ARTISTS IN EAST LONDON – pdf done of
www.artistsineastlondon.org/ on 14 May 2008
INTRO
This Web Site, developed by Acme Studios (the UK's leading artists' studios development
agency) provides an introduction to the fascinating history of artists in East London from 1960
to the present day. It profiles a number of the artists and organisations who have been
involved in the growth and development of their community in East London, which has made
such a fundamental contribution to the current vitality of the visual arts in Britain and the
recognition of London as a world city. The web site is structured around ten significant
buildings, iconic places which at different stages artists came to inhabit and develop their art:
The Whitechapel Art Gallery, St Katharine Dock, Dilston Grove, Butlers Wharf, Devons Road,
Martello Street, Beck Road, Rachel Whiteread's' House', Copperfield Road and Hoxton
Square.
"We read and hear that there are more artists in the East End than any other city in Europe,
but where did they come from, why did they choose East London, what were the major events
that triggered the first exploratory move thirty years ago, and how did the area become the
crucible for this phenomenon?
This website is a 'curtain-raiser' for a full historical survey which will follow soon. As such the
content is not definitive, but it will help you explore this extraordinary story, find out more
about the artists involved, and dig a little deeper into the history of the growth and
development of their community in East London.
The story has two main threads: firstly how cultural changes in art which in the 60s prompted
artists' need to find big buildings, and secondly how in the 70s a new generation of artists'
quest for survival led them to East London.
The unfolding of both these journeys saw the formation of two pioneering artists'
organisations, SPACE and ACME, who were the key players in this massive influx of artists.
You can find out about the artists, and also the history of the organisations which have
supported them through the menu of ten significant buildings, Iconic places which at different
stages artists came to inhabit and develop their art."
WHITECHAPEL – HISTORY AND SEMINAL
SHOWS
….text missing….
ST KATHERINE – SPACE PIONEERS
Introduction
S.P.A.C.E. Ltd documentary 1970
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"The number of artists who have been
helped by SPACE is vast: many ... artists
in London have at one time or another
rented studios from SPACE. When I
moved into a studio, the artists already
working in SPACE studios would sound
like a roll call of British art: artists such as;
Martin Naylor, Nigel Hall, Alison
Wilding, Paul Neagu, Janet Nathan, Bruce
Lacey, Tony Bevan, Albert Irvin, Ian
McKeever, James Faure-Walker, Brian
Catling, John Loker, Gary Wragg, Julia
Peyton-Jones, David Ward and many
others".
Aerial view of Ivory warehouse, St Katharine Dock
Michael Kenny RA, 1994
Ivory Warehouse, St Katharine Dock
"The number of artists who have been helped by SPACE is vast: many ... artists in London
have at one time or another rented studios from SPACE. When I moved into a studio, the
artists already working in SPACE studios would sound like a roll call of British art: artists such
as; Martin Naylor, Nigel Hall, Alison
Wilding, Paul Neagu, Janet Nathan, Bruce Lacey, Tony Bevan, Albert Irvin, Ian McKeever,
James Faure-Walker, Brian Catling, John Loker, Gary Wragg, Julia Peyton-Jones, David
Ward and many others".
1968-1970 SPACE pioneers
The two organisations that have done most to foster
the move of artists into East London are SPACE and
Acme. Both set out on parallel journeys, acquiring
short-term leases on redundant properties to be
used as cheap space by artists. SPACE (formed in
1968) sought working space only. Acme (formed in
1972) initially pursued combined working and living
space. The opportunity for both organisations arose
because of the extraordinary availability of
redundant property in East London after the ravages
of the Second World War and as a result of the
general reduction in industrial activity and the
relocation of the docks downstream to Tilbury.
SPACE was the first of its kind and its importance
cannot be overestimated. The sheer size of the
industrial warehouses in London's dockland
necessitated collective rather than individual action
and the formation of an organisation was almost
inevitable. SPACE established a model which has
been followed and adapted by many groups of
artists throughout the United Kingdom: an
educational charity which included the remit of
providing affordable space for artists.
The pioneers of SPACE were established artists
needing large studio spaces which could not be
accommodated within an average London house. In
the process of helping themselves they were able to
provide access to affordable space (and other
services) for many other artists from a broad range
of ages and disciplines.
By contrast Acme's founder members were young
art graduates seeking to live and work in London
who, rather than seeking warehouse space, found
'short-life' houses and shops (destined for demolition
and negotiated from the Greater London Council)
because they needed somewhere cheap to live as
well as to work. Acme was much more an initiative of
a particular generation with common needs. (Acme's
story of the 'Early Days - The Pioneers 1972' is
related in the section on Devons Road).
Interior of the Ivory building at St Katharine Dock
Bert Irvin's studio at St Katharine Dock, 1969
An important factor behind the
need for larger working spaces
was an influence of the
international art scene in the late
1960s. Art historian, Michael
Archer, states that:
"It is well understood that
the impact of American
painting... was
instrumental in stimulating
that move to larger-scale
work. Without ready
access to adequate studio
space, however, the
continued development of
those tendencies identified
in the Whitechapel's 'New
Generation' shows of 1964
and 1965 would have
been more difficult."(1)
Empty warehouse space at Ivory building St
Katharine Dock
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Studio space at
affordable rents
From isolated examples of individual artists
migrating into depressed areas of East
London in the early 60's came group
colonisation of empty and redundant industrial
buildings around the docks at the end of the
decade.
Cheap, expansive, well lit spaces with high
ceilings were conducive to the new wave of
large scale art works. As Archer explains, 'In
more general terms, that close connection
between the variety of forms of art and the
different tactics employed by artists to make
and exhibit it, can be seen to be inextricably
bound up with the changing economic and
cultural conditions over the subsequent
decades.'(2)
"In the 1960s there were
signs of considerable
change in the Art world.
The artist community was
entering a phase of crisis
both aesthetically and
domestically". (3)
These factors were not limited to Britain,
they could be paralled in European and
American cities. Added to this was a
decline in patronage of the arts in the late
1960s which left many professional artists
unsupported and having to draw on their
own resources to find affordable studio
space. The combination of all these
factors led artists to set about seeking
other 'lines and potentials'.
The social and cultural scene of the 1960s
generated a mood of self expression and
self-help. The artist Michael Kenny
recollects the student sit-ins of 1968 at
Hornsey College of Art and Guildford
School of Art which were influenced by the
sit-in at the Sorbonne in Paris:
"...it was a time of heady
excitement, of peace and
love, of psychedelic drugs
- of anti-war
demonstrations, and in all
of this artists, writers and
musicians played a
part".(4)
There were many buildings in East
London in the 1960s which were left
vacant, old factories and warehouses
awaiting demolition containing large
uninterrupted working areas. Many had
been empty for years, with no obvious
Unidentified artist's studio
value or future. Buildings of this type, in
limbo, were seen by certain artists as a
The problem of finding adequate work space
potential source of large studio space in
at a reasonable rent for graduating artists was
which to work and exhibit. One or two
compounded by several factors: the rise in
individual artists negotiated occupation of
land values and rents in every urban centre;
this type of property: Richard Smith moved
the development for high-rental residential
into a large ex-industrial building in Bath
purposes of those districts traditionally
Street, EC1, in 1961, Clive Barker
provided with facilities for artists such as
followed a year later and Gerald Laing
Chelsea, Kensington, and Hampstead (artists'
colonised an ex-rag trade show room in
studios were converted into ‘desirable’ flats
Fournier Street at the same time.(5) By
proffering no replacement for the artist) and
1965 redundant buildings marked the
the greater scale on which painters and
decline in trade at East India Docks. This
sculptors were working.
effectively created a window of opportunity
for artists (albeit short term) before the
planners and developers redefined the
use and essence of the area.
Formation of S.P.A.C.E
at the 'I' site
In 1968 the artists Bridget Riley and Peter
Sedgley, in search of suitable studio spaces
for themselves, seized an opportunity to
occupy the ‘Ivory Warehouse’ (known as the ‘I’
Site) in St Katharine Dock, near Tower Bridge,
E1. (St Katharine Dock had then been taken
over from The Port of London Authority by the
Greater London Council.)
Bridget Riley had attracted the attention of the
art world from 1962, becoming the first British
painter to win the international prize at the
Venice Biennale. The Evening Standard
reported in 1969 (01.11.69) that for several
years she had been counted among the most
important thinkers in the art world. Every
modern art collection worth its name had a
Riley. Riley represented the established,
individual artist looking for a space to work
without a desire to be a part of an artists’
community. Sedgley (also an established artist
on the continent) was the opposite. He had a
strong conviction to establish a professional
body which represented the individual artist,
such as Riley, within the public arena. Peter
Sedgley’s thinking had been focused on; ‘..two
things that artists basically need(ed). One was
studio space in which to work and the other on
some kind of essential point at which their
work could be documented, photographed and
sold. (6)
In need of support, Riley and Sedgely invited
a number of enthusiastic people from diverse
backgrounds to create a body of Trustees who
all had an active interest in the arts: Tony
West, Professor of Law at the University of
Reading’s Faculty of Urban & Regional
Studies; Irene Worth, an actress,
‘passionately’ interested in the arts; Maurice
de Sausmarez, Principal of the Byam Shaw
School of Art and Peter Townsend, editor of
Studio International. After some initial
investigations at the Ministry of Housing and
Local Government Professor West had
deduced that no provision had been made for
artists' studios in London describing this as a
paradox: ‘...London is, in a way, the centre of
the art world but the artists just cannot find a
space to work. We want artists, we need them
but, they are left to find their own solution ...(7)
Bridget Riley at St Katharine Dock
Bridget Riley & Peter Sedgley 'at the local' nr. St
Katharine Dock
The enthusiastic group formed ‘Space
Provision, Artistic, Cultural and Educational
Ltd., S.P.A.C.E. Ltd'. (abbreviated to
S.P.A.C.E.) which was non-profit making. It
successfully negotiated a two year lease at
low rental for the ‘I’ Site from the GLC.
(The leader, at that time, was Desmond
Plummer, ex-Chairman of the London Port
Authority, and an ex-Chairman of the Arts
Council of Great Britain.The Minister for
the Arts was Miss Jennie Lee.) (8) A friend
and supporter of the project, Sir Henry
Moore, recalls visiting the site with Riley to
assess its suitability as a conducive space
for artists to work in: 'The building I was
taken into had been derelict since the last
war. It had a remarkably, romantic feeling
about it.’ (9) Archer suggests that '...the
range of this support indicates that the
venture was, from the very first, identified
as a good thing not only within the narrow
confines of the art world, but also for the
cultural and economic well-being of the
community at large'.(10)
Artists move in
S.P.A.C.E. Ltd. aimed to distribute the
available space at the ‘I’ Site amongst a
broad range of artists as low-rent studios
proposing the following strategy ‘.....artists
working within any such projects being run
by SPACE Ltd. be constituted round a core
of established artists who themselves need
working space, and also include a number
of younger artists; that provision be made
for workspace for artists visiting the UK.,
and that consideration be given to inviting
art colleges to subsidise workspace for
some of their own students.’(11)
Studio space was publicly advertised and
over ninety artists were housed on a virtual
basis of self-selection; not everyone wanted
to work with others in thousands of square
feet of open warehouse space. Financial
outgoings were covered by rent from artists,
and the Arts Council provided moveable
fittings such as heaters and strip lights.
Fifty painters, forty kinetic artists and
sculptors, twelve foreign artists and students
from three art schools occupied the ‘I’ Site.
The diversity of art practice broadened to
encompass theatre, music, ‘light’ and
environmental art and an exhibition space
was realised in another warehouse at St
Katharine called 'Central H', subsequently
acquired by SPACE. Individual studios
varied between 200 - 2,000 square feet and
at rents of .26p - £1.00 a square foot
inclusive per annum.
Interior Ivory Warehouse, St Katharine
The ‘I’ Site was several storeys high with a
floor space of 60,000 sq.ft and the potential
to provide 100 artists with generous spaces
in which to work. Grants from the Calouste
Gulbenkian Foundation, the Arts Council
and Henry Moore, who donated half of his
Dutch Erasmus prize in 1968 (by tradition
part was to be passed onto a European
cultural cause) provided the materials to
partition and convert the building into
working studios. Bridget Riley recalled the
filth of the place which they had to negotiate:
"(there was) ...dirt some 6
inches deep and spread
over these huge floors. It
was disheartening for
artists to take up a space
in a place that was so filthy
but it was marvellous
space and lots of it so we
felt that this had to be the
space for us, this was
what we really
wanted.."(12)
Interior Ivory Warehouse, St Katharine Dock
The work was carried out by artists and
students from Chelsea, Slade and Byam
Shaw arts schools. British graduates had a
resourceful attitude to life in the early 1970s
which boded well for the ‘do-it-yourself’
approach where it was necessary to
renovate and/or convert redundant building
stock within the decaying wasteland of East
London’s docks (see Richard Wentworth,
Dilston Studio).
