Pre-Christmas cheer

I've been a bit quiet, but the Centre hasn't - and there's an unmissable event coming up next week. On Friday 18 December it's time to enjoy some pre-Christmas cheer with There's Lovely See comedy club.

The line-up includes Josh Widdicombe from the hit Edinburgh show 'South by South Wales'; Joe Rowntree, host of the TV programme Brainiac; James Dowdeswell from Extras; and guest MC Marian Pashley. As ever, tickets are £10 including a free drink. A perfect early Christmas present to yourself!

Practical info
Venue: London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road
Time: Friday 18 December, 8pm (doors open 7.30)
Booking: 0207 837 3722 / pay on door.

Wales v Samoa - big screen at the Centre

Wondering where to watch the Wales-Samoa rugby match? It will be shown live on the London Welsh Centre on Friday 13 November. Come along and watch at the big screen, with Brains SA and light snacks available!

Admission is free to members, otherwise £3 on the door including a donation to the tsunami appeal.

Practical info
Venue: London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road (King's Cross or Chancery Lane tube)
Time: kick-off is 7.30pm
Cost: free to members/£3 non-members

An evening with Meinir Gwilym

Tomorrow night, Welsh singer-songwriter Meinir Gwilym will be at the London Welsh Centre. Tickets are only £8 for Centre members (£12 for non-members, including temporary membership) - a bargain for the opportunity to hear this talented performer in London.

S4C show Wedi 7 will also be at the Centre tomorrow evening, filming for the programme. We look forward to seeing you there!

October comedy night

This month's comedy night, featuring Maureen Younger, Grainne Maguire and Shazia Mirza with Marion Pashley as MC, was a great success. Here are a few photos from the evening.

Comedy spectacular!

Next Friday 16 October, there's a brilliant night of comedy with the London Welsh Centre's There's Lovely See club. The line-up may sound like the opening of a joke - a Scottish woman, an Irish woman and a Muslim woman - but we can promise you more than one great punchline!

Maureen Younger, Hackney Empire New Act finalist, is a London Scot with 'natural gift of the gab, engaging and funny' (Three Weeks).

Grainne Maguire has been an 'enjoyably bizarre' finalist in Funny Women 2008 and Hackney Empire New Act 2009.

Shazia Mirza, as seen on Richard and Judy and Have I Got News For You. In the words of the Guardian, 'with her laconic one-liners she actually manages to make being a Muslim woman seem wonderfully life-enhancingly funny.'

And our MC is Marion Pashley, a There's Lovely See favourite whom the Guardian found 'delightful'.

Practical info
Venue: London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road
Time: Friday 16 October, 8pm (doors open 7.30)
Booking: 0207 837 3722 / pay on door.

Weekend highlights

Tonight is comedy night at the London Welsh Centre: come down to There's Lovely See comedy club for a great evening's entertainment and a free drink, all for just a tenner.

Sunday and Monday at 7.30pm, there's bilingual theatre at the Hen & Chickens Theatre in Islington. Tickets are £8 for 'a darkly comic two hander' about an encounter between a man called Richard Parker and an enigmatic stranger. Click here for more information/bookings.

This weekend at the Welsh Centre

Well, summer is over, but there's no cause for regret: the autumn programme of events at the London Welsh Centre is getting underway. There are two great events at the Centre over the next few days:

Friday 11 is film night. Come along to the bar for 7.30pm and watch Passport to Pimlico on the big screen. This Ealing comedy explores what happens when Pimlico turns out to be part of Burgundy...

Saturday 12 is Pwy Bia'r Gan? - a skit in Welsh on Britain's Got Talent with all original music by Robat Arwyn and a cast of 50 youngsters from Cardigan Schools. An enjoyable event in support of the Centre, with £10 tickets available on the door. 7.30pm start.

And a diary date that'll help you smile in September: the next Comedy Club will be on Friday 18. Usual time and cost (8pm/£10 with a free drink).

Learn Welsh in London

It may be summer holiday time, but next month is back to school - and a great time to start learning Welsh. The London Welsh Centre has excellent, affordable classes at levels 1 and 2 - and a great social life including after-class drinks in the bar upstairs and regular parties.

