Community Power Podcast Series 3 Episode 7: Art, action and legacy – the transformation of Chatham through Arches Big Local

Episode 7: Art, action and legacy – the transformation of Chatham through Arches Big Local 

Chris Allen

Hello and welcome to the latest Community Power Podcast, the series being brought to you in partnership with Local Trust. My name’s Chris Allen, and in this series of podcasts, we’re showcasing some incredible projects, focusing in particular on what happens when you give local people the resources, the power and the assets to make a difference to their neighbourhoods. With me is series producer Kirsten Sinclair, sir. Kirsten this week a project with a cabbage at the heart of it. 

Kirsten Sinclair

Yes, we’ll find out more about the cabbage later. Our guest this week is Kate Mechedou, and she’ll be telling us about Arches itself and its unique history. 

Chris Allen

She does indeed and she starts off by describing the area to us. 

Kate Mechedou

Arches Local, or the Arches Local partnership, is based in Chatham in Kent. It’s actually the Luton part of Chatham, which, for anybody who knows Chatham, is the sort of, you know, well, there’s a there’s a set of railway arches that are big Victorian railway arches, and we’re the other side of that. But the Big Local area actually extends through the arches themselves, one end of Luton Road right, sort of halfway down Luton Road, right up to the junction with what’s called Fort Amherst, which is an old fort. And so that includes a sort of part of the one way system called The Brook that includes the middle of Chatham. Chatham High Street itself, you know, it’s, it’s…And then extends out to the side at various places as well. 

But the Luton area is the considered to be the deprived area, the area with lower educational attainment and lower average income, all of that sort of stuff, and more problems to do with social behaviour and all sorts of things. We have, we have a very transient populations, or transient population. They come in and they leave. They don’t tend to put down roots particularly long. But there’s also the population there who have been there for years and years and years and years and years and would never leave. And those two populations don’t always see eye to eye, but they live along shoulder, cheek by jowl. 

Chris Allen

So has it been one of the jobs of, the jobs of Big Local to try to bring them together, to try to get them seeing eye to eye? 

Kate Mechedou

Absolutely, and that’s something that’s happened for me. I’ve definitely as a result of being involved with Big Local and the Arches Local partnership, particularly, I’ve met people I would never have otherwise met. And they and I’ve got, you know, very good friends that I would not have made without being part of Arches Local. 

Chris Allen

We always like to know how people have been hooked into this, you know, and and carried on giving all that they’ve been giving. 

Kate Mechedou

My first awareness of the whole Big Local programme – what must have been in around, I don’t know, 2013 something like that, you know, just start as a part of the Olympic legacy – and there were these, you know, it was talking about meetings that were in the local area to discuss, what might we do with money, if we had it, and how might we, you know, operate. And I went along to a couple of those meetings, and I remember there was a councillor there, and there was members of the local constabulary there, and, you know, and it seemed to be quite an interesting sort of mix. And there was a girl who had just moved into the area, said, ​“We should, you know, put the money into a sexual health clinic.” And it was all sorts of interesting discussions, but I didn’t think very much more of it. And I wasn’t working in the area at the time. I didn’t think much more of it until and was waiting to hear about it, you know, thought it’s that usual thing you think, or somebody will take it on. 

Chris Allen

“Not me, somebody else please”. 

Kate Mechedou

Yeah. And in, must have been 2017 I think, I was having a bit of a crisis at work, because I think I’ve been in my job too long. So then I went for a walk, and I walked down Luton Road. And on Luton Road at that time, Arches Local had a shop area was there, their hub, the community hub. And I’d seen it, and I didn’t know what was going on there. I’d seen kids doing some dancing in it. I didn’t know what it was. And I wandered in, and happened to be a Tuesday, I think, when they had an art group on. 

And I got chatting to a young man called Jackson, who was, you know, telling me all sorts of things about all sorts of things they were doing, and that it was a local group for local people, and that the council didn’t really have much involvement with it, but were supporting it. And I thought that’s exactly what I need, just something to clear my mind and help me through this time. So I went to the art group on the Wednesday, came back to the same place. And from then, started to realise this was a group that had a lot of potential. This is a group that’s in my local area that is doing stuff, and I think it’s related to those couple of meetings I went to way back, you know, and sort of joined the dots. 

