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Make Shift A Twitter Timeline

Sunday

8:12pm@48hrstackmag: We’ve run outof printer ink. Cripes. #48hrmag#makeshift

7:30pm48hrstackmag: Steve: “But hangon...logo doesn’t begin with anx” | The countdown is addlingus... #48hrmag #makeshift

6:59pm @48hrstackmag: @willagebbie |What does it look like and I’ll getour hat elves to nd it? Jeremy’sprobably sitting on it.

6:43pm@willagebbie: @48hrstackmagoh no!! I’ve left my hat :(

5:51pm@StackMagazines: @eyemaga-zine @magculture We’re gettingthere! Think I’ve done lasting

damage to my eyes, brain andcarpal tunnel, but we’re gettingthere!

5:46pm @StackMagazines: @Inkthestu-dio @eyemagazine @magcul-ture Oh my god. People aredrinking beer. They’ll be asleepin 10 mins. #48hrmag

4:45pm @48hrstackmag: @StackMaga-zines | As long as it’s not zzing,you’re ne.

3:56pm

@StackMagazines: Think I justheard my brain pop. #48hrmag

3:13pm@ericabuist: Just handed inmy article at #makeshift Lookslike it’s all coming together for#48hrmag What a weekend! @StackMagazines @southbank-centre

2:54pm @craig_jackson:@48hrstackmag but come backfrom lunch to nd someone onmy laptop. If your not fast yourlast.

10:16am@48hrstackmag: The nal daybegins... #48hrmag #makeshift

Saturday

10:08pm@sharonmccabe25: Is havingan awesome time working in the@48hrstackmag crew! Headinghome now, but looking forwardto starting again tomorrow.#48hrmag

9:56pm@StackMagazines: Home time

now. What a great day’s work

First things rst, we arenot Southbank Centre.I run a service called Stack, which brings together the world’s bestindependent magazines and sends them out to subscribers everymonth. Back in May, Jing Lu from Black Country Atelier contactedme and told me that she was working with Southbank Centre tocurate a weekend celebrating British Power and Production. Shewanted to know what they could do to commemorate the weekendin print, so I suggested that we make a magazine. Several monthslater I put the call out to London’s independent magazine mak-ers, and on the evening of Friday 12 August a group of writers,

photographers, designers and illustrators came together to make amagazine in two days.As I type this it’s just past eight o’clock on Sunday evening.

We’ve been going for a shade over 48 hours, and the end’s insight but there are still a couple of hours to go. The magazineyou’re holding in your hands (or looking at on screen) doesn’t quiteexist yet, but it’s not far off.

Our theme for the magazine is Power and Production, but it’sPower and Production within the context of the Festival of Britain.Southbank Centre is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Festivalof Britain all summer, so while we’ve used this issue of Make Shiftto look at ideas of manufacturing, we’ve also branched out to thinkabout the last 60 years, about notions of Britishness, and aboutdifferent people’s ideas of what power is. Above all, we’ve tried togive an account of what happened here, on London’s South Bank,during one weekend in August.

It’s been a fantastic experience working so closely with a

group of people who have only known each other for a coupleof days. Southbank Centre is a lovely place to work and we’ve allhad a great time, so I hope you enjoy the next few pages. We’dlove to know what you think to it, so drop us a line on Twitter@48hrstackmag, or say hello @stackmagazines and tell us whatthis one-off issue of Make Shift means to you.

Happy reading,Steven Watson

EditorSteven Watsonwww.stackmagazines.com

DesignerJeremy Lesliewww.magculture.com

ContributorsAlan Rutter, Alice Ralph, Amie Mills, Ana Maria Perez Saldias, Anna Kontopoulou,Anthony Teoh, Betty Wood, Clare Willis, Clarissa San Pedro, Craig Jackson,Elsa Wesbeicher, Erica Buist, Esa Matinvesi, Frances Ambler, Grégoire Bernardi,Isobel Seacombe, Jeannine Saba, Jenny Purt, Jess Gibbs, Jessica Taylor, Jo Bounds,Johnny Winstone, Jonny Burch, Laura, Snoad, Lewis Smith, Lucy Scott, Maddy Marriage,Matt Parker, Nick Wells, Rob Reed, Rosie Wadey, Sharon McCabe, Siobhan Leddy,Tina Smith, Willa Gebbie, Zita Aliba, Zoe Barker

For Dean and Kim. Sorry I couldn’t be there.

with really good people. Bringon tomorrow! #48hrmag

6:22pm@rosiewadey: In other news,great day at @48hrstackmag!Made lots of progress andheard some amazing storiesfrom people all around SouthBank.

6:20pm@rosiewadey: Just heard awoman loudly declare outsidethe Royal Festival Hall that shehasn’t thrown up for 25 years.Wow.

6:12pm@48hrstackmag: @StackMag-azines | Lucky they’re powerfulpostcards so you can pumpyour guns while you do it ayeSteve?

5:56pm@48hrstackmag: Are you 56?Max needs you (in many ways)| http://ow.ly/62ri7 | #48hr-mag #makeshift

5:35pm@StackMagazines: Removingpostcards from a wall is brain-less but useful. Exactly the sortof work I need to be doing justnow. #48hrmag

2:48pm@TCOLondon: This weekend@StackMagazines are makinga mag in 48hours @south-bankcentre. Be sure to checkit out & follow their progress@48hrstackmag

1:44pm

@48hrstackmag: Biscuits willbe a gamechanger: tumblr.com/xzq42kwk52 #48hrmaga#makeshift

12:56pm@benterrett: I’ve just nishedwriting and led a 983 wordarticle for #48hrmag

12:52pm @48hrstackmag: In betweenshelling out smints Janine wasbusy mast heading and makeshifting tumblr.com/

11:44am

@48hrstackmag: @storeyga-reth | We have a special cornerfor hungover poets. 2nd oor@ back. We look like a macstore. Fonts everywhere.

11:00am@48hrstackmag: MAKESHIFT....and then there was amagazine name. #48hrmag

Friday

2:09am@48hrstackmag: We start at10am Sat morning. Come joinus. There is a fountain to play

in and pagination to prepare.

Make Shift was madepossible by the

following magazines:

Anorak www.anorak-magazine.co.uk

Boat

www.allaboardtheboat.com

Delayed Graticationwww.dgquarterly.com

Eyewww.eyemagazine.com

Flamingowww.amingomagazine.com

Huck www.huckmagazine.com

Little White Lieswww.littlewhitelies.co.uk

Lost in Londonwww.lostinlondonmagazine.com

Oh Comely www.ohcomely.co.uk

Portwww.port-magazine.com

Shellsuit Zombiewww.shellsuitzombie.co.uk

VNA www.verynearlyalmost.com

S e af ar er s I s s u e

V ol .1 9 Vol. 19 /RRP. £4.99www. anorak-magazine. co.uk

977175287802506

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WHAT WASLIFE LIKE IN

1951?

V O X P O P S

As Southbank Centre celebrates 60

years since the Festival of Britain, weasked what life was like back then…

AND WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE IN THE

FUTURE?

Alexander, 81 andGordon, 75In 1951 in Halifax it was allabout engineering, textilesand carpet manufacturers.Crossley’s, for example,employed 4,000 peopleand furnished the Cunardliners with their carpets.Now that’s been lost, andthe industry has not beenreplaced. We don’t have asingle mill left in Halifax.

Ernest, 67I remember the Skylon. Theamazing thing was that itlooked like it was hovering. Itwas held up off the groundwith these very thin bits ofaluminium.

Billie, 26In the 50s peoplehad to work infactories because

they had to getby, whereas in thefuture I would hopethat people couldtailor their careersmore to who theyare personally.

Alla, 33In Russia we had to be creativebecause we did not have manytoys then. People were alwaysgluing things together to makedo. Nowadays kids are spoiltfor choice.

Paul, 45In the future we won’t bemaking things. But does thatmatter? As long as that industryis replaced. An alternative willprobably manifest itself with

the changes that come.

Joan, 66We’re not a very happy worldat the moment, so I hope thingsmove full circle. One of thebeach huts outside was lovely– about all of us, all coloursand backgrounds and so on,

being one.

Khaliel, 16The workers of the future willall be accountants and tech-support workers. The focus willbe on technological industries.These industries don’t do it forme, and you should just pursue

your own goal in the end.

