I’ve just returned from a fantastic couple of days attending talks and taking part in 2 Night Walks on Friday and Saturday night as part of the Night Walking North Kent Festival organised by Inspiral London. I was particularly interested in this event as it was taking place in Gravesend on the south side of the river, where I would be passing through should I decide to take the latter stages of my Thames run onto that side.
The event also marks the launch of the unique Inspiral Trail Map, an ambitious artist-led project and collective that has worked to create a new walk trail ‘spiraling out through London, from Kings Cross, ending and beginning again at Gravesend.’ It was fortuitous that this event should be taking place during my residency at Metal Southend, just across the water and that I could take the opportunity of attending as part of my research and initial exploration of the area.
On Friday evening I took the ferry from Tilbury Ferry Port for a 5 minute journey across the river to Gravesend. It was then a 5 minute walk , past the distinctive bright red 40 metre steel-hulled lightship that is LV21 (an amazing art space and performance facility), to Gravesham Arts’ St Andrew’s Arts Centre, a former missionary church almost next door, where the evening’s talks were taking place.
These were themed as GHost Hosting 19: Of Ghosts and Sprites Walking by Nyght, led by artist Sarah Sparkes and intended as a prelude to the evening’s walk. Contributions from Scott Wood of the London Fortean Society, Storyteller Giles Abbott and a participatory sonic performance by the Breathing Space Collective, set the scene admirably for the night ahead. Those of us taking part in the Night Walk were then led off by Inspiral Director Charlie Fox and collaborative duo Mollett & Morris for a Hilight performance walk to Northfleet that explored the history and glory days of the former Rosherville Pleasure Gardens via a traveling magic lantern show. Although this was not directly linked to my research, I learned something new about the area that I had not previously known and it was a privilege to take part quite a special and magical event through the streets of Gravesend.
The second part of the evening was a collaborative ‘light action’ dotdotdash, by artist Birgitta Hosea, taking place inside a disused tunnel before the return walk to Gravesend. Unfortunately I had to miss this as I had to take the last train back to London. I had always planned to only do the first part of the walk to save my energies for the next evening and had expected to encounter Birgitta’s work before leaving. Somehow I misread the information, which was a little ambiguous and since I didn’t want to be stranded in Gravesend in the early hours of the morning I had to forgo the experience.
Instead, those of us who were taking the train were led by Charlie on a precarious route over a series high-level zig-zagging, caged walkways that led from Northfleet Church towards Ebbsfleet station. The notorious 60ft high pedestrian bridge at Church Path Pit in particular, was a vertiginous experience, better undertaken at night in poor visibility where you couldn’t see the view below too well, than during the day. The whole route appeared severely neglected and was strewn with litter and over grown vegetation. A likely breeding ground for misdemeanours, I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to have taken it alone, even during the day. Apparently the route is due to be resurfaced and improved with lighting as part of a £3.4 million redevelopment programme by Kent County Council. This won’t be a moment too soon, as apart from the safety issue, it is absurd how the whole route appears completely abandoned and disconnected from its surrounding environment, and especially from the from the nearby Ebbsfleet International Station. The path leading from the bridges was completely overgrown, almost to the point of invisibility and although we could see the lights of Ebbsfleet Station ahead of us, it was a long indirect walk round and through the car park, before we finally reached it. I was relieved to have made it in one piece and was looking forward to getting back to London, where I had planned to stay at my partner’s in Waterloo, as it was too late to get back to Southend.
Saturday night’s events will be the focus of the next blog entry.
