One Smithfield

Not sure what to make of this horror which you will find at the 'gateway' to Hanley, Stoke on Trent's commercial centre.  Basically an office-block managed by the council, it is nattily, if boringly, called 'One, Smithfield'.
Is it a happy burst of colour in a very uninspiring spot?  Or a desperate attempt to introduce 'fun' to this grey, grey district?

Artist's playground

The playground at Hanley Park is as attractive as you can get... but I always think the lay-out is a about more than just banging in a lot of brightly coloured circles.
There seems to be an artist's mind behind the design, especially from this angle.  I know it's a bit off the mark, but it reminds me of the paintings of Sonia Delauney.

Interestingly, the park is now open 24 hours a day.   In the old days, the 'parkie' would close the gates at dusk.  I suppose there is no money to pay park-keepers now.

Sort of like Banksy style

Looking very much like a work by the urban artist Banksy, in fact this a piece by the Stoke-on-Trent graffiti practitioner Professor Pigment. 
The text says: “realistically, you can’t jump off this wall” , with the response, “it’s easy, watch”.  The caption beneath reads: "Is to grow up to give up?"
You’ll find it on the wall adjacent to the south side of the Mitchell Memorial Theatre in Hanley.     

Ten years - and looking good

This statue of the airplane designer RJ Mitchell has now completed ten years in situ (it was erected in 1995, the 100th anniversary of Mitchell's birth) in central Hanley - and it has worn well. 
From this angle he appears to be smiling ... though the original intention was that he look "studious".
I'm also happy to report that someone seems to be taking very good care that pigeons don't tarnish the figure's dapper haircut for any length of time.

Armadillo out of the ground

The Lidice 'Unearthed' Monument in Haney has already been dubbed (affectionately one hopes) the 'Armadillo' by locals. 
According to the artist, "...the shape looks like it's coming out of the ground - which shows its mining connections.", but, well, what do artists know?

The monument remembers the reaction to a massacre which took place in World War Two in Lidice in Czechoslovakia.  Colliers in Stoke on Trent were horrified by what had happened in a fellow mining town; and raised huge amounts of money to help rebuild it after 1945.
The campaign to remember Lidice has gone on ever since; this monument was completed in 2013.

Bizarre building

This very dramatic-looking building seems to be in the local paper constantly (for the wrong reasons).  Smithfield-One was started last year as the planned base for Stoke-on-Trent City Council, which is spending £55 million on this and the surrounding 'business district' in Hanley. However, plans have now changed and the new Central Library will be installed there, as will 'other stuff'.

So... the library's gain, I suppose.

The multi-coloured design on the cladding is said to be inspired by the work of the famous 1930s 'Bizarre'-style pottery-designer, Clarice Cliff, who was a local girl. I'm not sure she'd recognise the attribution, but I guess we all are entitled to our own interpretations.

Fountains and sun

The wonderfully warm spell continues, even if there was a slight breeze.

The fountains at Hanley Park are a little underwhelming as a spectacle, but ... well, at least there are some!

Empty park

Gloomy day.  The election results are in, and it looks like the far-right MPs on the Tory backbench will hold the balance of power in a government which only has a very slim majority.  This gives foreboding.

Hanley's deserted municipal park, full of diverging lines-of-sight and people-less, made reflection easier.

Nothing matters

The small island in the centre of Hanley Park boating lake has a low perimeter wall around it, carrying words.  You have to walk around the lake shore to read them all of course, so it makes for a thoughtful ten-minute stroll. 
Depending on the time of year, the foliage forces limited views of phrases, which then stand out on their own, with resonance. For example, the whole sentence here is actually:  "There are sounds all around, but nothing matters except the sound of your voice".  
The concept was created by artist Emily Campbell.

The artwork has inspired a song by a North Staffordshire musician, Matt Churchill - 'Brushed steel words in Hanley Park'

 

Deceptive bus station

Like all bus stations, the main feeling on entering the main bus-hub in Stoke on Trent is of encountering an atmosphere of lost hope.
From outside though, it looks rather futuristic - and almost inviting.

Play Me I'm Yours

You will never see this piano here again... 
This piano is one of over a dozen that were planted in various public sites across Stoke-on-Trent for August, but their time is up, and they have now been distributed to charities. 
The whole idea is part of one of those lovely eccentric art projects that pop up every so often to make one smile (yes, yes, I know there is a serious intent behind it, but, honestly!, it's a smile really).

The artist (conceiver?) has planted over a thousand such pianos in cities across the world.

Rich Starkie, who blogs in north Staffordshire, has already been to see nearly all of the (local!) pianos. Well done to him...

