The Daily Telegraph - 07.08.2019

The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 7 August 2019 *** 11

Judy Garland denied blue

plaque as London home

falls to the wrecker’s ball

By Anita Singh
Arts And EntErtAinmEnt Editor

ALMOST two decades of campaigning
have ended along with hopes of erect-
ing a blue plaque at Judy Garland’s for-
mer London.
The chance to commemorate a Hol-
lywood legend at the place where she
died 50 years ago has been lost for ever
after building work began to demolish
the mews house in Belgravia and re-
place it with a luxury home.
English Heritage rules state that blue
plaques can only be put on an original
building connected to a person of note,
not something else built on the site.
Garland moved to 4 Cadogan Lane
with her husband Mickey Deans in
1969, shortly after marrying at Chelsea
Register Office.
She died there on June 22, aged 47,
from an accidental overdose.
Gary Horrocks, of the UK-based In-
ternational Judy Garland Club, said:
“We worked overtime to try to articu-
late an argument for the plaque, but

the private owners said that they re-

fused to allow a blue plaque to be

placed on their property because Judy

Garland was associated with a tragedy

... because she died there.

“We were appalled. We had been

pushing it for years. There was even a

discussion about the plaque on the

pavement, not on a wall.

“Judy loved London. She came in

1951 after her MGM career, she came in

1957 for a season at the Dominion, and

again in 1960. It was her lucky city.”

Garland’s final months in London

will be explored in the film, Judy, star-

ring Renee Zellweger, which opens

next month.

An English Heritage spokesman

said: “English Heritage’s London Blue

Plaques panel decided to award Judy

Garland a blue plaque in 2001.

“However, in order for a blue plaque

to be erected, English Heritage needs

the permission of the owner of the

building, and despite numerous re-

quests, we were denied this.

“We tried intermittently to see if the

owner had had a change of heart, until

we learnt from the Land Registry that

the building had changed hands.”

The planning application, which in-

cluded an underground swimming

pool, stated: “The mews is certainly not

a heritage asset and is clearly at odds

with the character of the area. Sensitive

redevelopment would constitute a con-

siderable improvement to the area.”

Parrot fashion

19m years ago

was cannibalism

By Henry Bodkin
sciEncE corrEspondEnt

A GIANT “cannibal” parrot
that roamed the Earth 19 mil-
lion years ago has been dis-
covered by scientists.
The bird, measuring al-
most 3ft 6in tall, is the big-
gest parrot ever known,
twice the size of the largest
species alive today.
A fossil found in what was
a Miocene epoch forest in
New Zealand shows the car-
nivore, which weighed a
stone, had a huge beak able
to crack into and break down
most food sources – includ-
ing other parrots.
The discovery was made
by researchers from Flinders
University in South Aus-
tralia, the University of New
South Wales (UNSW) Syd-
ney and Canterbury Mu-
seum in New Zealand.
They have named the spe-
cies Heracles inexpectatus to
reflect its Herculean size and
strength, as well as the unex-
pected nature of the find.
Prof Mike Archer, of
UNSW Sydney, said: “As the
largest parrot ever, it may
well have dined on more
than conventional parrot
foods, perhaps even other
parrots. Birds have repeat-
edly evolved giant species
on islands.”
In the Royal Society jour-

nal Biolog y Letters, the anal-

ysis of the bones found in the

Central Otago region de-

scribes how Heracles lived

in a diverse subtropical for-

est among laurels, palms and

podocarp trees.

“Undoubtedly, these pro-

vided a rich harvest of fruit

important in the diet of Her-

acles and the parrots and pi-

geons it lived with,” said Prof

Suzanne Hand, also from

UNSW Sydney. In the same

St Bathans excavation area,

paleontologists have also

found evidence of crocodil-

ians, turtles, a number of bat

species and more than 40

types of birds.

A colleague of Prof Hand

added: “The St Bathans

fauna provides the only

insight into the terrestrial

birds and other animals

that lived in New Zealand

since dinosaurs roamed

the land.”

Stare at a gull to stop

it stealing your chips

By Sarah Knapton
sciEncE Editor

STARING at seagulls is the
best way to stop them steal-
ing your chips or ice cream,
ecologists have shown.
Britain’s herring gulls are
often viewed as aggressive,
and have been photo-
graphed snatching rabbits
and even pet dogs.
But experiments by Uni-
versity of Exeter academics
have found that the birds are
surprisingly easy to intimi-
date, and will back off from a
meal if they think someone
is watching.
Researchers put a bag of
chips on the ground in Cor-
nish seaside resorts and
tested how long it took her-
ring gulls to approach when
a human was watching
them, compared to when the

human looked away. On av-

erage the gulls took 21 sec-

onds longer to approach the

food when being watched.

Out of 74 gulls that the re-

searchers attempted to test,

just 27 would go anywhere

near the food when a person

was present, while just 19

completed the “looking at”

and “looking away” tests.

“Gulls are often seen as

aggressive, so it was inter-

esting to find that most

wouldn’t even come near

during our tests,” said lead

author Madeleine Goumas,

of the Centre for Ecology

and Conservation at Exeter’s

Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

“Of those that did approach,

most took longer when they

were being watched.”

The research was pub-

lished in the journal Biolog y

Letters.

Elephant Man deserves

statue, say campaigners

By Helena Horton

A STATUE of the Elephant
Man should be put up in his
home city, residents have
said, as the local council was
told it should be ashamed of
ignoring him.
Campaigners in Leicester
have begun a crowdfunder
to create a memorial to Jo-
seph Merrick, who lived in
the city for most of his life.
They hope to raise
£110,000 after being given
an estimate by sculptor Sean
Hedges-Quinn. Leicester

Cathedral verger Joanne

Vigor-Mungovin, who has

written a book about Mer-

rick, said the city council

should be ashamed of not ac-

knowledging him.

She said: “The only me-

morial is a small plaque at

Moat College, which is not

accessible to the public.”

The city council said his

story “addresses important

issues about society’s chang-

ing attitudes towards disa-

bility”, and added it was

“happy to help facilitate the

[planning] process”.

News

An impression of how the huge

parrot would have looked

Actress Judy Garland died at 4 Cadogan

Lane in Belgravia, London, 50 years ago

HERBERT DORFMAN/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES

FAIRFIELD HALLS/PA WIRE

Judi’s joy

Dame Judi Dench

yesterday said she

was “thrilled and

delighted” to be

asked to reopen

a south London

playhouse in

honour of Dame

Peggy Ashcroft,

her mentor. There

will be a week of

theatrical events

to mark the

reopening of

Ashcroft Playhouse

at Fairfield Halls,

Croydon, on Sept

16 by the 84-year-

old actress.

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