West Accrington - Mid Pennine Arts

Transcription

Welcome to
West
Accrington
A Handbook of Ideas
Contents
1
Executive Summary
Scene Setting
Creative Programme
2
3
4
5
6
Places
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
7
8
The Partners: Roles and Responsibilities
The Regeneration Context
The Wider Picture: Pennine Lancashire in the Spotlight
Inspiration on the Doorstep: Exemplar Creative Projects
About West Accrington
Phoenix 1 and 2 and St Andrew’s Square
The Retail Environment of Blackburn Road
Temporary Land Use
Area Signage and Identity
A New Look for Retail
Three New Open Spaces
The Spiral Mound
A Gated Garden
A Future St Andrew’s Square
Desire Lines: Ideas for Trails and Way Finding
Making it Happen
Creative Approach
21
22
9
10
11
12
Appendices
pp 1
A
App 2
App 3
App 4
App 4
Involved in This Project/Glossary
Suggested Brief for a Creative Ecologist
Estimated Costs for Signage Proposal
Estimated Costs for Shopfront Display
Footnotes
Page 2
A Creative Approach Unique to West Accrington
Project Phoenix and Public Art
Whole Area Treatments
Places with a Purpose: Shaped by Local People
The Time is Right
Implementation Plan
Welcome to West Accrington/A Handbook of Ideas
Foreword
It gives us considerable pleasure to
introduce this Handbook. The ideas
presented here provide positive and
exciting ways to help West Accrington
regain the pride in itself and the sense
of place that it once had.
We commend the Handbook to everyone involved in the
regeneration of West Accrington – residents, funders and
stakeholders alike. We hope that through your commitment
to the area you are able to provide the means to realise at
least some of the ideas within it.
Creativity is at the heart of the Housing
Market Renewal programme. We are using
imaginative ideas to build communities
that will be sustainable long into the future.
Working in partnership with organisations like Hyndburn
Borough Council, Arts Council England and CABE
means we can put the imagination to work to improve
neighbourhoods, enhance people’s lives and create places
where people want to live, work, visit and relax.
For decades the people of West Accrington
have suffered and seen our area reduced to
a shadow of its former glory. With Housing
Market Renewal we have the chance to
rejuvenate both the bricks and mortar and
also the community pride that once made
West Accrington strong and vibrant.
This Handbook contains a variety of ideas and ways to
help accomplish this. Some of these may be more easily
achievable than others, but we believe the very fact that the
Handbook has been produced will get people thinking and
help create a new, and better, West Accrington.
Max Steinberg
Chief Executive
Elevate East Lancashire
Cllr. Peter Britcliffe
Cllr. Peter Clarke
Leader
Hyndburn Borough Council
Deputy Leader
Joan Pilkington
Joe Treacy
Chair, West Accrington
Residents’ Association
Committee Member, West
Accrington Residents’ Association
Page 3
1. Executive Summary
This report has been prepared
for Hyndburn Borough Council
by Mid Pennine Arts and Vista
Projects. It has been made possible
by support from Elevate East
Lancashire. The report examines
how a creative programme can
support Housing Market Renewal
(HMR) and the regeneration of
West Accrington.
The characteristics of West Accrington, and the
process of renewal, have created conditions
that inform this study and have shaped its
conclusions. Key challenges include these:
• Extensive house clearance inevitably creates
a temporary ‘wasteland effect’ which is likely
to recur with Phoenix 2. The time lapse before
redevelopment makes this a key issue.
• Redevelopment will create a brand new
neighbourhood south of Blackburn Road.
It will be crucial to integrate this back into the
wider West Accrington.
•D
istinct local communities co-exist peacefully
but with limited interaction. A creative
programme needs to help reinforce cohesion
The study has been overseen by a steering
group of stakeholders including representatives for the future of the whole community.
• Retailers on Blackburn Road, like small shops
of residents. The findings have been informed
everywhere, face a challenge to survive and
by extensive consultations with local people,
prosper.
groups and individuals, as well as key officers
from the agencies working in the area. An
Some very positive factors also inform
extensive programme of creative sessions in
the study:
the three local schools engaged children, their
families and teachers.
• Retention of the old street pattern will help
to link the brand new neighbourhood back into
the old.
• The newly opened Acorn Health Centre
provides a new focal point and community hub.
• Neighbourhood Management provides an
excellent framework for engaging effectively
with local people.
• Multiple regeneration initiatives give a
powerful momentum to transformational
change. Creativity can help make sure that such
change is for the better.
Page 4
The report proposes not public art objects but
a coordinated programme linked by themes
and linking both new and old areas. The focus
is on ideas that are affordable, achievable, and
appropriate to West Accrington, but above
all useful. A concern for sustainability – social,
environmental and economic – is applied to
each idea.
There is a collective need to renew a distinct
sense of pride and identity. Central aim of the
study is that residents of West Accrington old and new (F.1) - should feel a pride in their
environment, focused as much on the future as
the past. It is only this pride of place that will
make the work described here sustainable.
The study identifies five topics, including three
where creative artists have been asked to
contribute ideas. They are:
The recommendations of the report are
presented as 26 ideas. Some ideas link to
other initiatives, notably the Blackburn Road
Corridor Retail & Housing Study commissioned
by Hyndburn Council, which strongly promotes
the ‘rebranding’ of the area.
A programme can only succeed with local
people feeling a sense of ownership. So the
proposed implementation plan emphasises
community engagement from the outset. The
strong existing networks provide a flying start.
Research and consultation have highlighted a
strong underlying pride in local heritage. This is
embodied in some fine architectural details and
an ornate decorative tradition. So a group of
overall themes is proposed to reflect this, with
a central floral motif - to echo the Council’s
commitment to Britain in Bloom, and to
encapsulate pride in West Accrington.
•T
emporary use of land after clearance.
•A
unique new system of street signage and
linked features.
•C
reative design work to support the
regeneration of the Blackburn Road
shopping strip.
• A focus on three new public spaces, as
milestones in the emergence of the new
neighbourhood.
• Ideas for trails and waymarking that can
support an ongoing community programme.
Such projects can bring people together, build
ownership and pride, and engage the citizens of
tomorrow through work with schools.
IDEA 1
Flowers, decorative detail, the Arts and Crafts
movement and craft skills – a group of themes
that can underpin a new sense of pride of place
for West Accrington.
IDEA 5b
Explore programmable lighting design, especially
for Christmas, and the possibility of powering it
from renewable sources.
IDEA 9
Commission an exclusive new style of street
signage to give West Accrington a strong
new visual identity, and to link both sides of
Blackburn Road.
IDEA 6
Use existing community structures to maximise IDEA 10
involvement in the process and the end result. Commission the resulting street signs as an
architectural terracotta product to celebrate
Accrington’s decorative heritage and the
Ideas for temporary land use consider the
Lancashire faience industry.
uplifting effects of wildflower planting. An
IDEA 2
Use this report as a tool to negotiate the public empty site can be suffused with colour at
IDEA 11
remarkably low cost. A ‘creative ecologist’
art scheme for the Phoenix 1 development.
Pilot the new signage as part of the public art
could advise on this, working with schools
scheme for the Phoenix 1 development.
and community groups.
IDEA 3
Use Ixia’s guidelines in negotiating the public
IDEA 12
IDEA 7
art element of future HMR projects, including
Echo the terracotta theme and designs in
A local school as host organisation to work
Phoenix 2.
commissioning street furniture, seating and
alongside a visiting creative ecologist.
other fittings at key points around the wider
Ideas are proposed for whole area treatments
West Accrington area.
that can help to integrate the new with the old. IDEA 8
Commission first a temporary planting
treatment for the Phoenix 2 pocket park area. To support the renewal of the retail strip,
IDEA 4
imaginative window designs are proposed for
If new streets require new names, consider
refurbished shop fronts. A demonstration shop
To build pride and promote cohesion, street
reflecting West Accrington’s multicultural
window could provide a first talking point, and
signs could be commissioned that would
community in the choice of names.
if popular, options for window designs could be
be unique to West Accrington. The designs
built into the proposed refurbishment scheme.
illustrated draw on those local decorative
IDEA 5a
traditions. An area identity could then be
Include a creative lighting designer, from the
IDEA 13
outset, in the design team for the regeneration reinforced with coordinated street furniture
Commission a designer to work with
and other features.
of the retail strip.
shopkeepers and create original designs
for the new frontages.
Suggestions are included for making
most effective use of public art within
developer agreements.
Page 5
IDEA 14
To start – match an artist with one
shopkeeper to create a demonstration
design as a talking point.
IDEA 15
Next stage – a suite of designs offered as part
of the grants scheme for a cluster of shops.
For the new green spaces, opportunities
include customised terracotta furniture to link
to the signage.
IDEA 16
Seek opportunities in the new open spaces to
commission fittings that extend the themes of
the signage system.
IDEA 17
A package of measures to meet the Phoenix
1 planning condition – signage, commissioned
street furniture and the Hill of Flowers.
IDEA 18
Try out the Hill of Flowers as a temporary
option.
IDEA 19
Commission terracotta furniture and fittings
for the Gated Garden, linking to area signage
and the floral theme.
IDEA 20
Promote a design competition for landscape
architects and designers to imagine the future
St Andrew’s Square. Use this process to help
ensure it happens.
IDEA 21
Bring together community members with
professional managers and stakeholders as the
design competition client group.
Trails and markers are invaluable tools, and a
range of opportunities are identified.
IDEA 22
Waymark the link from national cycle route
towards the town centre.
IDEA 23
Way marking project to enhance key walking
routes for schoolchildren.
IDEA 24
Community writing project to create
inscriptions in pathways, and enhance feeling
of ownership of new public spaces.
IDEA 25
Spotlight the special details on key heritage
buildings. Create an architectural treasure
hunt.
A design competition could be promoted to
imagine a future St Andrew’s Square, and build IDEA 26
Schools project to celebrate international
momentum towards achieving it.
heritage links. Use end result to create a trail
of shop window features.
Page 6
An implementation plan groups all these
ideas into areas, and identifies key partners
and actions. Likely costs are identified, and
potential sources of funds. More detailed
costs are examined in appendices for
key proposals.
The time is right for West
Accrington, and a major
opportunity exists. As the
borough prepares for Hyndburn
2009, Year of Culture, a
coordinated programme here can
provide a jewel in the crown.
With national eyes on Pennine Lancashire at
present, through initiatives like Living Places,
an exemplar programme linked to HMR will
win support from strategic bodies and is likely
to attract very significant wider attention.
Harnessing creativity can put West Accrington
in the spotlight, and can help renew
a real pride of place.
