The Identity of Loughborough Junction

This is a blog for community arts project 'Beyond The Junction'

Beyond the Junction is a project that celebrates through Photography the unique identity of people living and working in Loughborough Junction and is a creative space to share and find information.

Nick Ray Rutter

The Project

Beyond the Junction is a photography project that aims to engaging with people working and living in Loughborough junction, representing them through photographic portraiture in regular daily life situations in exploration of the entity that lies between people living together from different religions and diverse ethnic communities in hope of finding a greater shared local community.

Photos from the Exhibition

Your Comments From the Night

At the event i asked four questions to 'you' and this is what you said.....


WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE MORE OF IN LOUGHBOROUGH JUNCTION?
- More of this arty stuff
- More dealers
- Smiles and less agro
- Less signs asking me what i want
- Its perfect like this!
- Trains with those big container things. clank clank. All should love
- I want to see people who want to do better in their neighborhood. plus poets , artists, thinkers. kisses to those who think
- Nature and Love!!
- Street Galleries
- Drive thru Nandos
- Lights for pedestrians to cross the road
- I agree
- A bakery
- More streetlights
- Amsterdam coffee shops
- Street parties
- Tesco Metro
- Garden center
- Ban Cars!
- Mizgi was here
- Drugs
- Flowers
- Bamboo trees
- ?Money?
- A bookshop!!!
- Community gardens/plots
-Evergreen trees
- Old pubs being used
- Waitrose
- More trees
- Cafes
- Local city farm
- Say thanks
- Free parking
- Fluffy People (heart picture)
- A clean better, brighter environment with a loughborough community heart
- Cinema, car park, more ginger fellas
- More affordable eateries and cultural enterprises
- More signs asking me what i want

WHAT WORDS DO YOU ASSOCIATE WITH LOUGHBOROUGH JUNCTION?
- Dump / nightmare druggies corner etc
- Plantain crisps
- The melting pot
- Community
- Giant rats
- No more attitude and more karma
- Mizgi
- Home!!!
- Bijou
- Cheap
- Culture
- Sirens
- Long way from school
- Billboards
- Will be hip in 20 years
- D-lish on Wellfit Street x
- Unloved
- Hidden Gems (like the Redgate Gallery)
- Characterful

WHERE WOULD YOU SAY THE COMMUNITY CENTER OF LOUGHBOROUGH JUNCTION IS?
- The Cambria
- The Sem cafe
- There isn't one! but there really should be because there are a lot of nice people here
- Gone since the pubs closed down (there is hope though, a good start here)
- Trading post 200 Coldharbour Lane
- Nisa food and wine
- The Cambria
- (picture of Marge Simpson)
- Well, Loughborough community center is on the loughborough estate but its not used - a long story!!

DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTION OR IDEAS OF HOW THIS PROJECT COULD CONTINUE OR BE EXPANDED?

- Loved it! Bigger & Better next time.
- (Smiley Face drawing)
- True people speak for themselves
- Wiki, Fliker, Exposition
- Gallery website blog
- Involve the Children, after all they are the future!! (smiley face drawing)
- I cultivate a white rose in Spring as Autumn to the friend who lends me his hand frankly and to the one who tears out my heart with which i need to live. I cultivate a nettle or thorn but not a white rose.
- Get local community involved see it through their eyes
-Photograph some women! and children - if that's not illegal.
- (heart drawing) Architectural Exhibit/Info of the area + inhabitants human or other. (heart drawing)
- Locals could bring their own photos + you exhibit them to a certain topic. (Great idea we'd take part)( Us too)
- Loughborough Junction the Musical! (smiley face drawing)
-MAKE A FILM
- Pictures of Buildings
- Fluximus was here and says more of this
- (Picture of homer Simpson)

The Exhibition shots

Loughborough Road Estate (above)

Loughborough Road Estate (above)

Coldharbour Lane on Sunday at midnight (above)

Panoramic from Loughborough Road Estate (above)

Miguel's Boxing Gym - Hardess Street (above)

The Exhibition Shots

Tasleem Elahi
Trading Post
Coldharbour Lane
Shop Owner
“Recently it’s got better around here. There used to be a terrible drug and prostitution problem but its cleaned up allot, although its still here. In the summer Loughborough Junction has so much character but in the winter things are dead. I suppose it’s got everything for you here really. I’ve been here since the sixties and it was better back then. People were easy going. These days i like the Polish people, they’re easy going compared to other Londoners. Nobody really mixes cultures in London. I think things will get even worse.”

