or something, and neither was comfortable.

 

If I just pick him up with bare hands, and look at him for injuries, like a broken leg or bite mark, would he bite me?

I had no idea. Do they carry horrendous germs that would give me yet another health challenge ?

 

Then what? I had no container to put him in either.

So back to the car and it started raining again, and off home drenched, to collect a few things.

If bunny wasn't there when I returned, that would be nature's answer for me. It meant he was fine.

 

On the way home to pick up a suitable travel container, gardening gloves and some doggy towels to line the container and one to wrap around him, I stopped at Marie's house to ask her advice.

 

Marie is a stout, pepper pot shaped lady, who surprises me, that she took on the commitment of wildlife carer, as she's obviously not in the best of physical health.

 

Had met her a few months ago on my previous mission, a rescue of a turtle dove, found on the road, not moving out of the way of cars, just sitting there.

 

He didn't struggle when I picked him up, so I thought, Oh, there Must be something wrong with him .. had a look and discovered a huge chunk of his chest missing down to the breast cartilage but smoothly healed over.

 

This wound had happened ages ago. A bite from a dog? It was too large for a little cat's mouth to do that. How did he survive !!!???

 

Rang the local vet and they gave me Marie's ph. no.

 

On arrival, Marie came outside to receive her new guest, and I opened the back car door, gently rolled back the cover, and what did I see, but the dove sitting on top of the basket, and in the next instance, flying past my head to the nearest telegraph pole.

 

My first reaction was to to laugh in embarrassment, that I'd assessed the situation so wrongly and wasted Marie's time and preparation.

Then laughed with relief .. said to Marie, I think this fella is going to be alright !

Marie wasn't fazed, smiled and said that these doves were surprisingly tough.

……………………………...

 

So here I was at Marie's door again, she was kind and helpful, also reminded me these little guys often do 'freeze' and pretend they're 'not there' if they're frightened, hoping to be undetected as I passed by.

 

As Marie herself stuck caring for the feathered variety, she referred me to Lorelle in another nearby street, as she was the 'furry' wildlife lady.

 

We agreed that BunBun might be ok and gone by the time I returned to the park…and that's what we hoped anyway..

 

Walked around the spot to find him again, couldn't see him in the dwindling light, thought, Good, that's my answer..

Was just leaving, and there he was, he hadn't moved.

 

Expected him to wriggle madly and spring out of my hands when I put the towel on him and picked him up, but he was so quiet and still.

Oh, this is not good, I thought..

 

Had a peek in amongst the towel, his face was nestled between front paws, he was adorable.

He didn't look sick nor distressed.

He looked relaxed.

He didn't look real.

Was I really holding a wild bunny?

 

Uncovered and had a quick look at his back half while his front half was still wrapped in the towel, and all looked normal.

No injuries. Perfect.

In fact, his little back legs, waved just a bit, to climb back into the warmth of the towel, as if to say, "Hey, I was comfy..all snuggled up like that.."

He wasn't a baby bun, but he wasn't an adult either.

 

This time I'd made sure there was a heavier cover on the travel box, so he couldn't get out while I was driving to Lorelle's.

 

With my terrible sense of humour, couldn't help thinking about the monster rabbit scene in Monty Python's "The Holy Grail", where this cute bunny flies around attacking the Knights of Ni..

Didn't want That happening in the car.

 

Anyway, had phoned Lorelle and she was waiting outside, holding a basket with a hinged lid and a bunny rug in it, all prepared.

Another wildlife carer with a big heart.

 

But did say for me not to be too hopeful, as it's common for them to freak out so badly and suddenly die just from the stress of human contact.

 

She also told me that these hares do not burrow, they live on top of the ground.

So what about that farmers' tale I been told about burrows ruining paddocks and injuring cows falling into holes ?

Must be another sort of hare..

 

It may have been that we stood chatting for a few minutes, making human noises, as he went to leap out of her arms when she had a look at his face.

When I held him so peacefully before, all was really quiet.

 

A little while later, still peeling off rain soaked clothes and drying wet dogs at home, Lorelle phoned to say she was releasing Bunny back in the same spot the same evening, as she was sure he was fine and he would want to feed at night.

 

Better to get them back to the natural as soon as possible, rather than keeping them, stressing them out unnecessarily and trying to hand feed them.

In fact, he'd just scampered across her kitchen floor quite well !

 

It did run through my silly head that I'd love to be a wildlife carer, ( and yes, I did impulsively offer volunteer assistance to Lorelle, but she didn't need any ) … and was this another turn in life's path to follow …

Or do I have a habit, that I rescue beings who are really okay …

 

At least Bun Bun got dry..

 

That's what Pooh would say, I think ..

 

Also learnt they're not territorial, so he might've moved on by now … but I still left half an apple out there tonight x

 

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

I awoke this morning and my bicycle legs began to act out (imagine Monty Python's "Ministry of Silly Walks") I had no choice but to mount my carbon-fiber, Wunder Machina and run errands and pretty much lolly-gag around town. A cycling friend told me about a new Thai restaurant and off I go 5 miles away. As I am settling in and getting to know my plate of noodles. I tell myself to "scan the place" for who-knows-what. I look left, look right and look UP....Oh My Goodness!! I knew in a flash that a gift had dropped in my noodles!

 

These parasols were hung upside down from the ceiling as a decorative feature to hide the infrastructure above our heads and give the place a placid, oriental motif. I worked the little Samsung S3 camera for about 10 minutes and then finished my noodles. As I edited THE shot, My wait person came over and asked about my snaps. I pulled up this shot and showed it to her. She was thrilled and asked if she could take my phone and show the rest of the restaurant staff. As she disappeared into the kitchen, I heard a lot of Asian exclamatory remarks. Many of the staff came out to look at the ceiling and then the phone screen shaking their heads, smiling and nodding at me. They ultimately gave my phone back and many of the other patrons were looking my way quizzically. Finally the lady (fellow Texan) at the table just adjacent to mine asked me what all "hootin' and hollerin" was about. I showed her the shot and she says to her husband, "Jimmy Ray", look at "THE-IS" (we Texans can turn single syllable words into 2 or 3 syllables). He says, "Yeah Pauline, dats real purty" and returns to his deep fried I-don't-know-what. I don't think he was impressed.

 

It's not often that the experience of capturing an image is nearly as memorable as the image itself.

 

BTW, I did use a bit of mild HDR trickery to accentuate this image. I used the app "HDR Camera+" to capture and process this image. The...ahem...candy setting seems to be my...umm... favorite. ;-))

 

I would like to thank LauraBot (fellow Flickrerian? ;-) ) for her inspiration. She shot a spray of umbrellas a few weeks ago and the shot was stunning! Thanks Ms. Bot!!

 

www.flickr.com/photos/laurabot_/7923595598/

 

Explored on September 22, 2012 #148

Much like Monty Python's parrot, this cone is pining. Although not for the fjords.

Monty Python's Flying Circus

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rutX0I6NxU

 

Location: Barcelona

 

Note : Night photo using streetlight orange as illumination source.

 

Nikon PC-NIKKOR 28mm f/3.5

www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/28mm-pc.htm

This is not the best picture I ever published, but this is the very special one. My 10 years old female ball python (Python regius) laid minimum 5, maybe 6 eggs today. The 'problem' is that she never met a male ball python in her life... However, females of some reptiles, including ball pythons, can produce offspring without any help from males. We called this parthenogenesis and even if is rather rare phenomenon in ball python's world - it's happen sometimes... So there is a chance that the eggs are alive!

I wasn't prepared for this, so incubation of the eggs will be a challenge, but I'll do my best :-). At the moment she is quite protective mother and I'll leave the eggs with her for day or two, until some incubation device will be ready...

I made some unexpected figures. ————————————————————————-

On the left, dressed in red is the Spanish Inquisition from Monthy Python’s Flying Circus. They have become quite popular again in recent years for their iconic catchphrase: “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”

 

On the right i made Rick Astley, from his appearance in “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The videoclip of this song is used in a phenomenon called “Rickrolling”, in which someone sends a link to someone else, stating that its something interesting. If they click on the link tough, the videoclip of this song plays.

Ivstitia (Justice) on the left reminded me of a funny scene in Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life".

© Daniela Hartmann, flickr.com

 

Hsssssssssssss. Hello, I am Kaa, the sneaky snake, and I am trying to hypnotise you. Trust in me.... Hssssssssssss.

 

"Trust in me, just in me

Shut your eyes and trust in me

You can sleep safe and sound

Knowing I am around

 

Slip into silent slumber

Sail on a silver mist

Slowly and surely your senses

Will cease to resist

Trust in me, just in me

Shut your eyes and trust in me"

 

The python's song. Kaa, the snake. Jungle Book.

 

___________________

 

"Hör' auf mich, glaube mir.

Augen zu, vertraue mir!

Schlafe sanft, süß und fein.

Will dein Schutzengel sein!

 

Sink' nur in tiefen Schlummer, schwebe dahin im Traum,

langsam umgibt dich Vergessen, doch das spürst du kaum!

Hör auf mich, und glaube mir.

Augen zu, vertraue mir!

 

Das singt Kaa, die Schlange, im Dschungelbuch.

 

Aufgenommen in Sri Lanka.

P.S. Ich habe übrigens fürchterliche Angst vor Schlangen. Weiß auch nicht, was mich da geritten hat. Die Schlange ist aber völlig ungefährlich, was ich zu dem Zeitpunkt aber nicht wusste. Nach dem Foto bin ich tot umgefallen ;-)

  

All my images are copyrighted.

If you intend to use any of my pictures for non-commercial usage, you have to sign them with © Daniela Hartmann, flickr.com. Please write a comment if you have used it and for what purpose. I would be very happy about it. I am curious about the context in which the image is used.

 

If you have any commercial usage, you need to contact me always first. USE WITHOUT PERMISSION IS ILLEGAL.

 

You find some of my photos on Getty Images.

My name there is "alles-schlumpf".

   

Found dead completely dry !!!

 

The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. Its red-brick facade dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus behind a small plaza near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road. The Palace Theatre seats 1,400.

  

Richard D'Oyly Carte, producer of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, commissioned the theatre in the late 1880s. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and intended to be a home of English grand opera. The theatre opened as the "Royal English Opera House" in January 1891 with a lavish production of Arthur Sullivan's opera Ivanhoe. Although this ran for 160 performances, followed briefly by André Messager's La Basoche, Carte had no other works ready to fill the theatre. He leased it to Sarah Bernhardt for a season and sold the opera house within a year at a loss. It was then converted into a grand music hall and renamed the Palace Theatre of Varieties, managed successfully by Charles Morton. In 1897, the theatre began to screen films as part of its programme of entertainment. In 1904, Alfred Butt became manager and continued to combine variety entertainment, including dancing girls, with films. Herman Finck was musical director at the theatre from 1900 until 1920. The Marx Brothers appeared at the theatre in 1922, performing selections from their Broadway shows.

 

In 1925, the musical comedy No, No, Nanette opened at the Palace Theatre, followed by other musicals, for which the theatre became known. The Sound of Music ran for 2,385 performances at the theatre, opening in 1961. Jesus Christ Superstar ran from 1972 to 1980, and Les Misérables played at the theatre for nineteen years, beginning in 1985. In 1983, Andrew Lloyd Webber purchased and by 1991 had refurbished the theatre. Monty Python's Spamalot played at the theatre from 2006 until January 2009, and Priscilla Queen of the Desert opened at the Palace in March 2009 and closed in December 2011. Between February 2012 and June 2013, it hosted a production of Singin' in the Rain.

 

In June 2016, the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened at the theatre.[Wikipedia]

The Spanish Inquisition from Monthy Python’s Flying Circus.

"Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks" pedestrian crossing sign - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Monastir was founded on the ruins of the Punic–Roman city of Ruspina.

 

The city features a well preserved Ribat, built by the Abbaside's caliph Harun ar-Raschid in the year 796, that was used to scan the sea for hostile ships.

 

Several ulema came to stay in the Ribat of this peaceful city for contemplation.

 

The Ribat was also one of the filming locations for Monty Python's Life Of Brian.

 

Taken with Olympus AF-1 (April 1992) scan finished CS5 postprocessing with Nik Silver Efex Pro.

Torquay /tɔrˈkiː/ is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies 18 miles (29 km) south of the county town of Exeter and 28 miles (45 km) east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton on the west of the bay and across from the fishing port of Brixham. In the 2011 UK Census, Torquay's population was 65,245, about half of that of the whole of Torbay.[1]

 

The town's economy, like Brixham's, was initially based upon fishing and agriculture, but in the early 19th century the town began to develop into a fashionable seaside resort, initially frequented by members of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars while the Royal Navy anchored in the bay. Later, as the town's fame spread, it was popular with the crème de la crème of Victorian society. Renowned for its healthful climate, the town earned the nickname of the English Riviera and favourable comparisons to Montpellier.

 

Torquay was the home of the writer Agatha Christie, who was born in the town and lived there during her early years. The town contains an "Agatha Christie Mile", a tour with plaques dedicated to her life and work.

 

A number of sketches for the Monty Python's Flying Circus television show (1969–73) were filmed on location in and around both Torquay and neighbouring Paignton. It was while staying in Torquay at the Gleneagles Hotel with the Python team in 1971, that John Cleese found inspiration (and the setting, although not the actual film location) for the popular sitcom Fawlty Towers (1975, 1979).[57] Incidents during the Pythons' stay are said to include the owner, Donald Sinclair, having thrown Eric Idle's suitcase out of the window thinking it was a bomb. Cleese later described the eccentric owner as, "the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met", although Mr. Sinclair's widow has since said her husband was totally misrepresented in the comedy.[58]

 

In the 1970s several episodes of the comedy series The Goodies were filmed in and around Torquay. In 1979 the town was again the site of filming, when the Ray Winstone, BAFTA nominated drama That Summer was both set in and filmed around the town. In 2003, the movie Blackball starring Paul Kaye and Vince Vaughn was set here. The movie is about Cliff Starkey who is the Bad Boy of Lawn Bowls.[59]

 

In October 2010, it was reported that Bristol-based artist Banksy had painted a mural on the wall of the Grosvenor Hotel in Belgrave Road. The mural shows a child drawing a robot, and uses the vent of an extractor fan as the head of the robot.[60] The painting was vandalised in May 2011.[61]

 

The Victorian mansion in Torquay where Agatha Christie was born and grew up, Ashfield in Barton Road, was demolished in 1961 to build an estate and extension for South Devon College.[62] A blue plaque was unveiled in 2007 marking the spot.

 

Notable people born in Torquay

1821 Richard Burton, explorer and linguist

 

1867 Percy Fawcett, archaeologist and explorer

 

1890 Agatha Christie, best-selling crime novelist

 

1937 Peter Cook, writer and comedian

 

1947 Martin Turner, Wishbone Ash founder

 

1949 Roger Deakins, cinematographer

 

1972 Miranda Hart, actress and comedienne

1983 Lauren Pope, DJ, model and entrepreneur.

 

1988 Lily Cole,

model and actress

 

Photo taken shilst walking around the harbour at Torquay Devon.

 

Info on the Harbour: www.tor-bay-harbour.co.uk/harbours/aboutus/torquayharbour...

 

“What did the Romans ever do for us?”

 

I love that line from Monty Python’s Life of Brian and have thought it appropriate in many circumstances. Naturally, it came to mind when I was wandering through the magnificent Roman ruins of Jerash – Ancient Gerasa or Garshu – in northern Jordan. These extensive ruins, so far away from the epicentre of the Roman City-State, are an imposing illustration of one of the greatest empires the world has seen.

 

Although not as big as the one in Rome, the Hippodrome in Jerash is the best preserved example in the world.

 

For the story, visit: www.ursulasweeklywanders.com/travel/ancient-jerash-jordan...

“What did the Romans ever do for us?”

 

I love that line from Monty Python’s Life of Brian and have thought it appropriate in many circumstances. Naturally, it came to mind when I was wandering through the magnificent Roman ruins of Jerash – Ancient Gerasa or Garshu – in northern Jordan. These extensive ruins, so far away from the epicentre of the Roman City-State, are an imposing illustration of one of the greatest empires the world has seen.

 

Temple ruins dominate the horizon around us.

