Ennis 2011 from a medieval to a modern town

Ennis was founded as a medieval town in the 1200s by the kings of Thomond, the O'Briens.The name is a shortened anglicization of Inis Cluain Ramh Fhada long rowing meadow island. It exploits the the Fergus valley providing a communication corridor between Galway and Limerick. Crucial to its initial success was attracting Franciscan friars to settle and their Friary is still a major monument in the town. The fast rivers also allowed corn mills to be sited here and other industries - such as tanning and fulling - required water resources. The town never had defensive walls and so was not subject to legal restrictions which prevented Catholics from living in Limerick, for instance. It, therefore, remained attractive to the Catholic elite. Politically, until their demise in latest elections, it was a stronghold of Fianna Fail - reflecting the self-identity of the Catholic population (despite the Gaelic kings, O'Briens becoming by degrees Surrey-born English haute-bourgeois/aristocrats).
 The streets still retain the medieval layout and small lanes or alleys lead through, providing a sense of arrival from municipal car parks towards the river into main retail areas today. They also became areas where a degree of latitude allowed -for instance- an early Catholic chapel to be built after the machinery of church had been thoroughly taken over by the established state-Tudor version of protestantism. The release of Friary land spurred on commercial growth and part of the fabric of the friary ended up in nearby bar/restaurant Cruises (which popularly was believed to retain a legal exception of sanctuary from those days - exploited in literature). Any-road-up, it became incorporated as a town in the 17th century - still under the patronage of the O'Briens (by then Earls of Thomond). Chimneys have remained from this time - preserved in party walls retained when buildings either side successively got knocked. Details of survival like these draw the eye and provide points of interest in the fabric of the town.
 In common with the rest of Ireland there was a period of prosperity toward the end of the 18th or beginning of the 19th century and Georgian style has dominated the town. Later buildings were often built in a kind of Neo-Geo style but latterly medieval motifs have been adopted in the older quarters. Inevitably, a ring of modern housing estates surround the town and a new main road bypass speeds traffic between between Galway and Limerick with Ennis barely registering as a spire or so poking up above the road landscaping.

The Liberator - O'Connell - lent his name to the former "Gaol Street" . I kid you not
For more - Click Here

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Update, Ennis was voted one of the 60 Great Places on the Planet. See my later blog http://londonlandscapeobservatory.blogspot.com/2011/10/liberator-in-ennis.html

housing over hertford union cut

housing over hertford union cut, a photo by david sankey on Flickr.

Public (council) Housing is in the news again as Her Majesty's Parliamentary Opposition Leader pronounced at Labour Party annual conference that, on the one hand, Margaret Thatcher was right to sell off Council Housing to tenants, and on the other, Councils should give preference to the working poor, over unemployed, in allocating scarce council housing.
I can't help but wonder whether council housing would be in such short supply if it hadn't been sold off in the first place.
I can't help but think that selling housing to tenants has biased housing stock to the unemployed as those in work would be the only ones with the money to buy theirs.
I can't help but think that in a society with scarce housing and rising unemployment that we should take over any land bank hoarded by housebuilders - pay them nothing for speculating on our land and helping drive the economic crisis, and start building houses for people to live in..... In fact, not to do so is to completely fail to address the causes of the present economic crisis.

Pie and Mash shops

A unique feature of East London, and the East End in particular, is the prevalence of Pie and Mash shops. Traditionally these sold minced beef pies with mashed potato and green liquor (a parsley sauce made with old potato water) and stewed eel and mashed potato... They were a feature of the working class districts where a cheap cafe was needed when many folk had no designated kitchen in their living space (living in houses divided into rooms to rent). Nowadays they persist as a nostalgic food for the local white working class. But for how long? Take-away kebabs and spiced chicken outlets, Chinese and Indian restaurants and pizza delivery have all taken the place of the Pie-and-Mash shop. New migrant communities have no nostalgia to the food. IS this part of the local character of the east End of London destined to disappear?

East End Dwellings (co Ltd)

East End Dwellings (co Ltd), a photo by david sankey on Flickr.

The social unrest caused by rack-rented slums in late 19th-century London caused social campaigners to set up housing charities to home people decently. Perhaps they're needed now.

Terpen, the Frisian(Frysk) answer to rising sea levels

Colleagues reminded me of the time I spent in Holland, where the generally flat (and therefore squared) landscape was relieved by only a few elements: 1) the natural sand-dune barrier to the sea, long straight coasts with seriously high dunes, 2) original islands in the zuider zee, now marooned amongst fields in new polders like http://www.schokland.nl/ and 3) Terpen, the Frisian  (Frysk) word for a man-made mound generally at the heart of a village. They begin being formed about 500BC and continue through to the 1200s (AD). They start almost as an incidental process of dumping material to counter the onset of floods and - over years - become mounds. The creation of a rise in elevation also introduces a a round element in an otherwise rectilinear landscape.
Terp is a Frisian (Frysk) word, the language of Friesland (Fryslan), which is the Westfriesian dialect of a once larger language group. Whereas other words are used in the Netherlands -such as wierde- it is significant that in English we choose to use the Frisian word terp.  There are longstanding cultural and linguistic affinities between English and Frisians click here for more
The round mound that generally resulted from centuries of dumped material gave rise to a particular form of archaeological quadrat excavation. It was developed by Albert Egges van Giffen, who had stidied as a microbiologist. Applying his training in the importance of seeing things in three dimensions (when microscopes then generally only had monocular, flat vision) he divided the historic mound of Dorkwerd to see deposits in plane and elevation. He later applied the same method to megalithic tombs and it has become the standard method of excavating round barrows; that is to divide the mound into 4 quarters  (or quadrants) with baulks left in 2 quarters, that meet in the centre. How to excavate it quadrants and, click on the later link for a picture of a partial excavation in quadrants  

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Savage Messiah - book is....

