Brenda

Inis Oírr – sunken churches and wrecked ships

In 2023 I visited Inis Mór, the largest of the three Aran Islands. You can read about that here. Anyway, in 2024 I decided to visit the other two. First up was Inis Oírr (Inisheer) which is the smallest of the three. Despite its small size, there’s plenty to see, and you’ll still be back in time for the ferry. I’ve added more of the travel details at the end, if you’re still awake by then.

Getting Around 🚤✈️🚲🏇🚶‍♂️

I hired a bike from one of the two hire businesses that operate near the pier. Inis Oírr is relatively flat, so even if you don’t hire a fancy e-bike, you can still whizz around quite comfortably. The road surfaces are generally OK, but there are uneven patches, and you never know who might come around the corner. So be careful when going downhill—the language of eating concrete transcends international borders.

These warning signs also mean you can stop pedalling for a while

O’Brien’s Castle

O’Brien’s Castle (aka Furmina Castle) is one of the most noticeable buildings on the island. It’s a ruined 15th-century tower house built on top of a hill. The ruins themselves are a bit ho-hum, but they’re in good condition. Once upon a time, wooden stairs linked the floors, but they have long gone. The view from the grounds is worth the short climb, though.

Further up the hill is An Túr Faire, a ruined Napoleonic signal tower. It was built in the early 19th century when it was feared that the French might attempt to invade Ireland. The grounds were locked up so this photo was taken through the gate. There are several more of these dotted around the Irish coastline.

The sunken church/aka Teampall Chaomháin

This is a ruined church found in the local cemetery. Its age is up for debate—although the OPW sign nearby indicates that it’s a 10th-century church, other sources claim otherwise. What isn’t up for debate is that this church is largely below ground level and looks like it has sunk into the ground. In times past it was buried by shifting sands from the nearby beach. There is a little roofed tomb nearby, which is believed to house the remains of St. Caomhán who may have founded this church. You can walk into the church, and that is an unusual experience. It is odd to be looking straight down into the ruins rather than up and to find a church window at waist height. This may have been a larger church in times past—the chancel is what remains now.

The Plassey Shipwreck

This rusting shipwreck dates all the way back to WWII. It was built in 1940 by the British Royal Navy and was originally called HMS Juliet. It served its time in the war and was later converted into a cargo vessel. It was renamed Peterjohn. In 1951 the Limerick Steamship Company purchased it and renamed it MV Plassy/Plassey (spellings vary). It continued to operate as a cargo vessel until 8th March 1960. On that day, the ship was caught up in a severe storm and was driven up onto Finnis Rock off Inis Oírr’s coast. The crew of 11 was rescued by a group of islanders. Some weeks later, another storm hit, and this one brought the Plassey onshore. It has remained here ever since, slowly deteriorating and occasionally shifting if an Atlantic storm is particularly ferocious. It became better known in the 1990s when it was featured in the opening titles of the sitcom Fr. Ted. Somebody made a sign directing visitors to the shipwreck (see gallery below), but it too is starting to succumb to the elements.

Ironically, the shipwreck isn’t too far from a lighthouse…

Eatenin’ and Drinkenin’

You can, of course, bring your own food to Inis Oírr but if you’d rather grab something on the island, there is plenty of choice. There are some pubs, cafés, and food trucks serving all sorts of food, snacks, and drinks. I kept it simple and had some fish & chips from Tigh Ned. Other eateries are available.

If you have never been to any of the Aran Islands, I think Inis Oírr is a great place to start. It’s a small island, so you should be able to tick off most, if not all, of the places of note in one day. The locals are friendly too, and the scenery is beautiful. You can buy Aran sweaters here too—according to online reviews, they are cheaper than what you’d pay in Dublin. All the shops and pubs seem to take card payments, so there’s no need to load up on cash.

Getting There

Inis Oírr is served all year round by ferries that leave from Rossaveel in Co. Galway or from Doolin, Co. Clare. Aran Islands Ferries operate out of Galway, and you can either travel to Rossaveel Pier yourself or catch their shuttle bus from Galway city centre. Two ferry companies sail from Doolin, Co. Clare—the Doolin Ferry Company and O’Brien’s Ferry. Aer Arann flies from Inverin in Galway if you fancy something different.

