Column: May (2) 2019

When Banksy sneaked onto Golden Lane that night back in September 2017 and gifted the walls with murals in homage to the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, a commotion kicked off. The City Corporation couldn’t decide whether his handiwork was art or vandalism, spectators stood in long, excited queues to get selfies, and residents jumped straight into a debate on the nature of good taste.

The Square Mile’s prized zero-tolerance of graffiti had been breached and a fuming gang, nicknamed The Scrubbers, demanded cleanliness above culture.

The infamous Banksy artworks are still there today, available to view free of charge, protected by plastic shields. And I suspect even their harshest critics would miss them if they were gone.

For some, art should be in galleries; for others it should be allowed to occupy any available public space, and a strong case for this has been made with a collection of paintings by year six pupils from our local school, Prior Weston, inspired by the revered German-Swiss surrealist Paul Klee.

The pictures are displayed on building-site hoardings in Carthusian Street, opposite the red phone box at Charterhouse Square. Unfortunately, at the moment this one of the area's busiest roads as raging motorists negotiate the warren of rat-runs around the Crossrail developments at Farringdon.

Whether any of them notice the 14 superb multi-coloured images is a good question, but these paintings stand out for their quality, and will remain in place until September.

Prior Weston art teacher Marc Valiquette, a tall Canadian with a bushy beard, looks slightly stumped when I ask him what connects 10-year-old Londoners with Paul Klee, nerdy colour theorist and poster boy for the Bauhaus. “Mmmm,” he says, rubbing his chin, “that’s a hard question to answer.”

The project is rigorously educational. First the pupils picked a view from the school playground. Then they narrowed their focus using viewfinders and started sketching. The sketches were pieced together to make compositions and the compositions, once coloured (mainly in acrylics), became the paintings. Each of the vibrant colours has a purpose; some to harmonise, some as outlines and dividers for the bold shapes.

The students eagerly embraced the concept of abstraction, in which the thing you draw doesn’t have to be an exact copy of the thing you're looking at. This freed them to write their own rules and be individually expressive in their art.

All parents like to think their bundle of joy is a budding Picasso, but in this collection we see the industry behind the artistry, the hard work, the concentration and the great coaching that elevates the paintings from “Children’s Art” to “Art by Children”.

Another exciting local art project will be unveiled this month. It pairs an audio fairytale written by Letizia Binda-Partensky of Goldsmith's University and a decorative mural made by the Golden Lane Memory Group under the guidance of artist Madhumita Bose.

The story is about a young boy, bored on a family day out at the Barbican, who escapes his parents, gets lost and ends up on the Golden Lane Estate. Along the way he meets a rich cast of fantasy characters (based on interviews with real residents) and learns some valuable life lessons plus a potted history of the two companion estates. The mural tells the tale visually in weavings and stitchings in yellow (Barbican) and gold (Golden Lane), all lovingly crafted by members of the very successful Memory Group. The unveiling will take place on 11 June at 4pm in the Golden Lane Estate Community Centre.

The day before, 10 June, marks the start of 'Creativity and Wellbeing Week', an opportunity to join together and get creative. Sadly, the City is poorly represented in the week-long programme of activities and events (visit creativityandwellbeing.org.uk for details), but on 13 June at 6pm I will jump on the 243 to Haggerston to help Headway East London's Chris Miller present a talk about how art has shaped his life after brain injury and the importance of the 'Discovery Through Art' philosophy of Headway's creative hub, Submit To Love Studios. Miller is notorious for creating his own audacious versions of classic paintings such as Botticelli's 'The Birth of Venus', with himself as the centre of attention.

Other nearby events worth checking out for 'Creativity and Wellbeing Week' include 'From The Unconscious Mind', an exploration of art-making and psychoanalysis at the Freud Museum in Chalk Farm (12 June), a session from the Peel Art Group in Northampton Row (14 June) and an intergenerational storytelling project 'What's the Best Piece of Advice You've Been Given', at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, on 10 June.

