Activity book is Medway’s newest export
Plus Sun Pier House lifts off, we review Pam Exotic Jerk, our weekly events guide, and more
A Medway designer who created a Medway activity book has found surprising success, with cathedrals in Portsmouth and Leicester commissioning her to create their own localised versions. We’ve been talking to Esther Johnson, the brains behind them, to learn more. Further down, we speak to Sun Pier House following the completion of extensive works to make the building fully accessible, we review Pam Exotic Jerk, we have our weekly events guide, and more.
Activity book is Medway’s newest export
We previously interviewed Esther Johnson of Designed by Esther fame, and she also designed our excellent Local Authority tote bags. Since then, under our Medwayish umbrella, we helped her with the development of the excellent Medway Activity Book. We caught up with Esther to discuss how the activity book has led to further opportunities…
For those who haven’t seen it, the Medway Activity Book has 24 pages of activities for families based on Medway's history and curiosity about the things around us. “When we're driving along the A2 and we see the memorial for Will Adams, and thinking, ‘What's that connection to us today?” For Esther, the idea was to try to collect all those places that people visit in Medway and “put it into some fun interactive pages.”
The book was inspired by Esther’s nephew, when he was four and wanting “to do lots of drawing and colouring.” Esther wanted something that was relevant to our area and the places that she was taking him on days out. “It turned into something about each town.” The book features many stories, some of which you will definitely know if you're from Medway, “but there's lots that hopefully you don't know, or you might not know what the connection is to modern day Medway,” including a dragon that appears throughout the book.
An unexpected outcome of the book’s success is that she has produced activity books for other areas. “I shared it with a few of the cathedrals that I was working with,” and took it to trade shows, and “it went down quite well.” They liked the idea that they could use the illustrations Esther had been doing for products in their gift shops “but turn it into something for a different demographic.”
After the Medway Activity Book launched, Esther was commissioned to make one for Portsmouth Cathedral, “someone I'd already been working with for a couple of years to do tea towels, magnets and bookmarks.” They wanted something for their family market. “We used a lot of the illustrations done for the tea towels and looked at the research that they had done for the guidebook.”
This resulted in the telling of around 30 stories of Portsmouth Cathedral mixed in with the activities that have proved successful. “Lots of dot to dots, lots of questions, a little quiz at the end. I wanted it to be really interactive, and I wanted it to be bright and colourful.” The activity book has a similar format and layout to the successful Medway edition. “That helped because it was using that format to create the Portsmouth ones.” The Portsmouth Cathedral Activity Book came out in April this year.
At the time of talking to Esther, she had just launched a new activity book for Leicester Cathedral. “It's now in its third iteration, which is a nice portfolio. I like odd numbers. Having three in the range is quite nice”. With Leicester Cathedral, the main storyline was ‘The King in the car park.’ In 2012, King Richard III was found underneath the car park near the cathedral. “He's a big storyline in the activity book.”
Following the discovery, a significant amount of Heritage Lottery Fund money was invested into the cathedral to help with “the enormous footfall that was going back in, because obviously he's a big character.” After a full restoration of the cathedral, King Richard III has been reburied inside. “There's a lot of their story that links with King Richard, the wider county, and the Battle of Bosworth.”
Esther was originally commissioned to do a map “because they were having an extension to their cathedral and they wanted a map of Leicestershire that showed all of King Richard's story,” as well as other iconic events and locations that happen in Leicester, including the football and the rugby. Esther incorporated that into a map illustration and then “they used those illustrations, and we put that into an activity book in the centre page.”
The Medway Activity Book took Esther three years to create from concept to publishing. A year later, she has two more. “Obviously, it's not taken three years for those, which is good news”. For Esther, it’s been great to be able to use that original concept she made for Medway and show how it can be adapted to other stories and locations.
Another area of benefit for Esther is that the original Medway book was self-funded, in between projects, and researched largely on her own, with assistance from Rob Flood. “Yeah, no one asked for it,” Esther admits. For the Leicester and Portsmouth editions, Esther was able to charge a client for them, ensuring she was fully paid for her time and craft. “It was a business project. It turned into something.”
Earlier this year, Esther attended an author’s event where Child Friendly Medway at Medway Council had purchased copies of the activity book to give away. “I was able to speak about the book a little bit, and that was really good”. Esther is looking forward to working further with Child Friendly Medway and being at events to work with families to give the activity book out to local children and “share the story more locally.”
