Nicholas Albery

Nicholas Bronson Albery (28 July 1948 – 3 June 2001) was a British social inventor and author, was the instigator or coordinator of a variety of projects aimed at an improvement to society, often known as the alternative society.

Albery was born at Bricket House, St Albans, Hertfordshire, son of the theatre impresario Sir Donald Albery (son of Sir Bronson Albery, also a theatre impresario) and his second wife, Cicely, daughter of Army officer Reginald Harvey Henderson Boys.

While a student at St John's College, Oxford, Albery became involved with psychedelic and spiritual movements in San Francisco, California, and dropped out of college.

After a period in Haight Ashbury, he returned to the UK and joined the anti-university in London.

Albery became involved with the newly started BIT Information Service, quickly becoming a driving force in the development of wider activities for BIT so that it became one of the first social centres.

Around 1972/73, at the peak of its activities and with the momentum given by Albery, BIT Info-Service ran 24 hours a day, with "BIT-workers" coming up at around 10 PM to take the night shift until around 8:00 AM the following day.

In 1974, in the aftermath of a violent attack by police on the Windsor Free Festival, Albery, with playwright Heathcote Williams and his partner Diana Senior successfully sued David Holdsworth, the Thames Valley Chief Constable, for creating a riotous situation in which the police attacked the plaintiffs.

Albery was a Minister for the Free State of Frestonia in North Kensington and a Green Party candidate in Notting Hill.

In 1985, out of BIT Information Service, Albery founded the Institute for Social Inventions.

From small beginnings (a network of inventors, a quarterly newsletter), the Institute grew into a full-fledged organisation under his leadership: producing an annual compendium, running social inventions workshops and promoting creative solutions around the world.

The Institute included Edward de Bono, Anita Roddick and Fay Weldon among its patrons.

Albery founded the self-organising Saturday Walkers' Club in the mid-1990s.

Albery was married to psychotherapist Josefine Speyer.

In 1991, with Christianne Heal, he and his wife founded the Natural Death Centre, offering advice on DIY burials.

The much-patronised centre provides midwives for the dying, death exercises, recyclable coffins, etc.

The Global Ideas Bank, which Albery founded in 1995 as an offspring of the Institute for Social Inventions, was first established online, and new features were added: online submission, voting systems, categorisation, a message board, and so on.

Albery became interested in ecological approaches to death and funerals, and in breaking the taboos that surround death in western societies.

He died age 52 in a car accident, on 3 June 2001.

His brother is stage director Tim Albery.

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