Appetite for imagination

A series of events & projects appealing to the imagination - hoping also to enable residents to see their surroundings in a new light - is going on across Stoke on Trent for a three-year period. It's all being led by the Appetite Group.

Last weekend, they took over Hanley Park for a large 'event of the mind & body'.  This character was cruising the park - all part of the attempt to help people get in touch with their fantastical and even visionary side.
A drama-of-movement-and-light, The Bell, was the culmination of the day.

Water living in Hanley

Touted originally as Stoke-on-Trent's flagship development, the Waterside complex in southern Hanley's 'Canal Quarter' could never have lived up to its billing - though maybe it will one day.
Before the RENEW regeneration project closed, it was seen as one of its top achievements.

To be honest, it replaced a lot of rather ugly industrial buildings, and people do seem to be buying properties there (what is it about living by water?)... so at least it's a form of progress.  And the buildings are comfortable to live in.
Odd to think though that it is the very heritage of the 200 year-old Caldon Canal that drew these modern developers to this site.

Knots inter-twine

This rather perfect piece of moulding over this window in Hanley shows a wonderful series of interlocking 'Stafford Knots'.
I thought it might be nice to end the old year with a reminder of the symbol of Staffordshire.

The building belonged to the Potteries Water Board in the nineteenth century, and the crest on the left is actually the PWB's.
The crest on the right is that of the then Borough of Hanley.  Oddly, its heraldic animal (you can see it over the crest) was a camel.

Zombies welcome

All these Christmas ghost stories that float round at this time of year must have over-influenced me - as walking through the former, now-abandoned bus station in Hanley seemed replete with potential horrors.
The bright new complex across the road that has replaced it doesn't have the grim and totally brutalist look that this old one did.  I kept expecting zombies to appear in its dark spaces.

The Colours of the Playground

The colours in this photo of the playground at Hanley Park all seem to work together, from the green of the grass to the blue of the playground equipment and the brown of the flats beyond.
I like that it's largely empty too.

Hanley... improved

Strangely the light fall of snow has stuck, so the white stuff is still with us.

Frankly, the (laughably-named) Gateway To Hanley approach looks considerably improved by the conditions.

Cafe shaped like a Spitfire

The new cafe extension at the Mitchell Memorial Theatre & Arts Centre in Hanley is on a fairly spectacular design.
As the theatre, which is used for amateur performances and youth activities, was named after the locally-born aircraft designer RJ Mitchell, some bright spark suggested the new frontage should be shaped like a wing.
And, I think, it works beautifully.

RJ Mitchell is, of course, most famous for designing the Spitfire airplane which was so successful in World War Two.

The cafe itself is open all day, and the Spitfire theme continues in some of the decoration inside.

'Ruin porn' in Stoke on Trent

I was reading in a newspaper about the photographers that travel to Detroit in America. They go there to photograph dereliction, because that once-great city is in decline and the scenes of abandoned factories, hopeless streets and decaying architecture make for striking visuals.
The article described this kind of photography as 'ruin porn', making the point that the photos are (paradoxically) attractive as well as disturbing.

Of course, in Staffordshire, you have something similar: poor Stoke-on-Trent offers many such photo-opportunities. It makes one grieve to see how sorry parts of it look.

I mean - whatever happened to this industrial park, rather grandiosely named the 'Lord Nelson Park', which can be found on the outskirts of Hanley?

This post was featured on the City Daily Portal Rust & Ruins theme

Freaky species goes on show

This freakish skeleton is in the Natural History section of the City Museum in Hanley, next to the stuffed birds, and not far from the Mammals. As you can see, it has extraordinarily long arms.
When I passed it, more than a few people were scratching their heads. They were wondering: what sort of animal was this? An urban monkey?

Well, after the double-take, one realises it's a joke. Well, sort-of. It's part of a subversive art project in which a number of odd, barmy objects are placed around the museum at strategic points, apparently as though they really are long-term exhibits.  (There's a plane made of pottery in the engineering section for instance...)

The label by this skeleton describes it as Homo Tesco, and there is a completely nutty description of its history - including a comparison with its close species 'Homo Asda'. It explains the waering of the blue plastic bag as an attempt at a 'shirt'.

The art project, which runs at the museum until December 9th, is called 'Neo Dawsonism' - though a quick search on Google only turned up references to the late great Les Dawson's jokes, also known as Dawsonisms.  Hmm.

I must admit that I thought it very funny - and, somehow, very brave of the museum to allow it!

Related Link
The Walter Mitty Archive