Inis Oírr can be explored on foot, but most people hire a bike from Joyce Bike Hire or Rothaí Inis Oírr. Both hire out all sorts of bikes, from e-bikes to tandems to dog buggies. If you fancy something less energetic, you can hire a local to bring you around the island by horse and cart or by minibus.

Gallery.

Click on a picture to launch

Inis Mór – the one with the big fort and the mad swimming pool

In 2023 I decided to visit Inis Mór (aka Inishmore), which is the largest of the three Aran Islands. In 2024 I went on to visit the other two, which I will write about soon.

The Aran Islands is a group of three islands off the west coast of Ireland. To many people, they are associated with Aran knitwear. These are distinctive, chunky woollen jumpers and cardigans traditionally made for fishermen and other natives of these islands. Because they’re out in the Atlantic, they’ve developed their own distinctive feel and identity. There is far more to these three islands than woolly jumpers, as you’ll see if you read on 😁 I’ll elaborate on the specifics at the end of this post because I don’t want to become the equivalent of those recipe websites. You know the ones – all you want is the recipe so you can make something different for dinner yet you find yourself forced to scroll past 15 paragraphs of waffle about Great Grandma Alice, some family pets, the weather and a family recipe which has been handed down through 6 generations. Enough!

Getting Around 🚤✈️🚲🏇🚶‍♂️

For this visit, I hired an electric bike and loved it! There are two main routes around the island and because I had this extra firepower, I chose the more challenging high road. The nice thing about travelling around all three Aran Islands is that there isn’t that much vehicular traffic, so it’s very safe. The roads can be a bit bumpy in places so watch out for that. The natives speak Irish as their first language but they have fluent English. Enjoy resurrecting your rusty Leaving Cert Irish…

Dún Aonghasa

Dún Aonghasa is a prehistoric fort and probably Inis Mór’s best-known tourist attraction. It is amazing for what it is, and it looks pretty impressive from the many aerial photos you’ve undoubtedly seen. This is where I’m going to be controversial and argue that it isn’t a must-see if time is of a premium to you. I honestly think it looks more impressive from the air than when you’re on the ground. Anyway, there is a small visitor centre which has lots of information, then an 800m walk up to the fort. This takes you over some rough ground, which proved to be a challenge to the flip-flop-wearing people I spotted. The fort itself consists of 3 dry-stone ramparts and the remains of a fourth. Perhaps its most distinctive feature is where it stops abruptly at the edge of a sheer cliff. One misstep and into the Atlantic you go. Not that it stopped the many people who wanted to take a selfie. The views are nice though.

The Wormhole/Poll na bPéist

This was my favourite part of the day. The Wormhole is a naturally-occurring blow-hole which is 25m long and 10m wide. It’s almost a perfect rectangle which makes it even more striking. It came to prominence when Red Bull held diving competitions here in 2014-2017. There are videos on YouTube if you want to watch lunatics at work! There were no TV crews or diving rigs to be seen when I visited but it made it no less spectacular. Several people dived into the water while I was there.

The walk out to the wormhole can be a bit tricky so I strongly advise you to read and read again the directions for how to get there. We took the scenic route which turned out to be a bit of a time-sink, though it did take us across a spectacular karst limestone landscape. A kind soul used a paintbrush and red paint to give directions to the Wormhole. Should you decide to try and find this amazing place, they will quickly become your favourite person.

Kilronan

Kilronan is the main village on the island and where you’ll start and end your journey. It has shops of all sorts, including ones selling the inevitable Aran Sweaters. It also has a Spar supermarket which looks to be reasonably large. Because there was a ferry to be caught, I didn’t get to see as many of the highlights of the island as I’d like to have. This, naturally, is a reason to return.

Getting There

All three islands can be reached by ferry or by air. Aran Islands Ferries in Galway runs regular ferries from Rossaveel in Connemara. They have a shuttle bus which brings people from Galway City centre out to the ferry. Alternatively, you can travel directly to Rossaveel and depart from there. On this occasion, I took the Galway shuttle bus/ferry combo.

Two ferry companies operate out of Doolin, County Clare: Doolin Ferry Company and O’Brien’s Ferry.

There are airstrips and small airports on all three Aran Islands. These are serviced by Aer Arann, which flies out of Inverin Airport in Galway. The flights are quite short so this may suit some people more.