October 2008
Page 7
Scene Setting
2. The Partners: Roles and Responsibilities
Mid Pennine Arts & Vista Projects
This report has been commissioned by
MPA (F.3) is an independent charitable company working
Hyndburn Borough Council (HBC) on
throughout Pennine Lancashire and providing services in
the arts. Set up in 1966 as a partnership of local authorities,
behalf of the West Accrington community,
community organisations and individuals, MPA works across
with investment from Elevate East
a broad range of art forms, and aims to locate culture at
Lancashire. It was commissioned from Mid the heart of social and economic regeneration. Vista is a
venture established in April 2007 by Christian and Lynn
Pennine Arts, who engaged Vista Projects to new
Barnes to provide consultancy services in the arts and is
primarily focused on the improvement of the public realm.
provide specialist consultancy input.
Creative Contributors
HBC, a partner in Elevate, is delivering a well advanced
programme of Housing Market Renewal (HMR) intervention.
The majority of this intervention is taking place in West
Accrington and will continue to do so for the next few years.
The Council is committed to giving back to this community
the pride in itself and the sense of belonging that it once had.
MPA and Vista involved three individual artists to generate
and illustrate creative ideas. Two other artists led an extensive
programme of work in schools. Their details are included in
the appendices.
Elevate East Lancashire (F.2) is one of the Government’s nine
HMR pathfinders, charged with finding innovative solutions to
the problem of low demand and housing market collapse in
towns across Pennine Lancashire. The project began in 2003
and will last for 10 to 15 years.
Page 8
The most vital partners in this project, though, are the people
of West Accrington. Many have been involved directly in the
process, and it is their aspirations that have done most to
shape it.
Special thanks must go to the three schools, Hyndburn Park,
Spring Hill and Sacred Heart, to West Accrington Residents
Association, to the Neighbourhood Management team and to
the members of the Steering Group. But many more besides
have made invaluable contributions, and grateful thanks are
due to them all.
Scene Setting
3. The Regeneration Context
Hyndburn is increasingly becoming an
important focus, both in the Pennine
Lancashire area and within the wider
North West. A four year Regeneration and
Economic Strategy has been developed
which sets out the key regeneration plans
for the Borough. (F.4)
This Strategy includes major investment in health facilities,
including the new Acorn Health Centre on Blackburn Road.
Accrington town centre is a key focus of initiatives and
investment including new transport developments and the
Council’s ‘Floral Market Towns’ initiative. A new vision for
the long term future of Accrington is being developed and
delivered with help from Urbed. A key proposal is likely to
be the relocation of Accrington’s bus station to a site near
the railway viaduct over Blackburn Road towards West
Accrington. The Neighbourhood Management programme
and the Area Council network are making a major impact on
improving the quality of life in the area.
Under Hyndburn’s programme of investment from Elevate,
plans have been approved for more than 150 new homes to
be built on the Phoenix 1 redevelopment site by Doncasterbased developer Keepmoat. Further new build will follow in
future years within the Phoenix 2 development.
Page 9
Scene Setting
3. The Regeneration Context
Elevate East Lancashire and Housing
Market Renewal
The East Lancashire pathfinder includes the inner urban areas
of Blackburn, Darwen, Accrington, Church, Clayton-leMoors, Burnley, Brierfield, Nelson, Colne, Bacup and
Stacksteads. A major part of the programme will focus on
improving the quality and diversity of the housing stock in the
towns (F.5). Elevate’s long-term goals are to reduce the
number and percentage of properties that are vacant, unfit,
and at risk of low demand by rebalancing the housing market
through investment with community support and engagement.
Elevate is working with public and private sector partners to
improve economic prosperity, the environment, community
safety, cohesion, educational attainment, health and
connectivity and to build up the image of the area.
Community Engagement Strategy
This report takes a strong lead from Elevate’s Community
Engagement Strategy. It includes ideas that echo the
communication strategies detailed as ‘involvement and
empowerment’ (F.6) and ‘capacity building’ and identifies
‘community influence and involvement’ as a priority in the
concepts proposed especially for creative ecology. These are
underpinned by links to local stakeholders like the Prospects
Foundation and Neighbourhood Management.
Page 10
Issues of community cohesion (F.7) are prioritised in
proposing a floral and decorative arts group of themes.
This is a neutral theme which can attract broad support,
reflect aspiration and environmental awareness, and capitalise
on the Council’s commitment to ‘floral market towns’.
It offers strong potential as a positive initiative in which
distinct communities living alongside each other can take
a shared stake.
Creativity based in participatory activity on this theme can be
a vehicle for sustaining community engagement (F.8) over the
longer term, drawing in a range of agencies and stakeholders
in the West Accrington and Church area. Central to our
approach is the development of ideas and programmes that
can be attractive to the broadest possible audience.
Creative Community Engagement
Elevate has demonstrated a commitment to creativity with
the introduction of the staff post of Creative Community
Engagement Officer, with funding support from Arts Council
England and Lancashire County Council. The officer, Claire
Tymon, has been instrumental in the commissioning and
development of this study. Claire’s work programme is set
out in a three year strategy which has helped to inform
this study.
Scene Setting
4. The Wider Picture: Pennine Lancashire in the Spotlight
Beyond Elevate’s own work, but often with
the influential involvement of the pathfinder,
a number of developments are putting this
sub-region firmly in the spotlight. Together,
they mean that the time and conditions
are absolutely right for a bold, imaginative
Promoting Pennine Lancashire
programme for West Accrington.
Elevate in 2006 appointed consultants Anthony Wilson and
The Transformational Agenda
Significant investments in public and private sector projects
are taking place around the sub-region. Building Schools for
the Future, SureStart and Local Investment Finance Trust
(LIFT) projects, as well as retail and business investment
including the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI), will
see hundreds of millions of pounds coming in over the next
decade alongside the Elevate investment. The climate in
Pennine Lancashire is one of transformational change
taking shape.
Yvette Livesey (F.9) to put forward a range of imaginative
proposals to use culture and sport to improve the image
of the area and benefit the economy. The ideas within the
Dreaming of Pennine Lancashire report are now being taken
forward by Elevate and the sub-region’s grouping of council
leaders and chief executives (PLLACE).
A head of steam is building up around an ambitious,
creative programme for the sub-region. A West Accrington
programme can be expected to benefit from association with
this, and to be espoused by PLLACE as another indicator of
Pennine Lancashire’s success story.
Promoting Design Quality
Places Matter
Design and Heritage Pennine Lancashire (DHPL), lodged
at Elevate, is a partnership between the Commission for
Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), English
Heritage and Elevate. It aims to ensure good design and
respect for the historic environment is high on the agenda of
future housing interventions. DHPL will be a key supporter,
adviser and partner for the kind of interventions
advocated here.
RENEW Northwest champions the improvement of
regeneration practice in the Northwest. It aims to help
regeneration professionals, and the communities they
serve, to deliver better results by enabling them to develop
the essential skills, knowledge and capacity to do so. The
programme includes training, events, project support,
networking and publications.
Living Places
The Elevate area of Pennine Lancashire has been selected as
one of five priority places by the Government . These areas
have been identified as part of the Living Places Partnership, a
joint initiative between Communities and Local Government
and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, along with
five key cultural agencies.
This collaborative programme aims to ensure that all
communities, in particular those experiencing economic
growth, benefit from cultural facilities and programmes of
activity as well as making better use of cultural heritage. The
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department
for Communities and Local Government has already been
introduced to this West Accrington study in the course of a
flying visit in April. Adoption by the Living Places programme
can potentially be of extremely high value.
A major opportunity thus exists for the partners in West
Accrington. An exemplar programme here that demonstrates
a bold approach and imaginative solutions can be expected to
attract much positive attention. It can achieve exceptionally
high profile, regionally, nationally and perhaps internationally.
It can put West Accrington right in the spotlight.
Places Matter, funded by Renew, can be expected to
champion the kind of public realm proposals within this
report, and to disseminate examples of good practice
throughout the North West and beyond.
Page 11
Scene Setting
5. Inspiration on the Doorstep: Exemplar Creative Projects
Hyndburn has seen a sequence of
outstanding projects using creative arts
in the public realm. A number of recent
projects offer prime examples of good
practice, imaginative solutions and effective
tools for community engagement.
An ongoing programme as envisaged here can draw
something of value from all of the following.
This present study also draws inspiration from outside the
immediate area. Some other key exemplar projects are
highlighted further on.
Within Grove Project
Location: Huncoat
Partners: Huncoat Youth Project, MPA, HBC,
Hyndburn Homes, LCC Remade
Timeline: From 2005 continuing
‘We Live Here’ environmental arts project. Artist Kerry
Morrison developed a long-term relationship with young
people on the estate. Projects with residents included working
with young people around the route they travelled to school
and wildflower seeding of gardens in front of properties.
Remade have picked up on this community engagement
work to inform the major regeneration investment now
being progressed. A legacy of the project is a wider ‘Eco Art’
Group who could support activities in West Accrington.
Within Grove Project
Page 12
Talking Shop
Spacelift
Location: Blackburn Road retail strip (and
elsewhere in Pennine Lancashire)
Partners: MPA, Elevate, LCC, LCDL, HBC
Timeline: 2007/08
Location: Hyndburn, Burnley and Rossendale
Partners: CABE, Elevate, LCC, Harvest Housing,
HBC and Groundwork
Timeline: 2004/06
A series of linked projects have examined the independent
retail sector and the impact of regeneration. Commissioned
artists have built valuable relationships with shopkeepers and
created both a key research tool and a fascinating portrait of
an endangered species. Talking Shop in Blackburn Road has
paved the way for productive engagement with the retailers.
East Lancashire wide project aimed at raising awareness
amongst young people of the HMR programme, and to
give them skills and opportunities to become involved in
reshaping their future in the area. Groups worked on sitespecific projects in their own areas, and came together for
training and conference. Hyndburn young people developed
challenging, imaginative ideas for an Accrington site which
were widely disseminated and influential.
Scene Setting
5. Inspiration on the Doorstep: Exemplar Creative Projects
Visions of Accrington
Backyard Project
Location: West Accrington and Town Centre
Partners: Elevate, MPA, University of Sheffield
School of Architecture, HBC
Timeline: 2006 to 2008
Location: Neighbourhood Management Office,
18 India Street
Partners: LCC, Elevate, Harvest Housing,
Myerscough College
Timeline: 2006/07
Postgraduate students from Sheffield University’s School of
Architecture worked in Accrington, developing public realm
proposals with Elevate, HBC, local people and businesses.
