…making Chatham patterns?
Category Archives: Transport
…more Chatham patterns & places
Every visit to Chatham throws up more detail and insight to add to the Chatham Placemaking Project –
The open yard seen through the bridge / viaduct is the former Scott’s timber yard site.
There is some real potential for change of pace here if the arches could be opened up to new local businesses – coffee / food / cyclists –
Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre
Friday 12th February 2016
The archivists and librarians at Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre in Strood have been brilliantly helpful during this project !
Norma Crowe, Cindy Ohalloran and Irina Fridman have been invaluable in helping me search for images and text references. We have now obtained several wonderful archive images taken along our route from Chatham Station to the Riverside, along Railway Street and Military Road, which MALSC have given us permission to use.
This site has remarkably changed very little in over 100 years – only the ironwork railing and lighting columns have gone.
The Dutch Gable ended building on the right is still here. The New Road Viaduct built in 1794 was demolished in 1900 to make way for a new bridge viaduct under which Trams could pass safely. Note the double kerb on the left of the image – this is no longer there, but similar kerbs still exist outside the Railway Station.
What we have all found impressive in this image, is the clarity within the public realm. Clear pavements with contrasting and well defined kerbs. Obviously not as much traffic ! The street frontage to St John’s Church and the clear flow of movement toward the Town Centre is great to see, in light of the current experience for both drivers and pedestrians.
It is clear to see how, in the image below taken in 2015, how the landscape and clarity of wayfinding has been considerably interrupted, physically and legibly. Navigating to the town centre and riverside for pedestrians is now a very conflicting and varied experience.
This wonderful image shows the Royal Marines on Military Road with Coopers & Bernards Store on the left and The Paddock on the right. All the shops on the left hand side were demolished to make way for Mountbatten House and the Pentagon Shopping Centre. The idea and concept behind ‘Chatham Patterns’, comes partly from the memory of these military parades and formations, which for a century at least have been woven and imprinted into the very fabric of the town. The presence of many Military Outfitters along our route is also a great influence in terms of the images they conjure up about ‘fabric’ and ‘pattern’ and the people who wore them.
I was put onto this thread via an online forum group called Kent History Forum, where a fair amount of detail and social history about Chatham is recalled.
The walk to Strood from Chatham Station gives a wonderful insight into the architecture and industry which developed along the banks of the Medway. Lots of detail and interest to record !
Creative Consultation
On Friday 6th February 2016 we ran a creative consultation drop-in event in Chatham. These were held at Sun Pier House from 10am – 1pm and then at Nucleus Arts from 2pm to 5pm. We presented the same information as the public consultation events – and the creative consultation events were also open to anyone to attend.
Chatham and Medway has a lively and very creative and well established arts scene. It is important that we make the project as open and available to all to engage with. The afternoon session at Nucleus Arts turned into an impromptu talk and discussion about the wider regeneration project and the creative contextual research with which we hope to influence and inform the design process. This was really well attended, with some artists and practitioners asking about the temporary programme of commissions which will run prior to the permanent works beginning on site. Engagement in this way is the real catalyst for change, creativity and promoting a common sense of ownership.
A big thanks to Claire Poynter, Natasha Steer and Genevieve Tullberg of Nucleus Arts for making this event a success and providing the space.
Public Consultation Events
The Public Consultation events in regard to the Chatham Placemaking Project were held in Chatham from 15th January to the 5th February 2016.
If you click on this link – Chatham Placemaking Project – you can see the information boards which were presented for comment. Additionally, there was a form to complete, which asked some pertinent questions about the project. An online option provided opportunity to complete the survey at home in your own time. All the information collected is now subject to review by the Council’s Regeneration Team.
At these events the general public were invited to comment on the plans developed by the wider project team, including LDA Design, Medway Council, Arts Consultants Francis Knight and me ! I attended one of these days at the Pentagon Shopping Centre. What was so interesting about this process, was that people would stop and look at the information boards. Some would comment favourably, others would raise questions about wider issues in the town. Once engaged however, many people – particularly elderly residents – would tell stories.
‘Canal Shore’ is almost complete…
Monday 28th September 2015 – Station Quarter Visit –
The kerbside artwork ‘Canal Shore‘, which is a vital part of the Station Quarter programme, is very nearly completed. Only a short section remains to be finished, once the Station Forecourt area is completed. ‘Canal Shore’ is a 205m long black basalt kerb with inset granite text, which traces the route of the former Southampton to Salisbury Canal and also happens to be the line of the historic shoreline of the River Test Estuary.
The narrative refers to places, people and events which have marked the development of this landscape. Importantly, the work is also a strategic part of the wayfinding and placemaking ambitions for the Station Quarter project, as it makes an emphatic statement along the main east to west pedestrian route to the Station from the Above Bar area of the city and the Cultural Quarter.