Fluximus and Veereal
Music and Vision
Arch 264 Coldharbour Lane
Music & Vision are a non-profit organisation within the Lambeth community. There aim is to provide educational training of the arts, media and music to improve the lives of people within the local community. “It’s been a struggle to keep our heads above water lately, but we’ll keep working hard and keep looking for new financial support.”


The Platform at Loughborough Junctions Train Station (above)

Police on Loughborough Estate (above)

Agron Alia
Hinton Hand Car Wash
39, Albanian, Previously worked as a science teacher
“I’ve had this car wash business for two years, it’s a good business because there are lots of Caribbean’s in the area and they not only love their cars, but they love to have them clean, especially the alloys. They boys (his staff) and me don’t mind the area, we have had trouble a couple of times from people not wanting to pay for the cars we cleaned. Also the children in the area need to have more respect for the adults, they need discipline from their families and community, I don’t mean beating them up, but just teaching them more respect. Also there could be more choice for food around here, I go to the café for lunch, but my staff eat too many chicken and chips”

Ian Payne and Barney
Ron Dowding and Taz
Mayflower MG & VW Services
Hinton Road
“I wouldn’t say it’s a ‘nice’ area but it’s better than it was”



Agron Alia and his boys at the carwash (above)


Loughborough Road, Mobile Home Caravan, left for dead. (above)

Stephen Rudder
Community Filmmaker
Arch Studio
Coldharbour Lane
"The area is great. Its a central creative spot and if other people think its not that only means we can get good office space at competitive rates! so.. shh don't tell everyone"

Bilen Tesfazg
Seagull Launderette
Coldharbour Lane
“I’m only working here because its my parents business. If you’re not from the area I don’t really think you would stop here for anything, except maybe for a Chinese take away. I only use the train station and the Chinese around here”

Parker. J
Control Tower
Specialists in Caribbean cuisine and different Juices
Coldharbour Lane
“I’ve lived in Loughborough Junction for over 25 years and seen it change in many different ways. Religiously it’s a better place now but socially its not. There’s no place for everyone to socialize or get a drink together, especially after they closed all the pubs down. There is no street life at the moment and street life’s so important to for the identity of an area”

Sculptor
Whirled Arts Studios
Artists Studios and Cinema Hardess Street
"I was here when they set these studios up six years ago, i'm the longest remaining artists here in the studios. Over the last few years Whirled Arts have renovated the building making room for over 20 artists, a cinema and photography studio. Its a lovely environment here"


New Community Center and Muslim Church on Coldharbour Lane (above)

Collin Mabbs and Freddy Mabbs
The Hero Of Switzerland
Pub Owners
“I was born across the road 43 years ago. Lovely people live in this area and many different cultures get along living side by side. Anyone can come in here and we welcome them. Its true some of the white people that have always lived here complain about the young black people in gangs, but whenever you talk to them youths on their own they’re usually polite and nice. I know their parents and grandparents and their is no way they would of brought their children up to be rude people. I suppose its just when people are in large groups they act badly. Kids will be kids.”

Mariah Wilhelm,
New Local resident recently from Germany
20 years old
"I'm over here volunteering from Berlin, I really like it here, its cool yeah"


Antonio Redondo
Resident of Loughborough Estate
"Lots of people here in the Estate don't have any respect for their own homes let alone the greater community"

Jim Everett,
City Autos Owner
Hinton Road
“I moved the business here about six or seven years ago. What I really can’t understand is why suddenly the council has decided to bring in new heavy parking regulations. It has massively effected our business and my pleading to the council does nothing they wont give us any slack. I can only guess they want to get rid of small business like us around here.”

Stephen Bellas
Resident of Loughborough Estate
University Worker
“I’ve lived in the area for nearly twenty years now, there is definitely bad stigma attached to the estates. All that stigma would go away if you look out from my balcony at the whole of London when the sun is rising. The flats here have loads of great space, but yes some of the residents don’t respect their homes. If you live in the estate you can apply for an allotment from reclaimed land that wasn't being used. The allotments are a great thing and the committee plan to use them as an education space for local schools and business.”

Mohammed Bashir
UK Sunfresh
Halal butchers and groceries
“I travel from Hendon in North London every day. I’ve been here for about six years, I used to close the shop before it got dark so I could walk to Brixton tube in the daylight, but now I can stay open much later as the area feels a lot safer. There are lots of really good friendly people around here”

Kerry Ann Hurd
Jerk Island Caribbean Cuisine
Coldharbour Lane
"We have newly opened and hope to do well here as in the area people love Caribbean food"

Greg Jankowski
Trading Post
Coldharbour Lane
Polish Employee
“Some Polish people come over just to work and make money to take back to Poland, but I’ve been here over five years because I like it. Some people complain it’s dangerous, but I just can’t see it. Why would anything bad happen to me here?”

