The Flâneur Continues To Tour

One of the aspects of strolling which has figured largest in walking Thetford has been the effect on my mood of different places. Whatever the weather, the river will always instil a feeling of wellbeing. More pertinent perhaps, is the way buildings affect the psyche. All urban spaces are built by people for people, so perhaps this should not come as a surprise - but it was only after chatting with a friend the name of the phenomenon came to light. My pal Kate Askew (née Jackson) is a hugely talented artist and singer you might know best from her work with Sheffield-based post-punk band the Long Blondes. Chatting with her on the subject she used the term “psychogeography” to describe the phenomenon. A genuine movement originating in the 1950s, psychogeography is used to describe the interaction between individual walker and places or routes within an urban landscape. Many of us have a “happy place” but once that emotion is extrapolated it is easy to also find say, boring, lively and frightening places too. Both Kate and myself find beauty in 60s brutalist architecture – and many of her paintings are re-interpretations of icons such as the Trellick Tower and so on. Moving closer to home, Thetford’s Redcastle Furze estate is a classic piece of happy, brutalist design. I have no idea what the homes are like to live in (many houses of the era have not lasted well) but walking along Canons Walk is every bit as much my happy place as the Haling Path. The reverse would be the areas I feel lost and alone. There are too many buildings in the town that could have been built any time in the last 30 years and within any area of the country.

Kate Askew’s painting of Brooke House, Basildon

Just as they lack time and place in construction, so I lose bearings being around them. Please be clear, this is no reflection on the inhabitants of such places - such is the lack of housing, beggars cannot be choosers – with affordability and location far more important than vague and slippery notions of location. Ultimately, I’ll always revert to my happy place.

Terry Land, The Flâneur

May Society Meeting

The next meeting of the Thetford Society will be on Tuesday 3rd May at the United Reformed Church at 7.30pm when Mervyn Lynford will give a talk and poetry reading entitled ‘East Anglian Miscellany’. New members are always welcome.