Billy Mann lives in Basterfield House on the Golden Lane Estate. He is a teaching assistant, a City of London Community Builder and blogs at scrapbookbilly.blogspot.com. Write to him at goldenlanegazette@gmail.com

A version of this column appeared in the City Matters newspaper, issue number 099, page 23.

Micro-fiction: Dogcollared

It was the smell that got him. The mothball stench of the clergy. His stalker tried to make 'innocent' conversation, another dead giveaway.

Keep your nerve, don't look up, lock him out. Peripheral vision spotted a hole in a navy-blue Shetland wool cardigan.

Yes, it's a Kindle. I have around 250 books on it. Steady, you are opening the door to the confessional. Stop now, or you're a goner.

He wanted to tell him that even though he didn't 'believe' in God, there was a fairly OK syllogistic argument for God's existence.

It went like this:

God is a concept.
Concepts exist.
God exists.

Instead he kept his head down in his Donna Leon and began a contemplation of the women in Brunetti's life - Paola, Elettra, Griffoni.

Micro-fiction: No Harm Done

He always felt uncertain saying he wasn't really that bothered. Nothing could be worse than the thing he'd already survived.

Picture: Maxine Peake

In the play 'Avalanche - A Love Story' at the Barbican theatre, London.

Column: May 2019

A Family Day is not everyone's idea of a good time, but they are a growing trend as workplace wellbeing moves up the agenda.

City University joined the party recently with an afternoon of child-friendly activities and the chance for off-duty staff to do some crafty under-the-radar networking.

Just down the road from Golden Lane, the Great Hall in City’s College Building became a fevered indoor picnic/play area as children from toddler size up roamed freely, sneakily scoffing too many ice creams and cones of popcorn. They were only following the example of their parents and guardians, who seemed to sense the onset of some kind of free period and went straight to wreckless.

The biggest hit for the youngsters was a talented balloon bender, who stunned the assembled hordes with her ability to twist and squelch any type of obscurely named dinosaur into life.

Other creatures were available, and the college Dean flirted dangerously with humiliation when he confused a Line for a House during a closely contested game of Animal Bingo.

Every so often, the estate is treated to free cookery lessons from the Bags of Taste not-for-profit organisation. The idea is that you learn to cook a delicious meal from scratch costing no more than £1 a head. Sourcing ingredients from the best local suppliers is rolled into the plan, as is a professional demonstration, top tips and a chance to knock up plates of food there and then – induction hobs, all equipment and proper supervision included.

The sessions really come into their own when class members weigh in with tips of their own, like what to do with those knobbly broccoli stalks you normally toss in the composting bin (answer: peel, chop and add to stew).

Bags of Taste also has a Facebook group run by cash-strapped students, where you'll find plenty more tips and up-to-the-minute bargain buys in all the main supermarkets.

In the session I attended the menu included a peanut and vegetable stew from Timbuktu called Maafe Tigidigi and an Asian dish, Xinjiang Cumin Chicken.

Repeating the word Tigidigi for some reason sent a titter around the room, but the laughing stopped when the tutor asked if anyone knew where Timbuktu was (answer: Mali).

The chicken dish was superb, but when I later tried the Tigidigi at home, improvising with some frozen butternut squash, it misfired. The squash went mushy and the sauce ended up like orange wallpaper paste.

The Extinction Rebels have successfully pushed us into thinking how we can help save the planet, but being careful where we chuck our used teabags doesn't seem to carry much weight. Over on the Middlesex Street Estate here in the City, residents are getting behind a community energy scheme, but unless governments act alongside citizens, the overall effect is likely to be weak.

Here on Golden Lane there are two things residents can do to make a difference. The first is to shout into the ears of our Common Councillors that the estate should become a model for fuel efficiency in high-density housing complexes, and solar panels installed on all flat roofs (we have lots). The second is to insist that the City Corporation reverse its crazy decision of many years ago to turn the paved piazza outside Great Arthur House into a car park. The first might take time, the second could be done tomorrow.

