"Origin" Updates

The project for Meridian City Hall is moving along... this one has definitely involved a lot of planning & designing in the pre-fabrication stage. Last week, Kevin spent hours on the computer laying out the cut files for our first round on the water-jet. We submitted files yesterday for the main sculptural elements--all the steel, brass & copper pieces. There were lots of details to work out; thickness of material, how they will be joined together, pieces had fit on the cut area of the water-jet table & fit standard sheets of material, hardware & joining processes & some of the larger pieces had to be broken down to fit through the front doors of city hall...

Next we will submit files for the attachment plates, the center-pipe, & the plumb-bob. Hopefully we will have everything back & ready to assemble in mid-March. If we have planned it all out correctly, the pieces should go together like a puzzle. Crossing my fingers, anyway....




I managed to score some perfect lenses this week too; I got a message from the Reuseum that he had some that just arrived, & I rushed down the next day; they are 5 inches in diameter & practically new!!! Perfect! These will go into the piece that looks kinda like a sextant; one on each side to magnify the scale. I will also be adding some smaller lenses to the plumb-bob: more on that later....




And, we met with the Pro. Land Surveyors of Idaho; gave a brief overview of the project & asked if they might be interested in donating some cool surveying artifacts to the project. It turns out, the big state conference is next month, & they are doing a re-dedication of Initial Point---interesting how closely it ties in with my project.... They invited me to come to the conference & present the project in front of about 300 Professional Surveyors from around the state! OMG: I'm a bit nervous about that, but I'll do my best... They also gave me a replica of the marker that is out at Initial Point to use in the alcove art, & agreed to put the world out for cool artifacts. Check out this article in the Boise Weekly for the details on the Initial Point Dedication: a very cool write-up last week...
Since the meeting, I got word that we will be receiving quite a few really cool pieces to use!! We also met with Clint at Land Solutions: they did the surveying for the City Hall property. He has volunteered to come in & give us the exact coordinates of the center of the art piece when it's done. A very cool detail to add in somewhere; I'm very excited that so many people are getting involved! The support for this project has been amazing!

That's all for now; check back soon for updates :)

Amber

gasworks in greenwich

far be it from me to blow my own trumpet - but I am very very chuffed to have got the British Library to substitute the following for the ridiculous page they had previously for the picture.


http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/topdrawings/g/005add000031331u00087000.html

without being a lawyer - mandamus is a means by which local authorities are forced to levy a rate. The deal which the gas company promoters gave to the vestry was claimed by protestors to be on the lines of - £5,000 down and everyone in Greenwich get free gas for ever and ever.........................

Big bands in greenwich

Hopefully now everyone has tickets for the Greenwich University Big Band concert that Fred Parrott is running - Iris Bryce writes as follows

"With ref.to your Big Band Jazz concert - I thought you might be intererested to know that in 1949 Owen and Iris Bryce opened the first Jazz Club in Woolwich, the venue being the Cavendish Rooms in the Ritz Ballroom in Woolwich New Rd. A few months later we moved it to Mr.Tilley's Dance Studios in Calderwood Street - we called the Club 'The Sunday Barbecue' and not one of us had any real idea of what a barbecue was!. Owen was a founder member of the George Webb Dixielanders, the pioneer New Orleans Jazz that played in the Red Barn Barnehurst from 1943 - 46. In 1946 Humphrey Lyttelton joined the band and the rest as they say is History! I have written about this in TREE IN THE QUAD, the story of life in Woolwich in the 1940's - 70's - this was published by the University of Greenwich. The book has photos of the opening night when we brought three jazz musicians from Paris over, and the opening ceremony was by Ray Sonin, the editor of THE MELODY MAKER. The book is available from the Greenwich Heritage Centre. If we can help in any other way please don't hesitate to ask


Thanks Iris - I'm sure I'm not the only person who remembers Owen when he was playing in (whoops) the 1950s. His was easily the best band on Friday nights at the Terminus in Gravesend. Not sure if its industrial history, but it'll do!

