![I was asked about what I was doing [asked them what they think is beautiful] Old lamp posts giving the town some character - 210730 1100.JPG](/images/processed/210730 1100_thumb.webp)
I was asked about what I was doing [asked them what they think is beautiful] Old lamp posts giving the town some character
My gift was created to highlight the importance of connections to Dudley high street through the use of transportation which is key to encouraging people to come and use the high street. The jigsaw shows a map of Dudley with the different types of transport and was made from paper and card.
Zoe - visitors economy - fellow detectorist from council
Bianca and her friends went clothes shopping. As they could smell the delicious food making in the community kitchen, they curiously went inside for the first time. Bianca and her friends were offered freshly made, delicious soup.
Friendly intro chat to Lorna!
A green wall facade across the passageway could create a bold landmark to attract people to the courtyard space.
Dudley Market pictured in May 1982
Dudley High Street is not only inhabited by human beings, but also by animals. Looking back on the formation of most cities, we can see the common attraction of urban landscapes to humans and and wild animals. I used recycled corrugated paper to make this creative painting. It shows the causal relationship between climate change and animals’ loss of habitat and forced into urban life when human beings are developing cities. It highlights the importance of protecting the environment while developing Dudley High Street in the future.
Evidence of Bronze Age pottery in Dudley town was found but signs of occupation was only revealed in the eighth century AD
Shrewsbury Arms mates outside laughing. Work, play after.
This post develops what the community kitchen has to offer with street grown resources and community engagement.
(We decided to present our narrative through social media and instagram posts as we wanted to showcase what individual experiences might be like when experiencing the future High Street. Each of our posts captures a different element of experience on the High Street to form a collective scenario.)
Friendliness inside the pub!
Flats above shops
Land lords residents
Not many smiles? People avoiding eye contact but curious as to what I'm doing...
Pink shirt man in front of pink/red sign
Man with cigarette in a open reach van
["Pretty sure I witnessed a drug deal and shoplift"]
"Ted North ran his Black Country Bakes traditional baked potato business in Dudley High Street for decades.This is his potato baker stall in 1982."
Nurturing AgroEcology in Urban Life
A strategy for living alongside food production
A critical part of the climate crisis is the degradation of soil, leading to scientists predicting the UK has approximately 100 harvests left of stable crop production. As an attempt to address the problem this project will explore the possibility of integrating sustainable agriculture into an urban setting, reducing the strain on agricultural land, reducing food miles and widening city biodiversity. Taking guidance from the farming movement, ‘Agroecology,’ a climate conscious, wildlife supporting and community engaged closed loop system will be developed, combining traditional growing with technology driven techniques that will support each other to produce a diverse plate.
Dudley High Street will be the focal point, reinvented as a destination not just for the purchase and consumption of food but also its creation, driven by the needs and engagement of local people. Connecting the community to the food they eat.
The interior of the community kitchen would be inviting and colourful to create a positive atmosphere. The colours were abstracted from one of our group collages of food. The kitchen counters are not considered as a back of house element; they have been combined with seating as we are trying to embrace the cooking process. The kitchen desk is designed in a way so multiple people can work together from all sides, with central storage for herbs.
The facade of the kitchen contains a small window so food can be sold outside. We have also created a vertical herb garden so it can be used in the community kitchen. We wanted to keep these below eye-line so people outdoors have a clear view into what’s going on inside.
This street section shows activity from the back of the community kitchen to the other end of the street and how all these elements are working coherently. The street is filled more with people rather than cars. We believe that the outdoor seating, more trees, canopies and street lights can attract people to connect with the High Street.
Young man in overpowering aftershave
This visual represents Dudley High Street re-imagined; a new vision of a re-wilded, food-centric town centre. The green canopy will begin as a frame that will encourage the growth of plants. Smaller scale units will be integrated at the start and build towards the final vision.
Activity - people walking up and down the High Street
In this post, we captured the street’s atmosphere filled with colour, activity, and pedestrianised streets.
