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A few weeks ago I visited Tate Modern’s new £260m Switch House extension. And like many who had come to look at the building as much as the art I ventured up to the 10th floor viewing gallery. I must have been content with observing the city from one side because I don’t remember the view into the Neo Bankside flats which has caused so much controversy in the past few days. And has raised the eternal question of what it means to live in community. Residents in the award winning luxury flats which sell for around £4.5m have complained that their privacy is being ruined by Tate visitors peering into their homes through their floor-to-ceiling windows. Some of the flats are just 20 metres away from the viewing gallery and the residents were appalled to learn that photos of the inside of their homes had appeared online. They are planning to take legal action against Tate.
The controversy gathered pace on Wednesday with Sir Nicholas Serota suggesting that they should “put up a blind or a net curtain or whatever, as is common in many places.” His remark was seen as offensive. The Southwark Lib Dem councillor Adele Morris who has been trying to broker a solution called Serota’s comments an insult. “I think that is an atrocious comment for a man of his stature and position to make. A director of a big public institution making a flippant comment like that about something which he knows is directly affecting people’s lives and their privacy. Would he be saying the same thing if it was a council flat? Is it to do with the presumption that these people are rich and they get what they deserve buying a flat like that? I don’t agree with that, I think everybody is entitled to a certain amount of privacy.”
I agree with Morris that everyone has a right to privacy; uploading photos of someone’s private space is invasive and inappropriate. And dismissive comments often just fuel the fire. Yet, there’s also something in Serota’s remark that highlights the ever-increasing disparity between the rich and poor in many UK communities. Districts of London like Bankside that were once down at heel or at least affordable, are now awash with luxury developments. While fears that Britain will slide into a post referendum recession seem to have been allayed, there is still a strong prospect of slow earnings, higher inflation and young people bearing the brunt of any downturn with recent cuts to graduate job schemes. It’s no wonder people want to gaze at the Neo Bankside appartments for as long as they would at a Richter: they know that looking on from 20 metres is the closest they’re likely to get to home ownership.
The Revd Alan Ramsey
Acting Priest-in-charge
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| New College School Parking Code Change
Members of the Sunday congregation are welcome to use the carpark at New College School during this service. If you usually make use of the carpark, please contact Claire (claire.browes@universitychurch.ox.ac.uk) before Sunday to get the new code. If you're interested in using the carpark but don't yet have a pass, please also drop Claire a line.
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| | Services
—Tuesdays & Thursdays at 12.15pm
Lunchtime Eucharists —
Sunday 18th September Trinity 17 10.30am - Sung Eucharist
Preacher - Revd Dr Tess Kuin Lawton There will be Children's Church during the main service.
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| | | A new incumbent for University Church - The Parish Profile |
| Forthcoming Concerts & Other Events— Saturday September 24th
7.30pm - Oxford Sinfonia - Beethoven, Schumann
Check out our website and Facebook pages.
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| | | Harvest Festival
10.30am on 2nd October, All-Age service for Harvest followed by lunch in the Old Library.
There will be a collection of non-perishable food and toiletries which will be shared between Asylum Welcome and the Gatehouse. Please see the list below for what is particularly needed:
food: Cooking oil, Basmati rice, sugar, flour, coffee, tea, tinned fish, tinned fruit and vegetables, UHT milk, chocolate spread, peanut butter
toiletries etc: shampoo, soap, toothpaste, nappies, wipes, shaving things, deodorant, toilet paper and washing powder.
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| | Poetry Corner
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
from Spring and All (1923)
I was introduced to this poem in the first days of my undergraduate degree. I was mystified/intrigued. What depends on the wheelbarrow? What have the chickens to do with it? Why was that red/white combination so vivid? Nothing depends on the wheelbarrow – and also everything. Drawn in to the poet’s vision – a literal snapshot of his experience – we require no further explanation than this sense of community with the writer. So our understanding of the poem – whatever that might be – depends entirely on that red wheelbarrow, the rainwater, the chickens. We are given nothing else, so must bring to this our own experience.
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