Tag Archives: Art

Blog, Cancer Unit Dorset County Hospital, Healthcare Projects, Public Art

The Robert White Centre

March 13, 2019 Christopher Tipping Leave a comment

I spent Monday & Tuesday of this week in Dorchester at the new £9million Robert White Centre, based at Dorchester County Hospital. This building was part funded via a legacy from Robert White a Poole based businessman, who was treated for cancer at the Dorset Cancer Centre at Poole Hospital. Robert died in 2015.

“Proceeds from the sale of this incredible collection will be used to build new cancer facilities at Poole and Dorset County hospitals, benefiting patients across the whole of the country.”

“Robert White was a great man and an enthusiast of all things mechanical. The sale is a showcase of his life’s passion, with more than 500 lots set to raise more than £2 million for charity,” said Malcolm Barber, Bonhams Co-Chairman. “The collection is the result of a life’s passion for photography – Robert was the founder of one of the UK’s leading photographic retailers – and his adoration for motorcycles. We’re delighted to be able to offer this for sale, and for such a great charitable cause.”

“The money raised from the Robert White Collection will help to fund essential improvements in cancer diagnosis and treatment in Dorset, including:

– New cancer treatment radiotherapy facilities at Dorset County Hospital to benefit patients in the west of the county, meaning shorter travel times
– New computerised tomography (CT) scanner for Poole Hospital, accurately identifying cancer site to enable targeted treatment
– Permanent positron emission tomography (PET) scanner at Poole Hospital – a sophisticated imaging technique widely used for cancer, providing highly detailed imagery showing tumours and its response to treatment.
– Education and training bursaries to enable staff working in cancer care and associated medical and diagnostic specialties to remain at the cutting edge of best practice”.

Bonhams 2016

I was there to begin some engagement with staff and patients in the ground floor Radiotherapy Unit, which is a satellite of the Dorset Cancer Centre at Poole Hospital.

I was very kindly shown around by Amanda Sydenham, Macmillan Prescribing and Review Radiographer/Treatment floor Superintendent, and introduced to other staff members. We were accompanied by Nikki Mitchenere, Deputy General Manager – Oncology Legacy Fund at the Dorset Cancer Centre, who has commissioned me for this work.

I am now starting to work up some draft ideas and proposals. These will be circulated throughout the unit so we can get feedback from everyone. The important thing is that we do this in a collaborative and engaged manner.

Obviously, whilst there I took a quick look upstairs to see how the artwork in Outpatients was being received by everyone. I was re-assured after talking to a couple of staff members there, that this seems to be a great success. The artworks for Radiotherapy, will build upon this established colour base and iconography, adding in some new motifs and objects. It is important that the work on both floors appears to have a relationship, with elements interwoven between both floors.

A slightly blurred and abstract image taken from outside, of the first floor windows reflecting surrounding trees & a street light mixed up with the artwork. The weather was atrocious all day, with rain and high winds – not the best backdrop.

These digitally printed glazing artworks, commissioned by Arts in Hospital for the first floor Haematology Outpatients unit were installed in December 2018, just prior to the official opening of the Robert White Centre.

This unit is managed and operated by Dorset County Hospital.

We had a wonderful endorsement for the art project from Patricia Miller, Chief Executive of DCH.

‘I really love this. It creates such a pleasant therapeutic environment that also links to Dorset’s natural surroundings. Thank you for working so hard to create such a pleasant environment for our patients.’

Blog, Healthcare Projects, Public Art, RUH Hydrotherapy Pool

Team Proto

March 6, 2019 Christopher Tipping Leave a comment

Our work with David & Richard at Proto Studios in Pewsey, Wiltshire has now come to an end.

Sadly, this week saw our final visit to Proto Glass Studios to see the completed glazing sealed units before they leave to be installed in the new RNHRD and Therapies Centre at the Royal United Hospital in Bath. The new unit is being delivered by Kier Group with IBI Group Architects. This artwork production of 46sqm of beautifully decorated and finished, screen-printed, sandblasted & etched artwork manufactured by Proto Studios, which will enhance the architectural curtain wall glass screens for the new Hydrotherapy Pool within the Therapies Unit was commissioned by Art at the Heart. A massive thank you to David & Richard Proto and all the glass technicians at Proto Studios who had a highly skilled hand in delivering this work. It has been a really rewarding collaboration.

