Flying Pigs and Sparking Fish
6.30pm Thursday 30th January 2020
6.30pm Thursday 30th January 2020
Westminster Arts Library
35 St Martins Street
London
WC2H 7HP
WC2H 7HP
Admission: Tickets £8 / £10 in advance only HERE
Each ticket includes a 'plug' of Hendricks Gin
What keeps the city alight, moving, warm, working and connected? We take for granted the systems and infrastructure that charge us, only occasionally reminded by the shapes of giant (and now transformed) buildings that were once Temples of Power. Join PETER WATTS and LAURENCE SCALES to follow the lines of the Electric City
Journalist and London blogger PETER WATTS, author of "Up In Smoke: The Failed Dreams of Battersea Power Station", will talk about the social history of one of London's greatest landmarks.
Battersea Power Station was already a national landmark when Pink Floyd put it on the cover of their 1977 album Animals but the image may have helped transform the listed-building from a purely London landmark to an internationally recognised icon.
Peter will discuss the controversial origins and working life of the power station, explaining why it spent the next 30 years as the city's favourite ruin. Baby bleaching, flying pigs, burnt sterling and Michael Jackson should all feature.
Each ticket includes a 'plug' of Hendricks Gin
What keeps the city alight, moving, warm, working and connected? We take for granted the systems and infrastructure that charge us, only occasionally reminded by the shapes of giant (and now transformed) buildings that were once Temples of Power. Join PETER WATTS and LAURENCE SCALES to follow the lines of the Electric City
Journalist and London blogger PETER WATTS, author of "Up In Smoke: The Failed Dreams of Battersea Power Station", will talk about the social history of one of London's greatest landmarks. Battersea Power Station was already a national landmark when Pink Floyd put it on the cover of their 1977 album Animals but the image may have helped transform the listed-building from a purely London landmark to an internationally recognised icon.
Peter will discuss the controversial origins and working life of the power station, explaining why it spent the next 30 years as the city's favourite ruin. Baby bleaching, flying pigs, burnt sterling and Michael Jackson should all feature.
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Massive brick carcasses of power stations lie along the Thames, but were a passing phase in meeting our power needs.
Historian of science, LAURENCE SCALES will turn up the lights to examine the curious history of London's electricity and what else has been pent up behind the ON/OFF switch for the last 250 years, from horses to hot air. Expect tales of street corner power stations, sparks from fish, treadmills, Pinchbeck cranes and Blake’s Dark Satanic Mills.
Massive brick carcasses of power stations lie along the Thames, but were a passing phase in meeting our power needs. Historian of science, LAURENCE SCALES will turn up the lights to examine the curious history of London's electricity and what else has been pent up behind the ON/OFF switch for the last 250 years, from horses to hot air. Expect tales of street corner power stations, sparks from fish, treadmills, Pinchbeck cranes and Blake’s Dark Satanic Mills.
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PETER WATTS is a journalist and author who writes about London, culture, place, music and history for a variety of publications. He has written two books, including Up In Smoke, a social history of Battersea Power Station. He has always lived in London.
LAURENCE SCALES formerly in the engineering profession, is an avid collector of the colourful and often neglected characters who made the extraordinary technological and scientific history of London. He offers London tours on this topic, has written numerous articles for Londonist.com, and is a pen for hire. He adds to his fund of knowledge by volunteering in the archives of the Royal Institution and Royal Society of Arts.
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PETER WATTS is a journalist and author who writes about London, culture, place, music and history for a variety of publications. He has written two books, including Up In Smoke, a social history of Battersea Power Station. He has always lived in London.
LAURENCE SCALES formerly in the engineering profession, is an avid collector of the colourful and often neglected characters who made the extraordinary technological and scientific history of London. He offers London tours on this topic, has written numerous articles for Londonist.com, and is a pen for hire. He adds to his fund of knowledge by volunteering in the archives of the Royal Institution and Royal Society of Arts.
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SALON FOR THE CITY is an ANTIQUE BEAT production