The members of the Fenham Fine Foods came together to create a small scale intervention involving food stories from the residents of Fenham to later inform a cookbook and seed bank. During the event, we asked the participants about foods that meant something to them as a way of connecting the different ethnicities in Fenham. We achieved this through the use of a world map and paper plates where people drew a dish and wrote the ingredients. They also informed us where the dishes originated from and we connected them all together on the map.

This intervention proved our suspicions of how food can bring people together no matter their backgrounds. This engagement led to some insights into the viewpoints of Fenham locals. We were encouraged by the residents to make good use of these empty spaces in Fenham by planting of the herbs and sharing of recipes to them helps with expanding their knowledge on food as well the knowing the ethnicities of the people in their area.

Next steps:

• Create the cookbook (have a physical and digital copy so that it can be updated regularly)
• Seed bank – From the different seed options that the participants gave us we are to be able to look at the planting conditions as some of the seeds cannot grow in this country because of the weather
• Building on from the drawing on the plates, thinking of real food for the next intervention

As a part of the Fenham Futures event on March 26th, members of The Fenham Line looked into residents opinions of transport links in Fenham, particularly asking participants to consider areas of Newcastle they would like to see connected to Fenham through the proposed new form of public transport. This was achieved through the use of interactive mapping in the form of a ‘game’, and conversations with passers by to highlight some of the most important ‘stations’ to be implemented in Fenham – those areas most frequently linked through desired routes.

This engagement led us to some unexpected, though highly valuable, discoveries of the perspectives of Fenham residents. Where we as researchers approached the concept of transport with a vision to improve connections between the West End and the City Centre, we found out instead many local residents would prefer an improvement in the connections to surrounding areas, including Benton, Elswick and Jesmond, along with circular routes around the community.

Approaching this event with an interactive map enabled us to produce a visual output for attendees of the event, allowing them to not only show us their preferred route, but also see the preferred route of others. With each route remaining on the map for the next contributors to see, it became possible for us to understand the most common areas of interest – allowing us from an outside perspective to gain insight into the preferred routes of the users.

As the vision for climate imaginaries for Fenham Futures continues to develop, we invite you to share your ideal routes below – whether this be by street name, business, public spaces or further areas of Newcastle.

And ask yourself: where can the future of transport take you?

1_Description of the intervention

The aim for our small-scale intervention was to encapsulate our intentions for the use of the Fenham pool as an open workshop where people can use the facilities to repair or produce items. We did this by making a table with scrap material found in skips to show how we reused different items to produce something new as well as repair some chairs to show how people can use the tool provided by our intervention to repair broken items. The intention was to gather the opinions of the residents about how our intervention fits into the local community and their input on our initial ideas.

2_What we have learned from it

• The pool symbolizes Fenham’s pride as it embodies feelings and memories of many generations; therefore, residents would wish to see the pool renovated or repurposed Unfortunately, budget is the biggest restraint on renovating the pool.
• The pool is also the ‘activist’ opponent, or an ‘open door’ for refurbishment.
• The re-opened place should include elements that make people feel welcome.
• Workshops can be held in the Fenham library or within the furnished space of the pool to teach local residents with new skills and make them feel accomplished.
  • It is important to get people from the Fenham community to be involved in the workshops and activities.
• Rather than disposing of unwanted items as trash in backlanes and gardens, the pool could be used as a recycling center for residents to drop off items.
  • Collection or drop off of unwanted items and repairing must be free of charge.
• Environmentally friendly and sustainable items, such as pallets (wood), can be reused and built as front garden furniture for engagement of the community.

Phase 3 – Parliamentary Debate

We created this flyer to hand out at the paliament on 14th May to the locals of fenham. Attached is a question passed to them about what they wanted the future of the pool to be with example ideas to get them thinking about creative reuse.