Monday, February 21, 2011

mere place

we gathered quite a lot, a little over fifty, on 13 February for the visit of the former liqueur factory, announced by the collection of local history. Unfortunately on the site it turned out that although there are a lot of interesting industrial monuments around Váci Street, just this one does not belong to them. In addition, behind the facade, made completely inexpressive by now, various companies rent offices, so we could go only as far as the courtyard, where the only temporary object of interest was the enthusiastic and curious team made up by many kind of people which were us. Two of us talked at length with a driver who for thirty years delivered all over the country the drinks prepared here, and now came to visit the site just out of curiosity, and after a few warm-up questions told about all kinds of issues. He did not remember any brand names any more, but he knew that there was a general three star cognac for the commons and a five star version, a kind of a limited edition, delivered only for those deserving it, especially for the former party leadership.
The participants slowly soaked away in the hard cold. A few nostalgic remembrances and a couple of photos going from hand to hand proved that we were on the right track, that once there was something here.

I got the pictures for publication from the collection of local history

Thursday, February 10, 2011

City walks, evening tour - Program guide

This Sunday, on 13 February the Angyalföld Collection of Local History closes its exhibition, which is on since last September, with an extended program. They also planned a number of free programs for the last day of the exhibition.
The most interesting one seems to be the walk which starts at half past two to visit the former building of the liqueur factory of Angyalföld. The walk is led by the former director of the factory Gerencsér Emil. Meeting at the corner of Váci út and Forgách utca.
At five o’clock, social historian Valuch Tibor, researcher of the Kádár era will give a lecture on how the Coca-Cola became a fetish of the West in the Hungary of the state socialism. Do you know the film Time has stopped? :) or do you have memories of your own on this period?
Those interested in material culture, history of industry and lifestyle and of paper antiquities can participate between six and ten in the night at an unusual guided tour. I can only guess what this means at a liqueur history-themed exibition, but I hope for the best anyway.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Two photos by Ács Irén from Angyalföld

1960

1964

The little girls building a dollhouse out of a small table, a stool and a cricket can be around fifty-six or fifty-seven now. On this picture there is no identifying element, on the basis of which one could localize the site, but the atmosphere is nevertheless characteristic.
The bill-poster (?) smiling into the camera is no longer alive, I think, or if he is, he must be well over hundred. The site, however, has been brilliantly identified by the community of the Budapest anno… forum. No train circulates any more along this line, the cobblestone of the road has been also long replaced, the stone-covered sidewalks have also been eliminated across all Angyalföld, and the building standing in the background was demolished in this autumn (on the Google map it is still on its place). The advertising pillar once stood on Váci Street, next to the corner of Dévai street. Just a block away, at Váci Street 50 is now the Angyalföld Collection of Local History..
(I think I should take a new photo from the same point of view.)

These photos by Ács Irén were published in her album Légyott/Rendezvous.