Companion

By Esther Leslie
This companion, like dreams and the unconscious, does not aspire to chronological ordering. The walker will encounter absences, presences, layers, glimpses, buried meanings, half-formed thoughts, observations, disavowals, things plain for all to see, signs in the cityscape, erased symbols, dead people, living souls, events from long ago that still shape a space, and occurrences that have vanished into thin air, or are barely registrable. 

Each stopping point on this walk is called an association and there are 18 of them. The first is not at the top of Chalton Street, where it meets Euston Road. It is too noisy and polluted there to begin a disquisition on friendship – one can barely hear one’s own thoughts. The walk begins further down the road, in front of an arch connecting two buildings: a symbol, one might say, of being together apart. Here, further in to Somers Town, the feeling might more easily arise of being inside an enclave, of being tangled in its histories and strange vibrations, its peculiar out-of-timeness, its dislocatedness, its encouragement of a sense of being stranded with others.

1: The archway between 26 and 28 Chalton Street

Godwin and Wollstonecraft: Building a Partnership

1: The archway between 26 and 28 Chalton Street

2: The Bench outside Mai Sushi restaurant, 36-38 Chalton Street

Friends Indeed

2: The Bench outside Mai Sushi restaurant, 36-38 Chalton Street

3: Pinner Café, 44 Chalton Street

Companionship Interrupted

3: Pinner Café, 44 Chalton Street

4. The Garden behind the Archway Gates, Levita House, Ossulston Estate

Insiders Outside

4. The Garden behind the Archway Gates, Levita House, Ossulston Estate

 5: Somers Town Coffee House, 60 Chalton Street

Hangouts for Contacts: Out of Towners

 5: Somers Town Coffee House, 60 Chalton Street

6: Between 65 and 67 Chalton Street, at Churchway

Faithful Companions

6: Between 65 and 67 Chalton Street, at Churchway

7: Ball Court, 84 Chalton Street

Thick as Thieves

7: Ball Court, 84 Chalton Street

8: UK-Mexican Arts Society, 96 Chalton Street

Comrades and Lovers: Frida & Diego
Posters

8: UK-Mexican Arts Society, 96 Chalton Street

9: Hoardings, next to Chalton House, built on the site of Evesham Buildings

William G. & Mary W.: Tensegrity & Comradeship

9: Hoardings, next to Chalton House, built on the site of Evesham Buildings

10: By Oakshott Court

Mary Loves William Loves Mary

10: By Oakshott Court

11: Crossroads Chalton Street and Phoenix Road, looking up at the sky

Desperately Seeking a Friend

11: Crossroads Chalton Street and Phoenix Road, looking up at the sky

12: Crossroads Chalton Street and Phoenix Road, looking East towards St Pancras International Station

Tomo & Marek: Buddy Movie

12: Crossroads Chalton Street and Phoenix Road, looking East towards St Pancras International Station

13: The Cock Tavern, Crossroads Chalton Street and Phoenix Road, looking North

Friends & Sidekicks

13: The Cock Tavern, Crossroads Chalton Street and Phoenix Road, looking North

14: Polygon Road Open Space, or Chalton Street Gardens

Our Mutual Friend

14: Polygon Road Open Space, or Chalton Street Gardens

15: The High School, Chalton Street

Schoolfriends & Frenemies

15: The High School, Chalton Street

16: St Anthony’s Flats, Chalton Street

The Princess & the Swineherd: False Friends

16: St Anthony’s Flats, Chalton Street

17: St Francis’ Flats, Chalton Street

Love and Tinder: Of Making Up & Breaking Up

17: St Francis’ Flats, Chalton Street

18: The crooked part of Chalton Street, an alley running behind Godwin & Crowndale Courts

Fairweather Friends

18: The crooked part of Chalton Street, an alley running behind Godwin & Crowndale Courts

                                                                                                                                                            These pieces of writing came about as a response to a prompt from curating students at the RCA to reflect on the idea of companionship in Somers Town. It was Spring, 2021, one year into the pandemic, when easily meeting and chatting with friends was burdened by all sorts of concerns about social distancing and  anyway, many places for meeting were closed. I undertook a walk – and took photographs – along the whole length of Chalton Street, allowing themes of friendship and companionship to arise as they struck me. I was prompted by signs that caught my eye, observation of people, historical facts, chance meetings, literary or media resonances. The original idea was that the locations associated with companionship could be visited with a gazetteer or city companion in hand, the words to be read on site.  The sequence now finds a temporary home on the Phoenix Road hoardings, nearly one year on. What friendships have been made and broken in the intervening time? 

These associations first appeared as part of In The Meantime, a project curated by RCA MA Curating student in May 2021.  Those with good memories and observant eyes might have seen one of them on the side of the convenience store just down the road – towards our new museum, where more friendships and associations are to be made. 

Esther Leslie

5 February 2022

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