 

For the story, visit: www.ursulasweeklywanders.com/travel/ancient-jerash-jordan...

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Battersea Power Station

 

Official nameBattersea A and B power stations

CountryEngland

LocationNine Elms, Battersea, Wandsworth, South West London

Coordinates51°28′54″N 0°8′41″WCoordinates: 51°28′54″N 0°8′41″W

StatusDecommissioned and in redevelopment

Construction began1929 (A station)

1945 (B station)

Commission date1933–35 (A station)

1953–55 (B station)

Decommission date1975 (A station)

1983 (B station)

Construction cost£2,141,550 (A station)

Owner(s)London Power Company

(1939–1948)

British Electricity Authority

(1948–1955)

Central Electricity Authority

(1955–1957)

Central Electricity Generating Board

(1957–1983)

Thermal power station

Primary fuelCoal

Secondary fuelOil (A station only)

Power generation

Units operationalA station:

Two 69 MW Metropolitan-Vickers (MV) British Thomson-Houston and one 105 MW Metropolitan-Vickers

B station:Two 100 MW and one 72 MW Metropolitan-Vickers

Nameplate capacity1935: 243 MW

1955: 503 MW

1975: 488 MW

1983: 146 MW

External links

Websitebatterseapowerstation.co.uk

CommonsRelated media on Commons

[edit on Wikidata]

 

Listed Building – Grade II*

Official nameBattersea Power Station

Designated14 October 1980

Reference no.1357620

 

Battersea Power Station is a decommissioned coal-fired power station, located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Nine Elms, Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It was built by the London Power Company (LPC) to the design of Leonard Pearce, Engineer in Chief to the LPC, and CS Allott & Son Engineers. The architects were J. Theo Halliday and Giles Gilbert Scott. The station is one of the world's largest brick buildings and notable for its original, Art Deco interior fittings and decor.

 

The building comprises two power stations, built in two stages, in a single building. Battersea A Power Station was built between 1929 and 1935 and Battersea B Power Station, to its east, between 1937 and 1941, when construction was paused owing to the worsening effects of the Second World War. The building was completed in 1955. "Battersea B" was built to a design nearly identical to that of "Battersea A", creating the iconic four-chimney structure.

 

"Battersea A" was decommissioned in 1975. In 1980 the whole structure was given Grade II listed status; "Battersea B" shut three years later. In 2007 its listed status was upgraded to Grade II*. The building remained empty until 2014, during which time it fell into near ruin. Various plans were made to make use of the building, but none were successful. In 2012, administrators Ernst & Young entered into an exclusivity agreement with Malaysia's SP Setia and Sime Darby to develop the site to include 253 residential units, bars, restaurants, office space (occupied by Apple and No. 18 business members club), shops and entertainment spaces. The plans were approved and redevelopment commenced a few years later. As of 2021, the building and the overall 42-acre site development is owned by a consortium of Malaysian investors.

 

History

 

Located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Nine Elms, Battersea, an inner-city district of South West London, the building comprises two power stations, built in two stages in a single building. Battersea A Power Station was built in the 1930s and Battersea B Power Station, to its east, in the 1950s. They were built to a near-identical design, providing the four-chimney structure.

 

The Power Station was decommissioned between 1975 and 1983 and remained empty until 2014. It was designated as a Grade II listed building in 1980. In 2007 its listed status was upgraded to Grade II*.[1][2]

 

The station is one of the world's largest brick buildings[3] and notable for its original, lavish Art Deco interior fittings and decor.[4] The structure remained largely unused for more than 30 years after its closure; in 2008 its condition was described as "very bad" by English Heritage, which included it in its Heritage at Risk Register.[5] The site was also listed on the 2004 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund.[6]

 

Since the station's closure, redevelopment plans have been drawn up by successive site owners. In 2004, when a redevelopment project by Parkview International stalled, the site was sold to the administrators of Irish company Real Estate Opportunities (REO), who bought it for £400 million in November 2006 with plans to refurbish the station for public use and build 3,400 homes on the site.[7][8] This plan fell through due to REO's debt being called in by the state-owned banks of the UK and Ireland. The site was again put up for sale in December 2011 through commercial estate agent Knight Frank.[9][10][11] The combination of an existing debt burden of some £750 million, the need to make a £200 million contribution to an extension to the London Underground, requirements to fund conservation of the derelict power station shell, and the presence of a waste transfer station and cement plant on the river frontage made commercial development of the site a significant challenge.[12][13]

 

Until the late 1930s, electricity was supplied by municipal undertakings. These were small power companies that built power stations dedicated to a single industry or group of factories, and sold any excess electricity to the public. These companies used widely differing standards of voltage and frequency. In 1925 Parliament decided that the power grid should be a single system with uniform standards and under public ownership. Several of the private power companies reacted to the proposal by forming the London Power Company (LPC). They planned to heed parliament's recommendations and build a small number of very large stations.[14]

 

The London Power Company's first of these super power stations was planned for the Battersea area, on the south bank of the River Thames in London. The proposal was made in 1927, for a station built in two stages and capable of generating 400 megawatts (MW) of electricity when complete.[14] The site chosen was a 15-acre (61,000 m2) plot of land which had been the site of the reservoirs for the former Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Company.[15] The site was chosen for its proximity to the River Thames for cooling water and coal delivery, and because it was in the heart of London, the station's immediate supply area.[16]

 

The proposal sparked protests from those who felt that the building would be too large and would be an eyesore, as well as worries about the pollution damaging local buildings, parks and even paintings in the nearby Tate Gallery. The company addressed the former concern by hiring Sir Giles Gilbert Scott to design the building's exterior. He was a distinguished architect and industrial designer, famous for his designs for the red telephone box and Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. He subsequently designed another London power station, Bankside, which now houses Tate Modern art gallery.[14] The pollution issue was resolved by granting permission for the station on the condition that its emissions were to be treated, to ensure they were "clean and smokeless".[15]

 

Construction of the first phase (the A Station) began in March 1929. The main building work was carried out by John Mowlem & Co,[17] and the structural steelwork erection carried out by Sir William Arrol & Co. Other contractors were employed for specialist tasks.[16] Most of the electrical equipment, including the steam turbine turbo generators, was produced by Metropolitan-Vickers in Trafford Park, Manchester.[14] The building of the steel frame began in October 1930. Once completed, the construction of the brick cladding began, in March 1931. Until the construction of the B Station, the eastern wall of the boiler house was clad in corrugated metal sheeting as a temporary enclosure.[16] The A Station first generated electricity in 1933, but was not completed until 1935.[16][18] The total cost of its construction was £2,141,550.[16] Between construction beginning in 1929 and 1933, there were six fatal and 121 non-fatal accidents on the site.[19]

 

After the end of the Second World War, construction began on the second phase, the B Station. The station came into operation gradually between 1953 and 1955.[14] It was nearly identical to the A Station from the outside and was constructed directly to its east as a mirror to it, which gave the power station its now familiar four-chimney layout. The construction of the B Station brought the site's generating capacity up to 509 megawatts (MW), making it the third largest generating site in the UK at the time, providing a fifth of London's electricity needs (with the remainder supplied by 28 smaller stations).[20] It was also the most thermally efficient power station in the world when it opened.[14]

 

The A Station had been operated by the London Power Company, but by the time the B Station was completed, the UK's electric supply industry had been nationalised, and ownership of the two stations had passed into the hands of the British Electricity Authority in 1948.[14]

 

On 20 April 1964, the power station was the site of a fire that caused power failures throughout London, including at the BBC Television Centre, which was due to launch BBC Two that night. The launch was delayed until the following day at 11 am.[21]

Design and specification

 

Battersea power station was designed in the brick cathedral style. It is now one of few existing examples in England of this once common design style.

 

Both of the stations were designed by a team of architects and engineers. The team was headed by Dr. Leonard Pearce, the chief engineer of the London Power Company, but a number of other notable engineers were also involved, including Henry Newmarch Allott, and T. P. O'Sullivan who was later responsible for the Assembly Hall at Filton. J. Theo Halliday was employed as architect, with Halliday & Agate Co. employed as a sub-consultant. Halliday was responsible for the supervision and execution of the appearance of the exterior and interior of the building. Architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was involved in the project much later on, consulted to appease public reaction, and referred to in the press as "architect of the exterior".[16] The station was designed in the brick-cathedral style of power station design, which was popular at the time.[22] Battersea is one of a very small number of examples of this style of power station design still in existence in the UK, others being Uskmouth and Bankside.[23] The station's design proved popular straightaway, and was described as a "temple of power", which ranked equal with St Paul's Cathedral as a London landmark. In a 1939 survey by The Architectural Review a panel of celebrities ranked it as their second favourite modern building.[24]

 

The A Station's control room was given many Art Deco fittings by architect Halliday. Italian marble was used in the turbine hall, and polished parquet floors and wrought-iron staircases were used throughout.[15] Owing to a lack of available money following the Second World War, the interior of the B Station was not given the same treatment, and instead the fittings were made from stainless steel.[25]

 

Each of the two connected stations consists of a long boiler house with a chimney at each end and an adjacent turbine hall. This makes a single main building which is of steel frame construction with brick cladding, similar to the skyscrapers built in the United States around the same time. The station is the largest brick structure in Europe.[14] The building's gross dimensions measure 160 metres (520 ft) by 170 metres (560 ft), with the roof of the boiler house standing at over 50 metres (160 ft). Each of the four chimneys is made from concrete and stands 103 metres (338 ft) tall with a base diameter of 8.5 metres (28 ft) tapering to 6.7 metres (22 ft) at the top. The station also had jetty facilities for unloading coal, a coal sorting and storage area, control rooms and an administration block.[16]

 

The A Station generated electricity using three turbo alternators; two 69 megawatt (MW) Metropolitan-Vickers British Thomson-Houston sets, and one 105 MW Metropolitan-Vickers set, totalling 243 MW. At the time of its commissioning, the 105 MW generating set was the largest in Europe.[26] The B Station also had three turbo alternators, all made by Metropolitan-Vickers. This consisted of two units which used 16 MW high-pressure units exhausting to a 78 MW and associated with a 6 MW house alternator, giving these units a total rating of 100 MW. The third unit consisted of a 66 MW machine associated with a 6 MW house alternator, giving the unit a rating of 72 MW. Combined, these gave the B station a generating capacity of 260 MW, making the site's generating capacity 503 MW. All of the station's boilers were made by Babcock & Wilcox, fuelled by pulverised coal from pulverisers also built by Babcock & Wilcox. There were nine boilers in the A station and six in the B station. The B station's boilers were the largest ever built in the UK at that time. The B station also had the highest thermal efficiency of any power station in the country for the first twelve years of its operation.[27]

Operations

Coal transportation

Coal was usually brought to the station by collier ships, and unloaded by cranes, which are still intact on the station's riverfront.

 

The power station consumed over 1,000,000 tonnes of coal annually, mostly from pits in South Wales and North East England, delivered by coastal collier ships. They were "flat-irons"[28] with a low-profile superstructure and fold-down funnels and masts to fit under the Thames' bridges above the Pool of London. The LPC and its nationalised successors owned and operated several "flat-irons" for the service.[28]

 

Coal was usually delivered to the jetty where two cranes, capable of unloading two ships at a time at a rate of 480 tonnes an hour, offloaded coal. Some coal was delivered by rail to the east of the station from the Brighton Main Line which passes nearby. A conveyor belt system moved the coal to a storage area or directly to the station's boiler rooms. The conveyor belt system consisted of a series of bridges connected by towers. The storage area was a large concrete box capable of holding 75,000 tonnes of coal. It had an overhead gantry and a conveyor belt attached to the conveyor belt system for moving coal to the boiler rooms.[15][16]

Water system

 

Water, essential to a thermal power station, is used to condense steam from the steam turbines before it is returned to the boiler. Water cycled through the power station's systems was taken from the Thames. The station could extract an average of 1.5 gigalitres (340,000,000 imperial gallons) of water from the river each day.[15]

 

After the end of World War II, the London Power Company used the waste heat to supply the Pimlico District Heating Undertaking.[15]

Scrubbers

 

The reduction of sulphur emissions was an important factor from when the station was in the design stages, as it was one of the main concerns of the protesters. The London Power Company developed an experimental technique for washing flue gases in 1925. It used water and alkaline sprays over scrubbers of steel and timber in flue ducts. The gases were subject to continuous washing, as to the principal acid pollutant by using catalyst iron oxide, the sulphur dioxide was converted into sulphuric acid. The plant was one of the world's first commercial applications of this technique. This process was stopped in the B Station in the 1960s, when it was discovered that the discharge of these products into the Thames was more harmful than sulphur dioxide would be to the atmosphere.[16]

.

Closure and redevelopment

Closure

The station in November 1986, three years after ceasing to generate electricity

 

The station's demise was caused by its output falling with age, coupled with increased operating costs, such as flue gas cleaning. On 17 March 1975, the A Station was closed after being in operation for 40 years.[31][32] By this time the A Station was co-firing oil and its generating capacity had declined to 228 MW.[32]

 

Three years after the closure of the A Station, rumours began to circulate that the B Station would soon follow. A campaign was then launched to try to save the building as part of the national heritage. As a result, the station was declared a heritage site in 1980, when the Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Heseltine, awarded the building Grade II listed status.[31] (This was upgraded to Grade II* listed in 2007.)[33] On 31 October 1983 production of electricity at Station B also ended, after nearly 30 years of operation.[32][34] By then the B Station's generating capacity had fallen to 146 MW.[32] The closure of the two stations was put down largely to the generating equipment becoming outdated, and the preferred choice of fuel for electricity generation shifting from coal toward oil, gas and nuclear power.[16]

Theme park proposal

The station's roof was removed in the late 1980s, when there were plans to convert the structure into a theme park.

 

Following the station's closure, the Central Electricity Generating Board had planned to demolish the station and sell the land for housing, but because of the building's then Grade II listed status, they had to pay the high cost of preserving the building. In 1983 they held a competition for ideas on the redevelopment of the site. It was won by a consortium led by developer David Roche[35] and which included John Broome, owner of Alton Towers Ltd. This consortium proposed an indoor theme park, with shops and restaurants. At an estimated cost of £35 million, the scheme was risky and would require over 2 million visitors a year to make any profit. The scheme received planning approval in May 1986 and the site was purchased by John Broome for £1.5 million in 1987. Work on converting the site began the same year.[34] British Rail planned to procure three electric multiple unit trains, designated "Class 447", to run a shuttle service from London Victoria station to the theme park.[36]

 

The project was halted in March 1989, for lack of funding, after costs had quickly escalated that January, from £35 million to £230 million. By this point huge sections of the building's roof had been removed, so that machinery could be taken out. Without a roof, the building's steel framework had been left exposed and its foundations were prone to flooding.[34]

 

In March 1990, the proposal was changed to a mixture of offices, shops and a hotel. This proposal was granted planning permission in August 1990, despite opposition from 14 independent organisations, including English Heritage. Despite permission being granted, no further work took place on the site between 1990 and 1993.[34]

Parkview proposal

 

In 1993, the site and its outstanding debt of £70 million were bought from the Bank of America by Hong Kong-based development company, Parkview International, for £10 million.[37] Following resolution of creditors' claims, it acquired the freehold title in May 1996. In November 1996 plans for the redevelopment of the site were submitted and outline consent was received in May 1997. Detailed consent for much of the site was granted in August 2000, and the rest in May 2001.[38] The company received full possession of the site in 2003. Having purchased the site, Parkview started work on a £1.1 billion project to restore the building and to redevelop the site into a retail, housing and leisure complex.[39]

 

During the Parkview era several masterplans for the site were developed by various architects and subsequently discarded.[35] One notable plan, called simply "The Power Station", was masterminded by architect Nicholas Grimshaw. The scheme proposed a shopping mall, with 40 to 50 restaurants, cafés and bars, 180 shops, as well as nightclubs, comedy venues and a cinema. Cosmopolitan shops would have been sited in the A Station's turbine hall, and label name shops in the B Station's turbine hall. The boiler house would have been glazed over and used as a public space for installations and exhibitions. A riverside walkway would also be created, running continuously along the riverside from Vauxhall to Battersea Park.[40]