....published October 17th http://www.versobooks.com/books/1022-savage-messiah
Worth a squint for the psychogeographic drifts around London -

Racist EDL kept out of Tower Hamlets - now celebrate 75th anniversary of the Battle for Cable Street

EDL were prevented from demonstrating in Tower Hamlets on the 3rd of September. They were stopped from going on the rampage like Dudley Click here for film , where they attacked a Hindu temple and an Indian Restaurant. In Tower Hamlets (after their static demonstration) an EDL coach was prevented from travelling through the area BBC report of coach.

It had echos of a far larger struggle - that of the 1930s Battle of Cable Street. Which was fought under the Spanish Civil War slogan ¡No pasarán! "They Shall Not Pass" (tho' with fewer numbers on either side)

Like the 1936 Battle, hopefully this will mark a turning point in the growth of the nasty racist "street politics" of the EDL.

The 75th anniversary of the battle is coming up, with a march from Leman Street (Aldgate East tube) a rally in St Georges Gardens and events in Graces Alley and Wilton's Music Hall click here for more info  from SUNDAY 2 OCTOBER 2011.  Which will be a celebration of a united and diverse community.
Click on the blue blobs and lines for information

View Cable Street 75 in a larger map

Smiley Culture, Laura Oldfield Ford, Police Offficer No Justice No Peace

Name new gate on Vicky Park after Ernest Jones -- to make a real mark for the future

East End Life are inviting RESIDENTS to name a new gate on Victoria Park (see text and link below)
Despite lobbying at an early stage the Park was never adopted as a "Royal Park" and is administered by Tower Hamlets (a London Borough - if your outside London). Mayor Lutfur Rahman refers to royal links in announcing the opportunity to name a gate - but in truth there are few. Much more significant was the use of the park, and its predecessor open space Bonner's Fields as an area for debate and public meetings. Most significant of all was a meeting in 1848 that united radical Chartists (calling for the vote) and Irish nationalists. This huge meeting was broken up with considerable force by the police, with military reserves. 

Ernest Jones  was arrested and subsequently condemned to 2 years solitary confinement for sedition, attending an unlawful assembly, and a riot, at Bishop Bonner's Fields. The words he was condemned for were, "Only organise, and you will see the green flag floating over Downing Street; let that be accomplished, and John Mitchell shall be brought back again to his native country, and Sir G.  Grey and Lord John Russell shall be sent out to exchange places with him." 

Please suggest the "Ernest Jones Gate" for Vicky Park to Tower Hamlets  email your suggestions to dave.hime@towerhamlets.gov.uk 

Police violence prompted questions in an unreformed House of Commons Click for hansard report


 Make your mark to land a place in park history

RESIDENTS can leave their mark in history by naming a new feature at Victoria Park.

The council, Big Lottery Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund have secured £12 million to carry out an extensive programme of improvements to the park. They include a new community centre, a new island to house a Chinese pagoda, two attractive bridges leading to the island, improvements to the play areas and a makeover of the Old English Garden.

Mayor Lutfur Rahman visited the park to unveil the newly-refurbished Canal Gate and laid the final glass slab of the Jubilee Greenway Walk, a route that starts in the park and links the Olympic Park with other heritage sites and parks. It is intended to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Mayor Rahman also launched a competition to name a new entrance in Grove Road. The park currently has 31 gates which are named after famous people, local landmarks or have a royal connection – for example Royal, Crown, Queens, Bonner, St Augustine’s, St Mark’s, St Agnes and Gunmakers.

Mayor Rahman said: “Victoria Park has a rich history ranging from its role as the People’s Park hosting political meetings and rallies to recreation, live music and sport and will be playing a key role in the Olympics as a live site. The competition is a chance to find a unique name which pays homage to the popular park and its royal links. It is the borough’s royal links and distinctive history, which marks it out as a leading contender to be the UK’s next city.”

Tower Hamlets is bidding for city status as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

To enter the competition email your suggestions to dave.hime@towerhamlets.gov.uk or by post to Victoria Park, St Mark’s Office, Cadogan Terrace, E9 5DU by September 16.

Beyond the Neoliberal Zombie Land...

 (talk at Kensington GORE)

RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2011

	'Beyond the neoliberal zombieland', a lecture sponsored by Antipode
Research Group(s)
Convenor(s)	Wendy Larner (University of Bristol)
Chair(s)	Wendy Larner (University of Bristol)
Timetable	Wednesday 31 August 2011, Session 4
Room	RGS-IBG Ondaatje Theatre
Session abstract	-

Beyond the neoliberal zombieland

Jamie Peck (University of British Columbia, Canada)

Neoliberalism may have lost another one of its nine lives, in the Great Recession and its regressive aftermath, but reports of its death seem to have been exaggerated. What does this mean for attempts to think about, and beyond, neoliberalism? Where does it leave the emergent, Latin American notion of 'post-neoliberalism'? What (new) kinds of politics might this entail?

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