In Thornaby Library

I’m currently in the (very lovely) Thornaby Library hoping to recruit some participants for the Journeys Project.  We’re going to go ahead with the idea of the ‘blank book’ which people will be able to take out on loan and contribute to the creation of, hopefully, a new ’epic’ poem or story.  Once we have a a few people we will look at how we want to begin the poem or story and then the book will officially go on the shelf for people to take out. (It’ll be stamped and everything!) A press release is going out any day now.

We currently have a display in the library showing some great images of Thornaby in the past which hopefully will prompt some stories and memory sharing.  There are lots of images of some very seventies looking concrete buildings which are no more.  We just had a guy telling us about a particularly stubborn  tower block that took five days to demolish, a story there surely. I’m quite interested in the thinking behind those seventies tower-blocks that are now considered ‘monstrosities.’ They weren’t built to look ugly, they were built with a real optimism and yet, now, we acknowlege that they look hideous.  Thornaby’s going through a real period of regeneration at the moment and I think it’s look great but what will people think of it in 40 years time?