 

Parkview claimed that 3,000 jobs would be created during the construction of the project, and 9,000 would be employed once completed, with an emphasis on local recruitment.[40] The Battersea Power Station Community Group campaigned against the Parkview plan and argued for an alternative community-based scheme to be drawn up. The group described the plans as "a deeply unattractive project that has no affordable housing anywhere on the 38-acre (150,000 m2) site, no decent jobs for local people and no credible public transport strategy".[41] They also criticised how appropriate the project was in its location, and proposal of other large buildings on the site. Keith Garner of the group said "I feel that there's a real problem of appropriateness. They need a completely different kind of scheme, not this airport-lounge treatment. What you see now is a majestic building looming up from the river. If you surround it with buildings 15 storeys high, you don’t have a landmark any more."[40]

 

In 2005 Parkview, English Heritage and the London Borough of Wandsworth claimed that the reinforcement inside the chimneys was corroded and irreparable. Wandsworth Council granted permission for them to be demolished and rebuilt. However, the Twentieth Century Society, the World Monuments Fund and the Battersea Power Station Company Ltd commissioned an alternative engineers' report that claimed that the existing chimneys could be repaired.[42] In response, Parkview claimed to have given a legally binding undertaking to the council to provide certainty that the chimneys will be replaced "like for like", in accordance with the requirements of English Heritage and the planning authorities.[43]

REO proposal

Real Estate Opportunities were granted permission to redevelop the power station in November 2010

 

On 30 November 2006, it was announced that Real Estate Opportunities, led by Irish businessmen Richard Barrett and Johnny Ronan of Treasury Holdings, had purchased Battersea Power Station and the surrounding land for €532 million (£400 million).[7][44] REO subsequently announced that the previous plan by Parkview had been dropped and that it had appointed the practice of the Uruguayan-born architect Rafael Viñoly of New York as the new master planner for the site.[5] The centrepiece of this masterplan was a 980-foot-high "eco tower" that dwarfed the power station and was described by London's then mayor Boris Johnson as an "inverted toilet-roll holder".[35] The tower was quickly dropped from the scheme. Jersey law firms, Ogier, Carey Olsen and Mourant Oxannes helped REO to raise funds for the new Battersea Power Station redevelopment.[45]

 

London Underground extension

Main article: Northern line extension to Battersea

 

A proposed part of the regeneration is an extension of the London Underground to serve the area. Although the site is close to Battersea Park and Queenstown Road stations, trains from these stations to Victoria and Waterloo respectively are already heavily loaded. The proposed 2-mile tunnelled extension would branch from the Northern line at Kennington and travel west to Nine Elms and Battersea. The proposed extension would cost at least £500 million in 2008 terms.[46]

 

Biomass power station

 

They include reusing part of the station building as a power station, fuelled by biomass and waste. The station's existing chimneys would be utilised for venting steam. The former turbine halls would be converted to shopping spaces, and the roofless boiler house used as a park.[5] An energy museum would also be housed inside the former station building. The restoration of the power station building would cost £150 million.[47]

 

Eco-dome

 

A plastic built "eco-dome" was to be built to the east of the power station.[5] This building was originally planned to have a large 300 metres (980 ft) chimney, but this has now been abandoned in favour of a series of smaller towers.[47] The eco-dome would house offices, and aim to reduce energy consumption in the buildings by 67% compared to conventional office buildings, by using the towers to draw cool air through the building. 3,200 new homes would also be built on the site to house 7,000 people.[5]

 

Consultation process

 

In June 2008 a consultation process was launched, which revealed that 66% of the general public were in favour of the plans. At an event at the station on 23 March 2009, it was announced that REO were to submit the planning application for their proposal to Wandsworth Council.[47]

 

Planning consent

 

The Council gave planning consent on 11 November 2010.[48] REO hoped for construction to begin in 2011, but this has now been cancelled.[49] The station structure itself was expected to be repaired and secure by 2016, with completion of the whole project by 2020.[5][48][47] Plans now include the construction of 3,400 apartments and 3,500,000-square-foot (330,000 m2) of office space.[49] Approximately 28,000 inhabitants and 25,000 workers are expected to occupy the space once complete.[50]

 

Lenders allow more time

 

Reuters reported on 1 September 2011 that lenders would allow more time for a new equity partner to be found:[51]

 

"Lenders to the owner of Battersea Power Station in London waived a debt maturity deadline yesterday while talks with potential new equity partners for its redevelopment continued, a source close to the process told Reuters. AIM-listed Real Estate Opportunities is seeking a partner for the 5.5 billion pound ($9 billion) development, and its senior lenders Lloyds and Ireland's National Asset Management Agency have already extended a deadline once relating to the 400 million pounds REO paid for the site in 2006. 'The banks have nothing to gain by calling the debt in. Talks with new equity partners continue, and an announcement may come in the next few weeks,' the source said".

 

However, in November 2011, Lloyds and NAMA called in the debt and the REO scheme collapsed into administration.[52]

Farrell and Partners Urban Park proposal

Battersea Power Station from the Chelsea Bridge

 

In February 2012, Sir Terry Farrell's architectural firm put forward a proposal to convert the power station site into an "urban park" with an option to develop housing at a later date. In this vision, Farrells propose to demolish all but the central boiler hall and chimneys and display the switching equipment from the control rooms in 'pods'. However, this plan was always unlikely to bear fruit due to the Grade II listing status of the building.[53]

Chelsea F.C. Interest

 

On 9 November 2008, Chelsea F.C. was reported to be considering moving to a new purpose built stadium at Battersea Power Station. The proposed stadium was to hold between 65,000 and 75,000 fans and feature a retractable roof. The proposals were designed by HOK Sport, the same company who designed Wembley Stadium. However, the Chelsea F.C. scheme was seriously in doubt due to concerns for the preservation of the site and the collapse of the REO scheme in late November 2011.[54]

Ambox current red Americas.svg

 

This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Section is several years out of date. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (June 2020)

2012 redevelopment plans

See also: Northern line extension to Battersea

The power station's 39-acre site received much interest, with many submitting bids in the 2012 sale.

Potential buyers were required to preserve the station's Grade II* listed four iconic chimneys and lime wash towers.

 

Following the failure of the REO bid to develop the site, in February 2012, Battersea Power Station was put up for sale on the open market for the first time in its history. The sale was conducted by the commercial estate agent, Knight Frank, on behalf of the site's creditors. In May 2012, several bids were received for the landmark site, which was put on the market after Nama and Lloyds Banking Group called in loans held by Treasury Holdings' Real Estate Opportunities (REO). Bids were received from Chelsea F.C. with other interested parties including a Malaysian interest, SP Setia, London & Regional, a company owned by the London-based Livingstone brothers, and housebuilder Berkeley. The net price was £400 million which would discharge the £325 million to cover the debts held by Nama and Lloyds plus a £100 million contribution to the Northern line extension. If the sale was unsuccessful, the administrator or its agent(s) would have kept the landowner's duty to maintain and preserve the site per its listed status.[55]

 

On 7 June 2012, Knight Frank announced that administrators Ernst & Young had entered into an exclusive agreement with Malaysian developers SP Setia and Sime Darby, who were given 28 days to conduct due diligence and agree the final terms of the deal. Completion of the sale to the Malaysian consortium took place in September 2012.[56] The redevelopment of the site will use the existing Vinoly master plan which intends to position the Power Station as the central focus of the regenerated 42-acre site, housing a blend of shops, cafes, restaurants, art and leisure facilities, office space and residential accommodation. The plan includes the restoration of the historic Power Station itself, the creation of a new riverside park to the north of the Power Station and the creation of a new High Street which is designed to link the future entrance to Battersea Power Station tube station with the Power Station. The redevelopment is hoped to bring about the extension of the existing riverside walk and facilitate access directly from the Power Station to Battersea Park and Chelsea Bridge.[57] The full redevelopment consists of eight main phases, some of which are planned to run concurrently. The plan includes over 800 homes of varying sizes.[58]

 

Construction work on Phase 1, called Circus West Village, designed by architects SimpsonHaugh and dRMM, is being undertaken by Carillion and commenced in 2013 alongside work on the Power Station.[59] Phase 1 was completed in 2017, with the Northern line extension and its new Battersea Power Station terminus anticipated to be completed in 2021.[60] Circus West Village now has over 1500 residents and over 23 restaurants, cafes and retailers now open.[61][62]

 

WilkinsonEyre was appointed in 2013 to carry out the restoration of the Grade II* listed Power Station.[63] Work commenced in 2013 and plans included the restoration of the art deco structure internally and externally, reconstruction of the chimneys, and refurbishment of the historic cranes and jetty as a new river taxi stop.[64] Restoration work on the power station's chimneys was completed in 2017.[65] In 2019, the jetty in front of the power station opened to the public for the first time in its history.[66] Retail brands set to open outlets inside the power station include Hugo Boss, Jo Malone London, Uniqlo, Mac Cosmetics, Space NK, Finlay & Co and Watches of Switzerland.[67][68] In May 2020, the first residents moved into their new homes at the power station.[69] As part of the development, a 200-seat theatre, the Turbine Theatre, was established in railway arches under the Grosvenor Bridge in September 2019.[70]

 

In October 2013, Frank Gehry was appointed joint architect with Foster + Partners to design "Phase 3" of the scheme, which will provide "the gateway to the entire development and the new Northern line extension".[71]

Apple

 

In September 2016, Apple announced plans to renovate and eventually house 1,400 employees at the station by 2021, occupying around 500,000 square feet of the space. Apple and other firms will share the site with over 4,000 homes.[72]

In popular culture

The station has become an iconic structure and has been featured in many forms of culture in its more than eighty-year history.

Main article: Battersea Power Station in popular culture

 

Battersea Power Station has become an iconic structure, being featured in or used as a shooting location for many films, television programmes, music videos and video games. One of the station's earliest appearances on film was in Alfred Hitchcock's 1936 film Sabotage, which shows the station before the construction of the B station.[73] The station makes a brief appearance in The Beatles' second film, Help!, in 1965. It also appears during the first daylight attack on London sequence in the 1969 movie Battle of Britain, in the movie as in real life used as a navigational landmark by the attacking Luftwaffe bombers.

 

One of the likely reasons for the power station's worldwide recognition is its appearance on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album, Animals, which sold millions of copies worldwide. The cover photograph showed the power station with the group's inflatable pink pig floating above it. The photographs were taken in early December 1976 and the inflatable pig was made by the German company Ballon Fabrik and Australian artist Jeffrey Shaw.[74][75] The inflatable pig was tethered to one of the power station's southern chimneys, but broke loose from its moorings and, to the astonishment of pilots in approaching planes, drifted into the flight path of Heathrow Airport. Police helicopters tracked its course, until it landed in Kent.[76] Video footage of the photoshoot was used in the promotional video for the song "Pigs on the Wing".[77] The album was officially launched at an event at the power station.[76]

 

The interior of the A station's control room was used for the "Find the Fish" segment of Monty Python's 1983 film, The Meaning of Life.[78]

 

A close-up of the station can be seen as stand-in for the exterior of a London railway station in Michael Radford's 1984 film, Nineteen Eighty-Four.[79]

 

The station was used several times by ambient house band The Orb on the covers of their albums - the founder of the band Alex Patterson having being born and raised in Battersea - including The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. The band also parodied Pink Floyd's inflatable pig flying over Battersea Power Station on the cover of their Live 93 album, which featured a floating toy sheep named Flossie hovering above a similar power station.[citation needed]

 

The station's ruined interior was also used for the climactic battle of the 1995 Richard Loncraine/Ian McKellen film of Shakespeare's Richard III, reimagined in 1930s England.

 

The station appears in a scene in the 2006 movie Children of Men. A pig balloon also appears in the scene as homage to Pink Floyd's Animals.[80]

 

In October 2007, the power station was used as a filming location for the Batman movie The Dark Knight. The station's stripped, empty interior was used as a setting for a burnt-out warehouse.[81]

 

The station has appeared numerous times in the long-running British science fiction TV series Doctor Who. It appeared briefly in the story The Dalek Invasion of Earth in 1964, which saw the station in the 22nd century with two chimneys demolished, and a nearby nuclear reactor dome.[82] Another notable appearance in the show was in the 2006 two-parter "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel" in which it served as the factory of Cybus Industries, producing Cybermen, one of the show's most iconic villains.

 

The opening sequence of the Agatha Christie's Poirot television series, set in 1936 England, features a stylized rendering of the A Station, accentuating its iconic Art Deco architecture.

 

In recent years, the power station has been used for various sporting, cultural and political events. Since 22 August 2009, the station has been used as a venue on the Red Bull X-Fighters season.[83] On 13 April 2010 the station was used as the venue for the launch of the Conservative Party's 2010 general election manifesto.[84] Between 6 and 7 May 2010, the station site was used by Sky News in their coverage of the election.[85]

 

Recently, Spanish poet Eduardo Moga has written about the building;[86] and a picture of it by Joel P. has been used as the cover for another Spanish writer's short tale: David Ferrer's La verdad sobre Mr. Henry Baker (cuento de Navidad).[87]

 

The building appears in the 2020 video game Watch Dogs: Legion. In the game, set in the near future, the power station has been converted into a shopping complex, named The Battersea, similar to the proposals made for the real site.

Like Monty Python's Black Knight, the crab loses one appendage after another but keeps on fighting. Yellow-crowned Night Heron with Blue Crab on Horsepen Bayou.

Hells Grannies, Monty Python sketch.

 

This is a frightened city. Over these streets, over these houses, lies a pall of fear. An ugly kind of violence is rife, stalking the town. Yes, gangs of vicious old ladies are attacking fit, defenceless young men.

 

“We've been having a lot of trouble with these Grannies. Pensioner's Day's the worst. As soon as they get it, they blow the lot - on milk, tea, sugar, bit of meat for the cat.„

~ Police officer describing the situation with his infamous "Make tea not war" sign.

 

Hell's Grannies are an evil gang of old ladies in a parody crime documentary sketch in Monty Python's Flying Circus. The cause chaos in Bolton by tormenting random young people, shoving people off of the pavement, making graffiti, stealing telephone boxes, and riding motorcycles.

 

Nature

They like causing as much chaos as possible but are rivaled by other gangs, including the Baby Snatchers, and vicious gangs of keep-left signs. The Grannies, however, are the real threat and are known to have "no respect for race, creed, or sex. Theirs is a tough world, a world in which the surgical stockings are king".

 

Behavior

When trying to find a reason for the Grannies' descent into violence (especially on Pension Day) a sociologist, played by Eric Idle, debates whether it is the Grannies witnessing their sons and daughters growing up to become accountants, solicitors, sociologists, even, is what is the whole crux of the problem. He then wonders if that makes the Grannies descend into violence through frustration and a general rage against the machine at human stupidity. He then falls screaming into a human-shaped hole in the street the mischievous Grannies have left for him.

 

Rivalry with other gangs

The Grannies are under fire from other aforementioned gangs, but they nonetheless make up for it by being as menacing as they can. "Uh, sometimes there's four or five of them. It's not even safe to go out down to the shops anymore," complains a Hell's Angel in one scene.

 

In their spare time, the Grannies give fake interviews to police about the reason for their crimes, citing "Oh, the violence. The prestige mainly. Getting free gifts, kicking the knee in the groin. We like pulling the heads off sheep...!" "And tea cakes," reminds another Granny, causing a general "Oh yes!" all around.

 

They are sucking Bolton dry by buying everyone else's much-needed food supplies like tea and sugar. The authorities seem to be at a general loss of how to deal with the Grannies as featured in the documentary, and adding to the problem, the Grannies like abducting telephone boxes "a prime target for vandalism" in their spare time.

Pictured from top left are Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre, all prominent philosophers. Even though they are all dead, they still must face the challenge.

 

As an aside, Jean-Paul Sartre is the only one of these three who managed not to be included in Monty Python's infamous The Philosopher's Song.

I always have to sing the Monty Python's Spam song every time I see a can. I've never nibbled on pig's feet, don't fancy oysters, and am suspicious of Spam, I guess I'll choose Vienna sausage, sounds very continental :)

I was at the George Brown botanical Gardens, in Darwin today. Great, some sort of Phython laying on a branch in a rain tree.

