Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
The Hornsey Revolution, 1968
The former Hornsey College of Art on Crouch End Hill (Photo: Unknown)
On May 28, 1968, students occupied Hornsey College of Art on Crouch End Hill. The occupation originated in a dispute over control of the Student Union funds. However, “a planned programme of films and speakers expanded into a critique of all aspects of art education, the social role of art and the politics of design. It led to six weeks of intense debate, the production of more than seventy documents, a short-lived Movement for Rethinking Art and Design Education (MORADE), a three-day conference at the Roundhouse in Camden Town, an exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, prolonged confrontation with the local authority, and extensive representations to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Student Relations.”
Buckminster Fuller speaking at Hornsey College of Art, June 29 (Photo: Steve Ehrlicher)
The set of photos below by Nicholas Beechgaard suggests that the protests that were part of the "revolution" came over to Harringay as well. I'm not sure what exactly is going on here, but we can all hazard a guess at what sort of thing the funeral on Duckett's Common might mean in this context.
If you've a yen to learn more and the time to sit through sim delightfully naive sixties stunt rhetoric, you can watch "The Hornsey Film" at the Internet Archive.
Tags for Forum Posts: duckett's common, turnpike lane
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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In 1979 I worked with a chap at Swiss Cottage library who had fond memories of the occupation of Hornsey Town Hall when he was an art student at the college. I recall that he couldn't quite remember why they occupied it but that they had a fabulous time.
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Permalink Reply by Lesley Ramm on
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Great images. My cousin Bob Medhurst attended the Art College in the 1960s but not sure if he was there during the sit in era.
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Permalink Reply by LOUISA LIVERMORE on
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Great wedgy in the last pic....
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Great pics (to be pedantic, the college was on Crouch End Hill, not Crouch Hill.). I met someone recently whose husband was involved in this sit in.
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Permalink Reply by Straw Cat on
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There is a bit about this on Wikipedia. One of the radical "ringleaders", in Mail-speak, was Kim Howells, a Minister in the last Labour government.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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A book called The Hornsey Affair was published in 1969 as a Penguin Education Special. (I still have a copy somewhere - if the pages haven't become fragile and yellow and fallen apart.)
According to this archived website there was a reunion in 2008 - the fortieth anniversary year. Brian Marsh was then collecting oral histories.
The Tate website has an article by David Page which includes an anecdote about "the day of the dog" and the local council - then in charge of the college - which clearly hasn't changed a bit. (Must be some right-wing miasma seeping from the ground beneath the the Civic Centre and River Park House.)
"... local councillors and aldermen, who had little idea what the institution in their control might be about, but were clear that authority, their authority, was being challenged, and they weren’t having it. Their stance culminated in “The Day of the Dogs”, when a team of security men with Alsatians were sent to surround and seal off the main college building. In the event, students tamed the dogs with biscuits, and the whole episode collapsed into farce. The people who did understand the educational arguments pulled back, saying that, regrettably, there was nothing they could do, thereby leaving the field to Haringey Council, which did not understand, and furthermore did not wish to understand, thank you very much."
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Also of note is this poster deigned by Martin Walker of the Association of Members of Hornsey College during the unrest (now, I see available for sale at the V&A).
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Oh please, Hugh, not the wishy-washy euphemism "unrest". If the ideas and movements and events of May '68 and after, which took place across Western European and U.S. cities, in Prague and in Mexico, didn't turn out to be a revolution, they certainly can't be dismissed so lightly. "Go back to sleep guys." In Paris, there may have been the beach under the cobblestones, but first there were real cobblestones. And real riot police with guns.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on
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People closely associated with HCA might want to join the Facebook group for alumni. Didn't realise that people as varied as Adam Ant, Labour ex-minister Kim Howells and Anish Kapoor went to HCA.
They kindly let me join the FB group so as to help embellish the record I'm making of Hornsey Town Hall activities through the HTH Facebook group I set up for the purpose. I thought that people involved in the revolution there might very well have popped into the Town Hall (both Queen and the Kinks played almost their first gigs at HTH at the time). and if you have any memories of events at HTH could you please post in the Hornsey Town Hall group? I've started on a list of HTH events that took place at HTH since it was built in 1936.
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