Stone carving for Haggerston

Well, first I have to apologise for being quiet so such a long period of time. It has nothing to do with Creative City being quiet at all!! Quite on the opposite.

Since we posted about the consultation on the gates, we have been developing a new project for Haggerston with stone carver and mason Bobbie Fennick.

Bobbie and Creative City led a consultation day with L&Q and residents last September.

Residents who attended chose a number of designs to form the inspiration for the carvings on stone monoliths.

- The Weather Vane on top of the Haggerston Baths.
- An opening in the railings along Regent's Canal, well known to residents and passers-by alike.
- A canal lock as it strongly represents the area
- A flat door.

The latest design was 100% chosen by residents, in the sense that the idea for it came about at the consultation. Young residents Elam & Chantelle Forrester then took photographs of the elements that would form the design and passed onto Bobbie to draw up.

Photo by Elam Forrester

The next step was for Creative City to take Bobbie's lead and choose the actual monoliths.
After careful research, Bobbie Fennick selected incredible high quality slate stones from North Wales. The selection process is important as slate must be tested for a minimum of 2 years to reveal cracks. The selected monoliths were actually quarried in the 18's century and supported the construction inside the mountain.

Once the stones were selected, they delivered to London. A team had to move the stones weighing 1ton 1/2 with the traditional method of rolling them with wood and metal rods. 

Photo by Elam Forrester

Photo by Elam Forrester

Photo by Elam Forrester

Bobbie started the drawing and transfer process on the first two. The carving is extremely minutious and precise. It takes an incredible level of concentration and allows for no mistakes. This is skilled craft as its very best. Fascinating to watch.

Bobbie is here starting the carving using extremely sharp chisels.

Black Maria

It's been a long and interesting winter. Back in November 2012, Creative City started to manage a new commission in Kings Cross as part of the re-development of the Granary Building, and what an incredible project it was.

Richard Wentworth, British sculptor, was commissioned as part of the Relay art programme to create an artwork that would bring a sense of destination to this strange space called 'The Crossing', which feels like somewhere between a hall and a street, and acts as the entrance to Central St Martin's.

Wentworth had done a project with ArtAngel called 'An Area of Outstanding Beauty' in that very space 10 years ago. Rather than replicating the previous formula, he entered in discussion with a Swiss architecture firm called GRUPPE. Together, they devised a project, which was a space and a place, a plan and a platform, where one could encounter the in-expectable, create and experiment.

The project shifted and changed before committing to its existing form : Black Maria.

Nick Lobo Brennan, GRUPPE showing the model.

 Inspired from Thomas Edison's eponymous film studio, Black Maria hosted talks, film screenings, performances and events, and allows space for young curators, artists and performers to present their work. It also became a space where to hold an informal meeting, where to engage in conversation on any topic

By the end of the 28 days of Black Maria, the artists and professionals that took part had come from all over London and as far as Boston, USA.

This Pinterest board will give you some ideas of what happened throughout the month.

Design Day, the outcome

Design Day was very successful. Residents braved the London rain to put their thoughts and ideas on paper with the support of a pool of creative professionals, including representatives from the housing development L&Q.

A number of artworks were selected on the day to be taken to the next stage. The graphic representations (see the presentation below) help visualise what the designs may look like if they were manufactured. There is a fantastic wealth of content in the presentation below that can be brought together to form a body of public artworks, as envisioned by residents. The presentation was shared with residents for them to select and discuss the next stages.

The artworks drew their inspiration from Haggerston's incredible history of textiles and silk weaving.

© V&A

In 1831 - 32, the population of Spitalfields, which then encompassed Haggerston, counted 50 to 100,000 dependent on silk weaving. There were 14 - 17,000 looms, including 100 Jacquard looms.  A weaver generally had two looms, and children started work at 6 - 7 yrs-old to gum silk.

In the beginning of the 18th century, designs were naturalistic. 1730's saw innovation in the creation of 3D patterns. 1740's were full of flowered silk design and botanical inspiration. In 1750's & 60's, designs became more stylised, fabrics stiffer, and metallic threads started appearing giving a beautiful voluptuous look to dresses. From 1770's, patterns were becoming more informal, using stripes and shapes. By the end of the 19th century, the Neo-Classical patterns were dominating the industry.

