Wonderland When our homes became the playground for our imagination
Wonderland The National Archives is the official archive of the UK Government, holding a vast collection of over 11 million public records. Our role is to collect and secure the government record, but also to enable accessibility so that these records are used, explored and enjoyed by everyone. In the Education Department at The National Archives, our team helps school students, families, and young people, to engage with these original historical records in innovative and exciting ways. These records can be truly inspiring! We believe that by inviting young people to respond creatively to our collection, through mediums such as film, art, writing and drama, we can help everyone to share knowledge and to better interpret the past. We were pleased to partner with Bounce Theatre, Meet and Make
Spaces Tooting, and the children and young people of SW London because we wanted to support a method of easing isolation and connecting people during the challenging months of lockdown. We were keen to see how the young people would engage with a selection of documents from our collection and the connections they would make with their own unique experience of 2020. We were also interested in how they would steer the direction of the project and its creative outputs. It has been an absolute pleasure to see the group’s creative responses, ranging from artwork and recipes, to poetry and podcasts! This book shows how archives can inspire, not just creativity, but the young people’s sense of their own agency. Rachel Hillman, Education Manager, The National Archives
“During lockdown I liked to sit in an imaginary outdoor space and read books in a galaxy place. I have learnt that I do not like home-schooling. I have learnt to look after my brother, to understand hard times and to spend time by myself. I have learnt I like going for walks, playing with my brother, dancing and doing crafts.” Isabel
“It has been so inspiring and lovely.” Wonderland is a celebration of children and young people’s creativity. Originally, it was intended as a project leading to an exhibition with young people in Tooting, London. When the country went into lockdown, we chose to use virtual platforms to stay connected. We were joined by children and young people from across South West London. Using our homes as playgrounds for our imaginations we made stories, wrote poetry,
invented recipes and produced art. Each session was inspired by a collection of documents from The National Archives depicting the natural world. New friendships were formed and spirits were lifted at a time when people felt lonely. The book is made as a small record of their creativity, courage and resilience. Louise Pendry, Bounce Theatre
Documents from The National Archives COPY1-111 (i) (97) Butterfly 1894. NSC 62/8, Wherever you go The Post Office, Patterdale, Cumbria by James Porteous Wood 1954. COPY 1/114/60, JG Clarke spring bulb poster, 1894. COPY 1/448/243, Gym class North Park College Croydon, 1900. COPY 1/221/287, ‘The Picnic’, Louis Wain, 1904. MAF 102/15, War Cookery Calendar, AugustSeptember 1947. INF 13/288/7, Waste Paper Is Still Vital, 19421947. INF 13/144/22, Make Do And Mend, 19391945. COPY 1/470/40, Boys wading in the pond on Tooting Common, 1904
1. Green Spaces
2020 – Who Knows When? Life was so easy, Simple and breezy! But then Covid 19, And wiped fun clean, Of the face of the earth And now there is a dearth, Of all holidays and summers And now there are just bummers! The horrors go on and on, Parties and presents are all gone. But oh, on the distant horizon A beautiful end tie in! A happy free Christmas A tiny little isthmus. Connecting the bad And the soon to be sad. But LO! All the dreams of making gooey cake dough! Are all gone and only for show! Christmas has been and gone. The curtains of unsurety close around us Happy days are gone PLUS! Birthdays are gone and years have flown by. Never to change - Never to come back… But look to the future and to June To the distant moon of hope and freedom. Maia Wootton
Celebrating Nature
Creative writing inspired by National Archives documents “Lockdown was absolutely terrible. Terrible. Yet, it has taught me to be grateful, be nice and be truthful. I’m grateful for what we have – like being about to take the dog walking to a park behind my house.” Maia The rain isn’t very nice for going for walks. It was nice to look at it from inside. It decorated the world like glitter. Hazel I look like a field of flowers I smell like a soft and squidgy bed I feel like a tickly feather under the feet I taste of oranges and blueberries I sound like bird call Faye and Otis I stand still as the soft breeze dances among the bluebells. I hear the sound of children’s excited voices mingled with the chirps of new-born chicks. I look around and realise that not long ago there was a blanket of snow, now the bees buzz among the daffodils. I look up and see the clouds and the sun, chasing each other across the sky. I smell the fresh, sweet scent of roses swaying in the breeze. In the blossom trees, birds chatter as the trees whispers and the leaves flutter in swirls. The sun beams at me and sends the message that summer is on its way. Bethany
Tell a 10 word story about a National Archives document. Group games on Zoom - Picturesque stood a little village with a deep dark secret. - Small purple flower, colourful butterfly lands on it, it is as exquisite as a bright sunflower. - Papery leaves in the warm sun. Fluttering leaves in red, orange and yellow. Colourful talent show of leaves. -These girls are fighters, these girls are warriors, so don’t mess with them. Ever. Faye’s Oatcakes: Tastes like chocolate Smells like sugary peanuts Feels like popcorn Sounds like crunch crunch crunch Looks like a zebra. My family, dog (Storm) and I took the car to Whitstable. It was long but we played card tricks on the journey. When we got there, we napped but Storm wanted to go on a walk, so my dad took her. After we napped, we had tasty burgers for lunch. Then we went off to the beach, I could smell the salt from the sea and wet dog, there were lots of people sunbathing and I could hear birds chirping and people chatting. We then sat down on spiky seashells to have our oatcakes. Otis’s Banana: Feels mushy Looks like a wrinkly moon Tastes Salty like the ocean Sounds squishy and wet Smells sweet. I was at Butlin’s and I went down a huuuuuuugggeee helter skelter, when I got to the bottom, I did a big jump, back flip and landed on my feet. Someone gave me a banana as a prize!
