links for 2013-10-16
Image: via @thegentleauthor.
“Two years ago, I became enraptured by a hundred-year-old collection of four thousand lantern slides. They were once used for educational lectures by the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society at the Bishopsgate Institute in Spitalfields.
When Stefan Dickers became archivist there, he discovered the slides in dusty old boxes – abandoned and forgotten since they became obselete. Yet over the last decade, it has become apparent that these slides, which were ignored for so long, are one of the greatest treasures in the collection.”
Some stunning imagery from @thegentleauthor of old mirror slides unarchived at the ACE Bishopsgate Institute. Looking back over old photograpahs is not exactly a new pleasure. Cine film screenings of family holidays pre-date DVD’s and the modern interweb. Home Movie Day at the charming Cinema Museum in Kennington will be sharing some of these private memories this weekend.
The modern interweb is merely the means in which to publish all of this old content. My own timeline of online unarchiving is nowhere near the level of historical depth that @thegentleauthor is able to share of old Spitalfields and the surrounds. I am finding immense pleasure though in slowly, slowly working through around 50,000 images of South London covering a ten year period.
The macro memories tell their own overview of a story. The pace of gentrification in Brixton wasn’t something that I could ever have imagined when I first started snapping random Transpontine piss alleys back in 2003.
It is the micro memories though that mean so much more. I can still remember the exact moment when most images were shot. What was the weather like? Who was standing close to me? Why did I choose a particular composition?
It’s no easy task trying to organise your online archive, but as @thegentleauthor has shown with the Bishopsgate collection, the rewards will be greater for each generation.
“Another sign forbade anybody wearing a hat to enter the pub. You knew there was some insight into human behaviour behind this, and that it had been won the hard way. This is what happens to British streetscapes when middle class vigilance is reduced and planning controls relaxed: they begin to look American.”
A more modern approach to online unarchiving via The London Column. The Old Kent Road gets an reappraisal with some images dating back to 2004. Not a lot has changed to be honest. Much like the poorer [ha!] sister in the Walworth Road, the Old Kent Road remains an area that refuses to gentrify.
And thank the chuffers for that.
Meanwhile, a short meander down the Old Kent Road to the New Cross stretch and you’ll find:
…at the Amersham Arms on Saturday 26 October:
“STAND! is a football fanzine that speaks out against the corporate excesses of modern football. Next Saturday 26 October they are having a night of beer, music and football at the Amersham Arms in New Cross.
It starts out with a panel discussion on ‘what we can do to take back our beloved game’ followed by a night of ‘classic old skool indie, house and ska’ with a DJ set from the great Terry Hall, as well as Big Beat Boutique, D’Arcy and One Man Melt.”
‘What we can do to take back our beloved game?‘
Blimey.
Where to start?
Perhaps a good entry point would be to listen to the ACE @thisisdeepplay on Football and Regional Identity. The #forfuturefoootball activists explain in an hour long podcast precisely what modern football fandom means.
Clue: The Champions League doesn’t come close.
It’s a detailed and well-researched conversation, making the connection between Nu Labour and the rise and fall of football in the North East. The Amersham Arms event could be a half-decent place in which to continue the conversation.
*plus it also rather happily coincides with the next Dulwich Hamlet home match*
via @Transpontine.
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