Links to further information and a booking form can be found on the Centre website here.

Siarad cymraeg - on the move

Orange UK is launching a Welsh language-based mobile phone in September. The software apparently includes over 44,000 words which should make predictive texting in Welsh a lot easier! Although it will initially be sold in their Welsh stores, London Welsh buyers will be able to order it online.

Read the full story here.

Thomas Myddelton, Lord Mayor of London

Today, Thomas Myddelton (c1550-1631) is pretty much forgotten in favour of his younger brother Hugh of New River fame. However, Thomas was pretty important and successful in his own right: knighted by James I, he became Lord Mayor of London in 1613 and an MP for the city in 1624.

Thomas was originally apprenticed as a grocer but became a wealthy merchant as well as an influential alderman. He traded in sugar and built a refinery in Mincing Lane, was one of the founders of the East India Company and had invested in Drake's and Raleigh's privateering expeditions (many of these activities we would consider ethically dubious today, but were a good way to gain money and influence then). Much of his investment would have been funded by his position as surveyor of the customs and excise: it was accepted that monies collected in this post could be used for private speculation until they were due to be handed to the exchequer.


Myddelton divided his time between London and Wales. He purchased Chirk Castle in Denbighshire for £4,800 in 1595 and converted it from a mediaeval fortress to a comfortable Tudor home. Later, he gave it to his son as a wedding present. Other contacts with his home country included the provisions of loans to hundreds of fellow Welsh people. He also funded the publication of religious books in Welsh, including the first portable bible.

Image: Chirk Castle by Prichardson on wikipedia.

Free pocket guide

Rough Guides and the Visit Wales website have got together to produce a mini Rough Guide to Wales, and it's free! Its 96 pages are packed with information and recommendations, as well as practical information including venues and budget accommodation.

Perfect for the summer holidays, just click here to order your copy.

Edinburgh previews on 17 July

A last-minute reminder not to miss out on the Edinburgh previews at tomorrow's There's Lovely See comedy club. This is your chance to enjoy shows by Zoe Lyons and Patrick Monohan before they head off to the Festival. And as ever, your ticket includes a free drink!

Practical info
Venue: London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road
Time: Friday 15 May, 8pm (doors open 7.30)
Booking: 0207 837 3722 / pay on door.

Wish you were here...

As London roasts under the sun, it's a good time to turn our thoughts to the Welsh seaside. This picture of New Quay was taken during a weekend Welsh course:

Diary dates

Some upcoming events at the London Welsh Centre - all well worth noting in your diary:

Friday 19th June, 8.30pm - There's Lovely See Comedy Club returns for another night of quality comedy featuring Paul Harry Allen, Stephen Carlin, and Marian Pashley as Guest MC.

Monday 22nd June, 7.30pm - Annual General Meeting. Everyone welcome. Your thoughts and ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Friday 26th June, 8pm - Open Mic Night. If you know of any budding musicians who would like to test out their talent and practise their stage presence do tell them about this. It's a great opportunity to gain confidence from performing in front of an audience.

Saturday 27th June, 7.30pm - Gwalia Male Voice Choir concert. Tickets are £15 including a buffet, and are available from the office (huw@lwcentre.demon.co.uk).

Quiz tonight!

Don't forget that tonight, the Quiz for Africa hosted by Fraser Cains is being held at the London Welsh Centre. Bring your team or join one on the night, and enjoy an evening of fun, challenge and a great raffle! All for the very good cause of bringing a safe water supply to a village in Zambia.

Practical info
Time: 7.30pm, Wednesday 17 June
Venue: London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road
Cost: £5 per person

Thomas Nathaniel Davies: retrospective

Whitfield Fine Art Gallery are marking their move from New Bond Street to Dering Street with a major retrospective of Welsh artist Thomas Nathaniel Davies - the first in over twenty years.

Thomas Nathaniel Davies (1922-1996) was born in Dowlais and studied at Cardiff College of Art before serving in World War 2. He went on to teach art in Cardiff, Newton Abbott and Torquay; both the grey steel town and the green Devonshire countryside are reflected in his work. It ranges from portraits and landscapes to abstracts, spot paintings and sculptures. He is described by the gallery as 'somewhat overlooked but important', with works in the Victoria & Albert Museum and National Library of Wales collections.

