Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Reasons to be Cheerful


This is the Ian Dury solar-powered park bench memorial in Poet's Corner, Richmond Park, south west London. I don't think it works any more (the bench was unveiled in 2002), but visitors were able to plug in headphones and listen to eight Dury songs and an interview with the singer, who died of cancer in 2000. Ian Dury apparently spent many happy hours in Richmond Park with his family. The bench was designed by product designer Mil Strichevic (though it looks like a normal bench, on the armrests are solar panels with headphone sockets on the sides).

3 comments :

brain_spoon said...

I just found a copy of his album "New Boots And Panties!!!" (which is my introduction to Ian's work) at a library book sale. I think it's a great album. Thanks for your lovingly crafted photo of this strange and wonderful bench. Cheers

Unknown said...

I remember that we also choose to embark my grandma’s favorite quote in her memorial bench. It says “Beautiful young people are accidents of nature / But beautiful old people are works of art”.

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Daniel Christopher
memorial bench wood chair

Unknown said...

There is a petition to save the bench at https://www.change.org/p/warner-chappell-music-uk-save-ian-dury-s-memorial-bench