2. Food
LOCKDOWN SNACKS
Inspired by the Ministry of Food “Lockdown made me think about food differently. It was a bit of an awakening. We could take more time to work on recipes instead of getting junk food. I couldn’t live without pizza and pasta! ” Ibrahim Inspired by the Ministry of Food documents, young people came together on Zoom to make food with what they could find in their cupboards. We thought about how we present food, language, using the things near to us and how to create a sense of solidarity to get people through tough times. Guess the ingredient Group games on Zoom Keep your ingredient off screen and describe it to us. Can you guess what this is? Sort of round A little bit hairy. Tiny circles, like little bubbles Red Can turn it into jam. A: Raspberry
The Cupboard Concoction
*WARNING* When you try this sandwich, you’re either going to love it or hate it. You have to be in a brave mood to try this sandwich.
By Poppy
Joy in such a little snack But please don’t eat it.
Ingredients Marshmallow Fluff Bread Marmite Chocolate Spread Ketchup Coco Pops
Instructions Open up the Marshmallow Fluff. It will be used as an alternative to butter on bread. Get a little bit of Marmite, and it really is a small amount as you don’t want the flavour to overtake. Now, put small spots of the Marmite onto different sections of the bread, it needs to look like spots on a giraffe or a chocolate chip cookie. Keep the spots separated so that every single bite you get a different flavour.
Make sure you’re cleaning your knife in between so you’re not contaminating the other things. Now, get a bit of chocolate spread and lightly lay it over the marmite and Marshmallow Fluff. It has to be thin because you will be putting other things in the sandwich and don’t want it to end up being too tall. The penultimate ingredient is ketchup, we’re putting it in a zig zag
pattern on one slice of the bread. Pour some coco pops out and spread them over the other side of the bread, so they are all contained within the bread. Put the slice with ketchup on top of the slice with Coco Pops. If you want it like a taco you can then fold it in half. Cupboard Concoctions can be made for all events. See my Party Cupboard Concoction here.
Hannah’s Oreos You will never know anything like it This snack is heaven on Earth, If you resist the temptation You will never know its worth. Oreo is the name Chocolate and fluffy cream, Deliciousness floods your senses As though you have entered a dream
The One Slice Sandwich By Alex
This is a sandwich for when you want to be a Frankenstein sandwich artist.
Ingredients: Bread Gingerbread syrup Ketchup Butter Peanut butter Coco pops This is a sandwich for when you want to be a Frankenstein sandwich artist. • Butter one slice of bread. • Take the crust off so it’s kind of randomised, one with, one without. • On the other slice of bread, get some gingerbread syrup from
Christmas and just drizzle it on. • Drizzle tomato ketchup on the side with butter. • On the one without the butter sprinkle some Coco Pops make sure none escape onto the other slice. You don’t want to waste any Coco Pops. • Take some peanut butter and put it on the one without the Coco Pops. You use your finger to scrape it off the knife into the middle of the bread and then try and spread it. You can then lick your finger - unless you’re allergic to peanuts. • Take one slice of bread and plop it on the other and squish it firmly.
Maryam’s Jammy Jam
Create your own Jammy Jam
Smells like child’s pure heaven Tastes like the memories of being a kid Sounds like a tennis ball bouncing from rackets Looks like going to Mexico with family Feels like tired happiness
Ingredients Jam Bread Find the bread packet from whether it is located it could be the cupboard or the fridge Where do you store your bread? Get one slice of bread and place it on a plate. The plate must be clean! No germs here! Squeeze the bread with a different plate - squash it with something Next you must get a teaspoon out of the drawer. Get your jam and put it on the squashed bread. As much as you want. Don’t put bread on top. Fold it to make a taco.