(We decided to present our narrative through social media and instagram posts as we wanted to showcase what individual experiences might be like when experiencing the future High Street. Each of our posts captures a different element of experience on the High Street to form a collective scenario.)
Slowly walking couple - man helping older woman
Atifa lives nearby. During her free time, Atifa takes part in social work and welcomes the visitors of the High Street. Her main responsibility involves managing the food produced on street garden. A group of out of town visitors seemed lost on the street as they were wondering about what to do after shopping. Atifa suggested to participate in a workshop in the community kitchen. They plucked some berries and veggies from street and made a quick salad with a locally developed recipe that they had never tried. They thanked Atifa for the new recipe.
Dudley was pretty much at the centre of the Industrial Revolution. It had many advantages like making things faster, leading to technological advancements, a wider distribution of wealth and the social changes that came with this. However, it also had its own set of problems that are still relevant today which we need to acknowledge and address to successfully move forward, mainly: overpopulation, housing, water, air pollution and depletion of natural resources.
"Dudley's Edwardian Market Place pictured around 1905."
876 Lounge - Music blasting reggae, smiley man gave me thumbs up: 'you alright?'
A day out in Dudley
Time inside passes slow,
So we went out for the day,
My favourite place to go,
The high street in Dudley
I'm sure that you'd agree
It's not like any other town,
There is lots to do and see
And there's space to run around
There's a playground there
Just in the middle of the street
And fruit growing everywhere
The strawberries taste so sweet
There's lots of places for grown-ups
Where they like to chat and sit
They say 'hello ya right bab?'
And then Tarra a bit.
There is no need to in
When it's black over bill's mother
Because should the rain begin
The canopy is the perfect cover
The grown-ups pick the veggies
And call come get some grub
We jump down from our climbing trees
And head over to the food hub
We get the buz back home for tea
And get it down our wazzin
I look back on the day with glee
My Dudley town is bostin.
Social issues present ... between the two ends of the High Street, one recently improved in terms of materials, recreational areas and spaces for sitting, the other remains in disrepair and is heavily trafficked with completely transitional movement, lack of stopping and communication.
Activity - people walking up and down the High Street.
A harmonic and diverse community ["Everyone I spoke to was nice"]
Davo Turkish Hairstyles - Laughs, ginger beer, smiles
I was asked if I was OK!
Jamaican music - lively (more smiley people in this area?!)
By utilising the passageway to display exhibition work from local institutions it would not only encourage them to create their crafts, it will celebrate their work and the range of crafts that Dudley has.
1 bench being used - lots unused?
TAKING BACK OWNERSHIP - To utilise the empty spaces and units on the high street with a place to celebrate the local institutions work. A space to help build a stronger connection within the community, creating a sense of fulfilment with the people of Dudley.
Slow car reversing into bay where I am sitting
Dudley young people of black ethnicity worked together to put on a Fashion Talent and History show to celebrate Black heritage and fashion for Jamaican Independence day 2021. This show took place at the African Caribbean Centre in Dudley.
The first step is sectioning out for pedestrianisation. It was important that we did this so we can move down the intervention scale to the next stepping stone; laying the foundation for social and ecological benefits. The hierarchy of space is very much dedicated to cars right now. If you design for cars, you’re going to get more cars. If you design for people, you’re going to get more people. According to Just Economics, the footfall can increase by about 40% following pedestrianisation, and retail follows suit with about 30% increase in sales.
Mortgage - home lenders
"Dudley High Street, viewed from the recently-pedestrianised market place, as it looked in May 1985."
PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPE
To create a safe family friendly pedestrianised space on Dudley's high street. By changing up the landscape and introducing micro ecosystem on the high street we aim to improve the health and well-being for the planet as well as the people of Dudley.
By using the courtyard space as allotments, it will create a social hub for the local people and connect it to local businesses and stores.
This graffiti image is on the wall at ACCN- Dudley African Caribbean Network, I would like to know how and when this was created. One Love is a reference to a Bob Marley song and is written in the image.
