London Walk No.43: Zebra Finches to William Blake
Today I went to see the sweetest exhibition on in London, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot's guitar-playing zebra finches at the Barbican - closing soon, go! Unless you're nervous of tiny birds, since they seem to have got used to humans and were actually landing in one man's hood.
A wander out into the City led me to Dissenters' burial ground Bunhill Fields, which for some reason I've never come across before. Cutting through, I noticed I was walking past a couple of famous graves:
Daniel Defoe has an impressive obelisk, while this one is more modest:
But it seems to have a selection of coins lined up carefully on top of it. I've never seen this before: anyone know why it is? Is Blake's grave a sort of wishing well equivalent for fans of visionary poetry?
Comments
The finches exhibition looks and sounds completely brilliant. I wish I could go — I wouldn't leave until they had visited my hood.
I had no idea what Blake's grave looked like. The coins are a custom, I suppose. Oscar Wilde's is covered in lipstick, Serge Gainsbourg's in metro tickets. Someone starts doing something, others mimic it and before long there's a tradition. Or maybe there's a better explanation.
Posted by: Stan | May 11, 2010 7:21 PM
Yes, Serge Gainsbourg's grave is more obviously a shrine, with metro tickets and pictures and notes all over it though - this just has coins on top, nothing else. Must have some meaning, don't know what
Posted by: Emma | May 11, 2010 8:03 PM
Ah! Emma! I love your pictures, your musings... I have been looking at your work for about five minutes and you have made me laugh a lot and smile a lot. Which is a nice change from sneezing a lot.
Thanks for being lovely and hilarious
Love from New Zealand
Posted by: Helen | May 11, 2010 11:15 PM
I saw your post and went to look at the Barbican bird exhibition (online, it has to be said, as I live in Wales!) and was completely captivated by it! I love birds and thought, before I watched it how cruel this might be, but in fact I can tell that the birds are enjoying themselves immensely! They are very adaptable creatures. I blog about our wild visitors, sometimes.
:)
Posted by: Val Erde | May 12, 2010 12:01 AM
I'm not sure about the coins, but as far as I know there are always fresh flowers placed at Blake's grave, by whom I know not. Nor does anyone know the identity of the person who places roses and a bottle of cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe every year on Poe's birthday... though apparently neglected to do so this year for the first time since 1949.
Posted by: Frank Key | May 12, 2010 1:47 PM