The Oubliette moves to Leicester Square
I can now reveal the Oubliette's premiere new location is Leicester Square:
Last night they unveiled a banner promoting theirnew website.
The building is in a block of three buildings which are empty pending demolition. The bookmakers on the ground floor will close at the end of the year, and the site will be used to build another casino. (When did the decision happen to hand Leicester Square over to the gaming companies? In five years time there'll be more casinos than cinemas.)
Dan and friends have half a dozen floors which were formerly four flats and a business unit. The best flat has polished wooden floors, central heating, a bath and shower with hot water, and a kitchen with a fridge, cooker and washing machine. They don't have any furniture, and the other flats are not so nice. The business unit is derelict, having been left empty for many years.
It's quite bizarre looking out of the front room to see so many people walking past, although double-glazing muffles the sound. I wonder who once lived in these flats. Given the money to live anywhere, would you really choose to live on Leicester Square?
When I visited on Saturday I saw the walls taken up with paintings of a female nude. There'd been a life-drawing class. The model - a Dutch friend of one of the artists - realised halfway through that she was being watched by a crowd on the square. She stepped away from the window.
In the hidden alcove of an upstairs room we found someone's long-forgotten library of a hundred or more books. Remembering my once-stated interest in rare books, never acted on, I looked through in the hope I might find some rare first edition underneath the dust, whilst feeling slightly ashamed for considering their value above whether I might like to read them. I jotted down a few titles: Hazlitt Painted by Himself, Westward Ho, Ivanhoe, Through the Gates of Remembrance, Collingwood's Life of Ruskin, Michelet's Jeanne d'Arc, and one called Held By The Bolsheviks. Some were ex-library books and none seemed to be first editions. Many dated from the beginning of the 20th century, but age needn't mean value. I left them all there.
Last night they unveiled a banner promoting theirnew website.
The building is in a block of three buildings which are empty pending demolition. The bookmakers on the ground floor will close at the end of the year, and the site will be used to build another casino. (When did the decision happen to hand Leicester Square over to the gaming companies? In five years time there'll be more casinos than cinemas.)
Dan and friends have half a dozen floors which were formerly four flats and a business unit. The best flat has polished wooden floors, central heating, a bath and shower with hot water, and a kitchen with a fridge, cooker and washing machine. They don't have any furniture, and the other flats are not so nice. The business unit is derelict, having been left empty for many years.
It's quite bizarre looking out of the front room to see so many people walking past, although double-glazing muffles the sound. I wonder who once lived in these flats. Given the money to live anywhere, would you really choose to live on Leicester Square?
When I visited on Saturday I saw the walls taken up with paintings of a female nude. There'd been a life-drawing class. The model - a Dutch friend of one of the artists - realised halfway through that she was being watched by a crowd on the square. She stepped away from the window.
In the hidden alcove of an upstairs room we found someone's long-forgotten library of a hundred or more books. Remembering my once-stated interest in rare books, never acted on, I looked through in the hope I might find some rare first edition underneath the dust, whilst feeling slightly ashamed for considering their value above whether I might like to read them. I jotted down a few titles: Hazlitt Painted by Himself, Westward Ho, Ivanhoe, Through the Gates of Remembrance, Collingwood's Life of Ruskin, Michelet's Jeanne d'Arc, and one called Held By The Bolsheviks. Some were ex-library books and none seemed to be first editions. Many dated from the beginning of the 20th century, but age needn't mean value. I left them all there.
Total Comments 6
Comments
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Posted 27-10-09 at 11:46 by luckyjimm
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will you be joining them?
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Posted 27-10-09 at 14:18 by muppet
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Not to live, no - they've only got another ten days there, and I still need to be home while I look for work. But I'll visit at the weekend.
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Posted 27-10-09 at 14:39 by luckyjimm
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Looks like James Whale paid a visit for his LBC show - well, they're on another side of the square:
http://lbc.co.uk/leicester-square-sq..._squatters/332 |
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Posted 27-10-09 at 22:36 by luckyjimm
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i think it's criminal that such a building be left empty for so many years. might pop down there later today...
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Posted 28-10-09 at 09:10 by muppet
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As I understand it, most of the flats were in use up till a year or two ago. But one flat and the business unit were empty for many years.
Found it funny reading about last night's red carpet premiere of the Michael Jackson documentary This Is It, and realising it was at the Odeon just next door! So I guess a lot of people saw the Oubliette banner... |
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Posted 28-10-09 at 09:54 by luckyjimm
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