D. Safi
London Fast Food
Coldharbour Lane
“I wouldn’t want to even pass through here if I didn’t own this shop, but right now business is good for me here. I’m concerned of what might happen if the pubs re-open and things get rough again”

Please visit my website at www.nickrayrutter.com

The Exhibition shots

Loughborough Junction Estate internal CTV (above)


Unknown woman on Coldharbour lane (above)

Wellfit Street (above)


Scrap Yard behind the old Junction Pub, Coldharbour lane (above)


Mohamed Ibrahim
Angle Town Resident
Football Trainer
“I’ve been living here for nine months, its affordable, safe and very quite. It’s a shame the community center is closed up for some reason. How are people supposed to get to know each other? I’m involved in other community centers teaching football and sports, I’d like to get more involved within the community here.”

Thank You - Usefull Info

Thank you for joining in last night and making the event a success. I will be uploading all the comment sheets and photographs from the exhibition really soon.

Many thanks Nick

If you didn’t know, now you do.

Here is some useful facts and information.

-The name Coldharbour is an Old English place name that refers to a sheltered place on the outskirts of a main parish.

-There is a Novel about Loughborough Junction – “The room of lost things” by Stella Duffy

-Whirled Arts has a cinema that’s free every weekend.

-There are over 18 different churches within a half-mile radius of Loughborough Junction.

-Basement Jaxx’s is based in Loughborough Junction.

-There is a Horse club in Loughborough Junction and a new riding school is soon to be built.

-Barney’s café has a garden, a snooker table and has an alcohol license.

-It’s not an illegal offense to photograph a police officer.

-There are rumors that the Green Man pub is going to become a job centre.

-Three times a year the emergency services have to get Lorries un-stuck from under the low bridge on Hinton road.

-There is a road called ‘Wellfit Street’ in Loughborough Junction.

-Firezza – delivery pizza service is based at the end of Hardness Street.

Some Contact Details...

Ebony Horse Club
Ebony Horse Club, The Loughborough Community Centre 105 Angell Road Brixton London SW9 7PD Tel: 020 7738 3478 Email: info@ebonyhorseclub.org.uk Company No. 5706817. Reg charity no. 1116027 Patron: Valerie Shawcross C.B.E.
http://www.ebonyhorseclub.org.uk/

Home-Start Lambeth
Brixton
London
SW9 7JN
Telephone: (020) 7924 9292
kbeatham@homestartlambeth.co.uk

Aardvark Recycling
www.aardvarkrecycling.org.uk
Aardvark Recycling delivers a variety of fresh, seasonal fruit and vegetables to the doorstep of residents in Lambeth. We are committed to supporting the supply of sustainable, traceable food into London as well supporting local community growing projects.

Whirled Arts
www.whirledart.co.uk
If you are looking For an Artists Studio or want to watch great Cinema check out Loughborough Junctions Whirled website and keep updated on any upcoming events by subscribing to their Cinema and Open Studios mailing lists.

Photofusion
If you’re interested in photography Photofusion in Brixton run many photography courses and give opportunities for the local community with outreach projects as well as having great affordable facilities offering support and training for members.
www.photofusion.org
Telephone: 020 7738 5774

Lambeth Archives
Lambeth Archives is the borough's record office and local history library. It is open to the public, free of charge.
Lambeth Archives
Minet Library
52 Knatchbull Road
London SE5 9QY
Phone: 020 7926 6076
Email: archives@lambeth.gov.uk

Urban 75
A great resource for local communities and photography enthusiasts plus a great nightlife guide.
www.urban75.com

A web blog that share local information
http://loughboroughjunction.wordpress.com/

Tonight is the event & exhibition! A sneek Preview here....

Tasleem Elahi
Trading Post
Coldharbour Lane
Shop Owner

“Recently it’s got better around here. There used to be terrible drugs and prostitution problems but its cleaned up, although its still here. In the summer Loughborough Junction has lots of character but in the winter things are dead. I suppose it’s got everything for you here really. I’ve been here since the sixties and it was better then, not like now. People were easy going. I like the Polish people now, they’re easy going compared to other Londoners. Nobody really mixes in London. I think things will get even worse.”