The students used techniques which blur the boundaries
between art and architecture. They made use of market
stalls, performances, exhibitions in alternative spaces,
interactive happenings and conversations, creating a dialogue
with Accrington people. Their work was documented and
published as This Could Never Happen in Accrington…
Or Could It.
Inspired project showing how imaginative design could make
the most of an ordinary backyard to a terraced house. Proves
that a mere six by four metres can support a range of features
to enhance biodiversity and sustainability and help improve
the wider local environment. Winning design created at India
Street, and range of designs featured in publication.
Backyard Project
Hyndburn Arts and Health
Location: Two new health centre buildings for Accrington
Partners: East Lancashire PCT, Hyndburn Leisure Trust,
Mid Pennine Arts
Timeline: 2007/08
Original, site-specific designs commissioned by open
competition from five different artists. The widely varied end
products occupy key locations around the two landmark
buildings. They help transform relatively neutral new builds
into healing environments that are relaxed, welcoming and
calm for daily users and staff alike. Demonstrates how much
can be achieved through an open call to artists to submit
creative ideas.
Creating work for the Acorn Health Centre, Blackburn Rd. (Stella Corral)
Arts & Health: Suki Chan atrium installation in the Pals Health Centre
Page 13
Scene Setting
6. About West Accrington
Page 14
Scene Setting
Page 15
Scene Setting
The West Accrington Housing Market
Renewal (HMR) intervention area lies
just west of Accrington Town Centre,
with Blackburn Road running through
the middle. It formerly comprised gridiron
pattern terraced housing, interspersed on
the south side of Blackburn Road with small
factories and business premises. It is one
neighbourhood, albeit divided by
the main road.
To the south of Blackburn Road, more than 350 houses
and other buildings will eventually have been cleared
through Project Phoenix Phases 1 & 2. The Council’s lead
development partner Keepmoat Ltd will be building homes
for sale to owner-occupiers and for rent by Space Housing
Association.
One of the two new health centres in Accrington is built on
land provided through Phoenix 1.
To the north of Blackburn Road the emphasis is on
refurbishing the existing terraced housing. Over 100 have
been improved to date, with the programme continuing into
2008-09 and beyond.
At the west end of Blackburn Road is the Oswaldtwistle
& Church Canal Gateway Project which will reclaim this
important gateway and junction location with ambitious
proposals for a multi-use area of commerce, living and leisure.
Further south and east lies Peel & Barnfield, another area
of tightly packed terraced housing, which the Council has
identified as the next area for large-scale intervention and
investment of HMR funding.
Lancashire County Council has identified the BlackburnAccrington bus route as part of the Pennine Reach Rapid
Transit Route, which will mean Blackburn Road receiving
investment through this initiative.
A Retail & Housing Study has also just been completed
from which will flow improvement and support plans for
local businesses within West Accrington, specifically along
Blackburn Road serving the local community and which has
the aspirations to develop wider trading bases.
The West Accrington HMR Area thus lies at the heart of
the renewal of Hyndburn.
In Accrington town centre, to the east, a Masterplan has just
been published which contains comprehensive proposals
for the revitalisation of that area, to attract investment and
provide high quality residential and business accommodation
and greatly improved environments.
Page 16
Scene Setting
Colour and letter coding refers to Chapter 22 Implementation Plan.
Page 17
Places
7. Phoenix 1 and 2 and St Andrew’s Square
‘Environmental Corridor Improvements’ and the programme
For each of these three spaces it is important to establish
they recommend (F.12). St Andrew’s Square (F.13) is capable
separate, distinct propositions of use that determine their
Landscape
Masterplan This report attempts to engage with that process.
of becoming the heart of a new community. At this stage its
character.
Scale 1:500
creation remains only a possibility.
N
0
Granite globe bollards
Large specimen
tree
Pedestrian crossing
Lonsdale Street
120 gauge Tegula
Block paving
Acer Globosum
Street trees
Shrub planting
Linear car parking
160 gauge Tegula
Block paving
le
nt
rA
Conservation kerbs
laid flat
y
rk
Pa
Page 18
Circular timber bench as
supplied by Woodscape
Ltd
we
St Andrew’s Square, if realised, is to be located to the
north of Blackburn Road along the course of Russia Street,
Empress Street and Swiss Street. It looms large within
the retail study. It may be achievable within King Sturge’s
Reclaimed granite sett paving
Breedon gravel
surface
Spiral mound
Lo
Lower Antley Street
Carpinus betulus
Rutland Street
Lonsdale Street
Aesculus baumannii
Pearl Street
Newark Street
Lower Antley Street
Mews court
Savoy Street
Globe bollards
Acer platanoides ‘Globosum’
Sorbus aria
Star Street
The mound is shown with a spiral path leading to a crested
hill. The current agreed design (F.10) references the
‘landform’ work of Charles Jencks (F.11). The pocket park
is shown in a current design with tree planting, a very large
pond, a large area of hard paving and some turf and planting.
30m
Lonsdale Street Traffic Calming
Through the new developments, two new public spaces will
be created. On the western edge of Phoenix 1 a mound, and
in Phoenix 2 a pocket park bounded by Lower Antley Street,
Percival Street, Poland Street and Holland Street.
Blackburn Road becoming a rapid transit route increases
the potential prominence of the mound, but the garden will
be surrounded by houses and is likely to offer limited public
access. The design and detailing of the mound and the garden
have already been agreed with planners. We examine later
the opportunities to introduce creative elements in the
finer details.
20
10
Newark Street
Phoenix 1 and 2 extends southwards from
Blackburn Road between Newark Street
and Barlow Street. New housing will be
built within the street plan, but on a looser
footprint and with more private green
space. The building style as it steps back
from Blackburn Road will have a more
contemporary signature.
Pyrus chanticleer
Legend
Acer platanoides ‘Columnare’
Quercus robur
Rev C 17.07.07 Alterations as per Sandy Greenhill’s comments 17.07.07
Rev B 16.07.07 Masterplan updated
Rev A 05.04.07 Masterplan updated, sheet rotated.
Rev D 26.07.07 Alterations as per Sandy Greenhill’s comments 24.07.07
Murdoch Wickham
|
Drawing Title
Landscape Masterplan
Rear parking courts
Dense bitumen macadam road
with conservation kerb
Tegula block paving
160 gauge
Dense bitumen macadam
footpath with conservation
edging
Tegula block paving
120 gauge
Granite sett rumble strips
Re-used existing granite setts
Combination of york stone
& granite sett paving
Bitumen macadam road & footpath
Hyndburn Phoenix 1
Landscape Architecture & Masterplanning
Client
Gardner Stewart Architects
Gravel surface dressed finish
Tegula block paving
240 gauge
|
Drawing No.
1132/003
|
Date
March 2007
|
Drawn by
JM
|
Scale
1:500 @ A1
|
Revision
D
Landscape masterplan
Shown above: Phoenix 1 Landscape Scheme courtesty of Keepmoat/Murdoch Wickham.
Places
8. The Retail Environment of Blackburn Road
A key element of the West Accrington
mix is the retail strip of small independent
shops and businesses running the full length
of Blackburn Road, and including several
distinct clusters.
As in many towns, the threat to independent shops is evident
in the condition of many of these businesses, and Hyndburn
Borough Council has commissioned a consultant’s report into
the sector.
At the time of writing, the King Sturge Retail Study (F.14) has
been practically completed but not yet formally received by
the Council. The key ideas contained within it are already in
the public domain though. There are major opportunities for
synergy which will be crucial to the prospects of success for
both proposed programmes of work.
Creative opportunities are highlighted in particular by three
of King Sturge’s detailed project sheets. These address issues
of shop frontage improvements, general environmental
improvements (with a link to St Andrew’s Square), and
area branding.
All three of these topics offer key opportunities for creative
work. Each of these themes is addressed in further detail in
this report. In each case we believe an injection of creativity
can make a real difference and ensure success.
Page 19
Creative Approach
9. A Creative Approach Unique to West Accrington
A clear rationale is required to underpin
creative engagement with the regeneration of
West Accrington. The formula here has been
used to offer consistent artistic direction to
diverse contributors… A portfolio of flexible,
small scale, discreet enhancements, with
achievable unit costs and a coherent theme,
accessible to the whole community which
taken together can have a cumulative, ambient
and beneficial effect, raising aspirations and
regard for a distinctive area - West Accrington.
This is a feasibility study and deals in future opportunity. It also
aims to describe a creative vision. Feasibility is taken to mean a
combination of what will be:
• available
• affordable
• appropriate, and above all,
• useful.
Informing all those qualities is a central concern for sustainability
in the broadest sense. The study has given priority to ideas that
can not only be realistically put in place, but that have a lasting
impact.
Page 20
A programme is proposed covering five topics:
1. P
ositive uses of cleared land in the period of transition
to redevelopment.
What he found is seen from the photos included here. The many
small details, viewed together, lead to a clear conclusion. There
is a very strong local tradition of ornate design and architectural
detail. Much of this detail is partly disguised or concealed, but it
is a major part of the local public realm.
2. Street signage and area identity to unify the community.
3. A creative approach to the refurbishment of the
retail environment.
(For each of these three, a creative artist has been asked
to contribute ideas.)
4. A long term focus on the new public spaces. They can
emerge as three new complementary ‘outdoor rooms’
for the community.
5. A
variety of opportunities for trail making and waymarking.
Such ideas offer prime opportunities for engaging local people,
for building a sense of community ownership, and for promoting
cohesion and harmony across the area. Effective community
engagement will be a vital part of a successful programme, and
underpins every project idea in some way.
The creative and artistic character of the themes that have come
together did so swiftly, and they came not from us but from
the place – from the very fabric of the neighbourhood. They
emerged organically from research and observation from, for
example, contributing artist Chris Edmunds roaming the streets
with his camera.
Much of the most distinctive work references the Arts & Crafts
movement. The Arts & Crafts honoured the traditional skills
of artisans, and combined simple, natural textures with ornate
elements. Patterns often reference the natural world and floral
motifs and what more appropriate than a floral motif! With
Hyndburn’s commitment to floral market towns, and in
particular the promotion of Accrington in Bloom, the discovery
of such elements in the fabric of the built environment seems a
hint too strong to ignore.
Flowers, decorative detail, the Arts and Crafts movement
and traditional artisan skills – these elements embedded in
the historic have thus come together as a natural and positive
grouping of creative themes. The themes are explored and
developed through the different elements of this study.
In providing a sense of uplift, and in bringing local people
together, these themes can deliver the ultimate goal - a renewed
sense of place, and pride of place, for the communities of
West Accrington.
Idea 1 – Flowers, decorative detail, the Arts and Crafts
movement and craft skills – a group of themes that can
underpin a new sense of pride of place for West Accrington.