Practical info Times: Mon-Sat, 10-5.30, until Friday 19 June
Location: Whitfield Fine Art, 23 Dering Street, W1S 1AW

Image: The Rhondda Bus, 1948

Quiz for Africa

Next Wednesday is the third Quiz for Africa hosted by Fraser Cains. Thanks to previous fundraising a borehole has been sunk in Zambia, water tower built and tank placed on top; this evening it's hoped to raise the money for pipework to Kasupe Farm.

Fraser promises us 'questions to invigorate the brain, bring you to your senses and lay pipes' as well as a brilliant raffle (past prizes have included everything from champagne to pickles). All that fun and a good cause, for just £5 a head (and donations of prizes are also welcome!)

Practical info
Time: 7.30pm, Wednesday 17 June
Venue: London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road
Cost: £5 per person

This Wednesday: Gwyneth Glyn

Just a quick reminder that there's still time to get your tickets for the concert this Wednesday by Gwyneth Glyn, the outstanding Welsh singer-songwriter. It promises to be a lovely night out, and tickets cost just £5.

Practical info
Time: 7.45pm, Wednesday 7 June 2009
Venue: the bar, London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road
Tickets: £5 each, email huw@lwcentre.demon.co.uk or buy online

The London Welshman who invented =

We've already looked at the London Welshman who invented the pi symbol; today, we've another London Welsh mathematician who invented the 'equals' symbol.

Robert Recorde was born in 1510 in Tenby, and went to Oxford University in 1525. Having taught maths there for a while, he went on to Cambridge to qualify as a doctor before moving to London. There, he was physician to Edward VI and controller of the Royal Mint. Among his publications was The Urinal of Physick, which sounds disrespectful but was actually a guide to the then-mainstream practice of making diagnoses by inspecting the patient's urine. In 1558, though, he would die in debtors' prison after being sued for libel by his enemy, the hugely powerful Earl of Pembroke.

Only a year earlier, he had published the snappily-titled The Whetstone of Witte, whiche is the seconde parte of Arithmeteke: containing the extraction of rootes; the cossike practise, with the rule of equation; and the workes of Surde Nombers. Whatever the shortcomings in the name of the book, the contents contained one amazing innovation: the introduction of the equals sign.


How did mathematicians manage before this invention? By writing the word, often in Latin, or using one's own choice of abbreviation such as aeq. How much easier it is to draw two quick lines - something for which we have to thank Robert Recorde. Even ardent Scrabble enthusiasts, however, probably don't thank him for his other invention: zenzizenzizenzic,* the English word with the most zs!

* Zenzizenzizenzic = the 8th power of a number. It's useless for Scrabble, which has only one Z and two blanks!

Gwyneth Glyn: contemporary Welsh folk at the London Welsh Centre

Wednesday 3 June will be a very special evening at the London Welsh Centre as we're visited by acclaimed singer-songwriter Gwyneth Glyn. The Welsh Herald has described her as having 'a wonderful voice, haunting melodies and an extraordinary eloquence - a sorceress at work.' She is also a published poet and author, and was Wales' Children's Poet Laureate in 2006-7.

Gwyneth will be singing songs from her first two albums. For a taste of her music, listen at her myspace page.


Practical info
Time: 7.45pm, Wednesday 7 June 2009
Venue: the bar, London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road
Tickets: £5 each, email huw@lwcentre.demon.co.uk or buy online

Wales: not where we thought

Whatever your precise definition of 'London Welsh', it's a safe bet that you include some reference to a country west of England. You're wrong, apparently.

Wolfram Alpha, 'computational knowledge engine' and supposed future of the internet/successor to Google, launched today. It's meant to compute accurate information on all sorts of things, including places, in a clearer and more in-depth format than Google. However, it thinks Wales is a town near Rotherham.*

Happily, there is more accurate information on 'Welsh'. As spoken near Rotherham, presumably.

* There is indeed a town of that name near Rotherham. It's not usually the only search result for 'Wales', though!

