Open Water: How Can Swimming Make Space For Everyone?

Pipe Dreams curator Jimi Famurewa hosts author Jenny Landreth (Swell; Swimming London) and director Olivia Smart (Black Stroke) in a conversation about the past, present and future of historic disparities and inclusivity in swimming culture

Throughout history, Black and British Asian communities, the working classes and women have all faced different barriers to entry when it comes to swimming. What caused this, what has changed, and what role can leisure pools play in improving access and inclusivity? Hosted by Jimi Famurewa, this will be a lively, wide-ranging conversation with Jenny Landreth (author of Swell) and Olivia Smart (director of Netflix short film, Black Stroke) that dives deep into swimming suffragettes, Black British swimming collectives and more. 

Join us for a drink at the bar, and a book signing afterwards, facilitated by Rye Books.

Info:

Wednesday 7th August
18.30 - 21.00

Tickets:

Free or PWYC if you are financially able, please consider paying more, to keep Staffordshire St events accessible to all.

Speakers:

Jenny Landreth |

Jenny  is an editor and writer. She is the author of Great Trees of London (Time Out Publications) and Swimming London (Aurum Press, 2014). Jenny was the main contributor to the Guardian’s weekly swimming blog, writing on everything from pool rules, to swimming with children, and where to swim in New York.

In May 2017, Bloomsbury published Swell: a Waterbiography, Jenny's part memoir, part social history of women swimmers and how they were denied access to public swimming for generations. Swell was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and was named as The Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year.

In 2020, Chatto published Jenny’s new book, Bad Rep, which explored "what our love of am dram says about us as a nation, why amateur theatre is important, and how it could change your life".

Jenny is a script editor on popular CBeebies series, Hey Duggee, and writes the associated books. Jenny lives in London. When she’s not in, you’ll find her at Tooting Lido, Europe’s largest cold water pool, and her spiritual home.

Olivia Smart | @blackstrokefilm

Originally from Nottingham, Olivia Smart is a London-based TV producer and filmmaker with a speciality in factual entertainment stories. In 2023 she was one of five up-and-coming filmmaking teams to win a £30,000 budget and production support as part of the Netflix Documentary Talent Fund. The resulting short film, Black Stroke, told the story of three young black Londoners as they overcame negative tropes and misinformation to learn how to swim on an intensive, emotional eight-week course. The film screened on Netflix UK's YouTube channel and has been featured by The Radio Times and GUAP magazine. Olivia's previous credits include Rio Ferdinand's Tipping Point and Murder Case: The Digital Detectives.

Jimi Famurewa |@jimfamished

Jimi Famurewa is a British-Nigerian author, broadcaster and freelance journalist. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, Wired, GQ, Empire and Time Out London. He is the restaurant critic for the Evening Standard, regular guest judge on the BBC One series MasterChef, has appeared on Top Chef and was also one of the lead judges on Channel 4’s The Great Cookbook Challenge with Jamie Oliver. He is the host of the culture and heritage podcast ‘Where’s Home Really?’, and, in 2021, he won Restaurant Writer of the Year at both the Fortnum & Mason Awards and the Guild of Food Writers Awards. His first book, Settlers: Journeys through the Food, Faith and Culture of Black African London, was published by Bloomsbury in 2022 and was shortlisted for Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year. He lives in South-East London with his family.

About the exhibition Pipe Dreams:

Prepare to be transported to the aqueous, forgotten fantasia of a London orbital waterpark in the mid-1990s. The siren of the wave machine; the fug of chlorine and deep fat-fryers; the connective ridges of the water flume on your back. Consisting of sculpture, immersive sound installation and large-scale drawings, this collaborative, multidisciplinary exhibition explores the social significance, evocative power and formal playfulness of these lost leisure spaces. This plays out in the space, with an exploration of nostalgia, escapism and the hazy memories of an unverifiable, pre-internet age – the range, variety and communal spirit of the work invites us to consider the value of these fantastical, urban oases, and youth-centred sites of play, at a time when economic pressures and shifting tastes have put them increasingly under threat.

Looming at the figurative heart of the exhibition is Fantaseas: a sprawling, wildly ambitious Floridian-style waterpark that operated at sites in Chingford and Dartford in the early 1990s. The parks captured the imagination of a generation, and then abruptly closed amid whispered rumours of adolescent misbehaviour, building subsidence and financial mismanagement. Here, Fantaseas and its Greater London counterparts – a chlorinated constellation including Woolwich Waterfront, Wavelengths in Deptford, Croydon Water Palace and Hemel Hempstead Aquasplash – are the springboard for a droll, lively interrogation of these cathedrals to imaginative play. A central sculpture repurposes found objects to evoke gravity-defying, serpentine slides and people shrunk down to restive pets. Drawings depict an intestinal tangle of jutting, outdoor flumes in profile, highlighting the contrast between the magical and the mundane. A gaping ‘Black Hole’ slide threatens to both cocoon and consume; a meditation on risk, exploration and the waterpark’s integral sense of controlled danger.

Elsewhere, oral history recollections and field recordings from leisure pools that are still operational swirl and echo in the space. Here is the blare of the wave machine siren and the excited screams that always accompany it; here is the jet engine roar of hair dryers in the changing room. And here is an eclectic chorus of voices – from former lifeguards and lapsed lazy river obsessives to Fantaseas regulars and flume-addicted seven-year-olds – talking about the youthful independence, utopian architecture and ephemeral thrills that turn a waterpark into such profound, formative environments. The sound installation repeats, shuffles and invites you to explore the space, all while considering the importance of play, the transporting power of water, and the giddy, dreamlike loop of an infinite, half-remembered flume.

Alongside this, the themes of the exhibition will spill over into a highly collaborative, community-minded program of events. A family-oriented day will feature a making workshop, plus local swimming experts and advocates sharing tips and talking about the benefits of getting in the water. ‘Open Water’, a separate evening event, will feature a hosted panel discussion with notable swimming creators Jenny Landreth and Olivia Smart about the importance of accessibility and inclusivity in swimming culture.

Accessibility: There is step-free access to the gallery via the door to the left hand side of the main entrance. There is a wheelchair accessible toilet. The event will be taking place in the exhibition space, which is a large open room with bright lighting and some seating available.

Staffordshire St is an independent project space in Peckham, South East London. The venue facilitates arts and cultural events and provides affordable studios for artists, makers and designers. ​

Staffordshire St is not-for-profit and all income is invested into developing our public programme which launched the summer of 2022. The venue was established as an art gallery in 2017, before then it was vacant for many years after a community centre closed. Originally it was built as a Methodist Hall. We intend to support a range of cultural events for the local community.

Staffordshire St will build on the established record of these histories, opening up again to the neighbourhood and developing a welcoming interdisciplinary arts space. More information on upcoming events at : info@staffordshirest.com or @staffordshirest

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