As part of our #whatsyourstory campaign towards the BLACKFRIARS STORIES
events programme with Southwark Council in 2014, our Artistic Director reflects on what SE1 and Blackfriars means to her.

“Growing up in SE1 means that the area is full of memories, layered
one on top of the other like a delicious millefeuille. As for most people living in London, the riverside walk between London Bridge and Jubilee Gardens has become a familiar and well trodden route, an opportunity for my feet to take the lead while I become distracted by the jostle, the buzz and the sights. Tate Modern, the tiled pathway under the bridge echoing with chatter and a busker’s guitar, the delicious food smells begging the question: bratwurst at Borough Market or savoury crepes in Gabriel’s Wharf? And each time, the mystery – what is the ghost bridge running parallel to Blackfriars Bridge?

Like something out of a Dickens novel, the milestone at St George’s Circus marks the end of the Blackfriars Road, but for me it also denotes the heart of a sprawling area full of memories:

Trying to find a coffee shop on a Sunday morning when we have a full day of rehearsals ahead. Then settling for Subway as nowhere else was open at that time.

The ghostly painted Routemaster bus hidden in a yard on the corner of Borough Road. The day that they boarded up what is now the Clarence Centre, and the years that followed until its recent opening.

The many years spent working for and with London South Bank University, and the various characters that I met there; it’s a lifetime full of chores, laughter, personalities and acronyms! LRC, ARC, TOIL, UCAS, 1B33. Some names still feel like a mantra.

Walking up London Road, cycling down Webber Street, and endless bus routes, all crossing this junction at some point or other.

Drinks at The Crown after work during the summer.

Adding The Mad Hatter pub to our work ‘do’ Christmas dinner shortlist just because I liked the sound of its name. Followed by recognising a familiar face from my past behind the bar.

When I left sixth form, we had a party at Imbibe on Blackfriars Road. One of the girls from my school had hired the whole bar out and put a tab behind the bar to celebrate our graduation. I can still remember the lush purple walls and the heated beer garden, details from a party that marked the end of our school days and the start of our last summer before university.

As a student, almost every weekend was spent strolling along the river and wandering the halls at the Tate Modern. Afternoons sunbathing beneath Olafur Eliasson’s enormous setting sun in the Turbine Hall (part of Tate’s Unilever series in 2003) provided sunshine, culture and shelter on rainy days, and when the sun was out we could grab a shady spot in the garden and reminisce on Louise Bourgeois’ Maman.