Royal Docks Rising

ROYAL DISCOVER THE ARTS IN E16

INSIDE

+ Royal Docks Originals + Stop Press Now + Living Histories Dock Tales + Unfamiliar To Us Silvertown + Message In A Bottle Ship Building + Drum & Docks ARGH! Mateys + This Is Who We Are Newham Music Trust + Presence Grown Up In The Royal Docks Custom House Community Walks IICON + Musicity X The Docks Dock Lands People + This Is Royal Docks Switch The Docks + Project On A Bus + 100 Years Of The Royal Docks +

DOCKS

RISING

SHOWCASING CULTURE IN ROYAL DOCKS

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>> Royal Docks Rising has been produced by the Royal Docks Team, a joint initiative by the Mayor of London and Mayor of Newham.

It is funded through the Royal Docks Enterprise Zone.

Find out more about what’s happening in the Royal Docks Online: royaldocks.london | Email royaldocks@london.gov.uk | Social: @yourroyaldocks

WELCOME

Royal Docks Rising? It isn’t just rising – it’s overflowing with vibrant culture, creativity, talent, and opportunity. For a long time, the Royal Docks has been waiting in the wings – one of the UK’s youngest and most diverse communities, living and working in the most extraordinary historic area, in one of the greatest cities in the world. Culture and creativity are in the Royal Docks’ DNA. The Royal Docks’ construction from 1855 to 1921 was a remarkable feat of engineering, and for a hundred years the docks was the centre of the UK’s industrial economy and key to London’s global positioning. A hive of activity, it attracted people from far and wide to work on the quays, in its factories and mills, on its new railway lines, and in the area’s many warehouses. The Royal Docks became a beacon of employment and opportunity, and so alongside workers, that meant the area became populated by families, children, new housing, pubs, cinemas, music halls, schools, and a whole host of social infrastructure. After the closure of the docks in the 1980s there was mass migration out of the area and, slowly, the Royal Docks’ cultural infrastructure ebbed away.

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But since that time, the energy, passion, and opportunity in this part of east London has been bubbling under the surface. The area’s heritage is etched on the post-industrial landscape and vast waterscape, and the stories of the people who gave the Royal Docks life, the dockers and factory workers, the families and publicans, the sailors and entertainers, are the stuff of legend – its current population is just as lively and creative.

INTRODUCING

July 8, 2021, is the centenary of the opening of the third and last of the vast docks, marking the moment that the Royal Docks became the largest enclosed docks in the world, and this publication is timed to coincide with that anniversary.

One hundred years ago, the Royal Docks was one of the busiest international cargo bases in the world. Today, the Royal Docks has swapped cargo for creativity, ideas and imagination – the international currency of the 21st century. Royal Docks Rising tells the stories of just a few of the talented artists and organisations making work in the Royal Docks – a small flavour of things to come.

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These pages primarily showcase the extraordinary depth and breadth of creative work that is being created in the Royal Docks. They are testament to what can be achieved in this singular part of London, even under the most challenging of circumstances.

As herald to the forthcoming Royal Docks Originals programme I hope they inspire you to discover more about the artists we’ve featured here, to look ahead to what’s coming and, most importantly, to take part.

Jon Massey

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RDR credits

concept, design Jon Massey words James Drury + Laura Enfield + Jon Massey commissioned photography Matt Grayson print Iliffe Print Cambridge copyright Massey Maddison Limited, 2021

VISION

This year we are launching the Royal Docks Enterprise Zone’s Cultural Placemaking Strategy.

Following extensive community engagement, it will be no surprise that the Royal Docks has a big vision with a nod to its past – we want the Royal Docks to be the Cultural Engine for London.

The Royal Docks will be a creative centre that is the home and workplace for some of the most innovative artists and exciting cultural industries in the UK, a place to make and showcase creative work in the shadow of the its industrial and manufacturing past.

Through this vision we want people across the world to know that the Royal Docks is one of the most significant cultural and creative places in London – an irresistible destination and an inspiring home.

PILLARS

Our cultural placemaking strategy has three pillars – People, Programme and Place – and over the next few years we will be working hard with our partners to build a cultural ecosystem that is led by the Royal Docks’ inclusive communities and that lasts long after the Enterprise Zone. Artists, creatives and communities will be at the heart of our cultural life, ensuring we have a thriving, generative ecosystem and that local young people grow to see culture as a huge life opportunity for them.

DIVE IN

The Royal Docks is fast becoming home to extraordinary clusters of creative businesses and we are delighted to introduce some of them to you through this publication. Royal Docks Rising provides a fantastic opportunity to discover some of the stories from behind the scenes of the artists and creatives who made work in our Join the Docks 2020 programme – a forerunner of a new strand of work in our Cultural Placemaking Strategy called Royal Docks Originals. I hope that you will enjoy this ‘deep dive’ to learn more about the people behind the projects, their motivations, passions, inspirations, and processes.

Kate Anderson Head Of Cultural Programme & Partnerships Royal Docks Team

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ALIVE

The pandemic has had a devastating impact on London’s cultural and creative industries but, despite all the challenges, Join the Docks 2020 has helped keep the arts alive.

From an augmented-reality interactive story trail to bold installations in the public realm, the reimagined programme has inspired audiences and championed local and young talent during this challenging time.

I’m delighted that all these new projects have been created and I’m looking forward to even more works later this year.

Justine Simons OBE Deputy Mayor For Culture And The Creative Industries Greater London Authority

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Last year’s Join The Docks programme was a brilliant line-up of creative projects from some of Newham’s creative community. I was fascinated to read more about some of those projects and the people behind them in this brand new publication.

Culture and creativity are an important part of our daily lives which, like so much else, have been impacted by Covid-19.

However, whilst over the last year most live events – small or large – have had to be cancelled, at the same time many people have rediscovered their own creativity at home during the lockdowns.

In 2021 the Royal Docks Team will be offering more opportunities to engage with creative activities online and, as the year progresses, perhaps we’ll be able to return to some socially distanced live events that people can enjoy safely. In the meantime, I hope you will find Royal Docks Rising as interesting as I do.

Rokhsana Fiaz OBE Mayor Of Newham London Borough Of Newham

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04-05 06-07 08-09 10-13 13

Royal Docks Originals 100 Years Living Histories IICON Stop Press Now

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14-15 16-17 18-19 20-21 22-23

Dock Lands People Unfamiliar To Us Switch The Docks Dock Tales Newham Music

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Silvertown Presence Project On A Bus Grown Up In The Royal Docks Musicity X Royal Docks ARGH! Mateys Ship Building Custom House Community Walks Message In A Bottle This Is Royal Docks Drum And Docks This Is Who We Are

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2021 highlights

ARRIVING

ARRIVAL A Journey Around the Royal Docks Oct 21-23

I Am From Reykjavik Theatre-maker Sonia Hughes explores what it means to be a post-racial global citizen with her outdoor, interactive installation. Popping up at two locations in the Royal Docks, she will invite people to help her build a temporary home, have tea or just watch. Free to attend Aug 14, RAW Labs Pump Station Square Aug 15, Crystal Lawns, check online for times

This extraordinary family-friendly theatrical adventure is set in the streets, bridges, paths, greens and around the iconic waterscape of London’s historic Royal Docks this autumn. Come with us on an exciting storytelling journey filled with wonder, live performance, food, film, beatboxing, powerful images, music, local people, surprising shipping crates and lots and lots of tiny boats.

The docks have historically been an arrival place – from the Romans and Anglo Saxons to the Irish and Jamaicans, new arrivals have each brought their stories. A melting pot of Royal Docks people, ideas and potential, ARRIVAL weaves together a picture of one the most compelling inner-city sites in Europe, uniting its complex past with its thrilling future.

Commissioned by the Royal Docks Team for Royal Docks Originals, the organisers – Dunster / Bausor and imPOSSIBLE – will be working with the local community to co-create this large-scale event (any arrivals new and old welcome).

To hear more about how to get involved, email info@impossibleproducing.com

Mudskipper Inspired by crocodiles pulling themselves through mud, artist James Capper has created a nine-metre walking boat capable of pulling itself out of the water on hydraulic legs. The craft will be on show at Royal Victoria Dock from Aug 8-Sept 2, with Thames demonstrations set for the dates below.

Aug 6, 7, Sept 3, 4, Thames foreshore, free

Inside Out French street artist JR’s photobooth spent two days in June snapping images of people in the Royal Docks. Part of a global participatory art project that has seen more than 400,000 participants featured from 138 countries, the portraits taken in E16 have been blown up to gigantic size ready to put on show.

Jul 8-11, Crystal Gardens, free

Future Cargo Part of the Greenwich+Docklands International Festival, Frauke Requardt and David Rosenberg are set to bring a vehicle from another planet. Dancers will perform a piece of epic science fiction tackling immigration and globalisation in a shipping container mounted on a truck.

Sept 3-4, Silvertown Quays, free

bound for the Royal Docks Arrivals is set to bring beatboxing, powerful images, music, shipping crates, food, live performance and lots and lots of tiny boats to the area this autumn

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Royal Docks Originals

The Royal Docks Originals Festival is a programme of events that will bring a fresh wave of performance, creativity and excitement to the area from October 21-31. Here we preview two of the flagship commissions for that 10-day extravaganza alongside just a taster of what’s on over the summer months. Go online to find out more. royaldocks.london

ORIGINAL MATERIAL

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Music Of The Spheres See-through globes the size of buildings are set to be floated on the waters of the docks with musicians, aerial performers, lights and smoke inside. This dazzling show

by Colourscape artists, will be accompanied by interconnected tunnels of colour that audience members can explore.

Sept 5, Royal Docks, free

RADICAL

Our Hearts Leap Up: Radical Rainbows Royal Victoria Dock, Silvertown Way Flyover Oct 21-31

mist see Our Hearts Leap Up will feature a rainbow installation in Royal Victoria Dock and a flavoured rainbow under the Silvertown Way Flyover

Commissioned by the Royal Docks Team for Royal Docks Originals, this celebratory installation is inspired by the meteorological phenomenon of rainbows and features the world’s first flavour rainbow.

Rainbows are universally considered a symbol of hope and renewal. From early myths to scientific inspiration, Judy Garland’s Somewhere Over The Rainbow to the high-flying flags of LGBTQIA+, and more recent Covid rainbows, the phenomenon is a universal sign of poignancy and positivity.

Healing Together The closing event for the Greenwich+Docklands International Festival will feature a fire and light installation uniting the north and south banks of the Thames, a sound installation by Jason Singh, Frock by Stopgap Dance Company and art installations created with local communities. Unmissable.

Sept 10-11, Royal Victoria Gardens, free

Madge Gill: Nature In Mind Stretching from Royal Victoria Dock to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, this trail of 20 digital reproductions of works by the east London-born artist, is opening in phases along The Line to mark the 60th anniversary of her death. It includes Red Woman, a ninemetre long piece exhibited for the first time.

Ongoing, The Line, free

With the Royal Docks having once been London’s gateway to world trade, the celebration of rainbows people can taste has important local resonance.

Many of the foods and flavours coming into London passed through this area in terms of import, warehousing and manufacturing.

Working with the local residential, educational and business communities Bompas & Parr will explore a cornucopia of ingredients and their impact on the docks and the wider world. From spices and coffee, flour for baking at Millennium Mills and sugar with Tate & Lyle’s factory.

Our Hearts Leap Up will be live over 10 days and includes Rainbows Of Resilience – a dancing rainbow above Royal Victoria Dock – and Flavour Rainbow the world’s first rainbow people can taste, which will be housed beneath Silvertown Way.

Kids Summer Splash Buckets and spades at the ready, the sand is on its way to the Royal Docks this summer. As well as sandcastles galore, there will also be the chance to cool off in the inviting waters of Royal Victoria Dock, when the warmth of the rays become a bit much. Just don’t forget the suncream and your swimming costume.

Jul 31-Aug 22, Royal Victoria Dock, free

Find out more at royaldocks.london and bompasandparr.com about how to visit and get involved with the project

Scan this code to find full what’s on listings for these events and many more at royaldocks.london

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heritage stories

Many of the creative works featured in Royal Docks Rising directly feature material from the history of the area or have been inspired by tales from the past.

Grown Up In The Royal Docks, Stop Press Now and Silvertown are all deeply flavoured with the area’s heritage. Turn the page to start your journey with Selina Mayer’s Living Histories project, which saw the Royal Albert Dock-based photographer use a camera made in 1880 – the same year that dock opened – to capture today’s east Londoners.

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Spaces Of Silvertown will be led by writer and journalist Owen Hatherley on August 7 and explores how the area has been transformed over the decades. Play And Place will be led by poet and performer Inua Ellams, who will invite participants to engage in creative mini-workshops, ice breakers and games as the walk progresses on August 14.

Lastly, conceptual sculptor Eloise Hawser will lead One Of The Most Planned For Spaces In The World on August 21, a walk that considers the ‘four Rs’ – river, road, rails and runway – and their impact on the area.

Eloise – whose Stop Press News was part of Join The Docks 2020 and is featured on Page 13 – will also share the history of the area with walkers and consider the future of Albert Island. The starting point for each walk will be revealed to participants on booking. All walks run 2pm-5pm. Digital versions will be available after the walks have been completed.

Aug 7, 14, 21, free (ticketed via upprojects.com)

Royal Docks Summer Season A century at the centre of the world A hundred years ago, on July 8, 1921, the final of the three Royal Docks opened – the crowning glory of an ambitious vision that cemented London’s position as a centre of global trade and industry.

Once little more than marshland outside London, an incredible feat of engineering saw the area become Britain’s gateway to the world, bringing in goods and attracting people from far-flung places.

When they were completed, the Royal Docks – Victoria (completed in 1866), Albert (1880) and King George V (1921) – was the largest enclosed docks in the world. Their location meant state-of-the-art warehouses and railway tracks could be built right up to the waterside, connecting the goods that were offloaded with the rest of the country.

The port boasted the latest technology, such as electricity so unloading could continue throughout the night, and hydraulic cranes. Dolphin berths at King George V allowed ships to be loaded from both sides. The hustle and bustle was astonishing as loads of grain, tobacco, meat, fruit, and vegetables from as far as India and Australia were unloaded and stored in the giant granaries and refrigerated warehouses. The impact this vital transport hub had on London and Britain is hard to overstate. In their heyday, the Royal Docks were key to feeding and fuelling the country, and the nation’s commercial success depended on this part of east London.

Now, at this important centenary, we’re looking to the future while celebrating the area’s rich history and people. The bustling activity of shipping has been exchanged for the energy of innovative businesses and creative production, as the Royal Docks transform into the cultural driving force of London. Not only is a huge regeneration project underway, which will see the eyes of the world’s creative industries turn to the Royal Docks, but the area will also become the political heart of the capital as the Mayor of London moves City Hall to The Crystal later this year.

This gateway to the world will be buzzing with activity once more as innovation and community, heritage and enterprise come together to create a future that will see the next 100 years as exciting as the docks’ zenith.

Image from Museum Of London Docklands

Totally Thames - The Islanders Before 1850, Silvertown was a bleak stretch of uninhabited marsh land which was occasionally used for grazing cattle.

Some parts were up to 10 feet below sea level and, frequently, subject to flooding at high tide. Smuggling and illegal prize-fighting were also common in these lonely Thamesside marshes. In the 19th century, London’s eastern boundary was at Bow Creek, where its noxious industries began to congregate.

From shipbuilding, to silver, iron, oils, soap, rubber and manure, London’s industry was developing on the fringes of the city.

Part of the Totally Thames Festival, The Islanders allows inquisitive minds to follow the growth of the area and hear the stories of the Silvertown community through the generations.

