“My names Roger Burton. i’m primarily a collector, a collector of things; mostly fashion items from the last 50 years. And magazines and toys and god knows. Through my collecting instincts I’ve met some very interesting people who also collect and since i’ve been in this building I’ve started to collect people and art and films and other interesting items. mostly because I work in the film industry and a lot of what i have to do is pretty mundane and this building allows me to do what I want to do without producers and directors telling me what to do. And I encourage people coming into this space to be free and do what they want to do within the space.
A lot of my work stems from the fact that I was not trained. I had no formal training whatsoever. So I drawn to kids and people who were naturally gifted and who were really driven to produce their art or their film or their piece of work and really there is nowhere else in london where kids like that can go and show their work because it’s not recognised because they didn’t go to university or whatever. So I try and give them a chance and help them up the ladder as it were.
The Horse Hospital, built in 1797
It’s something I’m very passionate about, collections and collectables and other people who are interested in the same kind of obscurities I’m interested in. And the more obscure the better really. “
Who is your most interesting person?
John Mitchinson, Director of QI Television Show
Roger Burton runs the historic Horse Hospital, an historic building that as of May 2015 is due to be sold. About the campaign to save the building Roger says this:
“London is devolving rapidly into a culturally bereft corporate wasteland. It is being systematically cleansed of its cultural vitality, diversity and energy.
As a civilization we define ourselves by the culture we produce, we all participate and are ALL accountable and have a responsibility to the various roles we play within the structure to abide and support this unchanging principle. Although at times overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness in the face of a gargantuan, all consuming, faceless ideology, we feel a responsibility to try and keep our little role.
People, institutions and future potentials are being priced out of this city which soon will only have a homogenous, thin layer of sanctioned and carefully monitored culture as its defining engine, this spells disaster for everyone. Transformation of all kinds relies on the possibility for the most coherent and powerful radical ideas to become tradition, without room for those ideas to even have a chance to be played out, what hope is there?
We will continue our fight to stay here, we believe in this, however symbolic it may be.
We hope to have more concrete news in the new year.”
To find out more visit here
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