Getting Around

As you might have guessed by now, you won’t be bringing your own car to Inis Mór. You can walk, of course, but there are other options. You can hire a mini-bus or a guided tour by pony and trap. These can be pre-booked, though in my experience there always seemed to be people offering these to people disembarking from the ferry.

Aran Islands Bike Hire , which is located just off the pier in Kilronan, has a good selection of bikes on hand. As well as regular bikes and the aforementioned e-bikes, they hire out buggies and tandems.

Other advice

Google Maps is your friend. Even though there is very little Google Streetview coverage of the Aran Islands, the directions to the various places still work fine. Signposting on Inis Mór is patchy so definitely don’t rely on that.

Inis Mór is too large to get around in one day so take a look at a map and decide what you want to see this time around. You won’t get to see everything if you’re on a day trip.

The shops and pubs all take plastic, so you don’t have to load up on cash before you leave.

Wear sensible footwear if you want to do any exploring at all.

Derrigimlagh Bog – Be Not Here Now

Derrigimlagh is a large expanse of blanket bog, halfway between Clifden and Ballyconneely in County Galway. Perhaps because of its location so close to the Atlantic coast, it has played host to two significant events in 20th-century history. One by accident, the other by design.

Marconi’s Wireless Station (1907)

On 12th December 1901, the world’s first Transatlantic wireless message was sent from Poldhu, Cornwall to an abandoned hospital in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The man receiving the message was the person who had created the technology behind it – one Guglielmo Marconi. After this early success, Marconi began the search for a site more suitable for a commercial operation. He finally settled on Derrigimlagh Bog which was 7km from Clifden, Co. Galway in Ireland. There were several reasons for choosing Derrigimlagh. It was close to the Atlantic Ocean on Ireland’s west coast, there was no shortage of land to build what was needed and there were ample natural resources onsite. The peat bog and the lake would supply enough fuel and water to keep everything running smoothly. The radio station began operating in 1907, transmitting messages to its sister station 3,000km away in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.

The radio station at Derrigimlagh was quite an extensive complex. The antenna system stretched out for more than half a kilometre and consisted of 8 masts, each 6m high. A power station was built onsite with six steam-powered generators in the building – three were always in operation, with the other three as backup. A huge condenser building (106m x 23m) was built to store the energy that had been generated and to supply enough “oomph” to get those messages across the Atlantic. (I hope my old science teacher isn’t reading this thoroughly unscientific explanation). Several other buildings were constructed onsite, including housing for workers and a social club. The station did what it said on the tin, and operated successfully for a number of years.

Digital recreation of the antennae, as seen on the BBC’s Coast 2²

As the technology improved, Derrigimlagh was superseded by a more powerful station at Caernarfon in Wales. In July 1922 it was attacked by Republican forces during the War of Independence and some of the buildings were damaged. That proved to be the death knell for the station. It was closed and the contents sold off.

All of this means that despite the significance of this site, and the extent of what used to be here, visitors could easily go for a long walk and return to their cars oblivious. Happily, lots of work has been done to remedy this. Along with pathways and boardwalks, the site is dotted with information stops, photoscopes and helpful signs. All of these definitely help to make you understand how large and unique this site once was. It’s so frustrating that there isn’t even one building standing any more. All we have are tantalising glances of foundations, a few fragments of wall, loose bricks and concrete bases. The photoscopes in particular are a welcome addition because you can look through them and see old photos against the current landscape.

In 2010, a smaller version of the station was recreated for the BBC series Coast. If you’re interested, the episode can be seen here (scroll on to 9:26)

Alcock & Brown’s Soft Landing

On Saturday 14th June 1919, two British pilots – Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown set off from Lester’s Field, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada in a modified Vickers Vimy aeroplane. Both had flown aeroplanes in World War 1 but they had a slightly more peaceful mission in mind this time. The Daily Mail newspaper (yes, that one) was offering a prize of £10,000 for the first non-stop Transatlantic flight. That’s over €500,000 in today’s money, just in case you were wondering.

Their aircraft was a twin-engined bomber which had been modified for the crossing. Out went the bomb racks and in came extra fuel tanks and oil. To stay warm, both wore electrically heated clothing, Burberry overalls, fur gloves and fur-lined helmets. Alcock took the controls of the plane while Brown did the navigation.

