This year, Southborough School marks the fiftieth anniversary of its move to its current site in Broomhill Park Road; 2019 also marks fifty years in the life of the Southborough Society. To commemorate this special event, pupils from Southborough Primary will be undertaking an art project, ably assisted by Claire Clements, the Art Co-ordinator.
The children will be undertaking an exploration of Southborough’s High Street and the collaboration between Southborough C of E Primary School and the Southborough Society is planned to commemorate 50 years in the life of both organisations.
Our high street is changing rapidly. If we look back at historical photographs and postcards, we can see how much the high street has changed in the last 50 years. Many of the shops and trades that would have seemed irreplaceable are now lost forever. Who now needs to visit a saddler or a milliner?!
Recording as artists what we see now will be valuable for future generations in understanding life in the early 21st century. It may be that camera shops and computer repair businesses come to be seen as exotic and strange as a fancy-goods shop!
The aim of this project is to create a snapshot of the high street; to document the sometimes-overlooked architecture of the everyday which contributes to the unique character of our town. Southborough’s high street includes buildings as old as the 16th century Weavers and as new as the planned retail spaces in the still to be built Hub development.
We are able to draw upon images from the Southborough Society’s archive of images of shopfronts, pubs, signage and street scenes and combine these with our own contemporary photographs.
Hartridge Bros Butchers, now Southborough Butchers.
Students have been working on a range of mixed media illustrations and have started to explore the drypoint etch print-making process. Their main inspiration has been drawn from Eric Ravilious’s 1930’s lithographs from ‘The High Street’ and the work of Kent based illustrator, Nina Cosford.
A lithographic illustration by Eric Ravilious’s ‘High Street’, published in 1938.
One of many studies of buildings and shopfronts by Hastings based illustrator, Nina Cosford.
Here is a sneak peek of some of the work in progress-the artwork is already looking excellent! We can’t wait to see the finished outcomes and be able to share how you can take away a part of the High Street for yourself! (Merch alert! - stay tuned!)
A pin up of some of their illustrations so far…
A detail of Yashar’s Fish Bar; collage with ink drawing overlay.
One of the artists starting the dry-point etching process.