About Arundel Street Precinct
Pete Codling was selected for the Arundel Street project as part of the Arts Council’s ‘Art at The Centre’ awards, to encourage local authorities to involve artists in the planning and design of their cities. He has worked with Portsmouth City Council and local schools and community groups since May 2001 to develop and detail the design for the Arundel Street.
The Concept
The design starts at the centre of the junction between Commercial Road and Arundel Street. Concentric circles radiate from the fountain outwards to help define the importance of this 300 year old city centre where the old 'Halfway Houses' and the Arundel Canal Basin once stood. The Halfway Houses were so-called because they were half way between the old walled city of Portsmouth and the satellite communities of Southsea, Portsea and Landport. Viewed from above, the design is can be thought of as similar to a stone dropped into a fountain or a pen dipped into ink. The ripple effect that is created is the main inspiration for the paving patterns.
The Canal
The first arc line would complete a circle around the Fountain to Ottakar’s Book shop. The first part of the street shows the broad curved paving pattern that may follow through into Commercial Road in the future. On top of this, a central boulevard is lined with square trees depicting the man made canal in straight rectangular lines. Reference to the water and cultural history of the city are made with arcs of ink blue glass and stainless steel bands with text that meanders down the street. The hand written style quotes come from famous local authors and novels that reference the city, old and new. There are also six bespoke sculptural benches that celebrate some of the cultural icons of Portsmouth’s rich history.
Literary History
Outside Debenhams department store is the Doyle Bench. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the first Sherlock Holmes novel ‘Study in Scarlet’ here and the bench uses the original manuscript notes in its design. On the other side of the bench is a handwritten note from inside a book donated to the Portsmouth Library. The words are laser cut into the steel and backed with a mirror plate to reflect the passers by. The three stainless steel sheets support a ‘quill pen seat’ made from marine ply and oak. The text on the steel bands in the floor is a quote from his first detective novel.
Celebrating engineering and innovation
The next bench celebrates the engineers Sir Marc Brunel and his infamous son Isambard Kingdom Brunel who lived in Portsea. The giant curved steel sheet resembles a curved ruler and technical drawings cut into the steel on either side depict the block design (rope pulley) in reference to the block making machines that Sir Marc patented for the Portsmouth Dockyard. The other side suggests the tunnels or paddle wheel of a steam ship. The slatted wood work is suspended by four heavy lengths of chain link. Either side of the bench the steel bands in the floor quote from Rudyard Kipling’s poems ‘The Lady She’s A Liner’ and ‘Troopin’.
Maritime Culture
The maritime painter W.L.Wyllie used to live in the grand house next the Round Tower in Old Portsmouth over looking the Harbour mouth. He painted the lavish Trafalgar panorama in the Dockyard Museum. Two drawings from his 1903 book, ‘Nature’s Laws and the Making of Pictures’ are shown on the bench. One side shows a perspective study and the other shows one of Palmerston’s Follies in the Solent illustrating how to draw boats as they disappear over the horizon. The oak and iroko wooden seat takes the shape of both a pencil and a boat.
Craftsmanship
The first three benches have wooden seats that have been hand crafted using the specialist wood woodworking facilities at The Eldon Building University of Portsmouth. The artist and his two assistants all studied here. The University have been involved in the project from the early stages and student Neil Prince working alongside Pete Codling and the City Council Design Team. They also provided a studio and exhibition space for the community consultation process.
In Slindon Street beside U-Need-Us on the way to the Post Office two steel seats celebrate the Victorian authors Sir Walter Besant and George Meredith. The shape of the benches, half envelope half letter, gives the Portsmouth address of the author with their portraits on the stamps. The letters are addressed to the authors from fictional characters within their own novels. Both authors wrote of snobbery and values but made little noise of their true Pompey origins whilst they were gentlemen of London.
The Charles Dickens Bench
The farthest and largest of the benches is dedicated to Charles Dickens. The steel sculpture of two sheets of paper rolled together shows, in his own handwriting, some draft notes from Nicholas Nickleby and Pickwick Papers. Both novels make reference to his birth place of Portsmouth. Several other Dickensian quotes are used in the street; in the steel bands, and sand blasted into the concrete.
Industrial Heritage, Commercial Identity
Granite blocks that once formed part of the canal wall and the old dry docks have been used to provide additional seating and landscape features. The blocks were rescued by the artist from Fratton [train station] Goods Yard on Goldsmith Avenue, on the route of the old canal. Pete has chosen those that have been carved or shaped in some way to celebrate the labour and skill that have helped shape the industrial heritage and commercial identity of our city centre.
Contemporary Lighting
The famous Scottish engineers Thomas Telford and John Rene are associated with the development of Portsmouth at the time of the Canal. Rene was a trained stone mason and key architect in the Arundel Canal itself and Telford severed as a foreman and stone mason at the dockyard. Perhaps some of the granite blocks are the actual handy work of these great men. The blue neon string light beneath them gives a new contemporary look to the street at night. They are like building blocks of the old and the new city centre, architectural relics that have been given a new burst of life.
Just outside of the new Wilkinson’s store a new set of concentric curves are made up from light blue concrete and paving cobbles. The blue concrete reflects the colour of the new cladding on the building. These spread along the Eurowell building that houses the Bowling Alley, The Bingo, Trotter’s Cafe, Clarke’s, Jessop’s and so on. The pattern spreads up into Slindon Street and is etched with quotes from famous Portsmouth authors, politicians and cultural icons.
Famous Quotations
Several light hearted quotes have been used by local school children along side historical Portsmouth figures such as Mary Sumner, founder of The Mother's Union and Margaret O'Shea, who wrote the Suffragettes anthem. The words of the authors Beatrix Potter, Jane Austen and the politicians James Callaghan and Ian Mikardo are just a few of the inspirational people included.
Future Redevelopment
Phase Two of the street will take the design further down the precinct to the Highbury College Compass Building. The meandering blue glass canal turns into a shoreline inspired design.
Historical Context
The Arundel Canal was a mixture of man made and natural water ways and was technically referred to as a ‘navigation’ rather than a Canal.
The Navigation Company set up to manage the waterway could not compete with the new railway system and unfortunately the salt water table had contaminated the fresh water supply.
Nevertheless, the Arundel Navigation was a great technical feat in its time and symbolically represents another heritage for the city beyond the maritime and military. In it’s time, it represented our commercial aspiration, our venture and ingenuity in much the same way that more contemporary vertical structures and skyscrapers do today.