The working nucleus AIR
Air Offices at Ivory Warehouse, St Katharine Dock, 19691970
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While SPACE sought to provide affordable
studio space, AIR sought to collect artists'
information, find new patrons, generate
new audiences and ways to engage that
audience in the visual arts. Peter Sedgley
believed a more direct way was needed for
artists work to reach collectors without
having to go through an intermediary
gallery.
Front cover to an Air information booklet, 1973
Central to the artists’ studios at St Katharine
Dock was an active office administrating the
Art Information Registry (AIR). This was the
realisation of Peter Sedgley’s idea to provide
an ‘...essential point at which artists’ work
could be documented, photographed and
sold’ (13) : For Sedgley this was the ‘working
nucleus to S.P.A.C.E’, an index of all the
work produced at St Katharine (most kept on
35mm slide) and a record of other
artists/works from ‘Czechoslovakia to Hong
Kong’. In 1970 AIR developed a subsidiary,
Grad 70, which collected slides and
information from British diploma shows. AIR
aimed to provide a two-way information
service between artists, the public,
organisers of
exhibitions/events/performances, dealers and
collectors, cultural organisations and art
services. It was run democratically, and a fee
of £3.00 was charged to view the material.
From the outset AIR was actively connecting
artists and their works to international
exhibitions; it contributed to nine in the first
year including two in Germany and one in
Tokyo and doubled this by 1972. Early AIR
publications included 'Catalyst' (1967-1969)
and 'AIRMAIL (1970s), information
magazines for artists.
Artists' Studio, Ivory Warehouse, St Katharine Dock, 1969
AIR and S.P.A.C.E. vacated St Katharine
Dock in 1970, the tenancy had come to an
end and a 22 million redevelopment
scheme was due to start.
The story of AIR aned SPACE from 1970;
to the present day is related in the section
on Martello Street .
1.Archer, Michael. Artists in East
London. Commissioned essay by Acme.
2001.
2. ibid
3.Segdley, Peter. The Inception of
Space Ltd. Introduction to The Directory
of Artists, Space Open Studios. 1975
4.Kenny. Michael. S.P.A.C.E. some
personal recollections. 1994
5.See David Mellor, the sixties art scene
in London, London 1996, p.54.
6.Documentary film about S.P.A.C.E.
Ltd. directed by Peter Montagnon who
worked for Antelope Films. 1970.
7.ibid
8. Interview by Sue Wilson with Peter
Sedgely, 30.03.00.
9.Henry Moore. op.cit.fn.7
10.op.cit.fn.1
9.A proposal to provide studio
workshops for artists. Brochure
produced between 1968-1972 for
S.P.A.C.E. Ltd.
10.Bridget Riley.op.cit.fn.7
11.op.cit.fn.7
Front cover to an Air information booklet
DILSTON GROVE
Introduction
Dilston Grove, the name of a sleepy back road in the southwest corner of Southwark Park,
London SE16 also marks the focal point at one end of the street, a building of concrete
construction built and blessed as Clare College Mission Church in 1911. The iconic cross,
perched on the roof, denotes the building's former use; its continued presence maintains a
symbolic reference to its role as a sanctuary for an ever changing flock. The history and
meaning of the building was reshaped in 1969 by a group of artists, graduates from the
Royal College of Art, who shared the inner sanctuary as a studio/workshop rebaptising it as
Dilston Studio. In 1978 the local authority had other plans for the building and the artists
vacated. For the following twenty-one years the future of Dilston Studio remained in the
balance; pigeons took vacant possession. In 1999 the Bermondsey Artists' Group resumed
the artistic link with the 70s securing a short lease from Southwark Council for the Café
Gallery. Dilston Studio has now become known as Dilston Grove.
.
Dilston Grove, Concrete Quarterly, 1974, Church into Studio, photograph by Trevor Jones
for British Cement Association, archival print from BCA Centre for Concrete Information
Introduction
Dilston Grove, the name of a sleepy back road in the southwest corner of Southwark Park,
London SE16 also marks the focal point at one end of the street, a building of concrete
construction built and blessed as Clare College Mission Church in 1911. The iconic cross,
perched on the roof, denotes the building's former use; its continued presence maintains a
symbolic reference to its role as a sanctuary for an ever changing flock. The history and
meaning of the building was reshaped in 1969 by a group of artists, graduates from the
Royal College of Art, who shared the inner sanctuary as a studio/workshop rebaptising it as
Dilston Studio. In 1978 the local authority had other plans for the building and the artists
vacated. For the following twenty-one years the future of Dilston Studio remained in the
balance; pigeons took vacant possession. In 1999 the Bermondsey Artists' Group resumed
the artistic link with the 70s securing a short lease from Southwark Council for the Café
Gallery. Dilston Studio has now become known as Dilston Grove.
.
Dilston Grove, Concrete Quarterly, 1974, Church into Studio, photograph by Trevor Jones
for British Cement Association, archival print from BCA Centre for Concrete Information
Dilston Studio 1969 1978
Dilston Studio, 1974, Concrete Quarterly,1974,
Church into Studio, photograph by Trevor Jones for
British Cement Association, archival print from BCA
Centre for Concrete Information
From 1969 a group of artists, recent
graduates from the Royal College of
Art, occupied the deconsecrated
church as studio space. In want of
space to work the artists sent letters to
London councils. (They were aware of
S.P.A.C.E but there was no direct
connection.) Southwark Council
responded and offered the artists
Clare College Mission Church in
Dilston Grove. The Church was in a
derelict state needing tiles to the roof,
glass to the windows, copper pipes to
the mains water supply, floorboards
and a loo. A journalist recorded his
impressions of the building in 1974:
"...we went to have a
look. ...facing onto the
green and open
Southwark Park and
backed by some down-atheel streets of Victorian
housing, stands this
romantic Italianate church
with its shallow pitched
roof, overhanging eaves,
and rose window in the
end wall....it has rather a
faded air of grandeur and
it is coming apart a bit at
Some of that team energy you see when
children are playing perhaps, but also a
world free of contemporary
'professionalisation' - in truth amateur (as
in the French, positive, sense) with the
same resourcefulness you see in
allotments. A world of pre 'health & safety'
and 'quality assurance'. I remember the
legal aspect being something
'gentlemanly' it must have been an
almighty act of goodwill & old fashioned
trust on the part of the man at Southwark
Council. In that sense we were true
privateers and away from the more
systematic approach. The relentlessness
of the property ladder had not yet been
invented - a large house in Islington was
almost £6,000 at the time. I think it is
important to locate it in some sort of
social reality. I have an unfindable slide
from the early 70s advertising for
postmen - £26 a week. I watched the
terraces being cleared at the Elephant
where I lived (hence Southwark
connection)" (4)
Dilston Studio, 1974, Concrete Quarterly,1974, Church into Studio,
photograph by Trevor Jones for British Cement Association,
archival print from BCA Centre for Concrete Information.
With the metamorphosis of ‘church into studio’
came the renaming of the building to Dilston
Studio. The interior became a lofty, empty,
rectangular shell, an open work space for several
artists though ‘there are a few clues as to its
previous use - a raised area at the north end
where the altar used to be, a balcony where the
the seams here and there
with odd bits of
reinforcement showing.
But it is still noble and
robust.." (3)
Clare College organised the removal
of the fixed furniture (the altar
dismantled into portable pieces). The
church had been heated by a central
boiler feeding vertical cast iron
radiators. These were removed to
provide clear working walls.The artists
'pulled out a lot of junk' selling it for 'a
few bob', York paving slabs sold for
about £20, as a job lot, church pews
went to a restaurateur for £10 a piece
and 'piles of burnt prayer books' hit the
skip.
Recalling the spirit of the age in the
early 70s Richard Wentworth, one of
the RCA artists, described it as;
'hippy', 'resourceful',
'making shift' with the
attitude of being 'up the
Hindu push and we’ll be
alright'....
...it was interesting to think
over the innocence,
romantic energy, a sheer
shortsighted biological
stamina (we were in our
early 20s...) which made
one so un-circumspect to
undertake a place like
Dilston Studio.
organist once sat....’(5).
Carl Plackman, sculptor, and James Dillon,
furniture designer, joined Richard Wentworth in
the main studio space. Two textile
designers/printers, Jane Hill and Sue Saunders
occupied the adjacent Parish Room.
By 1978 Southwark Council had plans for a
community centre at Dilston Studio. The artists
were asked to leave and vacated without
argument.
Dilston Grove 1999 - Café Gallery Projects
administered by Bermondsey Artists' Group
Video of the Private View to Ark 2000 (recorded by Jessy
Rahman) - selected parts of people in the space looking at
the exhibits shown in fast forward mode.
Sound tape by Jane Deakin (music produced and written by
Chris McKensie for Jane Deakin's exhibit The Grasshopper
at Ark 2000)
The first exhibition to be held at Dilston
Grove was in May 1999. Curated by Simon
Morrissey 'Word enough to save a life, Word
enough to take a life' was a group exhibition
with works by Melanie Counsell and James
Thornhill.
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Eight Times Three, Darrell Viner, Installation, 29.03.00 30.04.00, Dilston Grove Exhibition, commissioned by the
Café Gallery © Creativecircle, 92 Webster Road, London
SE16 4DF
From April 1999 Dilston Studio again
becomes the focus for artistic production
after twenty-one years of occupation by
pigeons.(7) The Bermondsey Artists' Group
acquired a short lease from Southwark
Council for the building to be used as a
temporary exhibition gallery for large-scale
art installations, performances and video
events during the rebuilding of the Café
Gallery housed in Southwark Park’s ex-Lido
Café. Once more Clare College Mission
Church received a new identity, Dilston
Grove.
" .. .the old church building
can take on other
functions and guises, such
as a power station or even
an art gallery......No space
where art is shown or
created can ever be
completely mute, as these
spaces - institutional or not
- always structure the way
art is seen as well as how
Word enough to save a life. Word enough to take a life,
James Thornhill, 27.05.99 - 11.07.99, Dilston Grove
Exhibition, commissioned by the Café Gallery ©
Creativecircle, 92 Webster Road, London SE16 4DF
November 1999 saw the first of three
commissioned exhibitions:
'If not now, when?' by Jo Stockham. (8);
followed by 'Eight Times Three' by Darrell
Viner in March 2000 (9); and in May 2000
'Turbine Hall Swimming Pool ' by Richard
Wilson. (10)
that art is made and what
it might have to say for
itself. (6) "
During the rebuilding of the Café Gallery the
Bermondsey Artists' Group have staged
several exhibitions at Dilston Grove which all
present a specific response to the
architecture and context of the venue.
Word Enough To Save A Life. Word Enough To Take A life,
Melanie Counsell, 27.05.99 - 11.07.99, Dilston Grove
Exhibition, commissioned by the Café Gallery
© Creativecircle, 92 Webster Road, London SE16 4DF
If not now when? Jo Stockham, Dilston Grove
03.11.99-05.12.99. Archive footage by kind permission of
Southwark Local Studies Library
continued...
Dilston Grove 1999 - Café
Gallery Projects
administered by
Bermondsey Artists'
Group continued...
If not now when? Jo Stockham, Dilston Grove
03.11.99-05.12.99. Archive footage by kind permission of
Southwark Local Studies Library
Elephant - Ark 2000, 03.08.00 - 27.08.00. Dilston Grove
Exhibition, commissioned by the Café Gallery
© Creativecircle, 92 Webster Road, London SE16 4DF
Bird with string - Ark 2000, 03.08.00 - 27.08.00. Dilston
Grove Exhibition, commissioned by the Café Gallery ©
Creativecircle, 92 Webster Road, London SE16 4DF
If not now when? Jo Stockham, Dilston Grove
03.11.99-05.12.99. Archive footage by kind permission of
Southwark Local Studies Library
Ark 2000, 03.08.00 - 27.08.00. Dilston Grove Exhibition,
commissioned by the Café Gallery
© Creativecircle, 92 Webster Road, London SE16 4DF
If not now when? Jo Stockham, Dilston Grove
03.11.99-05.12.99. Archive footage by kind permission of
Southwark Local Studies Library
Dilston Grove has also been the venue for
two curated shows in 2000; 'Echoes of
samples of tokens of hints of congress
training reflected in vague recollections from
hearsay - Czech Secret Society curated by
Andree Cooke and Ark 2000 An
Experimental Work, the latter celebrating 10
years of Kunstbrucke/Artbridge (an
exchange programme with artists from East
Berlin), curated by Harald Smykla and Hein
Spellman. The Bermondsey Artists' Group
have a continued programme of exhibitions
for 2001.
