Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

A posthumous play from Clive Exton Old Blue about to hit the West End.

http://www.londontheatre.co.uk/londonth ... 111687.htm

As an aside I understand that Exton (or Brooks as he was at CH) was notorious for defacing the Verrio with a dollop of flab according to his obituary in The Guardian.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/au ... obituaries

Do any posters remember this event?

The lump of flab was still 'attached' to the Verrio in the mid 50s. After a brief calculation, I work out that CE was 14 (the sort of age he might have done this) in 1950. You had to have it pointed out to you, it wasn't obvious. So the authorities might not even have known about it. It was towards the west end of the Verrio, round about the level of the ThB/MidA tables, about 3 ft from the bottom of the picture.

I would describe the Verrio as historically interesting rather than 'valuable'.

C.J.M. Brooks Middleton B,(Clive Exton) was born 11.4.1930 and left in 1946. How come that the "flab" never melted over the years? What does that say about the temperature in the Dining Hall?

Kit Bartlett wrote:C.J.M. Brooks Middleton B,(Clive Exton) was born 11.4.1930 and left in 1946. How come that the "flab" never melted over the years? What does that say about the temperature in the Dining Hall?

Or, more worrying, the chemical nature of flab?

My recollection is that the piece of flab was placed at the tip of the blade of a knife. The handle was then gripped in one hand, while the blade, flab uppermost, was restrained by the index finger of the other hand. Pressure was then increased until the finger was disengaged and the blade launched the flab, more or less in the intended direction. I understood that the intention in this case was for the projectile to land on and adhere to the Dining Hall ceiling and hitting the Verrio painting was an error rather than intentional.
David
PS My recollection of the 'flab-gun' is quite clear, but please don't ask me what I had for breakfast an hour ago, as I have forgotten!

Reminds me of making a small ball of blotting-paper, dipping it in the ink-well in class and using a ruler, much in the same manner as a knife and flab !!!

In the sixties, the dining hall peas were like bullets, stick the end of a knife into the edge of the table, add pea, bend knife and flick. Managed to to hit Clarry boy Seaman from the Thorn A table one time! The Verrio was professionaly restored whilst I was there, covered in scaffolding for weeks, god knows what they discovered!

Foureyes wrote: I understood that the intention in this case was for the projectile to land on and adhere to the Dining Hall ceiling and hitting the Verrio painting was an error rather than intentional.
David

The Dining Room ceiling is pretty high and to get the flab to fly up vertically rather than take the normal arc, also requires skill.
I never looked up to see what might be dropping out of the sky, but did take care not to be under the chandeliers when the sparrows were nesting.

John,
Ahem! I think that you mean parabola rather than arc?
Regarding sparrows in Dining Hall - good job cows don't fly,

Talking of the temperature in the Dining Hall how was the place ever heated satisfactorily in the depths of winter?
It was such a huge area; someone once told me that it was one of the largest buildings in the country unsupported by pillars.

I remember it as a pleasant place in the summer, but terrible in the winter, especially on a very frosty morning for breakfast !!

Kit Bartlett wrote:Talking of the temperature in the Dining Hall how was the place ever heated satisfactorily in the depths of winter?
It was such a huge area; someone once told me that it was one of the largest buildings in the country unsupported by pillars.

About 50 years ago, I think that the Dining Hall was the second largest such building. Westminster Hall, in the Houses of Parliament was then the largest. Perhaps it’s still true.

I think it was the Dining Hall in London, not in Horsham, that was the largest such building.

I am not totally sure of my facts on this, but my recollection is not that the Dining Hall was the largest building, as such, but that it had the largest unsupported roof.

Foureyes wrote:I am not totally sure of my facts on this, but my recollection is not that the Dining Hall was the largest building, as such, but that it had the largest unsupported roof.

That is what was said at 50 years on a couple of years ago though I think it refers only to wooden roofs in the UK (think of steel supported structures like the O2 building and many US foootball stadia). . CH also has the number two which I suspect is Big School