Maia’s Hopes of Happiness Looks like pure golden light Smells like days of happiness long gone Tastes like liquid joy Feels like a warm hug Sounds like birds singing in faraway lands where unhappiness doesn’t exist. Make your hope Step 1: Take a piece of bread Step 2: Get butter. Smooth a medium amount of butter onto the slice of bread Step 3: Get honey. Put on table. Stick a knife into the honey. This is your pure happiness Step 4: Layer it onto the bread - as much as you like – it is your bread, your hope. Step 5: Slap the bread together Now you have a hope of happiness
SIAN’S ICED DELIGHTS Look like a round velvet cushion Smell like summer days on the beach Taste like velvety white chocolate Feel like a soft cloud and an adventure Sound like the music of ballet lessons gone by How to make your own Iced Delights Ingredients Biscuits Marshmallows (if available) Ice-cream Sweets e.g., chocolate chips or sprinkles Get two or four biscuits, dependent on how hungry you are. If you have marshmallows, put them on something like spaghetti. Toast the marshmallows for 2-3 minutes (to preference of marshmallowness) Take them off your fire sources (turn this off now!!) Spread your ice cream onto a biscuit. Add marshmallows. Squish them together. Optional Add in things - chocolate chips. No one’s judging, however you want to do it!
Haaris’s Heaven Sandwich A sandwich of joy
“A sandwich like this, you don’t want all the flavours to override each other, so you want a bit of an equal quantity, so they blend together.” Ingredients Two slices of 50/50 medium whole bread and white bread Mango chutney Very tasty Raspberry Jam (other flavours will work if you don’t like raspberry) Peanut butter for a good source of protein Caramel drizzle
First, we have bread and we put it onto the table. Secondly, we shall need a knife, a knife is used to spread things, so is very important, Third thing we need is our first type of spread, we are going to use peanut butter. It’s a good foundation because it’s strong. If you have the crunch version, be careful spreading, so you don’t rip the soft bread. Spread it on one side and then on the other. Next, we need mango chutney (use a new knife) This is really tasty. Spread onto the first piece to evolve the sandwich. Spread it onto the second piece of bread, calmly. (Breathe in and breathe out) Put the lids on your spread afterwards.
Next, we use the world-famous jam. Jam is a wonderful thing. I love jam. Who doesn’t like jam? It’s one of the best things on a sandwich. Back to the soothing spreading. Feel your inner peace. Spread and think in your brain about the beauty of life Now, the caramel sauce! I like this so much, I have it on everything. Give it a shake. Only a tiny bit of a drizzle - don’t let it overpower the sandwich Drizzle to taste Then spread it all around. It’ll look like fire when you spread it all together. Now put the pieces of bread together. Optional: Cut off crusts. Cut into two.
POPPY’S PIZZA ART
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Guess which painter inspired this pizza?
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3. Art
Making art from scrap paper and more Children joined artists every week during the January 2021 lockdown to make collage art. Inspired by the poster, they created new artwork from scrap paper from their home. The sessions were a chance to be creative whilst doing something good for the environment. Young people also shared their own art in sessions. Zoom formed a digital gallery for work to be showcased in sessions. It was soon clear that art and creativity was valuable in lockdown. Whether it reduced stress, boredom or made them feel less alone, they often lost themselves as they were creating. “Over the last year, I have enjoyed making imaginary art and collage art. My favourite thing to do over the last year has been spending time with my family and doing art. I have loved connecting with my grandmother who lives in Australia. We have been texting and sharing our artwork (because she is an artist).” Thilde
“Art has been really important for me during lockdown, when school is over and I don’t want to play videogames I can just sit and draw. I feel like my drawings have become a lot better over lockdown, I was doing two drawings a day, so it was really helping my experience. Whenever I do a new drawing, I feel really proud and I like feeling proud of myself, it’s always good to see improvement too, whenever I make
something it’s nice seeing the next thing being better than the last one. Sometimes I do art classes with my sister and I teach her how to draw pandas, watermelons and unicorns because they’re her favourite things. Doing art can relieve stress and if you’re tired and have nothing to turn to you can draw. Pandas are my favourite thing to draw. When I was little, I had such a love for pandas. We went to Ikea
and they had this small panda teddy, I really wanted it, so we got it. I took it everywhere. One time we went to the beach, my brother and I were mucking around and I put my teddy at the top on that bar on the train and then when we left I left it there! I was crying for so long. I got a replacement eventually though!” Maryam
The art of coding “I like coding because there are no limits as to what you can make. It is like your own universe that you can do whatever you like. Coding really helps me, if I’m stressed out, I can just make something, and it will calm me down. I really like creating my own projects. I feel like coding has opened up a new pathway for me and what I want to be later in life. I found out during lockdown that I want to be a website illustrator or a game designer. I think people should try out coding because it opens up lots of different opportunities that people can do like engineering or mathematics.” Alex
