Cooling the house

Some people give house warming parties. Some prefer celebrating their departure over their arrival, and give house cooling parties. Not many have an entire camera crew to hose the premise down for the event... but our professor in planning does!

Only about a year ago we welcomed a new colleague, and he took residence in what may easily be the most scenic part of town: Royal William Yard, the old navy victualling yard. In spite of the evident beauty of the place he’ll be moving out, but not before he offered all of us an opportunity to admire all of it. And by sheer coincidence he picked a night in which there would be more admiration flooding the place: the BBC, or Channel 4, or what have you, had chosen the Yard as the setting for an episode of a renowned series of comedy: “the comic strip presents...“ I’d never heard of it, but I’m a foreigner.

When I biked through the gate I had to manoeuvre past old timer cars, actors dressed as bobbies, chaps unloading letter boxes, street lights and garbage bins from vans. Luckily I found Chris’ apartment in all this confusion, and soon we were trying to pop champagne corks into the sound.

Royal William Yard as itself

The evening was most scenic, the apartment breathtaking, and filled up with the best geography has to offer it was even better. One of the guests was Jon, who is famous for demurely hiding his opinions, so when it happened a scene was recorded in which Stephen Mangan, playing Tony Blair, was chased by the bobby, Jon politely shouted at him his costume was shit. The criticised actor unbaffledly responded that indeed Rik Mayall wouldn’t have put up with it...

The view from the appartment

While we were sipping enjoyable beverages we kept an eye both on the sunset and on the goings-about outside. The most classy Yard was supposed to pass for a grimy part of London, and to emphasise the desolation of that place they decided to add a damp touch and hose the place down. That’s house cooling for you! And having seen what great house coolings Chris gives we can’t wait for the warming of his new place...

 Royal William Yard as damp London

The impressive gate, festooned with filmcrew light beam