A tree for Jack and Dot

We have a note from Richard Buchanan that apple trees in memory of Jack Vaughan and Dot Lawrence will be planted at Woodlands Farm on Sunday 8th March at 11 am. Richard says, get there early and wear sensible shoes!

Dad's Army - note from Andy Brockman

Andy writes as follows:

I wanted to let you know about a new research project I am involved with which might be of interest to GIHS members. I have set it up along with Dr Neil Faulkner of Bristol University [and Current Archaeology] and Dr Nicholas Saunders, also of Bristol University. I am attaching the launch document but here is some background...


Digging Dad's Army- The East and South East London Peoples War Project. Digging Dads Army is designed to look at the surviving archaeology of conflict in East and South East London and tie it into intergenerational and cultural work looking at collection, commemoration and remembrance. It has grown out of work by the Great War Archaeology Group and my own work at Shooters Hill as well as other projects such as Gabe Moshenska's PhD work on Air Raid Shelters and children at UCL.
We plan to do both field and archival work and to use the research programme as a vehicle to train field workers, including training in archive work, and as a basis for events presented to the wider public through work with schools [i.e. Key Stage 2 WW2] and on public events such as living history programmes and exhibitions. The project is based on the principle that you cannot do the research without presenting it to as wide a range of audiences as possible from the academic to the public and particularly to young people. We intend to fund it along the model of Neil Faulkner's long running Sedgeford Project where the research programme is funded through training courses with additional project funding where appropriate. In this respect it also ticks lots of boxes for community involvement, intergenerational work and so on. At the moment accounting and PLI etc comes through the Great War Archaeology Group and we see the project as being accomplished by a consortium of individuals and organisations each bringing different skills and resources. Because it is intended to be a multidisciplinary project, growing out of the community experience, we very much want to have locally based organisations, such as GIHS, with its interest in the Arsenal amongst other things, on board as partners. Particularly so we hope the project will generate access to participation in archaeology which is often lacking in the more orthodox research programmes as well as offering educational and training opportunities and avenues for publishing research. We intend that everything we do is published as soon as possible either down the traditional academic route, but also on line. We believe that with the various wartime anniversaries in the next few years, running up to the WW1 100 in 2014, such a project could generate quite a high profile, including with the media. As you may know Neil's work on the First Blitz and Zeppelin L33 made a Time Watch and for all its faults as a programme, we got a Time Team out of the work at Shooters Hill. It also helps that Neil is issue editor for Current Archaeology Magazine. The next issue will carry a piece on Shooters Hill and this project.

Concrete Fun at Mom and Dads house

Yesterday afternoon, we headed over to Mom & Dad's house--to move around some huge concrete chunks that we've been saving... These usually end up in the landfill, & we rescue them from time to time, to use in projects. Mom has been eyeing a few of them to use in her yard; there is a huge area on the side of the house that they want to convert to garden space: rip out the lawn, put in some raised beds, etc & these big chunks of concrete are perfect! One is intended for a raised vegetable garden, & 2 others we put together to make a table/bench with a planter area.... After bouncing through the sand & almost getting stuck, here we are ready to start unloading...

Thanks goodness for the old International & the crane! This chunk weighs a lot!

Tipping over.....

And there it is!! We will stain & seal it before planting; to make sure stuff won't leach out of the concrete. Right now it kinda looks like a crypt....

Don't get any ideas, Mom; his life insurance isn't that great....

Lifting the table-top piece into place: lovely sunset :)

And, we made another crypt... Too funny; actually, this will make a lovely seating area, & there are berry bushes planted already that will grow up through the void. I may add a few sculptural touches too, since there are threaded holes in the top. After staining, & when the rest of the plantings grow up a bit, it's going to make a lovely bench area :)

It was good to get the crane truck out; it's been a couple months since we've done much with it. Always lots of fun & lots of work--these pieces of concrete are unbelievably heavy; the big ones are over 1000 lbs! It take a lot of rigging & hooking & unhooking & chains & checking to get them moved--takes a lot of time; we were at it from about 4:30 until 7. But, the time & effort will be worth it when the garden comes to life & I know we saved a bunch of concrete from going to the landfill :) I can't wait to get them all stained & planted; will post more pics of the garden transformation throughout the spring....