Station Quarter North check-up visit –
Monday 28th September 2015, Station Quarter North, Southampton –
It’s been a while since I posted an update on the Station Quarter Project –
I met up on site with Simon Taylor – Urban Design Manager, Balfour Beatty Living Places and Pete Boustred – Transport Policy & Sustainable Travel Team Leader at Southampton City Council. I was first commissioned to work on the interpretive and site responsive elements of the project by Simon at BBLP in 2012. We have worked together several times previously in the City. BBLP are delivering the project for Southampton City Council.
Massive changes since my last visit if you look at earlier posts, but brilliant to see the project coming together so well. The amphitheatre steps, part of the Phase 2 works on Wyndham Place have arrived and have been lifted into place. There are a number of other structures still with the manufacturer and these are expected to arrive over the coming weeks. The installation of the large-scale bespoke cast concrete benches, amphitheatre steps and retaining structures manufactured by CCP will continue over the coming weeks. Hopefully I will get down to Southampton again soon to record more progress.
Bespoke cast concrete works being installed on the Station Forecourt as part pf the new public realm and transport hub. Image:Christopher Tipping
What was a real pain was that although it was a brilliant blue day – this part of the site was in deep shadow, so the images are a bit too dark to do the work justice !
Other cast concrete works are also on site –
These benches are on the Station Forecourt, immediately as you enter or exit the Station building. This is one section of a large curving two tier bench and way-finding feature within the scheme.
Awaiting some permissions…!
Thursday 24th September –
During recent research visits to the Medway Archives & Local Studies Centre and the Royal Dockyard Library, Chatham, I had gained permission to take digital images of archive photographs, drawings and OS Maps from the collections.
I am waiting for approval to use some of the images in my documentation here, as both collections have some brilliant photographs, maps and diagrams, with which to ‘animate’ research for the project.
Finally, a blue sky day…
Thursday 10th September 2015 – A meeting at the Royal Dockyard Library, Chatham
This is my 5th visit to Chatham – and the first blue sky day ! – so I had to put this image in…
At the Dockyards I was drawn to the activity at Turks Shipyard, which is a fully working yard. The light coming through the roof and riverside doors was beautiful.
UCA, Fort Pitt to Fort Amherst and the Great Lines
Tuesday 8th September 2015 – University of the Creative Arts, Fort Pitt – the bigger picture
My wife Shelly Goldsmith is also my partner in tippinggoldsmith and a Lecturer in the School of Fashion – Textiles:Print at UCA Rochester. The University’s building sit on the site of Fort Pitt, which overlooks Chatham, Rochester and the Medway from a strategically high vantage point above the town.
I walked up to the site from Chatham Station, which is only 5mins walk away, passing by Dickens’ House on Ordnance Terrace on the way. I was allowed up onto the upper floors and the terrace, which offers spectacular views across Chatham and Rochester, the Medway and The Historic Dockyards beyond. This vantage point makes clear why Chatham developed as it did as a strategically important defensive site on the River.
Chatham Lines – comprising a number of impressive defensive structures, earthworks and Forts, developed since Napoleonic times to protect the Docks from a landward attack, are clearly visible in the landscape and although now long past any active role in the defence of the country, have served to shape the town and its inhabitants in both its topography, physical landscape and social history.
The copper green copula of the Brook Theatre, Chatham can be seen in the above image at the top right section of the image to the left of the red brick office clock Mountbatten House, the dominant landmark in the Town.
Sun Pier and Sun Pier House, Chatham.
The Waterfront Pumping Station and Brook Theatre as seen from Sun Pier, Chatham. If ever something cried out for some form of intervention – then the Pumping Station takes poll position on the list. An eyesore on the waterfront, it could become an icon and focal point.
Although historically, the waterfront and area around Sun Pier would have been dominated by warehouses and river bases businesses. The industrial shed which houses Staples, does the site and its potential no favours here. Some softening landscape works and green screening may help.
Walking back from Sun Pier to the Waterfront and Bus Station, these historic granite kerbs and cobbles jump out for their simplicity, texture and purpose.
I wanted to see the town from the opposite vantage point of Fort Amherst adjacent to Great Lines Park , formerly known as the Field of Fire , so walked across to the Brook Theatre and beyond to the Town Hall Gardens, the former Town Burial Ground. Prior to 1828, the site was a former Rope Works.
Just a short walk further up the hill is the path and steps leading up to the Great Lines Park and Fort Amherst.
UCA at Fort Pitt is at top centre of this image. The copper green copula of the Brook Theatre is at the centre bottom.
in the afternoon I also paid a visit to Chatham Library, which is housed in the Chatham Community Hub, at Gun Wharf – near The Waterfront.
They have a brilliant book on Chatham and it’s history – “The Story of a Dockyard Town” by James Presnail, published by the Corporation of Chatham in 1952 MCMLII. Ref:942.23 CHA. I was much taken by it’s last paragraph on social responsibility.