If this were to be lost

These are the words that artist Jessie Brennan intends to write in timber words at The Green Backyard in Peterborough, a community garden threatened by a proposed redevelopment by its owner, Peterborough City Council.

If this were to be lost

Brennan’s phrase describes so succinctly my mood these days. I seem to be constantly plagued by the fear that something I value is about to be taken away from me. In writing I am overlooking Burgess Park, whose trees are just beginning to bud, but I feel so overcome by potential loss that I am unable to sense spring’s uplifting air. I switch between Google searches for property values in Kent, the legality of Compulsory Purchase Orders, and the date the announcement will be made concerning the 100 estates to be ‘regenerated’ that David Cameron spoke of in January 2016.^[i]

If this were to be lost

In Islington first and then Southwark, for the past 15 years I’ve enjoyed many aspects of being a council estate resident. With the exception of the enormous major works bills (now clocking up at £50,000 between the two boroughs in which I have lived), it has allowed me to own a home in the heart of London. I never became a leaseholder to make money; I was not interested in bricks and mortar as property but rather as a place to live. I chose my new flat not because of its value as an investment but because I admired the social ideals of welfare state architecture. Despite the acts of aesthetic vandalism committed by Southwark Council when they removed the long-span picture windows and replaced them with tiny plastic ones, just months after I moved in, from a distance, across the park, especially at dusk, the point blocks still look visionary.

If this were to be lost

^[i] ‘Estate regeneration: article by David Cameron’, accessed 1 April 2016. www.gov.uk/government/speeches/estate-regeneration-article-by-david-cameron. See also the related research by Savills, accessed 1 April 2016. pdf.euro.savills.co.uk/uk/residential—other/completing-london-s-streets-080116.pdf.

Jane Rendell, ‘This subjunctive mood of mine’, catalogue essay for Jessica Brennan’s artist’s book based on her residency at the Green Backyard, (2016).

http://www.jessiebrennan.co.uk/publications

http://www.jessiebrennan.co.uk/