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The British Landscape by John Davies		  
   

Boot Publishing
Combined with the opening of the show at gallery VU. This work by John Davies made from 1978 to 2005, with a dominant concern for the industrial and post-industrial landscapes of Britain towns and cities is major statement of the changing landscape.

Boot Publishing
Associé au lancement de l'exposition à la Galerie VU. Cette série de John Davies sur le paysage anglais réalisée de 1979 à 2005, avec comme point central l'univers urbain industriel et post-industriel est un constat d'importance sur l'évolution du paysage en Angleterre.

 

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England, Holy Jesus hospital, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2001<br>In 1681 the Corporation of Newcastle built the Holy Jesus Hospital on the site of a 13th-century Augustinian friary. Designed to accomodate 39 visiting travellers and a caretaker, it was a modern development for its time, constructed entirely of brick. In 1880, the police station next door was demolished and replaced by a buidling machine the style of the Holy Jesus. This would become a soup factory and later a chemical works. Behing the brick buildings, now standing empty, is the Manors multi-storey car park<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB056 		England, Westgate, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2001<br>When the Emperor Hadrain visited Britain in AD 122, he ordered the construction of a wall across Roman Britain's northern frontier, with a fort at Newcastle, the first crossing point over the River Tyne. Following the line of the wall, Westgate Road takes its name from the wall's western gate into the city. Westgata House is typical of numerous concrete offices built in Newcastle during the 1960s, with parts fo the structure supported on tilts above the road. By 1995 it was empty. Plans for its conversion into a hotel were thwarted when the building was voted one of Britain's twelve uglieset in a popular television poll, with sponsorship awarded for its demolition.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB057 		England, New street station, Birmingham, 2000<br>Birmingham New Street is the busiest rail interchange in Britain and a central hub of the country's rail network. The railways were built above the infrastructure of the canals, and New Street Station-originally the largest covered station in the world-opened in 1854. The station was completely rebuilt by the nationalised British Railways in 1967 when the West Coast Main Line was electrified. The platforms were covered and bult over by a multi-storey shopping centre and car park. Its entire reconstruction began again in 2006.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB052 		England, Gas street basin, Birmingham, 2000<br>Arguably the world's first major industrial town, Birmingham was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution for much of the 18th century. In the 1760s it became the centre of a canal network that stretched from Liverpool to London. Coal from the Black Country was supplied to the steam-powered factories and furnaces that lined the canals encircling the city centre. By the 1960s Cadbury's in Bournville was the only majour manufacturing cmopany still using the canals. Regeneration of the canal network begain in the 1980s, with former industrial buildings converted into bars and restaurants, reviving Gas Street Basin as an entertainment district.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
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England, Ffestiniog railway, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Snowdonia, 1994<br>The Ffestiniog Railway was originally built to transport local slate, but in 1964, following new connections to the national railway network, trains began serving the Trawsfynydd nuclear power station. Although the decommissioning of Trawsfynydd began in 1991, the railway continued to be used daily to transport 50-ton flasks of nuclearfuel and waste to the Sellafield reprocessing plant in Cumbria. Sellafield stopped taking waste from Trawsfynydd in 1997.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB046 		England, Bowling Greens, Stockport, 1988<br>Heaton Norris Park, opened in 1875, was financed by public subscription and by a gift from Lord Egerton. As with many other public parks established in Victorian Britain, its creation wass a response to the poor living conditions of industrial workers. Bowling became a popular sport in England in the late 19th century, and the park's Crown Bowling Green continues to host regular bowling competitions today. The home club is one of 41 that make up the Stockport and District Bowling League.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB038 		England, Victoria Promenade, Widnes, 1986<br>Located at the mouth of the Mersey Estuary, Widnes rapidly became a centre for chemical industries after its alkali works were established in the 1850s. The first St Mary's Church was built in 1858 on a layer of chemical waste, and after serious cracks began to appear, it was replaced by a new church in 1910. Further upstream is the coal-firedd Fillder's Ferry power station at Warrington. It was cited in 2002 among the 30 worst polluting power stations in Europe, and as the 9th worst source of Dioxin releases within Britain. Efforts to combat its pollution have resulted in approval, in 2005, for the construction of a flue gas desulphurisation plant.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB039 		England, Reddish Vale, Stockport, 1988<br>The name of Reddish, a district of Stockport, is thought to originate from red ditch, a reference to blood spilled in the battle for Nico Ditch following invasion by the Danes in AD 870. A flood plain of the river Tame, Reddish Vale was the site of several industrial plants built during the Industrial Revolution, together with reservoirs, and a weir providing power to the local mills. Now the location of a golf course and country park, Reddish Vale is dominated by the M60, Manchester's orbital motorway that opened to traffic in 2000.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