A few good snaps with the telephoto lens only to find out very shortly after that this is a fake, a replica, not real. The council workers must have put it there as it is too high to reach without a 'çherry picker' or similar.

So here I am, in generic warehouse #1, trying to save Lana. But of course, making things difficult, is Princess Python, and her Femme Fatales, which includes at least two others. For simplicities sake, I'll call the one with the tail Scorpia, and the other one Beetle, as their look reminds me of a Beetle. Suddenly, 4 others emerge from the shadows. Two of them I recognize as being Screwball, and Skein, both of which I've fought before. Thought Screwball went to prison though.. Anyways, one of the ones I don't recognize, is dressed in red and black, with the other having black feathered wings. Seven versus one, I'm really not liking these odds. The one in black and red steps forward, and starts speaking.

 

"Why is she tied up? She's not our prisoner.. Untie her now!" Her voice cuts through the emptiness of the room as she speaks. Scorpia and Bombshell do as their told and untie Lana.

 

"Mom? What's going on? Why are you with these people? Are you okay?" Wait a minute, that's Lana's mother? The one that's supposedly captured.

 

Lana's Mother: "I'm fine Lana. Me being captured was all a ruse. You wouldn't have done jobs as Bombshell without some sort of incentive."

 

Lana: "WHAT? You're telling me after all this time, that you planned all of this?! For what? Me to be your errand girl. You don't even care!"

 

Bomb-shell: "But I do care sweetie.. You know how our powers work better with us on the same side! I brought you here now, so you could be part of this. Part of the Femme Fatales! Mother and daughter, working together as the Bombshells! Wreaking havoc on New York!"

 

Lana: "You sure have a bad way of showing you 'care'. Kidnapping me to join your band of merry freaks. Yeah, no thanks.. I thought you'd changed. But man, was I wrong.. It's time I stop pretending you'll get better. Once a monster, always a monster!" Her voice filled with anger, her eyes start to glow pink. Guess it's time to get ready for the fight of my life. Her mini explosion sends the Screwball, Skein, Lana's mother, and the winged person flying across the room. It doesn't seem to affect her mother all that much, as she gets up from the explosion rather quickly.

 

Bomb-shell: "You ungrateful little $@#*%. After everything I've done for you, this is what I get in return. You just made the biggest mistake of your life Lana.."

 

Lana: "Actually, I think it's one of the first right things I've done."

 

"You're not going to kill her are you?" I ask, hoping that Lana doesn't screw up her future by the choices she makes today.

 

"Of course not Spidey! I'm better than she is. But you definitely need all the help you can get, and I'm fired up."

 

"This is going to get me my highest viewership yet!" I hear Screwball scream from the other side of the room.

 

"Shut up and kill them already!" Bomb-shell yells, pointing at me and Lana.

 

"So, the Femme Fatales aren't under your control Princess Python? Huh, well I figured given your whole speech about your Femme Fatales killing me that you were the leader of this group. Guess I was wrong!" I say, trying to turn her against Bomb-Shell

 

"They are! Bomb-Shell is merely my right handed woman who sometimes forgets her place among us. Anyways, it's about time we finished you off for good."

 

With that, the fight begins, with Beetle, and Scorpia rushing at Lana. Scorpia tries stabbing Lana with her tail, but I shoot a webline at Scorpia's tail, pulling her away from Lana. Lana creates an explosion above Beetle, sending parts of the catwalk hurtling down to the ground. Beetle's able to narrowly dodge it. Princess Python's python slithers towards me, trying to I don't know, bite, or suffocate me. Princess herself stays back, seemingly over reliant on her Femme Fatales. Screwball, Skein, and the bird girl come towards me, with Skein binding me in place with strands of cloth. The bird girl dives down at me, and slashes at me with her talons, before flying away. Screwball can't stop herself from smiling, as she skates around on her skateboard. I attach my webline to the wall, acting as a tripwire of sorts. As she's too focused on getting good angles for her livestream, she doesn't notice it. Once she hits the webline, she gets sent right into the ground.

 

"To me Raptor! Fly me up!" I hear Skein say to the bird girl.

 

Raptor eh? Good to know.. Raptor proceeds to pick up Skein, and flies up high, dropping her. Skein manipulates her cloth into multiple drills, that come spinning towards me as she falls. Lana explodes the cloth binding me, but as I'm still within range, so the impact pushes me back a little. I take that opportunity to get out-of-the-way of Skein's drills.

 

"Sorry P-- I mean Spidey.. I reduced the damage as much I could, but still kept it powerful enough to destroy the strands of cloth." How does Lana know? I feel around my head, and realize that the bird girl actually took my mask off with her flurry of attacks. I quickly pull my mask to me, and put it on before they notice my exposed face.

 

"Ah, it's no big deal! Tis but a scratch!"

 

"Did you really just quote that now?" Lana asks, almost as if she's surprised, while she dodges Scorpia's tail. I slingshot myself towards Scorpia, and when I release, it's only a matter of moments before my legs collide with Scorpia's stomach, sending her across the room, crashing into some wooden crates. Beetle starts shooting me with her energy beams, which I can only assume are built into the suit. I toss some crates in the way of her blasts, while dodging the rest of them. My spider sense goes off, but it's too late as an explosion goes off behind me, in which I go crashing into Lana.

 

"Sorry, I tend to quote movies when I get nervous." I say while panting, trying to catch my breath as I get up off the ground. I extend my hand to help her up, and she takes it.

 

"Right.. By the way, you're explaining yourself when this is all over.." Lana whispers in my ear, before running off to fight Raptor. Suddenly, I hear a loud crashing noise. I don't notice anything until I look over at the window up near the catwalk. The glass is all but gone from the window, and the figure standing there is someone I recognize. It's Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, who's bad luck can really even the odds in our favour.. Wow, talk about good timing.

 

"Hey Spider, need a hand?" She asks after leaping her way down to end up beside me.

 

"The more the merrier I say! Let's do this!" I reply, excited that I have friends that I can rely on. Three vs Six, (since Screwball is essentially down for the count. Even if she wasn't, let's just say she's not really one I'm worried about). The odds are growing by the minute!

Worthing is one of a few locations in Sussex for a Police Hub. These small buildings are about the size of a garden shed, and manned by police officers at certain times each week. As I passed by this one today, I wouldn't have given it a second glance until I noticed the weird stare from the officers featured in the photograph. Someone had decided to decorate the image with googly eyes, which reminded me of Terry Gilliam's famous animations in Monty Python's Flying Circus.

My Website : Twitter : Facebook : Instagram : Photocrowd

 

Seemingly the Singing Binman is something of a Cambridge celebrity having appeared on Britain's Got Talent' a few years ago. I'd certainly not seen anything like this before but it appears the BGT judges were less than impressed, with Amanda Holden declaring it "Rubbish"!

 

Back in June I took part in the annual Photo24 challenge along with about 200 other photographers. Having taken part in the event in London for about seven years for the first time the event was held in Cambridge.

 

Click here to see more of my photos from this event : www.flickr.com/photos/darrellg/albums/72177720309508217

 

From the Ely Standard, " Cambridge's famous "singing bin man" made a bid for £250,000 and a spot on the Royal Variety Performance by auditioning for Britain's Got Talent.

 

Charlie Cavey, 43, usually busks from his bin on King's Parade, next to King's College in Cambridge city centre.

 

But the unusual busker starred in the prime-time ITV programme last night (Saturday, April 23), and treated a studio audience and viewers at home to his rendition of Monty Python's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".

 

Charlie, who is 5ft 9, and his litter bin were wheeled on stage by two crew members. Amanda Holden asked the guitarist: "What are you hoping that comes from this?"

 

"A bigger bin," fellow judge Simon Cowell quipped.

 

Charlie said that he wanted to tour the world, before David Walliams replied: "You'll need a wheelie bin for that."

 

Charlie was given less than two minutes on air. Despite his audience singing along with the Monty Python favourite, all four BGT judges buzzed Charlie off."

 

© D.Godliman

Zeiss Ikon Superikonta (531/16) w/ Novar Anastigmat 75 mm/f3,5.

July 24, 2021.

 

Fomapan 100 in Rodinal 1+100, semistand 1 h.

 

Printed on Fotokemika Varycon PE/G (18x24 cm) and toned in Selenium.

 

Reference to Monty Python's "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". Sorry, Selma...

Time to pick up the "Holy Handgrenade"...

 

There is sunshine on the left and the storm on the right of the castle .The original Castle was a small fort, built around 1320 by Clan MacDougall.Recognise from Monty Python's cult classic The Holy Grail?

A Selection Of Scenes From Monty Python's Life Of Brian.

 

Monty Python Enjoy 'Stoning', 'Romans Go Home', 'What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?', 'Hermit', 'Biggus Dickus', 'He's Not The Messiah' and, the grand finale, 'Always Look on the Bright Side of LIfe', in all their glory!

 

Published on Nov 16, 2015

youtu.be/yuu9YH7_-T8

Official Monty Python Channel

Somehow this reminds me of Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuW6tQ0218

 

For those of you outside of the UK, Slow worms (Anguis fragilis) are one of three native lizard species that we have here. Sadly I haven't seen a live one for many years.

 

Ahhh!! Monty Python's Flying Circus!! I tivo-ed it and am now watching it. It's utterly fantastic, and it's been much too long since I'd last seen it. PBS had to be all lousy and stop playing it on Saturday nights. So, yayyy, BBC!!

 

Has anyone seen the Fred youtube videos? If not, you should watch them. They're pretty funny. But some people really hate them.

 

Listened to Lovers in Japan!! I don't know how people get all of these Coldplay songs before they're even released. Anyway, it's good, not my favorite, but I really do like it.

 

Blah.

 

I have nothing to say.

Black Knight scene from Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail.

American postcard by Portfolio, NY, NY, no. P45. Photo: Louis Goldman, 1963.

 

British comedian Peter Sellers (1925-1980) was an incredibly versatile actor. He played Chief Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films with as much ease as Clare Quilty in Lolita (1962). Stanley Kubrick asked him to play three roles in Dr. Strangelove (1964) for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

 

Richard Henry Sellers was born in 1925 in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth, England. He was literally born into show business. His parents, William "Bill" Sellers and Agnes Doreen "Peg" née Marks, were vaudeville performers in an acting company run by his grandmother, and Peter arrived while they were appearing in Southsea. Although christened Richard Henry, his parents called him Peter, after his elder stillborn brother. He made his stage debut at the Kings Theatre, Southsea, when he was two weeks old. Sellers remained an only child. He began accompanying his parents in a variety act that toured the provincial theatres, causing much upheaval and unhappiness in the young Sellers' life. Sellers studied dance as a child before attending St. Aloysius’ Boarding and Day School for Boys. As a teenager, he learned to play the drums and played with jazz bands. At the age of 18, Sellers entered the Royal Air Force during World War II. There he became part of a group of entertainers who performed for the troops. Sellers played his drums and did dead-on impersonations of some of the officers. After the war, he struggled to launch his comic career for several years. After several previous attempts, Sellers managed to land work with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) by winning over radio producer Roy Speer during a phone conversation. His spot-on impersonations helped to make him a beloved radio comedian. In 1951, Sellers joined fellow comics Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine for The Goon Show. The program proved to be hugely popular with listeners who tuned in to hear their absurd skits and bits. The success of The Goon Show helped Sellers break into films. In 1951 the Goons made their feature film debut in Penny Points to Paradise (Anthony Young, 1951). Sellers and Milligan then penned the script to the short Let's Go Crazy (Alan Cullimore, 1951), the earliest film to showcase Sellers's ability to portray a series of different characters within the same film, and he made another appearance opposite his Goons co-stars in the flop, Down Among the Z Men (Maclean Rogers, 1952). In 1954, Sellers was cast opposite Sid James, Donald Pleasence and Eric Sykes in the comedy Orders Are Orders (David Paltenghi, 1955). Then he landed a part as one of the oddball criminals in the classic Ealing comedy The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick, 1955) with Alec Guinness. The Ladykillers was a success in both Britain and the US, and the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Sellers starred with David Tomlinson and Wilfrid Hyde-White as a chief petty officer in Up the Creek (Val Guest, 1958). In 1959, his career really took off with the satire I’m All Right, Jack (John and Roy Boulting, 1959). For his part as Fred Kite, the dogmatic communist union man, he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. In The Mouse That Roared (Jack Arnold, 1959) with Jean Seberg, Sellers played three characters: the elderly Grand Duchess, the ambitious Prime Minister and the innocent and clumsy farm boy selected to lead an invasion of the United States. This box office hit helped to introduce Sellers to the American audiences. In 1959 he was also nominated for an Academy Award for the eleven-minute short The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (Richard Lester, Peter Sellers, 1959). Sellers portrayed an Indian doctor, Dr Ahmed el Kabir opposite Sophia Loren in the romantic comedy The Millionairess (Anthony Asquith, 1960) based on the George Bernard Shaw play. The Goon Show ended its run in 1960, but the program proved to be a strong influence on British comedy. It paved the way for such future comedy shows as Monty Python's Flying Circus.

 

Peter Sellers hit his stride in the early 1960s with three of his most famous roles. Stanley Kubrick asked him to play the role of the mentally unbalanced TV writer Clare Quilty in Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962), opposite Sue Lyon, James Mason and Shelley Winters. Sellers introduced audiences to the world’s most bumbling detective, French Inspector Jacques Clouseau, in Blake Edwards’s The Pink Panther (1963). The film proved to be a huge success, and it was quickly followed by the sequel A Shot in the Dark (Blake Edwards, 1964) again with Herbert Lom as Commissioner Dreyfus and Burt Kwouk as Cato. Andrew Spicer in The Encyclopedia of British Cinema: “In Clouseau, Sellers combined his vocal ingenuity and skill as a slapstick comedian, yet always retained an essential humanity through the inspector's indefatigable dignity in the face of a hostile universe.” In Kubricks’s cold war satire Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964), Sellers once again showed his ability to tackle multiple characters the well-meaning US President Merkin Muffley, unflappable RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake and the nightmarish Dr. Strangelove himself, the government's adviser on nuclear warfare, who is unable to control his own body. His black gloved hand always tries to make a Nazi salute, expressing an ineradicable desire to dominate and destroy. Kubrick later commented that the idea of having Sellers in so many of the film's key roles was that "everywhere you turn there is some version of Peter Sellers holding the fate of the world in his hands". In 1964, Sellers had his first heart attack. He was reportedly clinically dead for two and a half minutes before being revived. This incident marked the beginning of his heart troubles, and he later had a pacemaker installed to help manage his heartbeat. Making a full recovery, Sellers continued to work in the cinema. What's New Pussycat (Clive Donner, 1965) with Peter O'Toole and Romy Schneider, was another big hit, but a combination of his ego and insecurity made Sellers difficult to work with. When the James Bond spoof, Casino Royale (Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, 1967) ran over budget and was unable to recoup its costs despite an otherwise healthy box-office take, Sellers received some of the blame. His films of the late 1960s and early 1970s had some decidedly mixed results.

 

It was his famed character Inspector Clouseau who gave Peter Sellers a boost at the box office with The Return of the Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1975) with Christopher Plummer and Catherine Schell. This hit spawned two more Pink Panther films, The Pink Panther Strikes Again (Blake Edwards, 1976), and Revenge of the Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1978). Sellers earned raves for his subtle, understated turn as the simple gardener Chance who becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful businessman and an insider in Washington politics in Being There (Hal Asby, 1979), a film adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski's novel. His character spouts ideas and comments based on his years of television-watching, which are confused by others as words of wisdom. Sellers earned a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for his performance. After making this remarkable black comedy, Sellers’s career seemed to be on an upswing. But he never lived to realise this new wave of potential. His last film was The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (Piers Haggard, 1980), a comedic re-imagining of the eponymous adventure novels by Sax Rohmer; Sellers played both police inspector Nayland Smith and Fu Manchu, alongside Helen Mirren and David Tomlinson. The film, completed just a few months before his death, proved to be another box office flop. Peter Sellers died in a London hospital in 1980, after suffering another heart attack. Sellers was only 54. In his personal life, Sellers struggled with depression and insecurities. Wikipedia: “An enigmatic figure, he often claimed to have no identity outside the roles that he played. His behaviour was often erratic and compulsive, and he frequently clashed with his directors and co-stars, especially in the mid-1970s when his physical and mental health, together with his alcohol and drug problems, were at their worst. Sellers was married four times”. He was survived by his fourth wife Lynne Frederick, and three children from his previous marriages. His son Michael and daughter Sarah came from his first marriage to Anne Howe and daughter Victoria came from his second marriage to actress Britt Ekland. He was also briefly married to Miranda Quarry from 1970 to 1974. Sellers was portrayed by Geoffrey Rush in the biopic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (Stephen Hopkins, 2004).