Folklore or myths? Myth - that the High Street is just about shops - more homes likely to emerge.
The third Stepping Stone project attempted to design the community kitchen in one of the empty shops on Dudley High Street. We all know that food is an essential factor in our life and eating and cooking the food is not an abstract activity we do, it is part of our everyday routine. In our initial research, we found that many people live alone in compact housing on the High Street. We thought the kitchen connect the residents with society. We decided to make the process of preparing food more enjoyable. As our aim was to grow food on the street wherever possible, we can use these vegetables for the community kitchen. This will encourage residents to come down onto the street and engage with it. This could also be a new experience for the visitors of the High Street.
Tiny acts of random kindness like picking up a dropped pen for someone else
In this picture from 1914 in Dudley, you can just make out my grandfather. He's the small boy with the cap running across Wolverhampton Street in the days when the trams were still running. Years later we worked out that this day was probably a defining moment in his life, the day he chose never to have a second thought or to be bullied by others. You can see him running. This is because he had stolen the ham you can see him carrying under his arm. This one action started a chain of events for my grandfather that would go on to dominate his formative years. Petty larceny, theft, criminal activity that would shape him, turn him into one of the most notorious villains in the Black Country.
When he died in 1972, this photograph turned up amongst his possessions, in a locked drawer of his bureau. We agreed amongst us that no one in the family had ever seen this photo before, curious as to its importance to him. On the back of the photo he had written the date and time, together with a brief note - "Me stealing ham from W.Smiths, butcher". He would have been 10 years old and this was perhaps his first, or at least one of his first criminal acts.
We have no idea who took the photograph or how he had come to have the original print in his possession, but it appears that it held some significance for him as he kept it all of his life locked away in his bureau drawer.
Woman waiting
A timely reminder of our times with COVID. Almost 100 years ago this gravestone is in St Edmond’s (bottom church) it’s a fine reminder that respiratory illnesses have alway been with us. It reads;-
In memory of Mordecai, son of Meredith &Tamar Ingam, who died Jan 10 1823, in the 19th year of his age. ‘Apple consumption gave the fatal blow,The stroke was certain tho’ the effect was slow,With ling’ring pain Heaven saw me sore oppressed, Pitied my sighs and kindly gave me rest’.
Not the stonemason’s error on the 19 of his age, or was it 29?
These are stepping stones that we wanted to achieve, with a scale of intervention, starting with small changes that could still have a big impact e.g. street furniture. At the other end of the scale is topography, where larger adaptations can be made for what we want to achieve.
LAYERS TO THE HIGH STREET - To introduce covered, sheltered areas on the high street. Making the high street welcoming for the entire family and adding topographical value to the high street that is visually interesting. Adding another layer to the high street that will encourage exploring spaces for children as well as adults.
"Dudley High Street, pictured in the mid 1980s when Cooks department store was a major focus of the town."
Shopping in groups, families / friends
My purpose of my Gift to Dudley High Street is to encourage the users to become involved in the changes that occur in a place they use. The aim is to gain feedback from the users of the game to inform any progress made, this way, the focus of regeneration can come from the users themselves, becoming a collective collaboration. Through the users interacting with each other on the High Street using this game, the presence of users can be recognised, reminding the people of a sense of community to promote and celebrate going forward.
A lady waving to a child
"A tram travels along Wolverhampton Street in Dudley.."
"Dudley Market Place, pictured here in the early 1980s, with the Trueform shoe shop being rebuilt."
We feel that our local High Streets should be the focal point for our local community. They should be seen as places of interest and a place where you can go for both essential items and leisure. Therefore, we feel making the High Street pedestrianised would mean that there is a larger space to work with on the High Street and that it will not only allow locals to shop but also congregate and relax with family and friends.
Tiny random acts of kindness like picking up blown away posters
Men standing on grass - connecting with extra space on High Street - relaxing / watching the traffic
Activity - people walking up and down the High Street
Activity - people walking up and down the High Street
The Gift represents the two different typologies of building and its facade located on the High Street. One resembles St. Thomas Top Church and the other is the common modern building facade. The design of High Street buildings has evolved throughout the period. Its use, materiality, construction technique etc.