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England, Taff Vale railway, Rhondda Fach, 1993<br>The Rhondda is made up of two valleys, the Rhondda Fawr and the Rhondda Fach, which converge at Porth. In 1841 the valleys area had a population of under 1,000, but 80 years later, 41,000 men were employed in its 53 mines. They were the centre of the South Wales coal industry-in 1913 producing 57 million tons of coal, providing one third of the world's coal requirements and employing over 250,000 men in total. In 1836, the Taff Vale Railway Company began construction of a single line that would open up the valleys. Its chief engineer was Isambard Kindgdom Brunel, who decided upon a narrow gauge of 4 feet 8 inches (compared to the 7-foot gauge he chose for the Great Western Railway) to allow for the narrow space and sharp corners of the valley. The last coal train travelled the line in 1986.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB042 		England, Didcot Junction, Oxfordshire, 1985<br>The Great Western Railway from London to the West Country was built in 1839. Its branch line to Oxford made Didcot an important rail junction, with a covered station built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1844. Construction of the Didcot A coal-fired power station began in the 1960s, by Britain's then nationalised electricity board. With six 325 foot cooling towers, it generates 2,000 megawatts of power. Two million tons of coal continue to be delivered to it each year by rail. Didcot B is a 1,400 megawatt natural gas fired station nearby.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB033 		England, Stockport viaduct, Stockport, 1986<br>At Stockport the River Mersey passes through a valley of sandstone cliffs. An Anglo Saxon boundary river, it once separated the warring kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria, later becoming the border between the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire. Stockport's viaduct was built in 1839 as part of the rail route between Manchester and Birmingham. Further construction in 1880 doubled its size, making it the largest brick built structure in Europe. It still carries the Manchester-London main-line railway today.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB034 		England, Runcorn Bridges, Cheshire, 1986<br>Designed by William Baker, the high-level railway bridge crossing the Mersey Estuary and the Manchester Ship Canal was opened in 1869, shortening the journey from Liverpool to London. It was named Aethelfleada Bridge after a daughter of Alfred the Great whose castle once stood beneath the path of the bridge. Opened to traffic in 1961, it featured the longest single-arch span in Europe. It was widened to four lanes in 1977 and renamed Silver Jubilee Bridge in honour of Queen Elizabeth II.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
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England, Ladbroke grove, London, 1985<br>When London's westward expansion reached Bayswater in the early 19th century, the Ladbroke family began the construction of a fashionable suburb on their land, with many of the streets and squares bearing the Ladbroke name. In the early 20th century, as middle-class households ceased to employ servants, the houses lost their market and most were converted into flats. The area began to become desirable again in the 1980s. The bridge crossing the main-line railway at the north end of Ladbroke Grove is the site of the Paddington train crash, which killed 31 people on 5th October 1999. The land behind the bridge and the Admiral Blake pub is now occupied by a busy supermarket, with the gasworks site undergoing redevelopment.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB036 		England, Harpur Hill, Derbyshire, 1985<br>The Cromford and High Peak Railway, opened in 1830, was one of the first lines to be built in Britain (seen running to the left of the H illhead Quarry spur). It provided a link between the High Peak Canal, to the north-west of Harpur Hill, and the Cromford Canal to the south -east, running across the limestone plateau. The route was chosen to pass the coal mines in the upper Goyt valley and the quarries around Buxton. The line owed its design to the skills of the canal builders, following the contours of the land. It was closed in 1963.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB029 		England, Herrington Colliery, County Durham, 1983<br>Modelled on an Athenian temple, Penshaw Monument (the folly on the horizon) was built in 1844 to the memory of statesman and colonial administrator John Geroge Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham. It was given to the National Trust in 1939. In folklore, Penshaw Hill is also the resting place of the giant Lambton Worm, the subject of a famous North East folk song. Herrington Colliery, opened in 1874, was also part of the Lambton Estate. Nationalised after World War II, it closed following the miners'strike in 1985.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB020 		England, St George's church, Manchester, 1984<br>When the cotton trade expanded in the late 18th century, Manchester became the centre for cotton manufacture using the new power-driven factory system. Workers who migrated to the city's factories fed a growth in the number of non-conformist chapels, whose radical teachings found wide appeal. In response, the governemnet of 1818 set up a Church Building Commission, who constructed 97 Anglican churches nationally within 10 years. St George's Chruch, Moss Side, was completed in 1823. With the development of Moss Side and Hulme in the 1960s and 70s, the original residents were moved, and St George's became a church without a congregation. Abandoned for 30 years, its conversion into 26 apartments was completed in 2005.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