Pheobe, 10, Tabby, 9,and their parents

Justine and MelTabby: It was really busy in1951, because everyone wasbuilding everything after thewar. 2071 will be a lot busier!And cars will be ying.Pheobe: Normal cars willhave a lot more power in thefuture. And clothes will be

ashing with lights.

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PAST AND FUTURE

From major projects tourban myths, we remember 60

years of change to Southbank Centre and its neighbours

2 Hayward Gallery One of the UK’s most famousexamples of Brutalist architec-ture, the Hayward Gallery wasdesigned by Higgins and Hill and opened in 1968 with an exhibi-tion on Matisse.

The concrete shapes of thebuilding acted as a perfect back-drop for a 1972 series of Doctor Who, ‘Frontier in Space’ featuringJohn Pertwee.

As part of Antony Gormley’s 2007 show at the Hayward,31 life-size casts of the artist’sbody were placed on walkwaysand the tops of buildings dotted

around the city.

Royal Festival HallBuilt for the 1951 Festival of Britain, the hall has seen perfor-mances by such legends as Jimi Hendrix, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie and Louis Armstrong. It hosted the 1960 Eurovision SongContest: the winner was Jacque-line Boyer of France with her song

‘Tom Pillibi’. As part of its restoration

programme, you can sponsor one of the pipes in the organ inthe Royal Festival Hall. Made in1956, it contains 7,866 pipes.Sponsorship starts at £30, while£10,000 will buy you sponsor-ship of one of the 32 foot pipes.

It was rumoured that, after hisescape from Wormwood Scrubsin 1966, the Russian spy GeorgeBlake escaped out of the country in a harp case belonging to anEast German orchestra that had played at the Royal Festival Hall.In fact he was smuggled out in a

camper van.

YEARS OFCHANGE

6 Lion / Unicorn PavilionThis pavilion was intended toillustrate the strengths of theBritish character, symbolised in

the characters of the ‘realistic and strong’ lion and the ‘independent and imaginative’ unicorn. Theattached Unicorn restaurant wasone of 13 restaurants on the site.It was surrounded by a moat, and the diners sat in Ernest Race’s

Antelope chair. The design is still available to buy today, at the cost of £505 per chair.

7 Shot TowerDating to 1826, this was the only piece of existing architecture to

be incorporated into the Festival of Britain site, transformed intoa radio tower. It was eventually demolished to make way for theQueen Elizabeth Hall in 1967.

8 Dome of Discovery Designed by Ralph Tubbs for theFestival of Britain to showcase thelatest scientic advances at thetime, it was the largest dome inthe world. Like the Skylon, it wassold off for scrap. The aluminium,which had cost £300,000 to buy,

was apparently sold for £24,000.

3 Skylon

At over 90 metres high, the

Skylon tower remains one of theabiding symbols of the Festival of Britain. Myths still surround its fate after it was taken downin 1952 – it was rumoured tohave been thrown in the Thames,or even buried. The truth wasrevealed by the BBC’s Front Row programme earlier this year: it was sold as scrap. The entrepre-neurial purchasers made someof the material into paper knivesand other souvenirs. Appar-ently, a strut is mounted on thewall of one of the purchaser’sdescendants in North London. TheSkylon’s base is in the collection

of The Museum of London.

4 BFI Southbank The Telecinema, or Telekinema(named from the Soviet ‘Kino’lms), showed lms that had been specially made for theoccasion, including some in 3D. It formed the basis of the National Film Theatre. The construction of the Shell Building meant it moved in 1957 to its current locationunder Waterloo Bridge.

5 National TheatreDesigned by Sir Denys Lasdunand Peter Softley, the National Theatre opened in three stages,starting in 1976. The style of thearchitecture of the building hasalways divided the population:a 2001 BBC poll found it wasLondon’s fourth most popular building, but it also featured onthe poll’s most hated list. PrinceCharles famously described it as “a clever way of building anuclear power station in the mid-dle of London without anyone

objecting.”

KEY Street

New Buildings

Points of interest

Old buildings

1 2

3

4

7

5

6

8

1

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As Southbank Centrecelebrates 60 yearssince the Festival of Brit-ain, Davey Spens pon-ders a vision of the UK 60 years from now

Illustration Zoe Barker

On the ground oor of theRoyal Festival Hall is an areadevoted to the year 1951.Wandering through I nd it

lled with patchwork quilts,propaganda lms and Mecca-no; crowds of people who livedthrough the 50s stand aroundpointing out things they usedto have, while hipster couplesin skinny jeans point out thingsthey want. In amongst thesea of adults, an eight-year-old boy in a Ben Ten T-shirtwrinkles his nose at a livingroom set up with its retro tellyand Bakelite. He doesn’t wantto be here – he wants to bein the gift shop, where everyeight-year-old boy has wantedto be since eight-year-old boys

were rst dragged to culturalentertainments.My wife and I had a

daughter in June. We haven’thad a child before, and itchanges a few things. In aweek swept up in the Londonriots, you’d be forgiven for notwanting to imagine the GreatBritain our daughter will grow

TOMORROW’SWORLD:

up in. She was a picture ofserenity while Croydon burnedlive on Sky News and at-screens went missing from Cur-rys. The Twitterati prophesiedthe end of the world, but civilunrest isn’t a new invention. Inthe summer of 1958, Londonwas turned upside down by theNotting Hill Race Riots. Their‘hoodies’ were called ‘teddyboys’. A small minority rioted.Five nights of unrest. A hun-

dred police ofcers injured.It’s common for pieces onthe future to get carried away.To paint either a utopian vi-sion of milk and honey, or ananarchic Armageddon, withTarantino whispering stagedirections from the shadows.The journalists of the 50s prob-ably pictured us in 2011 zip-ping around on hoverboardsand rocket-packs and livinglike the Jetsons. And there’s abit of that – our impromptunewsroom for the weekend isjust a few yards away from a3D printer that literally ‘prints’

objects (see page 6). Butmarooned in the Festival ofBritain in 1951, with a Ben Teneight-year-old tugging on his

mother’s sleeve, what strikesme is not how alien this ‘Area51’ feels, but how familiar itall is.

In 2071 there’ll still be loveand fear. Men still won’t beable to understand women.Flat-pack furniture will stillcome with indecipherableinstructions. Television viewerswill still enter prize draws towin holidays to Vegas. There’llbe a minority that riots, and a

majority that comes togetherand tries to gure out how itall got to this. We’ll forget tophone our mums, we’ll laughat puerile jokes, we’ll spend fartoo much time worrying aboutthings we can never change.Teenagers will smell of teen-agers, tea will come in bags.Some people will believe inGod and other people won’t.

I’m not worried about whatchanges in 60 years time. Ihope homes become afford-able again. I hope the internetdoesn’t make us lazy. But whenI think of the things I’m scared

about, what Britain will looklike isn’t of them. Naïve as Iam, I still believe in humanity.And in the grand narrative arcof life, 60 years is little morethan an evening gone.

2071

WHAT WILLBRITAINBE MAKINGIN 2071?

“ HOVER CARS ANDPOCKET-SIZE LAPTOPS.EWAN LESLIE, 13

“SIMPLE THINGS

LIKE T-SHIRTS,WHILE CHINA WILLBE MAKING JET ENGINES.” EVAN DAVIES, ECONOMIST

AND JOURNALIST

“MORE SPACESIN THE CITY FORPEOPLE TO RELAX.” HICAKO, STUDENT

“WE’LL BE WORKINGIN HUGE 3D VIRTUALENVIRONMENTS BUT

ALSO PRODUCING

LOW-TECH STUFF WITH OUR HANDS.”

JING LU, ARCHITECT AND

FOUNDER OF BLACK COUNTRY

ATELIER

“SAFER AND

PLEASANT HOMES ANDCOMMUNITIES.” PAUL HODGE, RETIRED

POLICEMAN

“WE’LL BECOME REALLY GOOD AT CREATIVE STUFF,SUCH AS MAGAZINES

AND GRAPHIC MEDIA.” GORDON COOKE, FIRE

SAFETY CONSULTANT

“LEISURE WILL BE ABIG THING. PEOPLE WILL HAVE A BETTER

ATTITUDE TOWARDS

WORK-LIFE BALANCE.PEOPLE WILL BE MAKING MORE TIME FOR THEMSELVES.” STEVE MCCULLOUGH, RETIRED

“NO IDEA. BUT IHOPE WE’LL HAVE WORKED OUT THAT TECHNOLOGY ISN’T REALLY ASIMPORTANT ASPEOPLE THINK IT IS.” INGRID BUSBY, TRAINEE

MATHS TEACHER

“ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.”

