As you
will have seen I spent the afternoon in
Peterborough. The cathedral precinct is not the place it once was.
The cathedral shop complex has closed:
The coffee shop which used to be in Becket's Chapel (
see below: which was the song school when I was a chorister)...
has moved back to where it was quite a number of years ago now:
and is an
extremely disappointing emporium. Called 'Coffee & Cookies', that's all it has. Gone are the hot meals. Gone is the selection of freshly made
sandwiches. Everything is now
pre-wrapped. The sandwiches are made by a local company and I faced the vast selection of
THREE (2 were Egg and Tomato in tomato bread, 1 wasn't). This was at lunchtime, mark you, and even as I munched at 13:25, people arriving were being told, "That's all we have left" as if the place was doing such a roaring trade the late punters were stupid for having dilly-dallied.
I beg to differ. The cold box was smaller than my old television. The staff seemed bored witless and the place was practically empty. OK it isn't mid-summer but I ask you, what did they do with the
ambiance?
Then there's the approach to drainage and repair around this important building which had a £7 million appeal some years ago - they finished the work and then some idiot
set fire to the place; they had to start again. Yet this is how they think drains ought to be repaired.
Note the down pipe from the gutter is broken and spills onto a plank of wood. There were at least two of these.
The entrance to the organ console is where it has always been but they
seem to have used the iron spiral staircase from the old organ loft which was in use
pre-1940 (if not earlier). and on the North side of the cathedral. The old stairs will have been lost in the fire but at least they were wider.
Finally, what really annoyed me was the litter bin up in the organ console. Why do you need a litter bin in an organ console? There never used to be one. Litter did not accumulate there; it was taken away. Mind you, there are some pretty untidy organ lofts around the country. Putting litter in a bin is an excuse not to take it elsewhere until the bin get full, then you have to empty it. It just delays a job.
What is MORE annoying is what the bin contains. Drink cartons, a coffee cup and an empty water bottle. WHY then do the cathedral bother to issue the following instructions to organists? One has to assume that their own organists are taking drink into the console, although the organ juice carton was that of the guy before who clearly had not read the rules. This makes me cross (
click to enlarge). Do people not understand the word
refrain?
But it is so common in society these days. You must not use a mobile phone while you are driving - oh that doesn't apply to ME people think. Yes it does dick brain! You are exactly the sort of person it does apply to because you
clearly need telling.
Arrghh I give up.
I shall not hasten back to
Peterborough. All my happy childhood memories are still with me and I do not want to destroy them. Even the smell of the building has gone from the South
Transept.
has moved back to where it was quite a number of years ago now:
and is an extremely disappointing emporium. Called 'Coffee & Cookies', that's all it has. Gone are the hot meals. Gone is the selection of freshly made sandwiches. Everything is now pre-wrapped. The sandwiches are made by a local company and I faced the vast selection of THREE (2 were Egg and Tomato in tomato bread, 1 wasn't). This was at lunchtime, mark you, and even as I munched at 13:25, people arriving were being told, "That's all we have left" as if the place was doing such a roaring trade the late punters were stupid for having dilly-dallied.
Note the down pipe from the gutter is broken and spills onto a plank of wood. There were at least two of these.
Finally, what really annoyed me was the litter bin up in the organ console. Why do you need a litter bin in an organ console? There never used to be one. Litter did not accumulate there; it was taken away. Mind you, there are some pretty untidy organ lofts around the country. Putting litter in a bin is an excuse not to take it elsewhere until the bin get full, then you have to empty it. It just delays a job.
But it is so common in society these days. You must not use a mobile phone while you are driving - oh that doesn't apply to ME people think. Yes it does dick brain! You are exactly the sort of person it does apply to because you clearly need telling.
Luckily the piston settings for the divisions were pretty much as I would have set them myself (I just had to change the Swell Mixture to the Cymbal) and I managed to set up 5 General Pistons [buttons which can be made to control the sounds on all the keyboards] while the choir was rehearsing the Responses.