The High Street has always represented a role as a commercial and social hub. The concentration of public on the High Street provides the opportunities to designers to showcase creativity and innovation in design which impacts on visitors. We can say in other words, an ‘Exhibition’ of evolution of buildings in a row. So, facade plays a key role as it reflects the local identity of the town and its culture. So I did a little experiment to understand the street in the form of juxtaposition of facade by placing two different typologies of buildings located on the street. The voids on the facade have changed and adapted to more convenient rectilinear shapes during the past few decades.
The model made of plain paper can represent the periodical difference in buildings to which people of the High Street can easily relate and take a place within their memory.
Only two people sitting on benches at this time
The first Stepping Stone project looks into designing multifunctional furniture for Dudley High Street to provide opportunities for a regenerative community, focusing on how the high street can be occupied with resilience. Initially, the stalls act as market stalls to provide opportunities for enterprises and small businesses to begin thriving and encouraging the High Street to become a place of inclusivity.
However, the stalls can extend out into outdoor seating arrangements, which can become an extension of the community kitchen and during events can become a part of the whole atmosphere.
By extending the furniture, they can connect together and become a large spread where people can sit together and enjoy company. It creates a lowered centre space so children can sit together, or paint on the surfaces. We decided to focus on furniture because we felt the importance of it can go unrecognised. We felt through the design of this market stall, many memories can be created and attached to these items, and become valuable assets within the community.
"Dudley High Street looking towards Lower High Street and Bottom Church in September 1983."
The meaning behind this gift is composed of three main foundations which are biodiversity, social and enclosure. The box represents the enclosed feeling of the surrounding buildings that you receive when walking down Dudley High Street. The ‘High Street’ gives the impression that the buildings are closing in on you, with very little open space around. The open element of the box is to create an airy space which is what Co-LAB Dudley is trying to achieve and make the atmosphere more sociable for the local people/ community. Therefore, attracting more people to the high street. Conducting research it is evident that the ‘High Street’ severely suffers from a lack of green space resulting in a lack of biodiversity across Dudley. Centrally, located within the box is a rose which resembles the biodiversity and the need for growth amongst the ‘High Street’. The white rose connotes the purity for the future of Dudley High Street and what it could become.
A sketch showing workshops utilising the empty spaces, street furniture, canopies on the side, and street art to brighten and liven the current High Street.
It is 5pm in the evening and the shops are still full with customers. David has had a long and busy working day at the shop and can now finally take a break, and so he ventured out onto the street to get fresh air. David randomly bumped into an old customer, they both instantly recognised each other, and decided to share some conversations on a nearby bench. The old customer could not stop pointing out many of positive changes on the High Street since he last visited. He noticed the fresh air from more vegetation and less pollution, outdoor seating and a thriving enjoyable space.
Friendliness outside the pub! copy
Lingering can be done outside cafes + shops if chairs are there
Activity - people walking up and down the High Street
Green pockets overlooked by passersby?
Slow Rick stopping to talk to shop keeper
Pile of bird seed on pavement makes me smile as I know there are signs near here saying don't feed the birds
A vision for the High Street
Children at play
Flats above shops
Kid on bike
This post captures the street qualities where the visitors experience the colour and aromas of the food.
(We decided to present our narrative through social media and instagram posts as we wanted to showcase what individual experiences might be like when experiencing the future High Street. Each of our posts captures a different element of experience on the High Street to form a collective scenario.)
A cardboard box that when opened shows mirrors in all internal faces reflecting a web made with strings that represents Dudley as a complex system of interconnected elements. The Dudley High street has lack in colour, public spaces, and green areas, reflecting the local population that is experiencing deprivations and vice versa. Making a high street attractive can improve the local population in health, social and economic aspects.