Creative Approach
10. Project Phoenix and Public Art
Before the occupation of the new property in Phoenix 1 a
planning condition requires an ‘agreed scheme of public art’
to be implemented (F.15). This report can provide a handy
resource for agreeing the content of that scheme. At Chapters
14 and 17 below the most productive solutions are discussed.
Idea 2
Use this report as a tool to negotiate the public art
scheme for the Phoenix 1 development.
The public art component of Phoenix 1 is very welcome.
In this first instance it is dealt with as a condition to meet
retrospectively rather than being planned in advance. Ixia (the
national public art think tank) are now proposing ‘public art
statements’ in advance of major developments. This has the
benefit of fully integrating creativity into the design process
from the outset (F.16).
Ixia suggest that in this context ‘public art’ be considered
broadly, as a holistic process of ‘engaging artists’ creative ideas
in the public realm’, rather than just as the creation of isolated
iconic objects. Our own proposals for West Accrington mirror
this approach. The timetable for later developments including
Phoenix 2 may allow for a collaborative creative process
early on.
Idea 3
Use Ixia’s guidelines in negotiating the public art
element of future HMR projects, including Phoenix 2.
Inspiring local detail found in West Accrington by artist Chris Edmunds.
Page 21
Creative Approach
11. Whole Area Treatments
The pattern of redevelopment sets up a
distinct division between old and new,
along the line of Blackburn Road. From
consultations, a strong consensus favours
treatments which can be applied both north
and south of Blackburn Road. Finding
strategies for reintegrating the two areas
will be crucial to the future of the local
communities.
There is a perception that investment will be felt south of
Blackburn Road and that as the status of the Phoenix areas
rises, the status of the Princess Street area may fall. So project
ideas that offer uplift and added value on the north side are
particularly welcome.
The planning decision to protect the form of the historic
street plan was inspired. The new housing of the Phoenix
areas will be laid out according to the old street pattern, albeit
with a looser footprint.
This has led us to look at ways in which the consistent ‘urban
grain’ can be used to develop a project that can help recreate
a unity of place. An area lighting scheme offers potential
benefit, but the strongest prospect lies in the field of signage
and identity.
Page 22
In this we look specifically at street signage, with reference
to local heritage and the regional tradition of using ceramic
building material, known as faience. This informs creative
ideas that provide the central pillar of this study.
West Accrington’s street names are powerfully evocative, and
offer strong potential for subsequent community engagement
work. Local resident Bernard Sullivan has explained the historic
rationale behind the original naming of the streets. Specifically
that the area was originally built during the boom years of
the printed calico trade. The dyed product, manufactured in
Accrington, was distributed all over the world (F.17).
95% of the local Pakistani community originate from a small
area of the Punjab in Eastern Pakistan and are Sunni Muslims.
There may be real benefit in using place names from the
country of origin in any new street naming opportunity.
Acknowledging the value of incoming communities publicly,
when handled with the necessary balance and sensitivity, can
provide a powerful tool for cohesion. West Accrington’s
street names have always represented a world view – they
could continue to do so in celebration and recognition of
the contribution of, for example, the Asian and more recent
Polish communities.
Idea 4
If new streets require new names, consider reflecting
West Accrington’s multicultural community in the
choice of names.
Image shown above: The original masterplan vision for Phoenix 1.
Creative Approach
11. Whole Area Treatments
v
Ambient lighting offers another strong potential tool for
distinguishing and unifying the neighbourhood. A lighting code
could be developed to create an ambient effect, with the idea
that a consistent treatment could be applied to both the old
and new housing zones.
The King Sturge retail study creates an opportunity to
address this issue of ambient lighting effect, through both
the shop front project and the environmental
improvements programme.
Idea 5a
Include a creative lighting designer, from the outset, in the
design team for the regeneration of the retail strip.
Lancashire County Council as highways authority should be a
stakeholder in this appointment and in the development of a
creative brief. There is an opportunity to work with LCC to
maximise the potential of their ‘Added Value Plan’ approach
to the HMR programme (F.18).
The creative lighting role could include scope to consider
seasonal and programmable lighting effects, as well as
sustainability issues. Christmas lighting, so often a bone of
contention for traders, could be adopted as a key,
positive opportunity.
Idea 5b
Explore programmable lighting design, especially for
Christmas, and the possibility of powering it from
renewable sources.
Images shown above: Creative lighting project by artist Raphael Daden enhances an underpass in Leeds.
Page 23
Creative Approach
12. Places with a Purpose: Shaped by Local People
For places to work they need to be seen
as useful rather than just ‘designed’. Much
recent public art has become divorced
from any real sense of purpose, and thus
risks emptying the spaces it occupies of
both people and everyday activity. It is this
usefulness, by contrast, that can make the
public places of West Accrington appear
different, and make them sustainable in the
long term.
At Phoenix 1, landscape design has largely been determined
prior to the commission of this report. It may be in the
management of spaces that prime creative opportunity
exists. The Phoenix 2 timetable will allow the option of more
creative input. At Chapter 20 we set out some opportunities
for creative interventions in support of the landscape design.
Funds available for commissioning in the public realm are
usually capital rather than revenue. However, the cost of
adopting and maintaining a capital project is often significant.
These new spaces will be maintained by Keepmoat through
a legacy management company. The costs of adoption will
be funded by a variety of stakeholders including local and
transport authorities and residents.
Local people must have a meaningful input into the design and
eventual use of these places. The process can thus create real
stakeholders within the community, to whom these places are
important. The Elevate Community Engagement Strategy sets
out strong principles for this, and our implementation plan
reflects that.
The involvement of Neighbourhood Management and
also the Prospects Foundation would be ideal in securing
appropriate community representation in the legacy
management arrangements. On a practical level, the
Neighbourhood Management team’s Handyman Initiative
(F.19) is an inspiring exemplar that could be extended to
practical maintenance of communal space.
Chapter 13 below considers temporary work that will
mitigate the negative impact of development and clearance.
Positive community engagement at this stage can build
capacity to create and own the eventual design solutions that
will make these places useful. For the future management of
the new public spaces we suggest the option of engaging a
‘visiting creative ecologist’.
For a programme of street signage (Chapter 14), the use of
the Handyman service would also provide a direct benefit. It
could help to sustain and extend the scheme, in installing new
street signage throughout the older streets on the north side.
A successful creative programme must engage with local
people at every stage.
Idea 6
Use existing community networks to maximise
involvement in the process and the end result.
Page 24
Creative Programme
13. Temporary Land Use
Part of the price of renewal is that long
interim period, and having to live with a
building site and the sea of mud it becomes.
There is another way, though, and a
solution that is cheap, simple and incredibly
effective. Wildflower planting can transform
dead space, and create something bright,
spectacular, and uplifting. It can turn a
negative into a real positive. It can turn the
sea of mud into a carpet of vibrant colour.
West Accrington has a complex habitat populated by people
and wildlife. It is home to many indigenous and exotic species
of plant. It is important to celebrate this biodiversity, which
adds richness to the place as growth answers neglect.
In designing new public spaces, the first urge is to simplify
a diverse habitat rather than foster the complex, evolving
system that supports life. The latter can look a mess! Turf,
annual planting, manicured trees all offer less diversity than
the informal habitat they replace. They look tidy but are
costly and demanding to maintain. There is an opportunity
here to create something different. To work with nature and
the grain of plant life and animal habitats, rather than
against them.
Exemplar Project
Old Rough
Location: Kirkby, Merseyside
Partners: Landlife, Knowsley Borough Council
Timeline: 2005/06
This SRB and lottery funded project, one of many in their
extensive portfolio, enabled Landlife to work with local
people to create stunning new wildflower landscapes on
Kirkby’s Old Rough open space (F.20).
Landlife, founders of the National Wildflower Centre, have
pioneered much work of this kind. The success of their kind
of approach has been seen locally in some of the brilliant
work engaging young people with their environment at Within
Grove which was delivered in partnership with Green Estates
in Sheffield.
Such a project can offer ideal material for community
engagement. It encourages folk to look at their area with a
fresh eye. It promotes the acceptance of responsibility for the
fabric of the public realm. It builds a sense of ownership.
The support of the Prospects Foundation as well as
Neighbourhood Management would be particularly apt.
Consultations with Prospects have confirmed that the
Foundation would be keen to support an initiative of
this kind.
An opportunity exists to invite in a specialist. A sort of
gardener in residence who would combine horticulture with
biodiversity, a commitment to principles of sustainability, and
a lateral, creative approach to problem solving. We describe
this as a commission for a creative ecologist. This could
combine several elements:
• Founded on community engagement work,
primarily with young people.
•Initial roving brief to explore the neighbourhood,
but with a focus on Phoenix 2.
•Technical consultancy on soil conditions.
•Identify opportunities for temporary planting.
•Link to Accrington in Bloom, adding a new dimension
to the established programme.
•Work towards a creative and ecological action plan
for the overall West Accrington environment.
•Share good practice and encourage debate.
An outline brief is explored further at Appendix 3.
Feedback from work at the local schools revealed the tight
area of each catchment. The close relationship between
Hyndburn Park pupils and their homes in the area north
of Blackburn Road could be key to the success of such a
programme. Young people working together can help bring
the wider community together. Local schoolchildren
could become cultural and ecological ambassadors for
West Accrington.
Idea #07
Page 25
Creative Approach
13. Temporary Land Use
Idea 7
A local school as host organisation to work alongside
a visiting creative ecologist.
The workplan should be based on a survey of the area, and
should establish the scope of new opportunities wherever
they might appear. Troublesome grot spots might become
little havens of colour.
The heart of the project should be a temporary planting
scheme for the pocket park area in Phoenix 2. This offers
the prime opportunity to achieve something dramatic and
transforming that would benefit all involved.
Idea 8
Commission first a temporary planting treatment
for the Phoenix 2 pocket park area.
With no resident community in place, community engagement
would focus wider on all the residents who will have to live
alongside the Phoenix 2 building site. It would give an early
opportunity to build wide engagement in the progress of
the area.
This activity will take place on land already earmarked for
public use. Both HBC and developers Keepmoat are agreed
that this activity will not prejudice a future compulsory
purchase order on this land as its eventual use will be as a
public open garden. The Council is willing to deal with site
maintenance issues in this location on a proactive basis,
dressing the area with top soil and supporting a temporary
planting scheme. An indicative cost has been estimated for
this. The planting scheme would provide:
•A practical programme to engage the young people in
the improvement and discovery of their own habitat.
•A demonstration piece with a temporary character that
could promote further wildflower planting schemes on
brown field land.