The Bermondsey Artists'
Group & Café Gallery
Excited by the new space, members
encouraged their neighbours to participate in
the gallery’s activities. Without realising it,
this natural approach to working within the
local community broke down barriers. People
who had little contact with modern art could
see work by Richard Wilson, Jo Stockham
and other members of the group.
Café Gallery, Southwark Park Lido, Iced Cold
Drinks 1982
After dockland closures in the 1960s many
buildings lay idle and vacant in the boroughs
of East and South East London. The
possibility of utilising redundant housing,
warehousing and other derelict premises as
studio spaces attracted artists to this side of
London.
Ron Henocq (b.1950, Director of The Café
Gallery, founder member of The Bermondsey
Artists' Group) had another quest to that of
finding somewhere to live and work in the
borough which he acquired, as did many
other members of the group, through Acme.
He wanted to form a democratic group
whereby artists would be guaranteed a
venue to exhibit their work. Ron scouted the
local drinking haunts such as, The Anchor
Tap, (also adopted by Butlers Wharf artists),
The Ship, The Crown, The Mayflower,
Southwark Park Tavern and New Concorde,
(some known for their artistic clientele) to find
other like -minded artists. In response the
Bermondsey Artists’ Group was established
in 1983 with twenty-two artists as members.
In search of a venue to hold their first Open
Exhibition they approached Southwark
Council and were offered The Chapter House
by Southwark Cathedral.
Installation piece by Sinead Codd, exhibition at Café Gallery,
16.06.95 - 16.07.95, photograph by the artist.
Audiences were offered a programme of
exhibitions by lesser-known artists,
performance art events and the opportunity to
make work for commissioned exhibition.
International links followed and, in 1990, a
regular exchange programme was
established with artists from East Berlin.
Thirteen years of exhibitions, performances
and workshops firmly established the
gallery's reputation. It also made them
acutely aware of the building's severe
shortcomings. In 1997, the group decided
that a major rebuilding programme was the
only way forward. By the following year over
500,000 had been raised from the National
Lottery, Southwark Council, various
charitable trusts and many individual
supporters. The full project included the
rebuilding of the gallery, a programme of
public art and the creation of an alternative
venue at Dilston Grove during the closure
period and perhaps beyond.
Albatross - Ark 2000 03.08.00-27.08.00, Dilston Grove,
exhibition curated by Harald Smykla & Hein Spellmann. ©
Creativecircle, 92 Webster Rd London SE16 4DF
The gallery re-opened in May 2001 as a fully
accessible venue with extended exhibition
facilities and a dedicated education workshop
space. Over the last seventeen years there
have been many changes. The original Café
In the summer of the same year the group
Gallery has developed into Café Gallery
acquired the lease for the derelict Lido Café Projects to reflect their wider range of
in Southwark Park and were given support by activities. Much of the area has been
the council to make it usable as an art
developed and, with the advent of the Jubilee
gallery. The artists' rallied to carry out the
Line, there are now excellent transport links.
work using a dehumidifier to help stick the
What hasn't changed is that the Bermondsey
paint to the walls. By February 1984 the Café Artists' Group is still run by artists and
Gallery, administered through The
committed to providing Access to Art for All.
Bermonsey Artists' Group’s elected Council
of Management and an appointed Gallery
Cafégalleryprojects.com
Director (Ron Henocq), opened with a
thematic show relating to Bermondsey.
Southwark Park Lido, Porthole, front cover to Richard
Wilson's CD exhibition cat. Turbine Hall Swimming Pool,
03.05.00 - 02.07.00. © Creativecircle, 92 Webster Rd
London SE16 4DF
1.Church into Studio, Concrete Quarterly, pp.30-40, 1974
2.bid.p.40
3.bid.p.39
4.Letter from Richard Wentworth 8th October 2000
5.Eight Times Three catalogue, Darrell Viner - Exhibition at
Dilston Grove, 29.03.00-30.04.00
© Creative Circle, 92 Webster Road, SE16 4DF
6.Andrew Wilson, May 2000. Intro. Turbine Hall Swimming
Pool, Richard Wilson, Dilston Grove, 31.05.00 - 02.07.00
7.In the early 1980s a group of artists from The Bermondsey
Artists' Group applied to Southwark Council to occupy
Dilston Studio. They were
informed that there were still plans to create a local
community centre on the site. Nothing, as yet, has come of
this proposal.
8.If not now, when? by Jo Stockham, 03.11.99-05.12.99
9.Eight Times Four by Darrell Viner, 29.03.00 - 30.04.00
10.Turbine Hall Swimming Pool by Richard Wilson, 31.05.00
- 02.07.00
Exhibition at the Café Gallery, Masks, 1984, Cover
illustration - Peter McLean from Exhibition of Rinoceros at
Venice by Pietro Longhi
The Greater London Arts Association and the
GLC were financially supportive during its
initial years which helped boost funds for an
exciting programme of exhibitions. The
second show Masks is one such exhibition
attracting artists such as Richard Layzell,
Derek Jarman, Stephen Buckley, Patrick
Caulfield, Richard Wilson and Jock
McFadyen.
Southwark Park Lido, Steps, front cover to Richard Wilson's
CD exhibition cat. Turbine Hall Swimming Pool, 03.05.00 02.07.00.
© Creativecircle, 92 Webster Rd London SE16 4DF
BUTLERS WHARF
SYNOPSIS
The Butlers Wharf story charts the classic case of artists as pioneers
who find low-cost studio space in neglected inner city areas, move in,
preserve and renovate causing rejuvenation within a few years, thus
drawing attention to the area and 'lifestyle' possibilities, ultimately
being forced out by the property market. It describes the establishment
of a community of independent artists in studios by the Thames,
rendered homeless again through development, leading to the
formation of Chisenhale studios in Bow, 1980.
INTRODUCTION AND
BACKGROUND
It looked for all the world like a film
set of grim Dickensian horror, looming
out on the riverside, and with barred
windows and rattling gantries above
the narrow cobbled street Shad
Thames which threads through the
middle of the wharves. Butlers Wharf
in Bermondsey, forming a 14 acre
complex of ageing Victorian
warehouse buildings, lies on the
South bank of the Thames just across
from St Katherine's dock and
immediately downriver from Tower
Bridge.
X6 Dance Space - Butlers Wharf
Now a distant memory, but for a decade
Butlers Wharf fronting the river Thames by
Tower Bridge was the largest colony of
artists in London.
The wharf was built towards the end
of the 19th Century to store the influx
of dry goods and spices being
imported from the Empire and was
finally closed in 1971 when the
London Docks became uneconomic,
through containerisation of cargoes
and de-casualisation of the docking
workforce, which led to their
relocation outside London further
down the Thames at Tilbury.
Consequently by the early 70s, like
much of the rest of London's and
other port and manufacturing cities'
19th and early 20th Century industrial
buildings, especially riverside
warehouses, they were made
redundant, and left vacant.
Butlers Wharf Studios
The owners of Butlers Wharf, the
Town and City Properties Group Ltd,
decided to rent out the wharves as
individual storage and light industrial
space in order to offset costs and
prevent the buildings becoming
vandalised.
Alongside several small commercial
concerns including spice grinderies,
waste rag merchants, a pet food
factory, several joinery firms, a
porcelain factory, a loom-maker and
of course the John Courage brewery,
among those first tenants were a
handful of artists who independently
realised the potential as studio space,
and indeed spacious but technically
'illegal' living quarters
CHRONOLOGY OF THE
ARTISTS INTO BUTLERS
WHARF
The occupation by artists dates back to 1971
when 'A' block, fronting the river was first
colonised, and in all seven of the warehouses
were ultimately used by artists between 1971
and 1980.
Over the next four years artists proceeded to fill
up 'A' block, moving on in later years to blocks
'B', 'C' and 'D', 'X' , W11 and part of 'P', also a
separate building in Maguire Street. By the end
of the 70s, aside from the organised studio
groups of Space and Acme Butlers Wharf
became in the process, albeit ad hoc and
piecemeal, the largest and most divergent
community of artists in London, including
painters, sculptors, printmakers photographers,
dancers, performers and crafts people.
To highlight just one artist from this
period we can look at Stephen
Cripps, pyrotechnic sculptor, who
tragically died at the age of 29. He
was a significant artist who
perhaps personified the Butlers
Wharf ideal.
Studio with garden shed (the living space) at
D6 Butlers Wharf, Shad Thames, London
1978.
Keir Smith and Simon Read in their shared studio space.
Richard Wilson in his studio.
Each artist separately negotiated a short lease
and rent, dealing in the process with the
cavalier agent for Town and City, Mr Woods
who, expoiting the laissez-faire attitude of the
owners positively relished renting out useless
warehouse space to a breathtaking variety of
To quote from a monograph on his
life published by Acme in
1992, . . . . "He salvaged objects
from the scrapheap, redeeming
them from a fate of erasure on the
far edges of marginal history.
During a mid-Seventies party
organised by artist Anne Bean at
the Wharf, for example, a small
mechanical record player played
as it crawled its insectile path
through partygoers and performers
such as Jayne County and the
Electric Chairs, Michael Nyman,
The Rich Kids (their first gig), Sid
Vicious and Nancy Spungen,
Bruce Lacey, Andrew Logan,
Midge Ure and various members
of The Jam, The Buzzcocks and
Siouxsie and The Banshees.
Like the replicants in Ridley Scott's
Blade Runner, these moving
sculptures were energised with
hybrid false memories of an
imaginary past combined with the
new and fantastic surge of finite
life which Cripps gave them.
His studio - the central bay at
individuals.
It is important to remember that because the
Town Planning use was designated as
'warehousing', technically all other uses
contravened this, and through occupation for
studio use both the company and the artists
were colluding in turning a 'blind eye' to the
law.
Hence for a very cheap rent, artists through the
particular lease mechanism, which involved
going to court, waived all rights of security of
tenure, thus rendering themselves in the future
liable for summary eviction should the
company wish for any reason.
Most of the conversions were done at the
artists' expense, installing electricity and
plumbing themselves, and doing the
decoration, glazing and partitioning. The early
pioneers were successful in obtaining Arts
Council studio conversion grants, which
averaged about £400 per artist, not a princely
sum but covering at the very least the material
costs and any difficult technical items. In the
early 70s the Arts Council in fact initiated
programmes for supporting directly individual
artists - there were major and minor bursaries
and grants for assisting with artists living and
working expenses, and studio capital costs
were a major separate programme.
Butlers Wharf with its huge
shutters opening out onto a
priceless view of the Thames - was
filled with arcane and abandoned
scrap. These studios occupied
abandoned warehouses and were
rented on six month lets for the
ostensible purpose of storage. Of
all the artists who worked and
surreptitiously lived in them, only
Cripps came anywhere near to
fulfilling the storage requirement.
Along with a welding pit and a
collection of Chinese, Burmese,
and Indonesian gongs, there was a
dentist's chair, a light made from a
car manifold stuck into a
swingwheel and studded with
church and synagogue lights, two
halves of a fighter plane cockpit
and a garden shed in which Cripps
slept, kept warm and watched
Apocalypse Now, Damn Yankees
and South Pacific.
David Toop Stephen Crippspyrotechnic sculptor-a mongraph
published by Acme 1992 (1)
In all over 200,000 sq ft of fantastic space
became exploited for artistic use. Many now
famous artists worked there, and Butlers Wharf
was equally famous, or notorious, during the
Punk period in the late 70s, for some of the
biggest and most riotous all-night parties in
London.
Butlers Wharf studios
The Acme Gallery, 43 Shelton Street, Covent
Garden, London after a Cripps performance.
