Fans of William Blake will be flocking to Tate Britain from early September for an exhibition of the poet and artist. Many will know that Blake lived from 1800‑03 in a cottage in Felpham, West Sussex, where he wrote And did those feet in ancient time, later set to music as Jerusalem by Hubert Parry and, of course, a Last Night of the Proms regular.
There were high hopes for the cottage after it was bought from a local family in 2015 for £500,000 by a newly established Blake Cottage Trust. The bulk of the purchase money came from a fund set up in the will of a multimillionaire, who made his fortune from concrete. But four years on, the house, which is Grade II* listed, is in a state of neglect, with its thatched roof and rafters needing urgent repairs.
A grandiose scheme for a major renovation has so far come to naught. The trust, chaired by Tim Heath who also chairs the Blake Society, submitted plans 18 months ago by architects MICA for the original home to be restored and a 1950s extension demolished to make way for a stylish new building. The new complex would then hold exhibitions, educational visits, overnight stays and regular open days.
Yet the plans will cost millions, and according to financial accounts, there is currently next to no money in the Blake Cottage Trust. In fact, over the past four years there have only been two open days (actually half days) for visitors. Blake himself was a great visionary. Any vision of his former home being turned into a place of pilgrimage looks bleak. Heath himself did not respond to questions.
ITV’s News at Ten has just begun a regular new slot, Earth on the Edge, where its correspondents look at the massive threats from the climate crisis and the related destruction to the environment. It began with reports on deforestation in different continents. Well done News at Ten, even if the other night it had a jokey “And finally…“ item on a couple of kayakers who were nearly hit by the swell from ice floes calving from a glacier – but with no mention of global heating.
That aside, News at Ten has become my default nightly news rather than the BBC’s ploddy and unadventurous 10pm offering, which has anyway been cut back to 25 minutes. I like the relaxed yet authoritative anchor Tom Bradby, and his subtle asides on the news. It all makes for a lively half hour. And the show has some excellent home and foreign correspondents, even if its political editor, Robert Peston, is decidedly Marmite.
Somewhat surprised to find a baby of only about three months next to me in a London cinema while watching Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Possibly the youngest ever viewer of an 18-certificate film? Anyway, the baby kept quiet for the nearly three-hour movie, except for one tiny blip of blubbing. Far better behaved, in fact, than a couple of twentysomething blokes near me who cheered and laughed at the violently bloody ending.
