42 years of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Number 42 Theberton Street, Islington.
We couldn’t let the 42nd anniversary of the first broadcast of Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy go by without a mention.
Why the number 42?
Where did the number come from? Did the late, great, much lamented, much missed Douglas Adams pluck it out of thin air? Sleuths come up with suggestions from Gutenberg's 42-line bible, America’s historic 42ft star-spangled banner to Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger who was 42. Stephen Fry, a close friend of Douglas, could, but won’t, tell us. He is the only one who knows how supercomputer Deep Thought came up with 42 as the ‘Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything’.
Or is he?
If he is still alive, the owner of 42 Theberton Street in Islington would dispute this. He told Pamela Shields when she was a tourist guide there in the 1980s that Douglas lived there before him. Biographies of Adams say he lived in Upper Street but do not say what number. Turn right or left from Theberton Street and you find yourself in Upper Street.
It maybe an urban myth but still. Think on. Douglas Adams wrote his first novel while he was living in Islington. He said it inspired him. It was a place he loved. What a pity he left. ‘If stranded in space, the chances of being picked up by a passing ship are "two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand, seven hundred and nine to one against." 226-7709 was (urban myth?) the phone number of a flat in Arlington Avenue Islington where Arthur Dent met Zaphod Beeblebrox at a party. Dirk Gently’s detective agency is in Peckender Street Islington. There is no Peckender Street but there is a Packington Street next to Arlington Square. When Adams was writing The Restaurant at the End of The Universe he needed a silly name for the rock star in Ford Prefect’s favourite band Disaster Area. He didn’t have to look very far.
House hunting he called into an estate agent he passed every day. Hotblack Desiato the names of the two men who started the business. Not best pleased at the time, they changed the name. They were fed up of people saying they took the name from Adams. It has since been changed back.
By the way 1. Is it true that Google's and Cern's Large Hadron Collider office complexes were numbered 42 as a tribute to Douglas Adams?
By the way way 2. The Golden Rule of space travel is Don’t Panic. Chicken and egg. Who came first? Douglas Adams or Jimmy Perry? Think on.
Pamela Shields A Graduate and Tutor in the History of Art. Pamela trained as a magazine journalist at the London College of Printing and has been a freelance writer for over twenty years. She has a passion for history and has published several books on various subjects, including her best selling title ‘Islington: The First 2000 Years’ ISBN-10: 1456329308, ISBN-13: 978-1456329303 available in print and eBook formats from Amazon.
Post by Pamela, photography by Mark.
