Enterprise in adversity

The steady growth in significant changes around Battlefield (a.k.a. City Stadium) that enhanced its survival as much as anything else has been placed into reverse by a pandemic and consequent shut downs. Whilst the benefits of fewer cars on the roads and public movement to wildlife in our city have been noted by many and reported widely, the cost to local, frequently very community orientated, enterprises has been severe. The outlook for their survival must be grim, the level of disappointment that so much personal time and effort is jeopardised, great.

The appearance of several small enterprises stimulated by the availability of quirky properties that no one else thought of monetising – yet – and a much increased local population of the young and the young-ish in what was always a 'hidden gem' of interesting history and possibilities along the Ouseburn Valley, not least precious inner city green space in a networked corridor*, has led to much that is good for the future in a short time. This would not have happened had the former paint factory in Shieldfield had been developed for unwanted office blocks and the not-really-open-space City Stadium had been spread with tarmac for car parks, as was suggested at the end of the last century by our ever compliant with corporate interests Labour Council. Come the last ten years and the prospects for this area have been transformed mostly by the enterprise of groups and individuals, co-ops and single traders with energy. Now something so small we need a powerful electron microscope to see it has brought this to a sudden halt. It made stop for some time, if not for good.

We have to stay the course. I can't believe 'this is it' for all that creative drive. It's not hope we require but conviction. I am sure tomorrow will come.

Meanwhile, a salute to some** small (and couple not so small) local enterprises who have and are making a difference. I left out the Lower Ouseburn in this survey, since that is mostly more 'mature' and businesses there have put down roots. Here's to some of the new comers. I wish them well.

Coal Yard. Micro brewery cum leisure facility 

in an 'interesting' spot

between Byker and Battlefield

Don't know much about this one. But I like the use of space

That is what I call making yourself stand out! Stepney Bank

A great building that stands surrounded
by off shore financed student dwellings

Ernest's. The 'old hand' here and still going – thankfully

The Biscuit Factory. Like it or not, a key player in

confounding the City Planner's disregard for Shieldfield.

Wonderful views over the 'Valley' from here.

The Garage. I should go more. I love the sheer eccentricity; 

it's transformed a very dull corner of Shieldfield

Someone complained about the 'hard standing'.

I like a gravel parking space. Great banter with these blokes

The Star and Shadow. 
Given time this co-op can be as big a transformer of attitudes 

towards the Shieldfield area as the Biscuit Factory was two decades before

* Typically, a City Council National Heritage Lottery Fund award for money to develop the string of parks down the Ouseburn from South Gosforth omitted 'Battlefield'. This was because the City Planners wanted to 'do something with it' – i.e hand it over to private 'developers', one kind of snake oil salespeople or another. Schemes to make someone living in tax haven far way even wealthier came and went. Now I think the future looks secure for this piece of blessed green space, but never take your eye off the City Planners. Ever.

** If I have left anyone out please get in touch. E-mail link in sidebar.

 

I am impressed. Perhaps the worst time since 1939 to try to start up a business but The Old Coal Yard have ambition that is commendable. I have watched this enterprise grow from frankly unpromising prospects in the 'no person's land' between 'Battlefield' and Byker Bridge, but I have along the way marvelled at the energy and creative drive to turn what was once a scrap yard into first a micro brewery and now something else moving beyond. There have been a few such moves in the last decade, building on transformed spaces and opportunities .

It's what we need now more than ever.

Time for this blog to make a survey of 'Creative Battlefield'!

Change and No Change

 Autumn is coming.

Two trees – seriously. mindlessly, damaged soon after they were planted, have struggled along given a helping hand by yours truly – really come in to their own in the next few weeks. Their beautiful forked and inscribed leaves turn from a serious green through a range of colours from orange yellow onwards in the spectrum, including scarlet. 

One was 'done over' again recently and under gone 'surgery' Still it fights back! I hope my species can too. Covid-19 is putting great strain on one and all.

Keep safe.

The New Vitality

A welcome article recently on what might be the outcome of our present difficulties. The Year of the Virus is not over, but we must try to look beyond it. So much that has been good in the developing creative uses for the old and neglected spaces around the city, not least Ouseburn Valley, has been badly hit by the Corvid-19 crisis. From a much more optimistic outlook to a decidedly worse prospect has been sudden. It collapsed a potential re-birth. But I hope we can hold on; it's not as though upping sticks and moving on and letting the obvious gains slide is really a possibility. Move on where? That's the crucial difference. We must seek to draw together and pool our respective aims to re-build a flowering community. In the twenty something years I have been engaged in highlighting the City Stadium, a.k.a. 'Battlefield' this year it has never looked better. But don't take my word for this renaissance. Architect Irena Bauman of Bauman Lyons Architects, Leeds wrote recently in the The Guardian (18th August 2020) on this possibility to gain from the pain.