Tonight: comedy club with Shazia Mirza

Don't forget tonight's comedy club at the London Welsh Centre, featuring Robert White, Jen Brista and headliner Shazia Mirza. Tickets are only £10 and include a free drink!

Practical info
Venue: London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road
Time: Friday 15 May, 8pm (doors open 7.30)
Booking: 0207 837 3722 / pay on door.

One-day Welsh course

Fancy learning Welsh but feel worried about mutations, consonants that turn out to be vowels, and the fact you haven't spoken it since school/some time last century/ever?

Already learning Welsh and would like an opportunity to practice without leaving the city?

We have the perfect solution!

The one-day Welsh course on Saturday 13 June is a chance to enjoy lessons in friendly, relaxed classes with an expert tutor. What's more, it's a real bargain at £30 for a full day, including tea, coffee and two-course lunch.

For more information and a booking form, contact Theo on tbpdc@anoeth.demon.co.uk
Location: London Welsh Centre, 157-163 Gray's Inn Road, WC1
Times: 9.30-5.30
Register by: 1 June 2009

Fun and a free drink next Friday!

On Friday 15 May, There's Lovely See comedy night returns to the London Welsh Centre with a superb line-up. Come along to enjoy the 'quickfire wit and relentless energy' of Robert White, 'surreal ideas and slick banter' of Jen Brista and the 'life-enhancingly funny' Shazia Mirza - as seen on Have I Got News For You! The resident MC is Sion James and - as if all that wasn't enough to tempt you - there's a free drink with every ticket.

Practical info
Venue: London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road
Time: Friday 15 May, 8pm (doors open 7.30)
Booking: 0207 837 3722 / pay on door.

Quotations courtesy of the Brighton Argus, Sunday Times and Guardian.

Diary date

Tuesday 12 May
Miles Cato: Adventures of a dealer in Welsh art

The Honorable Society of Cymmrodorion
British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, SW1
6.30pm; all welcome.

Dr Richard Price of Newington Green

Newington Green Unitarian Church is London's oldest Nonconformist place of worship still in use. Among its famous worshippers was 'mother of feminism' Mary Wollstonecraft; her friend and mentor Dr Richard Price was the church's most prominent minister.

Price was born in Llangeinor, Glamorgan in 1723 and came to London in 1740 to study; from 1758 he was preacher at Newington Green. He put forward politically radical ideas in his preaching. In 1789, as the Bastille fell, he preached a pro-revolutionary sermon On Love of Country. He similarly supported the American Revolution, arguing that while the monarchy was legitimate in Britain because it had the consent of the people (in the 1688 Bill of Rights), there was no such consent from the Americans or French.

Price was not only a great promoter of liberty and equality and political and religious radical. He also invented actuarial life tables, still used today, and advised America and France on their financial systems. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, had the Freedom of the City of London, and received an honorary degree from Yale University.

When Price died in 1791, he was honoured by a national day of mourning in France.

Tonight:

At the London Welsh Centre this evening, a chance to make and listen to music:

Our FIRST Open Mike night at the centre - THIS FRIDAY A Jam (& Honey) session!
ENTRANCE FREE TO ALL MEMBERS AND FRIENDS 7.30 ish to late

Lead Artist this Friday Art Simpson on Sax with friends;
Also promised recording artist Mitch Palmer on Guitar;

Bring your own talent & join in!

Come & support this evening which - if it is succesful - will become a regular
feature at the club.

Poetry on Wednesday

Don't forget the evening of poetry this Wednesday night at the London Welsh Centre. Celebrating the anthology Poetry 1900-2000: One Hundred Poets from Wales, the event will feature editor Meic Stephens and poet Paul Henry, hosted by Fraser Cains.

Practical info:
FREE event
Venue: The bar, London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road
Time: 7.30 for 8pm, Wednesday 22 April 2009

Quick, it's comedy time!

Tomorrow (Friday 17 April), it's another unmissable comedy night with There's Lovely See. MC Steve Parry hosts a line-up including Tom Goodliffe, Paul Harry Allen and Wes Zaharuk. Judging by previous evenings, it will be a brilliant evening - and don't forget, every ticket includes a free drink! (Use the button on the right to buy them online).

