I was talking to some of the residents about a name for the district also about integrating a message into the art in the community project.
A couple of us would like to create an inspirational art installation in the form of a reinterpreted victorian painted advert, this is a subtle acknowledgement of the heritage of the area. Please see attached images.
We could either create a new rendered frame or simply reuse the empty one located on the side of the convenience shop at Langham Parade (although this requires re-rendering)??
Apart from finding a contractor to render and a sign writer to paint the sign,I would be delighted to design the typography and supply artwork.
Attached I include different options using area name or evocative word:
– Home
– Change
– Green Gate
– West Green
DIY Streets - Turnpike Lane/West Green 
I love ‘Change’. If the area will be named elsewhere e.g. Green Gate, I’m not sure it needs to be in multiple places, and I like the many possible messages/inspirations people could take from something that has a word without ‘baggage’.
I think it would be great to do this- I like HOME – shorter words more impact! Can Sustrans find out a price for next meeting to render the existing old frame. Is that possible? Then we will know if it is a goer… In our house someone came upwith the symbol @ in that space .. another artistic thought.
“You can neither lie to a neighbourhood park, nor reason with it. ‘Artist’s conceptions’ and persuasive renderings can put pictures of life into proposed neighbourhood parks or park malls, and verbal rationalizations can conjure up users who ought to appreciate them, but in real life only diverse surroundings have the practical power of inducing a natural, continuing flow of life and use.”
— Jane Jacobs (The Death and Life of Great American Cities)
Why do we need to change the name of this area and why do we want to impose a faux Victorian sign on local residents in the name of community art? What has any of this got to do with improving the local area? If one has to create a new name for the area, please, please do not use ‘Change’ or ‘Home’ – they are meaningless and sound as if we are living in Orwell’s 1984. What are these words supposed to mean? What is creative about their use? Apart from the true awfulness of this whole idea, such ‘Art’ will present an obvious temptation to grafitti artists to provide ‘witty’ ripostes – whilst the households of VB and JS might welcome the artistic ‘@ HOME’ and the overt deterrent to burglars it will doubtless bring, they may not welcome additions like ‘Spare Change’, ‘Go Home’, or ‘Home-less’ for example. And, heaven help us, if we awoke one morning to find ‘HOMO’.
I like the look of the Victorian sign, but think the use of “change” or “home” just sounds dismal and corporate rather than uplifting. With regards to the name, this area has a perfectly good and attractive-sounding name, albeit one that no one ever uses (I tend to tell people I live near Wood Green, because they look completely blank if I say West Green), so I feel it would be better to spend time and energy on raising the profile of the existing name, rather than inventing a new one.
All your points are valid and I agree. However we apparently and frustratingly cannot use West Green according to Sustran as West Green is a bigger area- we are only ‘one’ part of it. Therefore people have been trying to think what could work’ IF’ we had a new name. Personally I use Turnpike Lane always and will continue to do so but that is a road in N8 running towards Crouch End. I think there needs to be an open discussion at some point.
Why the hostility to art in the community? This area certainly isn’t the best in London and surely anything that spruces it up a bit is a bonus? Morons who graffiti things will graffiti anywhere – in any case, if people can’t behave themselves it’s a matter for the police/council to deal with. Fears about what a few bored teenagers *might* do shouldn’t dictate that we just leave things as they are and never have anything nice.
3 possible names:
Langham Fields
Langham off the Lanes
Langham
After discussion with a number of residents … Question : Where do you live? The answer given is either Turnpike Lane or West Green.
Suggest TURNPIKE GREEN (which combines both names)
I also like Langham Fields see above as it refers to the farmland it was.
Langham Fields has a good ring to it. Of course it is a name that is not at all recognisable at this time, but maybe that could be an advantage. After all the Recce ground which has been particularly neglected for hears is being renovated and is looking as if it could turn into lovely a space. Downhills Park has been much better for some time. I appreciate that anything with Turnpike in it gives an orientation to other people, but maybe it’s time to find a new one? Vivien