April/May 1978
Artists At Butlers Wharf (a partial list)
Block A Sixth Floor
Second Floor
Peter Logan - Sculptor
Andrew Logan - Sculptor - Designed Biba
David Lobb Bootmaker
Roof Garden in Kensington Store (ex Derry & Toms
Department Store)
Block W First Floor
Diane Logan - Milliner
Derek Jarman - Filmmaker - Held The
Alternative Miss World at the Wharf- filmed part of
Sebastiane there - filmed the Sex Pistols there- Film
Jubilee had the Wharf as a background
The Mad Boat Builder
Fifth Floor
Stephen Buckley - Painter
Claire Smith And Liz Pannett - Painters
Fourth Floor
Simon Read - Photographer
Keir Smith - Sculptor
Mikey Cuddihy - Painter
Roger Kite - Painter
Gillian Ingham - Painter
Ian Tyson - Printmaker
Jo Llewellyn - Weaver
Block C
Mike Baumgarten Architect and Malcolm
Poynter Sculptor
Maurice Agis Inflatable Sculptor Alexis
Hunter - Painter
Block c
Ian Chapman Sculptor
Maggie Chapman
Denise Harris Painter
Robert Mcpartland Painter
Jimmy Marcus Filmmaker
Nigel Noyes Printmaker
Sue Jenkyn-Jones
Fourth floor
Ann Bean Performer
Chris Maynard Writer
Peter Clossick
Susan Mitchell Mixed Media
Emma Cameron Embroidery
Diana Evans Painter
Pamela Andrew
Trisha Austin Sculptor
Allan Parsons Painter
Jonathan Page Painter
Flora Husband Painter
Gail Sagman Painter
Diane Martin Painter
Francis Martin Painter
Maura Flatman Painter
Dennis Beere Sculptor
Nadia Ming Sculptor
Paul Bernson Painter
Manny Faigenbloom Carpenter
Alec Peever Letterer
Nigel O'Niell
Alan Lancaster
Susan Mitchell
Emma Cameron
Catherine Howard Fabric Printer
Kate Hardy Painter
Dale Walker Sculptor
Cynthia Wilde Painter
Jo Stockham - Painter
Second Floor
Brian Cleaver Mixed Media
Jane Curtis Painter
Kieth Bowler Painter
Rosamonde Hatton Painter
Eugene Palmer Painter
Third Floor
Richard Wilson Sculptor
Ingrid Kerma Painter
Charles Hustwick Painter
Francis Cottell Painter
Michael Richards
Hazel Langhurst Sculptor
Giles Thomas Painter
Peter Webster
George Blacklock Painter
Paul Burwell
Ground Floor
Michael Reagan
Alistair Brotchie
Faith Gillespie Weaver
Block D Sixth Floor
Fourth Floor
Michael Heindorff Painter
Stephen Cripps Pyrotechnic Sculptor
Maurice Aegis Inflateables
Peter Clossick
Bill Lewis
Fourth Floor
Block X Sixth Floor
Rachel Clark Painter
David Fairbairn Painter
Daniel Hahne Painter
John Fuller Sculptor
Tony Kynaston Painter
Richard Lanham Performer
Di Livey Painter
Lynette Lombard Painter
Kitty Reford Painter
Mike Tebb Sculptor
Penny Mellor Painter
X6 Dance Space 5 Artists - Fergus Early Jacky Lansley - Maedee Dupresa - Mary
Prestidge - Emily Claid
Third Floor "X3"
Third floor
Sue Beere
Peter Mccarthy
Chris Dawson Sculptor
Alan Cox Printmaker
Bob Linney & Ken Meharg Printmakers
9a Maguire St
PROPERTY BOOM,
POTENTIAL SEEN THE RIVERSIDE
THAT WENT TO
BLAZES
By 1979 the bubble just had to burst. As
in New York and Chicago, the fate of
redevelopment had already befallen St
Katharine Dock opposite, which saw
many buildings including the Space
Studios vacated and demolished to
make way for the Tower Hotel luxury
yacht marina. Besides Space's main
building, artists Robyn Denny and
Dante Leonelli both had independent
studios in the St Katharine wharves,
and were also forced to move on in the
process.
By late 70s presence of artists had
contributed enormously to the
rejuvenation of the area - so much so
that the regeneration potential of
cultural activities was appreciated by
the local authority Southwark, who
proceeded as a protective measure to
designate the wharf as a conservation
area.
Butlers Wharf was thus destined to be
"discovered" all over again, to become 'yuppie'
apartments and Italian restaurants.
At approximately 4 am at the end of August 1979
an electrical fault started a fire in the ground floor
workshop of furniture makers. Most of A block
was destroyed, and demolition of the affected
areas commenced next day, still with some artists
resident in the upper floors. This catastrophe
suddenly alerted not only the occupants, but the
owners and the fire authorities to the real risk of
loss of life.
Southwark Council loathed the idea of
another Katharine Dock - "like a zoo
where you come to gawp at the jet set"
as Ward councillor Peter Ward
graphically put it at the time.
However, Southwark's intransigence did
not put off restaurateur and developer
Terence Conran, who together with
Town and City director Basil Winham
and the chief architect of the Louis de
Soissons Partnership Max Gordon
recognised Butlers Wharf huge
potential and put forward a
development proposal for a luxury
marina, hotel, office and apartment
blocks and a floating pub, espousing
the idea that a more 'chic' class of
tenant would pay much higher rents for
the privilege of a view of the Thames.
(2)
EXODUS OF ARTISTS CHISENHALE
The GLC slapped dangerous
structures notices on some of the
warehouses, and demanded that the
owners make the buildings safe, and
bring them into line with current safety
and fire regulations. For financial
reasons, apart from anything else, this
they were understandably reluctant to
do, and because of the fundamentally
'illegal' nature of the artists'
occupancy, Town and City took the
opportunity to initiate what was to
become the exodus of all the artists.
(3)
Those artists in A block immediately
affected by the fire who did not make
their own immediate alternative
arrangements elsewhere, ( to Suffolk
in one case, or further eastwards in
riverside warehouses) were offered on
licence some space in another wharf
at the rear of the estate.
Gradually many of the artists drifted
away, but in late January 1980 all the
remaining artists, now numbering
about 60 from the original community
of over 150, were sent notices to quit
from Town and City, and formed the
Butlers Wharf Association to harness
resources and seek a solution to the
pressing problem of eviction, and the
need for new studio space. This group
sought advice particularly from Acme,
Space and Artlaw, a specialist
charitable body providing legal aid for
artists.
One particular nucleus of ex-Butlers
Wharf artists shrugged off this
setback. Out of the ashes, (almost
literally!) a group of 35 artists plus the
15 members of 'X6' Dance Space
formed Art Place Trust to investigate
new buildings, to establish a centre for
artists combining individual workspace
with a public area for exhibitions and
performances.(4)
Initially alighting on a disused printing
works in Southwark, APT eventually
struck a deal with the London Borough
of Tower Hamlets to take a 25 year
lease of a four storey 40,000 sq ft
The Council, whose leader Paul
Beasley became one of
Chisenhale's Trustee Directors
( he also championed the major
revamping of the Whitechapel
Gallery together with the gallery
director Nick Serota) gave them a
four year rent-free period, the
artists carried out all the repair
and restoration work themselves,
and by October moved from
Butlers Wharf to their new home.
By September 1982 the studios
were finished and fully occupied,
and the main gallery space on the
ground floor was in operation.(5)
Chisenhale Studios
Chisenhale now comprises
workspace provision to 40 artists
with public access through their
education programme to the
studios, the Chisenhale Gallery, a
large publicly funded space, and
Chisenhale Dance Space, a
resource for experimentation,
research and training in a wide
range of dance forms. It is
currently working with the local
Council to secure its long-term
future.
former veneer factory, the Chisenhale
Works, besides Ducketts Canal in Old
Ford.
Chisenhale Studios
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Other
sources:
1. David Toop "Stephen Cripps pyrotechnic sculptor - a
monograph"Published by Acme
Henry Lydiate
"Dear landlord,
please don't
put a price on
my soul"
Artlaw article in
Art Monthly
November
1978
2. "Riverside Warehouses to be
preserved"
3. "The Riverside that went to
Blazes" Time Out Article 1979.
4. "Why riverside art could go up in
smoke"
South London Press December
1979
5. East London Advertiser
September 1982
Rick Davies
"London
Today", Capital
Radio,
November
1979
The Guardian
January 1980
Butlers Wharf
Association
statement
November
1979
The Observer
January 1980
DEVONS ROAD
The first properties to be
managed by Acme Studios
were 105 and 117 Devons
Road in Bow, E3, in the
heart of London’s East End.
These redundant and semiderelict Victorian shops,
licensed to Acme in 1973 by
the Greater London Council,
marked the beginnings of an
organisation which would
become the largest provider
of working and living space
for artists in the United
Kingdom.
The following charts that history to 1994, and touches on
some of the main external factors to shape its development.
Acme’s story from 1995 to the present day is related in the
section on Copperfield Road. Beck Road (1975-1990) with
26 artists’ houses in one street, gives more details about
Acme’s use of short-life houses.
105 (far left), and 117 (second from right) Devons Road, Bow, E3 Acme’s first short-life
properties
EARLY DAYS - THE
PIONEERS 1972
On 9th November 1972, Acme Housing
Association Ltd. was formally registered as a
non-profit making company under the Industrial
and Provident Societies Act 1965. It was an
initiative by recent graduates from Reading
University Fine Art Department; young artists
seeking cheap space to work and live in London.
The original founder members were Kevin
Goldstein-Jackson, Tom Goodman, Jonathan
Harvey, Rosemary Harvey, David Panton, Claire
Smith and Susan Sauerbrun. It was led by
Jonathan Harvey and David Panton (still Acme’s
Co-Directors 28 years later!) and was formed
with the sole aim of providing the seven
founders with cheap studio and living
accommodation.
The Kipper Kids at The Cobdens Head Public House
(189 St.Leonards Road)
The possibility of renting ‘short-life’ houses and
shops in East London from the Greater London
Council, properties destined for eventual
demolition, had been pioneered by Martin von
Haselberg (aka Harry Kipper). Martin, a student
at E15 Acting School (1971-2), had noticed
many empty shops on the Mile End Road. Local
enquiries on behalf of two artist friends from
Cobdens Head regulars
Reading University, Peter Davey and Malcolm
Jones, led to an approach to the Greater London
‘Bernsteins’ also became the name for a
Council and ‘Bernsteins’ (220 Mile End Road),
performance group consisting of the
an old chemists shop, was negotiated, and Peter
Kipper Kids (Martin v. Haselberg and
and Malcolm moved in.
Brian Routh) and ex-students from
Reading University Fine Art Department:
Anne Bean, Peter Davey, Jonathan
Harvey, Malcolm Jones and Chris Millar,
all of them early settlers into the East
End.
.
Interior of Bernsteins (220 Mile End Road) with from left to right:
Jill Jones, Martin von Haselberg, Anne Bean and Malcolm Jones
Martin subsequently negotiated a boarded-up
pub in Poplar ‘The Cobden’s Head’ (189 St.
Leonards Road, E14) for himself and one or two
other properties, including the Post Office in St.
Leonards Road.
These were all occupied by artists.
Martin’s source of property was through
the GLC Valuation Department, which
handled commercial property (shops
and factories etc.) and which was able to
licence properties directly to individuals.
Martin’s success in renting these shortlife premises was due in no small part to
his considerable powers of persuasion
and personality. Access to housing stock
was however through the Housing
Department of the GLC, who would only
deal with properly constituted housing
associations and it was this route, the
formation of a housing association, that
the seven founder members of Acme
decided to take.
1973
Immediately after registration, Acme returned to
the GLC Housing Department to try to rent
some empty properties. Persistence eventually
paid off, and in March 1973 two derelict shops
in Bow, E3, with a 21 month life expectancy
(i.e. before demolition) were transferred. The
properties, 105 and 117 Devons Road were in
appalling condition, with no gas, electricity and
water and needing extensive repairs.
Repairs were carried out and paid for by
the first occupants in exchange for very
low rents ( 3 per week) and, importantly,
with the clear agreement that the
properties would be handed back when
required for demolition. The artists' ability
to carry out repairs through sheer hard
work, to transform near derelict
properties into working studios and living
spaces, encouraged the GLC to transfer
more property, soon taking Acme beyond
the needs of its original members.
Jonathan Harvey and David Panton and 117 Devons Road (first
Acme office), 1974
105 was transferred to David Panton (and
Claire Smith) and 117 to Jonathan Harvey (and
Rosemary Harvey).
