Capitalism destroying the culture of Soho

It has long been a warning that rising rent prices are destroying many shops & businesses in central London that have been so long established that they have become part of the culture & ambiance of the City.  In Soho rent prices were generous due to land owners who understood the importance of culture.

Now, especially since 2004, faceless capitalist  property developers have bought the leases & via their PR have boasted about 'redevelopment' & 'exciting future'. This doublespeak actually translates as wipe out the existing companies in favour of  anonymous, bland, corporate companies who can afford exorbitant rents. This has now had a personal impact on me, see below. Also an excellent little Italian diner on Shaftesbury Avenue is under pressure where the capitalist new landlords want to pass the site to a USA corporate giant such as Starbucks, because there just isn't enough of them sprouting up like toadstools 

St Joseph's Convent Sister Superior Marie Claire was ...HOW OLD?!

I know exactly when the founder of my primary/public school died (cheapest & best btw) a foggy morning on 18 October 1979 we went straight to the assembly hall in the girls upper block & there under a huge copy of Da Vinci's Last Supper our headmistress Sister Theresa clearly trying to hold back how distressed she was announced Sister Marie Claire had died on her 95th birthday at 4 o' clock in the morning.

I knew Sister Marie Claire Villet  from when  I first met her at the sprightly age of just 90 & I was about 4 years & 11 months. I was actually interviewed by her in front of all the other nuns on a Saturday afternoon as to why I wanted to come to the Convent. I had chosen the school because something felt so right when I walked past it, like deja vu or Charlton Heston playing General Gordon as he says "It's good to be home" as he arrives back in Khartoum,  one of his best performances in that little scene.

When I finally started researching and writing on St Joseph's Convent in 2014 I wrote & told former pupils that Marie Claire was 17 when she was sent from Normandy in France to Sidcup in Kent to foudn the convent and the  school.

Impressive that a 17 year old was a qualified teacher & had the admin skills to set up & manage a school and convent. Such a character would not be a  quiet & submissive but a strong & dynamic character.

Except I got that wrong!

Remembering her birthday was 18 October I realised only recently that when she founded the convent she was

16 years old

I have wondered if she was sent from France at such a young age to get rid of her. The nunnery sent her  to another country across the English Channel in 1901!

The Loreto Ladies have 3 divisions: schools, orphanages & medical it appears some medical followed from France at a later date.   In 1901 the  3 French  nuns who arrived in Kent were:
Sister Marie-Claire Villet (born 1884)
 Rosalie Noel born 1883
 Anna Benchard born 1882.

All 18 & younger

1970s yet again & the Excitement of Wallpaper

So I'm working on a series of videos, entitled Recheche  referring to Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. An 8 volume opus of memories triggered by him sniffing a Madelaine biscuit which unleashed not just memories of childhood but all the multi sensory memories of feelings, scents & emotions that accompanied them. He was able to feel 6 years old again.
My interest in this psychological phenomena is:

1. Ability to relive the actual feelings & sensations of part of your life is a valuable skills for an actor. It is like Method Acting but more authentic; Strasberg went off in the wrong direction. Stella Adler was right when she called Strasberg's desire for her to relive the feelings around her mother's death as "sick,perverse & unnecessary"

2. My interest & work in hypnosis and altered states of consciousness.  I have found that hypnotic regression as part of the induction greatly increases the mind's response to suggestions

3. Why I trained as an actor: psychodrama & Antonin Artaud. The ability to fill a room with the emotions or intentions that the actor wants to project. Not interested in just mouthing words, the audience actually feels the actor.  Klaus Kinski was good at that

So as part of those childhood triggers I have just found some of the wallpaper that was part of my life from around 1975-81. I also have a fascination with art & design so wallpaper, carpets, ceramic tiles excite me in a way that some may find odd

This wallpaper was designed in the late 1960s  consisting saffron colours and the flowery psychedelic design that were popular. Very interesting in it's variety & not having a central point it prevents the eye settling on one place and so it remains stimulating