JON MCCARTHY, RETIRED

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1Draw a design using pen andpaper. This can be anythingfrom an animal to a logo, oreven your very own inven-tion. Those unwilling to drawcan choose an image from theinternet.

2Using Google’s SketchUp soft-ware, draw your design in 3Dform. If the image is taken fromthe Internet, the programmewill help you recreate thepicture in 3D.

3Once completed, your design isready to print using the Thing-O-Matic. Press start and it willbuild your design from layersof resin.

4Remove your creation from theThing-O-Matic – it’s ready towear/look at/use as a head-line immediately.

MakingMade Easy

of your design, eventuallycreating a physical object fromyour former digital artwork.

The machines are currentlyaimed at architects, designersand students, but with the rightmarketing Jing predicts that anincreasing number of peoplewill use the technology. “Speak-ing to people, they immediately

get the potential but the marketis not there yet. Once they be-come £300 this could becomea hit Christmas gift and then itcould really take off.”

Web portals for 3D design,

such as Shapeways, already

exist, allowing users to sendtheir designs to a third party,who will 3D print it beforeposting it to them. Other ver-sions include Thingiverse, anonline community of makerswho upload their designs forothers to share.

This new form of ‘additivemanufacturing’, where the itemis built from material ratherthan being cut from it, alsoreduces waste both in produc-tion and in sustaining products.“Rather than having to go andbuy small parts from outsidemanufacturers, potentially you

could download a le from

prototype it. It puts the powerof invention into the hands ofpeople at home.”

Jing has set up shop to,in her words, show the worldthat “we are still making thingshere in Britain.” Her workshopaims to link the old with thenew, using 3D printing to helpkeep more traditional forms of

craftsmanship alive.Jing is interested in howthe two worlds, one drawingon age-old manufacturingmethods such as carpentry andiron casting and the other de-pendent on the latest computertechnology, can be broughttogether. “Coming from apurely architectural and tech-nological background, I sawhow architecture uses a lot of3D modelling for buildings. Thismade me realise that, actually,you can make other stuff withthis technology, not just modelsbut real products.”

Whilst the cube-shapedprinting machine, appropriatelynamed a Thing-O-Matic, looksformidable, the process is sur-prisingly simple. The rst stageis to draw your product byhand, before using SketchUp, afree piece of Google software,to draw the image in 3D ona computer. Once completed,your masterpiece is sent to theprinter to be crafted into a realobject built from resin.

This stage is the most fasci-nating, as the machine comesto life and a needle dartsseemingly consciously around

the printing platform, slowlyexpelling resin into the shape

Jenny Purt discovers thenew technology thatpromises to literally shape the future.

Photographs by Sharon McCabe

Ideas come and go with thewind, often gusting unexpect-

edly from our imaginationbefore scattering across thepages of the nearest unsus-pecting notebook. The seed isplanted, the concept is created,but where next?

For the average person,the answer is nowhere. Thecomplexities and costs ofexperimenting and prototypingprevent the process from mov-ing into the realms of reality.However, the growing evolu-tion of 3D printing is helpingto break down these barriers.This printing technology, whichenables users to print physical

objects, is changing the face ofdesign, with customers becom-ing makeshift manufacturersfor the very rst time.

Black Country Atelier is a3D prototyping workshop inthe Midlands founded by archi-tect, Jing Lu. She believes thatthis new form of creating couldshift the relationship betweenconsumers and manufacturers,forming the backbone of amake-it-yourself movement forthe 21st century.

“Everyone has a little inven-tion up their sleeve and thisform of printing means that

if you’re at home and have agreat idea, you can start to

Jenny Purt discovers thenew technology thatpromises to literally shape the future.

Photographs by Sharon McCabe

Ideas come and go with thewind, often gusting unexpect-

edly from our imaginationbefore scattering across thepages of the nearest unsus-pecting notebook. The seed isplanted, the concept is created,but where next?

For the average person,the answer is nowhere. Thecomplexities and costs ofexperimenting and prototypingprevent the process from mov-ing into the realms of reality.However, the growing evolu-tion of 3D printing is helpingto break down these barriers.This printing technology, whichenables users to print physical

objects, is changing the face ofdesign, with customers becom-ing makeshift manufacturersfor the very rst time.

Black Country Atelier is a3D prototyping workshop inthe Midlands founded by archi-tect, Jing Lu. She believes thatthis new form of creating couldshift the relationship betweenconsumers and manufacturers,forming the backbone of amake-it-yourself movement forthe 21st century.

“Everyone has a little inven-tion up their sleeve and thisform of printing means that

if you’re at home and have agreat idea, you can start to

the manufacturer and print thepart at home,” Jing explains.

“For example, at the mo-ment if a small part breaks ina toaster, you most likely haveto throw the product away.With this printer, the customercould download the design ofthe broken part and print it inplastic themselves.”

The concept appears excit-ing for wannabe inventors anddesigners, but are traditional

industries really interested inembracing the technology?

“We get people coming tous saying that they do complexmoulding or woodwork andwould love to 3D scan some-thing and then print it,” Jingsays. “I suppose there is still thisfear of new technology andquestions over whether will itwork, but this is just a psycho-logical barrier.”

One more concrete obsta-cle to 3D printing is money – aThing-O-Matic will currentlyset you back £800. However,as Jing points out, prices are

falling all the time. “Previously,these machines and this kind ofsoftware cost tens of thousandsof pounds and you would needto be professionally trained,which could take ve years.

Now all the tutorials are freeonline and you can have a goat getting your idea out there.

“Of course there are stillthings that people cannot dowithout being professionallytrained, but this technologyopens up new doors for alot of people. Children areused to software like Google

SketchUp, as they learn thesenew technologies in school andare not scared of them.They’llend up taking it for granted asit becomes part of their dailylives,” Jing says.

Watching the machines atwork is impressive, but imagin-ing them being powered bytech-savvy, creative youngpeople is nothing short of awe-inspiring. If rapid prototypingdoes revolutionise the way wemake our world, it will be be-cause of the SketchUp genera-tion and their desire to literallyshape the future. Let’s see what

they make of it...

“You could download atoaster part and print it...”

7/31/2019 File 000087


It’s not just the people whovisited the festival the rst timearound who were affected byour journey, and mothers and

children far too young to havebeen around for the originalfestival pointed out favouriteplaces as we chugged along.For somebody who regularlycommutes in London the smilesseemed as incongruous as theolden days bus itself – therewere none of the usual grey ex-pressions and tinny headphonesounds. This was far and awaythe happiest bus I’ve ever beenon, with at least ve conversa-tions going on at any one timebetween complete strangers, re-joicing in memories past as wellas how beautiful the London of

2011 is, despite “all the nastinessgoing on”.Conversation carried us all

the way to Stockwell, where westopped for a short tour of thehistoric bus and depot. Every-thing from the cracked leatherseat edges to the old ‘stickybox’, where used ticket stubswere discarded contributedto a strange sensation akin tonostalgia – frankly a ridiculousnotion considering that I wasborn little over 25 years ago

BUSES

and (to memory) have neverbeen on an old bus before.Something to do with slowingthe pace of a London day to sit

on a rolling museum and chatto some lovely strangers reallygot to me, and I would happilyhave sat there all day talkingabout my memories of the city.Unfortunately it was all tooshort a trip back past Vauxhallstation (Joan: “it looks like aski jump!”) and MI6 before wetrundled our way back to theRoyal Festival Hall.

For most the bus ride wasa nostalgia trip, but for me ithad been more of a voyage of

discovery. I learned that the £5ne for spitting listed on the bigplaque on the rear was due toa tuberculosis risk – a disease

that has all but died out inBritain. I learned that Stock-well bus depot was the largestfreestanding concrete structureof its time, built as a necessarymeasure to deal with festivalcrowds, but without steel dueto post-war shortages. But Ialso learned that for many,now and then, there is a hugesense of national pride, and areal love for Britain. South Lon-don never looked so inspiringas from the top of RT1702.