 

Sources: Andrew Spicer (The Encyclopedia of British Cinema), Ashley G. Mackinnon (IMDb), Biography.com Wikipedia and IMDb.

Reposting, since i updated all the links to youtube (some of the "videos" suck). The list itself needs a 2.0 version.

 

I love compiling music so i had to try this for the My Life Soundtrack Group.

  

Opening credits: Otterley by Cocteau Twins from Treasure (listen)

 

Waking up: Sunshine of Your Love by Rockers Hi-Fi & Ella Fitzgerald from Mojo Club - The Remix Album (listen)

 

Average day: King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown by Augustus Pablo from King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown (listen)

 

First date: Late Night by Syd Barret from The Madcap Laughs (listen)

 

Falling in love: Like Someone In Love by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers from At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 2 (listen)

 

Love scene: Slowly by Amon Tobin from Supermodified. (listen)

 

Fight scene: Theme from Enter The Dragon by Lalo Schifrin from Enter the Dragon BSO (listen)

 

Breaking up: Isn't it a Pity by Galaxie 500 (George Harrison cover) from On Fire. (listen)

 

Getting back together: Superstar by Sonic Youth (Carpenters cover) from If I Were a Carpenter (listen)

 

Secret love: Circe (Jazzanova Remix) by Ursula Rucker from Jazzanova's The Remixes 1997-2000 (disc 2) (listen)

 

Life's okay: Planetaria (a theme from a dream) by 4 Hero from Two Pages (listen)

 

Mental breakdown: Astronomy Domine by Voivod (Pink Floyd original from Nothingface (listen)

 

Driving: Nautilus by Bob James from One (listen)

 

Learning a lesson: Time Keeps on Slipping by Deltron 3030 (featuring Damon Albarn) from Deltron 3030 (listen)

 

Deep thought: Song to the Siren by The Czars (a Tim Buckley cover) also covered by This Mortal Coil [listen)

 

Flashback: Blue Nile by Alice Coltrane from Astral Meditations (listen)

 

Partying: Brown Paper Bag by Roni Size's Reprazent from New Forms (listen)

 

Happy dance: Galaxy Song by Eric Idle from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (listen)

 

Regretting: I am Wrong by NoMeansNo from Wrong (listen)

 

Long night alone: The Girls of Porn by Mr. Bungle from Mr. Bungle (listen)

 

Death scene: Midnight Cowboy by Faith no More from Angel Dust (listen)

 

Closing credits: Sun is Shining by DJ Krush & Toshinori Kondo (Bob Marley cover) from Ki-Oku (listen)

 

-------------

 

You can also hear my podcast or see the original image.

Having broken a bone in my ankle on Friday I'm delighted to have some bruising coming through now so my family realise I'm not being too overly dramatic. When I took a photo of it this morning I couldn't help but conjure up the image of the foot from the title credits of Monty Python's Flying Circus and simply had to combine the two for my POTD.

Aberystwyth is a university and seaside town as well as a community in Ceredigion, Wales. Located in the historic county of Cardiganshire, Aberystwyth means "the mouth of the Ystwyth". Aberystwyth University has been a major educational location in Wales since the establishment of University College Wales in 1872.

 

The town is situated on Cardigan Bay on the west coast of Wales, near the confluence of the River Ystwyth and Afon Rheidol. Following the reconstruction of the harbour, the Ystwyth skirts the town. The Rheidol passes through the town.

 

The seafront, with a pier, stretches from Constitution Hill at the north end of the Promenade to the harbour at the south. The beach is divided by the castle. The town is divided into five areas: Aberystwyth Town; Llanbadarn Fawr; Waunfawr; Llanbadarn; Trefechan; and the most populous, Penparcau.

 

In 2011 the population of the town was 13,040. This rises to nearly 19,000 for the larger conurbation of Aberystwyth and Llanbadarn Fawr.

  

Aberystwyth Bay from a 1748 survey by Lewis Morris (1701–1765)

The distance to Swansea is 55 miles (89 km); to Shrewsbury 60 miles (97 km); to Wrexham 63 miles (101 km); to Cardiff 76 miles (122 km); and to London 180 miles (290 km).

 

Aberystwyth is a university town and tourist destination, and forms a cultural link between North Wales and South Wales. Constitution Hill, scaled by the Aberystwyth Cliff Railway, gives access to panoramic views and to other attractions at the summit, including a camera obscura. Scenic Mid Wales landscape within easy reach of the town includes the wilderness of the Cambrian Mountains, whose valleys contain forests and meadows which have changed little in centuries. A convenient way to access the interior is by the preserved narrow-gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway.

 

Although the town is relatively modern, there are a number of historic buildings, including the remains of the castle and the Old College of Aberystwyth University nearby. The Old College was originally built and opened in 1865 as a hotel, but after the owner's bankruptcy the shell of the building was sold to the university in 1867.

 

The new university campus overlooks Aberystwyth from Penglais Hill to the east of the town centre. The station, a terminus of the main railway, was built in 1924 in the typical style of the period, mainly in a mix of Gothic, Classical Revival, and Victorian architecture.

 

The town is the unofficial capital of Mid Wales, and several institutions have regional or national offices there. Public bodies located in the town include the National Library of Wales, which incorporates the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, one of six British regional film archives. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales maintains and curates the National Monuments Record of Wales (NMRW), providing the public with information about the built heritage of Wales. Aberystwyth is also the home to the national offices of UCAC and Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society), and the site of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, the Welsh Books Council and the offices of the standard historical dictionary of Welsh, Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru. A purpose built Welsh Government office and an adjoining office of Ceredigion County Council are also located in the town.

 

At the 2001 census, the population of the town was 15,935. This reduced to 13,040 at the 2011 census. Including neighbouring Llanbadarn Fawr, the population was 16,420, and the greater Aberystwyth conurbation having a population of 18,749 in 2011

 

Aberystwyth experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) similar to almost all of the United Kingdom. This is particularly pronounced due to its west coast location facing the Irish Sea. Air undergoes little land moderation and so temperatures closely reflect the sea temperature when winds are coming from the predominant onshore (westerly) direction. The nearest Met Office weather station is Gogerddan, 3 miles to the northeast, and at a similar elevation.

 

The absolute maximum temperature is 34.6 °C (94.3 °F), set during July 2006. This is also the July record maximum for all of Wales, suggesting that the area's low lying situation, aided by a possible föhn effect when winds are offshore can act to achieve high temperatures on occasion. Typically the warmest day will average 28.0 °C (82.4 °F) and 5.6 days will achieve a maximum of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above.

 

The absolute minimum temperature is −13.5 °C (7.7 °F), set in January 2010. Typically 39.8 days will register an air frost.

 

Rainfall averages 1,112 mm (44 in) a year, with over 1mm recorded on 161 days. All averages refer to the 1981–2010 period.

 

There is evidence that during the Mesolithic Age the area of Tan-y-Bwlch at the foot of Pen Dinas (Penparcau) was used as a flint knapping floor for hunter-gatherers making weapons from flint that was deposited as the ice retreated.

 

The remains of a Celtic fortress on Pen Dinas (or more correctly 'Dinas Maelor'), a hill in Penparcau overlooking Aberystwyth, indicates that the site was inhabited before 700 BC. On a hill south of the present town, across the River Ystwyth, are the remains of a medieval ringfort believed to be the castle from which Princess Nest was abducted. This rare survival is now on private land and can only be accessed by arrangement.

 

The recorded history of Aberystwyth may be said to date from the building of a fortress in 1109 by Gilbert Fitz Richard (grandfather of Richard de Clare, known as Strongbow, the Cambro-Norman lord notable for his leading role in the Norman invasion of Ireland). Gilbert Fitz Richard was granted lands and the lordship of Cardigan by Henry I, including Cardigan Castle. The fortress built in Aberystwyth was located about a mile and a half south of today's town, on a hill over the south bank of the Ystwyth River, thus giving the settlement of Aberystwyth its name. The location is now known as Tan-Y-Castell.

 

Aberystwyth was usually under the control of the princes of Deheubarth, but its position close to the border with Gwynedd and Powys left it vulnerable to attacks from the leaders of those polities. The town was attacked by Gwenwynwyn ab Owain in 1197, an assault in which Maelgwn ap Rhys was captured. Llywelyn the Great attacked and seized the town in late 1208, building a castle there before withdrawing.

 

Edward I replaced Strongbow's castle in 1277, after its destruction by the Welsh. His castle was, however, built in a different location, at the current Castle Hill, the high point of the town. Between the years 1404 and 1408 Aberystwyth Castle was in the hands of Owain Glyndŵr but finally surrendered to Prince Harry (the future King Henry V of England). Shortly after this, the town was incorporated under the title of Ville de Lampadarn (the ancient name of the place being Llanbadarn Gaerog or the fortified Llanbadarn, to distinguish it from Llanbadarn Fawr, the village one mile (1.6 km) inland. It is thus styled in a Royal charter granted by Henry VIII but, by Elizabeth I's time, the town was invariably named Aberystwyth in all documents.

 

From 1639 to 1642, silver coins were minted at Aberystwyth Castle on behalf of the Royal Mint, using silver from local mines. £10,500 in currency was produced, equivalent to 2.5 million silver pennies.

 

In 1649, Parliamentarian troops razed the castle, although portions of three towers still exist. In 1988, an excavation within the castle area revealed a complete male skeleton, deliberately buried. Though skeletons rarely survive in Wales' acidic soil, this skeleton was probably preserved by the addition of lime from the collapsed building. Affectionately known as "Charlie" and now housed in the Ceredigion Museum in the town, he probably dates from the English Civil War period, and is likely to have died during the Parliamentarian siege. His image is featured in one of nine mosaics created to adorn the castle's walls.

 

The development of Aberystwyth's Port contributed to the town’s economic development during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Port improvements were carried out in both 1780 and 1836, with a new Customs House constructed in 1828. Rural industries and craftsmen were also an important part of life in this country town. The local trade directory for 1830 shows that there were in Aberystwyth: Twenty boot makers, eight bakers, two corn millers, eleven carpenters and joiners, one cooper, seven tailors, two dressmakers, two straw hat makers, two hat makers, three curriers, four saddlers, two tinsmiths, six maltsters, two skinners, four tanners, eight stonemasons, one brewer, four lime burners, three shipwrights, three wheelwrights, five cabinet makers, one nail maker, one rope maker and one sail maker.

 

The Cambrian Railways line from Machynlleth reached Aberystwyth in 1864, closely followed by rail links to Carmarthen, which resulted in the construction of the town's impressive station. The Cambrian line opened on Good Friday 1869, the same day that the new 292 metres (958 ft) Royal Pier (designed by Eugenius Birch) opened, attracting 7,000 visitors.

 

The railway's arrival gave rise to something of a Victorian tourist boom, with Aberystwyth becoming a significant holiday destination for working and middle class families from South Wales in particular. The town was once even billed as the "Biarritz of Wales". During this time, a number of hotels and fine townhouses were built including the Queens Hotel, later renamed Swyddfa'r Sir (County Office) when used as offices by the town council, and most recently used as the external scenes of the police station in the television show Hinterland. One of the largest of these hotels, "The Castle Hotel", was never completed as a hotel but, following bankruptcy, was sold cheaply to the Welsh National University Committee, a group of people dedicated to the creation of a Welsh University. The University College of Wales (later to become Aberystwyth University) was founded in 1872 in this building.

 

Aberystwyth was a contributory parliamentary borough until the Third Reform Act, which merged its representation into that of the county in 1885.

 

In 1895, various businessmen who had been behind the Aberystwyth New Harbour Company formed the Aberystwyth Improvement Company (AIC) to take over the works of the defunct Bourne Engineering & Electrical. In 1896, the AIC completed three projects: the new landside pavilion for the Royal Pier; built the Cambria Hotel (later the United Theological College) and formed Constitution Hill Ltd, to develop a Victorian theme park. Chief engineer George Croydon Marks designed all the AIC developments, including the United Kingdom's second longest funicular railway, which takes passengers up a 50% gradient to a park and camera obscura.

 

Aberystwyth hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1865, 1916, 1952 and 1992.

 

On the night of Friday, 14 January 1938, a storm with estimated wind speeds of up to 90 mph (140 km/h) struck the town. Most of the promenade was destroyed, along with 200 feet (60 m) of the pier. Many properties on the seafront were damaged, with every property from the King's Hall north affected; those on Victoria Terrace suffered the greatest damage. Work commenced on a protective coffer dam which continued into 1940, with total costs of construction coming to £70,000 (equivalent to £2.5 million today).

 

Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society) held their historic first protest on Trefechan Bridge in Aberystwyth, on 2 February 1963. The first independent Welsh Evangelical Church was established in Aberystwyth (see Evangelical Movement of Wales).

 

On 1 March 2005, Aberystwyth was granted Fairtrade Town status.

 

In March 2009 mayor Sue Jones-Davies, who had played the role of Judith Iscariot in the film Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), organised a charity screening of the film. Principal actors Terry Jones and Michael Palin also attended. There is a popular, but incorrect, urban myth that the town had banned the film (as some authorities did) when it was first released.

 

During the aftermath storms from Cyclone Dirk on Friday 3 January 2014, the town was one of the worst hit in Wales. Properties on the adjoining promenade were then evacuated for the next five days, including 250 students from the University. Ceredigion Council appealed to the Welsh Assembly Government for funds, whilst Natural Resources Wales undertook surveys and emergency preventative measures.

 

North Parade, Aberystwyth was reported to be the most expensive street in Wales in 2018, based on property prices.

 

Penglais Nature Park (Welsh: Parc Natur Penglais) is a woodland overlooking the town. The park was created in 1995 from a disused quarry and surrounding woodland that had formerly been part of the Richardes family estate. In spring a carpet of bluebells bloom, in common with the many other bluebell woods.

 

The park covers 27 acres (11 ha). It was the first Nature reserve to open in Ceredigion and is the only UNESCO Man and Biosphere urban reserve in Wales.

 

Aberystwyth's local government administration has a two-tier structure consisting of two separate councils. As local government is a devolved matter in Wales, the legislation for both Councils is a responsibility of the Senedd.

 

Aberystwyth Town Council is the first tier of local government, which is the closest to the general public; there are 19 elected town councillors from five wards. The last elections were held in 2022. The council is responsible for cycle paths, public footpaths, CCTV, public Wi-Fi, bus shelters, parks, gardens (including the castle grounds and the skateboard park) and allotments. The council is a statutory body which is consulted regarding planning decisions in the town area and makes recommendations to the planning authority, Ceredigion County Council. The Town Council is also involved in leisure, tourism, business (through providing more than half of Menter Aberystwyth's funding in grants), licence applications, wellbeing and environmental health, recycling and refuse collection.

 

A borough council existed in Aberystwyth from 1832 and the Aberystwyth School Board was established in 1870.

 

Ceredigion County Council is another statutory body incorporated by Act of Parliament. It is the second tier of local government in the area and is a unitary authority with a wide range of powers and responsibility. The Council deals with roads (except trunk roads), street lighting, some highways, social services, children and family care, schools and public libraries. Aberystwyth elects six of the 42 councillors in five separate wards (Bronglais, Central, North and Rheidol wards elect one councillor each while Penparcau ward elects two).

 

Aberystwyth has five Senedd members, one of whom (Elin Jones) was elected as a constituency MS for Ceredigion, and four who are elected on the regional list for Mid and West Wales.

 

The town is in the Ceredigion constituency for elections to the House of Commons. Since June 2017, Aberystwyth's MP has been Plaid Cymru's Ben Lake.