Typical Acme house in need of major repairs, E3
(1973)
A row of typical boarded-up houses in Bow, E3 (1973)
David Panton and Jonathan Harvey
suddenly found themselves running a
voluntary service organisation for other
artists in similar need
RAPID GROWTH
1975
1974 -
The first full year saw rapid and unexpected
The fact that Acme was helping artists,
growth; by December Acme was managing 76 which had caused some raised eyebrows
houses providing living and studio space
at the GLC, was now not an issue. Soon
Acme was managing more short-life
houses than any other association in
London. In collaboration with SPACE
studios, Acme published "Help Yourself to
Studio Space" an initiative presenting the
organisations as a model to help emerging
studio organisations in other cities.
Advisory visits followed and a fundamental
area of work, providing advice and
consultancy services to others, was
established. As word of Acme's work
Larger scale properties in Approach Rd, E2. These fourquickly spread amongst artists, demand
storey houses were divided into two seperate units
increased and other sources of property,
the London boroughs, were approached
for 90 artists and their families. Many of these
for the first time. In Hammersmith and
houses had longer 'lives' than the first two in
Fulham Acme was asked to take on an old
Devons Road and initial grants towards basic
school at Hetley Road and a school
repairs. Jonathan and David had also
kitchen at Faroe Road to help a group of
succeeded in getting charitable status for
19 local artists seeking studio space.
Acme which eased the path to getting funding
towards running costs (an administration
grant for two years from The Calouste
Gulbenkian Foundation) and repairs (from the
Arts Council) towards converting parts of the
houses to working studios. 1974 established a
clear philosophy of support for artists which
has continued to this day. Operating as a
social landlord, Acme became a conduit
between cheap property and artists. Artists
arrived by word-of-mouth and were selected
onto a waiting list having demonstrated clear
commitment and need, and crucially that they
would benefit from what was on offer. The
organisational structure of Acme was also laid
down at this time - a management committee,
two executive officers and staff. It was not a
membership organisation or co-operative, in
contrast to many other studio organisations.
Acme wanted artists to do what they do best develop and make their own work - it was
Acme's job as a landlord to manage property. "Help Yourself to Studio Space" leaflet (1975)
However in those early days 'self-help' was
the name of the game and it was only by
artists' direct physical involvement in the
rebuilding of their houses that rents could be
kept so low (£12.99 per month). Because the
houses were due for demolition, artists had
the freedom to create their own working and
living environments, in most cases with the
removal of interior walls, totally transforming
the layout and use of a conventional 'two-up,
two-down plus back addition' terraced house.
Many of the houses were transferred in
clusters around particular streets so that a
community of artists, living independently but
in close proximity to one another, naturally
evolved. In September the first ever 'Open
Houses' event was launched with 50 houses
(and studios) open to the public over one
weekend.
Old Schools' Kitchen in Faroe Road, W14 (1975). Now
managed by ACAVA as studio and exhibition space.
It was not then expected that this first
venture into non-residential studios would
last or develop: 25 years later the buildings
are owned by an important studio
organisation, ACAVA (Association for
Cultural Advancement through the Visual
Arts) and Acme itself is now the largest
If the first test of Acme as a short-life manager manager of studios in the United
was that it could take on houses, however
derelict, and make full use of them, the
second was that it could hand them back on
time when recalled for demolition. In March,
13 properties were successfully returned to
the GLC cementing the relationship and
demonstrating Acme's seriousness and
efficiency.
THE ACME GALLERY &
FIRST STUDIO
BUILDINGS 1976
The collective energy created by the now
considerable number of artists who had
established their homes and studios in semiderelict property in the East End naturally
gave rise to debate about how their work
could be shown and promoted. The need for
gallery space, an alternative to the public and
commercial galleries, was forcefully
articulated and, after one or two false starts, a
redundant banana warehouse in Shelton
Street in Covent Garden was secured from
the GLC.
Station House Opera
Gerrards Banana Warehouse at 43 Shelton Street, Covent
Garden, WC2 (1975) before conversion to The Acme Gallery
With the vegetable market moving to Nine
Elms, a number of such spaces were
available on a short-term basis. With building
grants from the Arts Council, GLC and
Gulbenkian Foundation and revenue support
from the Arts Council and Greater London
Arts, The Acme Gallery opened in May. The
gallery was not proposed as a platform for
'Acme artists', but rather for the very many
other, particularly younger, artists, that the
Acme tenants represented. The policy was to
provide uncompromising support to artists
whose reputations had not yet been
established
- (performance 1981)
Approached by artists, a lease was now
taken (again from the GLC - It is difficult
now to imagine the extraordinary scope
and scale of the GLC's property holding
and remit) on a former meat-pie factory in
Acre Lane in Brixton.
Richard Deacon in his Acre Lane studio in Brixton (1989)
Opening Exhibition at The Acme Gallery - Mike Porter (May
1976), Upper Gallery
With a conversion grant from the Arts
Council 28 studios were created. Further
houses in good condition, and with grants
or whose work in installation and performance
was not being taken seriously elsewhere.
Artists approached the gallery through an
open submission process and were
encouraged to adapt the space to their work.
The Acme office, previously at 117 Devons
Road, moved to Shelton Street and Jonathan
Harvey became Gallery Director, and David
Panton Housing Director, both with part-time
assistants.
to employ specialist contractors, were
transferred beyond the East End, including
a number in South East London. Acme's
work in short-life housing now came to the
attention of the Department of Transport
who managed properties compulsorily
purchased for road schemes. The A1 road
widening scheme, proposed as long ago
as the 30s, provided Acme with houses on
the Archway Road (N1). Initial repairs were
funded by Acme and recovered through
rent.
CONSOLIDATION 1978,
1979, 1980
By December Acme was managing 142 shortlife houses, 3 studio blocks and a gallery in the
centre of London. It had become a major
alternative support organisation for art and
artists and was now a revenue client of the Arts
Council of Great Britain. New ways of helping
and promoting artists were explored with the
development of an International Visual Artists
Studio Exchange Programme, a five-country
network of organisations funded by the Arts
Council, British Council and the National
Endowment for the Arts (USA) and the
publication of the first "Artists Guide to
London", to provide visiting artists with
information and advice.
In this way, although Acme 'lost' houses,
artists were able to make discounted
purchases. From being temporary 'caretakers' of condemned property, many
artists were now able to secure their own
homes, making long-term commitments to
the communities into which they had
moved and which they were now to help
shape. The enormously ambitious scale of
the GLC's development programme
established in the 60s, embracing
wholesale slum clearance and the building
of new schools, became rationalised and
reduced as the projections on which the
programme was based proved unfounded.
Although by December 1978, Acme was
The story of Acme, and indeed that of other
managing 204 properties, helping over
studio organisations in London, revolves
350 artists, growth had started to slow with
around notions of the temporary and the
the GLC acquiring very little new stock for
permanent. In property terms 'temporary' often development. However the demand from
equates with cheap and 'permanent' with
artists continued to be very high and, as
expensive. Acme's property at this time was
ever, that demand continued to exceed
'short-life' and therefore could be passed on to supply.
artists at very low rents thus maximising the
The successful relationship with the
time they could concentrate on the
development of their work. From 1978 onwards Department of Transport soon led to a
large scale GLC development schemes started whole new source of houses in
to be cancelled and 'short-life' houses became Leytonstone, E11, where hundreds of
permanent. Acme successfully negotiated for homes were compulsorily purchased to
the artist licensees to be given tenant status to make way for the M11/Hackney Link
qualify for the GLC's purchase scheme
(through the 'right-to-buy').
THE ACME GALLERY
CLOSES - BACK TO
EAST LONDON 1981
The transfer of a number of GLC properties
to the local authorities created the possibility
of new working relationships and 8 short-life
houses were now transferred by the Royal
London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
In October, required back for demolition, the
Acme Gallery closed after a four and a half
year action-packed programme. It had built a
national and international reputation for an
uncompromising attitude to the presentation
of artists' work, particularly a pioneering
approach to installation and performance
work, now institutionalised and
commonplace. Major shows by artists
included John Bellany, Stuart Brisley, Helen
Chadwick, Stephen Cripps, Rose Garrard,
Ron Haselden, Albert Irvin, Jock
McFadyen, Simon Read, Kerry Trengove,
Darrell Viner, Anthony Whishaw and many
more.
Simon Read - 'Twelve Stern Presences and Other
Photographic Work' (August/September 1976)
Anthony Whishaw - 'Recent Paintings' (October/November
1978)
Stuart Brisley - '10 Days' (December 1978)
Albert Irvin - 'Recent Paintings' (April/May 1980)
The programme also included concentrated
seasons of performance, dance, film and
video
Stephen Cripps
Richard Layzell - Performance (1978)
Ron Haselden - 'Working 12 Days at The Acme Gallery'
(August 1978)
Alastair MacLennan '7 Ways' (July 1979)
Darrell Viner 'Who Manipulates Who' (July 1981)
(upper gallery)
Darrell Viner 'Who Manipulates Who' (July 1981)
(lower gallery)
Kerry Trengove - 'An Eight Day Passage'
(October/November 1977)
John Bellany - 'Paintings' (December 1977 - January 1978)
BACK TO EAST
LONDON continued ...
1981 - 1983
Over the next few years, against the
background of rising demand for nonresidential studio space from artists, Acme
began actively to seek further ex-industrial
buildings to lease and convert. The process
of de-industrialisation, begun in the 60s, was
still continuing and redundant factories were
available on long leases (10-15 years) and
relatively low rents. The starting point in
deciding on new buildings was (and still is!):
"can Acme charge a rent which artists not
only can afford but which is low enough to
help maximise their time in the studio". The
question of balancing low rents against the
need to generate income (to invest in further
buildings) has always been the most difficult
to address - and no less so today. The main
issue at this time was not whether buildings
were affordable, but finding the money to
convert them.
A Victorian factory site in Bethnal Green,
originally G.B. Kent & Sons, Brush
Manufacturers and more recently occupied
by Steelux, a company making bent steel
furniture (including the 'Z' bed), was spotted
by a local Acme tenant. The site (between
Robinson and Bonner Road, E2), owned by
the Crown Estate Commissioners and
forming part of their Victoria Park estate, was
negotiated on a 15 year lease, providing 46
studios in 28,000 square feet. Crucially a
studio conversion grant from the Arts Council
made the project viable - if building costs had
to be recovered from artists' rents, rents
would not have been affordable.
Acme Office (1981-1992) at 15 Robinson Road
Over the next 2 years two further studio
buildings were added to Acme's growing
portfolio of leasehold studios: a 10 year
lease on a large ex-public house in Old Ford
Road, E2
Old Ford Studios, Bethnal Green
again leased from the Crown Estate
Commissioners and creating 12 studios, and
a major new building in Orsman Road, N1.
Orsman Road Studios - built as a Player's Cigarettes factory
in the 30s - before conversion to studios
(originally built as a Player's Cigarettes
factory) leasing (for 15 years) 2 floors from
the owner/occupants Research Engineers
Ltd. and creating 28 large studios.
Part of Robinson Road/Bonner Road Studio site in Bethnal
Green, E2
Anthony Whishaw in his studio at Bonner Road
The leasing of this site, coinciding with the
closure of the Acme Gallery, saw Acme
move its offices back to the new studio
premises at Robinson Road where the
organisation was to direct its operations for
the next 11 years. The Steelux factory
showroom on Bonner Road, will later
become (in 1983) The Showroom Gallery
hired to artists to organise their own
exhibitions and later to be leased by an
independent publicly-funded gallery
organisation, to be run by a succession of
curators: David Thorp, Kim Sweet and Kirsty
Ogg.
Orsman Road Studios, N1
With the increase in demand for studio
space a studio-only artists' register was
opened. Meanwhile more short-life houses
were transferred from the Department of
Transport and from a new source, London
Borough of Hackney and by December 1982
Acme was managing 250 housing units. In
Hammersmith the 2 small studio blocks were
purchased by the GLC and leased back to
the artists' organisation, ACAVA, which has
been formed for that purpose. Again, whilst
the buildings were 'lost' to Acme's
management, Acme had enabled the
buildings to become a permanent resource
for
The Showroom - opening exhibition by artists at Robinson
Road
1984
In 1984, Acme acquired a 10 year
lease on the Church Hall, Redhill
Street , Camden, again from the
Crown Estate Commissioners,
providing 7 large studios.
