follow links to:
project photographs
book and postcard set
The St. Mark's Estate stands like an island in the central-north of the Ladywood constituency in Birmingham. It's borders are the dual carriageways of Ladywood Middleway and Summer Hill Road, the National Indoor Arena and the mainline railway. The Estate was built around 1970 after the demolition of the area's cheaply built Victorian housing, which had come to be considered 'slums'.
60 years earlier, a special committee on housing conditions concluded that, at the time, "a large proportion of the poor in Birmingham are living under conditions of housing detrimental to both health and morals". Most of the housing around the St. Mark's area remained unchanged from the time of that report until it was replaced by what is now the St. Mark's Estate.
A petition organized by local residents in 1963 stated: "we the undersigned are greatly concerned about the social conditions of St. Mark's Street area of Ladywood and are interested in social movement for the improvement of the neighbourhood". Community leaders believed that the only way to solve these social problems was to physically clear the houses that were in poor condition.
Some were worried that moving people out of the area during the demolition would mean that Ladywood's history and heritage could be lost by an influx of new people into the area. Despite the housing problems, many people look back with fondness at the communities of Ladywood at that time.
After the demolition, St. Mark's Estate was built with hope and optimism. Writing in 1970, AJ Ratcliffe, a local author, proclaimed that the area "can now be proud of its new landscaped estate, a suburb of today, not a rotting hulk left over from an earlier civilization".
The modern housing estate had been built, and was now ready to be lived in.
2010 was St. Mark's 40th anniversary. I was commissioned by Multistory as part of the Beyond Bricks programme, funded by Urban Living and Arts Council England to produce this work to celebrate the everyday of this place. Celebrations and events are needed to mark out special occasions, but it is the everyday experience of places that makes us feel at home, abroad, happy, sad, concerned, contented, neighbourly, or alone. This work is the product of everyday routes and experiences of St. Mark's Estate contributed by the residents who worked with me over the Summer of 2010.
The starting point for each of these photographs is a conversation and a map. A map drawn to show an everyday route or journey through, across or around St. Mark's and a conversation about the place; about being here, about living here, and about making a home. Some of the residents who worked with me are people who have lived on St. Mark's from the beginning, others have arrived more recently. All of them have spoken individually, and in this work they speak together about what this place means every day.
project photographs
book and postcard set
The St. Mark's Estate stands like an island in the central-north of the Ladywood constituency in Birmingham. It's borders are the dual carriageways of Ladywood Middleway and Summer Hill Road, the National Indoor Arena and the mainline railway. The Estate was built around 1970 after the demolition of the area's cheaply built Victorian housing, which had come to be considered 'slums'.
60 years earlier, a special committee on housing conditions concluded that, at the time, "a large proportion of the poor in Birmingham are living under conditions of housing detrimental to both health and morals". Most of the housing around the St. Mark's area remained unchanged from the time of that report until it was replaced by what is now the St. Mark's Estate.
A petition organized by local residents in 1963 stated: "we the undersigned are greatly concerned about the social conditions of St. Mark's Street area of Ladywood and are interested in social movement for the improvement of the neighbourhood". Community leaders believed that the only way to solve these social problems was to physically clear the houses that were in poor condition.
Some were worried that moving people out of the area during the demolition would mean that Ladywood's history and heritage could be lost by an influx of new people into the area. Despite the housing problems, many people look back with fondness at the communities of Ladywood at that time.
After the demolition, St. Mark's Estate was built with hope and optimism. Writing in 1970, AJ Ratcliffe, a local author, proclaimed that the area "can now be proud of its new landscaped estate, a suburb of today, not a rotting hulk left over from an earlier civilization".
The modern housing estate had been built, and was now ready to be lived in.
celebrating 40 years of everday life
2010 was St. Mark's 40th anniversary. I was commissioned by Multistory as part of the Beyond Bricks programme, funded by Urban Living and Arts Council England to produce this work to celebrate the everyday of this place. Celebrations and events are needed to mark out special occasions, but it is the everyday experience of places that makes us feel at home, abroad, happy, sad, concerned, contented, neighbourly, or alone. This work is the product of everyday routes and experiences of St. Mark's Estate contributed by the residents who worked with me over the Summer of 2010.
The starting point for each of these photographs is a conversation and a map. A map drawn to show an everyday route or journey through, across or around St. Mark's and a conversation about the place; about being here, about living here, and about making a home. Some of the residents who worked with me are people who have lived on St. Mark's from the beginning, others have arrived more recently. All of them have spoken individually, and in this work they speak together about what this place means every day.
