Cleansing The Horizon / It Rises Through the Blocks
James Roberts
for #V. ugly housing/housing aesthetics
Differens Magazine, summer 24
Cleansing The Horizon
It is July 2009 and flames are ripping
twelve stories high
scarring the Camberwell sky
Lakanal House is burning
by the morning six lives will have been stolen
no public enquiry will be conducted.
It is July 2011 and plum tongued ministers
are tossing themselves off in glee
firing the pistol on their red tape challenge
dancing around their bonfire of regulation.
It is early 2014 and a planning application
is being prepared for cladding on Grenfell Tower
“Changes to the existing tower
will improve its appearance
especially when viewed
from the surrounding area”[i]
It is July 2014 and bean counters
are counting beans
ready to cleanse the horizon
of Royal Kensington and Chelsea
they will save three hundred thousand pounds
by using ACM cladding.
It is November 2014 and flames are tearing high again
twenty one floors up on the Lacrosse tower in Melbourne
with hideous speed in hideous premonition
their ravaging fuelled by ACM cladding.
It is May 2016 and a plum tongued council leader
of Royal Kensington and Chelsea
is tossing himself off with glee
as the horizon cleansing is complete
“It is remarkable to see first hand how the cladding
has lifted the external appearance
of the tower”[ii]
It is Wednesday June 14th 2017 just before 1am
six years into the red tape challenge
three years since the decision to cleanse the horizon
three years since bean counters counted their beans
two and a half years since the Melbourne fire
and eleven months since a plum tongued council leader
tossed himself off with glee
a fridge’s fuse blew
on the fourth floor
of Grenfell Tower
again flames ripped high
again flames scarred the sky
by the afternoon seventy two residents lay dead
two hundred and three households were left with no home.
It is 2024 not Oliver Letwin nor Eric Pickles
igniters of the regulation bonfire
not their boss David James Cameron
nor Nicholas Paget-Brown, council leader
of Royal Kensington and Chelsea
not Gene Murtagh
nor Timothy D. Myers
nor Saint Gobain
CEOs of Kingspan, Arconic and Celotex
cladding profiteers
have faced justice.
Remember.
It Rises Through the Blocks
Homes collapsed in stacks
of billowing dust
as a mark of progress
a shining new dawn
are a thing of the past.
“It wasn’t easy, mind
nor quick
stresses and fallouts
fallouts and make ups
and lots of people left
the digging in of heels
the singing and the shouting
the demanding, staying put”
The last sad skeletal
remains of a hundred homes
sky high headstone
of a scattered community
stands in memory.
“We fought the developers
back into their box
with their dirty tricks
just in time
for all but one
to remain and be restored
just in time
for all but one
to become homes again
and leave
the ruin lonely
and leave
it to remind us”
We haven’t seen a demolition crew
around here for years now
our blocks haven’t been fenced off
at the drop of a hat for us
to be informed later of plans.
“They needed telling though
it was tooth and nail
it was knock knock knock
whenever a new plan appeared
we lived right up
to what the moneymen feared
many people many many people
women children men
grannies aunties uncles
workers claimants students
the born around the corner
down the road across the sea”
No gawdy billboards
with their pastel coloured
impressionist promises
or people being moved
like draughts pieces
every ten years.
“I remember the day
we all filled the streets
around the council chambers
and our lot went in proud
went in proud and spoke
for everyone staying put
the first time the second
time the third time the fourth”
No more sick deals
cut behind closed doors
to replace shite cladding
that might kill us
with shite cladding
that might kill us.
“See we know our stuff
we know what we need
and can smell a rotten
plan from a mile off
we work in construction
in planning and admin
we work in call centres
in shops or as carers
we work in warehouses
or making deliveries
we’re sharp as nails
and as keen as blades
we’re on the moneymen’s case
whenever their plans are made”
We are building on things
salvage not destruction
for a future not nostalgia
and the warmth is kept in
it rises through the blocks.
Notes
[i]…Quoted from a planning application for the cladding of Grenfell tower [https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/grenfell-tower-refurbishment-a-timeline-68533]
[ii]…The words of Nicholas Paget-Brown, former leader of Royal Kensington and Chelsea council[https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/grenfell-tower-refurbishment-a-timeline-68533]
James Roberts is a poet from Bradford who has lived in Glasgow for a number of years. He is a tenant of Wheatley Homes Glasgow, living on the Wyndford until 2022. His work has previously been published in Route 57, The Blue Nib, Marble Magazine and Setumag, and his first poetry collection, Fragments (2023), is available from Glasgow publisher Speculative Books.
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