Emily Hoffnung in her Redhill Street studio
In November, prior to conversion, Acme
invited Stuart Brisley, Ron Haselden
and Tim Head to present a programme
of installations and performances in
response to the abandoned and
unconverted
Old Church Hall, Redhill Street
GROWTH IN STUDIO
PROVISION - GLC
ABOLITION INTERNATIONAL
AGENCY RESIDENCIES
1985 - 1989
The 80s saw the continuing availability of
cheap ex-industrial space and by the end of
the decade Acme had expanded to overtake
SPACE studios to become the largest single
provider of non-commercial artists' studios in
the UK. This was achieved through the
acquisition of a 16 year lease on part of a
huge factory, originally Yardleys' Cosmetics,
in Carpenters Road, E15
Carpenters Road site - formerly Yardley's perfume factory
Simon Edmondson in his Carpenters Road studio
April 1986 saw the abolition of the Greater
London Council by the then Conservative
Government. Acme had worked with the GLC
for nearly fifteen years and had been viewed
as an efficient and resourceful manager of
property, rather than as an arts organisation.
The GLC's unwitting support of art and artists
only came to be recognised at the last
moment. It was also in the eleventh hour that
35 artist households, through Acme's
negotiations, were given tenant status,
leading to security and the possibility of home
ownership. With an increase in the number of
houses returned, `hand-backs' exceeded
transfers for the first time and at the end of
1986 the total number of houses managed
had reduced to 224. During 1987 numbers
were maintained, but the impending
implementation of the M11 motorway
scheme, and more generally a move away
from housing provision by local authorities
and a reduction in the scale of schemes,
made the continuing reduction in Acme's use
of short-life property inevitable. As a result
Acme's housing waiting list was closed.
In 1987 a new international role began to
emerge for Acme. The Swiss cultural
foundation, Kulturstiftung Landis & Gyr, had
developed a number of visiting fellowship
programmes enabling Swiss artists to spend
periods of time (3 to 9 months) developing
their practice abroad. Responding to
London's growing reputation as a world
capital for visual arts production, Landis &
Gyr approached Acme to act as their
managing agents - with Acme acquiring and
managing property on their behalf as working
and living space and acting as the host for
the visiting artists. By 1989 three adjoining
houses, specially converted for the artists'
use, had been acquired in Stepney, E1.
1-4 Jubilee Terrace, E1 with groundworks for new-build
work/live studio at No.5
In 1989, as part of Acme's expanding
advisory role to artists Acme published
"Organising your Own Exhibition - A Guide
for Artists".
Rachel Whiteread in her Carpenters Road studio
Over the next four years a further two leases
would be taken on the site, making a total of
88,000 square feet, providing studios for 160
artists. Conversion of the studios was
achieved with help from the Arts Council and
significantly, for the first time, with
regeneration grants, in this instance through
the Economic Development Unit of the
London Borough of Newham.
The transfer of municipal short-life housing
stock to Acme had now ceased. Acme
however began to form new partnerships with
other housing associations who were now
becoming the main providers of social
housing, a role formerly reserved for local
authorities. Three large houses in E1, owned
by Newlon Housing Trust but awaiting
funding for rehabilitation, were converted to 9
studio units for temporary use.
FURTHER EXPANSION
1990/91
In April 1990 the Inner London Education
Authority was abolished. The ILEA had taken
over properties, formerly in the management
of the GLC, which had originally been
intended for demolition to make way for new
schools. 26 houses in Beck Road E8 had
been transferred to Acme in the mid-70s
making it the largest single concentration of
artists’ houses. Through joint action by Beck
Road artists and Acme,
the long-term security of individual tenants
was secured enabling the majority of the
artists eventually to buy their homes at
discounted prices. Meanwhile as the Beck
Road artists, and many others in Acme
houses elsewhere, were contemplating a
secure future, Acme was seeking further
studio buildings as demand for cheap studios
continued to grow. During 1990 and 1991
two further major buildings were acquired in
South East London. The first in Childers
Street, SE8, formerly a ships' propeller
foundry, but subsequently occupied by the
current owners (Donovan Bros., paper bag
manufacturers) was developed in two
phases, creating 53 studios over 30,000
square feet.
With a 25 year renewable lease, the
conversion was funded from a number of
sources including the London Borough of
Lewisham, Greater London Arts, the Henry
Moore Foundation and the Paul Hamlyn
Foundation.
Eilis O'Connell in her Childers Street studio
The second at Larnaca Works, SE1
Larnaca Works site in Bermondsey, SE1
comprising 26 studios in 11,000 square feet,
was acquired on a 15 year lease. In this
instance Acme had been approached by an
independent group, Red Cow Studios, who
were faced with eviction. Acme was able
both to secure their position and take on
further space. Conversion of the studios was
assisted by a grant from London Arts Board.
Beck Road, Hackney, E8 - 26 Acme houses in one street
The buildings being leased by Acme to this
point had become available through the
process of de-industrialisation, either as a
result of manufacturing ceasing altogether
or, in the case of Orsman Road, N1 and
Childers Street, SE8, companies reducing
the scale of their operations and therefore
having surplus space. Relatively long leases
(between 15 and 25 years) were negotiable
and it was usually possible to build a
mechanism into the lease to minimise the
impact of future rent reviews to protect
artists’ rents.
Beck Road - some of the artists and their families
Childers Street studios in Deptford. Acme has gradually
taken over more of the site (over 100 studios by 2001).
At Childers Street, for example, artists would
pay an inclusive rent based on the figure of
£4.50 per square foot per annum; a fairly
large studio measuring 25 by 20 feet would
cost £187.50 each month and, in addition,
they would pay for the electricity they
consumed. Acme would pay all the costs on
the building: rent, rates, insurance,
electricity, repairs and maintenance,
telephone, professional costs, caretaking
and administration. Crucially, as a charity,
Acme would also only pay 20% of the
business rates which would make a
considerable difference to the rent level to
artists.
This basic mechanism, of artists’
organisations leasing cheap redundant exindustrial buildings and converting them into
smaller units to rent on to artists, has been
fundamental to the story of artists in East in
London and the wider picture of studio
provision throughout the United Kingdom
and beyond. Its success has been
dependent on a number of factors: the
availability of cheap buildings, a depressed
property market and sources of funding to
help pay for conversion.
TO COPPERFIELD
ROAD - THE MOVE TO
PERMANENCY 1992 1993
The late 80s saw an unprecedented property
boom in London. Redundant warehouses
and factories, previously 'zoned' by local
authorities to protect employment use, were
now, with an easing of planning regulations,
being snapped-up by developers to convert
to residential use. Studio organisations were
unable to compete with the enhanced value
of property now converted and sold on for
‘loft-living’. At the same time, with the
regeneration of Docklands and the creation
of an alternative commercial centre for
London at Canary Wharf, there appeared to
be a demand for office space on the fringes
of this new development. However by the
beginning of the 90s the boom had turned to
bust and some developers had property on
their hands that they were unable to let. This
scenario provided a brief opportunity for
Acme to take a 15 year lease on a major
building in Copperfield Road, E3
previously based at SPACE’s studio building
in Martello Street, E8 since 1979. With the
increase in Acme’s work and staff
complement, new offices on the fourth floor
Acme office on 4th floor of Copperfield Rd
were occupied in July 1992, marking the
fourth location of Acme’s home - a journey
from Bow to Covent Garden and then, via
Bethnal Green, back to Bow again.
Two further leases were taking on smaller
buildings at this time: a 10 year lease on the
third floor of Bombay Wharf, Rotherhithe,
SE16
Rear of Copperfield Road studios on Grand Union Canal
looking south to Canary Wharf
Bombay Wharf studios, Rotherhithe
(formerly managed by SPACE), to secure
the position of artists facing eviction, creating
8 new studios in 4,500 square feet, and a 6
year lease with the London Borough of
Sutton on a former stables block in Oaks
Park creating a further 8 studios in 3,000 sq
ft.
Two new international agency programme
were added to the first which had been
established with the Swiss cultural
foundation, Kulturstiftung Landis & Gyr.
Management agreements were now secured
Copperfield Road studios from Mile End Park
with the Visual Arts/Crafts Board of the
Australia Council and with the Republic of
Situated between Mile End Park and the
Austria's Ministry for the Arts. A further
Grand Union Canal, the building had been
house in Jubilee Terrace was now
part renovated and converted for office use,
purchased on behalf of Landis & Gyr. By
but work had been suspended with the rapid
1993 Acme’s programme had grown,
fall of property prices and with the demand
enabling 6 international artists at any one
for office space failing to materialise.
time to work and live in East London.
The building, consisting of 31,000 sq.ft. over
four floors, was developed in two phases
The anticipated decline in the numbers of
providing 48 studios and, on the ground
houses being managed continued during
floor, new premises for Matt’s Gallery
1993 with 15 houses handed-back to the
Department of Transport in Leyton to make
way for the M11 motorway.
Matthew Tickle Idyll Matts's Gallery September 1999
WORK/LIVE
DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS
WITH OTHER
HOUSING
ASSOCIATIONS 1994
1994 saw very considerable housing
losses, but the forging of new
partnerships with other housing
associations at this time would lead
both to the availability of a new source
of longer term housing and the
development of more studio space. 45
Department of Transport houses were
handed-back in Leyton and in Archway
Road the road widening scheme was
finally cancelled. Again, although this
would mean the loss of houses to
Acme's management, the majority of
occupants in Archway would be able to
purchase from the Department of
Transport.
In this way local authorities, otherwise reluctant to
grant total residential planning, were able to
ensure that some workspace was preserved.
A further house in Stepney was acquired for
Landis and Gyr's international programme together
with adjacent land and a major new-build studio
was constructed.
The new partnership activity was with
Solon Co-operative Housing Services. New-build studio at 5 Jubilee Terrace
In the first instance this enabled us to
With a growing awareness that although Acme's
acquire leases on 3 work/live
studio rents were low, many artists in London were
apartments and 14 studios in
unable to afford a space in which both to live and
Commercial Road, E1
to work, Acme had formed a working party in
1992, including two consultants through ABSA's
Business in the Arts Scheme, to investigate the
possibilities of developing permanent combined
working and living space. In December 1994 Acme
achieved a grant of 75,000 from the Foundation
for Sport and the Arts towards the purchase of a
building to convert to work/live studios. The
development of both permanent property and
combined working and living space had begun to
take shape.
Commercial Road studios and apartments, E1
and 2 apartments and 8 studios in
Domingo Street, EC3. While Solon
brought to the partnership access to
Housing Corporation finance to convert
the residential units, Acme enabled
planning consent to be granted for the
developments by ensuring, through
studio use, that some employment use
remained.
MARTELLO STREET
….text missing….
BECK ROAD
1975 - 1990 ACME HOUSES FOR ARTISTS
Introduction
If the story of Butlers Wharf typifies the oft repeated process where nomad artists pioneer a
new environment, draw attention to the exciting 'lifestyle' possibilities of buildings and the
area, whereupon property speculators move in and through luxury 'loft' developments price
out the original inhabitants, then the phenomenal growth and concentration of the Beck Road
artists colony in Hackney, London, encapsulates Acme's successful exploitation of short-life
housing through its fruitful relationship with the Greater London Council and highlights the
major political and market forces within the public housing sector.
Beck Road - some of the artists and their families
The Beck Road section displays Quicktime movies in its pages, they will take time to download and need
Quicktime 4 or higher to view at their best.
Background
However, even the Wilsonian "white-hot
revolution" ran out of money, and grand civic
The ravages of the Second World War were
schemes ground to a halt. By the end of the 60s
nowhere more extreme in Great Britain than in the
the lack of cash, which also precipitated the
East End of London, where the Blitz and subsequent abandonment of any long-term positive political
bombing campaigns were centred on the London
commitment left behind vast tracts of empty
docks and surrounding industrial hinterland. Cheek
houses, attracting further neglect, dereliction and
by jowl within this industrial quarter lay street upon
decay.
street of working-class terraced housing and
tenement blocks, which suffered similar damage.
Consequently, East London effectively now was
in a state of 'limbo', where whole districts were
After the war the London County Council, (LCC), the earmarked for various future plans and schemes,
centralised government for London which besides its but no activity could be undertaken. Any use of
responsibilities for health, education, the fire brigade existing properties, therefore, was necessarily
and other London services was charged with overall interim, and many thousands of houses, whole
responsibility for the rebuilding of all the damaged
groups of streets in some cases, were thus
and destroyed municipal properties, in particular the classified as 'short-life'. Much unwelcome
'slum' terraces of East London.
attention was focused in the early 70s on this
category of London housing, both from squatting,
which during this period particularly from
students became a mass activity, virtually an
orthodox 'alternative' to council rented
accommodation, and very much on the darker
side of the coin, from racketeering landlords, who
saw huge profits to be made from this cheap
property to rent, and there were several notorious
instances indicating connivance with persons
within the GLC.
