Friday 8 September 2006

I'm writing this entry after the event, having just learnt how to upload photos, so apologies for the chronological confusion. (I've now learnt how to add the photos but am finding thatthey load up most recently loaded first, so the writing order and photograph order won't match. So this may be a confusing post, but now I know for future posts.)
Site visit to Northlands Park Estate. I arrived at Basildon station, not the most auspicious arrival point, scuffed and drab, and followed the blue sign which led me out of the station across a large road and around the corner to the taxi rank sited in front of Debenhams. I was astonished to see a veritable fleet of taxis? Why so many taxis in a deprived area? Perhaps Basildon itself isn't deprived, just the Northlands Park area? But then, a thing of beauty; across the front of the Debenhams building was a wonderful mural. See photos. I got into a lady driven taxi and asked for the Felmores shops. I chatted to the taxi driver about living in Basildon, whether she liked it? She said ithad changed in the last ten years, since the arrival of so many immigrants, who she admitted were nice people. She continued to say that "they" kept sending people down from London. How ironic, in that New Towns were built specifically as London overspill towns. She was less complimentary about the London incomers. I asked if she used the Northlands Park and she said she didn't as it was full of paedophiles and unsavoury types. She didn't feel safe walking around on her own, and she said mothers didn't take their children to the park unless there was a specific event on like the Carnival. This however seemed not to be the case as during out tour of the area the kid's playground was busy enough. It seemed to me immediately that there was a culture of fear. Where had these urban myths come from about the park being full of paedophiles etc? What were the actual facts. I did question the resident volunteers who took us around and was told that there is a Detention Centre very near to the park which houses people who are on bail and some of the residents were paedophiles. I can't remember if they are still there or not. Meet the residents. See pic.I currently can't find my notes with everyone's names on. These guys are part of the local resident steering committee. Also,here's Tony, next pic, who heads up Interlock, the local neighbourhood agency. He is going to be my main port of call linking me to the residents. I and another artist were taken off by the reidents on a local tour in a mini-bus. See pic. And see pic of lurid synthetic seat covers! Our first stop was the Nortland Park. Immediately, two youths wearing baseball caps sited! We're in Essex after all. It was a lovely sunny day. We went for a stroll. Several kids and their parents wer in the playground. The first thing you notice though is a red and blue tubular structure with steps up. On enquiry I learnt that this was a Teenage Village, built specifically for teenagers to hang out in instead of bus-shelters/street corners. It was conveniently located right in front of the car park. Easy monitoring distance for PC Plod. Turns out the "kids" graffited and sat on top of one until told it was for them. they haven't been near it since. Another one was removed in themiddle of the nigt withan angle-grinder. Not that popular then? Could be could spots for Poetry Slam events/Speaker's Corner events? See pic. We were shown the Hot Spot garden with mediterranean plants, taking into account climate change. Apparently the signature plants have been stolen. Doreen pointed out the beauty of the lake, well-used by anglers. It was she felt as beautiful and welll maintained apark as the grounds around Buckingham Palace where she had recntly been to recieve an award for her services to the local community. It is a lovely spot. See pic. We were also shown a woodlands, where it seems people fear to tread, although a cyclist and a lady and a little girl did come through whilst we were there. See pics. We were shown a small green in a cul-de-sac of houses which would seem toland itself to being a little play area for the kids living in the square, but sadly, the houses had very high fences so didn't naturally open up to the square; also, there was an old peopple's home making up the fourth wallof houses bearing the plaque No Ball Games. I thould so,me plaques saying Smile, Be Happy, Joy might help! Give an idea of what people can do rather than what they can't. I hope to host an outdoor portrait painting event here. Led by an artist. Like te painters who sit in Leicester Square, or in Florence. See pics. We were taken to a meadow/common area which Doreen told us was fullof blackberries in the hedgerows and fruit in the trees that goes to waste because people don't pick it.The area is used miostly by dog-walkers. They had placed goalposts in there to encourage kids to come and play foortball but the residenst who overlook the area com[plained! I thought we could have a blackberry and apple crumble bake-off, led by Doreen.We will certainly incude crumble recipesin the publication.It would also be the perfect site to host a Counrtry Games event where they could start a new tradition. Scotland hyad cabre-tossing,, Spain has bull-running; Essex could have???? See pics. We drove past another Teenage Village sited on a patch of green alongside the road. i think this could be a great spot for a Speaker's Corner Event where locals can relally have a shoiut about what they believ in. See pic. Does anyone remeber the man who used to walk up and down Oxford Street telling everyone that protein was evil and led to lust? he became a mini-celebrity shortly befor ehe died.

Just lifted this from an online London travel guide. Photo didn't load. I'll take my own later:

START"Speaker's Corner Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park is one of the best places to let off steam in London . It is one of the most famous locations symbolizing democratic rights in the world.
.
Historical Background
Amongst those who have attended meetings there, are the some of the most influential figures in world history like Karl Marx, Fredrick Engels and Lenin. Even Cromwell's corpse was hung up here in a cage for public display, after he had died as a warning to others who might wish to abolish the Monarchy. This was of course in the days before Speaker's Corner when at the same location was "Tyburn", one of the "hanging fields" of London. Other's whose ghosts haunt this corner include William Morris, George
Orwell, the Pankhursts, CLR. James, Benn Tillet, Marcus Garvey, and a star spangled cast of millions more who shall remain unmentioned, excepting the immovable Lord Soper, still speaking at 94. Speaker's Corner has had a more powerful influence than any "university" in the world, because here there are no entry requirements, no rules of intellectual formality and above all no class restrictions. It is as Leslie James the Hyde Park pamphleteer wrote a fitting location to represent "the century of the common man."
Tourists or visitors to such official places of "learning" as Cambridge or Oxford University are not allowed to attend any lecture they like, come and go when they choose, and take part in debate and discussion. It is precisely these characteristics that mark out Speaker's Corner as a strange and exciting place, a place where mankind meets itself in a generally pleasurable atmosphere.
Tens of thousands of people come to Speaker's Corner once or twice a year, thousands more who come 5-10 times a year, and hundreds who come virtually through hell or high water. When you consider that there is nothing to buy here, there is no music, just human interaction without the mediation of machines and without any protection from the weather you begin to get a small glimpse of the significance of this place. Consider for a moment the so called Opinion Polls that the mass media constantly pump out, they take a survey of random samples of certain social groups and claim an accuracy rate, extrapolated from this to the entire country, of + or - 3-4%. But Opinion Polls are static phenomena a snap shot seeking out for example a yes, no, or maybe, answer. The human brain is however not static but undergoing constant change, a person may think one thing, and yet internally have doubts. Speaker's Corner may be seen as a dynamic refection of mass psychology in that you have here people from every walk of life, every class, and almost every country.
There is of course a widespread belief that Speaker's Corner is some kind of "nuthouse", where "cranks" and tourists go. Lenin once related the story of a man who was wildly shaking, seated, his arms were swinging around, the observer thought it was a madman, but upon closer inspection he discovered it was a man sharpening a knife.
Speaker's Corner is perhaps the most dynamic mirror of human consciousness in the world."END

Hmm. Basildon can have its very own Speaker's Corner.