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England, Hulme, Manchester, 1984<br>From its arly beginnings as a Norse settlement, Hulme remained a farming community until the 18th century. As Manchester expanded in the first half of the 19th century, Hulme's population increased by a factor of fifty, with cheap homes built quickly to meet demand, and in the limited space availalbe. These back to back houses came to be considered slums and although in 1844 Manchester Borough Council prevented further construction, large-scale sulm clearances did not take place until the 1960s. Victorian Hulme was then replaced by concrete tower blocks and deck style housing. In the early 1990s the tower blocks wre in turn demolished, to make way for more conventional two storey houses with gardens.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB024 		England, Bargoed Viaduct, Rhymney Valley, 1984<br>Bargoed was a rural town until the turn of the 19th century when three mine shafts were sunk. By 1910, its colliery employed almost 2,000 miners. The pit was closed in 1977 leaving one of the biggest shale tips in Wales. During the 1990s a reclamation scheme reshaped and flattened the tip, and the site has now become a country park. Once an important railway junction linking Cardiff and the local valleys, Bargoed Station is now the end of the line.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB025 		England, Agecroft power station, Salford, 1983<br>Agecroft coal-fired power station was built in 1926 on the site of Agecroft Hall, the 15th-century ancestral home of the Dauntesey family. By 1925 the Hall was surrounded by coal-mining waste, railways and a canal. It was dismantled, shipped and re-assembled on the banks of the James river in Richmond, Virginia, where it still stands. The power station was closed in 1993 and later demolished. Today the site is occupied by HM Prison Forest Bank, for the detention of 18 to 20-year-old men.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB015 		England, Easington Colliery Allotments, County Durham, 1983<br>Britain's allotments came into being in the 18th century as a response to widespread food shortages during the early years of the Industrial revolution. The scheme began under a local government act that required the adequate provision of land on which to grow vegetables. For a relatively small sum poor families could rent an allotment of 300 square yards, deemed sufficient to feed a family of four. The homes originally built for miners in Easington were without gardens, and the Church Commission and District Council provided land for its allotments. The community was dependent on food grown here as late as 1984-5, during the miners' strike.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
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England, Easington Colliery, County Durham, 1983<br>The village of Easington Colliery was created to serve its mine, on which construction began in 1899. The mine was closed in 1993 and demolished a year later, with the loss of 1,400 jobs. The village and the surrounding area were subsequently named as the fourth most economically deprived part of England. Efforts to rebuild the economy included incentives to attract new employers to the area, but a high proportion of new jobs were in telephone call-centres, paying low wages. Much of the back to back terraced housing surrounding the old mine has since been demolished. What remains is now considered classic-used, for example, as the location for the film Billy Ellito (2000).<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB018 		England, Stalybridge, Cheshire, 1983<br>The damp climate to the west of the Pennines was ideal for the spinning of cotton, and the whole area to the north and east of Manchester was once the world centre for the manufacture of cotton goods. Stalybridge, a satellite town of Manchester, grew rapidly, from a population of 150 in 1750, when Neddy Hall's pioneering steam-driven textile mill opened, to over 20,000 in 1850. Labour movement riots were common, and led to the establishment of the Stalybridge Police Force in 1827. The town's tallest chimney, the &quotSootpoke', had to be protected from local Luddties demonstrating against the new technology.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB013 		England, Derwent Water, Cumbria, 1980<br>Granted a market charter by Edward I in 1276, Keswick, on Derwent Water, was once the centre of a rural economy based on wool, crops and leather. A period of prosperity began in the mid 16th century with the exploitation of local copperto furnish England's warships, and witht the discovery of graphite. Pencil factories in Keswick have continued into the 21st century. In the late 18th century, the lake and town began to attract tourists, following visits by the artists and poets of the Romantic movement - Coleridge, Ruskin, Wordsworth and Southey. The area remains the centre of tourism for the North Lake District, and now attracts over 2.5 million visitors each year.<br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
DAVI13689-2007NB005 		England, Trotternish, Isle of Skye, 1981<br>Trotternish is a peninsula of Skye 20 miles long and 8 miles wide. Its landscape is formed almost entirely of basalt, the result of lava flows, rising to 719 metres long the Trotternish escarpment. <br><br>John Davies / Chris Boot / VU'<br><br>The British Landscape by John Davies is published by Chris Boot
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