 

The first ever public library in Aberystwyth was opened in Compton House, Pier Street on 13 October 1874. In 1882 the library was moved to the Assembly Rooms which were leased to the council for 21 years. The lease expired in 1903 and the library returned to Pier Street, this time to the Old Banking Library at the corner with Eastgate Street, although this was short lived. A Carnegie library was built in Aberystwyth in 1905, with a grant of £3,000. Located in Corporation Street, it was designed by the architect Walter Payton of Birmingham, who was one of 48 who entered the competition to design the building. It was formally opened on 20 April 1906 by Mrs Vaughan Davies, wife of the local MP. The town library moved to Aberystwyth Town Hall, now known as Canolfan Alun R. Edwards, following the building's refurbishment in 2012.

 

The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales. Established in 1907, it is a Welsh Government sponsored body. According to Cyril Evans, the library's centenary events co-ordinator, "The library is considered to be one of the world's greatest libraries, and its international reputation is certainly something that all Welsh men and women are intensely ... proud of". Welsh is the main medium of communication within the organisation; it aims to deliver all public services in Welsh and English.

 

Aberystwyth Arts Centre is one of the largest and busiest arts centres in Wales. It encompasses a 312-seat theatre, 900-seat concert hall, 125-seat cinema, and has accompanied studio, galleries, plus public spaces which include cafes and a bar. Arad Goch is an Arts Council funded community theatre and art gallery based in the town. The premises holds a theatre, gallery, several art studios and meeting rooms, and a darkroom.

 

The town has three works by the Italian sculptor Mario Rutelli; the War Memorial on the promenade, the Tabernacle Chapel Memorial on Powell Street, and the statue of Edward VIII as Prince of Wales in the Old College. All are Grade II listed structures. Rutelli’s connection with the town came through Thomas Jenkins of Aberystwyth, who ran a shipping business. Jenkins was a frequent visitor to Italy where he admired Rutelli’s work. Jo Darke, in her work, The Monument Guide to England and Wales: A National Portrait in Bronze and Stone, describes Rutelli’s war memorial as “striking and rare” and suggests that the life-size statue of Edward VIII is the only recorded example.

 

Aberystwyth has a live music scene which has produced bands and artists such as: The Crocketts; The Hot Puppies; Murry the Hump; and The Lowland Hundred. The University Music Centre promotes a varied programme for instrumentalists, singers and listeners from the university and the wider community. The University chamber choir, The Elizabethan Madrigal Singers, have been singing in the town since 1950 and continue to hold a number of concerts throughout the year. Aberystwyth gives its name to a well known hymn tune composed by Joseph Parry.

 

Aberystwyth RFC is the local rugby union club and acts as a feeder club to professional side Scarlets. It was formed in 1947 and for the 2017/18 season played in the WRU Division One West. Aberystwyth Town F.C. is a semi-professional football club that was formed in 1884. The team currently compete in the Cymru Premier, Wales' top division. The town also has a cricket club which plays in local leagues, an athletics club (founded 1955), and boxing club in Penparcau. The town's golf course opened in 1911.

 

Ceredigion, the county in which Aberystwyth is located, is one of the four most Welsh-speaking counties in Wales and remained majority Welsh speaking until the 2011 census. Since the town's growth as a seaside resort in the Victorian era, it has been more anglicised than its hinterland and the rest of the county in general. The university has also attracted many English-speaking students from England, non-Welsh speaking parts of Wales and elsewhere. The 1891 census recorded that, of the 6635 inhabitants who completed the language section, 3482 (52.5%) were bilingual, 1751 (26.4%) were Welsh monoglots, and 1402 people (21.1%) were returned as English monoglots. Ceredigion (then named Cardiganshire) as a whole was 95.2% Welsh-speaking and 74.5% monoglot Welsh. Although the town remained majority Welsh-speaking for many more decades, English had already replaced Welsh in certain domains, such as entertainment and tourism. By 1961, only 50.0% of the town's population could speak Welsh, compared to 79.5% for Cardiganshire as a whole; by 1971, these numbers had fallen to 44.9% and 67.6% respectively. The 2001 census reported that, in the seven wards of Aberystwyth, 39% of the residents self-identified as able to speak or read or write Welsh. This is lower than Ceredigion as a whole (54%) but higher than Wales overall (19%).

 

Aberystwyth parish church is St Michael's and All Angels, located in Laura Place. The parish was a Rectoral Benefice until 2019, incorporating the Anglican churches of Holy Trinity, Santes Fair (services in Welsh) and Saint Anne's, Penparcau. The Rectoral Benefice has now been converted to a local ministry area (LMA). The church was built between 1886 and 1890, replacing an earlier church. It was designed in a Gothic Revival style and is a Grade II listed building.

 

In addition to the Anglican churches, there are many existing and former Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapels that have these days merged into Saint David's (United Reformed) and Capel y Morfa (Welsh language services). A former Calvinistic Methodist Sunday school house, Ysgoldy Tanycae, is now the meeting place of the Elim Pentecostal church. Meanwhile there is a Wesleyan Methodist church, Saint Paul's Methodist Centre, located in Bath Street. An Independent Baptist church is located in Alfred Place. In 2021, amid some controversy, Aberystwyth's Catholic church, Saint Winefride's, was closed and the congregation relocated to a new-build church located in Penparcau.

 

There are a number of other smaller congregations, and many former churches that have now been converted to alternative use, such as the Academy bar.

 

Aberystwyth has two comprehensive schools serving the town and a wide rural area: Ysgol Gyfun Gymunedol Penweddig and Ysgol Penglais School. Ysgol Gyfun Gymunedol Penweddig uses Welsh as the primary language of tuition; Ysgol Penglais School teaches in English and in Welsh as a subject.

 

There are currently three primary schools within the town limits, which are: Plascrug, Saint Padarns (Roman Catholic) and Ysgol Gymraeg. Ysgol Gymraeg was the first designated Welsh medium school in Wales, originally established as a private school in 1939 by Sir Ifan ab Owen Edwards as Ysgol Gymraeg yr Urdd.

 

Aberystwyth is home to Aberystwyth University (Welsh: Prifysgol Aberystwyth) whose predecessor, University College Wales, was founded in 1872 and renamed the 'University of Wales, Aberystwyth' in the mid-1990s. Prior to the college's establishment, Wales had very limited academic-degree capability through St David's College, Lampeter (founded in 1822, now the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David).

 

As well as having two cinemas and a golf course, the town's attractions include:

The Aberystwyth Cliff Railway, a funicular railway

A Victorian camera obscura at the top of Constitution Hill.

The Vale of Rheidol steam railway (Aberystwyth to Devil's Bridge)

Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

The Parc Penglais nature reserve

The Ystwyth Trail cycle path

National Library of Wales

Park Avenue. Football stadium home to Aberystwyth Town F.C.

The all organic dairy unit of Rachel's Organic is based in Glan yr Afon, and is the largest private sector employer in Aberystwyth.

 

The Cambrian News newspaper came to Aberystwyth from Bala in 1870, after it was purchased by Sir John Gibson. Printed in Oswestry, in May 1880 the paper integrated operations in a former Malthouse in Mill Street. Owned by the Read family from 1926, in 1993 printing was contracted out, enabling the move of editorial staff to the current open-plan offices on Llanbadarn Fawr Science Park. On the death of Henry Read, the paper was purchased in 1999 by Sir Ray Tindle, whose company owns more than 200 weekly newspapers in Britain. Now printed in tabloid format, Cambrian News is the second-largest weekly-print circulation newspaper in Wales, with 24,000 copies in six regional editorial versions, read by 60,000 weekly readers. The circulation area of mid, west and north Wales covers 3,000 square miles (7,800 km2).

 

Since the TV series Hinterland has been filmed in and around Aberystwyth, the area is being promoted as an opportunity for tourists to visit filming locations; many are well publicised.

 

Aberystwyth railway station is situated in the town centre and is the terminus of the scenic Cambrian Line. Transport for Wales Rail operate a mostly hourly service (with some two-hour intervals) to Shrewsbury via Machynlleth and Mid Wales, with nearly all trains continuing to Birmingham International. Connecting services from Dovey Junction provide a link to Gwynedd's west coast as far as Pwllheli, along the Cambrian Coast Line. There is no longer a southbound connection: the Carmarthen–Aberystwyth line was closed in 1965 as part of the Beeching cuts.

 

Aberystwyth station is also the terminus of the Vale of Rheidol Railway, a steam-operated narrow gauge heritage railway. Constructed between 1901 and 1902, it was intended to ship mineral cargo, primarily lead, from Devil's Bridge down to Aberystwyth for trans-shipment. By the time it was finished, lead mining was in a deep downturn and—thanks to the Aberystwyth Improvement Company—the railway came to rely largely on the tourist industry, opening for passengers in December 1902. It still remains open for the summer season, with a journey of 12 miles (19 km).

 

In 1896, the Aberystwyth Improvement Company formed Constitution Hill Ltd which, under the direction of chief engineer George Croydon Marks, developed the United Kingdom's second longest funicular railway, the Aberystwyth Cliff Railway, which takes passengers up a 50% gradient.

 

A TrawsCymru T1 service on the A4120 in Aberystwyth

Aberystwyth is a hub for the TrawsCymru bus network, with four routes serving the town:

 

T1 - hourly service to Carmarthen (connects with T1S to Swansea, Monday-Saturday) via Aberaeron and Lampeter - with one service a day (Monday-Saturday) extended to Cardiff

T1C - daily express coach service to Cardiff, via Aberaeron, Carmarthen (connects with T1S to Swansea, Monday-Saturday), Swansea (Sunday & Bank Holidays only), Port Talbot Parkway and Bridgend

T2 - every 1–2 hours to Bangor via Machynlleth, Dolgellau (connects with T3 to Barmouth and Wrexham), Porthmadog and Caernarfon

T5 - hourly service to Haverfordwest via Aberaeron, New Quay, Cardigan and Fishguard

(TrawsCymru services run less-frequently on Sundays.)

 

There is a daily National Express coach, service 409 to London via Birmingham, along with local bus services within the town and into the surrounding area.

 

The A44 and A487 meet with much traffic between North Wales and South West Wales passing through the town. The A4120 links the A44 and A487 between Llanbadarn Fawr and Penparcau, allowing through traffic to bypass the town centre.

 

The B4574 mountain road linking the town to Rhayader is described by the AA as one of the ten most scenic drives in the world.

 

The port of Aberystwyth, although it is small and relatively inconsequential today, used to be an important Atlantic Ocean entryway. It was used to ship locally, to Ireland and as a transatlantic departure point. Commercially, the once important Cardiganshire lead mines exported from this location.

 

The importance of maritime trade in the 19th century is reflected in the fact that a lifeboat has been based at Aberystwyth since 1843, when a 27 ft (8.2 m) boat powered by six oars was funded by public subscription and placed under the control of the harbourmaster. The RNLI took over the service in 1861 and established Aberystwyth Lifeboat Station which celebrated 150 years in 2011. The station uses the Atlantic 85-class inshore lifeboat Spirit of Friendship.

 

The Owl Service by Alan Garner, a well-known and -loved multi-award-winning classic published 1967, is set in north Wales and has two of its core characters —Gwyn and his mam (mother) Nancy— recently arrived from Aberystwyth for 3 weeks' work, with Nancy repeatedly threatening to return there immediately. They and the Welsh locals refer to it as "Aber"; the English characters use its full name.

Aberystwyth (albeit an alternative universe version) is the setting for the cult Louie Knight series by Malcolm Pryce, which transfers Chandleresque "noir" stories and dialogue to this small seaside town. This alternative reality features many landmarks of Aberystwyth, such as the University and the National Library of Wales, but the social situation is radically altered to more closely resemble the pulp/noir stereotypical "Dirty Town" that the narrative plays off. Most of the humour in the books is derived from the almost seamless juxtaposition of the real Aberystwyth and the fictional, noir Aberystwyth. Various aspects of Welsh culture are reflections of what you might expect to see in reality, but with a pulp twist – for example, prostitutes wear Welsh stovepipe hats.

Stripping Penguins Bare, the book 2 of Michael Carson's Benson Trilogy of comic novels, is set in the town and university in the 1960s.

The local writer Niall Griffiths has set many of his novels here and reflects local slang, settings, and even individuals. Grits and Sheepshagger are set wholly in Aberystwyth, which also features prominently in his other novels such as Kelly and Victor and Stump. He portrays a more gritty side of Aberystwyth.

‘Cofiwch Aberystwyth’ by science fiction writer Val Nolan, is a near-future post-apocalyptic novelette about three young urban explorers visiting Aberystwyth years after a nuclear disaster on the west coast of Wales. It was originally published in Interzone (magazine) and later anthologised in Best of British Science Fiction 2020. The title references the Cofiwch Dryweryn graffiti outside nearby Llanrhystyd, Ceredigion.

 

Television

Y Gwyll (2013–2016), a Welsh-language television programme, and the English-language version Hinterland , broadcast on S4C, BBC One Wales, BBC Four, and syndicated around the world, is set in Aberystwyth. It is filmed in and around the town, often in rural locations.

 

Film

Y Llyfrgell (2017) is an award-winning Welsh language film set in and around the National Library, which was filmed on location in 2016. The 2009 book on which it was based was released in English in 2022.

 

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Town of Aberystwyth.

Individuals

1912 – Sir John Williams

1912 – David Davies

1912 – Stuart Rendel

1922 – David Lloyd George

1923 – Lewis Pugh Evans

1923 – Matthew Vaughan-Davies

1923 – Sir Herbert Lewis

1928 – Stanley Baldwin

1936 – Sir David Charles Roberts

1936 – Ernest Vaughan

1951 – Winston Churchill

1956 – Sir David James

2011 – Fritz Pratschke

2015 – Jean Guezennec

 

Military Units

1955 – The Welsh Guards

 

Twinning

Arklow in Wicklow, Republic of Ireland Ireland

Kronberg im Taunus in Hesse Hesse, Germany Germany

Saint-Brieuc in Brittany Brittany, France France

Esquel in Patagonia, Argentina Argentina

INSPIRATION: Going in costume for a Monty Python movie would involve chainmail, or being a man dressed as a shrill ugly woman. So, instead, I just tried to look really geeky and really British.

 

OUTFIT: Grown-lady cardigan and kid's white T from Target, thrifted plaid skirt (I have lots of plaid skirts so this one is nicknamed "the porn skirt")

 

ACCESSORIES: Erin Fetherston 4 Target bag, We Love Colors knee socks, Me Too patent ballet flats

 

TINY THINGS: teal button pin from the consignment shop One More Time, Hello Kitty bobbles on my braids, a red hair bow from Torrid, strawberry hair clips from Target

Typhon was flying through the spirit of consciousness, when I designed thus engine in 1987 for Alice v W.......

There is also a shining white comet with silver "hair,"

shining in such a way that it can scarcely be looked at,

and of human appearance,

showing in itself the form of a god.

―Joannes Lydus, in De Ostentis

I suppose that the comets may be the agents

which have already effected great changes in all the planets,

and that they may be destined to effect many others―

till, in defined periods, the planets, by means of these agents,

may be all reduced to a state of fusion or gas ....

―Godfrey Higgins, Anacalypsis, Volume II

Typhon (/ˈtaɪfɒn, -fən/; Greek: Τυφῶν, Tuphōn [typʰɔ̂ːn]), also Typhoeus (/taɪˈfiːəs/; Τυφωεύς, Tuphōeus), Typhaon (Τυφάων, Tuphaōn) or Typhos (Τυφώς, Tuphōs), was a monstrous snaky giant and the most deadly creature in Greek mythology. According to Hesiod, Typhon was the son of Gaia and Tartarus. However one source has Typhon as the son of Hera alone, while another makes Typhon the offspring of Cronus. Typhon and his mate Echidna were the progenitors of many famous monsters. Typhon attempted to overthrow Zeus for the supremacy of the cosmos. The two fought a cataclysmic battle, which Zeus finally won with the aid of his thunderbolts. Defeated, Typhon was cast into Tartarus, or buried underneath Mount Etna, or the island of Ischia. In later accounts Typhon was often confused with the Giants.According to Hesiod's Theogony (c. 8th – 7th century BC), Typhon was the son of Gaia (Earth) and Tartarus: "when Zeus had driven the Titans from heaven, huge Earth bore her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of Tartarus, by the aid of golden Aphrodite".The mythographer Apollodorus (1st or 2nd century AD) adds that Gaia bore Typhon in anger at the gods for their destruction of her offspring the Giants.Numerous other sources mention Typhon as being the offspring of Gaia, or simply "earth-born", with no mention of Tartarus.However, according to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (6th century BC), Typhon was the child of Hera alone. Hera, angry at Zeus for having given birth to Athena by himself, prayed to Gaia, Uranus, and the Titans, to give her a son stronger than Zeus, then slapped the ground and became pregnant. Hera gave the infant Typhon to the serpent Python to raise, and Typhon grew up to become a great bane to mortals.

