Cremorne Gardens, Lots Road, Chelsea is a beautiful green space facing the river. It’s the site of a new commission by London Fieldworks (called Spontaneous City in the Tree of Heaven), and the temporary site for 4 new texts I have written inspired by the gardens and their colourful history as Victorian pleasure gardens: Ballooning, Balancing, Balconies and Birds. The texts will be in situ until late August 2010.
Below are links to images of the four texts , beautifully designed by Esther Yarnold from Interim. There are also links so you can download your own copies if you’d like.
On Tuesday 27th July I led two story walks at Cremorne Gardens, weaving together my own four texts with responses to four related questions:
1. What’s the most important journey you’ve made in your life?
2. What’s the most successful risk you’ve ever taken?
3. What’s your favourite view?
4. Where is your perfect nesting place?
You can read all of the responses from online readers and walk participants below. If you’d like to add your own responses, please do (comments are moderated, so they won’t appear immediately).
Click on the links below to go to the individual pieces of writing and to download an activity booklet to fire your imagination next time you visit Cremorne Gardens:
This page has the following sub pages.
1. Most important journey – trekking out to a tiny remote village in Nepal on my Gap year where I taught english in the local school for 6 months. Was so eyeopening and gave me such an insight into a totally different way of life.
2. Telling a very closely guarded secret to my boyfriend
3. My favourite view is from an airplane window when I touch down at Belfast City Airport.
4. My perfect nesting place is a small, white stone cottage in Dunfanaghy – a small village in Donegal, west of Ireland.
1. Most important journey. Leaving aside cheesy stuff like Life Itself, or “up the aisle with your mother”, the John O’Groats to Lands End cycle ride with your good self would come pretty close to the top of the list.
2. Most successful risk. Having children!
3. Favourite view. Can I have two? a) on a clear day, from the top of the Cuillins down Loch Coruisk and across the Irish Sea; b) from Snakey alley, across the River Wharfe to Thorpe and Barden Fell.
4. Perfect nesting place. If you come across any small birds looking for a new gaff, allow me to recommend a brand new nesting box, conveniently placed in a central location in our garden. Fully equipped with lighting and CCTV; a fledgling’s chance to star on the silver screen.
2. making a career change at 51
3. The Cullins from Elgol in Skye
1. A train to the Swiss Alps, where I spent 4 months remembering every day why life is not all about being in the rat race!
2. Quitting my job and moving half way across the world to be with a man I’d only known for 6 months.
3. Standing at the top of a snow-capped mountain.
4. Under the duvet. Luckily this means I can nest almost anywhere. not unlike the birds.
1. From Nigeria to England, aged 11.
2. Writing my first play the 14th Tale, not knowing if it was good, but doing it anyway.
3. Summer Time, Waterloo bridge, watching the sun set.
4. Cheesy as it sounds; when I am gathered in my girlfriend’s arms.
1. What’s the most important journey you’ve made in your life?
It would have to be a journey of what I call ‘inside out’ – as someone who when young viewed themself as a loner – a solo traveller with plenty of internal thoughts to keep them occupied and cocooned to someone who is these days able to make, and enjoy connections easily and to explore those compulsive inner thoughts nowadays in a fresh, childlike and rather more gleeful way.
1. I walked from Cambridge to St Davids, by myself, for seventeen days in the summer of 2003, when I had decided to leave academia behind but didn’t know what to expect from the future.
2. To get married.
3. The view from Corton Ridge on the Dorset-Somerset border, towards Glastonbury Tor, at sunset.
4. In an as-yet-unbuilt pavilion at the end of my garden.
What’s the most important journey you’ve made in your life?
I wish I had made more important journeys. I thought my life would be
littered with long and important journeys by now. But, can there be a more
important journey than the one with the pregnant woman to the maternity
ward? I have made two of those; both magical, both scary, both exhilarating
and both ending with a bigger feeling of joy than reaching the top of
Snowden, looking down from the Eiffel Tower or traversing Canadian ice
fields.
What’s the most successful risk you’ve ever taken?
Lots of unsuccessful ones… I suppose I put my neck on the line when I
contacted loads of former colleagues asking for work when a contract
finished. No response would have been so demoralising… But the response
was good and my self-respect was in tact!