Inevitably, the flight was incident-packed and not in a good way. 3½ hours into the journey, the plane’s wind-driven electrical generator failed. That deprived them of radio contact, their intercom and the heating. They then encountered thick fog which made navigation impossible – Alcock nearly crashed the plane into the sea after losing control of the aircraft. Now freezing cold because of the lack of heating, they encountered a snowstorm. After nearly 16 long hours in the plane, the duo finally made land again. They spotted the antenna at the Marconi station and that helped them get their bearings. Alcock landed the plane in what he thought was a nice green field. Anybody familiar with that part of Connemara would simply say “lol”. Anyway, both men emerged safe and sound from their plane. The plane itself was in reasonably good condition despite the flight but it soon began to sink into the soft ground.

The plane was soon removed from there and can now be seen in the Science Museum in London. The spot where they landed in Derrigimlagh is now overlooked by a viewing platform. Strangely, there is a second Alcock and Brown monument in the area but it’s on the L5132 road to Errislannan.

To sum up, if you want to spend a pleasant few hours walking in the fresh air and taking in the bleak but beautiful Connemara scenery you could do worse than come here.

How to get here: Navigating to here should be marginally less arduous than Alcock & Brown’s flight across the Atlantic. Derrigimlagh Bog is on the R341 between Clifden and Ballyconneely. There is a small car park at the entrance. Needless to say, wear comfortable footwear and at the very least, bring some water with you. You’ll be out there for a while.

Footnotes

Original version of this photo is from the Laurence Collection and was digitised by the National Library of Ireland ↩︎
Screenshot taken from Coast, Series 5, Episode 5 “Galway to Arranmore Island” (2010) ↩︎

The Sims 1 in Windows 11

This is the most popular post on the site, so I thought I would rewrite it and bring it up to date. I’ve also made a video of it, just in case you’re not into reading walls of text.

Update: EA has re-released The Sims and The Sims 2, both tweaked to work on modern computers. If you don’t feel like faffing around with all this, you can get them here https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-25th-anniv-edition

If you’re interested in downloading and playing The Sims Complete Collection, which comprises the original game and the seven expansion packs, it can be downloaded from Archive.org. It’s a download of over 2 GB and takes a while, but it works fine.

Screenshot from The Sims (2000) — If this screen capture was taken in 2020 you could say she was about to have a Zoom meeting

If you’d rather stick with the original game, then read on.

A copy of the game and a modified version of sims.exe can be downloaded from here. Download at your own risk. If you have any technical questions, I’m afraid I can’t help you. I’m just the messenger…

If you own a copy of the original game, please use that instead. The only thing you will need is the modified sims.exe file for the final step. That can be downloaded from here

And finally…

Unzip the Sims zip file into a folder on your computer. If you own the original game on CD, copy everything into a folder on your computer.

Right-click on Setup.exe and select Run as Administrator

Install the game.

Once the game installs, navigate to C: Program Files (x86)\Maxis\The Sims
(on older 32-bit computers the game installs into C: Program Files\Maxis\The Sims)

Rename the original sims.exe file to sims(old).exe. This is because we’re about to over-write it with a newer, modified version that’ll enable the game to run on a modern PC with no CD drive

Open a new Windows Explorer window and navigate to where you’ve either downloaded the entire game (look in the Crack folder) or the smaller modified sims.exe file. What you will be doing now is copying sims.exe into C: Program Files (x86)\Maxis\The Sims

With this done, there are only a couple more steps to take. The first one is to copy a shortcut to the computer’s desktop

In Windows 10, it’s simply a matter of right-clicking on Sims.exe and picking Send to/Desktop (create shortcut). In Windows 11, select Show More Options, then Send to Desktop (create shortcut)

Once you’re back on the desktop, right-click on the Sims shortcut you’ve just created and select Properties from the menu

Go to the Compatibility tab and choose an older operating system. Now you’re good to go.

If you find that the version of Windows you’ve chosen doesn’t work, try another.

If you played the original game, you may have used programs such as Sims Art Studio and Sims Homecrafter. None of these are working for me and I’m not going to chase those up to see if they can be made work again. The good news is that there are still lots and lots of custom-made Sims goodies (floors, walls, skins, objects) freely available online.