“Art makes me feel like I’m free, it makes me feel like I’m in a different world that has no worries, and my mum says art makes me silent because I’m a chatterbox! Through lockdown I have done lots of art lessons with Alex and we’ve connected a lot. We worked on a really big project togetherwe painted ‘The Scream’ on the door underneath the stairs, I really enjoyed doing that. I think artwork can be whatever you want it to be - you don’t need expensive pens and paper - you can even do art on pizzas. Even though lockdown isn’t that different to our usual schedule it has increased our anxiety, having these things to do helps calm us down. If I didn’t have art I would probably be screaming and jumping off the counters by now.” Poppy
“With me being an only child and being bored during lockdown with not a lot to do, it was amazing timing that Disney+ came out at the beginning of lockdown. It really kept me entertained and I could watch things I enjoyed because I’m not really a Netflix kind of person. During lockdown I’ve started to have dreams again where I put myself in the Disney programmes - like I’d be Kim Possible’s friend or I’d be in The Princess and the Frog! I’ve been watching Disney for 98% of my life so it’s just something I naturally know and like and enjoy watching. I could watch the same things over and over again. Disney is just something that is comforting and I will never get bored of. Loads of people have said how they’ve felt really lonely during lockdown. I think Disney helps people feel less lonely because we all watch it and even if you don’t like one thing, they’ve got such a variety they can accommodate all people. I’m not sure whether I would call myself an artist or not. I’ve always enjoyed drawing, especially when it comes to drawing Disney characters!” Sian
waste paper
is still vital
4. Conversation
CONVERSATION Staying connected was an important part of living through lockdown. Inspired by the above photo ‘Boys wading in the pond on Tooting Common’, artists at Meet and Make Spaces Tooting formed
a digital coffee morning with local residents. They were invited to talk about their memories of Tooting, bring photos and share stories. Over 40 memories were recorded. A selection of them can be read here.
Children from Furzedown Primary joined us to turn the memories into tiny pieces of art. Dive in and celebrate tales from Tooting.
When I was born in the downstairs front bedroom, Queenie Alford (neighbour) walked up the road yelling “It’s a girl!” in order to announce my arrival. Barbara
School games included skipping, marbles, handstands, a ball in a sock and oranges and lemons when you were older. Doreen
I remember buying a bloomer, carving out the middle, stuffing it with chips and halving it with a mate after school. Gordon
“We built houses, tree houses and hides all over the place. The kids next door always had piles of junk and items in their garden to play with. One day, a large Victorian table made an appearance. It was huge and had castors on each leg. The kids manhandled the table to the top of the keyhole, which is at the top of the hill on Fishponds Road. About five kids launched the table down the pavement, all hanging on for dear life! Of course when it hit the kerb, all the kids fell into the road screaming. The table was pushed back up to the top and the performance repeated!” Jennifer Tite
“Footie in the street, with no adults complaining! Going round in a marked up circle, on your bike without putting your feet on the floor. Last one on wins. You just had to cut your opponent into the kerb! Great games, silly, innocent, but enjoyable.” John Bexley
“I went to Fircroft Primary School. Pretty much everyday after school we’d play football in the playground until it went dark. I’d climb back over the wall to get home, easier than going through the gate! We’d play in the alleyways closest to us on Mandrake Road – lots of cricket and football. I’d use them to cut through to my best friends garden!” Phil Manners
There was a bomb site at the top of Hereward Road where we used to look for shrapnel. Hazel
“We used to go to Tooting Bec Common a lot and Clapham pond. My mum used to take my nan to Harrington’s in Selkirk Road for stewed eels and liquor. I found this quite disgusting!” Pam Goodyer
No one had a bathroom, a tin bath in the kitchen and a toilet out the back. The Herald was cut into squares and that’s what was used back in the day! Anon
We made rafts and played pirates. Not really around but no dads around and mums working. Ronald
I have fond memories of being allowed to accompany the staff social club of the Fountain Hospital on their frequent outings. My godmother Dolly Saxby was in charge of the sewing room where they repaired the hospital linen and made clothes for the children. Chris Graves
Wonderland was made by Isabel Brown Ibrahim Cummings Maryam Cummings Haaris Hussain Hannah Hussain Sian Lyle Alex Mouette Poppy Mouette Hazel Purser Bethany Skinner Otis Westby Thilde White Faye Wootton Maia Wootton Along with children from Furzedown Primary School With thanks to all the children and young people who participated in workshops and lit up our lockdown. Along with the older residents from Tooting who gave permission for their memories to be turned into art. Made with Bounce Theatre and Meet and Make Spaces Tooting
Celebrating the creativity of children and young people