|
|
 |
| |
A beacon? It’s high time we remembered heroes!
THE ideas some people come up with! Without tasting the public mind, the good planners are preparing to erect a 30ft beacon in the centre of Camden Town to celebrate the area.
It sounds like the sort of bright idea that should never have been switched on.
What about a gigantic frieze embossed with figures representing the great and the good who have passed through down the ages? Or a single sculptured figure, encompassing similar qualities?
Remember, we have two of Britain’s leading sculptors whose studios are in our midst – Sir Anthony Caro and Anthony Gormley! Could they not be approached with the suggestion of a commission?
A stunning work by either of them would not only act as a living piece of symbolism of the borough of Camden, but would also draw visitors from all over the world.
Who could be considered for the alternative idea of a frieze?
Not the ermine-robed and gaitered bow-legged figures that strut across the pages – unfortunately – of our history books. But figures representing the real heroes whom we should honour.
Who are they?
The campaigning conservationists whose successful campaigns – and there have been a few down the years – have preserved that particular quality one associates with Camden.
Then there are the many radicals and dissidents of the 19th century, lampooned and traduced in their own times, but now seen as the real legislators of society, William Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt, for instance,
The thousands of labourers – many of them Irish – who built London’s great railway stations, Euston, St Pancras and King’s Cross.
Other people who should be honoured are the many rebels who have led campaigns – many in recent years – in defence of the underdog, the unjustly accused, or tenants fighting for their rights. These men and women have kept alive the spirit of free thought without which society withers.
And can one forget the many hundreds of Camden men who sacrificed their lives in the Second World War at the battlefront, believing they were fighting against the evils of fascism, or the hundreds of innocent men, women and children killed in the Blitz?
All these could appear on a frieze. In other capitals – Washington and Berlin, for example – similar concepts have become part of the fabric of these cities.
The proposal that has emerged this week reflects today’s fashion for froth and bright lights.
We need something that links the past with the present, and something at which the people of the borough would stop and think: Yes, I know what that’s all about.
|
 |
|
| |
|
|
|