Thank you to London & Quadrant for the opportunity.
Thank you to all residents who contributed, and to the professionals who made this day a success.
Karen Janody - Project Director
Asha Rapjut - Graphic Designer
Julian Taylor - Metal sculptor & blacksmith
Katy Dawe - Textile artist
Lucy Ferguson - Coordinator & resident briefing
Mary Spyrou - Textile historical research

Julie Conrad & Graham Girling from L&Q Group.

Design Day

Do you live locally?

We'd love to hear from you!

Design Day is a platform where residents meet professionals in the art/design/housing sectors for a day to come up with ideas and design that could form part of the landscape of the new housing development in Kingland & Haggerston West.

The aim of the event is that by the end of the day, a number of ideas and concepts can be taken away to be manufactured, and be placed within the outdoor defensible areas, railings, and gates.

The day is open to all residents, members of the neighbourhood, creatives and public artists.  All ages welcome (as long as no supervision is necessary).

The input from professionals is very particularly aimed at young residents as an opportunity to gage feedback from professionals on their ideas on the day and also get specialised advice, find out how to improve their chances to get internships, jobs, build their CV and portfolio. To enable this, there will be a Q&A post lunch and a chance to speak to someone on a 1-2-1.

Lunch will be provided to help create a self-contained day, promoting creative input and focus.
Haggerston Community Centre, 179 Haggerston Road, E8.

If you can't make it, don't be sad as you will also be able to send your idea by drawing directly into a railing:
Download this image and return to the L&Q Canal Side office, 240a Kingsland Road, London E2 8AX.

Alternatively, email karen[at]creative-city.co.uk for any query or information.



We, at Creative City, have carefully chosen our team of experts:
Graham Girling (L&Q Regeneration Project Manager) on landscaping & architecture for housing,
Asha Rajput (graphic design & cartographer) on design,
Julian Taylor (artist & blacksmith) on metal work consultancy,
Mary Spyrou on the local historical of fabrics,
Lucy Ferguson (YH World) as a moderator on the day,
Katy Dawe as textile consultancy on the day,
Ergal Hassan (YOH).

New year, new beginnings!

2012! New year, new inspiration, new relationships!

It's not exactly quiet at the moment, as there are interesting things in development.


New project //

We've started to plant seeds about a new project for the local community that we think is absolutely essential! It is currently called 'A Fragment of Paradise' and is a public garden based on the Islamic garden design.

From reading a report and Emma Clark's wonderful book The Art of The Islamic Garden, it has become very hard to focus on anything else... We're just totally completely inspired.

We're hoping to have some news about this soon, and in the mean time, you can read about it on the blog: afragmentofparadise.blogspot.com

New relationships //

A year on from developing BROWSE Video Specs in the local community, the project has grown and is now taking shape as an exciting method of engagement.

Last year, BROWSE featured as part of Six Summer Saturdays in Birmingham, and Swap & Share Picnic in London's Arnold Circus. In October, the workshop that we have spent months dreaming about with Art Against Knives took place, engaging young people in sharing their comments and ideas on street design in relation to crime.

This year, we're developing this further.

Working with Soundings and developer Lend Lease, we will engage future residents in a consultation using Video Specs. The use of Video Specs is triggering some interesting commentary, and the idea is for young people to put the Specs on and visualise the future of the open spaces in Elephant & Castle. The workshops will run from the hub on Walworth Street.

The Hub on Walworth St

New team //

Gokay has joined the team for a few weeks to investigate the Video Specs further. He's incredibly focused, and it's hard to get him to take a lunch break. His BROWSE video will be online pretty soon! Watch this space.

More news soon! Kung hey Fat Choi to all.

BROWSE Video Specs

Creative City was launched in 2008 for a project dear to our hearts 'The Newspaper House'. You can read all about it here.