Practical info
Venue: London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road
Time: Friday 20 March, 8pm (doors open 7.30)
Booking: 0207 837 3722 / click here to buy online / pay on door.

Poetry 1900-2000: Wyn Griffith

This is the fourth in the series of poets' lives taken from the profiles Meic Stephens gives us as a taster in Poetry 1900-2000. The anthology will be celebrated on 22 April at the London Welsh Centre: details here.

Wyn Griffith was born in Llandrillo yn Rhos in 1890, the son of a headmaster, and left Wales in 1909 to join the civil service where he rose to be an Assistant Secretary. He served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in World War 1 and witnessed the slaughter at Mametz Wood. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In later life he was a regular on the radio in the Round Britain Quiz. He wrote prose for his children so that they would get an insight into his Welsh background. He wrote one book of verse, The Barren Tree, which contains a verse play, Branwen. His works are those of a Welshman who experienced the horrors of war and totalinarianism in Europe.

What towered land of man’s endeavour
will first be desert, with all our learning
a burnt page trodden in the dust of error?

Text: Fraser Cains

Poetry 1900-2000: A G Prys-Jones

This is the third in the series of poets' lives taken from the profiles Meic Stephens gives us as a taster in Poetry 1900-2000. The anthology will be celebrated on 22 April at the London Welsh Centre: details here.

Arthur Glyn Prys Jones was born in Denbigh in 1888 and moved to Pontypridd aged nine. He went to Llandovery College and Jesus College Oxford and became a teacher in History and English and a schools inspector. A president in the 1970s of the (Welsh) Academi Cymraeg, he was the first Welsh poet of 20th Century writing in English who was inspired by his nationality and used it as a source of pride and inspiration. His poetry is written in the simple metrical style of Welsh lyrical poetry; a freer form is used when dealing with the people and landscape of Wales. He also wrote comic verse.

I heard her trysting call fall through the trees
Within the primrose wood where Merlin flings
His saffron mantle to the daffodils.

Text: Fraser Cains

Poetry 1900-2000: Huw Menai

This is the second in the series of poets' lives taken from the profiles Meic Stephens gives us as a taster in Poetry 1900-2000. The anthology will be celebrated on 22 April at the London Welsh Centre: details here.

Born in 1888 in Caernarfon, Huw Menai left school at 12 to go to the mines in South Wales. He got employment in Merthyr Vale and became politically active, leading to him getting the sack. He became a weigher and was seen as a ‘companies man’. Often unemployed, Menai fathered eight children. Welsh-speaking, he wrote simple archaic poetry in English and was taken up by fashionable left-wing, middle class London circles. He was known as ’the poet of the South Wales Coalfield’.

Poetry 1900-2000: W H Davies

Poetry 1900 - 2000 is the Library Of Wales poetry anthology edited by Meic Stephens which will be read and discussed on Wednesday 22nd April in the bar at the London Welsh Centre, Grays Inn Rd in the company of Meic Stephens, poet Paul Henry, Fraser Cains and any poets and friends there on the night.

Here is the first in our series of lives of the poets taken from the profiles Meic Stephens gives us as a taster in the anthology.

It starts with the hobo WH Davies, author of the Autobiography of the Super Tramp which catapaulted him to instant fame in1908. Born in 1871 in Newport, Gwent he was brought up by his father’s parents in a pub in Newport’s docklands. Apprenticed to a picture framer at the age of 14 he became a wanderer and lover of art, and nature which he discovered on walks in rural Gwent. In 1893 at the age of 23 with a small sum left him by his grandmother he left for America to seek his fortune but without success: he became a hobo riding the boxcars and in 1899 on his way to the Klondyke goldfields he fell from a train and had his right leg amputated at the knee.

He returned to London and in 1905 began publishing his own poetry and with the success of Super Tramp and patronage from the likes of George Bernard Shaw he became a man of letters. In 1923 he married a former prostitute. ‘Young Emma’, their story, was published posthumously in 1980. He died in his home Glendower in Gloucestrshire in 1940.

The poem he is best remembered for is Leisure which opens:

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

His poems celebrate nature and touch on social injustice and the suffering of marginal people.