Chris Allen

So this time, you’d already, you’ve got the sort of appetite, really, for Arches Big local at that time. And most people, you know, go into Big Local and end up being in a crisis, but you’re in a crisis, and went into Big Local and actually almost the art group then helped you really. It was good therapy. 

Kate Mechedou

It really did. Because, you know, when you need to make a big change in your life, it’s, it’s not such an easy thing to just go, ​“okay, then”. You’ve got to kind of get your your mind, your soul, your body, in alignment to do it, you know, and then to actually embrace what that means. 

Chris Allen

And I see that you’re doing a project with young people in the area called ​“Fit and Fed”. I think I know what it’s all about, but you tell me what’s behind that. I should imagine the cost of living crisis is impacting on on that at this moment in time, but it’s something you’d want to sustain? 

Kate Mechedou

Yes, absolutely ​‘Fit and Fed” is one of the projects that started most early, and it really sprang – again Steve Perez was the main initiator for it – but he linked up with Sport On Your Doorstep, and Olympia boxing to (Olympia being a very local sports organisation). Because he he worked out quite quickly, and through liaising with the local one of the local primary schools there, there were kids that, through the holidays, were in danger of not eating, and in our immediate area, on our doorstep. And when you once you’re aware of that, you kind of go, we have to do something about that. So ​“Fit and Fed” started as a way of bringing those kids together, giving them sport activities that were fun, getting them away from the screens. Because I think that is a recurring pattern that a lot of kids nowadays go home and the only thing they will do during the holidays is sit on their screen and not actually move and or only their thumbs. 

Chris Allen

Lots of exercise. 

Kate Mechedou

They do loads of exercise. And actually, it’s important that we, you know, not only run around, but do it together as well, so that they can build those bonds with the kids that they live next door to and that they see at school. And also that we can feed them as well. So and again, with the food donation charities as well, we’ve been able to make sure that there’s food. There’s always a budget for food as well.

Chris Allen

And what age group are we talking about when we talk about young people here. What age range are you focusing on? 

Kate Mechedou

Really, from kids at the beginning of primary school, from seven. They’re supposed to be seven. Right the way through to, well, it’s supposed to be sort of 12. But I have to say, we have a number of kids who’ve come to it for so long, and they look to keep coming so that you know if they can be trusted, and if we have their details, yes, we extend it slightly. Officially of course, there are some placements that happen with Sport On Your Doorstep and Olympia boxing. So there are about four of the Olympia boxing kids who were attendees and are now being sort of apprenticed, if you like. 

Chris Allen

My next question was about, are any of them coming through to become leaders? Because, again, that really does help sustain it, doesn’t it? 

Kate Mechedou

Absolutely, and that is an aspect that we really want to continue. Because, you know, these are local kids who, you know, that’s they found, you know, not everything has to be about, you know, being a good administrator. Sometimes it’s about being hands on. And, you know, good with people, good with kids, you know? So yeah, that’s where they’re they’re finding their career paths, if you like. 

Chris Allen

Now I’m also I can see the street art project you’ve got there. I’m intrigued by its title of ​“the cabbage mural”. And now I can think of lots of great murals, most of them don’t feature cabbages. So tell us about that one. 

Kate Mechedou

Well so here we go back to my old geekery, the fact I’m a historian. One of the areas the names by which this area used to be known, and I’m talking like way, way back, many centuries ago, was Cabbage Island. Because before the houses were built here, it had about five farms in the area, and cabbages were one of our main productions. And I believe it’s an epithet that’s applied to a number of rural, sort of, or semi rural places, but we were known as the Cabbage Island of the Chatham area. And so there was a project run by Icon Theatre some years ago which looked at the history of Cabbage Island. And now there’s even a sort of nostalgia history group, a Facebook group online, which are called the Cabbage Islanders. So if you know about that, and then they tend to be the people who’ve been born and raised and stayed here forever. So it seems to be a good way of, sort of identifying the area. 