If the advice here doesn’t work, try the advice given on this site

Build it and they will come…or not

Yet again, my talent for visiting heritage sites under scaffolding does not disappoint

Ormond Castle in Carrick-on-Suir is a little bit different to your usual castle visit. For starters, the site isn’t obviously a castle. What catches the eye aren’t the ruins of the castle which are there, but the Elizabethan Tudor manor house built onto it. As we know, Tudor manor houses aren’t all that common in Ireland. This one could’ve been soo much more Elizabethan if only Queen Elizabeth I (i.e. Ms Elizabethan herself) had bothered to come and visit.

Anyway, let’s go back a bit in time. A castle was first built on the site in the fourteenth century. At the time it was very close to the River Suir (as depicted in a rather nice model that’s on display in the visitor centre) and was strategically important. It was originally owned by the Wall family but was given to the powerful Butler Family. James Butler would later become the first Earl of Ormond. The Butler family, incidentally, also owned Kilkenny Castle for many centuries.

Model depicting the castle and the river

Over 200 years later, Thomas Butler, the Tenth Earl of Ormond built the Tudor manor house onto the castle. Black Tom, as he was also known, was a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I through her mother Anne Boleyn. He became close friends with Elizabeth. So close, in fact, that there were rumours they were more than good friends. Elizabeth was known to refer to him as her “Black husband”.

Photo from Heritage Ireland website — The Long Gallery (photo not mine)

Thomas invited Elizabeth to come visit him in Ireland and she accepted the invitation. In 1565 he built the manor house here, in preparation for her visit. As an Elizabethan-style house, it had larger windows, brick chimneys and a layout different to traditional Irish buildings. It has a beautiful long hall that has some pretty amazing stucco plasterwork on the walls and ceiling.

Sideways view of the model, showing how the manor house was built onto the castle

Disappointingly for Tom, Elizabeth was long on promises but short on action. She never did get around to visiting the manor house he had built for her.

“She had promised to visit when her Irish wars were won”

In 1588 Thomas became a Knight of the Garter and in 1597 he became Lieutenant General of Ireland in 1597. He also found the time to get married 3 times and fathered at least 16 children (4 inside the marriages, 12 elsewhere). When he died in 1614, his illegitimate son Piers FitzThomas Butler of Duiske benefited most from his will. This led to rumours that Piers might’ve been a child he’d had with Elizabeth.

Over time the financial clout and power of the Butler family diminished. The house was abandoned in the late 17th century and fell into ruin. The Butlers handed the site over to the Irish state in 1947

The castle and manor house have undergone significant restoration since then. In recent years the manor house was plastered over again. If you do a google image search, you can see plenty of photos of the manor house with its stonework exposed.

Even if Elizabeth couldn’t be bothered coming to visit, it is worth a trip if you fancy looking at something that isn’t yet another castle. There are some remnants of the castle on the site, including the tower house. The guided tour didn’t bring us in there but perhaps that may change in the future. There’s also a short film on the history of the castle and a museum with some interesting bits and bobs

Getting There

The castle closes over the winter time, so check Heritage Ireland’s website before planning your visit. As of 2024 its season is running from March-November. More details here

The castle is accessed through the park you can see on Google Streetview. Carrick on Suir is a busy town so you may not find parking right beside the castle. Astonishingly, the payment machine in the nearby council-run New Street Car Park didn’t offer a contactless card payment option. If you don’t have enough coins to hand (luckily we did) then you’re required to download an app and pre-load it with credit. That’s fine if you park in Co. Tipperary on a regular basis. If you’re on a one-time visitor then it’s daylight robbery.

Temple Church

I haven’t posted here for a while so I have some catching up to do. The first new/old post I’ll do is about the Temple Church in London. When staying in the city last year, I had the good fortune to stay in a (then) very reasonably priced hotel that was right next door.

I knew very little about the church other than that it popped up in The Da Vinci Code which I read about 20 years ago, and that it had something to do with the Knights Templar. It turns out to be far more interesting than that and has connections to one of my favourite places in Ireland.

The church is at the end of a laneway, a short walk from Fleet Street. It’s nestled in the middle of London’s legal district and is surrounded by impressive looking office buildings and gardens. It’s also nice and peaceful which is always welcome in this part of the world.

The first thing of note when you reach the church is its impressive looking West Doorway. It’s the entrance into the round part of this unusual church – more of that in a moment. Part of the decorations on the doorway include heads wearing turbans, caps and buttons. Some of these point to the interesting history of the people who built it.