Early Acme photo of a derelict street.
Richard Cork talking about Beck Road
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Whilst the country was experiencing the economic
realities of post-war industrial decline, semi-utopian
government social welfare policies strove to create
better metropolitan housing conditions.
The post-war Labour Government pledged that the
poor population of East London, having faced the
brunt of the war on the home front, would be
delivered into a better world, with high standard
housing to replace their current deprivations. To
East London, therefore, in similar fashion to urban
industrial areas in the North, were brought systembuilt high-rise tower block housing as the
replacement for the 'slums', and millions of people
were compulsorily relocated further eastward to
green site locations such as Dagenham, Loughton,
Debden, Romford and Woodford.
This welfare attitude prevailed through the ensuing
administrations well into the 1960s, and the LCC,
now the Greater London Council (GLC) was active
in wholesale plans for further new housing schemes,
new roads, schools and hospitals to replace the now
abandoned properties in the inner districts of East
London.
Open Space' - "Artists in Residence"
Channel 4 1988
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This was the background to the situation when
Acme first approached the GLC in the winter of
72 having seen a vast amount of empty property
in East London, due eventually for demolition, but
which looked suitable for our needs. It is worth
noting here that Acme through its commitment to
artists demonstrated to the GLC a viable and
crucially a 'clean' alternative to the two
aforementioned destinations for these houses,
which explains why in such a short time Acme
became the largest single user of short life
property, and unwittingly, the GLC became a
major patron of living artists
The early days of short-life property acquisition
from the GLC is documented in DEVONS ROAD:
the formula Acme established was to flourish for
the next decade, experienced at its most extreme
in the virtual take-over of Beck Road in Hackney.
Beck Road - formation of the
artistic community
Beck Road is a short street of typical Victorian two
storey terraced houses, which were originally built
with no bathrooms and the only lavatory being in the
back yard. The houses were compulsorily
purchased by the Inner London Education Authority
(ILEA) in 1976 in order to make way for an
extension and car park for Hackney Technical
College, but financial constraints meant that an
interim use had to be found for the houses, (or see
them either squatted or vandalised), and were
therefore gradually handed to Acme, under licence
from the GLC. This took place during 1977-79, as
they became available; the earlier ones being
already empty and semi-derelict, and the later ones
arriving once the existing Council tenants were
rehoused. The scheme for the College extension
was eventually dropped in 1980, and the houses
became "surplus to requirements," i.e. technically
permanent, but in the absence of any strategy were
still managed by the GLC on a short-life basis. Beck
Road in any case fell squarely into the Broadway
Market zone, now under severe decline, blighted by
restrictive planning constraints, and where the whole
area was suffering from inner city decay.
.Acme was originally offered the houses with a five
year "life", and a small grant of 750 from the GLC
on each house to assist with rehabilitation costs. In
return for a low rent, all the ingoing artists, from the
Acme waiting list, undertook the work themselves,
on a self-help basis.
This scheme for short-life houses, operated
universally by Acme, enabled artists through selfhelp to create combined living accommodation with
work space all at very low rent levels.
The notion of live/work had again
become a reality.
Beck Road "Rent and Houses"
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Hundreds of artists took on Acme
short-life houses; the demand was
so great that without advertising,
merely through work of mouth
principally through the art colleges,
many more artists applied to Acme
than were houses available. a
waiting list procedure was instituted,
and artists were selected where the
crucial determinant was an
assessment of the 'degree of
benefit' which would accrue. Those
artists, when offered houses got to
work with a will; building was
undertaken with varying skills, some
extremely unorthodox results
ensued, (in one case whole house
was reduced giant room), and
recycling of materials not only was a
matter of financial benefit but
became for many a goal in itself,
proving the individual's degree of
resourcefulness in the process. As
David Panton said, "The only thing
you can't use again is housepaint ".
(1)
Because all Acme licensees are
practising artists over the ten years
a community of mutual support
rapidly developed in Beck Road,
through an exchange of resources,
contacts and information. Most of
It can be seen that, in contrast to other housing
the original artists remained in the
associations and all other users of short-life property
street, having invested much time
to help the needy homeless, who viewed the
and effort in their own houses and
technically substandard facilities as a necessary
studios, put down roots, had
'evil', and effectively uneconomic, to artists this
children, and in many instances
represented not only a chance for a cheap roof over
worked in the locality
their heads , but also room enough for workspace,
and thus to grasp a golden opportunity to create
their own environment proved both a financially and
psychologically liberating experience.
This allowed the artists to support themselves
through part-time work, such as art school teaching,
leaving time and spare resources to develop their
own work.
Heyday
At its height Beck Road housed 42 artists
and their dependants, and under the
umbrella of Acme a sustainable
community infrastructure gradually had
evolved, contributing to inner city renewal
and environmental improvements. All the
artists had established themselves to
some degree, and a gallery, 'Interim Art',
was opened by Maureen Paley in number
21.The gallery's name came from the fact
that it was located in a short-life house.
A census carried out in the street at the
time uncovered : several painters and
sculptors, photographers, a potter, an
illustrator and graphic designer, an
architect, architectural model makers, a
textile worker, a mural artist, a printmaker,
professional musicians, street and
community theatre artists, college
lecturers and technicians, and a
psychotherapist.
Tenant List
19 Richard Chapman
Beck Road, Hackney London E8 looking towards
Mare Street
Many of the artists were working directly on a
self-employed basis from their studios in the
street, and once this unique concentration of
artists became known, the media flocked to
Hackney to make their own pronouncements
about fashionable London and cultural
regeneration, typified in the Evening Standard
article of the time, "Where have all the artists
gone ...."
21 Maureen Paley 'Interim Art'
23 Jeremy Sancha
24 Gerard and Jenny Wilson
26
Tom Evans and Ruth
Blench
28 Cathy and Henry Berthier
29
David Hamilton and Philip
Shaw
30 Keith and Sandra Porter
32 Mikey Cuddihy
33 Brian and Phyllis Campbell
35 Christopher Whelan
37 Peter and Karen Bunting
40 Ray and Anna Walker
41
John Aiken and Tamas
Pobog-Malinowski
42
John Pipal and Charles
Lloyd
43 Alison Turnbull
45
Helen Chadwick and Philip
Stanley
47 Patrick Jones
48 Francis Quesnell
However, the climate created by the houses
being 'surplus to requirement' became
increasingly uneasy, and in the summer 1984,
the artists organised themselves into a
residents association, to discuss and make
representations on all issues impinging on the
now established community, concerning the
environment, maintenance of the houses,
standards of council services, and crucially, the
street''s future security.
The paradox and fundamental problem of
"short-life" housing now became manifest, not
through local government planning strategy, but
simply through the unfolding of artists' use of
these properties. Whilst undoubtedly there was
a benefit in ultra-cheap rents, it proved
impossible to plan, especially for the funding of
major repairs such as re-roofing, because no
future time-scale was guaranteed. Acme was
only on licence from the GLC, and therefore
artists were on sub-licences, where everyone
was on virtually immediate notice, with no
compensation and no re-housing liability. Only
running repairs could therefore be
countenanced without the risk of losing money,
and consequently many of the houses gradually
became more dilapidated. 'Laissez-faire' can
only last so long.
49 Debbie Duffin
50 Genesis P Orridge
51 Peter and Jenny Smith
52 Philip Parker
53 Kieran Lyons
54
The Beck Road association therefore, together
with Acme, began to negotiate with the GLC
with a view to securing tenure so that the artists
community could become a permanent
resource and allow the fabric of the buildings to
be restored.
Trevor Sutton and Maggie
Walker
56 Dan Archer
Beck Road E8 Mare Street behind
Threat
Meanwhile a ‘bombshell’ had befallen
London, where the Conservative
government under Margaret Thatcher since
1979 had become increasingly irritated with
the Labour administration of the GLC with its
new leader Ken Livingstone, to the extent
that a political axe fell on six British
metropolitan authorities, and an
announcement was made to abolish the
GLC.
'Open Space' - "Artists in Residence"
Channel 4 1988
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stop and start the movie once it has loaded
Already the Conservative government,
espousing the supremacy of the individual
over society, had promoted their "right to
buy" initiative where council tenants were
given the chance to purchase their houses,
with the inducement of substantial discounts,
from council authorities throughout the UK,
and this proved to be an unstoppable force over the next five years more than
threequarters of the UK's council housing
disappeared either through direct tenant
purchase, or through independent housing
association purchase.The threat was real
and imminent for Beck Road, as indeed it
was for most of the short- life council houses
throughout the East End. The impending
abolition of the GLC would ultimately apply
equally to the ILEA, who were forced to
implement the government directive to sell
all their housing stock in order to create
short term capital receipts and reduce
spending.
The next few years were to see a sustained
period of negotiation and investigation,
various possible routes were explored, and
the GLC was in theory behind Acme and the
tenants initiatives to try to secure tenure.
The Beck Road Association with Acme
looked at several purchase options for the
street, ranging from co-operative purchase,
private individual sales, registered housing
association purchase, and shared
ownership. The fundamental position to be
achieved was necessarily that the houses
must remain in public ownership and remain
work/live, so that future artists, as well as the
current occupants, would benefit from a
permanent cultural resource.
The stumbling block in all this was that the
GLC/ILEA were by law obliged to obtain the best
market price available, which now in a time of a
general housing boom meant that the sale price
inexorably was rising.
It also became clear that none of these avenues
would work since eventual fair rents to the artists
would not sustain the cost of the acquisition and
improvement, because the GLC had to achieve full
vacant possession market value, and artists under
licence did not/would not qualify for tenant status,
thus being eligible to receive a substantial discount
in the sale process.
Some discount from the sale price had to be
achieved, nevertheless, and realising the attention
Beck Road had received from the media, the
artists and Acme formalised a fundraising appeal
process through the formation of the Beck Road
Arts Trust, and secured the support of Lord
Gowrie, then Chairman of Sothebys and the Arts
Council of Great Britain, Brian Sedgemore, MP for
Hackney, Richard Cork, art critic, Joanna Drew,
Director of the Hayward Gallery, and Theo Crosby,
renowned architect.
Beck Road was promoted as a community which
" . . . exists as a model of arts support, unique in
Britain, a model that could and should be
developed further, setting the precedent for future
schemes. Beck Road has one chance for its future,
otherwise the slow product of 10 years artistic and
social development will disappear, a quirk of
history blotted out by market forces." (2)
The appeal was directed, following a half hour
Channel 4 ‘Open Space’ programme, "Artist in
Residence" which went out in April 1988, at the
general public, and some donations were gratefully
received, but went in reality nowhere toward the
half million deficit identified.
Beck Road E8, looking towards Mare Street
Outcome
External events, as is often
the case, overtook the
process to decide on the fate
of Beck Road. The abolition
of the ILEA happened faster
than the disposal of property
within its portfolio, and a
short-lived curiosity was
formed, the London
Residuary Body, to whom
the rump of all GLC and
ILEA property was passed.
The LRB’s principal, indeed
only remit, was to dispose of
everything as fast as
possible, and the Beck Road
houses were offered for
purchase to the artists in the
street with a discount, thus
accepting their long term
relationship as effectively
tenants.
This new scenario effectively put paid to the Beck Road
Arts Trust notion of a publicly owned resource, bypassed
Acme, and the majority of the artists took the purchase
opportunity offered to them.
Some artists could not even afford a discounted sale, and
after a short while moved on. Some took the first
opportunity and sold on their houses at a profit, moving to
other parts of the country. The majority, however, still work
and live in the street, and the houses, albeit with newer
bathrooms, attest to their adaptability and suitability as work
/live environments.
Bibliography
1.Third Acme Brochure 1990
Some officers at the GLC
deeply unhappy at the loss
of council houses to
privatisation formed a new
Housing Association
especially to be in a position
to purchase some of the
available houses arising
from the abolitiuon,
ultimately becoming the new
landlord for some of the
Beck Road artists.
