• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

A Blue Plaque For Charles Fort?

Mighty_Emperor

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Aug 18, 2002
Messages
19,408
Currently Charles Fort's house in London (39a Marchmont Street) has a shiny silver plaque (see attachment) and not one a nice, distinguished blue one (which is much easier to photograph ;) ). So why not put our collective weight behind getting one?

Heres how:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ican/A1181774

He would appear to qualify - specifically:

If the figure is a foreigner or an overseas visitor they should have an international reputation or significant standing in their own country and their time in London should have been a significant period within their life or work.

--------------
Some links:

http://www.blueplaque.com

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/default.asp?WCI=Node&WCE=6683&redirected=1
 
fLeebLe: Goood photo - its shininess made it a tricky one to get a clear picture of.
 
if only just to make it easier to gather outside the shop that's there now and baffle the owner again:D

shopkeeper: what are you doing out here?
forters: we've come to look at the plaque on the place that Charles Fort lived for seven years
shopkeepr: that's my satellite dish, gerraway!:D
 
He certainly does fit all the required criteria. The blue plaques are, as mentioned, very distinctive and easily photographed. We should go ahead with a proposal.
 
Plaque

A very good idea: is someone going to do it?

''Marchmont'' is such a beautifully English name; I can envision Colin Firth playing someone called ''Lord Marchmont'' :)

Ian
 
Re: Plaque

Iankidd said:
A very good idea: is someone going to do it?

''Marchmont'' is such a beautifully English name; I can envision Colin Firth playing someone called ''Lord Marchmont'' :)/B]

I don't think anyone has volunteered if you fancy leading the campaign :)
 
Well...

Well, trying to avoid a bit of uni work today, I did fill in the e-form on blueplaques.com, but wasn't sure if it worked or not...I'll have another go tomorrow; maybe if lots of us have a go, they'll be overcome by sheer numbers?

Ian
 
Re: Well...

Iankidd said:
Well, trying to avoid a bit of uni work today, I did fill in the e-form on blueplaques.com, but wasn't sure if it worked or not...I'll have another go tomorrow; maybe if lots of us have a go, they'll be overcome by sheer numbers?

Ian

Did you give EH a tinkle as they suggest?

Also what form a blueplaques.com? They aren't connected with the handign out of plaques and only collect information on current ones - this form:

http://www.blueplaque.com/contribute.php

is to add information on a blue plaque. EH are the ones who give out the plaques.

Mr. X: Perhaps (if they are accepting a CHF nomination - they appear to have a 10 year wait between applications if they've turned one down) the application might involve a sentence or two from distinguished Forteans (yourself, Bob Rickard and others - suggestions please) from around the world demonstrating his impact and then we can throw in a paragraph or two about how that specific house and its location were key to his research, etc.
 
melf: Good point - it would certianly be important to get some high profile names on board as well as vitally important to get someone from the various Fortean magazines and publicaitons like FATE, the Anomalist, etc. and La Gazette Fortéenne would be another good one to demonstrate his international (well beyond the UK and North America) appeal:

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=465847#post465847
 
off the top of my head theres also:-

william gibson
jeremy beadle
ken campbell

aswell
 
gibson via his publishers?
ken campbell. his theater address?
beadles last known address?

surely the mag would have some records on the above people?
 
Emperor said:
Also are there any mentions of Marchmont Street in any of the books on Fort?

