a disappointment and a discovery

this is my england has for some time been fascinated with a rectangle of white paint on the Eversholt Street side of the Camden Town Housing office, which stands on the corner of Eversholt Street and Crowndale Road.

Back in April, it was noticed that this whitewashed patch bore the blue stencilled message: THERE IS NOTHING TO SEE HERE - not just once, but twice. It appeared in quite large capital letters in the bottom right-hand corner of the white painted rectangle, and again, smaller and in lower case letters in the top left-hand corner. The smaller version is also appended by the addition of 'but I want to talk.'

Was this a comment on the whole of London? Or just on Eversholt Street? Or just the Camden Town Housing Office? Answer: unknown. Whatever the case, it seems someone other than the stenciller took objection to the message - another hand had placed a clumsily executed black X through the slogan.

The gimlet eye of this is my england was applied to the camera viewfinder and a picture was taken. It was not a well-composed shot so it did not make it onto these pages.

On May 5th, the Camden Town Housing Office took on another role, serving as a polling station for the referendum on proposed changes to the way that Members of Parliament are elected in the United Kingdom. As all British readers will know, a vote on the issue was one of the few concessions given to the Liberal Democrats when they disgracefully agreed to renege on every promise made in their General Election Manifesto in order to grab the junior role in the Coalition Government. Happily, the 'Alternative Vote', a grubby and over-complex halfway house between the current first-past-the-post system and truly proportional representation, was rejected by an overwhelming majority of the 42% of voters who could be bothered to get off their arses. I guess 58% of adult Britons don't give a fuck how the electoral system works. They would rather be scratching scratch cards and watching Coronation Street, I guess.

Any road up, one in the eye for that smarmy cunt Nick Clegg. So it's all good.

On the evening of referendum day, this is my england noticed that a 'POLLING STATION' sign had been placed very close to the white painted rectangle and the crossed-out stencilled message. The slogan took on new life, offering a comment presumably never planned by the sloganeer.

Lighting conditions were not ideal. But, imperfections notwithstanding, the resulting co-occurence of the machinery of British democracy with a somewhat nihlistic stencilled slogan created an image that did seem right for these pages.

Of course, the 'POLLING STATION' sign was removed the next day. 

Over time, the blue slogan has survived well, remaining clearly legible. The black X has, on the other hand, faded almost to the point of disappearance. In an exciting development, another slogan, probably put there by some other sloganeer, has appeared below the original one. This reads: I TOLD YOU. 

Is this one message? I TOLD YOU that THERE IS NOTHING TO SEE HERE? Maybe.

Someone has also added a rather drab purple tag. But we won't dignify that with a comment.

Yesterday, this is my england was passing the scene of all this action minus a decent camera. The lack of the camera was instantly regretted. Some new absurdist had added some colour to the oblong patch of white paint. This was in the form of letters closely resembling the kind that appear on fridges everywhere in magnet form, especially in houses with young children. These had somehow been stuck to the wall and arranged to form the message: YOUR MUM RANG

A photo was needed. But it was only possible this evening. So this is my england was praying that the recently applied letters had not been removed. Disappointingly, some of them had. The message now reads: Y U   U   A G - the letters R, M, M, R and N have all disappeared. The O has been shifted to a position above the slogan THERE IS NOTHING TO SEE HERE.

The strong sense of disappointment, however, has been somewhat mitigated by a discovery. A little to the right of this painted patch (not in shot in any photos here) is a bench. Who would sit on it? Could it be used very much? It does, after all, stand close to a busy road junction, opposite a seedy massage parlour and in a generally non-picturesque location. It seems, however, that this wooden seat is quite well used. This is proven by a visit to a website whose existence is now flagged up by having its handwritten URL appearing at the top of the white painted rectangle: 

www.fredericksbench.weebly.com

The unnamed creator of this site has, since some time in 2010, been taking photos of people who stop to sit on the bench. If you've ever sat on the seat in question, perhaps you've been caught on camera. Have a look.

THERE IS NOTHING TO SEE HERE? So, so not true.