•A dramatic and highly positive sign of change.
The influence of the creative ecologist would spread through
the stakeholder groups. The Prospects Foundation, Hyndburn
Council, Neighbourhood Management, plus the Legacy
Facilities Management Company established by Keepmoat
could all benefit from the learning accumulated here.
Engagement in such a programme would build their
collective capacity to respond creatively to the West
Accrington environment.
Page 26
Creative Programme
14. Area Signage and Identity
There is a need for a scheme to join up the
old area and the new across the divide of
Blackburn Road. Something to celebrate the
old traditions while pointing to the future
with state of the art design - something to
focus and rebuild local pride. All this comes
together in one central proposal. To put on
every street corner a badge that says, in so
many words, ‘Welcome to West Accrington.
You have arrived somewhere special.’
The idea of new, unique signage emerged from discussions
at a very early stage. It was reinforced by the conclusions
of the artists working in the three local schools. The idea
has received a wholly positive response, and continues to
stimulate the collective imagination. At various times it has
been suggested that the scheme be extended to house
numbers and even to key fobs!
The proposal finds strong echoes in the King Sturge retail
study. It is potentially a powerful means of signifying change,
improvement and positive aspiration. It can be a very visible
signpost to a positive future.
Amongst the less tangible and more people-centred aspects
of this study, it was felt that there should be at least one
concrete proposal that, if adopted, could be implemented
swiftly - a product with a price, ready to be progressed.
Signage offers the best option.
A commissioned, unique scheme of signage could apply
to street signs, other aspects of wayfinding, and also extra
fittings and features around the neighbourhood. This is
particularly attractive because it could be adopted, not just
into Phoenix 1 and 2, but also introduced into the older
streets on the north side.
Exemplar Project
Northern Quarter ID
Location: Northern Quarter, Manchester
Partners: Manchester City Council, CIDS,
Manchester Craft Centre
Timeline: 2002/03
A system of signage commissioned by Majolica Works from
artist Tim Rushton to build identity for this cultural quarter of
the city. It has given the Northern Quarter a distinctive and
stylish identity of its own. See footnote F.21 for further detail.
It has been confirmed that a scheme of this type would
be ‘eligible’ expenditure for the ongoing programme of
improvement funded by Elevate. The potential benefit of
linking in the Handyman scheme and contributing to its
sustainability has already been discussed.
Idea 9
Commission an exclusive new style of street signage
to give West Accrington a strong new visual identity,
and to link both sides of Blackburn Road.
There are two case studies which have informed our thinking
and provided inspiration.
Different approach to new signage used in Blackburn
Page 27
Creative Programme
Exemplar Project
New Islington Signage
Location: East Manchester
Partners: English Heritage, Urban Splash,
United Creatives
Timeline: 2006 continuing
System of signage commissioned for the Urban Splash
development at New Islington in East Manchester, by
Chris Edmunds of United Creatives, in which hand-carved
slate was used. It brought together traditional craft skills
with a very contemporary design edge celebrating the old
and the new together.
Both of these projects very effectively deployed new
signage to meet the precise kind of area branding need
identified in the Retail Study. King Sturge say: “Marketing and
branding… promote an area and build local pride. Proposals
could include … improved signage, events and publicity…
establishing an identity for the area.’
West Accrington needs to rebuild a civic pride which has
been tarnished over the years. This should exploit and
acknowledge the proud heritage of the area, but also look
forward to the new communities and their future. We looked
for those elements of visual signature specific to the area, and
for opportunities to marry the old with the new.
Page 28
Creative Programme
At the same time as faience was taking hold, the area
became rightly famous for the very high grade engineering
brick known as Accrington Brick. These bricks are now
made under the Marshall’s brand at the Nori Brick Works.
Elaborate constructions for lintels, mock keystones,
cartouches etc. are referred to as ‘Specials’. Accrington’s
Victoria Hospital is a good example.
The ‘Pot Churches’ and the Faience Industry
Regionally, Pennine Lancashire is famous for the
production of ceramic building materials. The
specific history is written up in Pevsner’s guide in
an account relating to the architect Edmund Sharpe
who constructed three ‘Pot Churches’ between 1842
and 1844. St. Stephen’s, Lever Bridge; Holy Trinity,
Manchester and St. Paul’s in Scotforth. These three
experiments were partly ‘an advertisement’. All visible
parts of the building are faced with terracotta
extracted from the fire clays of Ladyshore Colliery
in Little Lever.
The first of these churches was described thus in the
Illustrated London News: ‘This truly elegant structure,
believed to be the only attempt that has yet been made
in this kingdom to build an entire church of terracotta’.
Following these experiments terracotta became an
essential of urban architecture particularly in the
industrial north west of England.
Over the last century the market for architectural faience
has been primarily related to the conservation of buildings
created then. Faience is manufactured locally at Shaws in
Pennine Lancashire who continue to produce large scale
architectural commissions. When the Royal Albert Hall built
a new south porch in 2003 in the original architectural idiom,
the faience used was manufactured just a few miles
from Accrington!
So were the interiors of the Natural History Museum, the
spire of the London Coliseum and the Brooklyn Court
House (client the United States Government). Shaws export
their product all over the world but are not known in their
own region. They have occupied the same site since 1897.
They should be celebrated as a matter of local pride.
We enquired into Shaws as a potential source of
manufacture for a future product. Our team have imagined
a modular design which could be manufactured in volume
at low cost, using faience as material for unique West
Accrington signage.
Idea 10
Commission street signs as an architectural terracotta
product to celebrate Accrington’s decorative heritage
and the Lancashire faience industry.
Page 29
Creative Programme
Such a design would be affordable, achievable
and practical. The designs imagined here are
worked up to minimise the hypothetical unit
cost of the signs, in order to maximise their
potential and affordability for the widest
possible usage.
The designs that have emerged are, at first glimpse, startlingly
ornate. They are, though, wholly in harmony with the
Accrington tradition of decorative detail. We think they
are inspired.
Observations of local architectural decoration in the public realm of West Accrington.
The cluster of themes also offers an unexpected but very
welcome encouragement to community cohesion, in the
remarkable similarities between this decorative tradition
and the tradition of Islamic patterning. It is thematic material
which the whole community can relate to.
From very elaborate first designs, there evolved an approach
based on a hierarchy of signs, from big, bold ‘Welcome to
West Accrington’ gateway signs down to much simpler
units for small streets.
Such detailed designs could be treated as a pilot project for
adoption into Phoenix 1 by Keepmoat. This could help to
discharge the planning condition, of an agreed scheme of
public art to be implemented prior to occupation.
Research into architectural decoration and faience inspired by existing West Accrington public realm.
Idea 11
Pilot the new signage as part of the public art scheme
for the Phoenix 1 development.
Page 30
Creative Programme
14. Area Signage
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Page 31
Creative Programme
There is a clear opportunity to extend
the design approach and use of faience to
related applications, such as commissioned
seating and street furniture. The range of
possibilities is as wide as the imagination.
As an illustration, we introduce the West
Accrington Bench. The design explored
here draws obvious inspiration from
the architectural heritage, but with a
contemporary twist.
So a package of related features could help conclude the
agreement with the developer. Such options could be
implemented on key areas such as the mound, gateway
sites and the retail strip. Starting with Phoenix 1, but
then extending…
Idea 12
Echo the terracotta theme and designs in commissioning
street furniture, seating and other fittings at key points
around the wider West Accrington area.
Such a design solution can be accommodated within existing
programmes and as funding opportunities allow. Within
Phoenix 1 and 2, and in the programmes of refurbishment
north of Blackburn Road, it can be implemented gradually,
over several years. This can be a very visual badge of positive
change, spreading gradually across the area, and signposting
vividly that cumulative process of renewal.
Page 32
Creative Programme
Page 33
Creative Programme
15. A New Look for Retail
The retail strip will be the public
face of the renewed West Accrington.
It will be vital that the public face has a
healthy glow to it. A creative intervention
can help ensure that.
Exemplar Project
Shops Upfront
Location: Lodge Lane, Liverpool
Partners: Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Culture
Company, Liverpool Biennial
Artist: David Burns, Big Wide World
Timeline: 2006
The King Sturge Retail Study sets out a plan for a first five year
period. They propose a focus on these priority projects:
• Shop Front Improvements
• Vacant Units Strategy
• Marketing and Branding
• Area Action Plan for Blackburn Road
These all provide key opportunities for creativity to make a
decisive difference. The overall issue of branding has been
discussed above. Beyond that link, and building on the success
of Mid Pennine Arts ‘Talking Shop’ project in connecting with
shopkeepers, there are a range of further opportunities. The
most immediate and urgent is generally agreed to be the issue
of shop frontages.
King Sturge envisage a grant programme providing assistance
for security and improvement works to retail premises.
It would cover a range of services from brick cleaning to
repainting security shutters, pipes, gutters etc. ‘By targeting
fixed areas a scheme such as this can concentrate retail
activity and encourage a very vibrant mix of uses, uplifting the
retail experience for shoppers.’
It is clear, though, that simply tidying up the frontages will not
in itself create an attractive or successful retail environment.
An extra dimension of imagination is required.
A creative intervention can make a decisive difference. King
Sturge already accept this. They propose that a designer
is commissioned to run a series of workshops, with the
shopkeepers developing their ideas about how the shop
frontages should all look. They point to the recent ‘Talking
Shop’ project where strong relationships with retailers have
already been established.
Seeking affordable creative ideas, we look no further than
the new Acorn Health Centre, on Blackburn Road, officially
opened in March 2008. David Burns was one of three artists
selected through competition to create new commissioned
work for the building. He created the large scale vinyl work
that rises up in the glazed area over the main entrance. He
has also created successful work for shops…
Design project that redefined a comparable strip of small
shop fronts. Makes effective use of shuttered frontages as
well as glass, builds in attractive motifs that reference the
culture of the local Yemeni Arab community, and creates
a look that rebrands an area that might otherwise be grim
and depressing. Ideas developed in workshop sessions with
shopkeepers and stakeholders through local the Yemeni
Community Association.
Image Above: Vinyl design for shop window devised through
artist/retailer collaboration.
Page 34
Creative Programme
15. A New Look for Retail
Idea 13
Commission a designer to work with shopkeepers and
create original designs for the new frontages.
Success will depend on engaging the stakeholders, and
generating amongst them a real sense of ownership of the
work produced. The process will need to be driven by the
Council and partners, but must use every available ploy to
involve shopkeepers. The proposed retail forum would be
the ideal vehicle.
The creative work shown here is a very practical approach for
commercial shop fronts. It offers effective treatments for both
shuttering and glass. It has the benefit of being relatively low
cost to produce, and can be priced per square metre.