As I like answering my own questions - it. obviously, comes up in his correspondance but (thanks to Mr.X's site) it comes up elsewhere:

http://www.google.com/search?as_epq=marchmont&as_sitesearch=+Resologist.net

From Wild Talents:

I was living in London -- 39 Marchmont Street, W.C.1. I was gathering data, in the British Museum Library. In my searches, I had noted instances of pictures falling from walls, at times of poltergeist disturbances: but I note here that my data upon physical subjects, such as earthquakes and auroral beams and lights on dark parts of the moon were about five to one, as compared with numbers of [215/216] data upon matters of psychic research. Later, the preponderance shifted the other way. The subject of pictures falling from walls was in my mind, but it was much submerged by other subjects and aspects of subjects. It was so inactive in my mind that, when I was told of several pictures that had fallen in our house, I put that down to household insecurities, and paid no more attention.

http://www.resologist.net/talent20.htm

And from an editorial in the Toronto Daily Star March 16th, 1926:

The expert and author who has written us on the subject is Mr. Charles Fort, 39 (A) Marchmont St., W.C., London, Eng. He tells us that he has records of over two hundred instances where living things have fallen from the sky.

http://www.resologist.net/art02.htm
 
'Scuse my ignorance here but I've just used that wiki-wotsit link

thingy to find out who (don't all kill me at once will ya) Charles Fort was.

Anyboby like to suggest the best book to start with? :?:
 
I did start this reply and then the power flickered on and off forcing the computer to restart and go through scan checks, etc.

Anyway my previous reply was better but here goes.

Your best bet is to read his books - the best version are by Mr. X and he makes them available online:

www.resologist.net

You can pick up these versions second hand e.g.:

Lo!
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/18708 ... ntmagaz-21

Wid talents:
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/18708 ... ntmagaz-21

The best easily available versions are the current Dover books version which do a compelte works:

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/04862 ... ntmagaz-21
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486230 ... enantmc-20

----------
If you want to get further into Fort then the bet available book is:

Politics of the Imagination: The Life, Work and Ideas of Charles Fort
Colin Bennett
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/19004 ... ntmagaz-21
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1900486 ... enantmc-20

but you can also get anoher one secondhand:

Charles Fort: Prophet of the Unexplained
Damon Knight
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/05750 ... ntmagaz-21
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0006C0 ... enantmc-20

I also stumbled across this but don't know much about it:

The Damned Universe of Charles Fort
Louis Kaplan
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/09367 ... ntmagaz-21
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0936756 ... enantmc-20
 
Moonling said:
Ta very much,mate.That info will keep me busy a while. ;)

No worries - as I say best bet is to read the books. They can be tricky to get into (and I know some around here just can't get on with the style) but just reading around the subject and checking the various threads here is a good start - if there is anything of particular interest someone will always be able to suggest further resources.

I would also recommend the Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena:

www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24159

It has a good quick introduction about Fort and plenty of good sections on strangeness - its a good starter on Fort and Forteana.
 
gordonrutter said:
Mighty_Emperor said:
I also stumbled across this but don't know much about it:

The Damned Universe of Charles Fort
Louis Kaplan
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/09367 ... ntmagaz-21
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0936756 ... enantmc-20

It's an English translation a German biography - Witzenschaftlich Weltbetrachtungen

Is it any good and do we have a review of it we can scoop up?

Which reminds me - we do have a review of:

Charles Fort: Politics of the Imagination by Colin Bennett
www.forteantimes.com/review/bennettfort.shtml
 
We're watching The Why Files on My Channel, no. 171, and to my surprise (as I thought I'd seen every episode) it featured the very shop mentioned here. :D

Seems that there are frequent polty-type occurences there, which the owners accept quite sportingly.

They wonder if they are connected to the building's former occupant, who might have been expected to try to get in touch from the Other Side. ;)
 
It must be about time that Charles got his own blue plaque, above the building suppliers, at 39 Marchmont Street, to replace the simple, but serviceable, one placed there by fellow Forteans?




Somehow, it would be nice to think that Charles Fort and that other talented former resident of Marchmont Street (N°57), Kenneth Williams, were blue plaque neighbours.




Thanks to original_fLeebLe, for the heads up about the Charles Fort plaque, when I was staying near there, during last year's UnCon. :yeay:

[Click on the thumbnails for larger versions]
 
I only just found out I work right around the corner from here and went to see the (still not blue) plaque today :)
 
Back
Top