The organisation which became known as the Knights Templar was founded in 1118. One of its aims was to protect pilgrims travelling to and from Jerusalem. Although they were based in Jerusalem, in time they built a base in London. In 1162 a round church was built here, inspired by the (also round) Church of the Holy Sepulchre back in Jerusalem. A chancel was later added. The area surrounding the church became known as Temple and it became the centre of religious, political and political life in London.

The entrance into the church is just around the corner and once inside, you’re free to roam and get a good look at the place. One of the first things to be seen in the church are 9 male effigies on the floor. The most remarkable of them all is probably that of William Marshal, the first Earl of Pembroke. He has been described as “The Best Knight that Ever Lived”. He certainly lived an eventful life and his influence extended across into Ireland. Amongst other things, he was responsible for the building of Hook Lighthouse in County Wexford 😎 William served four Kings of England and was one of the main negotiators involved in the drawing up of the Magna Carta. Indeed he was one of the signatories of it. When excavations were carried out in the church in 1842, medieval coffins were found under the floor. These are thought to have included William.

Being a tower freak, it wasn’t long before I was heading up the stairs and into the gallery. Perhaps it’s for the best that I didn’t spot any signs of the creepy tiny penitential cell that’s just off the stairs. It’s little more than the size of a broom cupboard. The story goes that an unfortunate man called Walter Bachelor was locked into the cell and left to starve to death in 1301. Is the story true? It isn’t clear but it was just one of the nefarious rumours about the Templars which were floating around at the time. On Friday 13th October 1307, King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V moved to end the Knights Templar. King Edward II handed the church over to the order of St. John.

Like just about every other old building, the church was tweaked over the years. Sir Christopher Wren made some changes to it, but nothing like what the Victorians did. Their alterations weren’t universally popular. However, most of that was lost on the night of 10th May 1941 when German bombers dropped over 700 tons of explosives over London. Along with the huge cost to human life (an estimated 1,400 deaths and 2,000 injuries), huge swathes of the city were destroyed. The Temple Church, which had survived the Great Fire of London, was one of the casualties. It was badly damaged during the fire and it took 14 years for the church to be fully repaired.

Amusingly, some of the mediaeval-inspired encaustic floor tiles which the Victorians had laid survived. These can be seen up in the gallery and they’re very striking. I also learned a new word – encaustic, encaustic…

The fire had shattered the original columns in the church, so new ones were quarried for it. The originals had been noted for their crookedness, so when they were rebuilding, they continued the tradition. It goes without saying that the fire also destroyed the original church organ. Its replacement came from an unlikely source – Glen Tanar castle in Scotland. The organ had originally been built for the castle ballroom but the acoustics in the room didn’t suit it. (As an aside, I’ve never seen so many deer antlers in the one place…). And so, the organ was gifted to the church by Lord Glentanar and it was shipped down to London. Not only did it sound much much better in its new home, it gained a reputation for being a really great organ. Much of the soundtrack to Christopher Nolan’s 2014 film Interstellar was recorded on this organ, with resident organist Roger Sayer collaborating with composer Hans Zimmer. Unfortunately, I visited on a Monday so I didn’t get to hear one of the church’s Wednesday lunchtime recitals.

Churches to visit are ten-a-penny in London but this one comes highly recommended. Even though it was badly damaged during the war, the painstaking restoration of it is superb. It’s an unusual church with an interesting, sometimes dark history. And by London admission price standards, the entrance fee is pretty reasonable (£5 at the time of writing)

Gallery – click on a thumbnail to enlarge.

In search of Smash Hits

Carnaby Street London — Carnaby Street, home to Smash Hits

Like many youngsters who grew up in the 1980s, the fortnightly pop magazine Smash Hits was a must-read. It was irreverent, funny, and colourful and supplied its young readers with an endless supply of posters for their bedroom walls. It was also a great way to keep tabs on who was currently poptastic and who was hurtling down the dumper to hang out with Belouis Some and Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Famously, Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys worked for the magazine from 1982-1985, alongside Word in Your Ear stalwarts David Hepworth and Mark Ellen. The magazine folded in 2006 but it is still well remembered and loved amongst people of a certain age.

