"...In
a decaying society, art if it is truthful,
Must also
reflect decay...”
Ernst Fischer
What is the appeal of urban decay? Perhaps we secretly look forward to a
science fictional scenario in which our indomitable human empire will finally
fall prey to the ravages of nature and time. On many occasions in history,
mankind's technologies, his architectural achievements, his various methods of
global dominance have been destroyed by the power of nature. Let us look at it
this way, by putting the scenario on your front doorstep; Will Portsmouth fall
sway to the power of nature?
If our economy collapsed, then yes, it is a possibly.
Who’s to say that our workforces here would not be lured away by more lucrative
contracts elsewhere? We all need money but if the current trend of austerity
measures persists, then the workers in Portsmouth could be forced to find the
next new contract, or proverbial gold mine further and further afield, leaving Portsmouth
a virtual ghost town. Are we to rely entirely on tourism? Only if the tourists
come but if the economic downturn is country wide, it is unlikely that
Portsmouth could survive on tourism indefinitely. Its remaining population whether
placated on benefits, or specialist trained are too ill equipped to deal with
the rising tide of crippling economics. They too will have to find work or
benefits elsewhere, whilst the city itself falls to ruin as foliage creeps back
in, weeds overtake the streets and very few council staff (if any) will be left
to maintain it all.
South Parade Pier
Southsea, Portsmouth
Climate change will also affect Portsmouth’s economic growth. Rising tides will erode the sea shore
further and further. Talk of sea walls to stave off the seas, is a possibility
but still only that. The Hampshire
County Council Climate Change Commission in 2007 stated that: ‘without
improvements to the cities flood deference’s, climate change will undoubtedly
significantly impact on the economic well-being of Portsmouth…’ How we could
arrive at a virtual ghost town, swathed in weeds is complicated but also quite
simple. It boils down to good or bad management.
It boils down to communication
or lack of. It boils down to education, the availability of goods and other
services, skilled work and what attracts us to such places. It boils down to
where our priorities are founded. If there are no jobs, then the population
moves on or we turn to crime altogether and ghettos and slums become the norm. A
bad economy cannot be blamed on any one person, any more than climate change
itself. If the economy is badly structured in the first place and if we fail to
see the forces of nature around us as a contributing factor to how that economy
is shaped, then we deny all reality. Who is to say we do not affect the
composition of our atmosphere by the amount of pollution pumped into it by our
factories vehicles and weapons of mass destruction? On all fronts:
Architecturally, environmentally and economically, our present systems are
unsustainable in the 21st Century.
But is it inevitable that all human activities on Earth
will succumb to nature, especially given our current abuses of the environment?
What is the common factor in the failure of past societies? Call it capitalism,
call it greed, call it stupidity. Has it always been the case that we are
unable to respect and meet the needs of everyone in society? When we invented
agriculture, we began to work the land about us, cutting back the forests and
farming large stretches of the countryside until industrialization drew
millions of people to the cities only to be ensnared in the detriments of
mechanization.
One only has to look at the history of the Luddite Movement as an example,
where skilled workers rebelled against the automations brought on by the
industrial revolution. Nowadays, in our "concrete jungles", citizens
are alienated from nature and forced to work by a monopoly that constrains us
in a vacuum from reality. We fight over a corner on a pale blue dot that hangs
in the void. Thus when the illusion falters, the vines start creeping back in
and in this respect; I have often thought that civilization is really about
keeping up with the gardening…
Clarence
Pier
Southsea,
Portsmouth
Built in 1861, Clarence Pier has been extended and renovated a great
deal since then. It was severely damaged by a Luftwaffe air raid during the Second
World War, but not refurbished until 1961. South Parade Pier, once the
seaside's mainstay attraction, has now closed after a steady decline over
decades. Clarence Pier's future isn't bright either, and may become too costly
to run and with most locals forced to leave the area in search of work
elsewhere, the Pier will eventually close to the public sometime in the latter
part of this century.
Over the course of the next ten years the area will
suffer from severe storm damage, high tides will have swept shingle into most
parts of the lower levels and across the main sea road towards the Clarence
Pier Bus Interchange, swamping most vehicles in the deluge. Thus, the area may
produce many rare forms of flora, boasting some of the most intricate
biospheres along the south coast...