The panels are due to be installed in the next few weeks. Fingers crossed for a hassle free installation…watch this space!

Composite mirror image: Final review of all finished & sealed glazed units at Proto Studios. Image: Christopher Tipping

Composite Mirror Image 7: Final review of all finished & sealed glazed units at Proto Studios. Image: Christopher Tipping

Above: Safe in skilled hands…glass technicians carefully present each of the 18 double glazed sealed units for us to see.

Final review of all finished & sealed glazed units at Proto Studios. Image: Christopher Tipping

Composite mirror image 6: Final review of all finished & sealed glazed units at Proto Studios. Image: Christopher Tipping

Blog, Chatham Placemaking Masterplan, Public Art, Public Realm

A beautifully crafted thing…

February 28, 2019 Christopher Tipping Leave a comment

Chatham Placemaking Project – A beautifully crafted thing…

Granite & Laminated Radius Timber Street Seat. New Cut, Chatham. Image: Christopher Tipping

Since starting the Chatham Placemaking Project, I am proud and pleased that much of the work we have done has been wonderfully crafted.

Words can be beautifully crafted to capture the essence of meaning, or a point in time, the spirit of a place. Materials too can be made to speak and assembled with care into something meaningful and poetic.

The writer, filmmaker, designer and poet with whom I have worked and collaborated on the project have all brought experience, originality, humour to the table, but above all they have brought an ability to assemble what they know & what they have created into a beautifully honed and finished thing – a sentence, a film, a poem, a pattern. These people are highly skilled. Andrew Lapthorn, a craftsman and furniture maker working from the Historic Dockyard has produced perhaps one of the most beautiful objects created for the project. His laminated Elm radius curved seat – part of a collaboration with me to create 6 granite and timber street benches – has now been installed at New Cut, Chatham, one of two radius timber seats.

Above: Granite & Timber street bench. Honed monolithic granite with stainless steel armrest by Hardscape.

Public spaces – especially those well trafficked, endure heavy duty wear and tear. These seats have been manufactured from robust and tough materials. This timber element was constructed from 45 layers of laminated mature English Elm, which was generously donated to the project by the Historic Chatham Dockyard from the equally historic Timber Seasoning Sheds. Each layer may have 2 of 3 individually sawn planks. It is a brilliant piece of work and very beautiful. It speaks loudly to me and is exemplary of the experience and love of making, which all the artists and creatives involved in the project have instilled in their work, often quietly and unseen. Andrew Lapthorn’s seat, encapsulates so much that has been done by us all in gathering our base material, spending time with it, mulling it over, discarding what doesn’t work, before finally committing to its final form.

Andrew has documented his work over many months and has given us access to the archive of images. Some of them are astonishing. Again, worth repeating, that his process reflects all of our various processes in various forms, making various outcomes. It is all about craft, mixed with experience, originality and passion. I will be making a longer post about this work.

Blog, Landscape, Public Art, Public Realm, Rochester, Rochester Riverside

Thalia, Belvedere and Telemon

February 28, 2019 Christopher Tipping Leave a comment

Great to seen that our client Countryside & the Hyde Group have adopted several street names for Rochester Riverside from the original contextual research I did to underpin my public art proposals for the scheme, as directed and managed by Public Art Consultants FrancisKnight.

Detail showing a plan of Phases 1 & 2 Rochester Riverside housing development by Countryside Homes with street names. Image: By permission of Countryside Properties

Thalia, Belvedere and Telemon were 3 of 4 locomotives that worked at William Cory & Sons Ltd (Coal Wharf) on Rochester Riverside.

‘Thalia’: Built by Robert Stevenson and Hawthorn Newcastle, (works No 7816, Drewry Car Co works No. 2503 of 1945). The locomotive was supplied new to William Cory & Sons Ltd. where it was named after one of the three Graces in Greek mythology. The locomotive was painted black with Cory’s standard logo on each side & spent all its working life in Cory’s sidings, which were located adjacent to Blue Boar Wharf on the River Medway.