Sun Pier House has lift off!
After a protracted, expensive and challenging period, Sun Pier House has had extensive work done, including the creation of a Creation Space on the ground floor, and the installation of a lift, making their delightful views and friendly café fully accessible. We sat down with director Heather Burgess to talk about how they got here…
During lockdown, Heather, along with her husband and Sun Pier House co-owner Ed Gransden had to start writing funding bids to get them through something they, or anyone, hadn’t prepared for. This led to them writing a whole new strategy for Sun Pier House, and writing a bid for ‘Lift Off!’ was part of that. At the end of 2021, they applied to the Arts Council England capital investment fund.
In March 2022, they were notified that they had been turned down for the bid. When they questioned this, they received an update a month later, informing them that they had got it. They received £630,000 from the Arts Council and raised further funding from other opportunities and in-kind support.
Lift Off! is about them taking the 1985 building they took responsibility for in 2012 to create a public art space suitable for 2025. This has included disabled-friendly spaces, inclusive toilets and better access provisions around the building. They also converted an area underneath the building into a brand new arts workspace.
It has been a challenging process, and Heather is resistant to remembering all the problems they faced. The construction work did not start until May 2024, after years of legal issues with contracts and leases. Getting to the point where construction workers were on site was in itself a mammoth task. The project was meant to be completed by December 2024, but that timeframe was not met.
Heather and Ed only had the lift installation completed and the building officially handed back at the end of June. I ask for positive highlights for the experience, but it is met with numb silence. Heather instead highlights the “humongous” funding bid, a first that included architects’ drawings and ran to over 800 pages with attachments. Before they had started, they had laid out considerable money for consultants and architects. Fundraising for the project became a full-time job for Heather from 2022.
Deciding to include the lift came with its own complications, starting with digging a pit. When you have a property called Sun Pier House, it comes with the challenge of being close to the river, along with the difficulties in finding a suitable lift they could afford and keeping within the boundary of the building. This only gave them one possible location. The lift company itself, name withheld to protect the innocent, was a traumatic experience in itself.
Heather and Ed took the property on to provide a public art space from which Medway would benefit. Ed knew of the building because of his family's connection to the area, and found the massive empty space amazing. Every year has been like starting a new business as they developed the space, provided a wide variety of activities and art studio spaces. As a result, the space has been consistently growing and evolving.
Now that time has passed, Heather is able to step back and proudly look at the building and see the difference they have made. They are still filled with exciting ideas, especially because it enables them to work with many different creative people and get inspired. Heather constantly has her eye on other empty buildings connected to their space, but she knows that it is unachievable right now.
The space they run, the units they offer and the people in those units are great. Sun Pier House is working well, the café is back open, though check the website for confirmed opening hours. The gallery space is vibrant, and they are deeply involved with Creative Estuary. They continue to love being in Chatham, and an important part of the river culture.
Their next big challenge is reminding people and letting new people know they are there. The big upcoming event on the calendar is the Festival of Chatham Reach on 20 September, which is well worth checking out.
Out to Lunch: Pam Exotic Jerk
Ordering takeaway for lunch is always a slight lottery. Outside the prominent chains, many eateries do not take part in the lunchtime food app economy, which is fair enough. Looking for somewhere a bit different, I settled on Pam Exotic Jerk, which operates out of a food truck at Chatham Dockside.
I ordered Jollof rice, coleslaw, barbeque chicken, and jerk chicken. The menu also featured something labelled ‘hard food,’ with no clarity on what that might be, so I ordered it to find out. Soon after the order was put through, we were informed that they were out of Jollof rice, so I ended up with plain rice instead.
When we started these lunch reviews, it was always with the hopeful intent of sharing delicious meals and encouraging you to try exciting places. I get no pleasure from sharing negative stories. So, I will keep it brief. It was the saddest pot of coleslaw I have seen, the barbecue chicken was cold, and I still don’t know what hard food is, but I can confirm it was hard.
The jerk chicken, however, was delicious. But not enough to recommend Pam Exotic Jerk in itself.
Events this week
🏳️🌈 Sat 16 Aug - Medway Pride // Annual community LGBTQIA+ festival with live music, stalls, and fringe events. Rochester Castle Gardens. Tickets £10.
🥕 Sun 17 Aug - Rochester Farmers’ Market // Wide range of traders selling food and gifts. Blue Boar Lane car park, Rochester. Free.
More Authority
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