Through industrial development, cultural change and the devastation of war, to the new blossoming docklands area being developed for a new generation. Themes explored include local characters, the Second World War, factories, parks and recreation, Tate & Lyle and living with the river. A treasure trove of historical information.

Ongoing, online, free, thamesfestivaltrust.org

08 RDR modern history Selina’s project brings together the past and the present through photography at her Royal Docks base

Point, pose, edit, post – and the photo’s shared with millions. We carry the power in our pockets and wield it with casual privilege. But does this convenience result in images that are contrived rather than considered? Visual artist Selina Mayer believes so.

She prefers a slower pace...

Her latest project – Living Histories – has seen her using a glass plate camera to take portraits of Royal Docks residents. The device was manufactured in 1880, the same year Royal Albert Dock officially opened, and serves as a link to the days when family portraits first started to become available to the masses.

“These dry plate cameras were the first models where people didn’t have to prepare their own plates,” said Selina. “They opened up photography to a lot more people.”

To capture her images, Selina carried the sizeable leather and wooden camera and delicate glass plates out of her workspace at RAW Studios onto the quayside, along with a sandbag to steady its tripod.

Once set up, her subjects would sit for up to 10 minutes while she lifted the plate into place and ducked under a black cloth to check the composition.

Then she’d remove the lens cap to capture the image.

“I find analogue photography almost like a ritual,” she said. “Rather than just pressing a button you have to go through this process and, once you find the rhythm of it, you can do it over and over. It is soothing.

“I find the same in the darkroom. There is a calming order to things. I’m on the autism spectrum, although I’m pretty good at masking it. When I have a camera in front of me I relax.”

find the rhythm it is soothing SELINA MAYER PHOTOGRAPHER

Selina’s work outside Living Histories often features her subjects nude. But the first such image she took was of herself while studying at Central Saint Martins.

“It started at university – I was working on a project about my mother, who passed away when I was 18 months old,” she said. “She was an artist, I inherited her personal effects and I found these nude self-portraits in black and white with veils, mimicking a Madonna.

“I became obsessed with that concept and did a project where I projected her photos and put myself in them, connecting myself with her through her work.”

For the last five years Selina has been working on passion project The Forest – a series of nudes taken with friends from a globe-trotting community of artist models she met while traveling.

“I like nudes because you make so many assumptions about people based on their clothes and, if you take that away, there is a rawness,” said Selina.

“I take my subjects to Epping Forest to find nice spots to take photos. It’s this lovely thing to share with people because I really love the forest and it’s a way of bringing that community together.”

NUDE FOREST RAWNESS

TONES SPECTRUM PROCESS

Selina realised she was autistic about four years ago and said that realisation had helped her understand herself and how she worked better.

“Looking back, I see lots of obsessive behaviours from my childhood and being overwhelmed,” she said.

“I was the kid who hid under the table at primary school. It has helped me understand how I interact with people.”

The camera was a present from her father – a retired photojournalist – who found it in a Margate junk shop.

Selina restored it by “cannibalising another camera” and tracked down someone who made glass plates.

Early experiments resulted in complete disaster with plates exposed twice or ruined by accident. Having got the hang of things, Selina was surprised by the results.

“Some of the tones are a bit unexpected,” she said.

“One lady had bright red lipstick on and it came out really dark. A bright blue jacket came out almost white.

“I was delighted I’ve been able to work with a big mix of people because that was a big part of this project.

I didn’t want to just get the people who would have been documented at the time.

“In 1880 it would have mostly been white men who were workers in the docks. But, in any kind of environment like that, there is always a huge range of people living there, so I really wanted to capture that. It’s kind of adjacent to another project I have been doing – photographing people in the queer community. Because of the rarity of seeing them documented in older photographs, it’s about restoring them to the historical narrative.”

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Image of Selina: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

From Living Histories, clockwise from above Pau Ling Yap ● Paul Fletcher Philip Hong ● Stephen Guy Faye Lewis ● Selina Mayer

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“Plate cameras are very simple – they’re empty boxes with a lens on one end and a sheet of ground glass on the other, made from wood, metal and leather,” said Selina. “You use the ground glass, which has an etched surface that allows it to pick up a projected image from the lens, to focus on your subject, then put the lightsensitive glass plate in the exact position the ground glass was in and expose it to the light from the lens.

“The lens I’m using doesn’t even have a shutter to press – I’m exposing the plates to light by taking the lens cap off and then putting it back on again.

“Once the glass plate has been exposed to the light I then develop it in a traditional darkroom and the plate then becomes a negative, which I can use to make prints.”

by Laura Enfield

LIGHT LENS CAMERA

SCARS PRESENCE RESPECT

“I love portraits as I don’t like to go in with a prediagnosed character,” said Selina, who wants to use her work to advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, which she is part of. “I take far fewer photographs than most photographers and spend a lot of time talking to the people I’m working with.”

Her partner is transgender and many of her subjects are non-binary.

“I want people to be respected for who they are and how they identify is really important to me,” she said. “I also don’t do any processing or airbrushing on my photographs.

“I’m obsessed with things like scars and goosebumps – things we all have because we all have skin. They are unifying qualities. We are all human underneath our clothes and seeing those little details helps you relate to the person.

“We are so used to being surrounded by ephemeral advertising images that don’t have a physical presence but I’m a big believer that if someone is too perfect you don’t see them as beautiful. They have to have a flaw or something that makes them individual. One of the reasons I love using these antique cameras is there are flaws – you get bubbles and scratches but it makes you appreciate the tangible nature of it and makes them feel so much more real and relatable.”

Scan this code to view Living Histories in full on Selina Mayer’s website selinamayer.com

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CREATING SOMETHING

For Join The Docks 2020, creative powerhouse Block9 was awarded a research grant to enable it to build a digital version of its IICON installation, exploring the possibility of bringing the enormous sculpture and performance platform to the company’s home turf in the Royal Docks

head space IICON features a large sculptural form that acts as a stage for performers

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Ultimately what we would like to do is to have a focus group of Royal Docks residents to come to The Silver Building MARK CRANWELL BLOCK9

“Imagine if you were commuting down the river and saw this enormous head there – it would instantly put Royal Docks on the map,” said Mark Cranwell.

“The lips and cheeks are all hand-carved. It’s so life-like and sinister – like nothing you have ever seen.

Then, with the projection mapping on it, it would just kind of melt people’s minds that this head came alive for the night.”

If this sounds like a wild installation you would see in Glastonbury’s mud-splattered fields, surrounded by neon-clad revellers, that’s because it is.

IICON is a 65-foot high sculpted stage that emits bursts of multi-coloured laser light and 3D ambisonic sound and appeared at the festival in 2019. Mark, who is the managing director of Block9 – an organisation that explores the point where “art, music, theatre and politics collide” – has an ambition, to bring it to the Royal Docks, creating a new tourist destination for London.

“It is a very, very expensive proposition, but we would love to do it,” said Mark who oversees the business side of the company, which is based at The Silver Building near Royal Victoria Dock.

“We specifically moved here a few years ago from Tottenham because of the Royal Docks Team’s vision to make it a cultural destination in terms of organisations like ours, but also for the general public.”

The company, which worked on Banksy’s Dismaland theme park and has produced pieces for Lana Del Rey, Gorillaz and the Roundhouse, has grand plans for its new headquarters.

“When The Silver Building gets knocked down, our goal is to move to the nearby ASD site, which our landlords Projekt also own, and turn Block9 into a bit of a Willy Wonka destination,” said Mark. “We want the general public to come and see the inner workings – how we design and make things – and we would do showcases and some crazy new stuff.”

IICON is a big part of that plan. It first appeared at Glastonbury in 2019 and Mark said it “literally stopped people in their tracks”. Block9 creative founders Gideon Berger and Stephen Gallagher met

at the festival over a decade ago and created The NYC Downlow, the event’s first gay arena.

Using that “calling card” they have gone on to become renowned for their innovative work, which encompasses live music and performance programming, through video, set and lighting design. Even the global pandemic hasn’t stopped them.

“When Glastonbury didn’t happen in 2020, it was a massive blow,” said Mark. “It represents 50% of our turnover and is a three-month project. At peak build, we employ 600 freelancers, so it is vital for the creative community.

“But we managed to plug the gap with some other projects. They have been massively complicated due to Coronavirus, but we ended 2020 in a fortunate place.”

The other projects he so casually mentioned were a record-breaking live stream for singer Dua Lipa that involved a series of custom-built sets that Block9 created at Printworks in Rotherhithe.

“It is being called the most successful live stream ever,” said Mark. “More than 5million people watched and it wasn’t just a concert because you wouldn’t normally get Miley Cyrus, FKA Twigs, Elton John and Kylie Minogue showing up as guests.”

Block9 also reaped success with live streams for regular clients Gorillaz and Glastonbury.

“I think post-Corona there will be a market for this and live streaming will play a significant role in the music business,” said Mark. “These events were born out of necessity but will stick around.”

The start of 2021 saw Block9 working on the festival hub for Coventry’s City Of Culture 2021 events and the beginnings of IICON Digital.

Block9 received a research and development grant as part of Join The Docks 2020 to start creating an online version of the head.

Mark said: “We’ve been talking to the Royal Docks Team about a much more ambitious plan to bring IICON here – the first place it would be seen outside Glastonbury. But that is a very

READ MORE ABOUT BLOCK9 ON PAGE 12

INSTALLATION INSTANTANEOUS IMPACT

expensive proposition. It’s seven shipping containers just for the stage and then all the audio and lighting, 50,000lbs of ballast just to keep it upright. And you need several thousand people to attend over several nights. So that’s how the genesis of this small research project came about. But the technology involved in building a 3D, highly detailed piece of art to be viewed online and to be interactive is also pretty expensive.

“This grant is being used to get a basic version up and running to show to people and get feedback on.

Ultimately what we would like to do is have a focus group of Royal Docks residents come to The Silver Building. They would get to play around with the prototype on our computer and give feedback about what would be really engaging for them.”

Mark hopes the prototype will evolve into an experience that can be explored by viewers in detail from all angles.

“It would be great to take people backstage to show how the artists get on stage and all the scaffolding holding it up and give an insider’s glimpse to what takes place,” said Mark.

“If we could possibly build it so when you’re scrolling you can see The O2 and the Thames behind, then that would be extremely cool.

“The area around the ASD site is completely spectacular. You look across and see Canary Wharf and Trinity Buoy Wharf in one direction and then look over the river and see The O2 and the cable car going over the Thames.

“We’d love to render IICON so it looked like it was physically in the Royal Docks and was a precursor to when it can come there physically.”

Work is planned to start on the ASD site this summer and, if Covid rules allow, Mark said the company wanted to put on some small concerts and experiences with some food outlets, to start transforming it into a destination for Londoners.

He hopes to showcase IICON Digital as part of an open studio in October this year, following consultation with a focus group of local creatives, students and other stakeholders held in the spring.

“One of the things we have always championed as an organisation is diversity,” said Mark.

“Soliciting a wide range of input across ages, backgrounds and cultural perspectives throws up some amazing ideas.”

by Laura Enfield

Scan this code for more on Block9’s IICON Digital project or go to royaldocks.london

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CREATIVE

PROJECTS

Gideon Berger and Stephen Gallagher are the artistic driving force behind Block9.

They describe the company as exploring the space where art, music, theatre and politics collide, often through the construction of complete, immersive temporary realities.

Block9 has been involved in numerous projects in the capital, including...

FOREST UPRISING An illuminated urban sculpture garden and outdoor performance space created for Waltham Forest, London Borough Of Culture 2019. Visitors wandered amongst artworks listening to music and poetry from across the borough with live immersive theatre and oneoff installations.

The duo said: “IICON is about life lived in the all-seeing digital panopticon.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has opened a new chapter in the story of humanity.

“Our everyday reality has once again shifted – our digital selves have taken on new meanings, new forms, new relationships and new ways of communicating.

“Creating and existing inside the digital realm, IICON Digital is an artwork that reflects this new reality.

“We are grateful and excited to be working on this project for the Royal Docks Team and hope this is a stepping stone to something bigger and better that the community and the wider public can experience.”

UNDERDROME An X-shaped platform with an ethereal, 6m bonsai tree at its centre surrounded by 2,000 paper birds. Designed for Darren Johnston’s site specific, butoh-inspired contemporary dance piece at Roundhouse.

LONDON UNDERGROUND A 50ft, decaying tower block with a life-size, blazing Tube train bursting from the fifth floor. It first appeared at Glastonbury 2010 with the interior featuring lighting, lasers, visuals and unexpected theatrical installations.

Created with Shunt director David Rosenberg and the Roundhouse.

UTOPIA Collaboration with filmmaker, writer and artist Penny Woolcock to create a series of walk-through spaces at the Roundhouse.

creative collision Stephen Gallagher, left, and Gideon Berger are the driving force behind Block9, which is based at The Silver Building in the Royal Docks

Scan this code to find out more about Block9 or go to block9.com

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archive art Eloise has been researching how local newspapers served the Royal Docks for her project

Artist Eloise Hawser’s Stop Press Now project has seen her research the numerous newspapers that have served the Royal Docks since the 19th century, creating a map of notable articles so people can follow in the footsteps of the journalists and stories that have helped shape the area. The 35-year-old Limehouse resident hopes to engage with the local community this summer to discuss the impact publications have had on the area...

How has reporting changed in the docks?

Reporting has naturally changed a great deal since the 19th century. Pre-internet local newspapers were a lifeline in delivering information to the communities they served – containing everything from job adverts to coroner’s reports.

For example, some of the earliest newspapers serving the area, like the Stratford Express of the 1850s, have pages and pages of job adverts, of local companies looking for line workers.

Many also specify that they are looking for female labour, presumably because women were cheaper to employ, which is obviously illegal nowadays.

So the news stories reflected the density of industry in the area – describing the trials

What’s the aim of the project?

It’s to navigate how newspapers have contested, produced, and erased the different senses of place we find in and around Royal Docks. I’m planning to host a series of workshops at some of these sites that people can get involved with. We’ll be handling archival material from bound newspapers to microfilm, with some examples being well over a hundred years old.

We’ll then be taking a walk to the site and discussing its representation in the papers in person.

- RESEARCH UNDERTAKEN I’VE visited a number of archives and libraries in and around the Royal Docks, to go through reams of old newspapers, from the Stratford Express of the 1850s to today’s Docklands & East London Advertiser.

I have also been looking into the history of public spaces at the docks. It was fascinating to discover Custom House Library was gifted to the community by newspaper owner John Passmore Edwards in 1905.

I’m very curious about the relationship between public spaces and newspaper readership, so this was an interesting find. I have a list of 41 newspapers that are relevant to this project and I’ve collected 148 articles, around which I will structure my workshops. I have spoken to a great number of people too, mainly archive managers, retired journalists and contacts at Tate & Lyle and London City Airport.

of the dockers, industrial work accidents and so on.

Crucially, where so many of the newspapers were run within local communities, you now have large publishers like Archant buying local newspapers, as was the case with the East London Advertiser (subsequently merged with The Docklands) and the Newham Recorder. These now fall under a single editor who has responsibility for at least five titles.

I’m interested in how papers have functioned within the docks before and across this change. In my view, nothing captures a local community and its geography quite like a local newspaper – it’s in the community, for the community.

It’s more direct and personal than something digital, being shared as a physical object by local residents – at home, at the barbers, doctors office, on the train, in the library – wherever.

Where did the idea for the project come from?

Infrastructure has been at the heart of my practice for a long time, and I had a show in 2018 exploring the Thames and its management.

The Royal Docks is a highly significant place for thinking about infrastructure, having been developed and re-developed according to the changing dominant industries in the area over time. I’ve also returned again and again in my work to the theme of newspapers, and reframed the

- A LESSER-KNOWN PAPER THE Thames Mirror was first published in 1982 and was a forerunner to The Docklands News, which replaced it almost a year later.

