Village Raw - ISSUE 6

VILLAGE RAW
COMMUNITY
ON THE TRAIL
OF PINK
With the dearth of blue
plaques commemorating
women, a Highgate
project has developed
to readdress the balance
for this year’s festival.
Words by Alicia Pivaro.
Illustration by Kerrie O’Connell.
The Highgate Festival returns for a second
year from 16 to 23 June – directly after
the Fair in the Square has been packed
away. Last year, we drew attention to
Highgate’s largely forgotten female history
with the Women Only exhibition. This
year, we’re looking to extend that focus
through the Pink Plaque project – a more
provocative and public reclamation of the
area’s great women.
Embroiled in a media row around the
choice of pink, the project has already
stimulated debate around the lack of female
recognition in history, and also in
our built environment – whether in street
names, statues or plaques.
Currently, only 14% of English Heritage
plaques in London are dedicated to women
– reflecting a “historic blindness to both
the role women have played in our society
and the type of roles deemed worthy of
celebration,” says Anna Eavis, Curatorial
Director and Secretary of the English Heritage
Blue Plaques Panel. But the English
Heritage’s selection criteria are so strict
that many groups and areas have tried
to redress the balance themselves. Rose
Collis’ iPhone app, Brighton Pink Plaques,
gives trails of the town’s LGBT past, Stoke
Newington Literary Festival recognises its
local characters, and the English Hedonists
have installed a plaque to Priss Fotheringham
– the “second best whore in the
city” – on Whitecross Street, EC1.
Developed by Maria Kramer, Catharine
Wells and myself, our Highgate HERitage
Pink Plaque trail will include over 15 locations,
including commemorations over
Holly Lodge for Angela Burdett-Coutts,
Stella Dorothea Gibbons, Felicity Sparrow,
Harriet Mellon and others. The project
launched at the third local heritage weekend
at Lauderdale House, with artists
from last year’s project, Catherine West
MP, and Georgie Gould, Head of Camden
Council attending – Georgie also shared
the exciting news of the possible arrival
of a Vagina Museum in Camden.
Katherine Ive, Director of Lauderdale
House, explained: “Our heritage weekend
seemed the perfect opportunity to bring
together our interest in highlighting Highgate’s
female movers and shakers with
other local projects. Since the refurbishment
we have increasingly realised how
the stories of the women of Lauderdale
House have been overlooked and marginalised,
and are starting to uncover more
about them.”
The Lauderdale House website will
soon be inviting suggestions and stories
for a pink plaque. The ideas will form part
of a larger initiative to develop a more permanent
plaque trail with local schools, The
Highgate Society, Highgate Neighbourhood
Forum, the Highgate Literary and
Scientific Institution, Highgate Cemetery,
and the wider community.
More from the festival
To celebrate the deeper culture and history
of Highgate, we also want to focus on
exploring the creativity of our community
at every level. We are keen to hear from
individuals or groups who want to organise
something small – a play in your living
room, a tour of your strange collection, an
open mic night, and more.
Other highlights for this year include
teaming up with local radio station,
Boogaloo Radio, on Sunday 16 June. The
day will feature a line-up of hosts and
shows presented by locals – some of
whom you may already be familiar with.
You can visit the studio in the beer garden
all day long and there will be live music in
the main bar from north London bands. We
also have young musicians and singers
playing mini-concerts at various venues
around Highgate, including Kenwood, and
numerous walks, talks and tours on anything
from slavery to radical thinking to
our great trees and pubs.
Blacktooth Productions will stage a
History of Highgate, and we will also have
a screening of the sell-out film The Ponds.
OmVed Gardens will host an eco-event
where you can pledge to do your bit to cut
down pollution and plastics amongst other
ideas about making Highgate greener. •
To get in touch about any of the above, please email:
info@highgatefestival.org. The developing programme
can be found at: www.highgatefestival.org.
LIGHTING
IT UP
During the darkness
of winter the residents
of Bounds Green were
on hand to shine a light.
Words by Katrina Mirpuri.
Run solely by a group of locals since
2018, the Bounds Green Window Show is
a street exhibition which tells visual stories
through the windows of houses in the
area. For a few days in winter, colourful
scenes come to life, temporarily taking
centre stage and catching the attention
of passers-by. Displays have included Here
Be Dragons, New Beginnings, Suffragette
Art, and Travels Through Your Imagination.
The window show proved the power
of community spirit, as local creatives –
and any interested residents – were able
to work together and turn a fun idea into
reality. Bounds Green has proved itself as
a friendly, community-driven area, and it’s
events like this that reaffirm the power of
togetherness. It’d be great to see other
areas shine like this. •
For further information visit:
www.boundsgreenwindowshow.com
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