West End Walk
West End Walk
This man can take you through the streets of london, show you a good time and teach you a thing or two you may not know.
IV
Hello, nice to meet you.
IV
I offer a number of walks around London’s east and west end, and the walk today is going to be called A Walk on the Wilde Side, its introducing Oscar Wilde’s West End.
IV
Let’s meet the man who said ‘The World is my Oyster but I use the wrong fork.’This is a very recent addition to London street furniture. This was unveiled on November the 30th, 1999 by Steven Frye, no less, and its Oscar coming up out of a sarcophagus, smoking a cigarette.
IV
You develop your own repertoire of walks and Oscar’s my favourite because you pass so many great sights on the walk.
IV
This is the theatre Royal Haymarket. When ‘An Ideal Husband’ is premiered here in 1895, Oscar’s also got ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ on in the St James’s theatre, and ‘Earnest’ is Victorian, Bohemian slang for being Gay. This is the back of the theatre Royal Haymarket and we have a plaque here celebrating the centenary of the premiere of ‘A Woman of No Importance’, and that reminds us, a woman of no importance, as far as Oscar’s book, is of course Constance his wife.
Now lets go to the, one of Oscar’s favourite west end eateries. Lets go to the heart of the social beast itself Kettner’s, and its where Oscar had a private dining room, and its where he and Bosie would entertain ‘Renters’ as they said then, we would now say of course ‘Rent Boys’
VO
So what did everyone think?
VOX
Not only do you hear about a certain historical figure, but also about the time that they lived and you get a lot of context and a real feel for the period.
VOX
What’s fascinating about this is I’ll never now be able to walk past certain areas again, say like Kettners and Vine st where we went without thinking of the poignancy of them in connection with Oscar and in fact all that Oscar has led and left with us.
