Comedy legends unveil a plaque to 'Monty Python's first curry'.
There can't be many memorials that feature a giant foot squashing a globe. But then there aren't many plaque-worthy subjects like Monty Python.
The legendary comedy troupe became household names from 1969, with anarchic sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus, and subsequent films such as Life of Brian and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
The six members — Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin — had worked together in different combinations ahead of 1969. But it was a slap-up curry in Hampstead, in May of that year, which brought the whole team together for the first time. By October, they were on the telebox.
The new plaque, bestowed by World Origin Site, marks the location of the Light of Kashmir tandoori, which is now the Aroma Spice restaurant. Half the surviving Pythons turned up for the unveiling.
Palin described the fateful evening: "We all came up here from my house, which was the first time Python got around a table anywhere here, at the Light Of Kashmir, as it was then. All I remember were arguments over the bill! John didn't want to pay and Eric wanted to pay in dollars, so in the end we all just ran away!"
Terry Gilliam roared as soon as the two Pythons unveiled the plaque: "We're famous Michael, we're famous."
Awarding body World Origin Site has erected numerous plaques to 'world first' events. Other London recipients include the first air-traffic control tower in Croydon and the building where John Logie Baird first demonstrated television.
The Hampstead plaque is not the first to recognise the Pythons in these regions. Up in Highgate, Graham Chapman has a plaque on the Angel Inn: "he drank here often and copiously". Meanwhile, Terry Jones is remembered inside the Prince of Wales pub for similar liquid adventures.
All images courtesy of World Origin Site. The plaque can be seen at Aroma Spice, 98 Fleet Road, Hampstead, NW3 2QX