‘Telemon’: Built by the Vulcan Foundry 9 (works No. 295, Drewry Car Co. works No. 2568 of 1955) worked at William Cory’s Coal Wharf, Rochester, 1971

Locomotives ‘Thalia’ and ‘Telemon’ at Cory’s Wharf, Rochester, January 1971. Image: Copyright Gordon Edgar

Gordon Edgar on Flickr

‘Belvedere’: Had a streamlined casing and was built by Sentinel (Shrewsbury) in 1945 and worked at Rochester Cory’s Wharf from 1950 to 1957 & now at the Northampton Ironstone Museum.

KENT HISTORY FORUM

BELVEDERE. A proposal for a Cast Iron unit 960mm x 400mm x 75mm manufactured by Hargreaves. One of 24 Public Art elements to be embedded into the streetscape of Rochester Riverside. Image: Christopher Tipping

Proposals for a variety of Cast Iron units – shown full scale – to be manufactured by Hargreaves Foundry in Halifax. One of 24 Public Art elements to be embedded into the streetscape of Rochester Riverside, which recall the history of the site. Image: Christopher Tipping

Animal Thanet, Blog, Education, Natural World, Public Art

Stumped: Elephants on Dumpton Park Drive – Animal Thanet 2019

February 20, 2019 Christopher Tipping Leave a comment

Stumped: Elephant herd marooned on Dumpton Park Drive

These images are part of the ongoing Animal Thanet project and installation / performance, which considers & reflects wider concerns I have for the natural world, particularly focussed on the lives of its wild animals, conservation, loss of habitat, diminishing numbers, poaching, trophy hunting, extinction and callous exploitation, which holds a mirror to our humanity. We may soon only have plastic versions of our wild neighbours to play with. The last decade has witnessed the slow & horrible realisation that our negative impact on the planet and particularly our plastic pollution of almost every environment, is a real-time catastrophe for the world around us.

A recently removed tree provides a stump as a refuge and island platform for these Elephants marooned above the pavement on Dumpton Park Drive. Habitat loss is a major issue in Elephant conservation. Human population growth means encroachment on wildlife. Loss of trees and forests leaves space for wildlife diminished and in smaller and smaller pockets or ‘island’ reserves. EleAid

Elephant herd marooned on a tree stump. Dumpton Park Drive, Ramsgate. Animal Thanet 2019. Image: Christopher Tipping

Animal Thanet, Blog, Education, Natural World, Public Realm

Crocodiles on Elms Avenue – Animal Thanet 2019

February 20, 2019 Christopher Tipping Leave a comment

A haul-out of Nile Crocodiles – Crocodylus niloticus on Elms Avenue, Ramsgate.

Crocodiles haul out on Elms Avenue trailer. Animal Thanet 2019. Image: Christopher Tipping

Above: Crocodiles haul out by a rainwater pool caught in the tarpaulin of a trailer parked on Elms Avenue.

Animal Thanet, Blog, Education, Natural World

Herne Bay to Birchington – Animal Thanet 2019

February 20, 2019 Christopher Tipping Leave a comment

A walk from Herne Bay to Birchington at Low Tide with two Arabian Oryx and an African Elephant – February 2019

Herne Bay to Birchington – A walk with two Oryx and an Elephant at low tide. Animal Thanet 2019. Image: Christopher Tipping

Above: Arabian Oryx – Oryx leucoryx at Herne Bay

Herne Bay to Birchington – A walk with two Arabian Oryx and an African Elephant at low tide. Animal Thanet 2019. Image: Christopher Tipping

Above: African Elephant – L. africana at Herne Bay

Herne Bay to Birchington – A walk with two Oryx and an Elephant. Animal Thanet 2019. Image: Christopher Tipping

Above: Views towards Reculver.

Above & Below: Oryx at Minnis Bay

Above & Below: Small tidal sea bathing pool at Minnis Bay

Animal Thanet, Blog, Education, Natural World

Herded – Animal Thanet 2018

February 19, 2019 Christopher Tipping Leave a comment

My Garden … May 2018

These images consider & reflect wider concerns for the natural world, particularly focussed on the lives of its wild animals, conservation, loss of habitat, diminishing numbers, poaching, extinction and callous exploitation, which holds a mirror to our humanity. We may soon only have plastic versions of our wild neighbours to play with. The last decade has witnessed the slow & horrible realisation that our negative impact on the planet and particularly our plastic pollution of almost every environment, is a catastrophe for the world around us.