King Sturge acknowledge that many of the shops along
Blackburn Road are operating ‘at the margins of profitability’.
Participants in the scheme, though, would be expected to
match money received from the fund. It is vital that the
threshold is set at a level which is affordable (F.23).
Idea 14
To start – match an artist with one shopkeeper to create
a demonstration design as a talking point.
Idea 15
Next stage – a suite of designs offered as part of the
grants scheme for a cluster of shops.
We suggest an introductory project with one business to
develop a single demonstration and conversation piece for a
shop window on Blackburn Road. A taster project can prove
the potential for wider application.
An artist’s coordinating eye, informed by shopkeepers, could
create a suite of motifs and a coordinated colourscheme
which would have a beneficial, cumulative effect. The suite
of options would accommodate variations for glass or
shuttering, frontages of different scales, greater or lesser
boldness of design, and shops of differing kinds.
From the experience of ‘Talking Shop’, a practical approach
is likely to be more engaging than theory. It will have a street
level impact. It will be ‘doing not talking’ and it can attract the
interest and respect of the retailers, with whom a channel of
communication has already been established.
The demonstration piece would, we suggest, provide the
platform of support from which to move on to the next
stage. From participatory workshops, the selected artist could
produce a suite of designs and motifs unique to the area.
A good way to start would be to concentrate on one cluster
of shops.
In conjunction with shop frontage repairs, replacements and
refurbishments, artist-designed decorative treatments could
be offered to link the shops in the area and make a distinctive,
branded retail offer. This could link with the floral, decorative
motifs proposed for the overall area identity.
The artist would be, in effect, ‘signwriter and window
dresser in residence’ to the emerging retailers’ forum for
Blackburn Road.
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Creative Programme
16. Three New Open Spaces
The shaping of the proposed new spaces
through Phoenix 1, 2 and at St Andrew’s
Square can be influenced by an ongoing
creative programme, and by the artists that
contribute to it. It should derive from the
feelings and needs of local residents.
A line of development should lead from ongoing community
involvement activity, through artists involved in participatory
projects, and the suggested residency for a creative ecologist,
to the design and management of those eventual spaces.
As the renewal of West Accrington unfolds over time, the
introduction of each new space will act as a major milestone,
announcing progress. Creative activity and community events
can focus on each space in turn, helping to build excitement
and to attract media attention.
There is also a key opportunity to reinforce area identity, with
the new public spaces providing prime locations for seating
and fittings linked to the signage.
Idea 16
Seek opportunities in the new open spaces to
commission street furniture that extend the themes
of the signage system.
Shown above: Top of the Spiral Mound – a prime location for some commissioned furniture.
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Creative Programme
17. The Spiral Mound
At the western edge of Phoenix 1 lies
a rough mound of disturbed earth and
material. Under the ground runs a
culverted stream, and the site is unsuitable
for construction. It is instead expected
to provide an elevated area as both local
landmark and lookout.
The landscape setting is Pennine Lancashire’s treasure. It
is easy to forget, within a densely terraced area, that this
landscape surrounds us. The elevated mound will offer:
•A vertical structure at the gateway to the neighbourhood.
•An elevated viewing platform to enable wider views.
•A waymarker for the cycleway/walkway linking the National Cycleway network to the town centre.
Landscape architects Murdoch Wickham propose a land form
with spiral path that will meet these criteria. Their scheme set
out in their drawing No. 1132/003 illustrates how this will
be done.
The
proposed surface treatment, crisply mown grass, will be
demanding to maintain. This land form would alternatively be
suitable for planting with wildflowers, and we propose here
an extension to the approach described at Chapter 13 above.
Soil conditions might be made favourable to the promotion
of wildflowers.
As a ‘Hill of Flowers’ the whole mound could be seen as one
enormous plant bed. A wildflower scheme could be designed
to promote biodiversity and to flower at different times. This
could be determined by community consultation.
An area of this size in a hard urban location, generating
dense floral displays, would become an iconic image of
West Accrington. Such a piece of ‘public art’ would actually
cost less to establish and maintain than the mowing regime
currently proposed! The creative ecologist could devise a
planting scheme of up to three years as an experiment. The
opportunity exists also to lodge street furniture here linked to
the scheme of signage and the floral signature. The top of the
mound would be a prime spot for a substantial commissioned
piece. A circular seating piece, for example, derived from the
West Accrington Bench.
Such a combination - street signage, commissioned furniture,
and perhaps the Hill of Flowers - could form a complete
package for meeting the public art condition on the planning
agreement for Phoenix 1.
Idea 17
A package of measures to meet the Phoenix 1 planning
condition – signage, commissioned street furniture and
the Hill of Flowers.
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Creative Programme
17/18. The Spiral Mound/A Gated Garden
These proposals have been discussed with partners.
There was keen support for signage and for street furniture.
A wildflower scheme on the mound, though, was
thought problematic.
Landscape designs have already been negotiated between the
architects, developers and planners. There was though some
interest in the use of wildflower planting, for parts of the site
if not all. Turf would also be a more robust defence against
vandalism. A marketing suite will be set up off Blackburn Road
and begin retailing the new development. The appearance
of this area during the marketing of Phoenix 1 is crucial
to Keepmoat.
The idea of the ‘Hill of Flowers’ as an alternative ‘icon’ for
West Accrington, and essentially as a commissioned work of
art, is an alternative for a site that has already been designed
and negotiated. But the potency of this image can have a
great impact regionally and nationally in the context of HMR
areas. The idea could breathe a further, original new twist into
Accrington in Bloom.
Keepmoat and partners might consider the possible wider
impact of such a scheme. There is after all a simple exit
strategy, if the planting scheme does not prosper. That is to
mow it repeatedly until grass takes over. The ‘Hill of Flowers’
could be trialled for, say, three years and if unpopular could
be replaced by grass.
Flowers have a universal appeal. They
are universally understood by different
communities to be life-enhancing and
emblematic of renewal. There is real value in
the overall floral theme linking the various
project areas.
A Gated Garden
In Phoenix 2 the pocket park between Lower Antley
Street and Holland Street will be a central feature. This
space will have a different character from the other new
open spaces.
The garden will benefit primarily the houses which
overlook it. This will affect value and those houses will
be priced accordingly. If this space is used for organised
activities, ball games or events, these may well attract
complaints from near neighbours. So it is essential that
the pocket park has an eventual character based on
quiet enjoyment.
A creative programme has two possible phases here.
First, the process of house clearances can be offset
by a temporary planting scheme, as discussed at 13
above. Officers of Hyndburn Council think a temporary
scheme is viable. This would be almost an ‘exhibition’
for planting of this type. A real, positive impact could
be made on an otherwise blighted landscape until
construction starts.
This project offers a prime opportunity for community
participation, and for early resident engagement in the
management processes that will shape the small amount
of public soft landscape in the area.
Idea 18
Try out the Hill of Flowers as a temporary option.
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Creative Programme
18. A Gated Garden
The second stage is the permanent landscaping of what will
emerge as a gated garden. Keepmoat have already advanced
the project in agreement with planners. Their current visuals
for overall landscape design reflect this.
Given the quieter impact of this site and the sense in which it
‘belongs’ less to the community and more to the surrounding
properties, there is little merit in suggesting changes.
However, as at the mound, there is scope to propose an
extra dimension of enhancement.
Here is another key opportunity to feature architectural
terracotta furniture. Through the floral motif this could relate
both to signage and to planting schemes.
Idea 19
Commission terracotta furniture and fittings
for the Gated Garden, linking to area signage and
the floral theme.
Other opportunities for creative intervention may touch
on the detail of the landscaping. Options are considered at
Chapter 20 below. The most productive options may emerge
from community engagement activity. A valuable dimension
of the temporary planting may lie in that early opportunity to
involve wider local residents in the future of the site.
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Creative Programme
19. A Future St Andrew’s Square
The most important new space could be St
Andrew’s Square. This sits, unrevealed, in
the existing mix of terraces off Blackburn
Road. If realised, it could create a vibrant
new civic square at the heart of the West
Accrington community.
Everything about this place needs to be carefully considered.
It needs to accommodate both car parking and pedestrian
use. If people cannot stop a car, they will not buy at the
shops. Blackburn Road as a rapid transport route will impact
on this issue. West Accrington traffic flow needs casual
parking spaces like a river needs both slack water and a
strong current.
The new developments proposed for the junction of Russia
Street, Blackburn Road and Swiss Street must be considered
in relation to the square. It is intimately linked with the
commercial viability of businesses in these buildings. Their
vitality, and its overall life are interdependent. The nighttime
ambience of the square will determine if evening business is
achievable here.
St Andrew’s Square is vulnerable to not being realised if funds
are not forthcoming. Therefore the concept of St Andrew’s
Square requires strong political and community support. It
is something which, for West Accrington, could become a
‘campaign’ issue. One crucial way to mobilise support for this
space is to engage the community in imagining what it could
be like…
Exemplar Project
Pennine Lancashire Squared (PL2)
Location: Districts of Pennine Lancashire
Partners: Elevate East Lancashire, Landscape Institute,
Borough Councils
Timeline: From 2008
This idea from the Livesey Wilson report will be realised as
an international landscape design competition to create a new
public square in each of the PL boroughs. The intention is to
bring cutting edge design and high quality public realm to our
towns. The lessons learnt from PL2 can help inform
St Andrew’s Square.
PL2 advocates the transformational effect of new civic
spaces. The Council has committed to a town centre project
for inclusion in PL2 itself. However the St Andrew’s Square
proposal can still benefit from the ideas involved in PL2. St
Andrew’s can also offer an extra dimension not common
to PL2 projects – the excitement of clearing and designing a
brand new public space.
St Andrew’s Square should be a lively hub for the community,
a space in which all kinds of transaction can flourish - busking,
coffee vending, parking, taxis, cafes. This may seem a fanciful
vision at present, but the Acorn Health Centre will gradually
build up footfall, creating a new centre of gravity just a short
diagonal hop across the road.
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Creative Programme
19. A Future St Andrew’s Square
Idea 20
Promote a design competition for landscape architects
and designers to imagine the future St Andrew’s Square.
Use this process to help ensure it happens.
A competition which casts the community
as client can mobilise this support and
engagement. It can deliver on some of the
innovative approaches to consultation in
Elevate’s Community Engagement Strategy.
Communities and consultees are often asked to provide design
solutions. They may have no formal design skills, but they
should still be seen as the ‘expert user’ of the public realm.
They live in it. They know what works and what doesn’t. So we
propose a vision of a design competition with a difference. In
this the role of the community is clearly structured: as client!