Text: Fraser Cains. Image: plaque at Davies' birthplace, by Martinevans123 at wikimedia.

Sir Hugh Myddelton

This statue on Islington Green commemorates London Welshman Sir Hugh Myddelton. A goldsmith, merchant and banker from Denbigh, he is best remembered for his role in constructing the New River. This waterway brought clean water from Hertfordshire to London: a healthier alternative to the sewage-contaminated Thames water provided by other companies. Although the New River Company was not profitable until a few years after Myddleton's death, it became a commercial and engineering success - parts are still used in London's water supply system today.

To read more about Myddelton and the New River, click here or here [PDF].

A celebration of Welsh poetry

Poetry 1900-2000 is a collection of work by 100 Welsh poets over 100 years. On Wednesday 22 April, it will be celebrated in a very special evening of Welsh poetry at the London Welsh Centre. Meic Stephens, editor of Poetry 1900-2000 will host the event, accompanied by several of the poets. The audience will also have the opportunity to meet and chat with the authors in the informal, convivial atmosphere of the bar, and to buy the anthology.

The London Welsh Centre has hosted a number of very enjoyable literary events, and this evening should be no exception. It's a wonderful opportunity to meet poets and enjoy literary conversation with a Welsh accent!

Practical info

Time: Wednesday 22 April 2009, 7pm for 7.30pm

Location: Bar, London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road

Admission: free

Wales v Ireland: big-screen rugby

Come and watch the Wales v Ireland match on the big screen in the London Welsh Centre bar this Saturday. Kick-off is 5.30pm, but the bar will be open from 1pm so you can watch the earlier games too.

Practical info
Time: 1pm onwards, Saturday 21 March
Venue: London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road

Buy comedy tickets online!

Just a reminder that you can buy tickets for Friday's comedy night online: just click here or use the button on the right.

Tickets are also available on the door - however you get yours, don't miss the chance to see Noel James, Paul Harry Allen, Will Jones and Sion James. Free drink with every ticket!

Practical info
Venue: London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road
Time: Friday 20 March, 8pm (doors open 7.30)
Booking: 0207 837 3722 / click here to buy online / pay on door.

A different Darwin debate

In this anniversary year, Charles Darwin seems to be everywhere. However, for a different angle on his work, come along to the London Welsh Centre on Monday 30 March for an illustrated talk by author Roy Davies.

The Darwin Conspiracy challenges the conventional story that Darwin raced Alfred Russel Wallace to publication after both had come up with similar theories. Instead, Davies suggests that Darwin had reached a dead end with his own work and borrowed from Wallace's, taking the credit with help from eminent scientific friends.

Roy Davies had a 30-year career at the BBC writing, directing and producing documentaries, and was editor of the Timewatch series. In 1995, he left to become an independent producer and writer. The Darwin Conspiracy was published in 2008.

Practical info:
Venue: London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road
Nearest tube/BR: King's Cross
Time: 7pm, Monday 30 March
More info: GJones@uk.loreal.com / author's website

Pi: a London Welsh creation

Today is Pi Day, dedicated to that familiar mathematical number π. The number (3.14159 etc), the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, has been around for millennia but only got its familiar name and symbol in 1706. The inventor of π? A Welsh mathematician and friend of Isaac Newton and Edmund Halley, William Jones.

Jones was born in Llanfihangel, Anglesey in 1675 and educated at a charity school, but as an adult moved to London. Interested in navigation, he was for a while mathematics master on a battleship: he brought back a pair of scissors as plunder! Back in London, he wrote A whole compendium on the new art of navigation and became part of the circle of leading mathematicians and natural philosophers. Thanks to his impressive archive of manuscripts, Jones was appointed to a Royal Society committee to investigate the invention of calculus; he later became Vice-President of the Royal Society.

Until Jones came up with his simple but brilliant notation, the number had been represented by the letter 'p' (for perimeter). It was generally known as 'the Ludolphian number', a rather clunky name for such an essential concept. However, when Jones wrote a maths textbook, he used the more elegant Greek letter; later writers including Euler followed his example, and the rest is history.

Find out more: you can watch a half-hour lecture on Jones's life here.

Don't forget...