Herded – Animal Thanet 2018. Image: Christopher Tipping

Blog, Public Art, Public Realm, Rochester, Rochester Riverside

Spritsail Barges of the Medway…and other Rochester Riverside Stories (2 of 3)

January 26, 2019 Christopher Tipping Leave a comment

‘Mr Gill showed me a very fine model of their barge Centaur, a 50-tonner built by Messrs. Gill & Son, specially for the 1899 Medway barge Race, in the astonishing time of 6 weeks.”

Draft designs for granite or cast iron paving slabs. Rochester Riverside. Image: Christopher Tipping

In his wonderfully evocative book ‘Spritsail Barges of Thames and Medway’, published in 1948, Edgar J March paints a highly detailed picture of Barge activity and life on the Medway. Many of these Barges started life in the boatyards of Rochester.

“Staunch and well built though a barge may be, each year sees a toll taken. Some yield at last to the cold embrace of the sea, whose caresses they have so long resisted, others steal quietly up some lonely creek to nose gently into the malodorous mud and settle down into their last berth, gradually to moulder away, forgotten by all save their one time masters, and perhaps, some sentimental fool like myself, who will gaze down on their rotting timbers and imagination see spars clothed with red-brown sails and hulls vibrant with life as they thrash there way round the Foreland.”

Describing the excitement and thrill of the Medway Barge Races – “The course was from Hoo Marshes to the West Oaze Buoy and back to the Sun Pier at Chatham, a distance of about thirty five miles…A strong easterly wind was blowing, and in Long Reach Verona’s bowsprit snapped off short, but the crew cleared away the wreckage and setting a jib topsail as a staysail, carried on to come sixth in their class.” Edgar J March.

Referencing a painting by T.B. Hardy, 1874, Edgar March goes on to describe the Medway as, “When this picture was painted, marine artists had little need to look for subjects. The Medway was alive with sailing craft : dainty little topsail schooners, picturesque collier brigs with apple bows and dingy canvas, barques from Scandinavia, bringing pine-scented timber from the Baltic to Rochester, and above all, barges innumerable, threading their way through the maze of traffic. One hundred a tide was no uncommon sight, and what a joy to a sail-lover that galaxy of russet, brown and ochre canvas must have been, many with various devices emblazoned on their mainsails – Lees’ stumpies had the white horse of Kent rampant on ebony coloured sails – all either hurrying down on the ebb or beating up against wind and tide. Now gone forever.”

…and “In those far-off days, watermen, or “goozers”, to use their riverside nick-name, plied their trade in skiffs”. Edgar J March

William Higham was born in 1838 in Lewes Sussex. On 27/10/1864 he married Fanny Elizabeth Blake in Strood, nr, Rochester. By 1881 they had 9 children.

William was a Barge Builder and they lived in a private house on Victoria Street, Rochester. The location of his Yard is show on the OS map of 1898 on Blue Boar Hard, just above the Pier. ADA & EDITH is just one of many barges built here between 1876 and 1901.

PROVIDENCE

FOX HOUND

MAID OF KENT

ANNIE & ALICE

CHARLEY BAKER

HERBERT & HAROLD

ADA & EDITH

ANSWERS

SILVER WEDDING

MABEL MAUD

VENTURA

FIVE BROTHERS

DOROTHY

‘WALRUS’ & ‘NELLIE’ were two portable conveyors owned by William Cory & Son, Coal Factors, at Cory’s Wharf, used for transporting stone aggregates from Barge to Train. These aggregates were known as Fines, Nuts & Cobbles.

“It has been my privilege to go over and see the marvellous machinery for loading and unloading coal. The five large cranes, when seen at work bowing their stately heads, look like dancers executing a minuet; …when in repose, standing like so many soldiers on sentry duty, with fixed bayonets. What a contrast to see the way a collier is unloaded by these cranes, as compared with the old coal whippers’ days! A coal boat seems scarcely to draw alongside the wharf before it is steaming away again”. Edwin Harris Guides to Old Rochester, Pub. 1930 No. 27 Part 1. (Ref: ROC. 942.23 HAR The Riverside. Harris/Edwin. MALSC).

