Introducing...
Our Banksiders
Bankside’s super-charisma comes from its people. The flesh and blood who make the place purr, sizzle, strum, twang, tickle and breathe.
‘Bump into Bankside’ is your chance to meet a few locals, in a few locals, be they pubs, arches, gardens, workshops, museums, and other offbeat spots. They all have stories. How they came to be here, why their thing took off, where they’d like their ashes scattered. Not your usual Q&A.
Get to know them.
Don’t be shy.
Meet the Banksiders.
Special thanks to
Images by @speediemeadie66
Words by Pete Kirby
If you would like to be included in our Bump into Bankside series, get in touch with Emma Charter.
Our Banksiders
Back in the 80s, Bankside was a ‘grot spot’ hotspot. Dereliction ran rife with homelessness, empty properties, unloved streets and abandoned spaces. It was no place to bring up kids. But Tim Wood did. Four decades on he’s Chair of Bankside Open Spaces Trust (BOST) with a back catalogue of pockets parks that fill the area with pride, oxygen and optimism.
Chief muckety-muck Alison opens the door in a wood apron. She wears her heart on her sleeve, literally. Her hands cup the world’s tiniest wood-turned urn, ornately made from super slow-growing boxwood. Around her, adults saw, sew, stitch, drill, carve, weave, hem, wire, plane, plumb, sand, and when they get it right, whistle.
Ben arrives on a bike, in Pedal Me pink. We jump in, cameras, tripod, Maria’s fry-up (to add a kilo). He cycles us to his hidden HQ, under a Bankside arch. Where we suddenly smell (but can’t see) fish. ‘Fresh from Cornwall, 3 times a week. Out before sunrise. We feed London’s restaurants faster, cheaper and greener, than any van can.”
In a time of fake news and disinformation, we yearn for facts. ‘Facts not opinions.’ These very words are carved into stone above a Bankside door. Behind the door hide contraptions that test the materials that built the world. Sydney Harbour Bridge. Wembley Stadium. The Skylon. They owe it all to Kirkaldy’s Testing Works.
