Surreal News story

You will find it if you try:

East Suffolk council removed a skip that was part of a valuable Banksy artwork to “maintain cleanliness” after locals began using it to dump rubbish.

MichaelG.

Hi MichaelG, that is interesting, and although I can't recall ever seeing that house, I've certainly been close to the location when arriving on a train a few times back in the late 50s / early 60s with my parents and siblings when we went on our summer holidays to my mothers parents who lived about half a mile away, on London Road South. Had many happy holidays on Lowestoft beach, the boating lake and the miniature railway with a steam locomotive, even saw Leslie Crowther once outside Claremont Pier.

One or two photos of the Miniature Railway in Lowestoft

Regards Nick.

P.S. I've just looked on Google Maps street view, and you can see the Banksy artwork with the skip still in place. We did walk down that road beside the railway once to a long footbridge that used to go over the railway to the road on the other side.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 12/01/2023 09:05:15

Hi, Katwijk Way (google Maps Street View) thought I'd just put this link in for those who might be interested.

Regards Nick.

That sums up trying to eat fish and chips outside in many of our seaside town now ! Noel.

Strange how generally graffiti appears to be seen as vandalism but Banksy is valuable artwork!

Just my personal viewpoint perhaps?

Edited By V8Eng on 12/01/2023 10:18:08

A conversation with my cousin, whose PHD is in renaissance art, a few years ago:

her - you don't understand art.

me - true. But more importantly, I don't care.

Perhaps Banksy should have painted a skip on the wall instead of the temporary type.

We have a Skatepark up the road and the graffiti (art?) on one of the walls can be amazing (sometimes not) but the park users change it every few weeks, worth a fairly regular walk past it though.

Edited By V8Eng on 12/01/2023 10:30:25

Edited By V8Eng on 12/01/2023 10:34:08

Hi V8Eng, you may well be correct, however I think there is a lot of graffiti that is very artistic although I may not agree with the message or appreciate it, but where it is done is often classed as vandalism, but on the other hand, Banksy artwork can also be classed as vandalism if it is not welcome in a place where it has been done. I don't know if Banksy gets consent from the owners of the property they are put on, but it would make the difference between art or vandalism and I wouldn't be too pleased if one morning I found a Banksy on one of my walls without me giving consent, but as there is very little public footfall by my home, it's unlikely there will ever be one.

Regards Nick.

No doubt she feels exactly the same about model engineering!

Likewise, my great aunt had 'Seascape' on Marine Parade (the name survived till recently) I used to watch that train from her window. I watched the parts for the Sizewell reactor trundle past from the docks. The big grey crane that used to stand by the bridge was built to unload them.

There used to be a dairy at the dogleg of the Parade where you could watch the bottling process through the windows it's now Potblack.

Edited By Dave Halford on 12/01/2023 11:35:17

Probably.

I definitely do.

To add a tenuous link to this.

I did my first year mechanical marine engineering apprenticeship at Lowestoft College of FE. in 1974/75. Shipyards around there were Brook Marine and Richards, all gone I suspect.

Lowestoft what ever the time of year it was, it was always windy - well it is the most Easterly point in the UK....

London Road South and London Road North.....remember it well and the old ABC and Odeon cinemas us apprentices used to frequent......at 16 too young to go in the pubs - but the cinemas would let us in to see the "X" rated movies especially in the Winter when Lowestoft was "dead".....

Regards

Derek

Hi Dave Halford, I remember going past a couple of large windows that had red frames and there were bottles of milk being filled and the tops put on, but I don't know if it was in the same place as we didn't use that road very much, with the pot black what is showing on the current street view. We use to get to the sea front by walking towards the swing bridge and then past the Palace cinema that used to be there and on towards the South Pier. In 1964 we went to the Palace cinema to watch one of the first screenings in this country of Mary Poppins, that was the last year we all went, as my grandfather died at the beginning of summer in 1965 and my nan came to live with us until she passed away in 1968. The last time I was in Lowestoft was the 9th May 1999 when my two younger sisters, and younger bother-in-law and myself, took our mum on a visit there. The place had changed quite a lot, with the mini railway and boating lake gone and probably the electric boating lake up near Kensington Gardens. The photo below is one I took then from outside a place where we had a snack before returning home, showing where the mini railway and boating lake used to be, on the other side of the lake was a kiddies play area with swings etc. and there was a little circular stand there where a man cooked Doughnuts with jam put in them. It looks if this is all car parking space now on the street view.

Our grandparents lived in No. 59 LRS and the ground floor front room was occupied by an insurance company, Looking at this on the current street view image, there just happens to be a yellow skip in their front space.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 12/01/2023 17:17:14

Councils sometimes seem to have an unusual sense of logic.

One forbad residents from cultivating flowers on a roadside verge, "In the interests of keeping it tidy"..

(Shades of Rupert Brooke and An Unofficial English rose! )

Howard