We didn’t want to employ a mural artist and say, right, we need it to be this big by this big. We need it to show this that and the other. Because you can either have, you know, a commission that’s commissioned to within an inch of its artistic life. So there’s no room for artistic creation by the artist. Or you can give them a looser brief and say, have at it and go with the consequences. And that was the route that we decided as a partnership to take, because we thought, we are not the National Gallery, we are not Tunbridge Wells. We are rough and ready as you like, we’re not Rochester, which is literally a mile away and has all the Dickens and is very pretty, pretty, and all the buildings are properly conserved. We have just as much history, just as much, you know, preventative conservation that should be going on here. But it isn’t because we are viewed as a lower priority area and a lower, you know, the transient population that maybe doesn’t invest in it so much. So we thought we need something that reflects that. 

So we employed an amazing artist, commissioned an artist, having looked at a number of different artists. We had a little sort of working group that gathered information together. At one point we thought about appointing the London Mural Company who could do it all. But then we thought that that takes it away from actually, we want to be as a partnership, really involved. Anyway so we literally gave him the story about this used to be called Cabbage Island, and we’re happy for you to go as wack-a-doodle as you like, with. And this man particularly works with fried eggs. If you’ve ever seen a bit sort of Dali inspired a melting fried egg over a clock. 

Chris Allen

Oh yes.

Kate Mechedou

That’s what he’s known for. And Kozlowski is his working name. And and so we we said, ​“Yes, let’s go with Cabbage Island, what you’re going to come up with?” And what he came up with – and we were able to it meant that we could talk to the person who had a brilliant blank elevation on the side of their wall and she’s now, you know, effectively, part of the wider partnership. She was delighted to go with it, supportive of everything we did. And then, as it was being put up on this wall, which only took three days, that process was brilliant for attracting attention and people coming and saying, ​“what’s all this? Then, what’s going on”, you know? And it was a bit of a, you know, ​“can you, can you make out what it is?” ​“What do you think it should be?” ​“What sort of art would you like to see in this area?” So, so it opened up all these brilliant conversations. And when it was finished, it is a cabbage. 

It is a giant cabbage that takes up the whole of the blank elevation. It’s kind of, it’s also got, like police do not cross lines down it. You can see the skid marks where it’s obviously landed. So it’s almost outer space beam, and that that reflects the other bits of art in that area. And we had commissioned some years ago, again, it was one of the early projects with Luton primary and with other artists, a project called the Medway eyes project. Because the partnership discovered this was in Denmark, there was a very successful project which discovered, if you put eyes on art in a in an area that was crime ridden, crime would fall, because criminals feel watched. And so that’s what we did, and the we already had some of these art littler paintings in that area, and they’re things like pigs in space suits, but with a camera, you know, and cameras looking at people and features with eyeballs looking at it’s really, you know, very sort of outer space. 

So this Cabbage Island mural reflects that as well and takes the Medway eyes project forward. We love it so much. It’s had an overwhelmingly positive response from everybody. I think the most negative thing that anybody said, and this wasn’t even really negative, it was just starting a conversation was, ​“well, I hope they got the permission of the person who’s house it is”. Yeah, that in itself, leads to another conversation, you know. And we had the Medway Council, had the local media phoning them up and saying, ​“Oh, we love your cabbage. We want to do an interview”. And the council, of course, had to say, ​“it was nothing to do with us. Speak to these people”. So that, you know is the power of people. Power that you know you can do this stuff. 

Chris Allen

Again it will be something to by which the area will be remembered. But you know you’re, you’re going to be continuing as well, aren’t you? So we’ll come back to that in a moment. And also, you’ve, you’ve now got some outside funding coming in and looking at the Millennium green as well. So it’s not just been about spending the Big Local money, has it? Is that a new skill that people have learned to actually not just have the Big Local money, because Big Local was awarded because there were gaps. People weren’t getting their fair share of National Lottery funding. And now they’re not only just got the National Lottery funding, they’re now learning how to bring other funding in as well? 

Kate Mechedou

I think that is true and but it has to be a conscious campaign as well. And once you have a community organisation, even an unconstituted one, set up, it does attract – you know, people can see that it’s active, can see that it’s doing stuff – it does attract, you know, even unwarranted, we actually applied to, I think it was British Red Cros? I forget recently, Pembroke court, but we do quite a lot with them. They wanted a defibrillator. Is that what it’s called a defibrillator? 