West Accrington residents of all backgrounds could be brought
together in a client team. Assisted by an expert advisor they
would identify problems, pitfalls and opportunities to be
addressed by a professional designer. Creative and expert
support is essential to deliver the quality of public realm that
this community should expect.
Idea 21
Bring together community members with professional
managers and stakeholders as the design
competition client group.
This group can then produce a properly creative brief. One
that reflects the views of a range of local people – residents,
retailers, Neighbourhood Management, schools pupils, elected
members. Commissions of public art too often overlook local
expertise. Then, too late, they over-compensate by consulting
locals to death.
‘Imagineering’ St Andrew’s Square can be a big step towards
achieving it. There is a risk involved – of a lack of investment
dashing hopes, and causing disillusion. Elsewhere in this
document we avoid ideas that carry that risk. Local scepticism
about end results is already too ingrained. St Andrew’s Square
is the exception though. It is a prospect worth fighting for.
If the vision set out here is followed through, many small scale
and affordable projects will have a cumulative, beneficial effect
on the ambience of the area. St Andrew’s Square would be a
fitting climax to that process, a potent physical symbol of the
renewal of West Accrington.
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Creative Programme
20. Desire Lines: Ideas for Trails and Way Finding
Trail making and waymarking are invaluable
creative tools in the built environment. The
Acorn Trail already guides visitors around
Accrington town centre.There are some
prime opportunities for West Accrington.
There is a chance to build in to a retail improvement
programme an element of creative thinking in
encouraging a pedestrian progress from A to Z and
points between, along Blackburn Road. Some kind of
creative waymarking could be integrated into paving
or street furniture, and could help foster interest and
encourage exploration.
Routes for School Kids
The transformation of the neighbourhood, with a whole
new community arising on the south side, will create a
new dynamic in terms of patterns of use and people
flow… Marking out trails and pointing people in certain
directions offer opportunities to support that dynamic,
and to affect the way that people of all ages move
around the area.
Not everybody drives. Many residents may not have
access to a car, and for them in particular the pedestrian
experience of the strip needs to be welcoming.
Consideration might be given to providing rest points
into a trail. The West Accrington Bench might find
another home here…
The artists in schools programme also highlighted
the tightly circumscribed nature of the territory of
each school catchment. Work was recommended
on cohesion strategies, to foster interaction between
school populations, and to identify and encourage use
of neutral space.
Cycle Routes
The overlapping of regeneration initiatives means
there may be opportunities to build in such projects
within larger programmes of work, like the measures
proposed for the retail strip. Creative work of this kind
can pay its way in terms of effectiveness.
The Council’s commitment to promoting and
developing cycle routes provides a clear opportunity for
physical links, making connections geographically as well
as thematically.
The Neighbourhood Management team already have a
track record of promoting such waymarking initiatives.
There may be scope, in support of their lead role, for
further work with the schools on mapping the area. Key
routes could then be prioritised for enhancing through
creative work.
The Shoppers’ Walk
Much attention regarding the retail environment is
directed towards car parking space. It may well be the
crucial factor. We should not forget, though, that these
are neighbourhood shops with walk-up trade that needs
to be maximised.
The emerging new neighbourhood will rebuild some of
the critical mass that can help sustain that retail strip. It
will be important to the future of the neighbourhood
that the retail environment offers encouragement to
pedestrian traffic, as well as somewhere to
accommodate cars.
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The route that connects in to the wider national cycle
network adjoins this neighbourhood. There is an
opportunity to use imaginative waymarking to reinforce
the link across the south side and towards the
town centre.
The changing shape of the neighbourhood may throw
up new or unexpected ‘desire lines’ mapping out, for
example, popular walking routes to school. We have
also heard talk of other key paths for schoolchildren,
e.g. the route that Hyndburn Park children take from
school to access the sports centre.
Idea 23
Way marking project to enhance key walking routes
for schoolchildren.
Idea 22
Waymark the link from national cycle route
towards the town centre.
Creative Programme
Trail of Words
For schools projects and for community involvement,
creative writing can be a very cost effective medium, and
simply a very effective one. Applying creative writing
to the built environment can help foster feelings of
involvement, ownership and sharing. There is much to
be gained from deploying this kind of tool, in particular
in this context - where a new urban landscape must be
assimilated, and where old and new must be reconciled.
A professional writer could work with schools groups, senior
citizens, and other community groups to help them express their
feelings about the place they call home. The resulting creative
writing could be given physical form of high quality by, for
example, a stonemason.
Inscriptions can be used to personalise a location and make it
unique. The spiral path to the mound… The paths around the
gated garden… Quotations in paving at stopping points of the
shoppers’ walk - wherever the opportunity arises. A trail of
words can make the ordinary extraordinary.
Idea 24
Community writing project to create inscriptions in
pathways, and enhance feeling of ownership of
new public spaces.
The Architectural Treasure Hunt
Local people still cherish the variety of fine architectural
detail. Often these features are neglected, overlooked, or
have been part-concealed by less distinguished updating of
buildings. Chris Edmunds also highlighted such fine detail.
His photographs pick out a wealth of small treasures.
Another recurrent theme of discussions was lighting in the
public realm. Ambient lighting has been discussed above,
but there exists an opportunity here for a treatment of
a different kind. The opportunity lies in exploiting these
assets to best effect. For a modest investment, a sequence
of selected features could be put together to create
something more than the sum of the parts.
This would involve cleaning and restoring a select number
of these features, and then picking them out with localised
spotlighting. Such feature lighting might be delivered per
individual feature with localised renewable energy, and
presented as an exemplar project promoting sustainability.
This might also help access additional funding sources.
Idea 25
Spotlight the special details on key heritage buildings.
Create an architectural treasure hunt.
The result would be a trail to explore and discover around
some hidden corners of the neighbourhood. It could work
on several levels, as an education resource, a low-key
visitor attraction, and a focus of community pride. For
maximum effect the trail should be supported by some
form of promotional and interpretation material.
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Creative Programme
Streets of the World
A less tangible asset, and another potential
education resource, is the evocative nature of
some of the street names on the north side.
This alone could be invaluable, but it could go further to
create an extra dimension of lasting legacy. The detail should
emerge organically in the course of the education project.
For illustration, though, imagine this…
We reported above on the roots of those names as explained
by historian Bernard Sullivan. They reflect a web of trade
connections established across the globe by the mill-owning
Steiner family.
Each participating school group might adopt a street (e.g.
Russia Street), and conduct an inquiry into the country
of origin. Through research, and perhaps through penpal
connections, they might put together a collection of historic
and/or contemporary artefacts that together would provide a
snapshot of the country and its culture.
There is the germ here of a brilliant schools project, which
could link in to the National Curriculum and explore themes
of local and international history, geography and global trade,
and the roots of multicultural communities.
This project could help promote cohesion in the local
community, by bringing together schools groups of differing
cultural backgrounds in a shared enterprise, and by promoting
greater understanding of those backgrounds.
The collection could then be assembled, much as a time
capsule is, but with the intention of visual display. They could
use empty shop windows as an informal gallery with displays
facilitated by artists (F.24). A project promoting community
engagement and social cohesion would thus also provide a
solution for the ‘vacant units’ issue highlighted by the retail
study – three birds with one stone!
Idea 26
Schools project to celebrate international heritage links.
Use end result to create a trail of shop window features.
Above: Creating a ceramic map as a trail paving feature.
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Making It Happen
21. The Time is Right
Such a programme of creative work can
be achieved, and it can prove highly costeffective. The transformation of the area
through bricks and mortar schemes, and the
progress made with people-centred work
like neighbourhood management, can both
be hugely enhanced through the involvement
of the creative arts. A programme of
subtle but innovative interventions will
serve and support both those agendas.
New programmes announced by Big Lottery and Heritage
Lottery Fund also offer encouragement. Opportunities clearly
exist for clustering ideas proposed here within major
funding bids.
•Ensure that a steering group or identified responsible person
is charged with coordinating and driving the creative
programme.
• Include key regeneration partners in the programme from the outset and invite them to sign up to it fully.
•Make the “creative connection” so widely understood and
accepted that it becomes an automatic component of everything else that happens.
•Commit to community engagement at all stages, with
Elevate’s Community Engagement Strategy as guideline.
• Make optimum use of existing structures e.g.
Neighbourhood Management and Prospects.
•Involve the specialist agencies operating locally in creative arts and public realm.
•Maximise PR to promote this as an exemplar programme to
the wider world.
With Hyndburn preparing for a celebration of culture for
2009, the timing could not be better. An integrated West
Accrington programme can be a central pillar of that initiative.
The next time a Minister pays a visit, there will be the chance
to show off something special happening here, something
unique to West Accrington.
The time is right, too, for an imaginative programme to attract
enormous positive attention to West Accrington. Those
agencies promoting Pennine Lancashire, and those advocating
best practice in the wider public realm, will between them
make sure of that.
A bold creative programme, though, needs to be driven and
coordinated. The right conditions must be in place in order
to make it happen. The creative initiatives set out in the
implementation programme each need to be integrated with
and progressed alongside the major regeneration schemes
at the appropriate times, otherwise it will not happen. The
means of doing this must therefore be identified from existing
arrangements or specially created. Some first steps and
principles are recommended:
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Making it Happen
22. Implementation Plan
This plan is structured around the phases
of development proposed for the West
Accrington area. Changing circumstances
may well change those timescales, so
the plan is shaped around the various
sites rather than by timetable.
Many of the ideas here are common to more than one site.
These may need to be commissioned only once, but can form
the backbone of an integrated overall plan. They are shown
here repeating under each appropriate site.
To each idea are assigned some key early actions, the likely
partners necessary to effective delivery, and potential sources
of funds. These suggestions are not exhaustive, but intended to
oil the wheels.
Costs shown are estimates and approximate except where
stated. Some suggestions involve no cost and these are shown
in green. Ideas that carry a cost implication are shown in red.
Some of these involve lower costs than work proposed in
existing plans eg the hill of flowers. Others will require a
premium to be paid for quality of design and material. Overall,
though, the focus has been on work that is affordable, realistic
and in line with the expectations of local decision makers.
Items shown in black do not require any funding.