Stockwell bus depot

Jonny Burch discovers

that an hour on an oldbus can have a surpris-ing affect on the 21st-century urbanite’s soul

Photography by Jonathan Winstone

You wouldn’t think that a vin-tage bus tour to Stockwell busdepot could touch the modernLondoner’s soul, but it seemsthere are strange powers inthose old wheels. PhotographerJonathan and I have spent thelast hour on board RT1702,the majestic AEC bus that took

us on a trip from SouthbankCentre to Stockwell and back,and as I dismount the sun isshining over a London recentlyravaged by rioting youthsand nancial turmoil. This is atroubled time, but in no wayas troubled as the Britain thatemerged after WWII. Thewar had left large parts of thecountry in rubble and in direneed of redevelopment, a situ-ation that was still the case in1950 when my bus was born.

The festival of 1951 wasintended as a show of re-covery and strength for the

war-battered people, and itwas considered a great suc-cess. RT1702 played her part,making up one quarter of afour-strong eet that travelledEurope promoting the festivalin 1950 before going into ac-tive service as a London tourbus the year after. She saw20 years of active service withLondon Transport before being

bought by private collectors in1972, who still own and obsessover her now, their passionoozing out of every sprocketand bearing.

As we hopped on board Istopped to ask for an informa-tion sheet from a bespectacledconductor with more LondonTransport badges on his tiethan hairs on his head. Jona-than was only a minute ahead

of me, but by the time I joinedhim he was already deep inconversation on the front seatswith two sisters, Joan and Toni,who had been ve-and-a-halfand 11 respectively at the 1951Festival. Joan admitted shedidn’t remember a lot of theday they spent there, but Tonilisted the Skylon, the Emmettrailway, the Guinness clock and(with a twinkle in her eye) thefunfair as favourites. It waswith childlike glee that theyrecalled how much of a treatit was to come to London andvisit this vision of the future at

a time when ordinary peopledidn’t have fridges, washingmachines or televisions.

Toni had worked on thebuses as a teenager, and foundherself a German boyfriend,much to the chagrin of herfamily. “I was a teenager, justfull of myself. I never thoughtabout it that way really”, shesays of what must have beena liberal opinion for a child soaffected by the war and itsaftermath. “Besides, there wereno clubs or anything like that. Itwas home by 11 – anyone nothome by 11 was denitely up

to no good!”

Toni holding heroriginal ticket stubs

07

ON THE

Nothing tells the story of thelast 60 years like the people

who lived through them. It took us a while, but we photographed someo-body born in every year from 1951 totoday. Almost.

Photography by Haarata Hamilton

0-60 INTWO PAGES

TBC, 0

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Clara Smyth, 1

Autumn Tupshafski, 11

Jayne and Harley Cross, 21

Steve Watson, 31

Ted Bowyer, 41

William Ware, 51

Ester Tong, 2

Azaan Karmali, 12

Emma Elgy, 22

Kate Whitby-Samways, 32

Alyhhan Karmali, 42

Simon Trittoni, 52

Reuben Whitby-Samways, 3

Ewan Leslie, 13

Mudiwa Muronda, 23

Chris Morley, 33

Alun Thomas, 43

Gintas Zvirblis, 53

Maya Ukwunna, 4

Katherine Walklang, 14

Allison Waung, 24

Greg Whitby-Samways, 34

Emma Moore, 44

Cheryl Rhyner, 54

Fraser Hutton-Squire, 5

Cameron Leslie, 15

Joanna Sweeney, 25

David Sanchez, 35

Gabriella Mclaughlin, 45

Colin Prior, 55

0- 6 0 I N T W O P A G E S

7/31/2019 File 000087


Caitlin Hamilton, 16

Xavier Mutale Mulenga, 26

Terrance Wong, 36

Steve Rudkin, 46

Desperate photographer, not 56

Tiffany Bates, 17

Toby Denett, 27

Robert Hutton-Squire, 37

Lucia Bursati, 47

James Diamond, 57

Beth Jellicoe, 18

Ania Nieczaja, 28

Anisa Karmali, 38

Bryony Rudkin, 48

Esther Agbodo, 58

Coral Jones, 19

Bozi Morley, 29

Paul Kerrigan, 39

Dawn Gaskin, 49

Christine Diamond, 59

Christine Rilling and Sandra Baum, 20

Ekrem Ozer, 30

Justine Kerrigan, 40

Ken Dunne, 50

Mary Gerahty, 60

Joseph Mclaughlin, 6 Holly Gaskin, 7 Grace Mclaughlin, 8 Kai Thomas, 9 Ali Karmali, 10

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01. Alice (12)02. Gregoire (28)03. Jeannine04. Kate (29)05. Leonard (59)06. Claire (26)07. Maya (6.5)08. Nicky (9)09. Rosie (20)10. Samsir (24)11. Tammi (29)12. Yijing13. Andrew (22)14. Vo (50)15. Anne16. Cameron (15)17. Sonia (10)18. Mark (35)19. Alexandra (27)20. Max (2.5)21. Ella (13)22. Basit (26)

23. Ezra (14)24. Zoe (26)25. Jessica (25)26. Barbara (29)27. Amie (27)28. Jon29. Raabia (13)30. Tania (36)31. Natasha32. Zita (18)33. Aithana (10)34. Caroline (10)35. Helen (41)36. Anna (32)37. Roger (45)38. Alan (33)39. Betty (25)40. Nick (31)41. Belinda (46)

42. Marilyn43. Sergio (20)44. Lee (44)45. Duncan (25)46. Jonny (25)47. Hisako (30+)48. Gabriella (29)49. Sharon (24)50. Gemma (25)

51. Ewan (13)52. Maria (26)53. Sarah (29)54. Bonnie (8)55. Ji (25)56. Tina (28)57. Yasmin (9)58. Cindy (59)59. Heidi (2)60. Steve (31)61. Amelia (8)62. Craig (29)63. Margaret (49)64. Saju (22)65. Dejhor (4)66. Davey (30)67. Elinor (12)68. Markel (20)69. Emma (31)70. Eshan (2)71. Hamish (46)72. Ibrahim (10)

73. Carrie (25)74. Jasmine (4)75. Katherine (14)76. KC (12)77. Jane (48)78. Ronnie (7)79. Stephany (51)80. Ted (41)81. Willa (28)82. Brufely (59)83. Joshua (10)84. Mum (48)85. Jo (38)86. Catarina (25)87. Donald (11)88. Esa (28)89. Sydine (5)90. Clare (30)91. Alice (23)

92. Chris (27)93. Rob (24)94. Lucy (31)95. Richard (39)96. Mike (46)97. Hector (6)98. Emma (22)99. William (30.5) 100. Jo (19)

PEOPLE POWER

Age & Power

We asked 100 people aged from 0-60 years old to tell us how powerful they feel, and to draw us a picture of the most powerful thing they’d seen that day.

We thought it would be lovely if the children felt the most powerful, but it turnsout that they don’t. Those know-it-all 50-60-year-olds spoiled all the fun by

feeling more empowered than anyone else. Never mind. At least we’ve still gotsome nice drawings...

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09.

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Children are alwaysbeing told stories, sothey should know a few.

We asked some of our

younger contributorsto tell us a story aboutSouthbank Centre – theonly rule is that it hadto be entirely true ora complete lie. The liesseemed pretty popular…

Illustrations by Jessica Taylor

Betsy, 10Lily loved to learn about theSouthbank. Her parents tookher there when she was ninefor the very rst time. Whenthey got there she got out ofthe car and started to jumpand say “Southbank, South-bank”. Her mother said, “OK

then”. She started to run withher parents. They took somepictures. Lily’s dad looked andsaid it was four o’ clock andtime to go home. What anadventure.

Marley, 10I once saw a blue thing justoutside the Royal Festival Hall.I turned to talk to my mum andturned back and the blue thingwas gone.

Yasmin, 9Every Monday in April a singercalled Nadeem came to ourschool to teach us to sing gos-pel. I was a soprano. I was onlyin year four. The songs were

hard. Give some love, Liveforever, Sing on, Colours, Liftedup, two more I forgot. I wasshocked when we arrived atthe Royal Festival Hall for ourbig show. It was amazing. Wehad a jolly good practice. Wesang like angels, my aunt wascrying (as usual). After I was sotired, shattered I tell you. Sleep.End, thanks for reading.