While these papers might not be completely unheard of, few people today seem to know that they were funded and vetted by the London Docklands Development Corporation, essentially acting as its mouthpiece in the local community.

news industry as a site of infrastructure.

Papers are produced, disseminated, and then recycled, in a process involving hundreds of different groups and institutions.

All of these interests and concerns came together when a friend of mine witnessed something on her street, wondered what was going on, and asked herself: “What’s happened to all the local papers?”

It got me thinking about how to connect the dots between my interest in infrastructure and the role of local papers.

What happens when local newspapers are no longer written in and for the communities they serve, especially in a lockdown?

How did you choose the articles?

I’m interested in both the ‘big’ and ‘small’ articles, headlines, and images. Key, however, is that they are involved in a kind of place-making activity, that is, they say something about the day-to-day life of the docks, past or present.

One layer of articles chosen for my map will be to inform my workshops – I’m intending to lead four workshops based on my selection of local news stories.

The first, titled Reams And Rails, will focus on Custom House and railway infrastructure, the second

on London City Airport and then the RDR 13 final two will focus on local papers themselves and the practice of archiving them.

The biggest challenge of the project has been organising the workshops on an in-person basis given the ever-changing coronavirus restrictions.

We’re very much hoping that they will be going ahead in 2021.

Nothing quite captures a community like a local newspaper. It’s direct and personal ELOISE HAWSER ARTIST

Main Image: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

What’s your background?

I was interested in art from a very young age and studied at the Ruskin School Of Art and then in Germany for three years at experimental art school Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany.

My other newspaper projects include a walk around Fleet Street with Somerset House, where I’m a resident artist, called A New Way To Set, and a series of lithographic plates called All Set For Scan this code Tomorrow, exploring to view Eloise’s the process of pagebuilding in newspaper Stop Press Now map or go to publishing. royaldocks.london

by Laura Enfield

14 RDR

Photographer Michele Turriani is the owner and operator of Lightship 93 in Royal Victoria Dock.

Having restored the vessel over eight years, it serves as his office and studio. For Join The Docks 2020 he created Dock Lands People in collaboration with Trinity Art Gallery at London City Island and Goodluck Hope, a photographic essay capturing the people and heritage of the area

gazing out Michele surveys the Royal Docks from the tower of Lightship 93

FEELING PRIVILEGE FANTASY Michele is a man who falls in love. A visit to Docklands in the ‘90s ignited a passion in the Italian-born photographer after he spotted a particular ship.

“It looked extraordinary, almost like a fantasy object, he said. “I didn’t quite know what it was. It was quite confusing, but I was completely captivated, hooked.”

He’d seen a lightship – one of a fleet of vessels anchored at sea to warn passing boats of danger beneath the waters. It was rare, unattainable. But, having carried the desire to own one for more than a decade, his chance came at auction in 2004 and he won the bid, becoming the owner of Lightship 93.

“It didn’t quite feel real and still doesn’t,” said Michele. “Any time I’m on board, I walk around in a state of awe. Even after 16 years, it still feels unlikely that I should have the privilege of keeping this vessel.”

For Michele, the arrival of the 134ft ship in the capital was the “overwhelming feeling of having received the largest toy as a present”.

First moored at Trinity Buoy Wharf, he spent eight years restoring the 519tonne vessel, transforming it into a private office space for editing, printing and archiving as well as a studio to use and hire out. He relocated it to Royal Docks in 2013, making way for Crossrail construction, and fell in love all over again.

“The previous mooring was tidal so the vessel bottomed out twice a day – sometimes quite heavily,” said Michele, who now lives in Ramsgate with his wife and three-year-old daughter.

“If you got one of the Thames Clippers going past, the ship would rise eight feet into the air and then slam down on the riverbed. If you were in the middle of a shoot it could be quite difficult to work.

“Here it’s very rare you are aware of motion. The Royal Docks has an extraordinary character. I find it fascinating and a great place for a historical vessel.”

Tied up between Millennium Mills and the Royal Victoria Dock footbridge Lightship 93 has become a landmark and a reminder of the area’s maritime heritage. Fashion, portraits, short films, commercials, feature films and interviews have all been shot against its red paintwork or the raw metal of its interior.

Michele said: “I like to see the diversity of approach that other people use, especially when they build sets.

It can be quite magical. We have had everything from a nuclear bunker to a fairyland.”

Michele himself has produced work for companies such as Levi’s, Honda, Pirelli, Samsung and Nike and captured famous faces such as Cate Blanchett and Helen Mirren, travelling back and forth across the globe, from his Royal Docks base.

captured and showcased Images from Dock Lands People, clockwise from left

The spirit of this project is about exploring

Vincenzo Bow Arts Studios Royal Albert Wharf Ayan Britannia Village Community Gardens Royal Victoria Dock

the roots of the place

Shreem University Of East London Royal Albert Dock

trying to find ways to connect with it and feel at home in the community

1962 Stohert & Pitt Cranes Quayside Royal Victoria Dock

MICHELE TURRIANI PHOTOGRAPHER

Scan this code for more about Michele and Lightship 93 or go to his website micheleturriani.com

RDR 15

Colour Images: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

PEOPLE SEE THE

SPIRIT PLEASURE CONNECTION

VULGAR DILEMMA IMAGE

For photographic essay Dock Lands People Michele turned his lens on the people and structures around Lightship 93, capturing faces from Bow Arts, the University Of East London, Britannia Village Community Gardens, WakeUp Docklands and landmarks such as The Crystal and Emirates Airline.

Michele began his career in the art world, moving to London in ’92 and assisting the likes of Jeff Koons and Rob Schulte.

When work stalled the graphic design and art direction graduate’s hoto ra h took fl ht w th the creation of record sleeve imagery for Real World and Virgin Records as well as portraits of Claudia Schiffer, Sir Ben Kingsley, Peter Gabriel and Martin Scorsese.

“As a photographer there is always a dilemma between the interest you have in your subject and the need to deliver the best possible image,” said Michele.

“Talking to an actor like John Hurt you are met with a ass o a o t a obviously want to spend the rest of the day talking. Having to take photos is a nuisance.

“But, conversely, your client is there with a glance that says: ‘Are you also shooting?’.

“It’s almost vulgar when you are engrossed in a wonderful conversation, to be taking pictures at the same time.”

“The spirit of this project is about exploring the roots of the place – trying to find ways to connect with it and feel at home within the community,” said Michele, who spent three weeks shooting the project guerrilla-style using natural light and extreme angles.

“I’ve had so little time to feel rooted for most of my working life in the UK. As a freelancer I may have a job in Japan and then the next one in France.

“It’s been a real pleasure to explore and listen to stories and try and find narratives of interest that I could relate to. I definitely now feel that connection.

“I wanted to create a shared visual aesthetic. When you look at the imagery, most of it is on a pure white background. I had to work at certain angles to create a graphic, iconic shape. In a built environment that is really difficult, but it felt fundamental for me.”

“Originally we were going to be assisting Michele by producing and exhibiting the show,” said Ian Felton of Trinity Art Gallery.

“But we have all been consumed by Dock Lands People. It has given us a lot of opportunities and has been a great project.”

Ian, who founded Trinity Art Studios after switching from a career in extreme sports, first met Michele when Lightship 93 was moored at Trinity Buoy Wharf.

His team has recorded video interviews with the individuals photographed for the project, which are available online and are set to be edited into a short film. The exhibition will remain available at docklandspeople.com.

Trinity Art Gallery has branches at London City Island and Goodluck Hope. The latter opened in 2020 featuring a separate exhibition of Michele’s work entitled Vestiges In Bloom – a series of still life images featuring fresh flowers juxtaposed with objects from the Royal Docks’ maritime and industrial past.

by Laura Enfield

B+W Images: Michele Turriani / micheleturriani.com / @michele_turriani on Insta

Scan this code to view Dock Lands People or go to royaldocks.london

16 RDR

Theatre and performance maker Victor Esses and his partner, visual artist Yorgos Petrou, are working on a film. They’re also starting a family. The couple originally conceived Unfamiliar as a piece for theatre. This then became Unfamiliar At Home as lockdown restrictions stymied live iterations. The latest version, Unfamiliar To Us, is a site-specific installation that will be screened at The Silver Building in the Royal Docks until July 17, 2021

VICTOR LOVES ● Creating our own rituals ● The way Yorgos calms me down ● That I know he’ll be a caring and protective dad ● His energy and warmth ● Him saying yes to this insanity ● How he is open to working on us FEARS ● How my life will change completely ● Not being together anymore as parents ● Our child growing up to hate me ● Not being a better dad than my dad was ● The flat smelling of poo and nothing else

HISTORY

Victor: When you tell your parents you are gay it’s like: ‘But what about grandchildren’. But it doesn’t have to be a choice between the two. It’s harder. You can’t just go in the bedroom and do your business and hope for the best. You do need to consider the implications, but it is possible. I grew up in a small Jewish community in São Paulo, Brazil and, for me, having a family never felt like an option. The family was supposedly more important than anything.

When I told my parents about my sexuality it was: ‘We don’t want you to suffer, but we are going to make you suffer more than anyone in the world’. That’s why this project is so important – to take it back and say: ‘Family is not just this and you don’t have the right over that in my life’.

Yorgos: When we started thinking about having children, I thought about my parents. I grew up in a small town – Pathos in Cyprus – and moved to London when I was 24 to study.

It was just a reason to move away because it was very difficult being a gay man there. When I came here, I wasn’t out and it was a very long process of meeting myself here. I feel like I grew up here in a way.

IDEA

Victor: I use my work as a performance artist to process autobiographical things to try and learn from them. I wanted to make something about queer families to explore what that means and put it in front of society. I started to research and film friends who were having a baby through surrogacy. I asked Yorgos if he would be interested in joining.

Yorgos: I said yes and we started talking about it and would occasionally record the conversations, some of which feature in the film. It was a long

process to create this piece of work because it unfolded alongside our lives.

RESEARCH

Yorgos: We started this project in Newham when we did a residency at Applecart Arts and worked with them to reach out to the local queer community and get feedback. It started as a performance for theatre spaces but, for Join The Docks 2020, we wanted to adapt the script and create a new piece – a film.

Victor: We also partnered with Queer Newham – they are really brilliant. One of their missions is to bring queer people from different ethnic backgrounds together. They have supported us in engaging the local audiences and we will have various activities around the final exhibition.

EMOTION

Yorgos: This is my very first text-based performance and, as a visual artist, it was very strange because I usually process my feelings through

Scan this code for more information on The Silver Building screening of Unfamiliar To Us or go to royaldocks.london

HO FE

It’s important to share this because we never had examples of queer families growing up We want to do this for queer people who don’t feel visible VICTOR ESSES THEATRE MAKER

RDR 17

Image: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

a in l Victor, left, and his partner Yorgos are collaborating on bringing Unfamiliar To Us to the Royal Docks

making things in the studio. When you perform you have to do that again and again. It brings a lot of feelings up.

Victor: My work is often autobiographical and about being in a vulnerable place, but the experience of doing this – bringing the cameras home and making our space public – was new, very tender, raw and quite sensitive in a time that has been hard. It was exciting to make something completely new and document our home at this time – a challenge.

STRESS

Yorgos: After we filmed it we did a digital national tour and turned our home into a performance space during lockdown. Suddenly there was nowhere else to go and we have learned a lot about who we are under a lot of pressure.

PES ARS

Victor: We definitely know each other a lot better. When one person is struggling and the other can support them, that is one thing. But this year has shown that when everyone is going through a difficult time, it’s a different quality of support you can give. I guess that’s the case when you have a child too.

We have had to think about boundaries. We have argued more on this project than ever before, but it has been worth it.

STRAIN

Victor: It’s a very unpredictable time because of Covid. We have had to start and stop the process of having a child a few times. It’s an ongoing journey that is growing in parallel with the work being made.

YORGOS LOVES ● How Victor stands his ground ● How he makes space for others to be who they are ● The way he says: ‘Hold me’ and other needy things ● How terrible he is at lying ● Victor’s chest rubs when I feel anxious ● That he feels like love and he is love FEARS ● What happens if gay people become persecuted and are sent to concentration camps, their children too ● How my family in Cyprus will treat my child? ● Not agreeing on the best way to raise our kids

&

HEART

Victor: It’s important to share this because we never had examples growing up, of queer families. We want to do this for queer people who feel invisible or that this isn’t an option for them. We’re not saying this is for everyone, but if you want to build a family and connect, you can.

We also want to claim the word ‘family’, which is always hijacked by conservatives.

Gays have families. Queer people, historically, have had to leave their homes and find families among their friends and communities.

It’s also to connect to audiences who are not queer because it is a piece about being human – fears and hopes and need and love.

VISION

Yorgos: We have edited Unfamiliar To Us to screen it in the lower boiler room at The Silver Building – available until July 17. By bringing our domestic environment to this industrial exhibition space, a new experience can be created.

Victor: Every time we do a new version or perform one, we completely consider the space and the moment, so it’s very hard to predict exactly what will happen at The Silver Building.

Most of my practice is very DIY, it’s about being present and somewhere that is not pristine where there is that real vibe and character to that room. This project brings both our practices together in a really lovely way.

by Laura Enfield

● Not having enough time or energy for my career ● Our child being bullied or discriminated against because they have two gay dads

18 RDR

IMAGINE A T I

thought experiment Savena Surana and Tom Doust of the Institute Of Imagination take a moment by one of the Switch The Dock crates near Royal Victoria Dock

“Imagination is what separates us from anything else on the planet – it defines us as a species,” said Tom Doust. “Creativity is the application of imagination – it distinguishes us, it’s our ultimate human function.”

The director of experience and learning at the Institute Of Imagination is on a mission. Along with everyone else at the Royal Docks-based charity, he believes society doesn’t take imagination seriously enough, regarding it as frivolous, and that’s something that should change.

“We think people should be using imagination more or, at least, acknowledging its importance – especially in the light of the pandemic,” he said.

The institute was set up to advocate for both using imagination and to show people how they could make use of theirs for social good.

Alongside teachers, academics and experts, it’s supported by the likes of children’s author and playwright Michael Morpurgo, and Turner Prize-winner Mark Wallinger.

Through workshops in schools and museums, festivals and community centres, it creates opportunities for people to use their imagination.

With offices at Expressway under the Silvertown Way flyover, the charity is currently searching for a permanent space to house its Institute Of Imagination Campus, billed as a world-class cultural destination in London.

When it’s built, the campus will be a new visitor attraction,” said Tom. “But unlike most cultural destinations, it’s not about hanging items on walls and displaying them in glass cases, it’s about inviting people in to co-create the space and to participate in the environment.

“For example, we previously worked with Tate Britain’s digital team to take over seven galleries for a weekend. Thousands of visitors came to take part in activities that focused on what people could create in the galleries rather than simply absorbing what was on the walls. We’re about democratising the future of culture and spaces like that.”

The institute moved to the Royal Victoria Dock area, after three years at its base – the Imagination Lab – where it developed its approach and honed plans for

its campus. There the team discovered that openended learning and an inter-disciplinary approach were important themes to take forward.

While art, science and technology were key, what was more interesting to Tom and the team were the places where these areas interacted or overlapped and their aim was to develop somewhere people could express themselves without having to worry about making mistakes.

“We got really good feedback,” said Tom. “The success was down to working with great partners such as independent businesses, but also major brands such as Lego and Rolls Royce.

“We helped bring real world topics to the table. Rolls Royce was looking at the future of electrification and flight, while Lego was interested in the power of play in the education system. It was a great incubation space to work with those ideas.”

Originally the campus was set to be housed at The Crystal – with alternatives now being sought after the Mayor Of London announced concrete plans to move City Hall there.

