Initially commissioned for the town improvements responding to the building of a major supermarket in the town centre the size of the
centre itself, we moved away from the restricted allocated site to address the wider issues of the town's idiosyncratic character.
Long Eaton was a boom town at the beginning of the XXth century, and subsequently a large number of houses were built. As an
investment the house builders usually built semi-detached houseS, living in one half and renting the other, and giving one name for the unit.
These names, often carved ornately on stone, are not in use anymore but survived and can be found throughout the town.
These names are a unique asset of the town by their mere quantity, 210 different names in a relatively small area, and by their
quality, the attention and the pride given to their display on the fronts of houses. They not only represent a historical period of the
town, they also give a unique sense of place and a personal character to the buildings and the town.
Working with a local historian, Keith Reedman, who surveyed and catalogued these names, we created a map of Long Eaton removing all other
cartographic references except street names.
The map of the town becomes concrete poetry celebrating an aspect of this town often overlooked.
Alongside the map we commissioned the OuLiPo
(Ouvroir de la litterature Potentielle)
writer Ian Monk, to create a text using all these house names. He devised a litany poem with inserted snatches of narration,
One night in Long Eaton.
Ian Monk