The Londoner: Treasures are at risk: Antiquarians go to war over rent

In today’s Londoner: Craig Brown’s Baillie Gifford prize win / Amal Clooney on looking forward to 2021 / Clara Amfo’s important advice for London’s party goers 
Education Images/Universal Image
25 November 2020

The Society of Antiquaries has gone public in its rent battle with the Government as it says it could be forced to move from Burlington House, where it has been for 140 years, or sell parts of its collection.

Historian Michael Wood told us: " I feel the Government has a responsibility to support a resolution to the Burlington House rental issue, which is damaging the Society's ability to perform its role for our nation-and beyond."

“The Society is now being effectively forced out because of rapidly escalating rents; already rent has increased by 3,100 per cent since 2012,” said a statement on its website.

Burlington House, off Piccadilly, which is owned by the Government, also houses the Royal Academy, along with four other societies. Its special items include three copies of Magna Carta, and rare ancient manuscripts and artefacts. A spokesperson for the Society told The Londoner that Fellows and supporters had begun writing letters to MPs, and were “already receiving positive responses”.

They said that although “no plans or decisions” had been made on the sale of items, it was a possibility. “This route would only be pursued as a last possible resort in order to protect the rest of the collection.”

The Society, now an educational charity, was founded in 1707 and has more than 3000 fellows.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told the Art Newspaper it was “exploring” solutions.

OK, boomer… I did love Beatles book 

CRAIG BROWN, right, won the Baillie Gifford prize last night with One Two Three Four, his book  on The Beatles, but one judge was initially unconvinced. Max Strasser said he had not been bothered by “how interesting what happened to the boomers was”. Handing out prizes and dropping culture war bombs. 

Amal looks to 2021 after defeat of ‘regressive leadership’ in US

Charlotte Tilbury's Naughty Christmas Party
Dave Benett

Amal Clooney is looking forward to 2021. The Doughty Street Chambers barrister — and wife  of film star George Clooney — told a legal conference this week that next year would be “a year of opportunity” because Joe Biden winning in America meant the  end of “the regressive leadership and moral bankruptcy  of his predecessor”. She also told delegates, Legal  Cheek reported, that it was time press freedom was enforced around the world. Three cheers for Amal.

Amfo: Night bus is more fun than club 

Strictly Come Dancing 2020
PA

Clara AMFO has some important advice for London’s party goers: take a trip on the night bus. “I will always say, the night bus is a rite of passage,” she tells listeners of her This City podcast. The radio presenter, who is currently on Strictly Come Dancing, said: “Everyone who goes out in London needs to take  the night bus because you never know what can happen. You can have  more fun on the night bus than you can in the club.” Bring on the vaccine.

SW1A

The Festival of Brexit is no more — arise Festival UK 2022. Although Theresa May launched it to bring unity at the height of the Brexit drama — and details  about it appear on the government website next to  a Brexit countdown clock — organisers are playing down the links, telling us  “it is not a celebration of Brexit”. Instead, it’s “an audacious experiment… to bring millions of people together”.  People divided by…

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DOMINIC CUMMINGS has a world view that is tied up in contradictions, a former colleague of his says. Sam Freedman, who was also a special adviser to Michael Gove, writes on Politics Home that the “baffling” thing about Cummings was his failure to see the clash between “his technocratic utopia of expert scientists driving paradigmatic change and his own rock-solid conviction that whatever policies he happens to support right now must be implemented at maximum speed”. Who paid the price for that?

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