The
Academy of Urbanism (AoU) had its annual Congress in Derry this year.
In
his introduction to the first AoU Journal,
the Academy chairman Kevin Murray argues that “better places tend to be more tolerant of a diversity of people and
backgrounds, making people feel comfortable and providing them with positive
stimuli for creativity and collaboration”. This hardly sounds like the Derry of
the popular imagination, but the Congress provided an opportunity to explore
the new and infinitely complex reality.
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| Aerial view 1970s |
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| Shipquay Street (Mark Lusby) |
In
his brilliant book, Where Good Ideas Come
From, Steven Johnson calls the city a “great engine of supercreativity”, a
crucible of innovation and creativity.[i] No
one could describe Derry as an engine of supercreativity, although it is
generating a few sparks. Even the ever-optimistic ONE Regeneration Plan for Derry – Londonderry acknowledges that the
city has a small, fragile economy, heavily
dependent on the public and third sectors.
The same document contains a “Summary of Key Inequalities” which reveals
that, in the most deprived parts of the city, the mortality rate is exceptionally
high; the economic activity rate is alarmingly low (below 50% in places); about
three-quarters of the adult population have no educational qualifications; and
more than half of all primary school children qualify for free school meals.
This is depressing, although hardly unique: much the same might be said about
parts of Grimsby, Dundee or Oldham.
One
might argue that, even a generation after the worst of the Troubles, Derry is
in many ways the antithesis of the ideal
city. It is too small to pack an economic punch, its traditional industries
have collapsed, the private sector is weak, there is a low-skilled workforce
(despite some great schools) and poverty is endemic. It is hard to imagine a modern European city
that is less diverse, and Derry remains segregated by religion and obsessed
with its dual identity and its contested history. In some parts of the city,
rough justice is administered by armed terrorist gangs, and one Congress
delegate challenged official self-congratulation by highlighting the risks still
faced by young people who choose to cross the community divide.
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| Above: The Fountain, below: Bogside |
The
Derry-based Nerve Centre is leading the Divided
We Stand project which uses GPS technology to track the movements of school
children in Northern Ireland as they go about their daily lives. Provisional
findings suggest that religion continues to have a profound impact on the geography of everyday life for
young people in Derry. The city centre appears to be more or less neutral territory,
but the home, school and social life of young Catholics and young Protestants is
often confined to mutually exclusive territories. Indeed, the subtext of the ONE Plan is an apparent acceptance of separate development. There is much
talk of equality of opportunity, respect, cooperation and coordination but the
inevitable Wordle diagram of key terms and phrases doesn’t mention integration.
So
is Derry a model of good urbanism?
Scarcely. The riverside, once a busy port and a centre of industry, is utterly
miserable. Crass developments like the Foyleside Centre and the Millennium
Forum have trashed the scale and character of the historic city; much of the
rich industrial heritage has been allowed to wither away. The regeneration model posited by the ONE Plan is based on heroically
optimistic demand projections, and the Congress was given a glimpse of a
laughably awful “masterplan” for the Fort George site.
But,
for all these disappointments and challenges, Derry survives, albeit by the
skin of its teeth. In a 1961 essay, the great Ian Nairn celebrated the city’s
“fighting spirit...Derry is one of the proudest places I have ever been”.[ii] Fifty years on, after decades of conflict and
tragedy, the theme of the AoU Congress was resilience,
and it could not have been more appropriate.
The
ONE Plan may be a series of clunking
clichés (“Derry-Londonderry’s key assets remain the place and its people”)
framed in fractured syntax (”...a compelling and exciting opportunity for
delivering transformation for regeneration through sustainability”) but what
matters is the fact that it was written at all, and that so many people were
engaged in the process. Thankfully, the new Peace Bridge isn’t a crass “iconic” gesture, but an elegant
structure which makes crossing the river Foyle a real pleasure; by linking a
divided city it has created something of practical as well as symbolic value.
The restoration of the Ebrington Barracks will raise the quality bar, although
it is not entirely clear where the demand for the new spaces, indoor and
outdoor, will come from. The city’s cultural renaissance is real, as
exemplified by the Playhouse, the Nerve Centre and the Gaelic cultural centre Cultúrlann
- though it is heavily dependent on the subsidised sector and the creative
economy remains small and fragile. The winning 2013 City of Culture bid was an unqualified triumph which provides
a once-in-a-generation opportunity to attract new investors and high-spending
visitors. The latter will be delighted by a place that is thrillingly
distinctive, despite the indignities inflicted on it by bombers, planners and
developers, and the welcome will be warm and generous.
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| Above: Peace Bridge, below: Ebrington |
If the purpose of the Academy of Urbanism is to learn from place, Derry was an outstanding choice for the 2012 Congress. Difficult, ambiguous, admirable and infuriating in equal measure, the city falls short of the European benchmark for good urbanism in all kinds of ways. But Derry has triumphed over adversity to become a better, happier and more optimistic place than it was ten years ago. It is salutary to read the account of the city in the 1979 Buildings of Ireland volume, with the walls occupied as a military camp and the bombers – and planners – wreaking daily damage on the urban fabric.[iii] Derry is still a difficult and troubled place and the wounds of the recent past are, understandably, still raw but it has come a long way in a relatively short period of time. Now the city needs to translate its proven resilience into a credible plan for sustainable prosperity. It will be a huge challenge but Derry has made a brave start.
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