Our building team and many volunteers have been hard at work over these past few months building the beautiful pocket park which was designed together locally, and we’ve now called HomeSquare (or alternatively HomeTurf as some like to call it).
On 29th October 2017, Homebaked members, friends and neighbours gathered together with those that designed and built HomeSquare to celebrate its official opening. A lone trumpet played as Arthur, community member and Homebaked member and official cheerleader of the build, cut the ribbon along with his entire family. Led by master of ceremony Peter Carney we planted a tree, lit a fire, hosted a tea ceremony and gathered together to chat, listen to and tell stories. Many kids built mini-planters with Paul Harcombe to take home their own little bulb and great hopes for spring. We had some lovely food and hot spiced apple juice prepared for us by the Back Kitchen from Liverpool Homeless Football Club and Chair of the CLT board and amazing cook Ralph Bullivant. Thanks to Writing on the Wall our beautiful pavilion was filled with some great spoken words and of course we actually ended up singing Karaoke (!!). There was an intense use of our new hammock and some very rigorous swinging. Good! Thanks to Homebaked volunteer Phil Moore many bulbs were planted in the ground and each one of them came with a wish. When it started to get cold we huddled around our cosy fire and cracked some jokes. To warm ourselves up we played a couple of rounds of back alley bowling (a big thank you to artist and pie maker Louis Jeck-Prestidge who invented and built this great game for us). And Max counted all the fallen leaves on HomeSquare (one, many…). It was a great day!
Thank you to all who came to celebrate with each other.
With a special thanks to everyone who volunteered time and materials:
Darren and Leon White, Peter Carney, Jemma Rafferty, Jade Barrett-Ellis, Phil Moore, Ralph Bullivant, Patricia Levey-Bennett, Ian Byrne, Jimmy Lawless, Jimmy who normally makes pies, Jo Hudson, Elaine Cresswell, The Boys On Bikes, Chloe Buckley, Terry Reilly, David Young, Derek Dottie, Benjamina Galea and Nils Phillips.
Liverpool Homeless Football Club, Keepmoat, Rotunda College, Stanley Park CIC, Liverpool City Council, Manchester International Festival, London Design Festival, CAB Anfield, The Whitechapel Centre
And of course the design and production team: Bradley Barrett, Leanne Mitchell, David Wood, Paul Harcombe, Nicolas Henninger, Britt Jurgensen, Samantha Jones, Silvia White, Louis Tuckman, Andrew Beattie, Angela McKay, Louis Jeck-Prestidge, Calley Green, Myriam Lahnite, Mal Thomas and Andrea Ku.
HomeSquare is an open invitation, an experiment and a public conversation. How do we like to use public spaces? How can we be inclusive and safe? Can we find ways of using this land in ways that is both fun and respectful to others? And many more questions. We can’t wait!
Welcome to HomeSquare.
Photography by Mark Loudon.