... it's the Italy v Wales game today. See it on the big screen at the London Welsh Centre bar.

Friday fun

Now you've got through Friday 13th, look forward with a light heart to next Friday - our monthly night of comedy with There's Lovely See at the London Welsh Centre.

It's yet another great line-up, featuring Noel James ('a droll giant in a comedy land of dwarfs', The Independent), Paul Harry Allen ('Russell Howard meets Rob Brydon, a joy to watch', Time Out), and Welsh newcomer Will Jones. The resident MC is Sion James ('reminds up what stand-up should be', Three Weeks). All for a bargain £10 (£8 members) including free drink.

Practical info
Venue: London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road
Time: Friday 20 March, 8pm (doors open 7.30)
Booking: 0207 837 3722 / click here to buy online / pay on door.

London Welsh Centre meeting

The next in the series of regular meetings to discuss the future of the London Welsh Centre is on Monday, 16 March 2009, at 7.30pm in the Centre. Everyone is encouraged to attend!

London Welsh trades: dairies (2)

By 1900, half of London's dairies were Welsh-owned, but almost all disappeared in the second half of the twentieth century. Traces of London's former Welsh dairies can still be found in central London. In particular, the frontages of Lloyd's Dairy on Amwell Street and French's Dairy on Rugby Street remain intact.

Today, French's Dairy sells fabulous jewellery and has graced the cover of Japanese Vogue. Lloyd's Dairy, aka Unpackaged, offers a wide range of organic foods sold loose and encourages customers to bring their own containers.

Welsh learners' St David's Day party

Here it is at last: the London Welsh Centre learners' party slideshow!

Diary dates

The monthly Clwb Comedi is back on Friday 20 March - another great chance to have a laugh in the London Welsh Centre. And then again on Friday 17 April...

On Wednesday 22 April, enjoy a night of twentieth-century Welsh poetry to celebrate the forthcoming anthology from Parthian and the Library of Wales. It will be hosted by Fraser Cains and feature the editor, Meic Stephens, and poet Paul Henry. More details to follow soon!

And if you're looking for somewhere to watch the rugby with other Wales supporters, come along to the London Welsh Centre bar on Saturday 14 March (Italy v Wales) and Saturday 21 March (Wales v Ireland).

A bara brith bonanza!

Last night the Welsh classes at the London Welsh Centre held their annual St David's Day party. This year, it featured a bara brith competition - with an impressive seven entries. Everyone put great effort into the tasting and judging!

More on the Welsh produce market

Don't forget the Welsh produce market being held in St Christopher's Place, off Oxford Street, tomorrow (Friday 27 Feb). Among the producers there will be makers of cakes, brownies, steamed puddings, organic meat pies, smoked meat and fish, and cheeses. All are winners of True Taste Wales food and drink awards, guaranteeing you a delicious St David's Day.

If you can't make it on Friday, some of the stallholders also offer mail order. Brownies by post would make a superb gift; or for a more traditional Welsh dinner, you can order organic Welsh lamb, bara brith, welsh cakes, and even cheeses aged at the bottom of a coal mine.

The market is open 12.30-7pm. For more info, click here.

London Welsh trades: dairies (1)

This fading signage, a short walk from the London Welsh Centre, is a reminder that the area was a centre for Welsh dairies in the nineteenth century. Although the Dairy Outfit Co was not itself a Welsh company, it supplied dairies with a wide range of equipment so would have had many Welsh customers.

In the early nineteenth century, Welsh milk girls sold their products on the streets. Soon, though, the trade became more settled with a move to corner dairy stores which also sold butter and cheese. Some even had their own cows on-site. Over time, many expanded to become general stores: the original corner shops.

Reminder: celebrate St David's Day with music

There was lovely, see!

Another successful comedy night on Friday! Here are a few photos: L-R Paul Harry Allen, Rik Moore, Zoe Lyons and MC Marian Pashley.

Eat Welsh in London

Enjoy food from Wales in the run-up to St David's Day, thanks to a Welsh produce market in St Christopher's Place (just off Oxford Street). Meet the award-winning producers and stock up on some fabulous artisanal food including cheese, pate and chocolate brownies.

