VERSES ON CEILING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21456, 1 April 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

VERSES ON CEILING

POETIC CIVIL SERVANT ORDERED TO PAY DAMAGES Poetry written on the walls and ceiling of a flat by a civil servant was the subject of an action for damages retried at Clerkenwell County Court, London. Mrs. Clara Steel, of Hornsey-lane, Highgate, sued the former tentant of the flat, John Richard Barker, for £6 15s damages and £2 3s balance of rent. When the action was first tried the registrar decided that a tenant was entitled to exer-. ciso his aesthetic rights. At the fresh hearing, John Luck, builder and decorator, of East Finchley, London, stated that one passage of poetry on the ceiling was in two-inch letters, and was daubed on with a brush in black, like tar. Shelley's " Unnamed Lyric " occupied 30in. by 2ft. Barker agreed that the painting of the verses " was not done with the careful

precision of a sign-writer, nor with the hasty uncertainty of sky-writing trailing from tho tail of an aeroplane. I did the work myseif in c-il and water colour," lie added, " and I liked it for years." The judge held that it was a defacement of the premises and awarded the landlady '2ss, plus £2 balance of rent.