While the team is in discussions with developers about potential sites, Tom said the institute had already been made very welcome in the Royal Docks by Mayor Of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz, among others.

“We’re very excited about the area’s status as an Enterprise Zone and the opportunities in the borough,” said Tom. “It’s very diverse here and, while it has its challenges and has been badly hit by Covid-19, we’re very pleased to be here.

“During the pandemic, we ran Institute Of Imagination At Home – a series of online workshops that brought creativity to where people live.

“For residents in Newham who didn’t have access to digital tools, we offered a loan scheme so they could take part. We’ve been so encouraged by the people we’ve been working with.

“The Royal Docks has great connectivity with the rest of the borough, and there are fantastic opportunities here.

“We think it’s important that, as the area changes, the next generation is brought along with that vision, because they’ll be crucial in helping shape the future of life here and the emerging community.”

by James Drury

RDR 19

Imagination is what separates us – it defines us as a species

O N

TOM DOUST, INSTITUTE OF IMAGINATION

The Institute Of Imagination lit up Royal Victoria Dock with a series of installations inspired by local people’s stories in the depths of winter. As part of Join The Docks 2020, lightboxes were made from crates with illuminated illustrations and animations on the themes of past, present and future.

The illustrations were chosen following community workshops involving people of various ages, said IOI marketing and outreach e a e a a a “We asked participants how they would like us to represent their own stories of the borough, and invited them to create their own lightbox prototypes using cardboard boxes, cellophane and other craft materials,” she said.

“We had lovely stories from people who were born in the Royal Docks, including one who remembered their dad getting up early each morning to go to work there.

“One remembered their delight at seeing a duck, which was a rarity at that time because it was a very industrial area. Another person shared an image of swallows– representing their journey from their place of origin to living by the docks. Responses to the theme of ‘present’ were very localised. Many people drew the road they lived on or represented their home or community. Cranes came up quite a lot, as did the Emirates Air Line cable car.

“A lot of people imagined the area’s future as a return to marshland, or nature taking over. Grass and trees were prevalent when people thought about the future, which is interesting because a long time ago this area was marshland.”

The project, titled Switch The Docks, saw the crates in place from December to January delivering imaginative diversions for passers-by.

crate invention Switch The Docks saw a series of illuminated boxes engage passers-by

Images: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

Scan this code to for more on the Insitute Of Imagination and Switch The Docks ioi.london

20 RDR

I’ve always enjoyed looking at the water

Journalist, presenter, author, colour expert and crafter Momtaz Begum-Hossain, has called the Royal Docks home for the past three years. Drawn to the area by its abundance of open water, she created Dock Tales for Join The Docks 2020 to uncover stories from eight members of the local community about their personal interaction with it as well as writing down her own reflections

it’s beautiful It can do so much, but it’s just one thing

telling

TALES “I find it very beautiful and calming and I wondered how other people felt about it and used it,” said Momtaz.

“We know the history, but I’m not sure too many people know what happens on the docks day-to-day.

For Dock Tales, I wanted to feature a real mixture of stories including someone who was new to the water like Tyrone.

“The project covers how the water impacts the lives of the people I’ve interviewed, whether that’s for work or pleasure.

“For readers I wanted to really bring out the individuals – not to just produce an historical or authoritative account. These are everyday Newham people and this is what they think – it’s really important to hear those voices. I wanted a mixture of ages and I’m really pleased to have found 50-50 men and women.

“I learnt loads from every single person but there’s still a lot more we need to learn about how we can use the water. When we think of London, it’s so busy – everyone flocks to the Thames – but here we have so much space.

“When I spoke to Toni from the Royal Docks Management Authority and she said: ‘I’m looking into starting up a floating market here’, I thought that sounded amazing. That really gave me a vision for the future – Royal Docks could be the place tourists flock to. I love the possibilities of that idea.”

Momtaz’s own tale features the thrill of open water swimming, local chocolate production and the joy she finds in the quieter, peaceful parts of the area.

A passionate advocate for the attractions of the area, she said she would encourage residents to strap on their shoes and explore for themselves.

“I would really encourage people to do the full walk from Royal Victoria Dock all the way to where the Thames opens up,” she said. “Going uninterrupted to Gallions Point is a really stunning route. It’s a free activity, you’ll see beautiful sites and get to know your area better.”

by Jon Massey Find out more about Royal Docks resident Momtaz and her exploits in colour at momtazbh.co.uk

the water is here Dock Tales creator Momtaz was drawn to the area by the ripples and the eddies Image: Kathy Illingworth

Stories together make up Momtaz’s Dock Tales

skating, beauty, danger, safety Tyrone’s discovery of the Royal Docks has given him a passion for the water

TYRONE FERGUSON, STUDENT

Image: Emma Nathan

RDR 21

WATER ON THE

Recently selected to undertake lifeboat training with Atlantic Pacific International Rescue, engineering and business student Tyrone Ferguson is new to experiencing the possibilities of the water in the Royal Docks, but he’s keen to seize all the opportunities. Here’s his Dock Tale...

“Man overboard.” I never thought I’d be hearing those words, but then I never thought I’d be driving a boat either. I’m a sporty person but it’s only recently that I’ve gone from land sports to water activities.

I tried white water rafting and kayaking on a school trip to Wales and really enjoyed it, but I didn’t know you could do activities like that here in London.

The wonder of the water I knew of the water at the Royal Docks but I didn’t come here until I became a student at London Design And Engineering UTC. When I first started I didn’t know anyone.

I would get my food at lunchtime and sit outside on my own and take in the view. I’ve always enjoyed looking at the water. It’s just beautiful. It can do so much but it’s just one thing, and that’s what’s amazing about it.

Now though, I’ve got lots of friends. In my group talking about the water comes up quite often but mostly we just skate up and down the docks.

Rowing skills One day Jonny Morgan, head of Year 13 came up to me and said he wanted to start a rowing team and enter us for competitions and he wanted me to put it together. I’d never tried rowing before and neither had anyone else.

We created a team made up of Years 12 and 13 and started training on Tuesdays on the rowing machines.

We had to do 500m to warm up, our distance for the day, and another 500m to cool down.

I never thought I’d be taking part in a rowing championship, but after a couple of months of training we took part in our first tournament, the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships 2020.

We had to do a team relay race where we did individual rowing, then had to get people off the machine and switch places without stopping.

We came in the top 10, which was an amazing achievement because the other competitors were from private schools or colleges that already did rowing competitively.

I think they should offer rowing in all schools because it’s a good way to keep fit and, if you don’t like all types of PE, it’s something a bit different.

Although I’ve not yet been able to row on the water, I have been on it thanks to the Introduction To Search And Rescue course me and some other students from the college did with Atlantic Pacific International Rescue.

Robin Jenkins, from their team, took us out on a boat and it was the first time any of us had been on the water. I was excited and looking forward to it

but when they then told us: “You’re going to drive the boat,” I was like: “Huh?”. It made my stomach churn, but once I learnt, it was an amazing experience.

Learning the ropes The boat seats two at the front, two in the middle and has one large seat at the back for the casualty.

The purpose was to show us what it would be like to be part of a lifeboat crew – what we’d have to know to save someone but also what to do if we were in a situation where we needed to be saved.

They taught us casualty care, CPR and also showed us a special lifeboat tent, which floats on the water.

You have one in case your boat crashes.

When we first got on the boat there were quite a lot of nervous people worried about what would happen if they crashed when it was their turn at the wheel.

I don’t drive a car so driving a boat was very exciting. It had a steering wheel and a throttle that you had to lift to go faster. You put it into neutral to stop and then down to reverse. I enjoyed learning how to do this.

Man overboard Then we had to do a rescue, which is when they shouted: “Man overboard”. It was a scenario where we had to pull a dummy out of the water.

Driving the boat, we had to turn back and approach the casualty slowly. It involved being very precise, although one person did accidentally drive over the dummy and we had to find a way to rescue it from under the boat without getting in the water.

The number one instruction we had was never get in the water. Even if you’re the strongest swimmer, when rescuing someone, you need to stay on the boat.

One of the biggest problems rescuers face is when people in the water panic and try and climb into the boat too quickly before the crew members are ready for them.

Sometimes they grab onto the crew and pull them in. The course is over now but we’re still working with Atlantic Pacific – creating a game to raise awareness about the environment of the water.

Looking to the horizon Having a chance to go on the water and learn more about it has made me want to volunteer as a lifeguard in the future.

At the moment I’m looking at either doing an apprenticeship or studying for a civil engineering degree at a university outside London, but hopefully somewhere where there is water so I can keep practising.

I think every young person should have the opportunity to learn about water safety just in case something bad happens, even if you think you’ll never go on it or in it. I still need to learn how to swim – it’s on my list when I have time and, one day, I would definitely like to try swimming in the docks.

by Momtaz Begum-Hossain Scan this code to access all of Momtaz’s Dock Tales or go to royaldocks.london

22 RDR

Image of Liliana: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

SING ALONG

For Join The Docks 2020 Newham Music has been using local history as inspiration, working with local children to help them devise their own musical compositions based on the area. Its project will also be used to create interactive and accessible learning resources and activities as well as a Join The Docks songbook for use in schools and community settings...

C F Welcome to the Royal Docks!

C G here water flows ke t e o c ocks C F oats cra es car o eo e a ca see C G C he t re s what we ca e C

EXPRESS WRITE PERFORM

F ar a wa C G arch co er a C F he ro ht s the aths C F o we o t s e so a t C G C o s ow wash e er a o a s ca e ro

“We’ve been involved with Join The Docks festivals in previous years – running things such as ukulele workshops and jazz performances,” said Newham Music’s Nicola Williams.

“With this project, we were interested in finding ways to help young people express themselves and understand the world around them.”

Having teamed up with the Museum Of London Docklands, Newham Music had originally planned to visit schools across the borough to help pupils write songs about local history.

However, Covid-19 restrictions meant the team was only able to visit two groups of children – Early Years pupils at Royal Wharf Primary School and Year 4 at Britannia Village School.

CHORUS C F a ors ro ht a a as C G ree e ow a hea th C F ctor a s ke the too C F he shoo awa the fl C G C e ha ts a s ar ca e too C

>> Royal Wharf Primary School pupils were immersed in the history of the docks by singing songs with Newham Music teacher Liliana Luongo and local songwriter and musician Rosie Adediran.

F a es o e the actor es C G t eo e a e sa e we t er ro C F ac ate the k s C F that s st what we C G C he ratt e a erte the scare ar

CHORUS C

F t re o the ocks C G e re schoo s a co t es C F o ses ho es a work C F t s ot a oke C G C he water flows thro h o r e s e are the

>> The older children at Britannia Village School had an inspiration day organised with the Museum Of London Docklands, which looked at the many ways the Thames has been used over different periods of time.

sounds around Newham Music teacher Liliana Luongo worked with Royal Wharf Primary School pupils

INSPIRE WORK HISTORY Emma Wright, schools programme manager at Museum Of London Docklands said: “We’re always keen to work with schools that are local to the museum.

For the inspiration day at Britannia Village we selected five objects

C F Welcome to the Royal Docks!

C G here water flows ke t e o c ocks C F oats cra es car o eo e a ca see C G C he t re s what we ca e

to tell stories about the local area’s history

o wr tte w th ch re ro r ta a a e choo sc teacher Allison Venn as art o the o he ocks ro ect

EMMA WRIGHT MUSEUM OF LONDON DOCKLANDS

>> It is hoped, restrictions permitting, that Newham Music’s project will result in a mass performance of musical works over the summer

RDR 23

MAKERS “For us it’s about increasing a sense of belonging and ownership of the museum, and encouraging children and schools to visit. For the inspiration day at Britannia Village we selected five objects to tell stories about five moments in the local area’s history.”

BANANA RATTLE PROTEST

play time Rosie Adediran – a local songwriter and musician took part in the project

Emma said the first item the museum shared with the children was a replica of a prehistoric axe head found in the Thames.

“The pupils were asked to think about how it was made and how it got into the river,” she said. “The Royal Docks area used to be marshland and we have evidence of Bronze Age communities in this area living along the Thames.” >> Next up was a Roman strigil – a scraper used when people went to the bathhouse – because, Emma said, there was evidence of a Roman road and ferry point at Gallions Reach. Then there was a significant leap forward in time to the Victorian era.

“To illustrate this time, we used a banana, which always makes the children laugh,” she said. “It’s a symbol of the goods coming into London from all over the world. During this time, Docklands was a gateway to the world.

“The first docks in this area were dug at West India Quay in 1802 – the Royal Docks opened with Royal Victoria Dock in 1855 and Royal Albert Dock in 1880.” >> To illustrate the area’s history during the Second World War, the children were shown an air raid precaution rattle, similar to a wooden football rattle.

“During the war 25,000 tonnes of ordnance fell on the Docklands – much of it on Royal Docks, but they stayed open, helping to bring food into the country during shortages,” said Emma. “This was a time when women were being drafted into factories to work because the men were in the armed forces.

“Finally, we had a protest banner from the 1980s which symbolises the response to the regeneration of the Docklands area.

“Due to changes in technology and the size of container ships, the docks were no longer fit for purpose and closed, with a big impact on people’s jobs and the economy.

“Then the area was redeveloped – and we asked questions about what the positive and negative consequences were of that.

“At the end of the session we asked children to think about what the future might look like.” >> Newham Music teacher Allison Venn used the inspiration day session as the basis for a song, while the children learned about writing lyrics and rhyming couplets.

“The kids loved it,” said Nicola.

“Particularly finding out about history from the Museum Of London Docklands team. They have all been singing the songs at school outside of classes.”

by James Drury

Scan this code for more on Newham Music’s ongoing project or go to royaldocks.london

24 RDR

PLAY

“The whole fact the place existed surprised me,” said Jonny Wooster, about the discovery of The Kent Arms in the Royal Docks. “This was a pub in the 1960s which was full of dockworkers and sailors and gays and drag queens and you used to go through a door and see gay mods dancing with each other. I was like: ‘What?’.”

The comedian, actor and drag artist, who performs under the name Jonny Woo, found out about the pub, which was located on Albert Road, when he interviewed gay activist Stuart Feather. He knew he had to dramatise it.

“It sounds like gays were running around all over the place at a time when it was still illegal and a lot of them had to be really closeted,” he said. “I became interested in the stories around the pub and that fuelled the direction of the play.”

Set in 1962, Silvertown is fictitious, but details of the places, people and language are based on testimonies Jonny gathered from those who propped up both sides of the bar. Having received a research and development grant as part of Join The Docks 2020 to help create it, he tracked down a former barman and paid visits to the Royal British Legion in North Woolwich to interview local residents.

“It’s good to have the words coming from the people who lived the experience,” he said. “I feel like I need to keep talking to them to keep their voices alive. I think a lot of people enjoyed chatting about this because there is so much in politics which is dreary.”

The main storyline is inspired by Jonny’s favourite book – Last Exit To Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr – in which a factory worker falls in love with a feminine queen.

“I like a dramatic gay story even though it’s not the most fashionable thing,” he said.

The plot of Silvertown centres around Jack – a closeted, alcoholic dockworker in a dysfunctional marriage who meets a mixed-race, feminine gay guy in The Kent Arms. They have an affair, which he tries to keep hidden from his young wife and abusive boss.

“While I have been doing this research I have come up with all sorts of characters – tragic, heroic and nasty ones – and now I have to get them into the story,” said Jonny.

“The docks in the ’60s sounded so vibrant, colourful and unique that I want to paint characters who feel exciting and vital and create a world that is authentic, with a real emotional punch. If people are educated in the process, that’s great.”

PROGRESS

Jonny has turned what he has written so far into a short film featuring a series of monologues.

“I have really enjoyed watching actors bring life to the characters and show me their potential,” he said.

“I now have to work out how this story plays out and affects each of them.”