What’s your favourite view?
The view at Seathwaite Farm Campsite in the Lakes when you wake up at 530
am; at first annoyed that you’re not still asleep, then overjoyed at the
fact you’re awake.
Where is your perfect nesting place?
I usually enjoy nesting where ever I have to: breaking into boats on the way
to Glastonbury because I’ve missed the connecting train, in random Greek’s
back gardens because I was not allowed to sleep on the beach. In more recent
years I’ve come to enjoy the comforts of the large hotel chain.
twitter: @openingallgates
1. My most unforgettable journey is through the west Texan desert heading towards Marfa, Judd Country.
2. Biggest risk: pursuing the arts always felt like a risk but it is the most rewarding thing I could ever hope to do with my life.
3. Favourite view: Looking down onto our lovely little garden from the study.
4. Nesting place: A large comfortable old leather armchair in my living room. I often have to compete for it with my cat.
1. Journey: from Newcastle to Oxford to be at my best friend’s side during her father’s funeral
2. Risk: Leaving Newcastle to move to London. I couldn’t have made a better decision!
3. View: the Alps in winter on a clear sunny day
4. Nesting place: a really big, squishy sofa at my parent’s house in rural Oxfordshire
1. Leaving Dundee onboard a ship that took me away to Africa.
2. Trusting that, somehow, there will always be enough.
3. Any sweep of sky or sea.
4. Somewhere quiet and cosy with a large window and a fresh pot of tea.
1. What’s the most important journey you’ve made in your life?
The most important was perhaps when I travelled up to Leeds to tell the man who is now my husband that I loved him and wanted to get back together.
2. What’s the most successful risk you’ve ever taken?
Probably the above..
3. What’s your favourite view?
At the moment it’s the view of my little garden where I am growing beans and sweetpeas – every day they get taller!
4. Where is your perfect nesting place?
Where I like to nest is in a quiet corner of a library, surrounded by books, with a whole afternoon of quiet awaiting.
Answers collected from participants during Walk 1, 27 July 2010:
1. What’s the most important journey you’ve made in your life?
- To the Hague to embark on a new career
- Falling in love and getting married
- Venezuela, Merida – close to Santa Fe
- Every time I fell I’m going back home
2. What’s the most successful risk you’ve ever taken?
- Getting married
- Climbing a mountain in Scotland without passing out or giving up
- Moving to Sudan
- Getting pregnant
- Flying thousands of miles by myself across the world
3. What’s your favourite view?
- Over the Moray Firth from Nairn Links (Scotland)
- Of the sea
- The Laikipia Plateau in Kenya
- From my bed – out the window to tall tress and rooftops
- Fireflies at night
- Out the back door of a house in the middle of France
4. Where is your perfect nesting place?
- My home in Scotland (Aberdeen)
- My bed!
- After 2.5 years of living out of a suitcase, my new flat is a nesting dream
- In a catamaran
- In bed during winter
Answers collected from participants during Walk 2, 27 July 2010:
1. What’s the most important journey you’ve made in your life?
- Train tip from Venice to Prague
- From the world of powerpoint presentations to the healthcare profession I’m now embarking on
- Birth
- From thought to deed
- Leaving home and friends to work abroad for the first time
- To become more confident
- To the hospital to see my grandma
2. What’s the most successful risk you’ve ever taken?
- quitting my day job and setting up my own business
- Asking my parents to move to Paris when I was young
- Completing my first treck – Mont Blanc circuit
- Kissing my new boyfriend
- Asking my friend home after a date
3. What’s your favourite view?
- the sea at Holkham bay
- Waking up in a tent to the sound of wild animals as the sun rises over the African Savannah
- Looking from the Arc du Triomphe down the Champs Elysee
– The Thames from a plane
- So many – a view from any mountain on the South Downs is best
- Anywhere with water, and a relaxed feeling
Over the fence at Angrove Cottage, preferably with family circa 1992ish in view too
4. Where is your perfect nesting place?
- In a hammock with my dog
- In the fork of a wise old oak tree, listening to the creaking branches and the leaves rustling in the wind
- At home
- Under a quilt
- Home
- Under the stars
- Under a blanket with my lovely boy