Neil Tennant on the front cover of his old employer’s fanzine

The Smash Hits office was at 52-55 Carnaby Street, in the Soho area of London. The New Musical Express (NME) offices were right across the street from them and apparently, these rivals weren’t having half as much fun as the Smash Hits journos. What never occurred to youthful me was that these offices were to be found upstairs over swankier shops and that they didn’t have shiny pop stars sashaying in and out through their doors all day.

There is a plaque on the wall of the building where Smash Hits used to be but there’s no mention of the iconic magazine. Instead, it commemorates the offices as being used by notorious rock manager Don Arden (father of Sharon Osbourne). Hopefully some day “they” will erect plaques for Smash Hits and the NME because for generations of music fans these magazines really were a big deal.

Smash Hits HQ (or was it Towers?), not that you’d know it

Carnaby Street in the 1960s was synonymous with swinging London but these days it’s about as cleaned up and nondescript as you can get. Even a nod to its past with a Rolling Stones pop-up shop doesn’t do much. Oh well, at least me and my frightwig were there. It’s just a shame it was 35 years too late.

If you’re of a certain age, you might enjoy looking back at old issues of Smash Hits. There are oodles of them online

Michael Mouse’s Smash Hits Magazine Remembered
Like Punk Never Happened – Mark McCloskey’s archive on Flickr
Archive.org
Word Podcast 225. Smash Hits alumni Mark Frith, Sylvia Patterson, David Hepworth and Mark Ellen reminisce about their old job
Word Podcast 170 – Neil Tennant joins David Hepworth and Mark Ellen for a natter. A lot of it is about Smash Hits, starting 6 minutes in
Google Maps – Smash Hits office location

Cartoon Museum

During my trip to London in 2022, I visited the Cartoon Museum. I grew up reading DC Thomson comics and have a lot of nostalgia for the characters from The Beano, The Dandy, The Bunty, the Judy and The Mandy in particular. I grew out of reading comics when I was 10 or 11 but I still have a soft spot for clever current affairs cartoons. I also greatly admire the skill of the artists who draw these comic strips. And so, a visit to the Cartoon Museum in the centre of London was always going to be an easy sell.

Dennis the Menace. The infinitely superior one (sorry yanks)

I was really impressed by the friendly people behind the reception desk. One of them took the time to give me a good overview of what was on display and told a funny story about how the Beano means something different in the USA. Think wind, and not the weather sort. It also turned out that I knew one of his Irish relatives, which isn’t as weird as it sounds if you come from Ireland…

In museums and exhibitions like these, it never ceases to surprise me how far back some of the exhibits go. Cartoons were no exception, with some surprisingly old drawings. Thankfully these were a higher calibre than the offensive anti-Irish etchings which seemed to be a staple of Punch magazine back in the day. I think we tend to forget that people from the past were just as funny and acerbic and clued-in as we are now. Or at least, how we like to see ourselves.

Roy Hattersley (Spitting Image) — Roy Hattersley

Needless to say, the many cartoons on the walls were really interesting. Some were funny, many were thought-provoking and some brought back memories of current affairs issues I’d mostly forgotten.

I was pleasantly surprised to see an actual old-school Spitting Image puppet on display. Back in the day, Spitting Image was must-see TV and some of their latex puppets become iconic in their own right. As I later learned, being made of latex means some of these old puppets have had to be restored. If you’re interested, the lady who restored the Roy Hattersley puppet has some interesting information here.

At the time of my visit, there was a Judge Dredd 45th anniversary exhibition on the go. The charms of Mr Dredd and his judgements passed me by but all the same, there was a lot to like in that section. You don’t have to be a fan of all of these genres to admire the work that the cartoonists put into their comic strips.

There is a room in the museum which brings those of us of a certain age straight back to primary school again. They encourage people of all ages to have fun drawing cartoons. What isn’t there to love about being able to sit in a brightly coloured room and play with crayons, pencil sharpeners and colouring pencils. The 5-year-old in us never dies! I might have baulked at trying to draw a caricature of the then UK prime minister Boris Johnson. Or should that be, Booo-ris Johnson.

In short, if you’re in any way interested in cartoons, satire, staring into Roy Hattersley’s false eyes or drawing superheroes in a playroom, the Cartoon Museum is worth a visit. It certainly woke the child in me. Oh, and the gift shop is pretty cool too.