Grace, 8One upon a time there weretwo children called Rocky andKiko. They lived by the RiverThames. They decided to go tothe Southbank. They got thereand ate all of the food. By thetime they nished they had atummy ache. When they feltbetter they went on the London

Eye twice. They saw the wholecity. They spent the rest of theday playing and watching BigBen and eating ice-cream. Atthe end of the day Kiko founda stray dog called Buster. Theyalso found a dinosaur calledSpeedo and he took them toGreenwich and back to theirhouse. The end.

Yvette, 10In 1951 a body was found on awalkway near the Southbank.It was found by a mysteriouslittle man who loved being ona jolly good case, as he’d say.He found some ngerprintson a long sharp knife that had

some blood squirted on it. Soit looked like it most probablywas used for the murder. Oncethe case was taken over by thepolice the mysterious little mansimply disappeared.

Sonia and Tash, 10There was once an animal wholived near the river. The animalhad to leave and ran awayto the Southbank building.Everyone began chasing theanimal and then the animalmade a high-pitched scream-ing sound like a human. Theneveryone ran towards the exitto go home and just as theygot out the building collapsed.The fox was scared and ran tothe river. But the fox was magicand when it got to the river themagic went into the sh and

the sh turned itself into a bigmonster and the sh promisedto help the fox.

www.jessicamaytaylor.co.uk

TALESTALL A for App N for Notes

B for Bear O for Octopus

C for Comté P for Printer

D for Dog Q for Queen

E for Electric car R for Rooster

F for Fox S for Sausage

G for Goose T for TV

H for Headphones U for Unicorn

I for Eine V for Van

J for Jelly beans W for Wheel

K for Kitsch X for Xylophone

L for Lobster Y for Yorkshire Terrier

M for Model Z for…

A semi-accurate A-Z of Southbank Centre

TRUTH OR LIES?

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Will Butler-AdamsManaging director, Brompton Bicycle LtdInterview by Alan Rutter

There’s nothing technically stopping China undercutting what we do.But they don’t have the knowledge, and we’re not giving it to them

We make our bikes in Brentford. Seventy-ve percent go overseas,to around 38 countries, and we turn over £15m. Our prot goesinto making new products – like the waterproof Oratory Jacket I’mwearing, or the electric bike we’re working on.

There’s a risk with talking about manufacturing around the 60th

anniversary of the Festival of Britain that we drift into nostalgia.We have to accept that the world has moved on since then. But Ithink there are two main things that have gone wrong with manu-facturing in this country. Firstly, there’s a generation of children whodon’t aspire to be in manufacturing, and to make things. They thinkit involves a boiler suit, a monkey wrench and a twelve-grand-a-year salary. Secondly, the government hasn’t taken the opportuni-ties to invest in innovation and cutting-edge intellectual property.

There’s a perception that we need to focus on making thingsthat are high-tech, but our focus should be on things that are high-IP. There’s nothing technically stopping China from undercuttingwhat we [at Brompton] do. But they don’t have the knowledge, andwe’re not giving it to them. And that knowledge isn’t necessarily inthe product – it’s in how we make the product. The stuff we do isvery clever, and that stops the buggers from copying us.

We do need to tell young people that engineering and manu-facturing are great industries to be in. We need to tell people

that it’s a bloody good laugh making things! We have employeeswho’ve come in with all sorts of problems in their history, and fewqualications. They end up earning over £30k and are valued em-ployees because they’ve got bloody good at what they do. Somepeople would go crazy sitting behind a desk – I’m one of them.Those people are just more suited to being in a manual job.

There was a recent poll that asked 14–19–year–olds to name aliving engineer, and the top answer was the mechanic off Corona-tion Street. Engineers have been terrible at marketing the profes-sion. We need to get a single professional body, the governmentneeds to get behind it, and we need a consensus message. I’d do itmyself if I had time!

Mark AdamsManaging director of furniture company VitsœInterview by Laura Snoad

It’s good if you cut your ngers– that’s where you learn

Much of our furniture is like Lego – no two products are the sameas we work with customers to develop products that suit theirneeds exactly. We’ve invested in software that we use to congureproducts online, so you wouldn’t really see us as a dot-com servicebusiness but that’s what we are. A lot of our intellectual property istied up in the service rather than the product itself – that’s just oneway that British manufacturing is different from the Chinese model.

We’re unusual in that we actually moved our manufacturingbase from Germany to the UK. The business got into trouble in the70s and hadn’t moved on in the way that it should have. One ofthe ways we aimed to change this was by becoming internationaland moving our manufacturing base to London. As Dieter Ramssaid, this is a truly international city in a way that there isn’t an

equivalent in Germany.What do I think the government and schools should be doingto encourage people into engineering and manufacturing? Getthem early – I was cutting my ngers aged ve looking at how thesaw and chisel worked. We need to have – in homes ideally butdenitely in schools – places where kids can make things. Wherethey can actually do things with their hands. The whole health andsafety culture has got in the way of that. “Ooh the little darlingsmight cut their hands” – I think it’s bloody good if you do cut yourngers, because that’s where you learn.

As for the future, if you want my honest opinion, I think theclaims that rapid prototyping and 3D printing are going to changemanufacturing in this country are over-hyped. I mean look what’shappened to the ‘democratisation‘ of graphic design. Everyone’sgot a laser printer and it’s a bloody disaster. Documents look like aheap of rubbish because the design has not been done by some-one who’s actually been trained to do it, so I think the notion that

we’ll all be producing things at home is a little far-fetched.

Does Britain have a future in manufactur-ing? Four experts talkedto Make Shift about thechallenges facing the in-dustry, and the need forinnovation

PortraitsHaarata Hamilton

The magnicent reputation ofBritain’s manufacturing herit-

age cannot be disputed – butneither can its decline. So isthere a future for the UK inmaking things? Broadcaster,economist and author Evan Da-vis thinks so. His new book andTV seriesMade in Britaintakesa look at the changing face ofBritish manufacturing, and thisweekend he hosted a discussionat Southbank Centre asking in-dustry experts for their thoughtson the challenges they face.

He was joined by MarkAdams, managing director ofinnovative furniture companyVitsoe; Will Butler-Adams,

managing director of world-famous folding bike makerBrompton, and Jing Lu, founderof 3D printing workshop BlackCountry Atelier (and curator ofSouthbank Centre’s Power andProduction weekend).

During a lively debate itbecame clear that the panel-lists don’t agree on everything.All concurred that there’s greatsatisfaction to be had frombuilding things for a living, butwhere Adams said this was theprimary reason to be in theindustry, Butler-Adams arguedthat we should be telling young

people that there’s money tobe made as well (“unfortunatelywhen I go to talk to schools Iinevitably turn up on a bike – Ishould probably pull up in aFerrari”).

Davis played devil’s advo-cate when it came to talkingabout nance and funding,making the case that the set-upin the UK has allowed for amore buccaneering – if unsta-ble – innovation and growth.The others were vociferous inarguing that the governmentand banks needed to do moreto provide funding, that the

nancial sector has been givenfar too much freedom, and thatthe worst thing a company canhave is investors demandingshort-term prots. But above allthere was a denite consensusthat British manufacturing mustmake changes if it is to survive,and thrive.

PANEL DISCUSSION

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M

AKI N

GI T B E T T E R

Evan DavisEconomist and journalistInterview by Lucy Scott

Let’s not undersell ourselves; the UK is thesixth-biggest manufacturing nation in the world

In 1951 on this site, people were celebrating the Festival of Britain.Back then, we were emerging from World War II and manufactur-ing was a much more important part of the economy than it is now,accounting for around 30% of the UK gross domestic product.Today, it is 13%.

My parents always ask me, “why doesn’t anyone makeanything anymore?” But we are three times richer now and ourliving standards are much higher. And actually, we do still makethings – from pharmaceuticals and chemicals to computer chipsand software. So let’s not undersell ourselves; the UK is the sixth-biggest manufacturing nation in the world. In 2008 we producedmore than at any other time in our history and our productivity hasdoubled in the last 10 years.

There’s a danger in underestimating how successful the UKeconomy has been at adapting to the pressures around us. The restof the world has worked out that to get rich, you need to makestuff and as a result, we have been forced to evolve. Therefore theUK has gone down the route of producing more valuable productsthat are more invisible but are of higher value; like Brompton fold-ing bicycles and jet engines – goods that require a lot of brainpow-er. China is nding it hard to compete with that at the moment.

