Rochester Square opens as place for ‘artistic collaboration’

A curious new public space opens this weekend. Rochester Square – you know, just off Camden Road – has its official launch with an open event which kicks off on Friday (23rd June) with communal outdoor cinema and then runs throughout Saturday.

Abandoned for more than a decade, this former plant nursery situated in the centre of a residential square was revived by a local couple Francesca Anfossi and Eric Wragge, who formed and led a partnership to purchase the derelict site and create a place for “artistic collaboration and cultivating creative projects.”

Now they’ve installed ceramic facilities, including three electric kilns, wheels, glazing rooms and storage space for both practicing artists and beginners.

But hang on, what’s the story behind the square itself? Spanning a half-acre, it was part of the estate of the Marquis of Camden, deriving its name from the father of the second Marquis’ wife: the Bishop of Rochester.

Records show land and buildings in this part of NW1 being used as a nursery for more than a century from the 1840s, and also contain earlier (1820s) references to a nearby nursery on land leased to Robert Montgomery, and located on the northeast side of Rochester Square road between Camden Road and Stratford Villas, where present day homes now stand.

In the early twentieth century, the nursery came to be owned by Stroud’s, a company best known as a film prop business that specialised in the supply and rental of palms for the entertainment industry – and whose clients included the likes of Elton John and the Carry On films.

This business entered terminal decline in the late 1980s, ceased operations not long thereafter, and the nursery was left to become derelict. Multiple groups of squatters inhabited the property, and the area got a brief mention in The Libertines’ album Anthems for Doomed Youth: “Holed up in squats in theatre bars/ to Camden we will crawl/ I’ll meet you in the shadows by Rochester Square.”

Which brings us (sort of) to the present. This latest development, which only gathered force in early 2016, has some pretty big support across London’s artistic community, including the likes of Sam Belinfante, Laure Prouvost, Simon Bayliss and Ben Rivers.

What Francesca and Eric are calling “Re-creation Day” this weekend opens the space to the wider community, inviting locals’ involvement in shaping its future, exploring its potential through conversations about a central idea: “the use of raw material in situ as a tool to respond to the ideas of recreation and play,” says Francesca.

Thus the open day will feature 3D art dotted about by a variety of artists, plus an open air screening of the BFG on the first night, and then clay oven workshops, life-drawing, landscape-painting classes and artists’ films through Saturday.

“It’s an opportunity to come together, to share food, time and ideas,” she says.