Depiction by Wenceslas Hollar

Several sources locate Typhon's birth and dwelling place in Cilicia, and in particular the region in the vicinity of the ancient Cilician coastal city of Corycus (modern Kızkalesi, Turkey). The poet Pindar (c. 470 BC) calls Typhon "Cilician,"and says that Typhon was born in Cilicia and nurtured in "the famous Cilician cave",[8] an apparent allusion to the Corycian cave in Turkey.[9] In Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, Typhon is called the "dweller of the Cilician caves",and both Apollodorus and the poet Nonnus (4th or 5th century AD) have Typhon born in Cilicia.

The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, preserving a possibly Orphic tradition, has Typhon born in Cilicia, as the offspring of Cronus. Gaia, angry at the destruction of the Giants, slanders Zeus to Hera. So Hera goes to Zeus' father Cronus (whom Zeus had overthrown) and Cronus gives Hera two eggs smeared with his own semen, telling her to bury them, and that from them would be born one who would overthrow Zeus. Hera, angry at Zeus, buries the eggs in Cilicia "under Arimon", but when Typhon is born, Hera, now reconciled with Zeus, informs him.

According to Hesiod, Typhon was "terrible, outrageous and lawless",immensely powerful, and on his shoulders were one hundred snake heads, that emitted fire and every kind of noise:

Strength was with his hands in all that he did and the feet of the strong god were untiring. From his shoulders grew a hundred heads of a snake, a fearful dragon, with dark, flickering tongues, and from under the brows of his eyes in his marvellous heads flashed fire, and fire burned from his heads as he glared. And there were voices in all his dreadful heads which uttered every kind of sound unspeakable; for at one time they made sounds such that the gods understood, but at another, the noise of a bull bellowing aloud in proud ungovernable fury; and at another, the sound of a lion, relentless of heart; and at another, sounds like whelps, wonderful to hear; and again, at another, he would hiss, so that the high mountains re-echoed.

The Homeric Hymn to Apollo describes Typhon as "fell" and "cruel", and neither like gods nor men.Three of Pindar's poems have Typhon as hundred-headed (as in Hesiod), while apparently a fourth gives him only fifty heads, but a hundred heads for Typhon became standard. A Chalcidian hydria (c. 540–530 BC), depicts Typhon as a winged humanoid from the waist up, with two snake tails below.Aeschylus calls Typhon "fire-breathing".For Nicander (2nd century BC), Typhon was a monster of enormous strength, and strange appearance, with many heads, hands, and wings, and with huge snake coils coming from his thighs.

Apollodorus describes Typhon as a huge winged monster, whose head "brushed the stars", human in form above the waist, with snake coils below, and fire flashing from his eyes:

 

In size and strength he surpassed all the offspring of Earth. As far as the thighs he was of human shape and of such prodigious bulk that he out-topped all the mountains, and his head often brushed the stars. One of his hands reached out to the west and the other to the east, and from them projected a hundred dragons' heads. From the thighs downward he had huge coils of vipers, which when drawn out, reached to his very head and emitted a loud hissing. His body was all winged: unkempt hair streamed on the wind from his head and cheeks; and fire flashed from his eyes.

 

The most elaborate description of Typhon is found in Nonnus's Dionysiaca. Nonnus makes numerous references to Typhon's serpentine nature,giving him a "tangled army of snakes",snaky feet,and hair.According to Nonnus, Typhon was a "poison-spitting viper",whose "every hair belched viper-poison", and Typhon "spat out showers of poison from his throat; the mountain torrents were swollen, as the monster showered fountains from the viperish bristles of his high head",and "the water-snakes of the monster's viperish feet crawl into the caverns underground, spitting poison!".

Following Hesiod and others, Nonnus gives Typhon many heads (though untotaled), but in addition to snake heads,Nonnus also gives Typhon many other animal heads, including leopards, lions, bulls, boars, bears, cattle, wolves, and dogs, which combine to make 'the cries of all wild beasts together',and a "babel of screaming sounds". Nonnus also gives Typhon "legions of arms innumerable", and where Nicander had only said that Typhon had "many" hands, and Ovid had given Typhon a hundred hands, Nonnus gives Typhon two hundred.

According to Hesiod's Theogony, Typhon "was joined in love" to Echidna, a monstrous half-woman and half-snake, who bore Typhon "fierce offspring".First, according to Hesiod, there was Orthrus,the two-headed dog who guarded the Cattle of Geryon, second Cerberus,the multiheaded dog who guarded the gates of Hades, and third the Lernaean Hydra,the many-headed serpent who, when one of its heads was cut off, grew two more. The Theogony next mentions an ambiguous "she", which might refer to Echidna, as the mother of the Chimera (a fire-breathing beast that was part lion, part goat, and had a snake-headed tail) with Typhon then being the father.

 

While mentioning Cerberus and "other monsters" as being the offspring of Echidna and Typhon, the mythographer Acusilaus (6th century BC) adds the Caucasian Eagle that ate the liver of Prometheus, the mythographer Pherecydes of Leros (5th century BC), also names Prometheus' eagle,and adds Ladon (though Pherecydes does not use this name), and the dragon that guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides (according to Hesiod, the offspring of Ceto and Phorcys).The lyric poet Lasus of Hermione (6th century BC) adds the Sphinx.

Later authors mostly retain these offspring of Typhon by Echidna, while adding others. Apollodorus, in addition to naming as their offspring Orthrus, the Chimera (citing Hesiod as his source) the Caucasian Eagle, Ladon, and the Sphinx, also adds the Nemean lion (no mother is given), and the Crommyonian Sow, killed by the hero Theseus (unmentioned by Hesiod).

Hyginus (1st century BC),in his list of offspring of Typhon (all by Echidna), retains from the above: Cerberus, the Chimera, the Sphinx, the Hydra and Ladon, and adds "Gorgon" (by which Hyginus means the mother of Medusa, whereas Hesiod's three Gorgons, of which Medusa was one, were the daughters of Ceto and Phorcys), the Colchian Dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece and Scylla.The Harpies, in Hesiod the daughters of Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra,[48] in one source, are said to be the daughters of Typhon.

 

The sea serpents which attacked the Trojan priest Laocoön, during the Trojan War, were perhaps supposed to be the progeny of Typhon and Echidna.

 

According to Hesiod, the defeated Typhon is the source of destructive storm winds.

 

Typhon challenged Zeus for rule of the cosmos.The earliest mention of Typhon, and his only occurrence in Homer, is a passing reference in the Iliad to Zeus striking the ground around where Typhon lies defeated.Hesiod's Theogony gives us the first account of their battle. According to Hesiod, without the quick action of Zeus, Typhon would have "come to reign over mortals and immortals".In the Theogony Zeus and Typhon meet in cataclysmic conflict:

 

[Zeus] thundered hard and mightily: and the earth around resounded terribly and the wide heaven above, and the sea and Ocean's streams and the nether parts of the earth. Great Olympus reeled beneath the divine feet of the king as he arose and earth groaned thereat. And through the two of them heat took hold on the dark-blue sea, through the thunder and lightning, and through the fire from the monster, and the scorching winds and blazing thunderbolt. The whole earth seethed, and sky and sea: and the long waves raged along the beaches round and about at the rush of the deathless gods: and there arose an endless shaking. Hades trembled where he rules over the dead below, and the Titans under Tartarus who live with Cronos, because of the unending clamor and the fearful strife.

 

Zeus with his thunderbolt easily overcomes Typhon,who is thrown down to earth in a fiery crash:

 

So when Zeus had raised up his might and seized his arms, thunder and lightning and lurid thunderbolt, he leaped from Olympus and struck him, and burned all the marvellous heads of the monster about him. But when Zeus had conquered him and lashed him with strokes, Typhoeus was hurled down, a maimed wreck, so that the huge earth groaned. And flame shot forth from the thunderstricken lord in the dim rugged glens of the mount, when he was smitten. A great part of huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapor and melted as tin melts when heated by men's art in channelled crucibles; or as iron, which is hardest of all things, is shortened by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in the divine earth through the strength of Hephaestus. Even so, then, the earth melted in the glow of the blazing fire.

 

Defeated, Typhon is cast into Tartarus by an angry Zeus.

 

Epimenides (7th or 6th century BC) seemingly knew a different version of the story, in which Typhon enters Zeus' palace while Zeus is asleep, but Zeus awakes and kills Typhon with a thunderbolt.Pindar apparently knew of a tradition which had the gods, in order to escape from Typhon, transform themselves into animals, and flee to Egypt.Pindar calls Typhon the "enemy of the gods",and says that he was defeated by Zeus' thunderbolt.In one poem Pindar has Typhon being held prisoner by Zeus under Etna,and in another says that Typhon "lies in dread Tartarus", stretched out underground between Mount Etna and Cumae.In Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, a "hissing" Typhon, his eyes flashing, "withstood all the gods", but "the unsleeping bolt of Zeus" struck him, and "he was burnt to ashes and his strength blasted from him by the lightning bolt."

 

According to Pherecydes of Leros, during his battle with Zeus, Typhon first flees to the Caucasus, which begins to burn, then to the volcanic island of Pithecussae (modern Ischia), off the coast of Cumae, where he is buried under the island.Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BC), like Pherecydes, presents a multi-stage battle, with Typhon being struck by Zeus' thunderbolt on mount Caucasus, before fleeing to the mountains and plain of Nysa, and ending up (as already mentioned by the fifth-century BC Greek historian Herodotus) buried under Lake Serbonis in Egypt.

 

Like Pindar, Nicander has all the gods but Zeus and Athena, transform into animal forms and flee to Egypt: Apollo became a hawk, Hermes an ibis, Ares a fish, Artemis a cat, Dionysus a goat, Heracles a fawn, Hephaestus an ox, and Leto a mouse.

 

The geographer Strabo (c. 20 AD) gives several locations which were associated with the battle. According to Strabo, Typhon was said to have cut the serpentine channel of the Orontes River, which flowed beneath the Syrian Mount Kasios (modern Jebel Aqra), while fleeing from Zeus,and some placed the battle at Catacecaumene ("Burnt Land"),a volcanic plain, on the upper Gediz River, between the ancient kingdoms of Lydia, Mysia and Phrygia, near Mount Tmolus (modern Bozdağ) and Sardis the ancient capital of Lydia.

 

In the versions of the battle given by Hesiod, Aeschylus and Pindar, Zeus' defeat of Typhon is straightforward, however a more involved version of the battle is given by Apollodorus.No early source gives any reason for the conflict, but Apollodorus' account seemingly implies that Typhon had been produced by Gaia to avenge the destruction, by Zeus and the other gods, of the Giants, a previous generation of offspring of Gaia. According to Apollodorus, Typhon, "hurling kindled rocks", attacked the gods, "with hissings and shouts, spouting a great jet of fire from his mouth." Seeing this, the gods transformed into animals and fled to Egypt (as in Pindar and Nicander). However "Zeus pelted Typhon at a distance with thunderbolts, and at close quarters struck him down with an adamantine sickle"Wounded, Typhon fled to the Syrian Mount Kasios, where Zeus "grappled" with him. But Typhon, twining his snaky coils around Zeus, was able to wrest away the sickle and cut the sinews from Zeus' hands and feet. Typhon carried the disabled Zeus across the sea to the Corycian cave in Cilicia where he set the she-serpent Delphyne to guard over Zeus and his severed sinews, which Typhon had hidden in a bearskin. But Hermes and Aegipan (possibly another name for Pan)stole the sinews and gave them back to Zeus. His strength restored, Zeus chased Typhon to mount Nysa, where the Moirai tricked Typhon into eating "ephemeral fruits" which weakened him. Typhon then fled to Thrace, where he threw mountains at Zeus, which were turned back on him by Zeus' thunderbolts, and the mountain where Typhon stood, being drenched with Typhon's blood, became known as Mount Haemus (Bloody Mountain). Typhon then fled to Sicily, where Zeus threw Mount Etna on top of Typhon burying him, and so finally defeated him.

 

Oppian (2nd century AD) says that Pan helped Zeus in the battle by tricking Typhon to come out from his lair, and into the open, by the "promise of a banquet of fish", thus enabling Zeus to defeat Typhon with his thunderbolts.

  

The longest and most involved version of the battle appears in Nonnus's Dionysiaca (late 4th or early 5th century AD).Zeus hides his thunderbolts in a cave, so that he might seduce the maiden Plouto, and so produce Tantalus. But smoke rising from the thunderbolts, enables Typhon, under the guidance of Gaia, to locate Zeus's weapons, steal them, and hide them in another cave.Immediately Typhon extends "his clambering hands into the upper air" and begins a long and concerted attack upon the heavens.Then "leaving the air" he turns his attack upon the seas.Finally Typhon attempts to wield Zeus' thunderbolts, but they "felt the hands of a novice, and all their manly blaze was unmanned."

 

Now Zeus' sinews had somehow – Nonnus does not say how or when — fallen to the ground during their battle, and Typhon had taken them also.But Zeus devises a plan with Cadmus and Pan to beguile Typhon.Cadmus, desguised as a shepherd, enchants Typhon by playing the panpipes, and Typhon entrusting the thuderbolts to Gaia, sets out to find the source of the music he hears.Finding Cadmus, he challenges him to a contest, offering Cadmus any goddess as wife, excepting Hera whom Typhon has reserved for himself.Cadmus then tells Typhon that, if he liked the "little tune" of his pipes, then he would love the music of his lyre – if only it could be strung with Zeus' sinews.So Typhon retrieves the sinews and gives them to Cadmus, who hides them in another cave, and again begins to play his bewitching pipes, so that "Typhoeus yielded his whole soul to Cadmos for the melody to charm".

 

With Typhon distracted, Zeus takes back his thunderbolts. Cadmus stops playing, and Typhon, released from his spell, rushes back to his cave to discover the thunderbolts gone. Incensed Typhon unleashes devastation upon the world: animals are devoured, (Typhon's many animal heads each eat animals of its own kind), rivers turned to dust, seas made dry land, and the land "laid waste".

 

The day ends with Typhon yet unchallenged, and while the other gods "moved about the cloudless Nile", Zeus waits through the night for the coming dawn.Victory "reproaches" Zeus, urging him to "stand up as champion of your own children!"Dawn comes and Typhon roars out a challenge to Zeus. And a cataclysmic battle for "the sceptre and throne of Zeus" is joined. Typhon piles up mountains as battlements and with his "legions of arms innumerable", showers volley after volley of trees and rocks at Zeus, but all are destroyed, or blown aside, or dodged, or thrown back at Typhon. Typhon throws torrents of water at Zeus' thunderbolts to quench them, but Zeus is able to cut off some of Typhon's hands with "frozen volleys of air as by a knife", and hurling thunderbolts is able to burn more of typhon's "endless hands", and cut off some of his "countless heads". Typhon is attacked by the four winds, and "frozen volleys of jagged hailstones."Gaia tries to aid her burnt and frozen son.Finally Typhon falls, and Zeus shouts out a long stream of mocking taunts, telling Typhon that he is to be buried under Sicily's hills, with a cenotaph over him which will read "This is the barrow of Typhoeus, son of Earth, who once lashed the sky with stones, and the fire of heaven burnt him up".

