Monday 21 April 2014

21 years of urban change in Deptford - free workshop and seminar

Twenty-one years on from the publication of Jess Steele's seminal book Turning the tide: the history of everyday Deptford, Goldsmiths University Centre for Urban and Community Research is hosting a special event to investigate recent regeneration and its impact on Deptford.

The event takes place in the former Deptford Town Hall council chamber (a reason in itself for attending if you have never been inside!) on Friday April 25th

Programme: 
3.30 – 5.30 Seminar: The changing face of “regeneration” in London 
Short initial interventions by: Alison Rooke, Michael Keith, Heidi Seetzen, Rob Imrie, Luna Glucksberg 

5.30 – 6.00 Screenings and sound intervention: Creative Responses to Urban Change in Deptford (food and drinks provided) 

6.00 – 8.00 Workshop: 21 Years of Urban Regeneration in Deptford 
Short provocations by: Ben Gidley, Jess Steele, Jessica Leech, Neil Transpontine, and Joe Montgomery 

Followed by roundtable discussions: 

  • Creative Deptford: arts, culture and regeneration 
  • Housing and neighbourhood 
  • DIY Deptford: regeneration from below? 
  • Convoys Wharf: regeneration or land grab? 
  • The changing face of Deptford: migration, identity, diversity and generation

It's free to attend but registration is required - see the website for more information.





For anyone interested in the history of Deptford, Turning the tide is a must-read - the text is dense and at first glance can seem impenetrable, but the book is thoroughly-researched and packed with fascinating facts about the area. The enduringly melancholic photo of the clock tower from the dockyard's Tudor storehouse being sailed away to Thamesmead in the epilogue reminds the reader that this heist by Greenwich Council, within whose boundaries the dockyard was at the time, happened only eight years before Jess Steele's book came out.  

2 comments:

vesper said...

Please send Jess Steele formerly of Haberdasher Askes best regards from me, and all connected with Addey & Stanhope School, whose 300th birthday will occur next year in 2015.

Goldsmiths University Centre for Urban and Community Research, should be aware that we too were involved at inception with the 'A Deo et Rege' calls for Deptford's regeneration, and I would recommend that they contact Marhita Wearing of the old Deptford and Peckham Mercury who wrote the original Deptford Power Station article in the mid 1980s, when the calls came from Addeys for a change to the Greenwich Council planning brief, from their visionless light industrial solution to our 'HOUSING, HOUSING, HOUSING & A HOTEL', A Deo et Rege Vision of Britain solution

The Prince's Foundation should also be involved as the late Father Diamond of St Paul's invited Prince Charles to open St Paul's Court at our request. Father Diamond also wrote in the Evening Standard about the need to regenerate Deptford's Waterfront.

Deptford City Challenge followed on from both of these critical interventions.

Turning the tide was not only the name of Jess' book, it was also the name of the joint discussion paper produced by the planners of Lewisham & Greenwich Councils to stimulate debate regarding the regeneration of Deptford Power Station and associated sites. Jess very cleverly 'borrowed' the title for her excellent book :-)

Joe Montgomery began his professional involvement with regeneration in South East London, not with Deptford City Challenge at Deptford Town Hall, but in Peckham where he headed Thatcher's Tory Task Force at the same as I was surveyor for the UNITY PROJECT in Peckham High Street. Junior Myers was leader of the UNITY group, and Peter Eyo was Head of the Race Unit when we involved the my old friend from Addeys the black film producer Faith Isiakpere. Mandela was in prison at the time we produced 'The Crossing' for Channel 4, a film that drew upon our experiences of UNITY but transposed them to an ANC scenario in South Africa.

Yvonne Alexander and Elaine Tomlinson two black girls from my year at Addeys also made major contributions to the UNITY project at this critical time in history.

Yesterday the associated contemporary A Deo et Rege legal situation saw Andy Smith, who sits on the executive council of the National Union of Journalists visit me on the Larner Road Estate in Erith to discuss The Labour Party's SOS Thames Gateway, City Challenge 999 regeneration programme. I told Andy that on Saturday I gave the Rt Rev James Langstaff, the C of E Bishop of Rochester full details of my contemporary legal situation involving the Met Commissioner of Police, MOPAC, and the IPCC - Independent Police Complaints Commission. It is over 30 years since I qualified as a Chartered Surveyor RICS in 1984 & sought the help of the late Father Diamond of Deptford to change the planning brief for Deptford Power Station & associated sites. On 31st March 2014, London Mayor Boris Johnson approved £1 billion worth of regeneration at Convoys Wharf Deptford. CHRIST HELP US!

vesper said...

Joe G Montgomery gave me his business card after this event last Friday, and yesterday I sent him a nice handwritten letter :

Joe G Montgomery
CEO Europe
Urban Land Institute
29 Gloucester Place
London W1U 8HX

Dear Joe

THAMES GATEWAY,CITY CHALLENGE : FROM DEPTFORD TO ERITH TOO

Thank you for giving me your business card after the 'Turning the tide' event at Deptford Town Hall on Friday 25th April 2014.

I particularly empathised with the brilliant provocation by Jess Steele before we threw ourselves into the workshop where, I interacted with Bea Denton who was the convener of the 'Creative Deptford : arts, culture and regeneration' table before I devoted my professional expertise to the 'Convoys Wharf : regeneration or land grab?' table.

It is over 30 years since I qualified RICS in 1984 and sought the help of the late Father David Diamond of the totemic St Paul's Church in Deptford to change the planning brief for Deptford Power Station and associated sites.

In the evening of the 20th April 2014, after the Easter Sunrise Service on Erith Pier, I attended a first Holy Communion Service at St John the Baptist Church in West Street, Erith, where I updated the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev James Langstaff and the C of E community, with regard to my individual Thames Gateway, City Challenge legal case involving the Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, MOPAC and the IPCC. On 31st March 2014 Mayor Boris Johnson approved £1 billion worth of regeneration in Deptford at Convoys Wharf.

I enclose copies of one fax, and three letters for your in-depth examination, as I truly believe they are critical componants for the JUSTICE NOT VENGEANCE development of the Thames Gateway, City Challenge programme from DEPTFORD TO ERITH TOO:

i/ Fax from Ben Bolgar of the Prince's Foundation 20th September 2004*
ii/ MOPAC to Roy Hobson 8th April 2014
iii/ Roy Hobson to IPCC 11th April 2014
iv/ IPCC to Roy Hobson 22nd April 2014

I think you are like me Joe, when you start something from inception, you like to see it through to completion.

Best regards

ROY HOBSON CInstCES 1990, RICS 1984 (resigned 1989), Grad Dipl QS 1981 aka "Vesper"

*2004 was the year that Lucy Faulkner of the FA exposed Old Addeyans NF/BNP lies.