On Friday 25^th February this is the view from Fintan and Negar’s workplace in the P1 studios in Taylor Place. They once had a clear view of the courtyard and sky, but to avoid the gaze and distraction of passersby, and ensure more privacy, they applied paper to the window panes. This paper screen rose incrementally. They mean to hang some curtains soon. Since the skyline outside has changed with the new residential development to the western edge of the courtyard, the quality of light in the studio has diminished.

The neighbourhood reminds Fintan of Chelsea, New York, where he lived and worked over 10 years ago. The mix of old, industrial scale buildings inhabited by illegal parties, artists and makers, the construction sites and new housing maps the course of regeneration. 

Fintan is a photographer and would like to make a study of the launderette on Bow Road.

He gets his hair cut at Noor’s Barber regularly, although the staff are sullen, they are highly skilled. He and Negar often buy coffee from the café tucked away up an alley way by a carpark whose walls bare the traces of a bygone rave scene. As a graphic designer Negar has a particular interest in visual communication. She noticed the sign at the local 24 hr MacDonalds Drive Thru that bids goodbye, for the first time today. 

If you live or work in Taylor Place or its surroundings and would like to take part in the project please email p1communityarts@gmail.com

       

On Monday 21st February work began with children (aged 2 and 3 years) and staff at the Bow Childcare Centre. They can’t leave the Centre to visit the surroundings, so they looked at some photos of Taylor Place and Bow Road that Ashley had taken on a sunny day earlier this year.

The children pieced together cut up photos of particular buildings and tried to guess what might happen inside. This proved to be quite difficult! One boy pointed to St. Catherine’s Church as his own house! Move over God?! That was one concept too great to attempt to explain! Someone recognised Nisa was a shop and others made suggestions about what people could buy there. Their shopping list included - chewing gum, croissants, cocoa pops and sweeties. The idea of NatWest bank was a bit confusing for everyone, until one girl announced she has a piggy bank and everyone knew how that functioned. So NatWest bank can be understood as a very big piggy bank!

To help focus on looking at the neighbourhood more closely, the children then made special ‘cameras’, by careful cutting and sticking. These ‘cameras’ can be used by visitors to the event at the Nunnery Gallery, Bow Road on 31^st March 3 - 8pm.

The view from the seventh floor, Fondant Court, Taylor Place

On a very dull day, Sunday 20th February, this is the view from the seventh floor of Fondant Court, Taylor Place. Patrick, who grew up in nearby Stratford, remembered playing in derelict factories in this neighbourhood and racing along Bow Road as a child. After years of living in North London he has returned, and with Sylvie, is making a family home here. They know one neighbour, but he's out a lot. Their view of the Bow Church clock tower and the west is slowly being eroded by a new residential development. They are frustrated by the fact the clock hands stalled at 5.20, more than 18 months ago. They love the light let in by this window, and all the different urban scenarios it frames. The 24 hr MacDonalds Drive Thru hosts 'a whole lot of drama'. Last Christmas police helicopter search lights sought a body in the frozen canal. One clear days, the canal sparkles and they can see the Tate and Lyle factory at the Thame's edge and beyond to Blackheath.

The beginning

In the first phase of Mapping Spaces, artist Ashley McCormick will collaborate with the local community to research and map Taylor Place and its surroundings. 

Taylor Place is a residential development situated in Bow, E3, on the fringe of and overlooking the Olympic Park. The development, built on the site of a former chocolate factory, hosts 11 artists' work studios and 180 one and two bed apartments.

Ashley, who has a special interest in architecture, urban design and placemaking, will connect local school pupils, pre-school children and residents in conversations and collaborative creative processes. A series of walking and making sessions will explore ideas about urban design, art and place, to reveal a new representation of how those who live, work and learn locally may see, experience and navigate the area. As such, the mapping will plot and fuse a variety of observations and responses: revealing special qualities of the neighbourhood and encouraging others to look more closely and find an alternative ways of occupying this place.

The findings will be shared at a public event in the Nunnery Gallery, 183 Bow Road, E3 on Thursday 31st March 3 - 8 pm.