David Panton, Acme on Channel 4
10pm
news with Trevor Macdonald April
1988
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the movie once it has loaded
2.Beck Road Arts Trust Appeal brochure April 1988
3.Channel 4 'Open Space' programme "Artists in residence"
April 1988
4.Channel 4 10pm news with Trevor Macdonald April 1988
HOUSE – Rachel Whiteread
On October 25th 1993, after 2
years of planning and preparation,
Rachel Whiteread completed her
in-situ 'cast' of a Victorian terraced
house - 193 Grove Road in Bow,
E3. Commissioned by Artangel
and titled House, the work
attracted huge media attention and
tens of thousands of visitors, led to
the tabling of an early day motion
in the House of Commons and
contributed to the artist winning the
1993 Turner Prize. The work
provoked wide-ranging debate
both at a local and national level. It
became one of the most notable
and notorious public sculptures
created by an English artist in the
twentieth century.
It was almost inevitable that House came to be located in East
London. Whiteread knew the area well; she had been living in
Hackney for some time and renting an Acme studio at Carpenters
Road, not far away in Stratford, since 1989. Although several other
terraced houses, destined for demolition, were investigated in North
as well as East London during 1992, the sheer scale of the
continuing local government 'improvement' programme that had
seen street after street of similar terraced houses torn down since
the 60s, made the East End a very likely location for the type of
property the artist was seeking. Coincidentally Whiteread's albeit
brief intervention, the use of a 'condemned' property, paralleled the
way artists had come temporarily to occupy many hundreds of such
properties as working and living spaces in the area over the previous
20 years.
House Rachel Whiteread 1993-94
The public nature of House was
always going to make it provocative
at a local level. Indeed, the artist’s
intention was neither to placate, nor
to appeal to a single perceived
consensus. But combined with the
capacity to touch raw nerves locally,
the choice of Whiteread (and House)
to be the 1993 Turner Prize Winner
(the prize itself had developed a
tradition of controversy on a national
level) was bound to produce an
explosive cocktail. Although House
provoked strong views, oppositions
were complex and did not neatly
assemble either side of the ‘but is it
art?’ battle line defined, for example,
by the debate that had ensued over
the Tate's acquisition of Andre’s
‘bricks’. As James Lingwood, CoDirector of Artangel, explains in his
introduction to the Phaidon
publication:
There were passionately different
responses, of course. But the
differences of opinion were always
located within any identifiable
community or constituency, and not
between them.(1)
Formally consistent with the longstanding tradition of cast public
sculptures and memorials, the work
was also intensely private and
personal:
Like many public sculptures and
memorials, "House" is a cast. But
unlike the bronzes which
commemorate triumphs and
tragedies, great men and heroic
deeds, this new work
commemorates memory itself
through the commonplace of home.
Whiteread’s in situ work transforms
the space of the private and
domestic into the public - a mute
memorial to the spaces we have
lived in, to everyday existence and
the importance of home. (2)
So, inevitably the work stirred (and still stirs)
memories and thoughts about nostalgia. But by
virtue of the particular history from which 193
Grove Road and its locality emerged into the
public gaze in 1993, any reflection upon the
meaning of social space, of home and
neighbourhood and community, which House
stimulated was always unlikely to be neutral.
The recent history of the terrace itself
immediately reflected the enormous changes
endured by the locality, so graphically
trumpeted by the then recent construction of
Canary Wharf prominently visible to the south.
Canada Tower, briefly the tallest office building
in Europe, stood in stark contrast to the rest of
East London which continued to suffer from the
effects of inner-city decline and underinvestment in social housing and amenities.
Constructed in the 1870s, Grove Road was
fairly typical of the rows of terraced houses built
all over East London and like much of the area,
which had begun to fall into decline between
the Wars, suffered from extensive bombing
during 1940. Pre-fabs had covered the cleared
bomb sites and in the 60s new tower blocks
were constructed and the pre-fabs removed.
Grove Road falls directly on a line between
Victoria Park in the North, through to Mile End
Park to Limehouse and the Thames in the
South. The demolition of the terrace was part of
the long-term plan to create a continuous ‘green
corridor’ along this line linking these public
amenities. By 1993 the multi-million pound
restoration programme of Victoria Park was
nearly complete, but the more recent ecodevelopment in Mile End Park and parallel to
Grove Road, including the construction of a
'green bridge' to carry the park over the Mile
End Road, was still in its infancy.
The very phrase ‘East London’ evokes its own
history, more so than any of the other compass
points used to delineate the capital’s vast
geography. It is not surprising therefore that
local government politics (which had always
focused on issues of housing and race), a
crucial factor in the publicly unfolding drama
which would eventually determine the ‘life’ of
House, had continued to be defined and
conducted by reference to the past. House
could not be neutral and its existence became
rapidly politicised
.
The process of transformation from an empty
and unexceptional terraced house to a work of
public art, which gained a rapid national and
international profile, has its own history apart
from the history of the house and its location.
This is both in terms of the development of the
artist’s own practice and in the role of curators
who had recently challenged and helped
redefine and extend the notion of public art.
The intimate accretions of past lives
were hinted at and exposed in the
textures of the cast surfaces and, at
the same time, House itself was
exposed and isolated by the
demolition of the remaining terrace.
The work also inverted the
traditional notion of casting, making
the positive negative and vice versa.
The space which the house’s
occupants had countlessly moved
through, the air which they had
breathed, had been made solid; the
inside had been turned out and
made public. For some, making the
private public was an act of violation;
to expose what had existed behind
closed doors was an offence to good
taste.
The immediate precedent for House was Ghost,
first shown by Whiteread at the Chisenhale Gallery
not far from Grove Road in 1990. However the
similarities between the two works fall away on
closer consideration. Ghost was constructed from a
series of casts taken from a sitting room in a
terraced house in Archway, N6 (the Archway Road
itself has also been due for demolition and, as a
result, many houses on the road had become
occupied by Acme artists on a short-term basis.
Ghost was cast from 486 Archway Road, a
property in Acme's management). Like House it
was a cast of the space which the room defined,
casting the negative of the room, and, like House,
its surfaces gave clues to the room's past. The
works were visually and formally similar. However
Ghost was gallery art, removed from its location it
became archetypal and permanent, capable of representation anywhere in the world. House existed
however only as part of an ultimately terminal
process; going back wasn't possible. Its 'life' was a
temporary intervention between the property
ceasing to be inhabited and being demolished.
House was its location, a public work beyond the
confines of the gallery. And inhabiting this public
world, like any other undecorated architecture, it
attracted graffiti (WOT FOR?, WHY NOT and
HOMES FOR ALL BLACK + WHITE) and in doing
so accumulated further meaning and challenges to
interpretation.
The role of Artangel, the non-gallery based
commissioning organisation which collaborated
with the artist and made the work happen, tends to
be overlooked in any coverage or discussion of
House. House would not have been possible ten
years before and it would not have been possible
without Artangel. Whiteread’s work had, hitherto,
been both gallery-based and permanent. James
Lingwood (Co-Director of Artangel with Michael
Morris) had brought to Artangel extensive
experience gained from two ground-breaking
projects in 1987 (TSWA 3D) and 1990 (TSWA Four Cities Project) which had commissioned
British and international artists to make temporary
‘site-specific’ work. The organisers, in describing
the spaces and places which they were seeking to
offer to artists declared their position:
Artangel’s philosophy to engage with the public
in a new way, to subvert the traditional notion of
public art, provided Whiteread with the
opportunity to extend the meaning of and
audience for her work. For the curators these
temporary works were usually, though not
always, more technically and logistically
challenging than gallery work. In negotiating a
vast range of buildings and locations and in
helping to facilitate the making of technically
challenging works the TSWA projects had
developed and honed Lingwood’s skills as
commissioner. His experience would be fully
tested by both the technical demands of House,
a tight timetable and the extraordinary public
battle involved in leasing the building from the
local authority.
The technical challenges of ‘constructing’ House
were considerable. Nothing like it had been
attempted hitherto, though Atelier One, who
were commissioned to work with Whiteread, had
used the process know as ‘gunniting’ (spraying
concrete to create a ‘skin’) before. However this
had only been used to attach to existing
structures, rather than in reverse as a casting
medium.
The overall principle was to create a series of
independent boxes as a negative of each room
and to lay new foundations because the resulting
loads did not conform to the original. A release
mechanism was developed so that the outer
walls of the building could be removed from the
concrete skin, once cured, to reveal the cast.
During the period of construction the District
Surveyor from Tower Hamlets visited the site on
numerous occasions with a surprising number of
different colleagues. When asked about the
reason for such close inspection, they explained
We wanted spaces which were already meaningful, that no one could believe the project and wanted
already alive with the associations of history
to see it with their own eyes. (4)
(cultural, industrial and political) and memory, but
also places whose stature or symbolic status,
The timetable was very tight: Whiteread and her
whose very lack of neutrality, may have
team prepared for casting from August 2nd, new
discouraged the idea that they were available for
foundations were laid on August 30th and the
art. We categorically did not want or need the
process of gunnite spraying began on
urban plaza or the sculpture park. (3)
September 5th. From October 12th the walls
began to be removed and the project was
completed, successfully, on October 25th.
If the technical issues had
been demanding, dealing with
the owners of the house, the
local authority, proved to be
even more so. The request by
Artangel to use the property
had been proposed against a
background of a Liberal
Democrat Tower Hamlets that
had cut its arts budget. The
most implacable opponent to
House was Lib. Dem.
Councillor Eric Flounders, who
claimed to speak for local
people on matters of taste and
whose boasting philistinism
(House was 'utter rubbish', 'a
monstrosity') was to be given a
national airing through the
resulting media coverage.
At a Public Meeting of Bow
Parks Board on March 11th the
Councillors voted in favour (by
4 to 3) of granting a temporary
lease to Artangel, in the
absence of Cllr. Flounders, the
Board's Chair. On his return
from abroad Cllr. Flounders
requested that the decision
was reconsidered, but it was
upheld by Bow Standing
Neighbourhood Committee on
March 18th and Artangel were
told that the occupant, exdocker Sydney Gale, would be
re-housed in May.
However Mr. Gale and his
family were not satisfied by the
offers of re-housing and
refused to leave. With the short
lease due to expire at the end
of October the time available to
realise the work was reducing
alarmingly. On July 30th
Artangel were informed that the
Gale family were about to
leave, but precious time has
already been lost.
With only 6 days between the
completion of the work and the
expiry of the short lease on
31st October, Artangel
endeavoured to negotiate an
extension and the work
continued to remain standing
beyond the deadline for its
demolition. Press coverage
The confrontation between the local authority and Whiteread
became very public and adversarial. On the 26th, an early
day motion was tabled in the House of Commons by Michael
Gordon MP and Hugh Bayley MP congratulating Whiteread
on winning the Turner Prize and calling upon Tower Hamlets
to allow a time extension so that more people could see the
work and to consult with local people as to whether it should
be destroyed. The motion eventually collected over 50
signatures including those of Ken Livingstone and Alan
Howarth. A petition of 3,500 signatures collected on site in
12 hours supporting an extension was countered by 800
signatures urging its destruction. On December 10th Bow
Neighbourhood agreed in principle to an extension to
January 12th 1994 and, 3 days before Christmas, this was
finally approved by Cllr. Flounders. On January 11th House
was demolished.
Artangel’s final task, as provided in the lease, was to clear
and turf over where 193 Grove Road and House had been.
No visible sign now remains, but the sculpture continues to
‘exist’ as the best of ephemeral art exists, in addition to its
copious documentation, in individual and collective memory
far beyond the confines of the art world.
1.James Lingwood, introduction to Rachel Whiteread House, Phaidon, London, 1995, p8
2.Artangel, from promotional leaflet, Rachel Whiteread House, 1993
3.James Lingwood, Tony Foster, Jonathan Harvey, April
1987, Introduction to catalogue, TSWA 3D.
4.Neil Thomas of Atelier One, the making of House:
technical issues, essay Rachel Whiteread - House, Phaidon,
London, 1995, p130.
following the completion of the
work had been substantial,
partly as Whiteread had been
nominated for the Turner Prize.
However on November 23rd a
number of key events
coincided which were to cause
an explosion of media interest.
At 2pm, the K Foundation
awarded Whiteread their prize
of £40,000 for the 'worst' artist
in Britain. At 7.30pm Bow
Neighbourhood demanded the
immediate demolition of House
and at 9.30pm Whiteread was
awarded the 1993 Turner
Prize, broadcast live from the
Tate Gallery on Channel 4
Television.
COPPERFIELD ROAD – ACME AND
PERMANENT SPACE
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HOXTON SQUARE – FLEXIBLE QUARTERS
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