Remembering Jeffrey Bernard’s great wonder of the world: the rotting fruit and vegetables in Berwick Street Market

There’s no better way to view Soho than from Jeffrey Bernard’s former council flat overlooking Berwick Street Market. For many, Bernard is remembered as a notorious writer and alcoholic – a close friend to many of the more famous artists, actors and personalities who inhabited ‘The Crooked Mile’. To produce this small film, we initially wrote to the occupiers of Bernard’s former flat out of the blue asking them to allow the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) to host an event in their front room. I have Estrella Bravo and her husband to thank for replying and inviting me over. Having been given the green light to proceed, we then contacted Guardian art critic Adrian Searle, a former acquaintance of Bruce Bernard, Jeffrey’s brother.

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What you see here is a reading given by Searle of Jeffrey Bernard’s ‘Home, Sweet Home’ which first appeared in The Spectator magazine, 7 December 1991.