Cabmen’s Shelters

While I was in London back in April, I spotted a large wooden hut that looked like Dr Who’s TARDIS if it had been a Siamese twin and had turned green around the gills from all the crazy adventures. Alas, the truth was a bit more grounded but at least there were no Daleks to deal with.

This hut (@Hyde Park Gate) is one of a number of Cabmen’s Shelters which can still be found around London. They were built by the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund which was founded in 1875. The idea for the shelter came about after journalist/gentleman with deep pockets George Armstrong tried to hail a cab during a blizzard but found that the taxi drivers were sheltering in a nearby pub and weren’t sipping orange juice and sparkling water. The idea behind these shelters was to give the cab drivers somewhere else to go and to stop them from getting drunk on the job. The cabs were built to be no bigger than a horse and cart and served food and hot drinks to the cabbies seeking some shelter. Needless to say, no alcohol was served at these huts.

The first hut was built at St. John’s Wood and it still stands to this day. In total, just over 60 huts were built in London over the coming years but only 13 survive now. The existing ones are run by the wonderfully titled Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers and 10 of them are still in operation. Many of them now serve drinks and snacks to the public. The one I found is near Hyde Park Gate and wasn’t serving a morsel of anything 😦

The huts are now Grade II listed so all going well, they’ll be around for a while yet.

The chances of anything coming from Mars…

On a recent trip to London, a friend and I went along to Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds: The Immersive Experience. Billed as “the only place in London where you can experience a real Martian invasion” how could we not go?

The show, for want of a better word, is being staged in the historic Hallmark Building on Leadenhall Street. For years, it was home to the London Metal Exchange and was the perfect setting for this. Even the windows look right for what’s going on inside.

Once you check-in at the venue, you’re assigned a “team” with whom you’ll experience the Martian invasion. You’re issued with a wrist band which makes it easier to know where to go. Amusingly, the young man who checked us in got mixed up so we were double-tagged 🙂

And so, on to the experience itself. It’s described as being a mixture of live-action, multi-sensory effects and virtual reality. It follows the plotline of the 1978 Jeff Wayne album and either uses music and songs straight off that album or a score adapted from there. Really nice. At the beginning of the tour, we were greeted by a lady in Victorian dress who explained the ground rules and how to adjust the magical headwear we’d be popping on later on. By now everyone had put their phones away (no harm in that!) and were doing their best to pretend they were back in the early 1900s. And so, on to the show. Over the next hour and three quarters, we made our way through the set. Sometimes the settings were indoors, such as in people’s houses or outdoors (Horsell Common, most notably). Without spoiling too much, the first part largely involved live actors and sets, holograms and a surprise special effect or two. All of it was enjoyable but things really stepped up a gear once we got to wear the Virtual Reality headsets. I had never worn any sort of VR equipment before so it was great to experience it in such a spectacular way.

My first introduction to Virtual Reality here was a boat trip down the Thames and out to sea, soundtracked by Justin Hayward’s “Forever Autumn”. At the start of the boat trip (in which we were sitting in an actual wooden boat), it’s nice and pleasant and autumnal. By the end of it, London’s not looking too good after being trashed by those pesky Martians and we’re out at sea. Rough seas at that! It certainly felt real and that’s the praise the creators are after. Some of the footage can be seen in this short trailer by Layered Reality, the company staging this.

Half way through, there’s a chance to stop and have a drink at the Red Weed bar. This was a welcome break because experiencing a Martian invasion first-hand is thirsty work. A toilet is never unwelcome either, it has to be said.

It was all good fun, with the good-humoured actors adept at thinking on their feet when interacting with dumb members of the public. Special praise should go out to the lady who has undoubtedly heard those jokes about telephones never catching on about 5 squillion times. After surviving (spoiler alert!) the Martian invasion, we returned to real life and the bar outside.

Overall, it comes highly recommended. One minor quibble, which has nothing to do with show itself, is about the VR headsets. I wear glasses most of the time and would have found life a little bit easier if I’d popped in a pair of contact lenses before going to this. My specs didn’t spoil the experience by any means but they sometimes made taking the headsets on and off a bit of a faff. Anyway, enough of that. If you are thinking of going, keep an eye out for special promotions or vouchers to reduce the entry cost.

On a final note, when my friend and I walked outside afterwards and looked up along the street, we noted that The Gherkin seemed to be looming over us ominously…