Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Painted phone cabinet on Crescent Rd
Check out this beautifully painted phone cabinet someone has done on Crescent Rd (just over Green Lanes from Ducketts Common):
(click on the image and zoom in to see all the detail)
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Excellent. I hope it will lead to an agreement with the phone company (BT or Virgin Media) for more.
On Flickr I've posted about similar schemes in Islington, Hillingdon (links to a video); and Brisbane Australia. The Brisbane scheme has a website and there's a YouTube video.
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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Wow, that's amazing. I work in EC1 where they have done this on a larger scale (Alan's link shows some great examples) and they do really brighten up the area.
There it was done as part of a more general regeneration scheme, would be interested in knowing whether it could be done on a smaller scale.
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If people want to find out more, I suggest contacting Liz Kessler (The Islington boxes.) You can see Liz talking in this video.
The Hillingdon video shows one councillor who is (was?) their "Arts Champion". So it may be worth someone getting in touch with her to find out how they organised it.
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Permalink Reply by ant on
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Or...be brave and just go for it! We've done that fish tank on Frobisher and painted a bollard too. Have lots of different colours of exterior paint left over still if anyone wants to use some for something near theirs.
Just randon spots around the neighbourhood would be nice but there are also some places for something more special, eg here on Effingham:
Imagine all those 12 bollards and couple of cabinets painted up with some theme by local artists and school children, could be great.
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I'm curious about what you see is unhelpful with getting agreement from the owners of street "furniture"?
The Brisbane project had the advantage that lots of artists got an opportunity to paint their designs. They weren't hassled or arrested. They could properly prepare the surface and use paints which would be around a long while. And nobody came and jet-washed it off.
Both the Brisbane and the Hillingdon videos show the artists at work - which included chatting with passers-by and getting a lot of compliments for their designs. I think that meeting the artists adds something special. And not just temporarily. They also got credited; their names as the original artists were publicised.
From what I was able to find out, the Islington boxes did exactly what you suggest - working with local schools. Doing it entirely legally and openly. And, I also assume, safely.
By the way, the use of black-and-white on the bollards is intended to enhance safety. The same as striped poles for zebra crossings. Easier to spot - including by drivers with some colour-blindness.
Do you feel that the Uxbridge designs are somehow less worthy because the project was agreed by the utility companies and got some funding from Hillingdon Council? I don't know the councillor concerned. But I have met Liz Kessler who managed the Islington schemes. She is a most unbureaucratic urban designer and enjoys seeing people using spaces and equipment they improved, in all sorts of ways.
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No no i don't think anything like that at all. Its just from my experience for many things if you ask first there's a reasonable chance you'll just be told no, and then you feel a bit naughty if you go ahead and do it anyway.
One problem is it can just be hard to find the right person to ask and the others just look in some rule book and if they can't see an answer default to no. Take the fish tank thing we did, if we'd asked the phone guy who services the box regularly i expect he would have said oh no you can't do that or he'd worry he'd get in trouble if he had said yes, however after we did it the same guy spent ages carefully removing the graffiti trying to save as many fish as he could.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Remember. bollards are black and white for maximum visibility - just like Belisha beacon poles.
Oh, just seen Alan said the same thing/
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Sure, but you're both making my point for me really with you're oh no you can't do that's. You can see our old bollard on Streetview and see it wasn't black and white, or here in this photo, it was old and rusty and had been hit by a car already. In the photo on the right you can see they have been around and spray painted white around it to show it needs fixing, but that was yonks ago and nothing has been done. Which one is more visible?
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I'm not saying you can't do that: I'm saying maybe it's not advisable. Visibility depends on the background and the ambient light. Your pic on the right is lit by flash against a very dark background of an empty street so of course it stands out. What would it look like in bright sunlight with a garden or a hedge behind it ?
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I'm not really convinced John, had a look again today and still think its more visible now than before. But ok lets say you are right, the most likely accident it might cause will be cars going in or out of that last park on Frobisher Rd, so moving slowly and just the odd dinged bumper for those who don't look carefully.
To put that in perspective, compare it to the council plan for Hewitt Rd and diverting about 1000 cars per day to Pemberton Rd by two primary schools and a preschool nursery. Who's more wreckless or closer to criminally negligent - the odd dinged bumper versus our kids hit by cars? Send you thoughts in an email to frontline.consultation@haringey.gov.uk with a subject line of "no right turn".
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I'm not going to be led down that route ant: I've never had any difficulty distinguishing apples from pears
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