The estate has suffered two losses this month. Margaret Prior of Crescent House sadly passed and will be missed by many, and Jade Ibegbuna, the estate's Community Engagement Officer for the past three years, departed for a top-flight job in Leeds. On a happier note, Cuthbert-Harrowing House sang Happy Birthday to veteran resident Leila Hardy on her 90th birthday, which prompted the appearance of bunches of flowers and a large cake, which always goes down well around here.

The never-ending fiasco of Brexit has left us all on the brink of the unknown, but at least we’ve started talking about important things. Enlivened by this new mood of citizen engagement, I decided to contact our local MP, Mark Field.

He is a busy man, so I kept my question quick and easy. It was: Liverpool or Manchester City to win the Premier League title? I fully expected him to plump for Liverpool since he shares his name with a leading heart surgeon at a Liverpool hospital (what better reason?).

But no, describing himself as a “long-suffering Bury supporter”, for some reason Mr Field sided with the sky blues. Bury FC are in League Two, 41 places from Champions League qualification.

Billy Mann lives in Basterfield House on the Golden Lane Estate. He is a teaching assistant, a City of London Community Builder and blogs at scrapbookbilly.blogspot.com. Write to him at goldenlanegazette@gmail.com.

An edited version of this piece appeared in the City Matters nespaper, issue number 097.

Diary: April 2019

1 April 2019, London
‘We face the final completion of a Tory project … and the recasting of Britain – or, rather England – as a crabby, racist, inward-looking hole’
John Harris, the Guardian

2 April 2019, London
A nagging film.


4 April 2019, London

Jane tells me she bought some toilet rolls from Iceland, but discovered to her displeasure that “they’re a bit hard”.

4 April 2019, London
Operation Yellowhammer, Project Redfold, Operation Brock, Operation Kingfisher. These are the names of operations inside government to prepare for a worst-scenario departure from the EU. They sound like secret-service capers from the Cold War. Perhaps that is where we are now.

5 April 2019, London

This is a big story across all media this morning. Listening to the interview on the radio, I can't be sure that reporting it in this way tells the truth. The way I heard the player speak, and the slightly incoherent comments from him that led up to the quoted words, he might have actually have been saying that he wants to see the back of the inept governance in football that dishes out paltry fines for racism. But Danny Rose 'can't wait to see the back of crap football politics’ is not such a dramatic story. Of course, I could be wrong and the reporting might actually be a faithful reading of what he said.

8 April 2019, Winchester
This is a story in today's Morning Star.

It continues:
Alex Gordon reminded the party’s executive committee of Jeremy Corbyn’s speech in Coventry in February last year, when the Labour leader had warned that European Union treaties and directives would block some of his party’s policies.

These included providing state aid to cutting-edge industry, extending public ownership, outlawing the super-exploitation of imported agency labour, reforming public-sector procurement rules and putting an end to outsourcing and privatisation.

Mr Gordon pointed out that EU membership and Thatcherite economic policies together had transformed Britain’s economy from one with a large industrial sector in a trading surplus with the rest of Europe into a casino economy dominated by City institutions and transnational corporations.

The latter economy is dependent upon incoming investment and British imperialism’s earnings from financial services, property and cheap labour and raw materials around the world.

Mr Gordon, a former president of transport union RMT, said: “Today, without an economic Brexit from the EU single market and customs union rules, a future Labour government would face major obstacles in its efforts to implement left and progressive policies.

“This is one reason why the City, big business organisations and many right-wing Labour MPs are so desperate to prevent an economic Brexit, even if they cannot delay or prevent a formal, political Brexit.”

Meeting on the eve of what may be a decisive week for Britain’s future relations with the EU, the CP leadership reiterated its “uncompromising opposition” to any further postponement of Brexit Day and to any second referendum designed to keep Britain in the EU instead of honouring the people’s decision made in June 2016.

Britain’s Communists also decided to call for a “people’s boycott” of any British involvement in June’s elections to the “EU Commission’s fake parliament” in Brussels.

Meanwhile, CP general secretary Robert Griffiths reported a continuing upturn in party recruitment and membership. He revealed that more than 40 people had joined so far in 2019, the majority of them aged under 33.

