RSE GOVAN / GDANSK report / feedback TOM MANLEY photographer / regeneration consultant Feb 2017
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The multi disciplinary network of interested participants brought together by the Govan / Gdansk exchange created a platform to rethink shared upheavals of cultural heritage protection. Addressing the potential for lasting social and physical restoration, it harnessed and celebrated outputs from creative and participatory intervention which has sought site specific, and positive use of land, in contrast to transformations in both Govan and Gdansk, that has at times threatened, and been unresponsive to historical and cultural assets.
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My interest in Govan was originally sparked during research for a written feature for Urban Realm Magazine in 2011, that included photography and text to document regeneration and change in Govan. It highlighted key intentions of both local authority funded programmes of housing, infrastructure and place promotion, with those of a plethora of artistic, grassroots and community driven initiatives seeking to reimagine and acknowledge the significance of Govan’s industrial rise and fall. This article was followed by a piece in Edge Condition Magazine in 2015 titled ‘Govan A Reconnection’.
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Govan and Gdansk are currently inspirational cases that urgently promote the requirement for good practice, community land-use and ownership, with heightened awareness and value of what has been lost, and of remaining cultural and heritage assets. Creative approaches have fought for appropriate, sensitive and celebratory influence on development; helping redefine these precarious post industrial landscapes. With a lot of voices, listened to and ignored in this process, making sense of this interplay of contextual issues, requires collaboration between traditional ‘top down’ planning, creative practitioners, and the knowledge and opinions within the community, so as to avoid futile gentrification and cultural erosion.
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Grassroots organisations, and achievements of community activism and creative protest in Govan, has recently managed to create a more inclusive, place specific and appropriate environment. However, all too often it is a reactionary and necessary counterbalance to the approved mechanisms of mainstream delivery, as set out in a City Plan that does not emphasise the importance of preserving or reimagining a connection to the reason these areas evolved. It remains deeply concerning that both the ‘Graving Docks’ and ‘Water Row’ land across the water from the Riverside Museum, remain extensively planned for housing without proper acknowledgement to the significance of the story of these sites, and what their benefit to the local area and beyond could be if the authorities embraced a more holistic approach to development.
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I was impressed by the materiality, presence and openness of the European Solidarity Centre and the Memorial to Fallen Shipyard Workers inviting visitors to Gdansk to consider the current nature of the shipyard, its landscape and potential; a space for reflection and the values of the Solidarity movement to be preserved. There is no such sense of arrival or recognition to the former shipyards in Govan. The last few cranes were removed without fuss or proper thought. Stories and memories which have been tirelessly collected, documented and retold are often left to be presented in glass boxes or beside more model ships in museums and archive collections. The shipyard as it once was has died, and it is important to recognise the balance needed in preserving the past, whilst letting go of maritime connections and establishing new riverside activity and purpose.
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Encouraging imagination and creative activity into a dialogue for regeneration needs to be embraced by planning policy, and time needs to be given to questioning the use of space, who development is for, and whether it is in the best interests of the local area, the city as a whole, and the connection to its past. In saying this, the process of participatory celebration and research of Govan’s past offers a great resource for stakeholders to interact with and offers valuable information in reinventing these landscapes today. Shipbuilding benefitted the whole city, it’s marked firmly in the legacy of Victorian industry in these ports. How we respond to these great sites today needs to equally reflect our current aspirations and ideals for society. Building homes is clearly important, yet on such significant sites it cannot be right to prioritise
development that maximises the number of homes that can be built on such land, or that fails to enhance and integrate with the existing community and acknowledge the landscapes significance.
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Despite good intentions of the Community Empowerment Act Scotland 2015 it seems all too easy for private developers to sit on land until they choose to develop it, whilst disregarding proper maintenance of the land. These are evocative and powerful spaces that are engrained in the making of great industrial cities. Underused private land is protected and guarded by fences, preventing access and limiting opportunity. Time spent within the landscape throughout my photography and research based work in Govan and Gdansk, has furthered my thinking into place specific regeneration and I'm sure it is important to encourage and invite people from across the city to access and rethink the use of these vacant and transitory spaces. Much of the artist led work in these places is addressing the way we move around, and relate to these spaces. Opening up new views and perceptions of the landscape is something photography can powerfully hint at, yet activity that can provide temporary access and facilities for open space to be utilised and celebrated should be enabled and embraced. Glasgow has run a ‘Stalled Spaces’ initiative yet with vast waterside, cultural, social and industrial relevance these wasted shipyards need far more celebration.
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Private ownership and neglect looks likely to prevent the possible opening up of a fantastic post industrial wonderland as an example of new futures that the Govan Graving Docks could and still can represent if due attention is given to it and the benefits for the whole city realised.
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Many physical and social boundaries exist, and my camera repeatedly caught elements of the landscape where these issues arise from grand walls to security fencing, to more intangible and forgotten traces of cultural history or neglect.
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A selection of a few images from photographs taken in Govan and Gdansk 2011 - 2016. The images highlight some of the addressed themes within the exchange programme .
Govan Graving Docks
Top: Govan, Graving Docks Boundary Wall Bottom: Govan, Showpeople’s Float
Top: Gdansk, Wall Bottom: Gdansk, Shipyard
Top: Govan, Shopping Centre
Bottom: Gdansk, Monument To Fallen Shipyard Workers
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Top: Gdansk, European Solidarity Centre Bottom: portraits, Govan and Gdansk.