Stanley Green

For the photojournalist, see Stanley Greene.

Stanley Green in Oxford Street, 1977

Stanley Owen Green (22 February 1915 – 4 December 1993), known as the Protein Man, was a human billboard who became a well-known figure in central London in the latter half of the 20th century.

Green patrolled Oxford Street in the West End for 25 years, from 1968 until 1993. His placard advocating "Less Lust, By Less Protein: Meat Fish Bird; Egg Cheese; Peas Beans; Nuts. And Sitting" recommended "protein wisdom", a low-protein diet for "better, kinder, happier people". For a few pence passers-by could purchase his 14-page pamphlet, Eight Passion Proteins with Care, which sold 87,000 copies over 20 years. Its front cover observed, "This booklet would benefit more, if it were read occasionally."

Green's "campaign to suppress desire", as one commentator put it, was not always popular, but he became one of London's much-loved eccentrics and took great delight in his local fame. The Sunday Times interviewed him in 1985, and his "less passion, less protein" slogan was used by the fashion house Red or Dead.

When he died at the age of 78, the Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Times published his obituary, the Museum of London added his pamphlets, placards and letters to their collection, and in 2006 his biography was added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Early life

Green was born in Harringay, north London, the youngest of four sons of Richard Green, a clerk for a bottle stopper manufacturer, and his wife, May. He attended Wood Green County School before joining the Royal Navy in 1938.

Philip Carter writes in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography that Green's time with the Navy had affected him deeply. He was reportedly shocked by his fellow sailors' obsession with sex. "I was astonished when things were said quite openly – what a husband would say to his wife when home on leave", he told the Sunday Times "A Life in the Day" column in 1985. "I've always been a moral sort of person."

He left the Navy in September 1945 and worked for the Fine Art Society. In March 1946, Carter wrote, he failed the entrance exam for the University of London; he later worked for Selfridges and the civil service, and as a storeman for Ealing Borough Council. He said that he had lost jobs twice because he had refused to be dishonest. In 1962 he held a job with the post office, then worked as a self-employed gardener until 1968 when he began his anti-protein campaign. He lived with his parents until they died – his father in 1966 and his mother in 1967 – after which he was given a council flat in Haydock Green, Northolt, Middlesex.

His mission

On the streets

photograph

Oxford Street, 1974

Green began his mission in June 1968, at the age of 53, initially in Harrow on Saturdays, becoming a full-time human billboard six months later on Oxford Street. He cycled there from Northolt with a sandwich board attached to the bicycle, a journey of 12 miles (19 km) that could take up to two hours, until he was given a bus pass when he turned 65.

He rose early, and after porridge for breakfast made bread that would rise while he was out on patrol, ready for his evening meal. Apart from the porridge and bread, his diet consisted of steamed vegetables and pulses, and a pound of apples a day. Lunch was prepared on a Bunsen burner and eaten at 2:30 in a "warm and secret place" near Oxford Street. He walked up and down the street six days a week, then four days from 1985 onwards, until 6:30 pm. Saturday evenings were spent with the cinema crowds in Leicester Square. He would to go to bed at 12:30 am after saying a prayer. "Quite a good prayer, unselfish too", he told the Sunday Times. "It is a sort of acknowledgment of God, just in case there happens to be one."

Peter Ackroyd wrote in London: The Biography that Green was for the most part ignored, becoming "a poignant symbol of the city's incuriosity and forgetfulness". He was arrested for public obstruction twice, in 1980 and 1985. "The injustice of it upsets me," he told the Sunday Times, "because I'm doing such a good job." He took to wearing overalls to protect himself from spit, several times finding it on his hat at the end of the day.

Writing

Sundays were spent at home producing Eight Passion Proteins on his own printing press; Waldemar Januszczak described it as worthy of Heath Robinson, who was known for his cartoons of ancient contraptions. The racket caused trouble between Green and his neighbours.

Noted for its eccentric typography, including random capitalization, Eight Passion Proteins went through 52 editions between 1973 and 1993. Green sold 20 copies on weekdays and up to 50 on Saturdays (for 10 pence in 1980 and 12 pence 13 years later), a total of 87,000 copies by February 1993, according to Carter. He also sent copies to those in the public eye, including five British prime ministers, the Prince of Wales, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Pope Paul VI.

The booklet argued "those who do not have to work hard with their limbs, and those who are inclined to sit about" will "store up their protein for passion", making retirement, for example, a period of increased passion and, therefore, marital discord. "[D]o not let passion defeat you", his pamphlet advised, "ALONE, nor with a sexual friend. ... Discipline in the single years, prepares us for the essential discipline of happy marriages."

Green left several unpublished manuscripts, including a novel, Behind the Veil: More than Just a Tale, a 67-page text called Passion and Protein, and a 392-page version of Eight Passion Proteins, which Carter writes was rejected by Oxford University Press in 1971.

Posthumous recognition

External media
Images
Green's printing press, Gunnersbury Museum
Audio
"Stanley Green" (2013) by Martin Gordon

Green enjoyed his local fame. The Sunday Times interviewed him in 1985 for its "A Life in the Day" feature, and his "less passion, less protein" slogan was used by the London fashion house Red or Dead.

When he died in 1993 at the age of 78, the Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Times all published obituaries. His letters, diaries, pamphlets and placards were given to the Museum of London, and other artefacts to the Gunnersbury Park Museum. His printing press was featured in Cornelia Parker's exhibition "The Maybe" (1995) at the Serpentine Gallery, along with Robert Maxwell's shoelaces, one of Winston Churchill's cigars and Tilda Swinton in a glass box. In 2006 he was given an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Two decades after his death he was still remembered by writers and bloggers, fondly for the most part, though not invariably so; artist Alun Rowlands' documentary fiction, 3 Communiqués (2007), portrayed him as trawling the streets of London, "campaigning for the suppression of desire". Musician Martin Gordon included a track about Green on his 2013 album, Include Me Out.

• Near Oxford Street, 1974
  Near Oxford Street, 1974
• 
  Near the corner of Dean Street, Soho, c. 1983
• 
  One of Green's placards, Museum of London
• 
  Eight Passion Proteins with Care
• 
  From his Museum of London collection

See also

• Philip Howard (preacher)
• Sylvester Graham
• John Harvey Kellogg

Further reading

• Cumming, Valerie; Merriman, Nick Merriman; Ross, Catherine. "The Protein Man", Museum of London, Scala Books, 1996.
• Donaldson, William. Brewer's Rogues, Villains, and Eccentrics, Cassell Reference, 2004.
• Lloyd, Felix. "I’m in training to be an old eccentric", London Evening Standard, 3 December 2008.
• Nevin, Charles. "The Third Leader: Street scenery", The Independent, 13 June 2006.
• Ross, C. "The scourge of sex and nuts and sitting", The Oldie, March 1997.
• The London Traveler. "The Less Protein Man – a sight of old London".
• Truss, Lynne. "Stanley Green", The Times, 25 January 1994.
• Weeks, David Joseph and Ward, Kate. Eccentrics: The Scientific Investigation, Stirling University Press, 1988.
• Wicks, Ben. "Come on up and see my collection of passion fruit", The Toronto Star, 8 March 1986.
• Willis, David. "A Consuming Passion" (obituary), The Guardian, 26 January 1994.