A quick site visit yesterday – 19th March – to see the manifestation sample installed in the M1 / M2 Block entrance lobby. This is one of the interpretive artworks on site – part of the public realm and public art enhancements.
This is the interior courtyard space, which we know as The Place – this is a public space for both residents and pedestrians alike. The site will provides a new pedestrian route along a desire line from Chelmsford Station, through to the town centre.
The York Stone steps with inset granite text are manufactured by the Ashfield Group.
Interior of entrance lobby – with sample vinyl manifestation taped to the glazing. The weather was really dull & overcast. The printed white inks don’t jump out very much. If it had been bright and sunny, the design would cast a myriad of shadows onto the frame and floors. Will have to wait & see how that works out !
Thursday 13th November 2014saw the last black basalt slab installed on Blechynden Terrace to complete the ‘Canal Shore’artwork installation.
Left to right – Martin Miller and Jay Geary of Balfour Beatty, who have together installed all the 205 linear metres of the kerb edge artwork – which was manufactured and inlaid with text by Hardscape – along Blechynden Terrace and the forecourt of Central Station.
This almost – but not quite – completes the Phase 1 works for the Southampton Station Quarter North project being delivered by Balfour Beatty Living Places for Southampton City Council. This project is one of seven ‘Very Important Projects’ (VIP’S) & part of its City Centre Master Plan which will see one of Southampton’s most important gateways transformed into ‘an exciting arrival experience fit for a major city.’
Some more images of works in progress:
The site, adjacent to the shoreline of the Test Estuary has always been a point of confluence. The main route West in & out of the city ran along the shoreline and was known as The Strand. At a point marked by Achards Bridge, which replaced an ancient ford across the Rollesbrook Stream which enters the River Test at this point, the city boundary with Millbrook was established.
Today this site is near to the entrance to Southampton Central Station. You may cross the Rollesbrook Stream yourself each time you visit the station. The station is the gateway to the city & a critical hub & interchange.
The individual lines of texts are to be set out adjacent to the carriageway on the south side of Blechynden Terrace at site specific points along the ‘Canal Shore’ feature kerb line, & reveal in their expression something of the history and use of the local area. It is not a linear ‘narrative’ and has no specific start or finish. It will engage with people as and when they encounter the words. Some words and phrases have their origin in fact and are ‘on the record’, whilst some is anecdotal and ‘remembered’.
The text on these slabs is part of the following line – ‘The historic shoreline was here in 1846…the north shore of the River Test Estuary’
The 1846 Large Folio Royal Engineers Map held in the Southampton City Council Archive, is wonderfully accurate & detailed. It shows the planned route out over the mudflats of the unfinished ‘Dorchester Railway’. The shoreline was at this time still north of this point, with the high water mark reaching to what is now, the southern footpath of Blechynden Terrace & Southbrook Road. The historic curve of the Bay here is thought to be a meander of the ancient Solent River system. SCC Libraries & Archive
August Kenzler was lost when the Titanic struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage. He was one of seven crewmen (from more than 720 from Southampton) who lived in the area bounded by our project.
John Henry Stagg – Steward – 1st Class – Lost – 66 Commercial Road
August Kenzler – Storekeeper – Age 43 – Lost – 21 (12) Blechynden Terrace
Michael Stafford – Greaser – Age 37 – No 4 Southbrook Road
Walter Edward Saunders – Trimmer – Age 25 – No1 Suffolk Sq (off Southbrook Road)
Long – Trimmer – Age 28 – No 19 Sidford Street –
William Logan Gwinn – Age 37 – No 4 Commercial Road
Works are well underway by the Ashfield Group to manufacture and supply the artwork step details to the project. The double height steps in York Stone are being inset with a darker granite text detail set into the face of the riser, which is part of the art interpretation on site. These double height steps will also have a slatted timber top, which creates ad hoc seating within the main sequence of steps at the southern end of the site. The timber will also carry cnc routed text.
The timber seating units for The Gate – a set of 6 radius benches with cnc routed text – are currently being installed at the Central Chelmsford site. The benches are being manufactured by City Squared in Leeds & installed by Ground Control. The designs were developed in collaboration with City Squared. The cnc routed text refers to the history, location and memory of the space & is defined by the adjacency of the Anne Knight Building, which has been refurbished & is considered the anchor building of the development site.
507 new homes as well as retail and offices will make up the new development. The project is delivering a blueprint for a new community in Chelmsford.
The site has a number of key buildings once part of Anglia Ruskin University, which are being partly or wholly retained and refurbished. These are the Frederick Chancellor Building of 1905 and the Law Building of 1931.
One of the most historic & resonant as well as the earliest buildings on the site is the Grade II listedAnne Knightbuilding, a former Friends Meeting House from 1824. Named after one of Chelmsford’s most distinguished women, Anne Knight 1786 – 1862.