The
Kings Theatre -Auditorium
The Kings Theatre,
Albert Road, Portsmouth.
If Portsmouth was economically crippled beyond repair, then even such
majestic architectures as the Kings Theatre would fall eventually to the might
of external influences. Wood beams must rot with termites and water damage.
Root systems find their way into the substructure, causing roofing to collapse
and opening it to the elements. Alcoves and balconies that once seated patrons
now become nests for various forms of flora and fauna...
Kings
Theatre
View From Albert
Road, Southsea, Portsmouth
One has only to consider that such things are merely provisional, that
all we can hope for is the eternal staving off of nature, whose vines and
creepers wait patiently for the time when the gardening becomes too much for us
to cope with...
A3
Bridge
A 3 Bridge (leaving
Portsmouth)
As one of the main arteries leading into Portsmouth, (connecting it
directly to London) with thousands of vehicles crossing over and under it
everyday, such bridges as these are particularly susceptible to inclement
weather. Rainwater has the knack of getting into everything, including cracks
formed in the brittle concrete of bridges and buildings, a process known as imbibition, by which water
molecules seep into a porous material causing it to swell, enabling plant life
to creep their eventual way into the joints and supports that make up the
backbone of such bridges.
Water molecules within the root system expand,
eventually breaking concrete apart, purely because concrete has no room for
expansion and excess pressure from roots growing within, will force it apart.
Bridges such as these, may stand more chance of lasting a little longer than
their conventional contemporaries, simply because of their arched design. The
roads beneath them however will not.
Our 20th century road way
systems were never designed for the onslaught of the 21st Century. With
growing concerns over pot holes developing over the countries ridged artery
systems, our roads cannot be maintained forever. Motorway maintenance costs on
average £3000 per mile per year. The M1 alone is 200 miles long and costs
£600,000 per year to maintain. Privatization of our motorways to foreign
investors will only exasperate an already difficult financial situation;
competing companies will only add further problems by increasing traffic on our
already overloaded roadways, furthering road fatalities, due to the state of
the roads and so on. For road taxes will rise respectively, to maintain roads
that still require by-passes. But by-passes mean more by-passes, causing
gridlock and endless toll gates, eventually forcing non commercial motorists
(i.e. not transporting goods) to use other means of transport altogether.
The vast amounts of money thrown at the problem of our present system, is
overly cyclical: Taxpaying motorists ultimately are unable to afford to run
their vehicles. Staff shortages and lowly wages mean the very petroleum in the
tankers will be not be delivered to their outlets as the cost of living
increases. The inefficiency of our
present day economy, creates a domino effect on our very lives. For we as
taxpayers are forced to foot the bill, a bill owed to a debt based system. Businesses
large and small owe each other, we borrow money but we need to pay it back,
with interest and if we cannot, then we either borrow more money or fold
altogether, leaving buildings and infrastructure in a state of disuse. Like the
gold rushes of the 19th Century, those people move on to more
prosperous lands but their legacies remain, leaving potential ghost towns
behind. Who is to pay for their upkeep is uncertain. For example: Like our
roadways, the larger the infrastructure (of say the Spinnaker Tower) the more
difficult it becomes to maintain it…
Spinnaker
Tower
Gunwharf Quays and Spinnaker Tower as viewed from Gosport
With its iconic shape, chosen by local residents due to its association
with Portsmouth’s Maritime history, the Spinnaker Tower has unfortunately been
over shadowed by its own controversial history. Originally referred to as the
Millennium Tower and at a height of 170 meters (a shortfall in itself)
extensive delays, changes in contractors and budget overruns meant that the
lottery funded tower was not complete for the Millennium Celebrations and
eventually opened to the public some five years after its initial deadline.
Notorious for its extensive construction costs (36 Million, 11 million paid by
Taxpayers) many disgruntled residents may recall the flurry surrounding
the towers eventual opening in 2005, whereby the Project manager and
representatives from Mowlem (the builders) and Maspero (the Italian Lift suppliers) became
trapped in the Towers infamous glass elevator, suspended some 40 feet in the
air. Even
by 2012, the lift never worked properly and by 2015 was eventually removed
altogether.
