"Around the World in Three Hundred Yards" - An Essay by Patrick Wright

"What is to be done about Dalston Junction?" Patrick Wright asks intially. His essay "Around the World in Three Hundred Yards" never really answers the question directly, but it does catalogue all the different conditions and histories of a short section of Dalston Lane plagued by blight. While the essay bursts with local examples from the actual Dalston Lane, the conditions described exist in every city. These circumstances appear at places where zoning mixes in awkward ways and "tangle[s] of dishonoured roads" expose the grid's short-comings. The same conditions that afflict Dalston Lane are found on San Fernando Road in San Fernando Valley. Here is a test as proof:

"[San Fernando Road] is a jumble of residential, commercial, and industrial activities, but zoning is not the only kind of development on which this street, if not its surrounding area, has missed out. In the fifties it escaped the kind of standardization Ian Nairn described as subtopia ('Subtopia is the annihilation of the site, the steam-rollering of all individuality of place to one uniform and mediocre pattern'). While it has certainly suffered daily agonies through the eighties, it was at least spared the kind of theming that has turned genuinely historical streets in more prosperous parts of the country into simulacra, gutting them in the name of taste. No 'lifestyle designer' has ever come to divide the 'targeted' denizens of [San Fernando Road] from the non-targeted, or to kill off the old street, with its confusion of nationalities, classes, and styles, and redefine it in marketing terms. We may be sure that Sir Rodney Fitch, design mogul of the eighties, has never worked here."

The description is so universal that all it takes is a replacement of the name of the road. Not only does the general description fit, each point also applies perfectly:

1. Zoning - On SFR airports share edges with residential neighborhoods which border industrial estates which transition seamlessly into public space without any greater sense of logic or pattern.
2. Subtopia - While the surrounding neighborhoods and streets developed with post-war housing and freeways in the fifties, SFR stayed locked in its industrial mode based on its past as a major highway.
3. Simulacra - Again, while roads like Hollywood Blvd. developed into "better representations of history," SFR was left to develop freely.
4. Design - There exists no control over the street. Each city the SFR passes through deals with the road in their own way, however there are no designs implemented and no attempt at controlling demographics or other living patterns. The road is an automatic assemblage of random program that fit at construction time consisting of whatever materials were available.

 Lebon's Corner

San Fernando Rd. & Truman St.

Wright describes the outcomes of these conditions on Dalston Lane which match the reactions found on SFR. There exists a multitude of commercial and industrial undertakings with the only logic being necessity. The road is made up of "indigenous north-east London enterprise mixed up with a whole array of brave multicultural endeavor." This is not only a mixture of multiple zoning types, but also of multiple cultures and capitalist spirits. Through this ad hoc expansion and reuse clusters of local industry grow. For instance groupings of metal workshops around the Sunland area support each other and share projects to survive. SFR's odd combination of business types becomes an asset

The comparison becomes severed when Wright examines the spirit of volunteerism and community action. While he says that voluntary organisations attempt to fix social wholes by moving in and setting up projects, not much of this is seen around SFR. While there is a community health service named MEND(Meet Each Need with Dignity) along the road, there are no voluntary actions set up and no meetings advertised like on Dalston Lane. Missing is also a governmental presence. There is no sign of social programs on the street or attempted rejuvenations. The only inkling of the existence of government are new bus stops and signage(albeit not connected by sidewalks).

Their absence, luckily, seems unimportant since Wright claims that none of these attempts have worked for Dalston Lane. The only positive change has been due to a Free Form Arts Trust set up on the lane. It sets up projects on Dalston Lane and surrounding areas that act as spot interventions which "catalyse change and community development." While no such organisation exists on SFR, such interventions can be imagined and easily sited.