Chris Allen

Yup defibrillator.

Kate Mechedou

That was on their sort of wish list of things that maybe Arches could help with. We asked, I think it was the British Red Cross, about the possibility of it, and the next thing we knew, one turned up! So it’s like we didn’t even have to pay for it. But you don’t know these things unless you you know, reach out. 

Chris Allen

You’ve got a network established and developing, really, and I suppose that’s where you hope for the future lies as you carry on, you know. 

Kate Mechedou

That’s going to be fundamental, yeah, I think. 

Chris Allen

And what you were saying earlier, really, about the value of people coming together, learning from each other, supporting each other, the money’s useful to get people together, because otherwise people don’t get together. But actually it’s that getting together, that learning from each other, that working together, that developing that common vision, that really keeps you going? 

Kate Mechedou

Absolutely, absolutely. We’ve got a great greening programme. So Arches Local as you can imagine, you know, as I say, it’s the largest iron under bridge in the whole of the southeast. It’s this big old I mean, if you’re a history lover like me, you just stand there and go, this is Victoriana. But for most people, it’s just a big, ugly brick archway with the railway going over the top and but it’s got a road obviously going underneath. And there are, we’ve now put baskets, flower baskets, on the railings by that road, with a rather ugly roundabout to try and mitigate all the pollution that’s caused by all the cars going around there all the time. And we’ve just redone them, because the council, and you know, we are in a cost of living crisis, they are strapped for cash. It’s one of the things that they’ve cut that Medway North, who were their contractor for doing their baskets, that was one of the things they were going to cut. So Arches Local have been able to take it on. And the other day, myself and some colleagues were out there, and we took the mud out. We put, you know, the bulbs out. We’ve replaced them ready for the spring, you know, July fallow. And I’m really looking forward to the fact that I can go back in the spring and see which of those baskets that I personally planted up are going to sprout lots of flowers, and which ones I’m going to go ​“I should have put more bulbs in that one”. Sort of legacy. They say having a garden is the best way into the future. 

And within all the projects that Arches Local have initiated, there’s no way – and all the friendships and all, you know, the bonding that we’ve started – there’s no way we want that to stop. So we have to, you know, as a as a community, find ways to, even once this money is no longer available to us, to make sure that we have ways of doing stuff, like the baskets, of doing stuff, like the sing along, of doing stuff, you know, like the Pembroke court. And again, that gets together, as we do there. And indeed, Luton Millennium green, which is a play space for the children. It’s, it’s a beautiful little park right on the edge of the I forget if it’s the Darland banks or the Connie banks. We’ve got different banks here a very hilly area. And they run alongside it anyway, one of the sets of banks. And, you know, walk five minutes, and you could be in the middle of anywhere, but the park is beautiful, but it was a little rundown. There was stuff done for it when it was first put in at the millennium. 

There was more stuff done when Arches Local kicked off. But now, yes, we’ve managed to secure some more funding from the SPF fund [Shared Prosperity Fund] in order to be able to revamp all the play equipment and do some planting to protect some of the trees and clear some of the wilderness areas to make it more useful. It even has an amphitheatre! We’ve done various Arches Local have done various gatherings on the on the amphitheatre, including for Thank you Sunday, which I know is something the partnership wants to do every year. So yeah, little, you know, song, dance and all sorts of things. 

Chris Allen

That was Kate Mechedou, who is the co chair of the Arches Big local partnership. And clearly they’re wanting to have a legacy in the area and keep that conversation between people going, trying to tackle some of the biggest issues in the area as possible. But we heard all about the cabbage there Kirsten. I hope we can see a picture of it in the show notes. 

Kirsten Sinclair

Yes, I’ve actually seen the mural myself, and it is quite impressive. Not many, there are not many places where you can see a large cabbage on the side of a building. And they’ve, you know, they have a lot of other impressive works going up all throughout arches, and we will leave everything in the show notes. So you can have a look yourself.

Chris Allen

Indeed do follow it up. Their murals are quite spectacular. Thanks, Kirsten. And we look forward to you joining us next time on the Community Power Podcast, brought to you by Local Trust, discovering what happens when you give local people the power, the money and the assets to make a difference to their neighbourhoods.