Having filmed the monologues over two days at The

fiction from fact Jonny is basing his play Silvertown on testimonials he gathered from people who knew the Kent Arms in North Woolwich

Lockdown has given me space to be singular in my focus and that has been great JONNY WOOSTER WRITER

SILVER Image: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

LINED WITH

Scan this code to RDR 25 see the Silvertown monologues or find them at royaldocks.london

PERSON

PERFORMER

going out clubbing. There were no limits. It was so different to what we have in London. When I returned, I brought all those ideas back.”

Jonny’s career has included touring the world, creating events for The Royal Opera House, London Coliseum, MTV and Selfridges as well as changing the face of London’s drag scene with Gay Bingo.

“I couldn’t pick a career highlight,” he said. “Doing the Un-Royal Variety at Hackney Empire felt like one.

Opening the Festival Hall for Peaches, doing my first gig in drag, doing this play.

“You can’t cling onto the past, I would really like

them flourish and enjoy today’s freedoms. The new conversations around gender and identity are really exciting and the suggestions around language, such as pronouns, are not complicated to negotiate. It’s not that hard to say: ‘They’. The very small changes we introduce can make a huge difference to how other people feel.

“We’ve come a long way but, unfortunately, there is a very manipulative media that pits people against each other. Things will move forwards and hopefully calm down in a progressive way.”

by Laura Enfield

cer ts ro onolo ues l ed

by Jonny as part of his project to de elo Sil erto n

S

“My Jack was handsome once. Kind of. I worked with his sister Anne, down in Lyle’s. She a a a ett t ht th the girls on the debris. Feisty, like.

Trouble, but nice trouble, good for a drink.

“You remember her. She had the short hair, used to get it cut in the barbers. Always wore bright red lippy though. Popped out to the shop one day, didn’t come back. ell do n so e hole round b here the as buildin the ats. No-one knew she was there.

Down there two days, I heard. She weren’t dead.

“Anyway, she introduced me to him. Went round her house after work. Went upstairs and he was right there, ’avin a wash down in the sink. Just standing there in his pants. I didn’t know where to look. He had s ashin uscles on him. Nice arms. I said to Anne: ‘He’s lovely your brother, imagine having a brother as lovely as that’.

She gave me ever such a funny look.”

TED

“Did you get the ferry over? You should ha e Th that hat t e a e t a t time on that.

“Felt like I was going on holiday.

If you’re going the other way, sit downstairs. Nothing to see that side o the ater. Below deck you can see all the pistons, how the at a at t the kiddies trying to work it out.

Marvellous it is. An’ I love the smell of oil. Think that’s why I’ve got a thing for greasers...

“Take a good look at that ship, at the end of the street. It’s like at h a he e a ea t woman gets whisked far away in search of love, before she dies.

The festoons hanging between the masts, the little lanterns and cabins all lit up. Our crooked

old pub, The Kent Arms, all in silhouette, like a little gingerbread house in a fairytale. I tell ya what, sometimes, I think this is the prettiest place on earth.”

READ RITA’S MONOLOGUE ON PAGE 26

to be in a club spinning off my head but I can’t do Silver Building in the Royal Docks, his longer-term plan that anymore, so art is the way. Now, at 48, I’m is to stage a live production of Silvertown at a local attempting to write a play. I’m drifting away from venue. drag. The style of drag on RuPaul’s Drag Race is so “I’m interested in discussing contemporary different to mine when I started. I wasn’t interested in queer conversations in the context of the ’60s,” he perfecting make-up. It was about being shocking and said. “I think repurposing a theme with a different experimenting. language and time is a good way to look at something “Drag queens make serious money now but I contemporary without getting bogged down by the don’t know if it’s entirely for me because I have too noise of political correctness. I’m interested in the many wrinkles in my face to put that many layers of ideas of alcoholism, straight men who have sex with foundation on. I’m really pleased to do a project I don’t feminine men but don’t identify as gay, working-class have to put any makeup on for.” gay culture and the campness and ferocity that comes with having to survive very real danger and abuse.

“My gay characters are fearless and not scared of fighting but are incredibly camp and bold about their “I have always known I was gay and had a pretty easy sexuality. Imagine if you crossed Kenneth Williams with ride of it,” said Jonny. “I came out at 16 at school and 21 Mike Tyson. They can sit at a bar and regale the crowd to my family. It wasn’t a huge surprise to anyone. with a story, talk in Polari and be incredibly funny – but “I was never attacked, I had the odd name-calling at if you cross them, they will get a bottle and smash it school but worked out pretty quickly what not to do. over your head. People who knew some of the notable I am aware of an atmosphere that manifests itself in gay men of the area say you wouldn’t mess with them other ways and is deeply rooted psychologically and as they could give as good as they got, or worse.” it’s something I’m still discovering.

Jonny, who co-owns gay pub The Glory said some of “I’m sure there are ties to my attitude towards drink his own experiences had made their way into the play. and drugs that a psychotherapist could pick apart, “I have a whole wealth of silly stories and general but I’d rather write about it. There are codes you are chat I can feed in,” he said. “The main character is supposed to adhere to as a man growing up and I closest to me emotionally. I have been through alcohol remember reading you could identify gay men if they recovery before and have completely stopped drinking crossed their legs and touched their hair – stupid again because I want to get as much of this done as things, but it made me scared to do them. possible before life gets back to normal.

“Back then everyone on TV was really camp and “Normally I would have been distracted as I was I didn’t want to be like that. That’s why I’m keen to writing my memoirs, doing stuff with my friend Le explore that level of camp now and represent it as Gateau Chocolat and had a show lined up at Soho something not to be mocked or Theatre. Lockdown has given ridiculed but to be in awe and me space to be singular in almost in fear of in a way. There my focus and that has been Drag queen, cabaret act, artist, is a power and strength in that. great. This project is like an presenter, publican and writer, “I still sort of have a fear of escape.”

Jonny Wooster’s latest project telling people I’m gay and that is is the creation of a play based on such a hang-up from growing up North Woolwich pub The Kent Arms in the ’80s. Gay people above the age of 40 have a whole history “I grew up in Medway and had Having filmed monologues from of oppression that younger gays a happy childhood but always some of the key characters in 2020, don’t necessarily identify with. assumed I would move to he’s pressing ahead with writing the There’s a distinct generational London as I wanted to go into finished work, inspired by talking divide I’m seeing now. theatre from a young age,” to Royal Docks residents who knew “The reality of the past was still said Jonny. the venue in its ’60s heyday evident when I grew up. Pubs He trained in drama and had blacked out windows or you dance in Birmingham and the had to knock on the door to capital but it was New York get in. There was still a level of that changed his world. homophobia, which is different “It was punky drag and the to now. There is sometimes a lack burlesque scene was just of understanding of what older starting,” he said. ”I had the generations had to go through freedom to be the artist I and why we ended up the way we wanted to be. It was amazing, have. We are the tail end of HIV so liberating – a whole new and that’s why it is hard to find world to explore. older gay men – a lot did die.

“Drag started as throwing “I have a pub full of young on heels, a jockstrap, queers and it’s amazing to see smearing on makeup and

26 RDR

CAST

Rachel Wilde, 42, plays Rita who is in an abusive marriage with dock boss Reg. She grew up in Canning Town and said in some ways her mum, who still lives there, reminds her of the character.

“Rita’s life at home is quite miserable,” said Rachel. “Reg is a racist, bigot and hits her and I feel like she has so much stuff pushed down and it just seeps out of her. She’s just drawn to this pub because it makes her forget her life for one night. My mum is a bit like her, she suppresses stuff, like a lot of her generation. “ Fans of Eastenders may recognise Rachel as she played Nikki Spraggan for nine months on the soap before her character was written out.

“It was amazing, but in hindsight I would have played her more bitchy and feisty because those characters do well. I always like to bring layers to the parts I play.”

When she found out about Silvertown from a local friend, she knew she had to be part of it.

“It’s the area I’m from and both my nans worked at Tate & Lyle – both my grandads were dockers,” she said. “Rita was never supposed to be a main character, but Jonny wrote this monologue for me and it is amazing. When I watched it back, I wanted to cry for her.”

Monologues filmed in the Royal Docks for the development of Silvertown

Jonny wrote this monologue for me and it is amazing. When I watched it back, I wanted to cry for her RACHEL WILDE ACTOR

RITA

“Oh my eldest is so excited. He said they let the cooks on the tugs do the horn at 12 o’clock. et o stea the hor as ch as the wa t t s h s rst t e o t eso sa o he s a o a rea e sa the wake o st e ore ht e wo t ha e s e t t a k rea es a wa s o e t whe the oats o the hor s at ht a wa s ee a t sa at ht o k ow st a t t a ce wa t s ke t s the e o so eth ack to or a e ore o k ow t ree o t o the street se to t rea ca es o the tree tt e c o o es h o e the s e o the tree a the ca es a the coa re se to e er the ra ches ook at the ca es fl cker t was o e o rse o ha to ow e o t e er ht e or ot o ce we t o t a the wa set the a er chains alight. Me Mum tho ht the who e ho se o ea e rothers co t sto cr ca se we s e t who e a making them chains out o o ews a ers s eh

royal docks roots Rachel, who plays Rita in the Silvertown monologues, is from the local area – her grandparents worked as dockers and at Tate & Lyle and her mother still lives in Canning Town

Image: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

Follow Jonny Wooster on Instagram for more on his work @JonnyWoouk

Find out more about Marcus’ artwork on his website marcuslyall.co.uk

RDR 27

Images: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

“Royal Docks is full of these in-between spaces,” said Marcus Lyall. “The space under the Silvertown Way flyover is a cavernous, unloved space where the concrete columns that hold the road up have just been covered up and left. When I found it, it was full of rubble, old tyres, a dead, shrivelled fox and discarded beer cans.”

Based at Here East in Stratford, the artist, who has created audio visual work for the likes of Metallica, Bon Jovi and The Rolling Stones, decided it was the perfect location for an art installation. He spent four months planning and building Presence, an audio visual display to transform the derelict underpass by Expressway into a giant echo chamber. Passers-by were invited to speak or shout into the void and hear their amplified words reverberate, distort and echo down a corridor of light.

“I thought it would be something unexpected,” said Marcus. “The last thing you imagine you will come up against in that underpass is a laser display. It has been great bringing art to a place where you wouldn’t normally find it.”

The project was full of challenges. Marcus had to design an installation that would fill the space without attaching anything to the columns, make it interactive without breaking social distancing rules and make it easy to remove every night for safety reasons.

“I actually like working like that with constraints and a limited palette,” said the 49-year-old. “That’s why using a laser was really nice because, they are good at projecting light for incredibly long distances so it was a way to create a physical form within the space that had a real vibe.”

Presence was based on his previous projects House Of Pain and Scream The House Down – both inspired by primal scream therapy – and On Your Wavelength, a laser display controlled using brainwaves that he originally showcased at Canary Wharf’s Winter Lights festival. The Homerton resident also took inspiration from his youth.

lit up Marcus Lyall’s installation, Presence, saw the words of passers-by echo down a corridor of laser light underneath the Silvertown Way flyover

in London. All these weird, different things fit together like a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, but it feels like the pieces are in much sharper contrast than other areas of London. I remember when King’s Cross was full of big derelict buildings but now it is all developed. Royal Docks is just hanging on as the last sliver of land like that.

“The cranes are up and it is all transforming very quickly, but there are still these little pockets of opportunity for something different. Part of my work is about looking at spaces in a different way.

“As an artist it can be quite challenging finding spaces that haven’t been privatised. I like showing the possibility that a space could be used for something else at least. Not everything has to be turned into luxury apartments.”

Marcus was already a part of the area’s complex history, having directed a film for the opening of The Crystal. He has plenty of ideas for future projects.

“I saw a great place in Factory Road that I’d love to do something at. It’s sort of like a fish tank with great windows, opposite the old Brick Lane Music Hall. I have an obsession with derelict buildings.

There are some great opportunities down at Royal Albert Wharf and I‘d love to do something on the water with boats.”

Marcus has turned more to art installations in recent years, but they aren’t what pays the bills. He has seen his work for the music industry drop by 90% during the pandemic.

He said: “The past was horrific,” he said. “There were zero clients and probably won’t be until the end of 2021. But you have to just keep going and get your hustle on.”

by Laura Enfield

“The echo effect comes from dub reggae as I used to go to a lot of those gigs when I was younger,” said Marcus. “There is a big influence from that sound system culture which was very much part of my upbringing in Highbury. I got my start doing projects for warehouse parties, so that idea of appropriating these big industrial spaces came from my teens.”

He drew up a list of words for participants to use, based on research about Silvertown including a black horse that used to live in the field by the underpass and the explosion at a munitions factory during the First World War. “Historically it is quite a disconnected part of London,” said Marcus. “There are only a few roads in and out and it is quite cut off with its own character – a split personality. There are enclaves of people who have lived there for generations, these huge new developments and the Tate & Lyle area, which is one of the few genuine bits of industrial activity

I thought it would be something unexpected – the last thing you imagine in that underpass MARCUS LYALL ARTIST

presenting presence

BRINGING TALENT TOGETHER Among the proposals awarded a research and development grant for Join The Docks 2020 was Project On A Bus – a mentorship programme for 10 artists, run by lecturers from the University Of East London.

The group has been meeting and sharing their work with the intention of eventually performing it at a new venue made from a converted bus.

“Project On A Bus is basically two parts,” said Carrie Mueller, the programme’s artistic co-director. “The first is a young artist and development programme.

“We have offered the participants rehearsal space at UEL and have helped them develop their creative works as well as online workshops with a whole range of professional artists. The second part is the purchasing of a bus and the customisation of that as a flexible performance venue as a direct response to Covid times.

“One of our first inspirations for the project was the Freedom Riders who were a mixed group of non-violent civil rights protesters who would be together on a bus – travelling together in 1960s America. The idea of the bus is symbolic and a metaphor for going on a journey, being non-violent and expressing what needs to be said in these days.”

“We did a call out, invited applications and opened the project up to graduates of UEL and current students,” said Juliet Knight, also artistic co-director. “People pitched work to us and we chose the ones that felt most relevant – pieces that felt like they had legs.

“This project was really born out of all the theatres shutting. We had this idea of making a site-specific piece so performance could happen. We were worried about the future opportunities for our graduates and young, emerging artists out there.

“We hope the bus will be parked in the Royal Docks when it is ready.”

by Jon Massey

Main images: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

28 RDR

EIGHT years ago, a 12-year-old boy collapsed in a hospital car park, unable to control his extremities and temporarily blinded by the black and white fla h ht eh h e e As someone hoisted his body into a wheelchair and carted him through the doors of the emergency room, he heard his mother call a name he didn’t e et eh In that moment, he was suddenly reminded of his own fragile mortality and begged a secret, silent question to no-one in particular: “Which name will the t t t e What I’ve failed to mention is that boy was me, a a t a e e Th at the t e

‘that boy’ a t h e a h T e e e e e a a e that e e et t a false legacy I was made aware of within a fraction of a e Even though I’d quickly learn I hadn’t really been dying at all, the experience stuck with me, and the e t e Being raised in a Lutheran community, I was completely secretive about my gender identity for te a h e e t a a e t ee th shut, but from that moment forward, hearing my th a e a e t a ht Even now, as that legal nightmare lingers on e e e t at ha e t e if I will die in a world that chooses to bury me with honour, or one which will shun “that boy” from e te e a ete he e e ha e e Th ta at a ea t e a e factual events that happen today, even to people h e e a ha e the a ea e We, as transgender and nonbinary individuals, ha e t ht t e e a e h t ea e e t eath From that day at the hospital until now, I have obsessed over legacy with the fervour of Achilles, a a

determined to scream about

hat ee t e e e te The e a e ha e

by Jude Anzell

ea e a t t ea a e e

t e h e e the e

My name is Jude Anzell (He/Him). I am a 20-year-old actor/musician and student from the United States, and I’m so excited to be involved with Project On A Bus, during which I am going to be researching and protesting the devastating lack of transgender healthcare in the UK. With zero set guidelines or standards of education on trans healthcare from neither NICE, the General Medical Council, the Royal Colleges, the NHS or NHS trusts, many of us are forced to go private.