Cory’s Coal Depot with 2 abandoned cranes from the original 5. November 1969. Black & White Photograph. Rochester Riverside Industry. Reproduced by Kind Permission of MALSC.

Detail of OS Map 1932 showing Cory’s Coal & Rail Depot & Wharf. Rochester Riverside Industry. Reproduced by Kind Permission of MALSC.

The five cranes were originally positioned along Cory’s Wharf on the far right hand side of the above OS Map of 1932

The earlier OS Map of 1898 records the same site some 30 years previously as Chatham Goods Yard. The site occupied by Cory’s Wharf is immediately below Blue Boar Pier along the HWMOT line.

Dunlin…A Salt Marsh Bird

‘The Medway Estuary is believed to be the most important area in North Kent for wintering wildfowl in numbers of international significance. The Saltmarsh serves as a roosting area for waders at high tide. Several scarce plant species include: golden samphire, perennial glasswort and one-flowered glasswort. The estuary is one of the best places in Britain for the study of glassworts. The grazing marsh has breeding and wintering birds of interest; the former include lapwing, redshank, pochard, mallard and gadwall, while in winter large flocks of may wildfowl and wader species are present.‘

Ref: Environmental Stresses and Resource Use in Coastal Urban and Peri Urban Regions. DPSIR Approach to SECOA’s 17 Case Studies.

Dunlin Calidris alpina alpina, 25,936 individuals representing at least 1.9% of the wintering Northern Siberia/Europe/Western Africa population (5 year peak mean 1991/2 – 1995/6)

These overwintering birds, along with thousands of others migrating or breeding species have been present on our site, however the numbers of Dunlin and other birds have undergone a decline, ostensibly to do with habitat loss and disturbance, which is of course of great concern.

Blog, Cancer Unit Dorset County Hospital, Healthcare Projects, Public Art, Public Realm

The Robert White Centre, Dorset Cancer Centre

January 25, 2019 Christopher Tipping Leave a comment

My digitally printed artworks for the new Robert White Centre were partially installed in December 2018, just prior to the official opening of the building on December 12th. The first floor glazing has now been completed in the Cancer & Haematology Outpatients Department on the first floor. This is the Haematology Outpatients department and the services are delivered by Dorset County Hospital. The artwork for the ground floor Radiotherapy Cancer Unit is now in progress. Services here are being delivered by Poole Hospital. The new Cancer Centre is an extension of the Poole Hospital-based Dorset Cancer Centre.

The Robert White Centre, Dorset County Hospital. Artwork Image: Christopher Tipping. Photographer: Adrian Holbrook

The Robert White Centre, Dorset County Hospital. Artwork Image: Christopher Tipping. Photographer: Alex Murdin

“The £9 million centre is an extension of the Poole Hospital-based Dorset Cancer Centre. The Dorchester unit is equipped with the latest linear accelerator (LINAC) which enables patients to receive the best-possible radiotherapy treatment. This means that cancer patients in the north, south and west of the county can receive this care in their local hospital, instead of having to travel to Poole for treatment.

The facility also includes a £1.75 million Cancer and Haematology Outpatients Department funded by the Cancer Appeal run by Dorset County Hospital Charity. This was supported by hundreds of donations from individuals, community groups as well as Trusts and Foundations.

This building has been funded in part by an extraordinarily generous legacy from Poole businessman Robert White. Robert White was treated for cancer at the Dorset Cancer Centre, part of Poole Hospital, and sadly lost his battle in November 2015. Before his death, he had resolved to support the hospital and its county-wide cancer services to benefit others and decided that he would fund a new cancer unit, now named The Robert White Centre.

Martin Clunes said: “It was my privilege to be able to officially open the new Robert White Centre.

“The incredibly generous support from the community for the DCH Cancer Appeal, as well as Robert’s generosity, leaves a remarkable legacy for patients with cancer in Dorset.” Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 2018