Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Rainbow Steps for Harringay?
Five years ago, Huseyin Cetinel, painted the 145 steps of the street stairs that link Findikli neighbourhood of Istanbul to Cihangir district. Cihangir is the location of Gezi Park, where the democracy protests had been based at the time, and Erdogan and his cohorts were even more sensitive than usual to dissenting views, particularly in these neighbourhoods. To make matters worse, the liberal population of Cihangir and wider immediately took to Twitter and other social media, expressing their awe of Cetinel’s project. Cetinel explained that he was confused with the response since his intention wasn’t to highlight any civil rights issue, but simply to beautify what were ugly grey stairs in a lovely Bohemian neighbourhood. The local council was evidently nervous about this spontaneous expression and the day after Cetinel finished painting the stairs, they were back to their old grey colour. Politics aside, this was an interesting gesture that may have brightened up what looks like might have been a rather shabby looking staircase. Haringey is already up for rainbow pedestrian crossings. How would the colour scheme look on, say, the Hornsey Station stair-mountain? |
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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There would be health and safety issues,. It would make it difficult to distinguish the individual steps. The one important thing about stairs or steps is their regularity.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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If each step was a different colour I would have thought it would make it easier to distinguish them. The grey ones in the picture on the right must be a nightmare on a dull day
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Maybe you're right, but I take leave to doubt it. If you look at the picture on the right there seems to be no colour or shade differentiation between the tread and the riser .
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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The point being John, that the strips serve a dual purpose and are commonly coloured so as to highlight the edge of a step and so reduce the danger of tripping as well as slipping.
The other point being, let's pause for a moment to be joyous about what this guy did and toy with the idea of it in Harringay. In the event anything like this was ever taken forward, I'm sure there will plenty of men with clipboards poring over very possible H&S and financial consideration.
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H&S frequently serves a purpose. So you suggest a differently coloured strip at the edge of the coloured step ? That is really going to make them confusing. You may toy with the idea: I personally think it would be a bad idea.
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Permalink Reply by 26mhcx4vtb0rb on
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Not sure how you come to that conclusion. You can only - just - see about four treads at the bottom of the photo, and they look unpainted.
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I do not understand your reasoning and would have thought the exact opposite were true if the flat surfaces of the steps are left in one consistent colour that contrasted with the uprise of each stairs.
Read this although it doesn't specifically mention stairs.
In any case the council would need to risk assess it.
It wouldn't have to be rainbow colours either, and so one can easily avoid the bigots getting all heated up about it, as some have for the Wood Green rainbow crossing, which I find is a breath of fresh air in an East Haringey that has loads of stuff that really needs some 'pleasantification'.
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