The existential emergencies we face require a wholesale reimagining of how we live, work and play in urban spaces

It’s often been said that we’re living through an unprecedented moment. But in city centres, the coronavirus crisis has merely accelerated trends that have been unfolding for some time. In Leeds, where I live, many major banks and building societies, cinemas, shops and department stores declined or disappeared as society shifted online. The pandemic has caused the job market to contract, and many more people are now working from home. But in cities across the country, traditional office spaces have long been shrinking, as technology reduces the need for face-to-face contact and a growing number of self-employed people opt for co-working spaces. Indeed, the idea of a dedicated office building is only 200 years old; before offices, many people lived above their workplaces. 

Despite the economic boom that some UK cities have experienced in the last 20 years, the centre of Leeds, like many other city centres, has not yet recovered from industrial decline. Vacated banking halls have supplied glamorous homes for bars and restaurants in regeneration areas, and housing has returned to the centre, albeit in the limited form of small apartments and poorly designed student accommodation. But the continuing trend of “meanwhile use” and sprawling ground-level car parks across the city are evidence that supply still exceeds demand. ...

This green infrastructure is crucial for biodiversity, carbon capture, water management, temperature cooling and wellbeing. It’s the first step towards remodelling our urban environments as “15 minute cities”, a concept first promoted in Paris, which aims to provide all necessary services required for the health and wellbeing of its residents within 15 minutes’ walking distance. In the past, green infrastructure has also been a response to public health concerns: Central Park in New York was developed following a prolonged outbreak of cholera, and Victoria Park in east London, the city’s first purpose-built park, was opened as a response to insanitary conditions, overcrowding and pollution in the city’s East End. 

But we need to go further. We should be using public investment to build networks of new parks with playgrounds and sport and leisure facilities on underdeveloped sites in city centres. Providing this green infrastructure in our city centres would attract families to live there, and compel businesses to follow. Of course, there will be a time lag between the immediate effects of coronavirus and delivering on these ambitious plans. But I’m optimistic that in this period we’ll see a burst of creativity, of the sort that often emerges from the collapse of outmoded systems. (Emphasis added.)

Empty and cheap space may attract new users and institutions, as it did most notably in Detroit after the demise of its car industry. In UK cities, unused office spaces could be converted into modern family homes; in Leeds, Park Square, a handsome Georgian area that was repurposed into offices could be returned to its original residential use. Defunct shopping centres could become sites for new nurseries and community centres. Our coronavirus retrofit should be the work of many hands, a sensitive process of rebuilding cities so they’re durable, equitable and sociable places to live and work, capable of dealing with the twin emergencies of the pandemic and climate crisis.

Look but don't touch ...

Or, 'keep your distance ...'

So the summer hits its peak and we notice the days are getting ever so slightly shorter.  A strange year not all bad: Air quality improved for a while and some places were very quiet even on a weekday. But what of the future? For 'battlefield' mostly good. 

Since I began posting notes about this slice of green space it has improved year on year. Trees have grown so much I can barely recall how it looked when these were saplings. True, some vandalism recently was jarring note. But the area survives mostly and that's enough. I would like to see a little more planting in some places. However, the years when I feared the site would go under tarmac for car parking or be turned into a sports centre for students only (students are among its biggest fans all the same) are long gone now. Urban Green have moved in and that's fine by me.

Some recent photographs:

Warts and All Ouseburn. One of the aspects of strolling through Lower Ouseburn over the years has been its 'rough edges'; this lack of corporate smoothness endears it to me. It isn't neat tidy and tourist 'heritage' – or not yet, but that is coming. The newer developments have been welcome in part but the fear – my fear – is that 'the men in white Porches' will get their monied hands on the area and the 'chic' of dereliction (see the epicly comedy film Zoolander for details) gets the expensive 'landscape features' and general tidying up plus 'gated' zones that have happened elsewhere. Meanwhile all the qualities of haphazard and messy incongruity that gives a favour to places like Ouseburn will be lost. I hope not and some public statements by Ouseburn old hands leads me to feel encouraged if not over optimistic.

One reason for including the 'street art' is its subversion of 'urban renewal'. I would put up with the one to avoid the dead hand of the other.