Photograph © Sumer Erek

The idea for it stemmed from a pressing local environmental issue that a group of artists clubbed together to translate into an impacting artistic project. Thanks to Artist Sumer Erek's artistic vision, and also thank to a great team, volunteers, and visionary stakeholders and funders, the Newspaper House became not only a great participatory project, but a remarkable public artwork, capturing the imagination of visitors, viewers, readers worldwide.

That was 4 years ago! Incredible, yes. Creative City was registered on 8 Jan 2008! Happy birthday Creative City.


New project

4 years later, it would be nice to explain a little more about where Creative City has been, and how our new project BROWSE Video Specscame about.

2011 was amazing as regards to working with a new medium : the Video Specs. The result of a year long R&D, working out what, how, who, etc. is a fresh, user-centred way to engage people on topics which is of interest to them, and gage their feedback on issues which they ought to be consulted on.

Photograph © Karen Janody

BROWSE has been finding its feet slowly. it first started as a proposal as a programme of engagement in response to a local regeneration Masterplan. Whilst this was never commissioned, the idea of collecting the opinions of residents was worth pursuing. I set about talking to members of the local community, asking them to put their thoughts on video (an alternative to putting thoughts on paper). It's very interesting to pick up on individual responses to a same space/place. It allows people to answer questions in their own time, and in their own words. The pressure is less, and the enjoyment of participation is more.

A number of participants have taken part, and their videos were published on this blog and on the Youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/CCityLondon , and on Vimeo http://vimeo.com/creat1vecity



This is leading to questions about residents' responses to their local spaces and identity, and how changes to the local landscape affects residents' identity and sense of belonging. It is also of interest to turn the tables around, and start the process of video commentary to inform the planning design…




BROWSE in & around

Last October, Creative City carved out their first workshop for young people using Video Specs to collect their views on the state of their local environment. 6 Young people from the BlueHut youth centre participated. Very keen to contribute their opinions, they took Video Specs on a journey, naming and shaming on route.

Photographs © Katy Dawe & Kirsty Allen

Art Against Knives, who hosted the workshops under Designing OurSpace, one of their programmes, have shown the video in BoxPark receiving very positive feedback from young people and adults alike.



In 2012, we want to see a much more curated approach to BROWSE Video Specs as a means to collecting valuable opinions of members of a community.

Indeed, the technique is also an asset for audience engagement of other sorts.

The project was invited to Birmingham for 6 Summer Saturdays, covered the Friends of Arnold Circus 'Swap & Share Picnic', and reviewed exhibitions, such as ' Two Rivers' at Studio 75, 'East Pop West' by the Red Gallery, "Moniker Frieze' by Moniker Projects and 'True Defiance' at Amnesty International UK.

Designing OurSpace

Creative City is entering an exciting partnership with youth-led charity Art Against Knives (AAK) in presenting a programme for young people in East London called 'Designing OurSpace'.

The programme of workshops comprises of four segment projects, one of which is ours BROWSE Video Specs. It is both stimulating and quite a task as our project will be paving the way for a two year programme with AAK, and we want it to be GOOD!

For 'Designing OurSpace' we have decided to look at highlighting urban factors that influence public safety and/or crime. Our aim is to work with young people who have found themselves in sensitive situations and ask them to contribute their opinions and suggestions on the topic. We want the outcome to be informative and dynamic to be credible when presented to decision makers, so that future development sees the involvement of the people who will be using the development in questions, and the streets tomorrow.

BROWSE Video Specs is Creative City's current project, and it is a method of engagement using the discreet POV Video Specs technology.

How will we do this? We will facilitate 5 days of workshops and training sessions, with a group of young people, aged 12 - 24 years-old, over the course of half-term in October.
- For the first two days, we are introducing the Video Specs to spark creative thinking, and give a comment on the streets as they are.
- For 3 days, practical editing workshops will guide young poeple in using software and present the content gathered in days 1 & 2 into quality videos that will highlight issues, bring out opinions, and suggest solutions.


On this blog, we will keep on posting updates on developments to give you an idea of how BROWSE Video Specs has achieved its target, and how it can work with other groups and organisations.

TO contribute or to find out more, drop us an email karen[at]creative-city.co.uk