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Nicholas Albery

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Nicholas Albery (28 July 1948 – 3 June 2001)[1][2] social inventor and author, was the instigator or coordinator of a variety of projects aimed at an improvement to society, often known as the alternative society.

Biography

While a student at St John's College, Oxford, Albery became involved with psychedelic and spiritual movements in San Francisco, dropped out of college and joined the anti-university in London.[1] He died in a car accident, on 3 June 2001.[3]

Underground London in the 1970s

After a period in Haight Ashbury he returned to the UK and became involved with the newly started BIT Information Service, quickly becoming a driving force in the development of wider activities for BIT so that it became one of the first Social centres. Around 1972-73, at the peak of its activities and with the momentum given by Nicholas, BIT Info-Service ran 24 hours a day, with "BIT-workers" coming up at around 10 PM to take the night shift until around 8:00 AM the following day.

The "Windsor Festival case"

In 1974, in the aftermath of a violent attack by police on the Windsor Free Festival, Albery, playwright Heathcote Williams and his partner Diana Senior successfully sued David Holdsworth, the Thames Valley Chief Constable, for creating a riotous situation in which the police attacked the plaintiffs.[4]

Frestonia

After a visit to Christiania in Copenhagen, Denmark, Nicholas decided to persuade fellow squatters in North Kensington where he lived with his partner Josefine Speyer and their young son to hold a referendum and to declare independence from Britain in order to safe their houses from demolition by the GLC. Everyone agreed and the houses in Freston Road, Bramley Road and the one house left standing in St Ann's Road, became The Free and Independent Republic of Frestonia (year?). Our slogan was 'Somos una familia": 'We are all one family' so the GLC would have to rehouse us together in case of a takeover by Britain. Everyone added Bramley to their surname and everyone, including young children, became a minister of Frestonia. The leader of the GLC, Sir Horace Cutler said in a letter to Nicholas "If you did not exist, it would be necessary to invent you." Frestonia became a tourist attraction with bus loads of Japanese and Danish tourists arriving at times. Eventually Frestonia was taken over by the Notting Hill Housing Trust who knocked the houses down and rebuild them, including a small communal garden. Many Frestonian residents were rehoused elsewhere. The area today looks unassuming, nobody would guess its former, wild glory days. Only the People's Hall building remains and today it houses the Frestonian Gallery which is a nod to the past and is very posh indeed, showing major artists. The Frestonian Gallery is the new tourist attraction today.Frestonia in North Kensington[5] and a Green Party candidate in Notting Hill.

Social innovations' activist

In 1985, out of BIT Information Service, he founded the Institute for Social Inventions. From small beginnings (a network of inventors, a quarterly newsletter), the Institute grew into a full-fledged organisation under his leadership: producing an annual compendium, running social inventions workshops and promoting creative solutions around the world. The Institute included Edward de Bono, Anita Roddick and Fay Weldon among its patrons.[1]

The Global Ideas Bank, which he founded in 1995 as an offspring of the Institute for Social Inventions, was first established online, and new features were added: online submission, voting systems, categorisation, a message board, and so on.

Promoting "natural" death

Albery and his wife, the psychotherapist Josefine Speyer, became interested in ecological approaches to death and funerals, and in breaking the taboos that surround death in western societies. In 1991, with Christianne Heal as a fellow director, they founded the Natural Death Centre with three aims in mind:

"1. To break the taboo around dying and death and make it an ordinary topic for conversation. We held dinner discussions where we invited a speaker and provided a three course vegetarian meal. The highest number of dinner guests was 110! We also introduced the National Day of the Dead, modelled on the Mexican Day of the Dead, which we held in Springtime, when it is more easy for people to consider death in the light of renewal.

2. To take back power from the big institutions to the person who is dying. Just as in natural childbirth, where the mother giving birth makes a birth plan, is educated about the choices available and is the one in charge, we felt the dying person should exercise that same right. We wanted for people who wished to die at home, to be able to do so, and for those who wished to have little or no medical intervention at the end of their life, to make a Living Will or Advanced Decision, a Death Plan and to discuss their funeral wishes, if they should wish to.

3. To help people know their rights for instance regarding funerals, for people to be able to buy a coffin directly from the supplier and to organise the funeral as much as they wished to, themselves. We asked the Office of Fair Trading that funeral directors should not offer package deals, but produce a list of itemised charges of their service."

The media took a great interest in the work of the Natural Death Centre. The public demanded advice on DIY burials. John Bradfield provided the NDC with information about the legal rights on natural burial. Today the charity provides information through the Natural Death Handbook published by the NDC, through their website, their free ezine 'More To Death' or their helpline on about anything to do with funerals, natural burial, how to set up a natural burial ground in the UK, biodegradable coffins, etc. The Handbook includes chapters on with preparing for dying and how to care for a dying person at home. The Natural Death Centre is an educational charity, depending on donations and book sales.

[6]

Miscellaneous

Nicholas Albery founded the self-organising Saturday Walkers' Club in the mid-1990s.[7][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Obituary: Nicholas Albery: Irreverent free spirit who put his socially innovative ideas into action". Guardian. 8 June 2001. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ "Nicholas Albery - Obituaries, News". The Independent. 8 June 2001. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ "Natural Death Centre .org - Who we are". Naturaldeath.org.uk. 2001-06-03. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
  4. ^ "Alan Dearling's "Not only but also..." memoirs of Free Festivals" (PDF).
  5. ^ "The Notting Hill Squatters". Vice (magazine)
  6. ^ "Natural Death Centre .org - The Natural Death Centre". Naturaldeath.org.uk. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
  7. ^ "Time Out Book of Country Walks & Saturday Walkers Club". Walkingclub.org.uk. 2011-03-03.
  8. ^ Albery, Nicholas, ed. (2005). Time Out Book of Country Walks: 52 Walks Within Easy Reach of London: Vol 1 (Revised Updated ed.). Time Out. ISBN 1-904978-88-6.

Literature

  • Beam, Alan (1976) "Rehearsal for the year 2000: (drugs, religions, madness, crime, communes, love, visions, festivals and lunar energy) : the rebirth of Albion Free State (known in the Dark Ages as England) : memoirs of a male midwife (1966-1976)" - an account of the early years of BIT with most names changed to protect the innocent.
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