our Patch AUTUMN 2017
living
historY
An artist’s impression of how
the Chiswick Timeline will look
when it opens in November
chiswick time traveL
A
A cartographic marvel on a giant scale, mapping Chiswick ’ s
evolution from empty fields to grids of streets will be unveiled
in November. Tim Harrison meets the project ’ s visionaries
vast public artwork
celebrating Chiswick’s
growth and evolution
is nearing completion.
The Chiswick Timeline
will fi ll the walls on
both sides under the railway arches at
Turnham Green station; a 60-metre
stretch of enamelled maps charting
the development of the area from
green fi elds and isolated houses to the
present-day buzzy suburb.
Enhancing the maps are paintings
of landmarks, from St Nicholas church
to the Chiswick Empire, corresponding
to the different eras. Among them is a
picture by local pop artist Peter Blake,
whose studio is just off King Street,
Hammersmith, which was sold as a
limited-edition print, raising £25,000
of the eventual £90,000 project cost.
“We hope it will be a great
contribution to London’s public art,”
said Karen Liebreich of Abundance
London who, with Sarah Cruz, has
been co-ordinating. The vast, hefty
enamelled panels – made in the
same hard-wearing way as London
10/11
Underground signs – are now being
fi red, with the planned installation
date (and street party) pencilled in
for November.
Assisted by Hounslow Council and
crowd-funding, and facilitated with the
blessing of Transport for London, the
Timeline will show how the community
has changed over the years, with the
blue-painted loop in the Thames acting
as an instantly recognisable common
feature. The maps include a 1945 chart
showing all the wartime bombing
damage to the area.
“We’ve raised all the money and
started production; the panels come
with a 70-year guarantee,” said Karen.
“They are very heavy, so it is costing
£18,000 to build the framework which
holds them to the wall. They have to be
‘pop-offable’ so that TfL can inspect the
fabric of the bridge underneath!”
The earliest depiction of Chiswick is
a massively expanded segment of an
old Middlesex map dating from 1593.
“Understandably, it’s less accurate
than modern maps,” said Karen. “The
hope is that people will see this as an
Chart-toppers
Karen and Sarah
artwork as well as being historically
informative.” The detail on the more
recent map panels means that Chiswick
residents will be able to easily pinpoint
their own homes.
Karen, a historian and author who set
up the Chiswick House kitchen garden,
was full of praise for the generosity of
donors to the Timeline, which has been
a phenomenal exercise in planning,
design, clearance of permission and
logistics. “We’ve had everything,
including drainpipe issues,” she said.
“I’ve become such an expert on so
many esoteric subjects!”
Sarah Cruz, a designer, has focused
on rationalising the number of colours
needed to make the maps, as it
determines how many times each of the
big metal sheets needs to be baked.