Slicker City

I always loved this tin church in Clapham, South London. Googling tin churches I found a great selection of pictures of more places like this here. I love corrugated iron as a material and rusted up in the countryside it is perfectly landscaped. I wish I'd photographed this palce before it was repainted too; it used to be more greeny. So many times I've kicked myself for not getting a photo of something that's struck me in London and then it's gone. This city is changing faster than ever.

And sure enough this place is supposed to be replaced at some point according to this article on the Brixton Society site. Of course the owners may be thrilled to get a new place - this looks hard to heat, but I'm a sucker for character and quirks and London is getting them ironed out at a rate of knots - how boring!!!!
I read a very sobering article on the changes in London here; 'London: the city that ate itself'. Very interesting and amongst other examples it tells how my previous studio provider ACAVA will have lost 200 studios to development. Most other providers are having similar losses. Hands up who's not under threat!?!

Included in that article is the sad tale of the A&C Continental Delicatessen on Atlantic Road in Brixton. Save the Arches is a massive campaign.

This is a lovely, much loved shop run by lovely people. They gave me a hug when I was in there one day feeling miserable that I was going to be evicted (them having no idea they were next) and my mum had had a stroke at the same time. It's a proper friendly, community shop that knows all it's customers. Go there now while you can before Pret a Manger crash in at quadruple the rent and where will we get all those lovely Mediterranean herbs and olives etc, and a slice of water melon on a hot day?

My former home in Brixton: I am proud of everything we achieved there as a housing co-operative. In How to be Bohemian (not sure which episode) Will Self mentions how Bohemia becomes commodified and then becomes hipsterdom and loses all edge....exactly what's happened to Brixton. It's significant that my chandeliers were born and nurtured in a self help co-op in an old building with tons of character and the scope to make our flats really our own environments.
Well I guess that the provinces will benefit from all this rapid change, partially squeezed out myself (split between several places now) I find the undeveloped corners of Plymouth - for example - really refreshing to see. Then in years/decades to come  I'm sure parts of London will be an urban wasteland again and we can all go and live in Billionaires Row (rotting mansions) or those luxury flats that are owned as investments and not lived in; in fact maybe ACAVA could run them as artists studios....

Studio Change

Before

After

I left Carlton Mansions after 30 years - all my adult life really - because Lambeth evicted our 35 year old co-op. My work was born and nurtured here and I see how the decaying grandeur of my all time favourite building (and Will Self's!) influenced my work. When I moved in in 1984 Brixton was a very different place; some places were called 'no go areas' and some flats and houses 'hard to let' Imagine that!

Packing was a complete nightmare - there was no motivation as I didn't want to leave. Circumstances meant that I'd be taking half my stuff to Devon to be near my mum in her old age and half my stuff to a London studio which I finally found after months on waiting lists, so every item needed a decision of which of the 2 places to go to and you can imagine how much stuff I have as a salvage artist who hates waste!

So, moving forward I find myself beyond Bow in east London with a whole new area to explore; already got lost cycling but autumn has been so sunny and my favourite season for cycling in London that it's been a pleasure. I love my new studio, am gradually making it mine and have started to meet my customers there. It's probably a good thing to be in a completely new neighbourhood as leaving the glorious Mansions was so painful - I hate to think of it standing there empty without our 16 households keeping it warm and I think of the foxes who would prowl our stairwells at night - I hope they and the squirrels and wrens and tits who all nested there have all taken it over completely.

I love old industrial buildings and it's very hard to find a nice, affordable studio in London these days so all in all I'm very lucky. Most importantly Otis has made the transition well too - I am so proud of him. Here he is resting in the bubble wrap box in between explorations in his new country garden.

Squeezed Out

Well it's been hard to be attentive to posting whilst trying to work and facing eviction soon from my home and work place of 30 years. I will pay homage to an amazing building, home and community here another time especially as I realised how much my work has been influenced by this environment. 

 

I like watching the great tits nesting in our courtyard, I hope they won't be affected by gentrification and get squeezed out like us. But if they do it's probably easier for them to re-home themselves than us. These guys use this urn every spring and you hear the chicks go wild when the parent goes in with food.

                                                                                                          

I adore London, it's home for many decades but I really despair that it will become like Manhattan or Hong Kong: corporate and sterile. Soon there will be no affordable workspace for artists anywhere, no industrial yards, no curious unkempt corners, it will all be capitalised. 

So I enjoy the light filtering through our stairwells and courtyards whilst I can. I will miss it terribly. We did fight very hard to stay and after 3 visits to court and meeting some grown ups I hope never to have to deal with again I hope I never have cause to attend court ever again.

Making chandeliers makes me feel normal, I pick up the pliers join a few things and all feels right with the world or better; I must be lucky to have found something like that. There are so many rewards, like having my work hang over a Ron Arad table, even reflected in it. This article almost slipped by me but a friend saved it. The lovely house that I made this for was featured in the Times recently.