Gants Hill Case Study
Children's Play Areas
Ceramic work
Timber and Steel
Lighting
Water Fountains

Gants Hill on plan reminds me of a giant apple slicer, an area cut up into segments by a busy intersection, with the roundabout and underground station at its core. It is a place where traffic is king, well known to the radio ‘traffic news’ as a congestion hot spot. Driving onto the Gants Hill roundabout is a hair-raising experience, whilst trying to negotiate the warren of underground walkways to cross beneath the road, is both disorientating and frustrating. Gants Hill is on the brink of major redevelopment, currently, there several different proposals circulating, local residents don’t know what to expect, or when to expect it. In this present climate of uncertainty and apprehension, it was felt that commissioning community artworks for the area would sound a note of optimism for local people and signal the start of positive things to come.

The vision to incorporate the artworks came from Bob Drew, who is the head teacher of the local Gearies Infant School. He grew up in Gants Hill and is an enthusiastic and proactive member of the community. He fund raised for the project himself, £5,000 from the Arts Council and £4000 from the London Borough of Redbridge Regeneration Committee, a total of £9,000. The job was advertised the job through the Arts Council of England’s “Arts Jobs” mailing list. Cookson and McNally were appointed in January 2003. Our brief was to place community artworks in the centre of Gants Hill, which would provide a recognisable landmark and improve pedestrian navigation. It was crucial that the project would involve local people, and hoped that it would develop skills and provide a rich learning experience for those involved. For us, this approach was ideal, consultation with local people is our key to creating successful urban public artworks. Through following a process of consultation and design workshops, we believe we are able to come up with more original and creative ideas, that are able demonstrate a meaningful link to the locality.

We worked with children aged 5 and 6. We were particularly interested to work with children at this stage, when they are forming an impression of their environment, and are able to express it. We talked to them about their experience of Gants Hill roundabout and what they felt when they were there. Delightful, amusing and often bewildering observations came from our group discussions, giving us an insight as to how they interpret their world. During a series of workshops, we set the children to work on a number of experimental tasks, such as building large walk-in sculptures, inspired by Gants Hill roundabout and underground station. This was an activity they tackled with manic excitement. In subsequent workshops they made clay sculptures featuring trucks, motorbikes, tube trains, skip lorries, people, dogs, shops, flats and traffic lights. Working with and learning from the children is often our way in to a place, our introduction. It functions well as a way of generating creative ideas and is an excellent route to making connections within a community.

We designed a ‘Children’s Sculpture Beacon’, a 2 metre steel Column, layered with shelves, and full with children’s sculptures, cast in steel or bronze, with a beam of light in the centre. To test out the idea in the community, we exhibited it, together with an alternative suggestion for signs, at Gearies Infant School during a parents’ evening. The school circulated questionnaires to waiting parents and pupils. We received 130 responses, virtually all of which were in favour of the Beacon idea. In addition to this, we displayed the designs at Gants Hill library for a further four weeks, and there was coverage in the local press to publicize it. Unfortunately, the cost of casting the individual sculptures exceeded our budget and we had to find a way to deliver an artwork with similar character, to fit within our budget. And after a meeting with Redbridge town planner, Matt Maple, it was suggested that the sculpture should be taller and more prominent for it to have impact in a space that is over-burdened and busy. To achieve this we needed to find more money. Matt Maple and Bob Drew made a successful bid to the Redbridge Council, area 7 and raised a further £4,000, bringing the budget to £13,500.

The new design for the Children’s Sculpture Beacon is a tall, 3.2 metre stainless steel tower, inspired by the aesthetic of gabion cages, and filled with distinctive, hand built ceramic ‘pebbles’. The pebbles are painted by the children and by ourselves. In this way, we are able to retain a strong element of the children’s work, one of our key objectives for this project. The Beacon has a beam of light, which will blink from between the pebbles. Modelling the pebbles is well underway in our Hither Green studio, and the stainless steel cage has already been fabricated by Scott Associates of Glasgow. While there are a few details to be ironed out before we can install the sculpture, we are expecting to complete the work before the end of the year.

We hope that we have designed a striking piece of artwork with the integrity of genuine community participation. Showcasing the children’s work in this setting is a bold statement, we feel it will have a strong presence in amongst the hubbub of Gants Hill. It will have a special significance for the children involved, their peers, families, friends and social network, bringing a feeling of pride and achievement to their broader community. This project is made more complicated by the unknown future of the site. It is challenging to design for a space that may change beyond recognition in the near future. In this context of flux and chaos, and on such a hectic spot, what can our sculpture hope to do ? Its presence will help to humanise and add value to an area wanting TLC, and will put a local signature to an area, much in need of a better sense of personal connection and engagement.

Chloe Cookson