Making Space Walks Programme

UP Projects

Join us for 3 free guided walks around the Royal Docks in August relating to Making Space, a series of 4 commissions by Jessie Brennan.

<p>Join us for three guided walks around the Royal Docks hosted on three consecutive Saturdays in August 2021 expanding upon the themes that inform Making Space, a series of four commissions by artist, Jessie Brennan.</p>

<h1>Walk 1: Spaces of Silvertown | Saturday 7 August 2021, 14:00-17:00 BST  </h1><p>This walk led by writer and journalist, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/owen-hatherley" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Owen Hatherley </a>will investigate the role and history of public spaces in the Royal Docks. This three-hour walking tour will take participants through the side of the Royal Docks closest to the Thames, at North Woolwich and Silvertown following the linear path created by the disused railway that ran through the area. Along the way participants will pass some of London's largest scale surviving industry such as at the Tate and Lyle Refinery, old public buildings such as Brick Lane music hall and new public spaces such as the Thames Barrier Park.  </p><p>Hatherley will prompt for discussion around the changing architectural landscape of the Royal Docks, its history and plans for future redevelopments of the area. Exploring the strange incoherence of the area, with successive plans laid on top of each other and never entirely joining up, Hatherley will look at the scattered traces of the ‘People's Plan' for the Royal Docks to the John Major era conservative nostalgia of 'Britannia Village', next to the almost wilfully placeless Dubai-on-Thames of the 2010’s, ending at the current frontier of the derelict-for-decades Millennium Mills. Participants will be invited to listen and reflect on how architecture has responded to socio-political and economical changes to the area and altered the conditions for navigating the urban landscape.  The walk will begin at King George V DLR station.</p>

<h1>Walk 2: Play and Place | Saturday 14 August 2021, 14:00-17:00 BST </h1><p>This walk, led by writer and designer, <a href="http://www.inuaellams.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Inua Ellams </a>will be a three-hour journey through the northern areas of the Royal Docks. Ellams will engage participants in site-specific literary responses to Jessie Brennan’s artworks. His practice is similar to Brennan’s process of enquiry and collaboration with community groups in the Royal Docks that gave rise to the phrases ‘Go the Distance’, ‘Custom House Is Our House’ and ‘Take Your Place’. Ellams will use these as prompts for creative workshops, ice breakers and games drawing upon relationship building and the essence of play and place.  The walk will begin at Royal Victoria DLR station.</p>

<h1>Walk 3: One of the most planned for spaces in the world | Saturday 21 August 2021, 14:00-17:00 BST  </h1><p>This walk, led by artist, <a href="http://eloisehawser.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Eloise Hawser</a> will explore how new infrastructure has been implanted into the Royal Docks, and its older forms subsequently estranged. With the new roads, railway, closure to marine traffic, and airport, for example, the Docks’ surrounding cranes are now ornamental, urban furniture; the grand Victorian municipal buildings are boarded up; the once famed Gallions Hotel oscillates between use and dereliction; the pumping stations maintain water levels for Docks that no longer employ any dockers. </p><p>This three-hour walk will begin at Beckton Park DLR, going on to explore some of the most Eastern parts of the Docks. We’ll be tracing the history of the dock’s infrastructure, especially its water systems, including the redevelopment of the marina, pumping stations, draining systems for the construction of London City Airport, and the newest plans for a proposed shipyard on the overgrown and near-derelict Albert Island, the first in London over three hundred years. We will discuss how this knot of infrastructural change has enabled a highly mobile, transient population of passengers, commuters, students, workers, and visitors, and simultaneously attracts and expels people from the Docks.  The walk will begin at Beckton Park DLR station.</p>

<h1>About Making Space </h1><p><a href="https://upprojects.com/projects/making-space" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><em>Making Space</em></a><em>  </em>is a multi-sited commission by London-based artist Jessie Brennan for the Royal Docks in Newham. Comprised of a series of large-scale artworks, Brennan’s commission takes visitors on a journey through the historic, social, political and economic factors that have impacted this area of London and shaped its identity.  </p><p>All <em>Making Space</em>  walks will take place in person in the Royal Docks, Newham. COVID-19 social distancing and guidance will apply. All the walks will later be made available as self-guided walks through a series of downloadable podcasts and printable maps as a lasting legacy of the project.  </p><p><em>Making Space </em> and the associated walks programme has been curated by <a href="https://upprojects.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">UP Projects</a> and commissioned by the <a href="https://www.royaldocks.london/about-us" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"> Royal Docks Team</a>.  </p>

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Making Space Walks Programme

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