Age UK Project.Historical Buildings.

I have done some research on old photographs of places in Stockport area. Some photos represented below:

Merseyway. Town Centre

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Market in Stockport

 

 

Bramall Hall

 

 

 

Features of Stockport - The Plaza

Stockport Plaza The Plaza first opened its doors to the public on Saturday, 8 October, 1932. Early programmes were a mix of cinema and live performance, or 'prologues' as they were known. A typical evening would feature jugglers, a magician or a comedian. Films shown included Laurel and Hardy in 'Jailbirds' and Gene Gerrard and Jessie Matthews in 'Out of the Blue'. Prices for the Plaza's first performance ranged from 7d (3p) to 2/- (10p). One of the Plaza's greatest assets is the Compton cinema organ which has survived intact, unaltered and in working order. The Plaza is one of very few cinemas in the country which retains its original organ installation in such fine condition. Today the Plaza is managed by the Plaza Theatre Trust and hosts a full programme of theatres, music and comedy.

 

 

The plan for this week

This week it is planed to visit a Day Care House to talk to people who diagnosed with Dementia. Each student will be given opportunity to illustrate the memory of the person from the Day care House. The idea is to get into conversation and find as much as possible information about the past to be able to illustrate it. Also, I have visited the Heritage Centre in Stockport and I am planning to get there again after Day Care House visit to find the visual images of the information given by the person from the Day Care House.
After visiting the Day Care House I continued looking for more photographs accordingly to what I managed to discover from my conversation with Tom who is the resident of the Day Care House.He is the middle child in the family of 5 children who lived in Stockport area had swam in the river Mersey as a child, had visited the Cinema (Plaza) many times and set on the double sit that allowed him to bring the girl;and he had to queue to get to the cinema.Also he told me that there was an air raid shelter in his back garden made out of corrugated metal.Family kept two black hens in the shed.One of them was laying eggs each day of the week accept from Sunday.Tom called the hen “very religious”.He also mentioned two PUBs The Swan and the White Lion.

I have started developing elements of composition for the illustration of Tom's memory.I have completed a few sketches by pencil and using Illustrator computer program.Some sketches completed in Illustrator represented below:

 

              The hen needs further development. I am planning to integrate into the composition the Air Raid Shelter ,German airplane,the shad with the "Religious Hen" that lays eggs from Monday to Saturday,accept from Sunday; and the Plaza Theatre building.I might come up with other ideas while developing the composition,the time will tell!

 

 

 

I went to the Air Raid Shelter museum today and took some photographs there.I was amazed how accurate all facilities are kept over the decades.The items represented in the  tunnels are genuine.The environment is  powerful in terms of linking to the past and so, induces to feel the aura of the war time.Some photos are represented below:

		Medical equipment
First Aid hospital	Kitchen	Lavatories
		this is the baby gas mask

I completed a development work in illustrator program in accordance to what I have seen in the museum.Some other ideas about  illustrating Tom’s story need further development:

I have some souvenirs from the Air Raid Shelter museum, such as: Ration Book,National Registration Identity Card and a book published in 1943.See pictures below:
I combined the developed elements into a composition:


A few other versions of the same composition are represented below:



The font has been changed.I have done a research on different fonts, those been used in the war time.See pictures below:



The sign has been improved,and this is Final Outcome:

This project was enjoyable in terms of developing skills in using illustrator computer program, exploring  historical facts and illustrating memory of someone who experienced it in real life.The difficult part of the project was depicting the appropriate theme to illustrate.I did not want to represent someone else's memory in a dramatic way.I was looking for the funny moments within the negative circumstances of the war time.I managed to focus the person I was speaking with on positive aspects of his memory rather than negative,something funny that he remembers from childhood.The personal experience of the war and all consequences of it was delivered to me through the funny conversation; and some information I would describe as confidential,but Tom did not mind to speak about it;and furthermore he was telling the stories in such a details.I had impression that he really enjoyed telling me about his life in the past.