Another positive to consider is that changes brought about by

globalisation may begin to reverse soon. Much of our labour-inten-sive work has gone to places such as China and India and that haslowered the costs of production. But if oil prices continue to rise,the costs of shipping goods back and forth will increase to such anextent that this might actually mitigate the benet of outsourcingour manufacturing to far-ung places. So we might nd companiesmoving their operations closer to their bases and distribution net-works and setting up shop in places like Turkey or the even the UK.

In any case, having a successful economy isn’t about just beinggood at one thing. It is not just about having a strong manufac-turing base, or just about having brainy people making brainyproducts or having a booming nancial services sector. It is abouthaving all of those things and a balance of them.

Jing Lu Architect and founder of Black Country Atelier

‘Made in Britain’ still has value. Thereis a trust. It is a great brand in itself

I recently moved to the Midlands to set up a 3D prototypingworkshop. It’s a collective workshop dedicated to working with newideas and technologies, and particulalry to working with traditionalcrafts to help keep them relevant.

If you look back to 1951, in the year of the Festival of Britain,there were a lot of companies around making things that are actu-ally still making things today. The names might have changed, orthey might have new management, but the same people are stillon the workshop oor and they are proud that they have workedin these places all of their lives, or that their uncles or grandfathersworked there too.

‘Made in Britain’ still has value these days. There is a trust withthat label and it is a great brand in itself. When people see that a

bike is made in China, they assume that perhaps it will fall apartafter not very long. Bikes made in China can’t command a highprice. But bikes in the UK can. The value is in the expertise involvedin making that product.

I nd that the people we work with worry about nding peopleto take over from them when they retire. That’s their main concern.They are struggling to employ young talent and are looking for ageneration of apprentices to teach their skills to. There is a reser-voir of talent out there, but we are not very good in this country atencouraging it .

Kids I talk to aspire to be bankers in the City when they growup, or to be a businessman like Lord Sugar. I don’t think there areenough role models out there in the public eye that make manu-facturing look sexy, fun and something to aspire to. That’s why thisweekend at the Southbank Centre has been about trying to getkids excited about making things and introducing them to cuttingedge manufacturing.

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Erica Buist discoversthat with a little pedalpower the movies canteach a green lesson

Photographs Johnny Winstone

We are energy gluttons. Everytime we switch on the kettle,take a shower or even opena window, energy its off intothe cosmos, never to be usefulagain. I know it, you know it.

But Adam Walker’s organisa-tion Magnicent Revolution hasfound a way to nally makeyou care – namely, “If you stopcycling, the movie screen goesblank. You want Johnny Depp?Then PEDAL!”

With a little help fromWalker the energy from abicycle can be used to powerappliances such as fans, stereosand, in several pop-up loca-tions across London, moviescreens. For Southbank Centre’sscreening Walker broughtseven bicycles together topower a showing of I’m All

Right Jack . With a minimumof ve bikes needed to keepthe movie playing, the sevencyclists were told they wouldhave to maintain a ‘moder-ate pace’ to keep it going (seethe review opposite for a rundown of how they did).

But for Magnicent Revo-lution the point really isn’t inthe movie itself. They’re nomere movie-peddlers – they’rean education project aimingto help people understandenergy use, its links with powerproduction and climate change,and positive actions that can

be taken by all. The future,

TO THE FUTURE

they say, is bright, and lled

with low-power technology –enough to negate the press-leddoom and gloom attitude of“there go our non-renewableresources… everyone get yourDickensian Britain pantaloons”.

Energy consumption is anutterly bafing concept tograsp. As Walker explains, theintangibility of energy wastestatistics rarely change ouractions. For example, let me tellyou something about your hair-dryer; whereas your computerprobably uses around 92 wattsof energy in an hour, yourhairdryer uses 1,440!

Many have tried to make

Four hundred volts are required to keep tonight’s lm rolling,which means 10 cyclists positioned on either side of the screentirelessly peddling away. Imagine that – a Cine-Gym where youcan give your thighs a good pounding whilst chuckling along to ane satirical take on post-war class-riven Britain. Hurrah!

With a not-unpleasant background whirr, we relax into I’m All Right Jack , in which clueless Oxford graduate Stanley Windrushnds himself caught between the self-interests of his managerialuncle and his socialist shop steward employee. With a nationwidestrike declared and television cameras circling, it’s only a matter oftime before Windrush, now a cause-celebre across the land, willcrack, which he does, with appropriately hilarious consequences.

As sweaty cyclists tire and dismount, others spring up to taketheir place. “It’s just great,” remarks one woman. “You forgetyou’re cycling after a while, but you certainly feel it in the legs

afterwards!” Matt Parker

perhaps sparks the guilt of notpulling one’s weight, a feelingwe adults are very keen toavoid.

Having already educatedthousands of school childrenon what happens when youplug something in, MagnicentRevolution is expanding glob-ally through word of mouthalone. Greer Allen came all

the way from Australia on agovernment grant, and peo-ple from both Slovakia andKazakhstan have also simply“dropped in” at the ofce,hoping to bring the Revolutionto their own countries.

Having rst shown theCycle-in Cinema idea at TheBig Chill Festival in 2007, Mag-nicent Revolution branchedout in the entertainment world,even to cyclists poweringthe stage for bands. “There’sthis amazing relationshipbetween the performers andthe audience where they’re

actually dependent upon theiraudience to power them. Theperformers are aware of howmuch energy they’re usingbecause they see the grimaceson the cyclists’ faces as theyturn up the bass. It’s a muchmore responsive atmosphere.”

And how do people feel atthe end of a Cycle-in experi-ence? “They whoop and cheer,usually! There’s a great senseof collectivity and achieve-ment.”

“I think it’s wonderful,” saysGael from London, balanc-ing her toddler on the saddle,

presumably to instil in him alove for bikes that could oneday power her electric Zimmerframe. “It could solve the obe-sity problem and the energycrisis in one fell swoop!”

And what does the futurehold? Cycle-in Cinemas inhousing estates, elds – prettymuch anywhere with a atsurface and a ready supply ofcycling movie-buffs. Lookingaround the Southbank Centreas the stage is lit, the cyclistsmount and the audience taketheir seats, I’m optimistic. Imean we all want to see more

of Johnny Depp, right?

reported that over-lling ket-tles wastes enough energy ina week to light a house for aday, or power a television for26 hours. Sadly, neither seemlike particularly useful endeav-ours either – the sun can lighta house for a day for free,

and my mum says TV rots thebrain. I do wish they’d meas-ure these things in life supportmachines, or Zach Braff’shairdryer.

Magnicent Revolution’seducation project aims to“make the intangible, tangible”by demonstrating energy con-sumption via physical exertion.Children of all ages gatherat Walker’s demonstrationof how a power generatorworks, how it links up to a bikeand how pedalling can powerfans, lamps or a particularlybrilliant White Stripes song. His

t-shirt features a picture of anangel on a bicycle, suggestinghe thinks even those with al-ternative, zero carbon-emittingmodes of transport would dowell to travel by bike.

By teaching children, Walk-er is hoping to create moreaware adults in years to come.Let’s admit it, we grown-upsare clueless. As Walker puts it,“The guy down the road whobuilt his own solar panels hasa much better understandingof where his power comesfrom that the average person,whose best indicator is the bill

at the end of the month.” Chil-dren, then, who spend theirentire £1 per lost tooth incomeon chocolate, must have noidea whatsoever.

“If you tell a 25kg kid thatto have a ve-minute hotwater shower he’d have topedal for nine hours – thatgets through much better thatputting a price on it.”

The simple idea of puttingenergy in and getting powerout gets through to adults too.Even the bizarre image ofwhat it would take just to boila kettle, “60 cyclists cycling

outside your kitchen window”,

such statistics more accessible.The University of Bradfordreliably informs us that “Awindow left open overnightwastes enough energy to

produce 130 wine bottles”.Brilliant. My window has beenclosed for the last three nights,which means I have unwittinglysaved enough energy for 390wine bottles! Oh JOY! Now allI have to do is get my energynet, capture all the lovely en-ergy I’ve saved, put my noseto the wine-bottle-makinggrindstone and there’ll be noneed for Christmas shoppingthis year.

Perhaps a more accessiblecomparison is energy in termsof its alternative uses. In 2005the Scottish Executive’s Do a

Little, Change a Lot campaign

I’m All Right Jack John Boulting, 1959

BIKE

Cycle-in Cinema on The CloreBallroom, Royal Festival Hall

7/31/2019 File 000087


British graphic designer

Abram Games, a doy-enne of graphic com-munication and one of the great poster design-ers of the 20th century,

was the man behind theiconic 1951 Festival of Britain logo.