10 April 2019, London

Polly Toynbee in the Guardian

‘Peter Mitchell, a Liverpool councillor, despairs of new attitudes in the wake of Brexit. “I see society changing before my eyes, empowering the worst. This is the end product of Thatcher’s 1980s, where individualism has won out over collectivism: it’s all me and mine; a selfishness that comes from that idea that the private is better than the public.”’

11 April 2019, London

C at Headway described this as “cut-price Monet”. The people were cold and lacking personality. The compositions were photojournalistic. He painted his wife naked a lot, often in shoes. I only really liked one picture, 'Woods in Autumn’ (1939).


11 April 2019, Hackney

At the bus stop last night outside Timber Wharf, Kingsland Road, a group of three youngsters on bicycles came weaving past at speed. A few minutes later I heard a sharp clack, turned around and saw a mobile phone in the centre of the road and the three cyclists disappearing back in the direction from which they had come. I turned around again and a young woman was standing next to me looking distressed. One of the cyclists had snatched her iPhone then thrown it violently to the ground. I asked the woman if she was OK, tried to console her on what must have been a jolting experience and glimpsed the condition of her phone. It was pretty wrecked, but seemingly still in one piece. The woman was shocked. Why would they steal a phone only to smash it to the ground? I suggested their task might have been to steal a specific type of iPhone, a sort of criminal commission, and that her phone did not meet the requirements. She attempted a resigned smile at this suggestion and we all got on the 243 bus, waving goodbye to B who had joined us at the bus stop. I noticed later, spying the internal security camera on the bus that she was talking on her phone. I took this as good news, that she was not too traumatised, and when she thanked us as she departed the bus, I felt slightly less disturbed by the whole event.

13 April 2019, Wallingford
“I wonder if Nigel’s failure to get elected to parliament seven times has anything to do with voters smelling his selfish priorities a mile off.”
Marina Hyde on Nigel Farage in the Guardian

13 April 2019, Wallingford

There is an article in the Telegraph magazine in which a 30-year-old woman is explaining why she doesn't want to have children. In the fourth paragraph she trembles with fear at being in opposition to “society's expectations of me as a woman”. I have barely reached the last of its 95 words before I have Marie-Claire Chappet cast as a sad misanthrope.


13 April 2019, Wallingford

At the museum. I was told later that photography was not permitted. Apologies.

14 April 2019, Wallingford
Food shaming. I have just read that some schools restrict the choices on the lunchtime menus for children on free school meals. They arrive at the front of the queue, make their lunch request to an adult serving them and are told, “No, you are on free school meals, you can't have that”.

18 April 2019, London


A very corny but also very sweet film. The role of women, especially motherhood, is the theme. The story itself resembles a country song in narrative. Rose is the difficult country-singing Glaswegian ex-con mother of two, Julie Walters plays her mother. Walters’ burning eyes are enough to pull a corny movie out of the mire of soft sentiment, and she don't half do class with class.

19 April 2019, Good Friday, East Croydon

Easter lunch with Margaret, Sue, Lil, Mia, me and Jane at The George pub.

20 April 2019, Sutton
A tree outside the Turkish restaurant near the train station.


21 April 2019, London
To the Pierre Bonnard exhibition at Tate Modern for an Easter Sunday treat. At an earlier visit I thought the compositions very studied and a bit photographic. This time I tried to keep my concentration on the figures and their shapes.


25 April 2019, Brighton
A quote in today's Guardian Weekly magazine from Malcolm Perera, a labourer at the scene of the Easter Sunday terror attack in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
"With my friends I carried 37 bodies and 50 bags of body parts ... the smell of blood is still on my body."

27 April, 2019, Brighton
"they [Brexiters say] won a referendum and that victory should be honoured. They have a point. The trouble is that the parliament to which they wish to return sovereignty – the very democracy they are fighting for – has not found a way to honour it".
Gary Younge, in the Guardian

28 April 2018, Brighton

Two more figures I just did. I also made one of Zinedine Zidane's legendary 2006 World Cup Final decking of the Italian player Marco Materazzi.