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Appendices
App 1. Involved in this Project/Glossary
List of Persons Involved in this Project
Groups ands individuals involved have included:
Project Steering Group – Chris Taylor, Claire Tymon, Joan
Pilkington, Joe Treacy, Nick Hunt, Christian Barnes
Hyndburn Borough Council - officers including Mark
Hoyle, Robert Ruston, Nick Moule, Helen McCue-Melling,
Anne Hourican
Hyndburn Park School - pupils, teachers and families
Sacred Heart School - pupils, teachers and families
Springhill School - pupils, teachers and families
Neighbourhood Management team (Church, Central &
Milnshaw)
Neighbourhood Management Board (Church, Central &
Milnshaw)
West Accrington Residents’ Association
Aawaz
Retailers of Blackburn Road
Prospects Foundation - Ellie Taylor
Keepmoat Ltd – Dan Gregory
Gardiner Stewart Architects
Murdoch Wickham Landscape Architects
Urbed consultants – Helen Flage
King Sturge consultants
Lancashire County Council
Lancashire County Developments Ltd
Mid Pennine Arts/Talking Shop - Paul Hartley
And many individual residents of West Accrington.
Page 54
Artists contributing: Chris Edmunds, David Burns, Richard
Scott, Grant Luscombe, Lucy Bergman, Talya Rochester.
Photographs by Chris Edmunds/United Creatives,
Christian Barnes, David Burns, Billy Liar/Alan Ward, Lucy
Bergman, Talya Rochester, Raphael Daden, B&P Projects.
Sketch of spiral mound by Christian Barnes.
Graphic Design by United Creatives.
Thanks also to Katherine Sansom (Capita Symonds), Jon
Wilson (Shaws), Barry Jefcoate (Booth King), Michael
Bottomley (Haigh Architects), Majolica Works, Catherine
Coulthard (Allerdale Borough Council).
Report written by Christian Barnes and Nick Hunt
Glossary
CABE/Commission for Architecture & Built Environment
CIDS/Creative Industries Development Services
DCMS/Department for Culture Media and Sport
DHPL/Design and Heritage Pennine Lancashire
EEL/Elevate East Lancashire
HBC/Hyndburn Borough Council
HMR /Housing Market Renewal
IXIA/The Public Art Think Tank formerly Public Art Forum
LCC/Lancashire County Council
LCDL/Lancashire County Developments Ltd
LEGI/Local Enterprise Growth Initiative
LIFT/Local Investment Finance
MPA/Mid Pennine Arts
PCT/Primary Care Trust
PL/Pennine Lancashire
PL2/Pennine Lancashire Squared
PLLACE/Pennine Lancashire Leaders & Chief
Executives group
Appendices
App 2. Suggested Brief for a Creative Ecologist
To be offered as a basis for tender to established environmental
consultancies, groups or individuals.
General Aims (Long-term engagement)
To engage with West Accrington for an extended period
(minimum five years suggested).
To survey West Accrington as a habitat for plants from informal
wildflower growth to formal gardens and planting.
To identify areas of green space and the built environment
where a rich and diverse ecology exists.
To identify regional and area groups and organisations
that could support intelligent thinking about ecology and
biodiversity issues in the West Accrington area and engage
them in dialogue - raising awareness of the area.
To share findings and research with concerned professionals
including the Prospects Foundation, Elevate and named council
contacts. Working with this grouping to develop further
proposals for creative engagement inspired by the area
for funding.
To consider the scope for creative activity relating to themes of
ecology and biodiversity in the short and longer term.
To advise on the management of the public realm from an
ecological point of view.
To share the findings of research in community settings and to
develop and deliver a creative and ecological action plan for
West Accrington.
To develop, lead and deliver in partnership with others a
schools project in Hyndburn Park School supported by
Mid Pennine Arts and to train others to deliver developed
education packages.
To engage with the Floral Market Towns Initiative and Britain
in Bloom.
Temporary Land Use
Within a one off budget of £10k to devise a temporary planting
scheme for Phoenix 2 working with Hyndburn Council. To
exploit this as an opportunity to raise the profile of the creative
and ecological agenda in the community, through participation,
and with developers, planners and managers.
If required to deliver in respect of Phoenix 1 and subject to
agreement with developers Keepmoat. One off Seed Mix and
Consultation including soil condition analysis and specification.
2 Sessions with Keepmoat/Gardner Stewart/Murdoch
Wickham. Within a one off fee of £1,500.
To produce dissemination materials on the temporary
treatment for local dissemination.
Technical Consultancy
To advise on the management of habitat in the West
Accrington area.
To advise on the soil and ground conditions to concerned
professionals designing for the public realm during the term
of the agreement.
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Appendices
App 3. Estimated Costs for Signage Proposal
Detailed Design and Prototyping for production (Faience & Glaze).
Including the production of a detailed Area Specific Location Plan.
£5,800
Whole area production (West Accrington) 295 signs in all.
Based on a range of estimates and specifications provided by Shaw’s 29 May 2008.
£107,000 - £61,000
Install @ £100 per sign (Handyman Scheme)
£30,000
Welcome to West Accrington Gateway features including faience roundel x 4 @ £4,000
£16,000
Total in a range £157,000 - £111,000
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Appendices
App 4. Estimated Costs for Shopfront Display
Idea 13 Commission an artist/designer to work with shopkeepers and create
original designs for the new frontages. Attend 1 consultation each.
Draft and prepare art work for decal design for client approval.
5 Generic Designs @ £500 each
£2,500
Idea 14 To start - Match an artist with one shopkeeper to create a demonstration
design as a talking point.
One-off project £2,000
Idea 15 a suite of designs offered to shops as part of the grants scheme for a cluster of shops.
Using King Sturges cost model for predicting take up assuming an average of £1000 decal
installed cost per shop. Predicted take up = 27 Shops
£27,000
Total £31,500
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Footnotes
1
Phoenix 1 & Phoenix 2
Elevate is a legally constituted company whose members include the local authorities of
Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Rossendale and Lancashire County
Council.
2
3
MPA is an independent unincorporated association and a registered charity, no 250642.
Hyndburn’s Regeneration and Economic Strategy 2007-11. http://www.hyndburnbc.gov.uk/
downloads/Microsoft_Word_-_Hyndburn_Regeneration_&_Economic_Strategy_2007-11.pdf
11
John Murdoch 7.2.2008 Meeting at Keepmoat, Speke
12
King Sturge Study Blackburn Road Corridor 2008 Project Sheet 4,
St Andrew’s Square takes its name from St Andrew’s Church which will terminate the vista
from Blackburn Road. St Andrew’s Square is vulnerable on cost grounds as inflated property
prices may affect the resource available to compulsorily purchase the buildings which currently
stand there.
13
4
The problems with the housing market in West Accrington are deep-seated and challenging.
There are 85,000 properties in the pathfinder, 80% of which are privately owned. Of the
houses in private ownership, a significant proportion (16%) is privately rented housing. There
is a limited choice of housing types in the area. Two-thirds of the stock is terraced, with
small terraced houses predominating, and half of the housing was built before 1919. Almost
a quarter of the houses in the pathfinder are unfit by Government standards, compared with
only 7% unfit in the country as a whole. There is a similar proportion in disrepair. In the Index
of Deprivation, Pennine Lancashire has five of the thirty worst wards in the housing ‘domain’
nationally. Many houses are empty and have been so for long periods of time: long-term
vacancy rates are as high as 10% in some urban areas, with an average over the pathfinder of
6.3%.
5
6
Elevate Community Engagement Strategy (part 6)
7
Elevate Community Engagement Strategy (part 7.5)
8
Elevate Community Engagement Strategy (part 7.7)
Livesey Wilson Ideas Management: Dreaming of Pennine Lancashire,
2005 Elevate East Lancashire.
9
14
King Sturge Study Blackburn Road Corridor 2008
Application No 11/07/0524 (30/7/2007 submitted) 22/10/2007 Approved) Condition 15.
“Prior to the occupation of the first dwelling hereby approved a detailed scheme for the
provision of artworks to be installed in the Spiral Mound shall be submitted to be approved in
writing by the local authority. The approved Scheme shall be installed to the satisfaction of the
local planning authority and retained thereafter.”
15
‘Public Art and the Planning System and Process in England, Guidance on a Supplementary
Planning Document for public art’, published in June 2007
16
Frederick Steiner (Steiner Street), born in Alsace, secured the business by inventing a
means of fixing dyes. The street names are in part derived from the names of countries and
places with which ‘Accrington PLC’ did business and otherwise by association with the dyeing
industry.
17
The professional team assembled for the landscaping of the public realm aspects of
Blackburn Road should include a creative consultant with both artistic experience and
possession of a Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers Lighting Certificate (CIBSE).
This contributor could reliably resolve the technical parameters of ambient and safety lighting
in proximity to a busy road with a creative touch.
18
It involves a time-served plumber and handyman, with apprentices from the transitional
labour market. Residents of West Accrington can call upon these services at a heavily
subsidised rate and in the process ‘on the job’ training is delivered to apprentices.
19
10
Drawing No. 1132/003 from Murdoch Wickham
Page 58
Footnotes
20
If linked to the local college either of these could provide accreditation for young people.
‘Cypher’ is a type-face designed by artist Tim Rushton on a bespoke basis for Manchester’s
Northern Quarter. The area was run down and the city council was promoting the idea of
regenerating it as a ‘cultural quarter’. Rushton worked with Majolica Works who are based in
the district to produce the script on ceramic tiles. Blue on White and White on Blue to match
east/west north/south orientations. This was a relatively low cost project but one which had
the effect of marking the area out and announcing its distinctiveness. Ceramics are especially
robust for this kind of use. Glazing could be richly coloured or even Lustre and ceramics sit
well on a variety of stone, stucco and brick - both old and modern.
21
22
http://www.pevsner.co.uk/
During a drop in session at the New Life Christian Centre on the 5th March regarding the
Blackburn Road Area a conversation took place with an investor who had just bought a shop
and who lives locally. The investor was spending £40k refurbishing the property and picking up
long neglected maintenance issues. Her plan was to rent the shop and thus bring a unit back
into use.
23
This conversation highlighted the disconnection between the owner of the premises and
the business trading from it, which we feel needs to be better understood. The investment
in property is one thing, being equity based, but the business in it is likely to operate on the
margin of profitability. It is that business that needs the investment in ‘appearances’. However
it is the property investor who is putting in the resources that could attract the investment, a
contribution which King Sturge envisage at a ratio of 1:1, more than enough to match in the
case discussed.
Although the investor liked the idea (and the prospect of financial help) she felt that she should
not invest in the appearance of the shop other than in a neutral way, because she may not
know what kind of business her tenant would operate. So there is a challenge in setting the
tone of the creative engagement, and in working out how to engage with and support the
collective effort of the tenant and landlord.
A similar project in Cumbria was undertaken by Welfare State International, a
group of artists based in Ulverston, which had a significant positive impact on the
commercial environment.
24
Page 59

West Accrington - Mid Pennine Arts

Transcription

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