But what then, when those who first refused to help us intentionally make it impossible to get help anywhere else?

Instagram: @Ichorvs Twitter: @Aidxneus

RDR 29

Rute Eliana Santos

ARTISTS MENTORED SUPPORTED

i am taking space.

Kyrah ié

@rutellis on Instagram

SPACE to identify myself as a black female artist and creator. Space to speak against transgressions that I have been taught to ignore.

I am taking space to exist in alliance with change and prosperity. I am Christian Neal, creator and writer of Deprivation Americana.

@K.W.I

Sam Maxwell

the t e that e te that the t righteous thing I can do is empower myself by taking space. I do this creatively. Every room I enter, the goal is to create connections, beauty, hope, truth, and empowerment.

I take space to own space. I take space to identify with myself, when I belong to a thousand e t ta e a e e the hear that were never spoken.

To me that is the justice in making and creating theatre. I am building a new world, it’s small and futile, but even through its failures it is a consciousness that is a saving grace.

In taking space, I come closer to an identity for myself as a young gifted black woman. I hold on to that e e e a e te a e a at times dismiss myself from the contagious ideals that I learn from a history that does not apply to me. In my work, I search and conquer the ideals that have limited me in my life so far, and in doing so I save myself and my space.

Christian Graham

@samismusic

this is my healing process.

I’m facing fears I never even truly knew I had and facing truths so easily believed just because they were the only ones I heard.

In working on Deprivation Americana, my new a h ta e a a myself creating and accepting my own narrative, after years of other people’s stories suppressing my own. There is a time for sharing, but there is a time ta e e t ea h a e e e t a a te ta a e e e e fleet

by Christian Neal

@Christian_a_graham

I am Christian Neal. I am a New Orleans-born, Vegas-raised American artist working to create art that soothes my soul. I am a current third year performing arts student at the University Of East London.

I am a multi-hyphenate actor, creator, playwright, singer. For this project I am developing a piece called Deprivation Americana, which pits two American dreams against each other in the ultimate battle for freedom and prosperity.

Instagram: @Chris.tianneal

Also check out the Instagram accounts of the other Project On A Bus particpants: Judith Callol-Morante @JudithCallol Dawn Conway @Dctwinkles Jumoke Akinola @Jumokeanita Holly Kasselder @_hollyjk

artistic directors UEL lecturers Juliet Knight, left, and Carrie Mueller created Project On A Bus Scan this code to find out more about Project On A Bus or go to projectonabus.com

30 RDR

SILVER

Norma Giles We would go over on the Woolwich Ferry. That was like a really good day out. It was on the old ferry, when you could go down into the engine room. I loved it, ‘cause it was all gleaming and shiny and the silver pistons go up and down. And the smell of the oil. I mean, I haven’t been on the ferry for years, so I know that would be different now, but that was a real day out, over to Greenwich and the park....

...there used to be dance halls. In EAST HAM you could go to the old town hall...

...with the docks you never got any SLEEP really – well you got used to it....

They’re coming in and out during the night, trains going up and down picking up passengers. What we used to do, with the American ships that used to come in, we used to look out for the American ships and used to go down to the locks and stand there.

GOT ANY SWEETS? GOT ANY SWEETS? And they used to chuck us all chocolates. This is one, two in the morning – whatever time – we stood there as the American ships came in...

Larry Springthorpe

It’s still there now – they’d put on dances on a Saturday night. And also, next door, in the winter, at the ath the a eafl t a the e a e a at a night. They used to have bands – a little live band with a singer...

Kathy Geeves Scan this code to access Grown Up In The Royal Docks in full or go to royaldocks.london

SOCIALS

Glynis Webb How did I meet my husband? Robert’s a local boy, he grew up in North Woolwich. There was a group of us who used to play in the street, along what we called the dock fence. Then we both went off to work and met up at Tate & Lyle’s – they had a social. The factories around North Woolwich and Silvertown – they used to have socials – and we met back up there. That’s where we got together and went out from there...

a moment in time Larry Springthorpe with sister Mavis in the garden in 1948, submitted as part of Grown Up In The Royal Docks

REMAINS THE MEMORY

RDR 31

SOUND

Ginny Dow My eldest brother John, he was in a band and he was the drummer. My younger brother Eddy played guitar – so a bit musical.

We used to like rock’n’roll. I remember going over Woolwich and there was a big cinema called the Odeon, and I distinctly remember – you won’t even know what I’m saying – we went to see Bill Haley. Ever heard of him? He done Rock Around The Clock, and we went over to see him over there.

We got downstairs, we got good seats downstairs so that we could have a dance.

But as they were dancing upstairs and banging their feet, they had to give a warning out because they thought the thing was going to come down.

Such a good night over there, yeah it’s just like yesterday. I remember that, Bill Haley And The Comets...

...as a oun ster ro about si or se en I would go tap dancing – that was SATURDAYS and uesda e enin s We used to do little shows two or three times a year.

That was really lovely, growing up.

As I got older, I got a little shyer of appearing in front of people. I think my parents really liked seeing me on stage dancing and singing.

When I got to 16 there was a little group of us that used to do singing and dancing, but that was at our local working men’s club.

There was only six or seven of us that used to do that because obviously we were going to the working men’s club and they were only small stages, and couldn’t take a big great dancing group there...

S l ia ud eld

Image of Lisa: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

WHAT’S ON THESE PAGES? First loves, family days out, dancing the night away. Memories of what it was like to grow up in the Royal Docks are being collected for a forthcoming exhibition.

In late 2020, the Museum Of Youth Culture ran a series of workshops across Newham where people of all ages could share their memories and photographs of the area when they were young for its Grown Up In The Royal Docks project.

“The aim was to document 100 years of what it was like being a young person in the area,” said Lisa Der Weduwe, cultural projects assistant at Youth Club, a not-for-profit organisation working to preserve, share, educate and celebrate youth culture by opening up a physical museum. Part of Join The Docks 2020, the project’s exhibition can be viewed online by following the QR code on the opposite page.

by James Drury

fragments from the past In this image, also submitted by Larry Springthorpe, local residents enjoy a party to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953

gathering material Lisa Der Weduwe and the team at the Museum Of Youth Culture have been collecting memories of life in the Royal Docks

32 RDR

Image: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

EXPERIENCE Musicians tasked with creating for Musicity x Royal Docks

Footsteps thudding on stairs are the only sound in the night. The white walls of the passage loom long and eerie in the artificial light. Dark figures appear, watching, waiting.

Suddenly a voice cries out – not in fear or anger – in joyous song. A chorus of sounds emerges and builds, singing, the wail of a bass clarinet, the patter of a passing cyclist and a cacophony of cymbal and drums.

This is Al MacSween’s Deep Time – a musical journey through Woolwich Foot Tunnel, recorded in the dead of night with 16 musicians and singers using binaural microphones to capture an immersive 3D experience along its 504m length.

Members of the chorus stand isolated in space, time and melody, listening to the composition on headphones and voicing their parts, eyes closed, unaware of the musical wave swelling around them. Unaware of the tunnel singing back to them, reverberating with an almost ethereal pleasure.

The footsteps of sound engineer Camilo Tirado slow in front of the bass clarinet to capture its mournful melody. Once out of sight, the performer’s presence remains, as if you could reach back and touch it. The sound caresses the hollow of the tunnel. A discarded beer can has its moment in the spotlight.

The report of a drum calls the viewer forward to a party.

Percussion and the clarinet join with the choir, exalting the space. Their aural shadows overlap and intensify.

Emerging from the exit, the musicians are left behind, but their melody lingers.

CREATOR

Al is a multi-disciplinary musician based in Blackheath, who records at studios in Canning Town and has worked with Gary Bartz, Sarathy Korwar and his musical collective Kefaya.

discovering the tunnel

“I had never walked through it before the project,” said Al. “When it was built it would have been super busy with all the dock workers going from the south to the north side of the river.

“Today that area has an element that is very commercial and bureaucratic but the foot tunnel is a completely non-commercial space. It is only there to serve the public.

“There’s something unusual about that in London.

Also you are quite deep down under the river. There is something about the experience of going into an underground space with no phone signal. It can feel like time moves differently.

following the echoes

“The sound of the tunnel is amazing,” said Al. “You can put anything in a space like that and it will sound interesting.

“The further away you get from the sounds the more you start to hear the tunnel itself. Someone played a snare drum from one end and, at the other, you heard these high notes and whistles coming

Scan this code to listen to the works created for Musicity x Royal Docks or go to mscty.space

RDR 33 WOOLWICH FOOT TUNNEL A SHORT HISTORY

UNDERGROUND

SOUND

● The tunnel crosses under the Thames from Old Woolwich in Greenwich to North Woolwich in Newham ● Its creation was masterminded by former docks worker Will Crooks who later served as Labour MP for Woolwich ● Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice designed it and Walter Scott & Middleton built it ● London County Council chairman

Lord Cheylesmore opened it on Saturday, 26 October 1912 ● Both entrances are Grade II listed buildings, with the south being the oldest remaining building in the riverside area of Old Woolwich ● It is 504m long and, at its deepest, the roof is about 3m below the river bed above ● The tunnel was closed from September 2010 to August 2011 for repairs to structural weaknesses ● A 2016 survey showed around 1,000 people use it each day

through. I wanted to explore that and use the tunnel as one of the instruments.

“I composed Deep Time based on someone moving through the tunnel, closer to different musicians at different points. If you sing specific notes, the whole tunnel starts singing out and you get this resonant frequency.

“There was a low E-flat that was really prominent.

That’s quite a strange basis to have as the low root, harmonically.

“But that informed the tonality of the piece and also meant it had this strange suspended feel to it. I tried to create something quite fluid so nothing clashed and that led to this quite ethereal sound.”

The sound of the tunnel is amazing – you can put anything in a space like that and it will sound interesting AL MACSWEEN MUSICIAN

staying in sync

“I was hoping for four or five singers, but I think people were a bit musicdeprived and, even though it was a bit strange coming to this tunnel on a Sunday night, they were up for it,” said Al. “We spent about an hour there.

It felt strange in these times, even though we were socially distanced.

“I recorded the music for the singers on a keyboard and gave them copies with their parts on.

“Nobody had to really learn it, they just sang what they were hearing in their headphones. There was no other way to synchronise them, because the tunnel is so long you couldn’t even see half the people.

“When we first tried to go for a take, this drunk guy showed up and wanted to chat to everyone in the tunnel and it was really hard to get rid of him.

“On another take, we completely lost it as Camillo was halfway down the tunnel and the musicians were running after him.”

surrounded by sound PROJECT NOTES

Al’s piece is one of six commissioned to respond to local cultural and architectural landmarks by MSCTY for Musicity x Royal Docks – part of Join The Docks.

Members of the public can listen for free online or in-situ at The Crystal, Thames Barrier Park, Stothert And Pitt Cranes, Royal Victoria Dock Footbridge, Factory Road and, of course, Woolwich Foot Tunnel.

MSCTY founder Nick Luscombe said: “I have been fascinated by this part of London for some time and wondered if there was a way to create new stories about the area with soundtracks inspired by Royal Docks locations.

“The aim was to enliven familiar spaces and to bring in visitors for whom this is undiscovered territory. Ultimately we wanted to allow a deeper appreciation of the area using music and sound coupled with the sensation of place.”

“You can only perceive the binaural effect of the sound being back to front as well as left to right if you use headphones,” said Al. “I feel it is a really underused recording method and creative tool as there’s so much more we could be doing with it – so many more people listen to music on headphones now.”

by Laura Enfield

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Scan this code to access all the ARGH! Mateys stories or go to arghmateys.org

Right now you are standing in my backyard. This here. Look around. This whole spectacular piece of land is where I grew up. The imaginations and creativity all started right here...

Angel Okoturo is one of seven young writers who shared their viewpoints on the Royal Docks to help create augmented reality map ARGH! Mateys. She wrote Trapped In Time about Millennium Mills and Angel’s Backyard about how the area has shaped her I am a proud African, British-born female with ADHD, raised in the heart and soul of east London.

Being raised by a black single mother in London was tough...

She was born to teenage parents from Nigerian and Pakistani Romanian backgrounds. Her mum fled the abusive relationship when Angel was three.

“We moved around a lot, were homeless several times and lived in shared accommodation,” she said. “I met my dad once, unexpectedly in a shopping centre, when I was about nine but mum said the last she heard, he was in prison.”

wild imagination Angel has contributed two pieces to ARGH! Mateys – Trapped In Time and Angel’s Backyard

Dubbed a troublemaker, she was almost excluded from school and later diagnosed with severe ADHD. She said: “All that experience has helped me cope with where I am now.” t e o wa k at rst eca se kee with my mum’s long legs was a myth. My mum tried her best to make it as fun as possible for me. She se to take e thro h ere t ro tes to et to places...

Angel and her mum relocated to Essex from east London when she was still a schoolgirl, but their lives still revolve around Royal Docks. She moved back last year to live at Gallions Reach and study community sports management at the University of East London.

“The Greenway with the trees – I remember me and my mum walking and I remember the feeling,” she said. “I still get that euphoria when I walk there now.

Sometimes my church would be held in Excel and, on breaks, we would go for walks opposite the Millennium Mills building.

“Even when we lived in Loughton, I used to go to the Shipman Youth Centre in Prince Regent Lane and train with Newham And Essex Beagles Athletic Club.

I went to school in Essex, but everything else was always east London.”

Walking under trees that block out the sky, light coming through, was like walking through a mystery forest in an enchanted land...

“This last year I have gone on a lot of bike rides for hours from east to north or south via the river and pass through forest and pathways,” said Angel. “I couldn’t have coped without my bike.

“Those rides would just be me, myself and I, stargazing and thinking about how to better my life, about my past. It was a personal journey and 100% made me change. I’m usually a social butterfly, so I learnt a lot having that alone time and would get flashbacks. It was intense, deep and very intimate.” hat swe t e o eet was the ca ess o the water as the wa es e t flowe thro h the riverbank but, at the same time, that soft feeling would be contradicted by the fact that it’s very dangerous...

RDR 35

PROJECT NOTES a e

ate s s a a e te rea t a w th s te s ec c oe s s oke wor er or a ces o eo e ro ewha t ca e er e ce o e at ar h ate s or s the e or a oo k t e e o e at the art ett e tre or a ce at a a s s w th the h s ca tra e ecte to o e ater th s ear rt st a research e ow eah o ett hea e the ro ect

She said: “This project was about bringing young voices into that space and giving them a platform.” eah hoste a ser es o worksho s o e w th the art c a ts who ha ee o thro h o th ower e t ht or eace est ertow o at o a o a ocks ear ct t e tre he a so create a access e tra thro h the o a ocks or the to wa k a s rat o ro a he e tra s ate the r es s to the arkers he ro ect was art o o he ocks “The writing is so powerful – Fatima’s story about her experience as a young woman of colour and Suhaila’s as a wheelchair user,” said Leah. “I really feel they brought themselves to the project in a way that was very open and generous.”

The 22-year-old has learned how to bring the best out of her own contradictions. The boundless energy created by her ADHD has been channelled into athletics, training with Victoria Park Harriers and Nike’s Track Mafia. And she has learned to embrace her “loud, energetic” persona without medication.

“Not to brag, but I’m brilliant at most sports,” she said. “It has helped me mentally and physically and I saw I could maybe make a career out of it. I feel like my purpose on this earth is to help people and I have my whole life planned out in my head.