My gift focused on the issue that I found most prevalent in my research, which was the lack of nightlife and social entertainment on Dudley High Street. I created an abstract storyboard that highlights the gap on the High Street. This model can be packed away and used at different events. It can also be used as a puppet show. People can add their own contributions to the High Street. The storyboard was made out of recycled materials. This puts emphasis on looking after our environment.
Land lords residents
This gift is made of cardboard and acrylic. A map of the High Street is drawn on the acrylic sheet, and the distribution of buildings and roads are drawn on different acrylic sheets. Through my research, I know that the annual precipitation rate in Dudley is very high, but from the photo, there is no place to block the rain beside the buildings on the street, so I want to add the element of the poncho and make it transparent, so that it will not block the sun, and it is also more convenient for people to travel.
This gift represents the green spaces around CoLab Dudley and the connections they have to the high street. The black point marks the location of the High Street and the other pins mark each green space within the High Street’s immediate location. The lines act as a travel route that you may take in order to get from one green space to another. From this we can establish that there is a lack of greenery in some spaces. This then impacts the High Street as people do not need to use it as a travel route. By simply creating more of these green spaces like in the top right it will add more connections to the High Street which will draw more people to this particular location.
Moment of silence - no people / cars (seconds)
New use for cars — As part of pedestrianisation we would like to suggest a memorial of sorts to cars. The feature would sit in the middle of the High Street and would consist of an old out-of-use car, being used as a planter and being filled with plants. This gesture symbolises the movement of the High Street’s priorities shifting from the automobile to plants, people and food.
Market people chatting under the shelter
"Four Debenhams staff with 100-years service between them were bidding a fond farewell as the store in Dudley High Street closed for the last time in January 1981. Manager Douglas Spalding, who was with the company for 26 years, was photographed with Nancy Robinson, Kathleen Jackson and Marion Sutton."
Man xxxxxx with ciggy
Activity - people walking up and down the High Street
Nurturing AgroEcology in Urban Life
A strategy for living alongside food production
A critical part of the climate crisis is the degradation of soil, leading to scientists predicting the UK has approximately 100 harvests left of stable crop production. As an attempt to address the problem this project will explore the possibility of integrating sustainable agriculture into an urban setting, reducing the strain on agricultural land, reducing food miles and widening city biodiversity. Taking guidance from the farming movement, ‘Agroecology,’ a climate conscious, wildlife supporting and community engaged closed loop system will be developed, combining traditional growing with technology driven techniques that will support each other to produce a diverse plate.
Dudley High Street will be the focal point, reinvented as a destination not just for the purchase and consumption of food but also its creation, driven by the needs and engagement of local people. Connecting the community to the food they eat.
After investigating the history, heritage, culture and institutions of Dudley and its High street, I made a kaleidoscope gift based around the themes ‘overlooked’, ‘resilience’ and ‘layered’. Although sight is the most immediate sense in which many people engage with their surroundings, it’s not until you look beneath the surface and start to see things from a new perspective that you fully appreciate what is there and the potential beyond. I wanted people to engage with my gift, have fun and evoke a sense of nostalgia, whilst also using it as a way to look forward to what the High Street could be, all the while embodying the CoLab Dudley principle of allowing this object to be a co-op piece. The gift relates to the people and allows for each user to interpret and express their own thoughts.
Lingered here chatting to the shop keeper!
"Dudley Market Place looking west in 1955."
This post promotes the opening of a community kitchen, supported by the Participatory City model.
(We decided to present our narrative through social media and instagram posts as we wanted to showcase what individual experiences might be like when experiencing the future High Street. Each of our posts captures a different element of experience on the High Street to form a collective scenario.)
Together, dad feeding birds
By placing a community garden in this space space you can learn how to plant food and it will lead to more edible spaces on the High Street that will then lead to the re-wilding of Dudley.
"The new market in Dudley market place in 1983 had a little more aisle space between the stalls, making shopping easier for customers. The market had just reopened after three months spent in Stone Street while it was refurbished. Traditionalists had bitterly attacked the replacing of wooden stalls with metal and the removal of the old-fashioned cobbles. This was taken on May 15, 1983."
