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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Well why not?


Public Art by Joshua Callaghan

Tags for Forum Posts: local ideas, telephone cabinets, virgin media

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If Virgin engineers would actually keep the doors locked, rather than having them hanging open and exposing all our internet connections to the elements .... that would be a good start.

Art projects? Nice ... but I think we need to put our energies into supporting the residents of Wightman Rd to improve their lives at the moment (ie. traffic calming).
Don't worry, this is as well as not instead of.

Glad you've got your teeth into the Wightman Rd stuff, Matt, but we don't need to stop imagining how things could be better in other areas of our lives in Harringay.
OK. Let's jazz up the utility boxes on Wightman Rd.
Sorry I can't yet report a positive - or indeed any - substantive response to my councillor's inquiry on this. Disappointing, as a pilot in one small area shouldn't be too hard to set up.

Though, as several people have pointed out, there can be pitfalls in this approach - not least finding money to refresh and maintain the artwork. Some people suggested that painting on surfaces not designed for art, could be seen as tacit endorsement of graffiti.

That's not my own view. But it's an opinion which figured in the wide range of experience and views in a survey by Graffiti Hotline the Council's contractors. Click here for the LINK.
The reason utility cabinets are painted dark green or grey is so they blend into the background. Highlighting them with colourful art may, as you suggest Alan, not be to people's taste.
I don't think they paint them like that to make them blend in (if that's the case, they fail, why not brown like a brick wall) but to make them all official and muncipal. Look at the original examples and that's exactly what the guy has done, made them blend in by picking up the background. Granted many in Harringay would just be made to look like the walls behind them, but those that sit by the side of the road could be blended like those above. The 'technology' that creates the colourful wheelie bin could surely be adapted to this project.
Matt is right. this reminds me of an old boy i worked for as a painter/decorater. he always said "whatever colour you choose you will end up hating" meaning white or magnolia is best.
covering street furniture in colours (architects think this is cool at the moment) may not be the best idea. think what i may look like in 6 months.


by the way, does anyone know about the 'colour coding' of british cities ie london = red, liverpool = blue, birmingham = green etc. i read somewhere that the victorians/edwardians did or started doing this with transport livery, public buildings, street furniture etc.
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I'm not sure I'm advocating primary colours and I think that coming out and finding all the utilities painted in loud colours would indeed be alarming (mind you never harmed the image of the postbox or old telephone box) and refer you again to the examples above where the aim is to make the utility cabinets disappear not stand out.

I also like the Brisbane idea but this perhaps would be something confined to certain key spots like outside schools/community centres/natural places like Fairfield Park or Railway fields.

p.s. Decorators like Magnolia because it is very cheap, my house is painted that colour because the scummy previous owner left vats of the stuff behind and we had no money, not because I like it.
You CAN get good quality white or mag. one persons 'sunrise brown' is another persons 'baby diarrhea'. lol

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