“I want to become an athlete and to have a sports foundation for vulnerable young kids and those who have special educational needs. My aim is to give that opportunity to people from disadvantaged areas.” o e watch the reflect o o the c t the wa es as t s ow ets a ate w s tsa e t e o thera or

e

hts o the

HEAR

Concentrating on the project was a challenge as her hyperactivity meant her thoughts were always racing.

“When I’m talking about a particular topic I’m thinking about what I’m going to say in 10 minutes,

TECH TIME

w th ha e ot ce that ha e a w a o stero s a at o a the o a ocks s the er ect ace to t that to ract ce

he ect rer co ecte ro e ts se tech o o e e o e ro a re o s co a orat o w th the se h hoo to create a ta a the ro ect

It was pouring with rain when she and the other young people walked around the docks as part of the project, but Angel was in her element.

“I love the rain, the storms, the fog,” she said. “I was standing on the edge of the water, watching a guy wakeboarding and having the time of his life, talking about ideas and then doing some free writing. It was chilled and relaxed.”

However, putting her thoughts into words did not feel so natural.

“I left it to the last day and I ended up scrapping what I had written and starting again. I had hella breaks, distractions, pacing up and down, I crawled under the table to focus. I know if I had taken the time I should have it would have been 10 times better.”

THE WORK

“In ARGH! Mateys, we are using augmented reality to convey the written text and spoken word, using the idea of the porthole,” said Dr Valerio Signorelli.

e

or

“We chose to use a web-based, open-source framework for this experience, so it will be accessible to everyone with a smartphone.” said Dr Signorelli. “You don’t need to install an app, just have a phone that isn’t older than four years and has a camera.” he work ca a so e rea te t a o ce the h s ca tra oes s tors w e a e to arkers o a ocks a e er e ce the eces thro h the r ho es here w a so e a te t er so eo e ca rece e essa e e th e cer ts s chat ot tech o o or

what I’ll eat tomorrow, that my clothes are at the dry cleaners or something so random,” said Angel. “My thoughts – everything is happening at 100mph and my head is like a war zone.”

She took on the challenge of ARGH! Mateys to help master her fears.

“With language, I don’t have confidence. But then I thought: ‘What is the worst that can go on?’. I decided if I wanted to get better at writing I had to start somewhere. In order to succeed in life you need to be able to communicate well.”

o e where rew e er th a o t the

o e where o a ocks

e ow

o e

Angel can’t wait for the physical trail to be installed so visitors can discover her writing.

“I threw myself into the deep end and didn’t think I was fit for it, but I’m glad I did do it, because it was a whole new rewarding experience,” she said.

“I give myself challenges quite a lot and, even if I don’t enjoy them, I do them again. It makes my heart warm because people are going to be walking by and hearing my stories and I know they’re mine.”

by Laura Enfield

Images: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

Writers created work for the project

36 RDR

Founding members of Svalbard, which is based in Stockholm

Fire, dance, spoken word, movement, nudity and acrobatics caught on film. Nothing quite like Braintown has ever taken place in E16. Presented by creative collective Svalbard as part of Certain Blacks’ Ship Building development project, the performances can be seen online

Svalbard is an international, multi-disciplinary, contemporary performance company composed of ● Ben Smith - UK ● Alexis Acrovatakis - Greece ● Tom Brand - Germany ● Santiago Ruiz - Spain

PRODUCTION ORIGIN CRANNIES ...the steady, stately undertow of a bassline, haphazard percussion, black smoke rises towards Millennium Mills... 13:15

Currently based in Stockholm, the founders trained at various circus schools before graduating from Sweden’s DOCH School Of Dance And Circus in 2014. Previous work includes All Genius All Idiot, which toured globally in over 30 countries for nearly 200 performances.

The company specialises in developing e er or a ces s te s ec c locations. In 2019 it produced two larger public performances, one in Riga Cirks, a purpose-built venue for circus from 1888 and one in Dynamo Workspace in Odense, an old industrial harbour building.

stills life Shots from Svalbard’s Braintown, which is available to view online

“For this performance, the theme of the boat was really attractive, due to its location and history,” said Svalbard co-founder Ben Smith. “We used to live on a boat, called Svalbard, which is how we gave our company its name, so for us this production feels like a return to origin.

“On boats, everything is a bit off, nothing is perfect. All the nooks and crannies and intricate spaces really inspire us.

“We like site-specific productions because they give you the chance to come from a starting point and be flexible.

“Braintown is about a protagonist’s journey and how they interact with the space around them.

“But the focus of the work is more about creating an atmosphere. People don’t necessarily need to follow the narrative closely – there are threads, but what’s more important is we’re creating a performative yet spiritual space for everyone.” ...the protagonist climbs Lightship 93, seemingly drawn to a lit bulb inside the lantern at the top of its red metal tower... 21:50 Originally streamed live in December as part of Join The Docks 2020, Svalbard’s Braintown follows its central character as he explores the architecture of Lightship 93 and the human brain.

Scan this code to access Braintown by Svalbard in an instant or find it online at royaldocks.london

circus inspiration Ben and the company created Braintown as a performance piece specifically responding to Lightship 93 and the Royal Docks

RDR 37

Main Image: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

A rich, textured blend of music, movement, light and sound, the piece is available to view online – a window into an immersive, seductive world.

The vessel that’s both backdrop and playground is moored by Millennium Mills. It operates as a studio space for a photographer (see P18-19), having been painstakingly restored. In the past it served on mine watching duty in the Thames from 1947-53 and also as a lighthouse. For Ben, it was especially inspiring.

He said: “The things that engage me are people, personalities and locations. What moves me is an interest in people and seeing how there can be so many ideas in one place.” ...we’re inside the ship, a saxophone plays as a performer twirls in mid air, suspended in the bowels of the boat... 46:42 Featuring a full live band and a choir, the action and story were captured by Svalbard’s long-time partner Deadbeat Films.

Known for working with the likes of Secret Cinema, the company’s camerawork formed an essential part of the finished piece as it played out. ...jazz, stacatto rhythms, jerking the body of the protagonist as he dances under blue lights... 1:05:13

there are threads, but what’s important is we’re creating a performative yet spiritual space for everyone BEN SMITH SVALBARD

... the choir sings, “acknowledging that everything’s everything” – the rota o st flees running barefoot along the cold stones of the quayside... 1:13:01

by James Drury

starting point Braintown was presented

by Svalbard and Deadbeat as part of Ship Building – a research and development project for Join The Docks 2020 by Custom-House based arts organisation Certain Blacks, which is developing work in response to the current UK societal climate, reflecting the heritage of the Royal Docks

READ ABOUT SHIP BUILDING ON PAGE 38

People don’t necessarily need to follow the narrative

“We used the camera to break the fourth wall,” said Deadbeat co-founder Boris ThompsonRoylance.

“We had one camera with an operator, who followed the action and became an additional character. There were also fixed cameras inside the boat, and we cut between them to capture the action.”

38 RDR Scan this to find out more about Ensemble Festival on July 24, also part of Ship Building by Certain Blacks royaldocks.london

Images: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

first in the fleet Certain Blacks’ work with Svalbard fits into its mission to help audiences discover the work of niche performers

DEVELOP OUTSIDER ATTITUDE “We develop diverse artists in the outsider sense – people who share our attitude, people of colour, disabled artists and LGBTQIA+ artists,” said Clive Lyttle.

The artistic director and founder of Custom House-based Certain Blacks is responsible for bringing Svalbard’s Braintown to the Royal Docks.

The performance forms part of the arts organisation’s Ship Building research project, commissioned as part of Join The Docks 2020 to develop work in response to the current social climate in the UK as well as reflecting the heritage of the local area.

“I’m interested in quality of work, rather than it being siloed as ‘diversity’, and making sure that it is presented in the best possible way,” said Clive, who has spent the last three decades working in the arts.

“We get good audiences and offer artists opportunities to develop works as well as share them through live performance.”

Named for Elvis Costello’s anti-war song, Ship Building’s programme seeks to explore what it is to be British and diverse in these challenging times.

The project aims to respond to the pandemic, Brexit and Black Lives Matter, all of which have prompted militaristic language in the political sphere and the media. The arrival of Covid-19 saw Certain Blacks add live streaming to its skillset – producing online festival Newham Unlocked in August. The mix of music, circus, cabaret and theatre performances was commissioned by Newham Council and broadcast online for free with performances still available to watch at newhamunlockedfestival.org.

Certain Blacks’ latest collaboration with Svalbard fits into its aim of working with artists outside the

offering opportunities Founder of Certain Blacks, Clive Lyttle, works with artists to develop works as well as helping them share their pieces through live performace

mainstream and helping the wider public discover work they might otherwise have missed.

Supported by Arts Council England, Certain Blacks has previously worked with the likes of singer Cleveland Watkiss, trumpeter Byron Wallen, circus company Upswing and street artist Jola Kudela.

by James Drury More on Certain Blacks at certainblacks.com and on Svalbard at svalbardcompany.com

I’m interested in quality of work, rather than it being siloed as ‘diversity’, and making sure that it is presented in the best possible way CLIVE LYTTLE CERTAIN BLACKS

Scan this code to find out more about Certain Blacks’ work in Royal Docks certainblacks.com

See historian and tour guide Robert Smith explore Royal Docks and expand on the area’s history vimeo.com

Find out more about Custom House Community Walks – scan or go to royaldocks.london

RDR 39

sights Royal Docks boasts many landmarks including Millennium Mills, above, and Landed

by Les Johnson, right

WALKING Main Image: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

COMMUNITY

As part of Join The Docks 2020, Custom House Bookshop has teamed up with Footprints Of London for Custom House Community Walks.

Conceived to help participants discover the fascinating history and heritage of the Royal Docks through a series of walks and talks, the project currently remains on hold due to the ongoing restrictions – although an announcement on resumption is expected soon.

In the meantime, the team has put together a video about the area, which is available to view via

history Above, dock cranes can be seen along Royal Victoria Dock Right, the honeyed brick of restored warehouses perspective A walk in the area reveals sights both old, right, and new, left, as firms and residents move into modern buildings

the QR code above, featuring historian and tour guide Robert Smith.

Recently formed by long-time local residents in Custom House in Newham, Custom House Bookshop is a women-led, BAME-majority organisation offering an inclusive place to read, talk and learn. The bookshop is in its infancy but has big ambitions and will focus on four main areas of interest – literature, events, activities, related to BAME, disabled and LGBTQIA+ as well as women’s issues.

40 RDR

ROy9L DOck5

by Connie Ramirez (detail)

A burst of creativity – Queer Zine Library and Queer Newham’s Message In A Bottle project saw participants in its workshops produce their own zines – DIY publications made to express their authors’ stories, ideas and experiences. The passionate works are available to view in an online exhibition. The images on this page are snapshots of some of the pieces created...

Coronapocalypse by JC Newman (detail)

I hope the people who contributed are excited and proud to see their work and the people who see it feel seen, connected and validated. As a queer person it feels really powerful to feel reflected in a piece of writing or an artwork HOLLY CASIO QUEER ZINE LIBRARY Like All Gay People

by Georgie Cubin (detail)

Dear Baby

by Chiara and Mandy (detail)

RDR 41

Blue Body Of Mine

by Rudy Tomala (detail)

K by DA Benstead-Cross (detail) While the original plan – to place zines in glass bottles around Royal Docks following creative workshops with Royal Docks residents – had to be abandoned due to pandemic restrictions – nothing was going to stop Queer Zine Library tapping into and showcasing the fizz and invention of self publishing. Founded by Kyle Gibbens and Holly Casio, the normally mobile collection, celebrating LGBTQIA+ zines, teamed up with Queer Newham for a series of online workshops, open to anyone in the UK, with participants invited to submit the resulting work for a digital exhibition if they wished.

Holly said: “We used the Royal Docks as a starting point. Self publishing is really cheap and accessible – we wanted to create a space for people to have a go, with no pressure to make a final piece of work. We spent about two weeks formatting the online exhibition – zines often get lost. As DIY booklets they can get torn easily so we liked the idea of having something that would last and be a permanent thing for people to look at.”

The project received about 25 submissions from the four workshops co-hosted online with Queer Newham.

Kyle said: “Initially I had a hard time expanding my concept of message in a bottle, but I realised people were just understanding it in different ways.

“Once we saw them all together when curating the exhibition, it made sense. My favourite is Blue Body Of Mine – I really liked the idea of travelling to a destination and imagining yourself as the water.”

Holly said: “I hope the people who contributed are excited and proud to see their work and people who see it feel seen, connected and validated “As a queer person, it feels really powerful to feel reflected in a piece of writing or an artwork.”

by Jon Massey

Famous West Ham

by Romilly Goodliff (detail)

Message In A Bottle

by Fallon Gold (detail)

Scan this code to view Message In A Bottle online or find it at queerzinelibrary.com

body and mind Luca Silvestrini is working with young people to create dance film This Is Royal Docks

MOVE

42 RDR

Dance company Protein is working on a film, set to star pupils aged 11-16 from New Directions school in the Royal Docks. Having himself been helped to overcome teenage shyness by the transformative power of movement, its artistic director and co-founder Luca Silvestrini believes the project can be of great benefit to children who have left mainstream education. Here’s what This Is Royal Docks is all about.

Why work with New Directions?

We have been doing performance projects with students from pupil referral units and alternative provision schools since 2006. It’s always been very rewarding. We were looking at doing something different because of Covid, so we could respect social distancing and have less pressure to put it in front of an audience. We thought it would be an exciting idea to do a film with New Directions as part of Join The Docks 2020. We hope to deliver it this year.

What’s the inspiration?

The idea is to work outside and connect with urban areas, the fantastic places there are in the Royal Docks. It’s an area I know from Start To Finish – a film I did with East London Dance for the Olympic Bid with more than 100 pupils from schools in Newham.

But we have never taken any of our work outside the studio before because of safety and behavioural issues. I thought this was a good opportunity to trust in the process and the young people so they can engage with the locality – for them to own the space and become more curious about the opportunities they have in their borough.

Will there be a storyline or theme?

This Is Royal Docks will talk about ideas of identity and how we relate to the space we live in. We have some starting points but don’t want to have too much prepared because we want the young people to be able to input something from themselves.

It comes from another piece of work called This Is Us, which is connected to our company’s work Border Tales, about multiculturalism and a sense of identity.

It’s about the attachment and discovery the young people will make with the space. We are taking these children on a creative journey that they are not familiar with, so it’s quite difficult to predict what will come out.

What do you find inspiring about Royal Docks?

The location I find very interesting is the foot tunnel that connects Newham to Woolwich. There is something very metaphorical about a tunnel joining one place to another under a river.

The fact Royal Docks is by the water is also very inspiring. Historically it is a place of arrivals and departures and now it is where people live. I find that very exciting and the sense of connection between the past and present – how places transform.

We want to see what the children find fascinating.

It’s not just about making a project, but about them getting that sense of connection to where they live.

What prompted you to work with referral units?

We were approached to engage with young people from a referral unit in 2005. As a company we have a passion for bringing people from different walks of life close to dance.

Through making dance you can discover more about yourself, develop self-esteem and a sense of self and confidence. After that first project we knew it was something we wanted to continue to do.

Being a teenager is really tricky and you are going through a lot of questions and you have doubts about yourself. Young people who have been excluded from

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INNOVATIVE ASPIRATIONS HORIZONS

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● Newham Pupil Referral Units head teacher Kirsten MacLeod said: “We are delighted that our pupils at New Directions have the chance to be involved in This Is Royal Docks, an innovative project with Protein as part of Join The Docks.