The image shows what this space could look like as a productive landscape. Where all the space is used. Vertical growing space can be utilised for pollinators for heights out of human range and for fruit and herbs in the lower regions that lie within our grasp. Trees can provide shelter, pollen and fruit, as can shrubs.
Looking to be the centrepiece of our exhibition, we proposed to create a site model of Dudley Highstreet at 1:200 scale with buildings modelled in a simple form. Local residents and visitors to the exhibition are then invited to decorate a chosen building to how they would envision it sat within the context of a greener Highstreet. We want to tie in our themes of biodiversity and materials by proposing that buildings can, and do, have the potential to be a lot healthier, sustainable, and interactive on the street. This site model also helps gain vital public opinions on the Highstreet and prompts discussion of areas most in need of attention.
To ensure that the model is utilising the MDF to the most efficient standard possible. First, the centres of the massing blocks have been hollowed out. This allows a reduction in materials used as other buildings can be cut in the centres of the model. Then the top is finished with a solid piece.
The waste material is placed into the recycling rack where other students can reuse it; otherwise, if the material left cannot be used for another project, it is recycled correctly by the university.
The model spanned just over 3.4m long and over 50cm wide. With the majority being cut from scrap woods that would fit the jigsaw of the shape, we were able to drastically cut down on waste. We also got some small benches and bee hives printed from recycled plastics, and used dried flowers as trees to represent the green spaces. Ultimately, the model seemed like a huge success, and really helped portray our ideas about Dudley High Street to those who came by. Everyone from Dudley who saw the model knew that it was the High Street, and interacted well with it. The size did make it difficult to move, especially to carry to the site, but it sat nicely in the centre of the the room and really drew people in to interact with it.
The model brought people in from outside to play with, write on, interact with. It became a spectacle for the public to come in and see what was happening and offer their ideas about what could be done.
The event was a success. Many people from the public (those who heard about the event, and those who just happened across it on the day) came in to interact with the model, which sat as the centre piece in the room. Kids liked to play with the pieces while the adults talked about things that could come from actions to help the High Street, not just leave it as is.
SOME OF THE KEY IDEAS WERE:
- The Shops need to be inviting for everyone. It’s no good having these places to go if people would rather take a bus to the next town.
- Just putting up boards across the windows is awful. Paint, Posters, Graffiti: Anything that actually makes the High Street look still alive is better than just wooden boards.
- More Green is needed. While it is obvious that there is a lack of Trees, many people wanted to push for these small bushes or planting spaces that could easily be implemented across the street.
- Spaces for public events or for people to at least gather at. While there is the Market and Fountain, it is not enough for the people of Dudley.
- Something needs to be done about the cars on the High Street. Some were Pro-Removal of all Cars, while some just wanted to limit when they could access the High Street.
Following the exhibition we created a series of drawings with our own interpretation of Sarah Wigglesworth ‘The Dining Table’ drawing. The drawings are a perfect representation of the our interactive model at the ERA Environmental Exhibition and Event. Showing the interaction the public had with the model, as well as the conversations that were held around the model.
Stepping Stone 2 is about making the High Street bespoke to Dudley through street furniture. We wanted to make the High Street more sociable and colourful. By providing outdoor seating areas, people would be invited to speak to each other and bring back a sense of community.
ERA X Posters
"Owner Alan Caswell outside the Arcade Toy Shop in the Fountain Arcade in July 2011."
Jack and his friends visited the High Street with their school teacher during a study trip. He learned a lot of things about sustainability, and how to grow food. He was so inspired. Atifa gave him some seeds from fruits on the street garden, and later he planted them in a small unused bucket. After a few months he came back to street to gift the kitchen some of the fruit from his tiny garden at home. Atifa felt so proud of the young generation of Dudley.
We initially collaged together all the facade images taken and then annotated them with further reference to key areas. The right hand side looking at materiality, street furniture and observations of people. The
left hand side looks at observing some of the most dominant features - the traffic, shopping centre and busy public market in the centre.