 

Most accounts have the defeated Typhon buried under either Mount Etna in Sicily, or the volcanic island of Ischia, the largest of the Phlegraean Islands off the coast of Naples, with Typhon being the cause of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

 

Though Hesiod has Typhon simply cast into Tartarus by Zeus, some have read a reference to Mount Etna in Hesiod's description of Typhon's fall: And flame shot forth from the thunderstricken lord in the dim rugged glens of the mount when he was smitten. A great part of huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapor and melted as tin melts when heated by men's art in channelled crucibles; or as iron, which is hardest of all things, is shortened by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in the divine earth through the strength of Hephaestus. Even so, then, the earth melted in the glow of the blazing fire.

 

The first certain references to Typhon buried under Etna, as well as being the cause of its eruptions, occur in Pindar:Son of Cronus, you who hold Aetna, the wind-swept weight on terrible hundred-headed Typhon, and:among them is he who lies in dread Tartarus, that enemy of the gods, Typhon with his hundred heads. Once the famous Cilician cave nurtured him, but now the sea-girt cliffs above Cumae, and Sicily too, lie heavy on his shaggy chest. And the pillar of the sky holds him down, snow-covered Aetna, year-round nurse of bitter frost, from whose inmost caves belch forth the purest streams of unapproachable fire. In the daytime her rivers roll out a fiery flood of smoke, while in the darkness of night the crimson flame hurls rocks down to the deep plain of the sea with a crashing roar. That monster shoots up the most terrible jets of fire; it is a marvellous wonder to see, and a marvel even to hear about when men are present. Such a creature is bound beneath the dark and leafy heights of Aetna and beneath the plain, and his bed scratches and goads the whole length of his back stretched out against it. Thus Pindar has Typhon in Tartarus, and buried under not just Etna, but under a vast volcanic region stretching from Sicily to Cumae (in the vicinity of modern Naples), a region which presumably also included Mount Vesuvius, as well as Ischia.

Many subsequent accounts mention either Etna[98] or Ischia. In Prometheus Bound, Typhon is imprisoned underneath Etna, while above him Hephaestus "hammers the molten ore", and in his rage, the "charred" Typhon causes "rivers of fire" to pour forth. Ovid has Typhon buried under all of Sicily, with his left and right hands under Pelorus and Pachynus, his feet under Lilybaeus, and his head under Etna; where he "vomits flames from his ferocious mouth". And Valerius Flaccus has Typhon's head under Etna, and all of Sicily shaken when Typhon "struggles". Lycophron has both Typhon and Giants buried under the island of Ischia. Virgil, Silius Italicus and Claudian, all calling the island "Inarime", have Typhon buried there. Strabo, calling Ischia "Pithecussae", reports the "myth" that Typhon lay buried there, and that when he "turns his body the flames and the waters, and sometimes even small islands containing boiling water, spout forth." In addition to Typhon, other mythological beings were also said to be buried under Mount Etna and the cause of its vocanic activity. Most notably the Giant Enceladus was said to be entombed under Etna, the volcano's eruptions being the breath of Enceladus, and its tremors caused by the Giant rolling over from side to side beneath the mountain. Also said to be buried under Etna were the Hundred-hander Briareus,and Asteropus who was perhaps one of the Cyclopes.

Typhon's final resting place was apparently also said to be in Boeotia.The Hesiodic Shield of Heracles names a mountain near Thebes Typhaonium, perhaps reflecting an early tradition which also had Typhon buried under a Boeotian mountain.And some apparently claimed that Typhon was buried beneath a mountain in Boeotia, from which came exhaltations of fire.

 

Homer describes a place he calls the "couch [or bed] of Typhoeus", which he locates in the land of the Arimoi (εἰν Ἀρίμοις), where Zeus lashes the land about Typhoeus with his thunderbolts.[107] Presumably this is the same land where, according to Hesiod, Typhon's mate Echidna keeps guard "in Arima" (εἰν Ἀρίμοισιν). But neither Homer nor Hesiod say anything more about where these Arimoi or this Arima might be. The question of whether an historical place was meant, and its possible location, has been, since ancient times, the subject of speculation and debate. Strabo discusses the question in some detail. Several locales, Cilicia, Syria, Lydia, and the island of Ischia, all places associated with Typhon, are given by Strabo as possible locations for Homer's "Arimoi".

 

Pindar has his Cilician Typhon slain by Zeus "among the Arimoi",[111] and the historian Callisthenes (4th century BC), located the Arimoi and the Arima mountains in Cilicia, near the Calycadnus river, the Corycian cave and the Sarpedon promomtory.[112] The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, mentioned above, says Typhon was born in Cilicia "under Arimon",and Nonnus mentions Typhon's "bloodstained cave of Arima" in Cilicia. Just across the Gulf of Issus from Corycus, in ancient Syria, was Mount Kasios (modern Jebel Aqra) and the Orontes River, sites associated with Typhon's battle with Zeus,and according to Strabo, the historian Posidonius (c. 2nd century BC) identified the Arimoi with the Aramaeans of Syria.

Alternatively, according to Strabo, some placed the Arimoi at Catacecaumene, while Xanthus of Lydia (5th century BC) added that "a certain Arimus" ruled there. Strabo also tells us that for "some" Homer's "couch of Typhon" was located "in a wooded place, in the fertile land of Hyde", with Hyde being another name for Sardis (or its acropolis), and that Demetrius of Scepsis (2nd century BC) thought that the Arimoi were most plausibly located "in the Catacecaumene country in Mysia".[119] The 3rd-century BC poet Lycophron placed the lair of Typhons' mate Echidna in this region.

Another place, mentioned by Strabo, as being associated with Arima, is the island of Ischia, where according to Pherecydes of Leros, Typhon had fled, and in the area where Pindar and others had said Typhon was buried. The connection to Arima, comes from the island's Greek name Pithecussae, which derives from the Greek word for monkey, and according to Strabo, residents of the island said that "arimoi" was also the Etruscan word for monkeys.

  

Typhon's name has a number of variants. The earliest forms of Typhoeus and Typhaon, occur prior to the 5th century BC. Homer uses Typhoeus,Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn to Apollo use both Typhoeus and Typhaon. The later forms Typhos and Typhon occur from the 5th century BC onwards, with Typhon becoming the standard form by the end of that century.

 

Though several possible derivations of the name Typhon have been suggested, the derivation remains uncertain.Consistent with Hesiod's making storm winds Typhon's offspring, some have supposed that Typhon was originally a wind-god, and ancient sources associated him with the Greek words tuphon, tuphos meaning "whirlwind".Other theories include derivation from a Greek root meaning "smoke" (consistent with Typhon's identification with volcanoes), from an Indo-European root meaning "abyss" (making Typhon a "Serpent of the Deep"), and from Sapõn the Phoenician name for the Ugaritic god Baal's holy mountain Jebel Aqra (the classical Mount Kasios) associated with the epithet Baʿal Zaphon.

  

Mythologist Joseph Campbell makes parallels to the slaying of Leviathan by YHWH, about which YHWH boasts to Job. Ogden calls the Typhon myth "the only Graeco-Roman drakōn-slaying myth that can seriously be argued to exhibit the influence of Near Eastern antecedents", connecting it in particular with Baʿal Zaphon's slaying of Yammu and Lotan, as well as with the Hittite myth of Illuyankas. From its first reappearance, this latter myth has been seen as a prototype of the battle of Zeus and Typhon. Walter Burkert and Calvert Watkins each note the close agreements.

Comparisons can also be drawn with the Mesopotamian monster Tiamat and her slaying by Babylonian chief god Marduk.The similarities between the Greek myth and its earlier Mesopotamian counterpart do not seem to be merely accidental. A number of west Semitic (Ras Shamra) and Hittite sources appear to corroborate the theory of a genetic relationship between the two myths.

Typhon's story seems related to that of another monstrous offspring of Gaia: Python, the serpent killed by Apollo at Delphi, suggesting a possible common origin. Besides the similarity of names, their shared parentage, and the fact that both were snaky monsters killed in single combat with an Olympian god, there are other connections between the stories surrounding Typhon, and those surrounding Python. Although the Delphic monster killed by Apollo is usually said to be the male serpent Python, in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, the earliest account of this story, the god kills a nameless she-serpent (drakaina), subsequently called Delphyne, who had been Typhon's foster-mother. Delphyne and Echidna, besides both being intimately connected to Typhon—one as mother, the other as mate—share other similarities.Both were half-maid and half-snake,a plague to men,and associated with the Corycian cave in Cilicia.

Python was also perhaps connected with a different Corycian Cave than the one in Cilicia, this one on the slopes of Parnassus above Delphi, and just as the Corcian cave in Cilicia was thought to be Typhon and Echidna's lair, and associated with Typhon's battle with Zeus, there is evidence to suggest that the Corycian cave above Delphi was supposed to be Python's (or Delphyne's) lair, and associated with his (or her) battle with Apollo.

Typhon bears a close resemblance to an older generation of descendants of Gaia, the Giants.They, like their younger brother Typhon after them, challenged Zeus for supremacy of the cosmos,were (in later representations) shown as snake-footed,and end up buried under volcanos.

While distinct in early accounts, in later accounts Typhon was often confused or conflated with the Giants.The Roman mythographer Hyginus (64 BC – 17 AD) includes Typhon in his list of Giants,while the Roman poet Horace (65 – 8 BC), mentions Typhon, along with the Giants Mimas, Porphyrion, and Enceladus, as together battling Athena, during the Gigantomachy.The Astronomica, attributed to the 1st-century AD Roman poet and astrologer Marcus Manilius,and the late 4th-century early 5th-century Greek poet Nonnus, also consider Typhon to be one of the Giants.

 

From apparently as early as Hecataeus of Miletus (c. 550 BC – c. 476 BC), Typhon was identified with Set, the Egyptian god of destruction.This syncretization with Egyptian mythology can also be seen in the story, apparently known as early as Pindar, of Typhon chasing the gods to Egypt, and the gods transforming themselves into animals.Such a story arose perhaps as a way for the Greeks to explain Egypt's animal-shaped gods.Herodotus also identified Typhon with Set, making him the second to last divine king of Egypt. Herodotus says that Typhon was deposed by Osiris' son Horus, whom Herodutus equates with Apollo (with Osiris being equated with Dionysus),and after his defeat by Horus, Typhon was "supposed to have been hidden" in the "Serbonian marsh" (identified with modern Lake Bardawil) in Egypt.

  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhon#cite_note-157

Eats people. It's like the rabbit in Monty Python's Holy Grail.

small detail of a painting: Imagery of Human-Beings by Yajoy Kusama. It reminded me of the old Monty Python's classic: 'Every Sperm is Sacred'

youtu.be/bzVHjg3AqIQ

I was going to put the scene from Monty Python's "The Holy Grail" featuring the guardian Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog Cave, but I reconsidered (a bit). Instead, here's a light and cheerful Easter ditty!

 

MUSIC: Easter Parade [right click and open in new tab]

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROsz5zABGvc

 

For those of you more into Monty Python's take on rabbits, yeah, here's a link to that sorry excuse for an Oryctolagus cuniculus: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxKIJTb3Hg

 

Bravely bold Sir Fett Rode forth from Camino on his Slave.

He was not afraid to die, Oh brave Sir Fett.

He was not at all afraid To be killed in nasty cloney ways.

Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Fett.

He was not in the least bit scared To be mashed into a pulp.

Or to have his head chopped off, By saber made of light.

To have his helmet split and his body burned away,

And his limbs all hacked and mangled Brave Sir Fett.

 

---- Fett-ish words of Monty Python's - Brave sir Robin Ran away.

The universe is in constant motion in many ways, ranging from slow movement following nice, predictable, easy-to-understand Newtonian physics to mind-blowing accelerating cosmic expansion. Please refer to Monty Python's Universe Song for more information! The black smudge along the bottom is a line of trees at the edge of the field I was shooting from, blurred by the motion of the sky tracker which rotates the camera at the same rate as the Earth, pointing continuously in a fixed direction in the sky. Really, it's nowhere near as complicated as it sounds! :)

 

Taken under the glorious dark sky of Killarney Provincial Park in Ontario, located about 30,000 light years from the centre of the Milky Way galaxy!

"And now for something completely different" as John Cleese used to say however this is not the Monty Python`s Flying Circus but ICM on the highway.

It reminded me of this....

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWVshkVF0SY

 

Monty Python's The Universe Song..

 

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving

And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,

That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,

A sun that is the source of all our power.

The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see

Are moving at a million miles a day

In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,

Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.

It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.

It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,

But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.

We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.

We go 'round every two hundred million years,

And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions

In this amazing and expanding universe.

 

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding

In all of the directions it can whizz

As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,

Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.

So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,

How amazingly unlikely is your birth,

And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,

'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

I figured if I was gonna jump onto this bandwagon, I'd better do something old and British. So what better subject than a GUMBY from Monty Python's Flying Circus? And for those of you who have NO idea what on earth I'm talking about, watch this!

 

“Now, you listen here! He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy!”

- Mandy, mother of Brian, from Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Scene 20: “Individualism Can't Beat a Good Crowd Riot”

 

35mm Arista 200 developed in XTOL 1:1

1970 Nikon F with 50mm f/1.4

Superior, MT

May 2021

Green Heron in the canal covered with duckweed, Wildwood Lake, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. "The Ministry of Silly Walks" is a sketch from the Monty Python comedy troupe's television show Monty Python's Flying Circus, episode 14, which is entitled "Face the Press". The episode first aired in 1970. This sketch involves John Cleese as a bowler hatted civil servant in a fictitious British government ministry responsible for developing Silly Walks through grants. Cleese, throughout the sketch, walks in a variety of silly ways. It is these various silly walks, more than the dialogue, that has earned the sketch its popularity.

Although some references exist in early historical texts, many people doubted the existence of the Rabbitat. This early photo, captured in 1947, briefly re-ignited the public's interest and imagination. The next 'caught on film' encounter happened in 1974, while a British film crew was working to complete filming of 'Monty Python's Holy Grail', The captured footage was used in the movie and clearly demonstrated that while some Rabbitats more strongly resemble cats, others may more strongly resemble rabbits.

Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) | Official Red Band Trailer | Utopia

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OYQNAk_krQ

 

During the 1960s and 70s some of the most innovative photography was appearing on vinyl album covers. Much of it was the responsibility of two men: Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey “Po” Powell. They met at Cambridge and took a liking to each other’s creativity immediately. They were friends of David Gilmour and Roger Waters and this led to a longstanding relationship with Pink Floyd. Floyd fans all know the sad story of Syd Barrett (an early member of the band whose mind was destroyed by LSD). Rumour has it that one day Syd paid a visit and scrawled the word “hipgnosis” on the wall.

 

Powell and Thorgerson had just started a business partnership in creative design and were looking for a name: Hipgnosis was just perfect. Hip for “cool”, gnosis for “knowledge”. Po Powell was the photographer and Storm the design genius. For more than a decade their partnership produced some of the most memorable images of the times for some of the greatest rock musicians: Floyd of course, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel, 10CC and even the Sex Pistols.

 

In this day of Photoshopping with generative AI we don’t realise how good these design artists had to be. Everything was pieced together manually (think of those brilliant Terry Gilliam cartoons that featured in every episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus – no CGI for 40 years – thank God). The advent of the CD marked the death knell for creative album covers and then with streaming the game was over completely.

 

The brilliant music educator and historian Rick Beato says that today very few people can name all the members of even the most popular bands because they do not have liner notes to read. But in the days of vinyl album covers you would not only know all the band, but the session musicians who played on the albums and a whole lot more. Albums were often themed and the artwork was built around that.

 

What are some of the most memorable album covers in modern music history? If I say Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon almost all of you will picture it instantly. How about the burning man on Wish You Were Here (the tribute to Syd Barrett)? Was there a more striking album cover than the children crawling up the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland on Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy? What about my personal favourite from Pink Floyd’s Animals of the old Battersea Power Station with a floating giant pink pig in the air? Or Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run with its group of celebrities as escaped criminals? All of these were created by Hipgnosis, and many many more.

 

So this full length documentary film by Dutchman Anton Corbijn is a glorious romp down memory lane, reminding us older folks of our youth, but bringing to the fore the creative work that has so easily been overlooked in this day when humans are progressively ceding their creative instincts to the machine. Yes, just another “brick in the wall” that we are building between ourselves and the true human soul.

 

If you want inspiration for your photography or artistic design, watch this film!

 

Mark Kermode reviews Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1xdGLteHyQ