So imagine our surprise whenhis son Daniel wandered overto the Make Shift ‘newsroom’sporting a 3D modelled blazerbadge of his father’s logo. Notwanting to miss an opportunity,we stopped typing, droppedour biscuits and trapped him

for a quick snap.Daniel was ve when heattended the festival and youcan nd a picture of him agedtwo with his family in the Muse-um of 1951 exhibition. He toldus he still visits the SouthbankCentre regularly and loves themarket outside as much as theexhibitions within it. But he’s notsuch an expert on his father’swork, he admits – that’s hissister Naomi’s domain.

You can hear Naomi Gamestalking about Abram’s work at

5pm on Sunday 28 August at

Southbank Centre

1Just in case you werewondering what day it is.Actually it’s always Sundayin this sunny little corner ofSouthbank Centre, which is anice idea really.

2Tucked away in the upperechelons of Southbank Centreis a Poetry Library. Is this oldnews to you? I’d never noticedit before. Inside there was avideo installation that kind oflooked like someone was goingthrough the library catalogue.Weirdly hypnotic.

3Strangely spindly ‘Shop Deco’choice of typeface for theHayward Gallery. Sort of looksa bit ‘old Hollywood’ when you

see it like this.

Southbank Centre hada very thorough updatea few years ago, butthere are stilla few typographicgems to be unearthed,dusted off and puton display. MichaelBojkowski presentsa smattering of typecollected on one balmy Sunday afternoon in

August.

1

4Old 60s/70s signage so chunkyyou could carve it. They kind oflook like a series of ginormouscoloured erasers... erasers ona stick... now there’s somethingno-one thought to do before.

5Downstairs in the Spirit Levelthere’s a veritable cacophonyof ace 50s typefaces onparade. I have no idea whatthese two are chatting about.Cucumber sandwiches maybe?

6Who doesn’t. This ratherfetching piece of hand-drawntypography was downstairs inthe students gallery as part ofthe Gallery of 1951.

7The current Southbank Centreidentity uses a typeface calledLutz. Lutz gets around on thefestival site, including wrappinghimself around these tall metal

beacons.

8BFI Southbank stands onthe Southbank Centre site,but is actually a separateorganisation. It used to beknown as The National FilmTheatre. Luckily they kept theoriginal signage as one ofthe few examples of ace 50stypography left in the city. Thecoloured fan is rather spesh too.

3

4

5

6

2

8

7

A BRIEF TYPOGRAPHIC SURVEY OF

SOUTHBANK CENTRE

The father of design

7/31/2019 File 000087


it something bigger. Eventu-ally we met with 4ip, the sadlynow defunct investment armof Channel 4. 4ip’s remit wasto invest in interesting newdigital start-ups – particularlyones that crossed a digital /analogue gap. We fell intothat gap nicely. “No matterhow good portable devicesget, people still like to seeyour words in print,” said 4ip’sDaniel Heaf. “People just like

physical stuff. And there arehuge accessibility advantagesto newspapers – you don’tneed a computer, you don’tneed web access, you don’tneed to remember a URL. I cangive you a newspaper and youcan keep it forever – or put itin the cat basket.”

A business called Newspa-per Club was born. A properbusiness with investors and VATreturns and six zillion onlinebanking passwords. All thethings you need for a busi-ness these days. NewspaperClub is an online service where

anyone can create and printa newspaper. You can print aslittle as one colour copy or upto millions of copies. Five colourcopies will cost you £29 includ-ing postage and 1,000 copieswill cost just 65p per copy. Youcan design your newspaperonline using our layout soft-ware called ARTHR, or you canupload a PDF and we’ll printthat. We can deliver anywherein the UK within a few daysand most places in the worldwithin 10 days. We go to presstwice a week at 2pm on Tues-day and on Thursday.

Sales are good and cus-tomers seem to be pleased.Like most businesses we getstartlingly honest feedbackfrom Twitter, “receiving my @newspaperclub delivery wasone of the best days of mylife.” was one recent tweet.

From day one we werekeen to make Newspaper Cluba platform, a blank canvas. Weavoided telling customers whattype of newspaper to produce.Despite many “advisors” tellingus to go after certain marketswe were determined to letthe product be the marketing.

Every great newspaper weprint is an advert for our busi-ness that reaches maybe 5,000customers. We have printedsome fantastic newspapers.Newspapers by school children,newspapers as prospectusesfor schools and newspapers asart school projects. Newspa-pers as birthday gifts, as wed-ding albums or to announce anew arrival. Newspapers forconferences or annual reports.Newspapers as football pro-grammes and for other sports.

It’s not been easy; we usesome Adobe desktop publish-

ing software that operates

across a server and allowsthousands of people to use itat any one time. This softwareis so obscure that even Adobedon’t really know much aboutit, and it’s their software. Weuse a colour digital press that’sonly been in the country afew months. There are onlya handful that exist world-wide. We’ve had to persuadetraditional newspaper printersto allow us to print 300 copies

when they’re used to print-ing hundreds of thousandsof copies. We’ve negotiatedPayPal and Facebook Connect,both signicant challenges.We’ve won awards includingDesign of The Year the DesignMuseum and a special awardfor Technical Achievement atthe British Interactive Media As-sociation. But more importantlywe’ve created a business thatprints thousands of newspapersevery week, delivers thosenewspapers all around theworld and makes a prot.

The question we get asked

the most is, “What’s the futureof newspapers?” Our re-sponse? “We don’t know, butit’s not us.”

We’re not about analoguenostalgia or digital infatuation.We don’t want to be a herit-age business. We believe in theprinted format because thereare still some things it doesbetter than anything else. Onecustomer created a paper toprotest at the closure of a localschool. The organisers weresaying that above all they likedthe fact that you could wave anewspaper in front of peoples’

faces. You can’t do that with ablog post.We’ve just released our API

so other services can link toNewspaper Club and considerprint as one output for thedata they generate. We’rehaving initial conversations withnewspaper groups to poten-tially publish content and sharerevenues – an exciting optionthat would allow customersto publish papers around acertain theme.

We’re not the future ofnewspapers but we’re proudto be a part of an interesting

group of people that are play-ing with the format and makingexciting experiments in print.Just like the people who areputting together Make Shift,which you’re reading now.

Make your own newspaper at newspaperclub.com

The Long Good ReadA project that was born digitaland only later turned intoa physical object, The LongGood Read is the brainchild of

Guardian journalist Dan Cattand aims to aggregate the bestlong-form journalism from thenewspaper. The back-end isclever: the website fetches allarticles above 2,000 words inlength using the Guardian API,and then uses Guardian Zeit-geist (their trending stories tool)to put them in order. The rstedition rolled out in March thisyear. “This issue with 14 storiesweighs in at 24 pages,” saysDan. “It feels like a real thing,you can hold it, fold it, take outwasps and ies in one arcingsweep with it – it’s a thing of

wonder.”

The Dab HandThe Club is popular with designand art students. In April theyprinted a paper called The DabHand , designed by Amy Arthur,

a nal year Design for VisualCommunication student at theUniversity of Ulster. Arthur useda sewing machine to stitch thepages together, meaning thatthe reader has to tear theirway into it, emphasising thetactile nature of print. The ap-proach works particularly wellfor The Dab Hand , which cov-ers the equally tactile world offood. “I wanted to emphasisethis relationship and establishThe Dab Hand as the placewhere the craft of cooking andthe craft of typography cometogether and converge,” Amy

explained.

Great GranThe Newspaper Club is alsothe ideal outlet for personalprojects – for anyone whowants to realise their idea as a

beautiful, printed object. Great Gran was a one-off publica-tion by New Zealand-bornillustrator Toby Morris, whoalso works for the Amsterdambranch of creative agencyWieden + Kennedy. It was partof Toby’s online project ‘200people I used to know’ (www.xtotl.blogspot.com), in whichhe draws people from hispast. He says on his website:“I’ve got 100 copies to sell,numbered and signed, and I’mreally happy with the format –printed in glorious newsprint attabloid newspaper size. I think

they’ll go pretty quickly!”

PRESS

START THE NEWSPAPER CLUB

as Argentina and New Zea-land. All 1,000 copies had gonein under 48 hours. This thingwas popular.

