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Go Walthamstow!

(40 Posts)
MawB Wed 04-Sep-19 21:16:30

When I arrived at Walthamstow Central today they were (as usual) playing classical music over the PA system. It’s something which always lifts my spirits (and apparently has a beneficial influence on public behaviour)
Today’s choice?
Beethoven’s Ode to Joy aka the EU anthem.
I suspect someone was making a point! smilesmile??????

annsixty Wed 04-Sep-19 22:06:55

My H’s Aunt and Uncle moved to Walthamstow in somewhere around 1929.
They bought a 3 bed terraced house in Forest View Road for a few hundred pounds.
They never had children and during the war they were obliged to take in a couple, also childless, who had been bombed out.
They stayed for many years.
We stayed with them twice and often wonder what the house would be worth today.
Sorry to deviate but the subject popped into my head seeing the name again.

petra Wed 04-Sep-19 22:16:54

That reminded of the scene in The Shawshank Redemption where Andy Dufresne ( Tim Robbins) played classical music to the inmates: they loved it ?

Callistemon Wed 04-Sep-19 22:23:54

They play classical music outside our supermarket at night - apparently it stops the yobs congregating in the covered area outside.

Ellianne Wed 04-Sep-19 23:01:25

That's why it's known as "awesomestow"! Very trendy and getting expensive to live there.
I love the market.
Maybe they'll be taking requests for musical pieces next?!

maddyone Wed 04-Sep-19 23:05:37

Classical music being played in public places is lovely, but if the music was being played in order to make a political point, I feel that’s totally wrong. Public services need to concentrate on providing good service, not making political points.
Further, as far as I am concerned, the EU don’t have a National Anthem, they’re not a nation!

annsixty Wed 04-Sep-19 23:09:12

Being picky maddyone if you don’t mind me saying so.

MawB Wed 04-Sep-19 23:14:09

Maddyone nobody said national anthem, did they?
As for whether or not it was making a political point or just playing a very nice piece of Beethoven will always be a matter for (subjective) conjecture, so you can get down from your high horse and let the pearls hang down again.

grumppa Wed 04-Sep-19 23:55:15

The Ode to Joy at Walthamstow Central may be a manifestation of Waltham Forest being London's first Borough of Culture, a responsibility which it is bearing with varying success. I hope it is playing when I next change from the Overground to the Victoria Line there, and I shall not worry about the political significance thrust upon it by the EU, for whose aspirations some of Schiller's words may be appropriate: Seid umschlungen, Millionen!

Eloethan Thu 05-Sep-19 00:43:38

The classical music in the bus station was introduced long before the London Borough of Culture was even thought of.

I heard that it was played to discourage people from hanging around the bus station and causing disturbance.

maddyone Thu 05-Sep-19 01:04:47

I don’t mind at all Ann, but I do have to remind Maw that the only pearls I have go in my ears. I’m not on a high horse Maw, only ever been on a horse once, and I did not enjoy it. To be honest I wouldn’t even want to be on a low horse either.
I love that particular piece of music and don’t mind it, and other classical pieces being played in public, in fact all classical music is preferable to some of the stuff I hear when out and about. I just don’t want some sort of political message being played to me.

growstuff Thu 05-Sep-19 02:45:32

Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" was actually adopted as an anthem by the Council of Europe, not the EU. Schiller's words weren't adopted. It's been used as a peace anthem throughout the 200 years since Beethoven set Schiller's words to music.

Schiller originally wrote his poem just before the French Revolution, when hopes were high that Europe was about to become a better place. He changed his mind after the Reign of Terror. Nevertheless, the words remain uplifting to this day.

growstuff Thu 05-Sep-19 02:47:00

My daughter has been told what music I want played at my funeral. It includes "Ode to Joy".

MawB Thu 05-Sep-19 03:58:08

Then don’t be so pedantic Maddyone and po faced about the music.
Yes, Eloethan the classical music is designed to encourage a calm atmosphere, I have heard Mozart on more than one previous occasion. If Maddyone is bothered about municipal money being spent when it should be providing a good service then what a dull world we would live in. Does it cost a ha’penny more to play Beethoven or any other composer?
The music at Waterloo station is another example of a pragmatic solution which nevertheless improves the quality of life. It has long been known that they play faster music at the rush hour in the morning to get people moving faster as they head across the concourse or soothing music when they are on the way home to help calm them.
Oh what a sad world we would live in if there had to be a choice between “essential services” and quality of everybody’s life.

lemongrove Thu 05-Sep-19 07:34:27

Annsixty I remember Forest Road, but not Forest View Road, where exactly was it?
I also remember the loud rather martial classical music played at Liverpool St Station ( when I worked in London)
It made me feel I should actually march across the concourse.
Generally all music lifts my spirits ( bar Slade or The Osmonds)?

maddyone Thu 05-Sep-19 07:43:13

Where exactly did I say I was worried about municipal money being spent Maw?
What I said was I don’t want a political message being played, as the OP suggested. I don’t want to live in a Communist type country where subtle brainwashing is happening, and where classical music is the conveyor of the ‘correct’ message. Fine for you if you don’t mind, but we’re all entitled to our own opinions without being ridiculed with remarks such as ‘pearl clutching,’ one I’ve seen you use a few times as a subtle put down. I’d suggest you get off your high horse.

LullyDully Thu 05-Sep-19 07:54:57

They play classical music in the public toilets in Winchester!!!! I wondered if was to keep the youngsters from congregating there.

annsixty Thu 05-Sep-19 07:55:53

lemongrove my memory may have played tricks on me but 33 Forest View Road is what comes into my mind when I think of Aunt Ellen and Uncle Jim.
As to where it was ,it is 49 years since we visited, we took my S to visit when he was a baby, he’s 50 next year.
I can’t ask anyone either, I am the last surviving family member.?

Pittcity Thu 05-Sep-19 08:03:58

Google shows Forest View Road E17 off the A406.
I was born in WalFamstow although we never lived there.

Ellianne Thu 05-Sep-19 08:11:34

There's so many roads with "Forest" in their name round these parts annsixty because Epping Forest is spread so wide with rows of houses in between. If you go on street view you could probably find the one you're looking for. I think I read somewhere that the forest is the largest green space in London, (Queen Elizabeth 1 hunting ground).

lemongrove Thu 05-Sep-19 08:16:47

Thanks Pitt ? I will look it up and see it on street view.

annsixty Thu 05-Sep-19 08:19:00

Yes I have googled and it is Forest View Road.
Zoopla shows the house as being valued at over £400,000 ,wow.
It wasn’t a big house at all, 2 reception, one behind the other,a tiny corridor kitchen ,no loo downstairs and a narrow back garden.
I can’t think how it could be extended much , being terraced.

lemongrove Thu 05-Sep-19 08:27:23

Same as the house I went to live in Ann on Billet Rd.
No doubt worth the same or more.

annsixty Thu 05-Sep-19 08:28:54

I found it on street view.
The front garden is full to the brim with bags of rubbish.
They will be turning in their graves.

lemongrove Thu 05-Sep-19 08:32:08

?
Sad to see, isn’t it?