First Steering Group meeting with the Talking Halls team today. Very exciting. Already the story leads are beginning to emerge. The Old Town Hall visitor's book provides a hint of local people's enthusiasm for the place.
Lucy
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
A saline place
Extract from The Country Books Kent by Richard Church published 1948 -
"Many people consider it to be spoiled by an overlay of industrialism, but I think they are blind who cannot see a slightly exotic, southern quality in the steep streets running up from the water front. Two hundred river pilots live in Gravesend, and their personality, which is that of a vocation, permeates the town. Though it stands on the closing shores of the Thames, which at this point is only a mile wide at high tide, Gravesend is a maritime, one might even say a saline place. There is a certain robust, hornpipe character about its people. One expects to see a parrot in every front room, and a tattooist's shop round every corner. If one lands there from the Tilbury Ferry the aspect of the old High Street, with its many shop signs hanging out like those in a Chinese city, gives an impression of entering a foreign country. It is a great place for eating houses, but rather of the forecastle than the quaterdeck kind. If you want simplicity and quality in a meal, go to Gravesend.”
(p.236).
"Many people consider it to be spoiled by an overlay of industrialism, but I think they are blind who cannot see a slightly exotic, southern quality in the steep streets running up from the water front. Two hundred river pilots live in Gravesend, and their personality, which is that of a vocation, permeates the town. Though it stands on the closing shores of the Thames, which at this point is only a mile wide at high tide, Gravesend is a maritime, one might even say a saline place. There is a certain robust, hornpipe character about its people. One expects to see a parrot in every front room, and a tattooist's shop round every corner. If one lands there from the Tilbury Ferry the aspect of the old High Street, with its many shop signs hanging out like those in a Chinese city, gives an impression of entering a foreign country. It is a great place for eating houses, but rather of the forecastle than the quaterdeck kind. If you want simplicity and quality in a meal, go to Gravesend.”
(p.236).
The tattooists, shop signs and good cheap eats are still in evidence on Gravesend's High Street. Still looking for the parrots though! I wonder what other changes have happened in the last 60 years?
Lucy
Are the streets signing?
Starting out on the Talking Halls project it is hard to imagine what stories may be discovered. Visiting Gravesend for the first time, looking for clues on the street, the town feels like it is trying to signpost the way.
Lucy
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