“This will be a life-changing opportunity for our pupils, many of whom would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience contemporary dance or ak “Working alongside professional artists will develop our pupils’ creativity, aspirations and open their horizons to all sorts of exciting opportunities.”

mainstream school have somehow been told they are not good enough to continue to be educated with everyone else – they have sort of been rejected.

I feel dance and culture – and the arts in general – are the best practices to allow people to reconcile with situations like this. You can gain more confidence and a belief that you can achieve, you have a voice and can be heard.

How does a dance project benefit them?

Having worked with young people for a long time, I know they are all incredibly affected by the fact that they feel different and are treated differently.

Referral units are fantastic places where they are looked after and great work is done to provide pupils with an alternative education. I feel dance does something great for them because it is physical and uses your whole self – every part – from your body to your emotion and intellect.

Doing these three-week projects you can see such an amazing change in the participants. When they start they are confused and don’t want to join in or feel they can’t do it. But, day-by-day, they acquire a sense it is for them and they start to have fun and feel great. They learn how to be part of a team and what it means to be disciplined and respectful.

Doing this really opened up my belief in the transformative power of dance. Young people don’t even know the potential they have, they amaze me all the time. There’s a very positive message there.

We can’t transform things forever. This is only one tiny intervention, but we try to work with partners who will continue the work we do, in this case we will signpost the children to East London Dance.

Dance is physical and uses your whole self your body, your emotion, your intellect LUCA SILVESTRINI PROTEIN

What do you hope to achieve with the project?

In this case, it is also about providing a film that can be seen by so many people who will see how great young people are in general, what great work they can do and what an amazing place Royal Docks is.

Did dance change your life?

Discovering dance at the age of 15 really changed me and my life forever. I was quite shy and not sure who I was. I was dealing with a lot of issues about being different from everyone else. Dance helped me to understand that and how to value myself.

That is something unique about dance, It makes you feel great because you can express yourself and you are not judged. Dance is very good at celebrating the uniqueness of everyone.

by Laura Enfield

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Addictive TV founder and creative director Graham Daniels sits down with creative producer Francoise Lamy and digital artist and producer Michael Neo to discuss Drum & Docks and the collective’s work...

44 RDR birthing beats Jasdeep taps out a rhythm in the Royal Docks Jasdeep Bamrah took his sticks to fence posts, the SS Robin’s propeller and even some bushes in a park as a participant in Drum & Docks.

“They needed a rustling sound and I volunteered to take one for the team,” said the co-manager of Newham-based Dhol Academy – originally founded by his uncle to teach the traditional Indian instrument locally.

“The footage looks funny, but it felt cool, and now there’s a running joke that I’m the gardener at the Thames Barrier Park.

“My whole life I have been tapping away, so ersta how ere t s r aces sound and don’t care if people are watching. ro the a e o o e ha re o t one of the rhythms and they gave me a tiny dhol to play on. I started classes age three and took over that class when I was 12 – it’s my passion.” @dholacademy on Insta

Graham: We have had the idea to record with landmarks for more than a decade, but similar ideas have never come off. When Francoise heard about Join The Docks it said it in the description – the commissioners were looking for projects that used the Royal Docks as a playground.

Francoise: We have worked with lots of percussionists in Newham so it was the perfect combination of wanting to do this, knowing the right talent and the right timing.

It was also a great opportunity for us to look for lesser-known places in the area that both looked different and featured different materials – concrete, wood, metal and even bushes.

Graham: The places we thought would be hard to use because they’re more dangerous, like London City Airport and King George V Lock, were really easy. Then somewhere really simple, like filming on a patch of grass in public, would be much more difficult.

Michael: We prepared a click track with a tempo we wanted to work in, and a few rhythmical riffs that the drummers listened to on earphones on the day, but

IMPACT MAKING AN

in time Monique Graham uses a chain to make some sounds

WHAT Drum & Docks saw percussionists beat out rhythms on the architecture, landmarks and vegetation of the Royal Docks. Filmed and edited by digital artists collective Addictive TV in autumn 2020, it showcases the vast industrial landscape and its irresistible rhythms put a smile on your face

they also had to improvise and be creative and have fun. We literally had to tap our way through each location.

INSTRUMENTS The Crystal Building, SS Robin, Royal Victoria Dock Footbridge, London City Airport, Royal Albert Dock Pumping Station, The Silver Building, Cranes, Thames Barrier Park and King George V Lock

Michael: We needed our main rhythm and latched onto a wire balustrade that was hit on a staircase.

Once you have two lower sounds that are working well, you look for a higher one that complements those. It was all led by the samples.

WHO Independent musicians Michael Forde, Godfirst Ijeomah-Orji and Sam Daniels + Jasdeep Bamrah, Tanvir Juttla and Inderpal Lolay from Dhol Academy + Monique Graham and Enmanuel Moreno from Stratford-based Flat50 Arts + Nathan Oriakhi and Alia Radjabou from Newham Music

Graham: There were hundreds of samples we didn’t use. We had a very rough idea what it would sound like, but it was a bit like a jigsaw puzzle without having the picture. We had to find the bits that slotted together.

Graham: We also had to make it look great. It was like a ping pong match between sound and visuals. It took us about a month to edit during the second lockdown, with Michael and me working together remotely over Zoom. I’m old enough to remember a time when you had to post each other CDs and it would take weeks to do this sort of thing.

Francoise: This idea of composing with samples comes from our Orchestra Of Samples project.

Graham: We have filmed musicians improvising around the world while gigging, touring and travelling and then we sift through and find great combinations that you wouldn’t normally put together to create tracks, which we then perform. When the first lockdown finished we did Newham Unlocked – an online festival – and performed to an empty room, but to hundreds of people online.

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on location Emmanuel Moreno plays the bridge at Royal Albert Dock Pumping Station

Francoise: Everything else got cancelled in 2020. We were supposed to be performing in June at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris.

Graham: We’ve come a long way. This all started when I was producing television and wanted to get into VJ-ing and found myself a residency at Turnmills in Clerkenwell. I wanted to put that electronic music

clubbing experience of audio visual remixing on TV, which nobody had done in 1998. We pitched a series to Channel 4 called Transambient and it got commissioned. ITV saw it and wanted something similar. We did The Web Review show for five years and commissioned more than 500 artists.

We started doing film remixes and then, in 2005, YouTube launched and we were approached by New Line Cinema to do a mash-up trailer for Take The Lead with Antonio Banderas. It snowballed from there and studios like 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Universal started coming to us to remix films like Iron

RDR 45

from left Michael Neo, Francoise Lamy and Graham Daniels

the playground Percussionist Michael Forde extracts music from a Royal Docks crane

Man, Fast & Furious, Guardians Of The Galaxy and Slumdog Millionaire. We started Orchestra Of Samples because we wanted to create something that didn’t sample films. They contain sound effects, which are inherently unmusical. Over the last 10 years we have collected thousands of samples.

Francoise: It’s been like a musical education. You learn a lot about the culture and history of the country through the music. And then for the live shows they invite the local performers to join them on stage.

Graham: We make money from live shows, commissions like Drum & Docks or for Red Bull and the History Channel, for example. We just did a project for Brent, London Borough Of Culture and we performed at the UK’s first ever 4DX cinema in Milton Keynes.

Francoise: We were booked for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and they asked us to make a track for that.

Graham: We create it all from home. We’ve been working that way for years because we have a huge database of contacts and everything is remotely accessible. We live in Leyton and Michael lives in Leytonstone, but I was born in Newham and grew up just around the corner from the Dhol Academy.

When I was small, my dad used to take me to the docks and they were all run down and I remember stories from my uncles about people like Jack Spot who would hold up boats, steal all the bananas and sell them on the black market. It’s completely changed now.

Michael: Recording there was an organisational challenge. We anticipated it would be quite noisy so we used three different microphones and blended the sound. On the bridge it poured down with rain and we thought we might have to come back, but luckily it stopped. We had to stop and wait for things like people walking past.

Graham: We had one really nosey busybody who pretended to be a security guy and asked us if we had permission to film at the airport. He pulled up and wound his window down and started shouting at us in the middle of a take.

Michael: We got some strange looks from people, especially when using the crane. People walking their dogs and jogging would stop and some took photos.

On the last day, someone offered to join in and do some drumming.

Lead Images: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

Graham: You also get the people who think they are being clever, wandering around in the back of the shot like Dom Joly on their phones. The very first thing we did on the first day was my favourite – King George V Lock at 8.30am. No-one was there and it felt very postapocalyptic, calm before the storm.

by Laura Enfield

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work produced Arch468 artistic director Rebecca Atkinson-Lord, right, and executive producer Sofia Stephanou asked writers with links to the Royal Docks to submit stories for This Is Who We Are

46 RDR

DRAMATIC STORIES EXPLORE Hunt around Thames Barrier Park and, if you look carefully enough, you’ll discover five QR codes that link to recordings of stories. Visitors can then follow a trail around the docks to the precise location where each story is based or just listen to them. Woolwich-based arts production and development hub Arch 468 is behind the project, titled This Is Who We Are. Artistic director Rebecca Atkinson-Lord said: “The idea came about because the area has undergone such a dramatic regeneration over the last few decades that sometimes it can be difficult to see the relics of the communities and histories that have defined it.

“We wanted to create a permanent monument to the vibrant, diverse and globally important place that the Royal Docks has occupied throughout history.”

Each tale is written by someone with meaningful links to the area and Rebecca said she had been overwhelmed by the amount of responses to the call for submissions.

“In the end, we chose the stories that felt deeply personal, that made us see the area anew and that covered a broad range of locations to encourage audiences to explore the area,” she said.

Conceived as part of Join The Docks 2020, here the five writers on the project talk about their stories, inspiration and their connections to the area that inspired their work...

I ABI ZAKARIAN What The Thames Told Me “My secret nerd activity is mudlarking,” said BritishArmenian playwright Abi. “I started a few years ago when I got a commission with The Globe and wanted to unearth some treasure to weave into the play. A friend who’s been mudlarking for years took e to a ks e a w th e minutes, I’d found a Tudor clay pipe and a few Tudor pins. From then on, I was hooked.”

What The Thames Told Me explores Royal Docks history from a mudlark’s viewpoint.

“I liked the idea of the Thames being the custodian of history – keeping all the secrets and truths of the past and revealing them when she chooses,” said Abi. “So the mudlark in my story asks the Thames to reveal some of these secret things from the Royal Docks.

“As they wash ashore, the mudlark pieces together the ra e ts she s he ste s to the tide, the wind, and gets to see the past through these things. It’s a very gentle piece, an invitation to listen, and share.

“I hope when people listen to

Scan this code to access This Is Who We Are or go to thisiswhoweare.co.uk

permanent monument QR codes linking to the stories have been hidden in Thames Barrier Park for people to discover

it they are transported to the river’s edge and start to see the Thames as a storyteller too.”

Abi started writing about 10 years ago while working full time as a picture editor for a national newspaper. er rst a ca ht the attention of an agent and won her another commission with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Since then she’s concentrated on telling stories about women, focusing on the political, and also writing stories about her Armenian heritage.

Her work has been shown at Soho Theatre, the Roundhouse, Southwark Playhouse, Jermyn Street Theatre and The Globe.

“A really great part of being

involved with This Is Who We Are, is that the shards, items and fragments I found mudlarking are embedded in the wall at Thames Barrier Park, where a e o the a o eces are available to access,” said Abi. “I love the thought of someone coming across them, scanning the QR code and suddenly hearing a story that was made from me wandering along the shore one day, picking up bits of history, researching them and then having that history brought to life, all while the listener can see and touch the pieces themselves.

“It feels nice to leave a small part of myself there too and I’m forever grateful to have been able to combine my love of mudlarking with my writing.”

II ASIF SHAKOOR The Mystery Of The Missing Medals Asif’s story is about his search for the missing war medals of his grandfather, Mahomed Gama, who enlisted in the Merchant Navy during the First World War and arrived at Royal Victoria Dock in 1917.

“It’s been an extraordinary journey for me to embark on and has taken several years – often ending in a dead end with no luck,” said Asif. “It was a r strat e er e ce t a found one of the medals.”

The independent researcher, who lives in Newham and is frequently found cycling around Royal Docks, said he’d never done anything like the search before, but was excited about his family’s connection to the Royal Docks dating back 100 years.

“To tell my story has given me a greater connection to the Royal Docks, and unearthed an invisible seafaring story of the British Empire,” he said.

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o s t s a so a o t the ha es a how at re he s s reathe Now based on the south side of the river, James said writing about, and for, his adoptive city of London felt “like a strengthening of bonds and a ow roots “My gently challenging, yet hopeful, story invites people to see an intimate part of a bustling place,” said James IV ANNE JAMES Walking The Manor or orth oo w ch e s stor s oth about her memories of living there, but also about wh she o e awa a her co fl cte ee s a o t ot e o there a ore wa te th s co t et that area at the t e she sa o e ta ow e ree w ch wo ears a o ost a he was

THE STORIES

III JAMES BALDWIN He Comes To The River To Breathe th ears e er e ce the er or arts – and three making radio, audio drama and podcasts – James said he was keen to be involved with the project because he used to live in Newham, had run marathons along the banks of the Thames and gave the historic commentary on to r st oats that sa e a work c ass a wr ter a interested in masculinity and masculine spaces,” he sa ha e worke ere t r so s the a t s to h or r so ers who are see to sta o t or e ere t a wa c e a stor s ase o th s e see a hear a e er e ce t ra at se t s a work o ct o t t co e te e tr e t s a stor a o t acce t se a masculinity and sexuality and love against the

FIND

Images: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

still living in his council house in Royal Docks, but he was ast re a co ect o to the area o t o ack a ore o t ke the sho s or the ho ses he wa orth oo w ch a ertow are co str cte ea s o o t o there acc e t Describing herself as a “class immigrant”, she sa as she was row she t e e ea career in the arts was possible for a working class erso ke her “Eventually, at 52, I took myself to university a ot a e ree creat e wr t sa e h s was rst ro ess o a s ce sh e ree was er er o s t e ecca a the rch tea rea s orte e t was quite a learning curve, but an incredibly positive e er e ce “If people see photos of the Royal Docks they see men working, driving lorries and so on, but you o t see the wo e hat s who wa te to ake s ace or w th o oo e

V TSHELANE REID Evolution Corporate researcher and writer Tshelane found the call for submissions on social media, and was excited to be involved because, having grown-up in Newham, she wanted to write about the displacement of working class people from the area e to e tr cat o “My piece is a monologue from a woman, who takes us from the ear s to to a she sa “She is a migrant who came to London from Jamaica aged 12, and talks about how, when she moved to the area, she felt

comfortable – there were people from many communities living there he s ro a work class background and tells us a o t the e tr cat o the area – and how, as a result, she s o o er a e to a or to e there ot o eo e the co t ee ke t s a place where – having grown up there the ca t a or to e as a ts Arch 468 paired Tshelane with a mentor – playwright and performer Yolanda Mercy – who he e her e e o her stor “Yolanda showed me more of the theatre world and the

possibilities outside my day o sa she a e “It was really lovely to do something creative again, es ec a r ock ow I come from a fashion background but I work in a er cor orate e ro e t t rst e t a t o t o element, but going through the process really helped me to see that playwriting and screenwriting is something I wa t to e ore ore e rece t ee discussions with a production company about some treat e ts e worke

by James Drury

Stories make up This Is Who We Are in Royal Docks

LAYOR

Image: Matt Grayson / graysonphotos.co.uk / @mattgrayson_photo on Insta

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WALKS HISTORY THEATRE MUSIC PERFORMANCE PHOTOGRAPHY DISCOVERY DEVELOPMENT INSTALLATION ARTWORKS IMAGINATION RESEARCH SONGS FILM

SK C O D

GNISIR

cover image Actor and musician Jude Anzell is one of the artists supported through the work of Project On A Bus read his work on Page 28