It's on Friday 27 February, open all afternoon until 7pm.

It's not all doom and gloom...

... Don't forget this evening's night of comedy, There's Lovely See. Join us at the London Welsh Centre on Gray's Inn Road at 8pm - tickets include a free drink!

London Welsh Centre in the news (2)

Thank you to Stuart Hughes for pointing us to this video of his full BBC Wales report:

London Welsh Centre in the news

The London Welsh Centre is featured on BBC News today. There's bad news - the Centre risks closure if it doesn't get more support - but members and supporters are determined to turn things around. News presenter Huw Edwards comments, 'I'm not prepared to imagine life for the London Welsh without the centre'.

Read the full story here.

Easy ways you can help:

• Attend some events - check this blog for regular information!
• Join the Centre - it's good value and includes a quarterly colour magazine; reduced entry for events like the comedy nights; and use of facilities including the bar.
• Get involved - lots of organisations including choirs, Welsh classes, literary events, and more are based there.
  

London Welsh trades: cattle drovers

Welsh cattle drovers had been coming to London since before the thirteenth century, and for hundreds of years the trade kept growing. By the 1700s, cattle were used as a form of money transfer: cows were safer than cash on the two or three-week journey. Many received their final fattening-up in the fields of rural Islington, and finished their journey in Smithfield.

As London grew, so did the cattle trade. It prospered under the Tudors and expanded with the city in the eighteenth century - tens of thousands of cattle made the journey every year. Often, blacksmiths travelled with them as the cows wore horseshoe-like shoes. The drovers also carried money, messages and news in both directions. Because their trustworthiness was so important, they were licensed and had to be married householders over 30 years old.

This lively trade eventually died away in the 1850s, when the railways replaced drovers travelling on foot. However, all those trading contacts didn't go to waste. The cattle drovers would be replaced by the famous Welsh dairies of Victorian London.

There's Lovely See - Welsh comedy night

Have a laugh this Friday at There's Lovely See, the fabulous comedy club with a Welsh accent. Friday's line-up includes Zoe Lyons, Rik Moore, Paul Harry Allen and MC Marian Pashley.

These nights have been a great success, featuring quality comedy acts in the friendly London Welsh Centre bar. Definitely an evening not to be missed - in the words of Time Out, 'grab a leek and get down there'!

Practical info: Friday 20 February, 8pm at the London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road, WC1X 8UE
Admission: £10 including free drink (£8 Centre members).

Advance bookings: administrator@lwcentre.demon.co.uk

St David's Day with the London Welsh Chorale

The London Welsh Chorale is a mixed-voice choir which has performed at venues including the Queen Elizabeth Hall, St John's Smith Square and Southwark Cathedral. You've probably already heard them: they sang the theme tune for the UEFA Champion's League!

You have two opportunities to hear them live next weekend - 28 Feb/1 March - at the London Welsh Centre. On Saturday evening is a concert conducted by Gareth Hancock with soprano Carolyn Foulkes - a very appropriate way to celebrate St David's Day (call 020 7837 3722 for tickets: £16 including reserved seating and programme). On Sunday afternoon, they will accompany storytelling by Mary Medlicott: join them for tea and Welsh cakes from 4pm (tickets £8/children £4, available on the door).

The choir are currently celebrating their 25th anniversary year. They have an extensive repertoire, including Welsh compositions. Recordings include Earth Rejoices! and Cenin Aur - A Century of Welsh Music. If you're interested in joining them, they rehearse every Tuesday evening at the London Welsh Centre: contact secretary@londonwelshchorale.org.uk

One-day Welsh language course

Fancy learning Welsh but feel worried about mutations, consonants that turn out to be vowels, and the fact you haven't spoken it since school/some time last century/ever? We have the perfect solution!

The one-day Welsh course on Saturday 7 March is a chance to try out lessons in friendly, relaxed classes with an expert tutor. What's more, it's a bargain at £25 for a full day, including tea and coffee.

There are classes at all levels for those who've already taken the plunge - everyone is welcome. For more information and to book, click here.

Location: London Welsh Centre, 157-163 Gray's Inn Road, WC1
Times: 9.30-5.30
Register by: 27 February 2009