As the centre
point of Gun Wharf Keys and the historic Portsmouth Dockyards, the tower is
extremely susceptible to the elements and must be maintained with
weatherproofing paint at all times. Without regular maintenance, the high salt
content of the area will eventually peel away its protective paint exposing the
concrete beams beneath. The tower will then begin to develop cracks in its
super structure, allowing water to seep in and corrode vital metal supports,
some of which will become loose and eventually fall upon the concourse beneath.
To paint the tower, it costs on average £300,000.
Subcontractors Beirrun, were given the task of painting the
tower. Subsequently their business folded. The paint, supplied by Silka, was supposed
to last twenty years. Due to bad weather conditions it has already began to
peel. To counter this it would mean painting the tower on a regular basis. This
could be anything from five to ten years depending on the battering it gets
from the elements and how well the paint itself is applied. The application of
paint requires surface preparation. One cannot simply apply paint to external
structures without this consideration. If the surface is not sanded down or the
paint is applied in cold/ damp conditions, it will eventually peel and leave areas
exposed, leading to water seepage and cracks, requiring further maintenance.
More money is required, the logistics of who will do the job is open to
conjecture.
Within the next few
decades however, if funding for the towers maintenance falls short, it could
become another scenario that we have seen before with the problems of the Tricorn
shopping centre. It could mean the Spinnaker Tower will face closer to the
general public, as the entire area thus becomes unsafe and falls prey to the rigours
of time. Unkempt foliage will eventually work its way across Gunwharf, into the
cafe at the base of the tower and work its way up inside the Spinnaker Tower
itself. It’s ribbed like structure will become the basis of a trestle,
encouraging vines and various floras to creep up the tower until they engulf
the derelict cafe at the top. Eventually, the site may well become a
centrepiece of ornithological interest, as sea gulls, starlings and other
coastal birds begin to reside within the various stairwells, lattice supports
and other parts of the abandoned Spinnaker tower...
Guild
Hall Square
Portsmouth
Guild
Hall Square: with crumbling Civic Offices and Clock Tower
The recession is not only about lack of work, it is also about a mind
set that has existed since the dawn of the industrial revolution. The idea
that capitalism holds the key to our comfortable living is an illusion, simply
because the idea of running a community on such a system is ultimately
flawed. If we regard the mechanisms by which it runs on, we only need to
look at the state of our own environment.
The Guildhall square was heavily
bombed during the Second World War in Luftwaffe air raids. It has been
rumoured that the Luftwaffe were sold the additives to their petrol driven
planes by American conglomerates. Money is always the problem, for such
corporations have no allegiance to any flag. It is time that we took a
more mature look at the potentials of pulling our resources together, rather
than fighting over them. It is time we looked to other alternatives rather than
the stalemate concept of money. This could be classed as an open source system
or library system. If our civilisation cannot understand this, then we have no
hope in keeping up with the gardening.
Look at our present paradigm: in a recession, schools and colleges close
accordingly, highly skilled work then becomes scarce, communities must then
move further a field in order to survive. Leaving behind them relative ghost
cities (such as what Portsmouth might become) to the mercy of nature. This is
true of every empire that has come and gone before us, for once the resources
have been used up in that locality, the dynasty of Egypt and Rome and so
on, were all doomed to dwindle and perish over the passing centuries.
News Centre – Hilsea
...and unless it wants to
break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable.
And help to change it.”
Ernst Fischer
In conclusion, now is the time, that we learn from these mistakes and
begin the process of working together. Whether, Portsmouth unites in football
with Southampton, or the nations of the world unite as one planet, we need to
live together, instead of a series of petty divided countries. Much like
gardening, we can shape our economies to suit our needs, we can trim them,
prune them, allow them to flourish but we must keep them in check.
So long as we keep up with the gardening we have a chance. So please -
trim your hedges, mow your lawns, prune your rose bushes. Before it is too
late...
Image & Text by JS Adams
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