An Alternative Writing Retreat
Between the villages of Dinmael and Tŷ Nant in north Wales, there is a half-mile stretch of road that has been closed to vehicles since 1997. It winds along the side of a short leafy gorge above the river Ceirw, and remains open to visitors without advertising its considerable history…
We live surrounded by maps of every sort you can imagine, digital and on paper. What Three Words reduces the world to three random words, Garmin and Strava can make you feel good about how far and fast you can run. Map My Run – well, maps your run. The Ordnance Survey is still going strong…
I’d been drawn to it, when it had appeared one day in the middle nineties, bursting upon a patch of wasteland on the way to Roman Road, where my favourite morning market had offered cut-price clothes. My mother and I had gone to the market every now and then, and we’d punctuated our chilly trawl down the long, stall-congested street…
To mark its 70th anniversary, Heathrow Airport launched a project to curate stories about itself. Years later, only a few of these narratives have survived…
We walked around the ragged, disputed edges of Heathrow Airport. From ancient coaching inns to robot cars on raised roads, here’s what we found…
Ahead of you, guarded by a tall and well-maintained fence, is what remains of Spreepark; a theme park from the glory days of socialism in East Berlin. There’s little left now. Rides moulder in the undergrowth. Rollercoaster rails turn slowly to rust…
Walsall railway station doesn’t really exist. I was once mesmerised by the dark polished floor in the vast booking hall, and in awe of its wrought-iron canopy. Now whatever’s left has been swallowed inside a shopping centre named Saddlers as commemoration of a vanished industry. The usual shops – Poundland, Claire’s Accessories, a Costa Coffee…
“Crystal Palace Park still carries the name of something that is no longer there, a building of plate glass and iron from the high Victorian age…”
Sean Wai Keung participated in the Heathrow Airport Residency in September 2018. We spoke to him about identity, food, poetry, and editing…