"Dudley High Street in the early 1900s."
Calm, relax, serenity, togetherness
Our collective vision for Dudley is to support a creative community that is connected through our internet of things; creating spaces that allow for the collection and redistribution of materials that locals can use to construct products with. Community engagement is central to this design network with local businesses encouraged to get involved in manufacturing.
We decided to bring alive this vision through a series of pavilions positioned through the High Street, following a process through recycling, storing constructing and manufacturing. To take this idea further, we allocated several empty units along the High Street to become spaces involved in the open factory, from workshops, educational centres and co-working hubs. Since we wanted to show the journey people would be able to take, we decided to create a storyboard for our final visual.
These visuals show how the pavilions could sit in the High Street, starting at the market place, past CoLab Dudley’s base, and ending up at Top Church. We wanted to show how people would be able to interact with these different spaces and navigate between them.
Nationwide.docx
Nationwide
Millions of members strong
Building society
Nationwide
Staffordshire
Portman
Nationwide
Since ’67 in Dudley town
Nearly sixty years serving a community
People love a building society don’t they
Not quite a bank
More like a club
They come clutching blue passports
A steady trickle
Popping in to do their financials
There’s bunting over the office door
Radio through the speakers
Comfy chairs to rest awhile
Friendly
Homely
Familiar
Certificates recognise commitment
From one to thirty years
Ashleigh, Sarah, Isla
Lisa, Samantha
Displayed on shelves alongside photographs
Pride of place
The buzzer brings a rush for the door
Scurrying footsteps on laminate floor
Jangle of keys on a lanyard
Always a thank you and a kind welcome
As chat starts up
About Covid
Hearing aids
Lost keys
Shopping up the town
Holidays
Pulled back muscles
Schools going back
Family
The drive to Cornwall
The cash machine whirs in the background
Dispensing spendies for the Full Moon next door
As an old couple
In matching purple fleeces
Shuffle up to the counter together
I look at the Community Board
Wonder if my wife is up for knitting
Bonnets and booties
For Russells Hall
Or if I know a charity that
Might benefit from the community fund
Or if I have some spare tins
For the food bank
There’s a lot going on
A lot to support
I see stability
Even though the future of the High Street
Is hard to call
Not sure where it’s going
Without investment in the shops
Which they watch come and go
Having looked out the window for six decades
Seen it all
In all its glory
This place is about people
Conversation
Continuity
Permanence
In a world that’s shifting fast
Leaving some behind
Who come here
To remember what helpful feels like
Connection
Belonging
Inclusion
The couple are at the door now
Saying their goodbyes
See you next week
Take care of yourselves
Tarabit
As they link arms and
Waltz out into the sunshine
-21_thumb.webp)
-21_large.webp)
Dudley market had had very few black traders this is Pitshuo is from Congo and her business is RPA fabrics and hair. She has journeyed from Congo to Dudley high street.
Activity - people walking up and down the High Street
Faint waft of scented police man and woman
Stepping Stone 4 adds layers to the High Street. Like the other visions, we wanted to use CoLab Dudley’s principles ‘use nature as a guidebook’ and ‘create conditions for curiosity and experimentation’. The main way we proposed to do this was adding a green canopy to provide shelter, create a hybrid indoor outdoor space welcoming to families and a more communal open space, and support ecosystems.
-12_thumb.webp)
-12_large.webp)
Ryan is the owner of Slick Barbers he was born and grew up in Dudley and has been a long standing black business owner on Dudley High Street. He opened his shop when he was in his late teens and continues to be a role model in Dudley's Black community.
Sonification of the High St_ 9_3_22.mp3
More-than-humanising data through sonification
Sound artist Bill Laybourne invited Dudley time rebels to create a collective score inspired by street detectorist findings through noise making.
Girl's perfume
Tally - colours of people's tops (no umbrellas)
Tonnes of historic connections! Lord of Dudley Castle -> St Thomas' -> Dudley Priory