Tool Sculpture--Done!

Yay!! This one was a trade for a friend; he wanted me to make a sculpture out of all these tools that he brought to me in a bucket... It was a bit challenging; I wanted to keep most of the tools intact, but still make something more that just a bunch of misc. stuff welded together. I'm happy with how it turned out; I'm actually sad that he's going to come get it tonight. Hope he likes it!!

all sorts of newsletters - Woolwich Antiquarians

Note their Annual General Meeting is on 7th March 2.15 at Charlton House.

The newsletter includes a long report by our own Sue Bullevant - including sites in Woolwich which have been demolished or something similar.
Sue also commemorates Jack Vaughan and there is also a note about the tree which it is planned to dedicate to him.

All sorts of newsletters - AIA

Association for Industrial Archaeology - Spring 2009

As ever there is very little about London (or Kent!) in their newsletter. There is however a long article by Bob Carr on "The 2012 Olympics and the Thames Gateway - a challenge for Industrial Archaeology and the Environment". This is however largely about South Essex - but he does come as near to Greenwich as Robin Hood Gardens. (dare I mention our encounter with Eric Sorenson in this context!!)

The annual conference is this year to be in Lincoln 4-10th September. No parking at all! which will upset the many AIA members who never use public transport unless it is steam driven and preserved.

All sorts of Newsletters - GLIAS

GLIAS Newsletter - February 2009
- includes a very long list of interesting looking lectures. Note GLIAS lectures:
18th February - Tim Smith on Sarson's Vinegar (the whiff of vinegar which used to hit us on the trains just before London Bridge Station!)
18th March Stationary Steam - John Porter. This is about Kew Bridge Engines Trust
20th May - AGM - and Robert Stephenson by Michael Bailey.
all at Robin Brook Centre, St.Bartholomew's Hospital, 6.30
21st March Industrial Archaeology Study Day with Denis Smith Birkbeck College. bookings 020 7631 6627
25th April SERIAC The Guildhall Winchester 01962 855200

The newsletter also contains an item about the opening of the new DLR Station in Woolwich - and the small amount of press coverage it generated.

Someone else has picked up issues around Payne's Wharf - and quoted the 'Lorry Drivers Bible' on how to get there and what to do when you did.

There is an article about Grants available from AIA and how to get them and what they give them for -industrial heritage assets!

All sorts of newsletters SLAS

SLAS News
Excellent Newsletter from Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Society
It includes an excellent article on the Heritage Protection Bill
and also - note - they have a speaker on the Greenwich Tide Mill on April 14th 7.30 at 106 The Cut, SE1.
(Greenwich Industrial History has really really tried to get this speaker to come to us!)

Preview--Tool Sculpture---almost done :)

A sneak peek at the tool sculpture I've been working on; almost done; just have to add some cable, do a final clean up & seal :) Will post finished pics when done....

Meridian "Origin" Project--moving forward!!

Time to start on the next phase of planning for Meridian City Hall! Yesterday, we had a meeting with the City & Arts Commission to get final approval & start laying down real dates & planning out the installation. The meeting went well, I think; everyone seems excited about the project & very open to ideas for making it a successful venture. We have a tentative date for install on the 1st weekend of May---time to get busy!!

The design is pretty much finalized: now Kevin has to draw all the files for the pieces to by cut on the waterjet: this will take a lot of time & planning to make sure everything will go together correctly, that we are making the best use of materials, etc. Hoping to have pieces cut in March & start on the fabrication. This project is a bit different---so much of the work is being done in the planning & design phase: when it comes to fab, we will be putting lots of pieces together, but everything will be already layed out like a puzzle. There will be very little welding; most of the pieces will be joined with bolts/rivets: we have to bring everything into the building through the front doors; just regular sized man doors, so the whole project is designed in pieces that will be put together on site.

Still lots to do; more updates to come!!

Amber