When Wandsworth Heritage Service's Archivist asked if I would answer a few questions about the community garden I'm involved with, as part of a series of 'Archives at home' blog posts, I was happy to oblige. Read on to find out my favourite, and least favourite, gardening tasks... This fortnight would have been the Wandsworth …
Continue reading Archives at home, part 15 — Wandsworth Heritage Service
Recently I've been working on a collaboration, indoors looking out, with the artist Stephen Graham, and I'm delighted that some of our work has been selected for the online exhibition Covent-19 - Voicing Responses Under Lockdown. You'll be able to view the exhibition on Instagram from 8th May to 5th June. The collaboration began on the eve …
I woke up yesterday morning thinking about National Poetry Day, which is next Thursday 3rd October. I'm going to a reading the night before, but had nothing planned for the day itself, and wasn't aware of anything happening locally. And then I thought why don't I do something myself? Something that wouldn't take too much …
A long time ago... briefly... but it's true, ABBA alighted in Battersea in 1976, when they were promoting their album Arrival. Back then, I was a teenager in Melbourne, an ABBA fan, and although London was on my radar, I doubt I'd heard of Battersea. There's a photo of me on Christmas morning, delightedly clutching …
There was a flurry of local events in June highlighting and celebrating the life and work of Charlotte Despard, and her lasting impact on Nine Elms and Battersea. As I've written before, she's up there in my pantheon of great women, for her tireless campaigning, her commitment to social justice, and for her very practical …
Much as I love nature and spending time in parks and gardens, I also find heavy industry and construction work aesthetically interesting. Stimulating, even! So one of the highlights of my week was being invited to a viewing of the Tunnel Boring Machines at the Northern Line Extension's Battersea site, before the TBMs were lowered …
I went to a talk recently, organised by the Battersea Society, about an unlikely pair of spinster sisters, Ida and Louise Cook, who helped at least 29 Jewish people escape Nazi Germany before the outbreak of the Second World War. The invited speaker was Louise Carpenter. She'd researched the sisters for a potential biography but …
I woke before dawn and couldn't get back to sleep. So I got up, made myself a cup of tea and sat on the window ledge in the studio with a blank sheet of paper and my pen. I wrote whatever came into my mind - which was mostly those things which were already in …
not yet Eden is the title of the poem I wrote for Lucy Cash's film A Song for Nine Elms. I explained how I got involved in Lucy's film in my last blog post. Lucy had asked me if I could write something that was, loosely, from the roof garden's point of view. I wanted …
We had a busy Saturday in the Doddington & Rollo Community Roof Garden recently. A shared harvest lunch, followed by an inspiring and practical workshop, Growing Edible Plants in the City, led by Sue Sheehan of Incredible Edible. And then, in the community centre downstairs, the first screening of the film A Song for Nine …