Why was it so popular?Lots of people talked aboutthe joy of reading words onthe printed page. One blogpost in particular we’d featuredhad become famous and wascited at every at conferencethroughout that year ¬– butit was 8,000 words long. Wedoubted whether anyone had

When we decided tomake a magazine weknew who we wanted toprint it. Newspaper Clubhas given ordinary people the power of print – co-founderBen Terrett tells us how(and why) they did it

Way back in 2008 a fewfriends and I collected ourfavourite blogposts from thatyear and published them in anewspaper. A proper tabloid

newspaper, printed at the sameplace they print Metro.We printed 1,000 and we

gave the rst 100 away tofriends as a gift. That was thepoint of the project; it was aChristmas present. Left with900 copies in the ofce westuck a note on our blogs,offering to send people onefor free.

Several hundred poundsworth of postage later we’ddispatched copies as far aeld

read all of that on a screen,and it turned out they hadn’t.As Matt Locke said, “Somethings work much better in print– Dan Hill’s epic ‘The Street AsPlatform’ blog post is somethingI’ve been meaning to read forages, but never managed towhen online. Ofine, it wasperfect for the commute toHove from London last night.”

We thought we might beonto something and we beganto wonder if we could make

In the ClubSo Newspaper Club printed the paper you’re holding in your hands.But what else have they made?

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For designJohn L. Walters,Eye

What we now call SouthbankCentre acquired its rst graphicidentity with the Festival ofBritain. Abram Games’s 1951symbol has now been remixed

to include a sponsor’s logo, butit’s surprisingly robust. As AlexCameron points out in his Eye80 review of Naomi Games’s ASymbol for the Festival (CapitalHistory), it was used on posters,catalogues, banners, stamps,bars of soap, biscuits and pow-der compacts.

The Festival’s organiserstook design, type and letteringseriously. You can see a surviv-ing example from BelvedereRoad in the oblique Egyptian(slab serif) letters that spell out‘Royal Festival Hall’ on the roadside of the building.

This was no accident: the‘Typographic Panel’ aimed tomake letters that ‘were Britishin feeling’, that could be used

architecturally ‘without loss ofcharacter’ and that providedscope for inventiveness. No-body used the term ‘branding’60 years ago, but this was anapproach to identity designthat remains relevant.

Southbank Centre has anofcial brand now, exible andmodular, courtesy of WolffOlins. But it’s the look of thephysical place that sticks in theheart and mind – the con-

crete and glass jungle of theHayward, QEH and BFI, theskate parks, the unexpectedstaircases, the roof spaces thathave hosted performances,installations and bands.

And I love the big publicspaces of the RFH, with itshula-hoop workshops, exhibi-tions and jazz marathons. Allwalks of life are drawn by itsfree gigs and functioning wi-,while round the back of thehall, those sloped Egyptianspreside over lovers, buskersand traders, reminding us thatevery day can (and perhaps

should) be a little festival.

For lmMatt Bochenski,Little White Lies

London’s lm culture is an

embarrassment of riches, es-pecially for LWLies. We’re popculture gluttons, and London isan all-you-can-eat buffet serv-ing everything from calorie-rich blockbusters to fat-freearthouse.

Nowhere nails that contrastof taste and avours betterthan the South Bank – a stretchof riverside that somehowmanages to cram the BritishFilm Institute, the IMAX andSouthbank Centre in betweenthe tourist shops and bars.

To be honest, we were pret-ty sceptical at rst. There’s pop

culture and then there’s, like,actual culture, and the South-bank looked a bit too real tous. Before it got a sexy makeo-

ver, the BFI used to be calledthe National Film Theatre, and

was deliberately designed tokeep the riff-raff away.But the thing is, if you love

cinema, you can’t stay away– and you shouldn’t. Openinga BFI programme is like somemagical adventure: you neverknow where it’s going to takeyou. You want to go to a Lordof the Rings all-nighter at theIMAX? Cool, do it. You wantto remember what ElizabethTaylor was like in her prime?Go do that, too. Oh, you wantto watch lms from the artguild of Japan? On a Sundayafternoon? Fruity, but doable.

We hear a lot of stuff aboutnew media this, and digitaldistribution that, but the SouthBank had all that gured outyears ago. It’s always felt likeyou were in control, curatingthe kinds of things you didn’teven know you wanted to see.

It’s kind of a cliché, but theSouth Bank at its best offersthe thrill of discovery. Sure, atits worst, it offers over-pricedsarnies and the feeling of beingsurrounded by old people. Butthat’s all part of the experience.

For skatersEd Andrews,Huck

Walk down along SouthbankCentre on pretty much any dayof the year and your ears arebound to be assaulted by thesharp clacks and cringe-induc-ing screeches of urethane andmaple attacking the concrete.It’s a sound that strikes fearinto the hearts of the inrm,the closed-minded and thosechosen to guard property. Buthere, the din of skateboarding

is very much the soundtrack toa stroll along the river.It was the early 70s when

Southbank Centre was rst

colonised by skateboarders,who fell in love with the smooth

concrete transitions shelteredfrom the rain by the RoyalFestival Hall above. While NoSkateboarding signs sprang uparound the city in response tothis dangerous new woodentoy from America, SouthbankCentre’s tradition of cultural in-dulgence somehow unofciallyturned a blind eye to it. Overthe years, as skateboardinghas evolved into a multi-milliondollar industry, this spot hasremained a must-see for anyskateboarder visiting the city.

In recent years, gradualredevelopment has slowly

chipped away at the na-tion’s most iconic skate spot.But skateboarders aroundthe world, mobilised by localskaters Winston Whitter andToby Shuall’s ‘Save The SouthBank’ campaign, are showingthat they’re not going to let thisnational treasure disappearwithout a ght.

For kidsCathy Olmedillas,

Anorak

Southbank Centre is a magi-cal place and one of ourfavourite spots in London. Itsposition by the river remindsus how beautiful and excitingLondon is, with all its wonderfullandmarks around. There arealways many activities for kids,

which we are grateful for. Wewere once chased by zombiesthere, as we just happened tobe there at the same time as

London Festival of Horror – itwas such fun! And a bit scarytoo. In the summer we abso-lutely love getting soaked atthe Appearing Rooms fountainby the Royal Festival Hall, andafter a change of clothes, wenever fail to get sushi’ed out.We also like gawping at themany skateboarders there,hoping that one day we will bejust as great as they are doinga 360 spin. We are huge fans

of Southbank Centre, so I can’tthink of anything that could beimproved. Although maybe itwould be lovely to have morestreet food stands.

For LondonersLucy Scott,Lost in London

Head down, headphones inand shoulders hunched. By allmeans trudge, but do it quickly;those emails won’t answerthemselves. Physical and mental

disconnection is usually what ittakes to survive any trip acrossthe London landscape. Andeven if we wanted to, there’sno time to look up – it’s notwhat we do here. Mostly, oureyes are xed on the virtualpressures in front of us ratherthan our physical surroundings.

But not on the South Bank.The South Bank is somethingapart, a place to linger amidthe wearing terrain of cityliving, where it doesn’t seemdangerous to breathe and playand where the sight of a giantchair made of sand is par for

the course.I became love struck by the

South Bank a few years agowhen I walked along it every

day to and from my frustrat-ing ofce job. At 7am and

desolate, it was a landscapeof curious contours, sculpturedinto shape by frothy waves andbeady-eyed seabirds circlingoverhead. At 7pm and heav-ing, it was a place of busy car-ousels and paving slabs slickedpink with ice-cream drips.

It is where people cometo commune in post-workcircles, lean back on elbows,legs stretched out to the sun.And it doesn’t even matter thatthe grass is fake. Or that theman-sized fountains, in whichgrown men play, are installa-tions. What matters is that it is

a place where people interactwith, rather than shy awayfrom, their physical environment.

AT SOUTHBANK CENTRE

INDEPENDENT THOUGHT

It’s one of London’s biggest tourist hotspots,but what’s Southbank Centre really like?

We asked some of the city’s best independ-ent magazines for their expert opinion.

7/31/2019 File 000087


Black Country Atelier - a place to make things.Curator of the Power and Production Weekend at the

Festival of Britain’s 60th Anniversary.

www.blackcountryatelier.com

THE BEST INDEPENDENT

MAGAZINESDELIVERED DIRECTTO YOUR DOOR

WWW.STACKMAGAZINES.COM

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