Talk:Nicholas Albery
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Josefine Speyer additions
[edit]On 4 December 2018 User:JosefineSpeyer made unsourced additions to the article page which whilst provided in good faith, and I believe genuine, cannot be used on wikipedia as they stand. I have pasted them below for possible future use:
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.
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.