The view of The Gate with its blue black brick curved elevation. This area is intended as a public open space, extending the forecourt and public realm of Chelmsford Station. The ground floor elevations are glazed and the interiors will be used as retail and food outlets.
Looking South, through the aperture into The Place. The elevation of The Gate is dynamic & brooding. The crisp detailing is pared down. A facade of cantilevered black balconies appear to jut out from deep into the interior of the building from recessed windows.
Looking south towards Central Park through The Place. The main pedestrian route will be on the left of this image, with the remaining site will be landscaped as a formal courtyard garden for residents and visitors alike
The view north, towards the Station from within The Place
These are both samples of text to be used in the interpretive artwork which is embedded throughout the site. The sample on the left is York Stone with inset water jet cut grey granite, by Ashfield Ltd. Inset text such as this is used for step risers at the south of the site. The sandblasted sample on the right is part of a Royal Green granite paving supplied by Hardscape , called The Stream which runs continuously through the site north to south. Both interventions are based on contextual and site specific research I undertook.
Tuesday 16th September 2014Southampton A brief site visit today to review the installation of ‘Canal Shore’, as part of the Phase 1 works on the Station Quarter North Project in Southampton managed by Balfour Beatty Living Places for Southampton City Council. This is one of the more direct outcomes of the interpretive and contextual work that I did which was intended to ‘influence’ the design process throughout the project. The project as a whole however is a collaborative process and I have worked with many others in the realisation of this work.
‘Mr Thankful Joy – Landlord of the Railway Tavern 1884 – 1890. Bombed 22nd June 1940’
Thankful Joy: born 1836 – died 1913, aged 78, Market Gardener of Shirley. Father – Thankful Joy – also a Market Gardener Births & Marriages Records SCC Archives The Railway Tavern aka West Station Tavern, was situated at No 12 Blechynden Terrace. 17 Public Houses have graced the local area over the last 100 years. There were also many beer retailers too. To counter this, a number of Temperance Hotels & Houses were established. ‘Southampton Inns & Taverns’. Tony Gallaher 1988. SCC Archives Ref: C4 / 1861 Census & Kelly’s Directory 1877.
‘In 1847 Lady Charlotte Fitzroy lived at No 1 Blechynden Terrace. Joseph Hill, Surveyor, lived at No. 6’
In 1847 No.1 Blechynden Terrace was a large detached villa to the south of the current carriageway at the bottom of Kingsbridge Lane. Its ornamental gardens ran down to the shoreline of the Test Estuary. These eventually became the goods yard for the railway as the land was reclaimed from the sea.
‘Wyndham Court is a Brutalist building’
Wyndham Court is a block of social housing in Southampton, England. It was designed by Lyons Israel Ellis for Southampton City Council in 1966, and is located near Southampton Central Station and the Mayflower Theatre. Wyndham Court includes 184 flats, three cafes or restaurants and 13 shops, and was completed in 1969. The building replaced the original dense footprint of small streets and courts, which had remained unchanged on this site since pre-1846. The area was badly bombed during Southampton’s blitz & never recovered. Architecturally, it is suggested that the form of Wyndham Court evokes cruise ships, which sailed from the nearby Port of Southampton. English Heritage described its irregular facades as “sculptural and expressive” & the architects’ use of white concrete was intended to be sympathetic to older civic buildings, which dominate the city centre.
‘…the kerb edge marks the route of the Southampton & Salisbury Canal…an ill-fated venture 1795 – 1808’
The carriageway of Blechynden Terrace is generally understood to be the filled in canal basin of the Southampton & Salisbury Canal. The original villas along Blechynden Terrace, destroyed by bombing during WWII, were built in 1830 along the edge of the now filled-in basin. ‘The Bankrupt Canal’. 1795-1808. Yellow Southampton Papers No.5
‘it was so busy at weekends there was no room to sit down at high tide…’
Pre-1847 & the coming of the railway, the area was described as ‘Southampton’s Riviera’. REF.16/7/82 HS.h. History Localities. SCC Libraries & Archives. Local History & Maritime.
Ashfield Ltd released some images of sample details for the York Stone steps with inset granite text. All looking very good & can’t wait to see a finished step. The text is in a mid grey honed granite. When wet this will become darker and much more of a contrast to the York Stone. Hopefully Ashfield will issue more images as the works progress.
A few more images of the installation of the ‘Canal Shore’ artwork and highway works have been issued by Balfour Beatty from the site of the Phase 1 Station Quarter North project in Southampton.
I travelled down to Southampton for a site visit to review the basalt kerbs installed along Blechynden Terrace.
These robust blocks form the kerb edge to the ‘Canal Shore’artwork currently in production by Hardscape up in Halifax. Some corner quadrant features have been installed. This feature runs from outside the Station Forecourt, to the bottom of West Park Rd and Kingsbridge Lane. This text based work – the text is created via water jet cutting and inlaying a contrasting granite into the basalt – is 290 linear metres long x 795mm wide. The text slabs have arrived on site, but awaiting installation in July.