PALETTE EN:IN – a chromatic ode to industry in Enfield

A special collection of colours gathered by Colour Your City from local research and stories during the Festival of Industry. The Festival of Industry was delivered by Enfield Council and funded by the Arts Council’s Place Partnership initiative from July 2023 to March 2024.

White with a touch of rainbow

Christine Vial, Enfield Poets – lives in Enfield and did local summer jobs as a youngster including at Reeves

Reeves and Sons is an English art materials brand established by William Reeves (1739–1803) in 1766, when he set up in business as a colourman. Reeves is credited with inventing re-usable watercolour cakes, and was proud of his superfine Cake Colours. "Reeves" remains an established brand of artists' acrylic and watercolour paints. From 1921-1982, Reeves were based on Lincoln Road, Enfield at the Greyhound Colour Works (a greyhound featured in the logo).

When I think of Reeves - for me in the Sales Office - the colour is white. White computer code cards, men in white coats who took the cards, the white machines in their air conditioned room, (the all white staff as opposed to more mixed ethnicity in the factory). Such a contrast from the dust and smell and noise of the factory with a rainbow of coloured pigments everywhere.

Read/hear her poem entitled Painting By Numbers – part of the Enfield Poets’ Festival of Industry project.

Milky Sapphire

Majenta Langs – artist & designer who worked at the maker space BLOQS for 2+ years. She joined us to create a collage and share this story (plus a few extra views on colour) during our Colour & Industry creative conversation weekend at BLOQS.

I responded to a callout in the BLOQS community group chat to help a maker stick crystals on paper. Over six weeks, about 2-3 of us stuck on 350k crystals! They were a lovely milky sapphire blue. It was for a billionaire’s bedroom in Mayfair, who wanted to cover her entire house in glitter. The ceiling in her bedroom is now blue glitter. She’s living her best life in all the sparkles.

I think we're definitely getting more into colour. Over time, things got grey, even buildings. The goal interior for homes was that everything was grey and monotone. I love that people are coming back with their own sense of personal style and it's showing through in every industry. Even looking at people walking past on the street, I see every colour.

I'm really excited to see how everything pans out with the whole Meridian Water area being redone. It's an industrial estate right now, and there's not a lot of colour going on. I would love to see what new life and colour is brought in, because there's so much opportunity for that.

Joyful Yellow

Femi Koleoso – from Enfield. Drummer in the Ezra Collective and Gorillaz. DJ, Producer, Musical Director.

If there’s a colour I would attach my creativity to it’s yellow. The reason being: the first real drum kit I ever owned was bright yellow. It was given to me by someone at church called Rob. That's Jubilee church here in Enfield. Him giving me that drumkit changed my world. Yellow represents a vibrancy and confidence. It's a bold colour. I wore yellow at Glastonbury 2019 and 2023. Both times were trying to represent a vibrant joy and confidence in who I am. 

To connect that colour to Enfield. I love the confidence and vibrancy that Enfieldians tend to have in this place.

My dream on a creative level for Enfield is to create more community, and create a place where we can connect and celebrate where we’re from.

Warm Orange Bricks

Edda Smith – Poet, artist, photographer & manager at Forty Hall

I personally love the warm orange colour amidst the green. Every day, I run my fingers along the ancient brick walls, envisioning life as it was 400 years ago.

This distinctive hue of the bricks is a key element of the manor's historic and picturesque appearance. The orange bricks not only enhance the aesthetic appeal but also reflect the building techniques and architectural preferences of the 17th century, making this hue an integral part of Forty Hall's rich historical narrative. Every time I see this colour, I think of Forty Hall.

Enfield has a history with brickmaking, which was common across the Lea Valley until the 1950s. Soft Reds and Yellow Stocks were the two types made in Enfield, and both can be seen in many local buildings - such as the Enfield Grammar School. Bush Hill Park, Southbury Road and Lincoln Road had major brickfields. The last survived in Hoe Lane until 1976.

Luminous Grey

Anthony Fisher – poet & co-founder of Enfield Poets; industrial chemist & founder of Fisher Research

Brimsdown is a liminal area between the Lea and dry land, and would have been considered a spiritual place for thousands of years. 

Brimsdown has a huge concentration of industrial activity, including the Enfield Power Station and Anthony’s own award-winning cleaning chemicals company which was established in 1988.

Read/hear more about Brimsdown in Anthony Fisher’s poems, alongside many other recollections from Enfield Poets.

Crimson Red

Joshua Vendetta Nash – Dancer & Choreographer, born & raised in Edmonton

I was fortunate in some way to be able to come back to my secondary and teach for about a year I had quite a few students mainly girls and some boys which just reminded me of when I started dancing in school but felt like I didn’t have the access back then unlike that the kids I was teaching had. And especially as a guy wanting to learn street styles and express myself through them but not know where to find it of having a male teacher to teach me. I just ended up practicing at home or at the park with my friends with YouTube as my teacher.

I believe it’s a lot different now and dance is a lot more accessible and from the males perspective not seen a something that you can’t do because it’s not masculine enough. And it’s a bit of a cliche but for most dancers including myself dance became a form of therapy and important physical outlet that allows you to completely express how you felt if you didn’t know how to speak to someone or didn’t have anyone to talk to. 

The colour I associate with that state of pure expression through dance is like a crimson red.

For the future I hope the arts continue to grow and become more accessible especially to young boys.

Cosy Flour

Sara – grew up in Enfield. The family has had a restaurant since 1977, called La Caverna at 169 Chase Side, EN2 0PT. It's still going strong, with multiple-generations serving traditional family recipes of Italian comfort food and pizza. 

It’s the nature of our business that you'd have to go and get products, goods, and services from the industrial part. The business is reliant on the Wrights flour mill. We got to see it as children.

I remember the brook, the animals, and the smell of the flour. When I was little, where we used to place the bags of flour in the restaurant, I used to sit there and read. For me, it was a comfortable, cosy space. It was taking the bags from there [the industrial area] and making it into something quite domestic.

Cadmium Green

Sara’s sister

I have a soft spot for the industrial part. It is an incredibly important part of what takes place in the borough. I don't think you can underestimate that. There's so much that happens in such a small area. That roundabout, if you're coming from Enfield Town, you go to the left – you're in the industrial zone. If you go into the right – you're in that bucolic mill area, which is like something out of an 18th century pastoral poem. The thing that springs to mind is the colour. It's like a very specific greeny colour. The only way that I can explain to you, is if I go to the New River near the Crown & Horseshoes pub. When the canal has been cleaned, it's a very particular green where it goes from very muddy green to really weird, vibrant green. That to me, is very reflective in a very positive way, of how Enfield manages to juggle two sets of contrast: one of the most outer boroughs with this beautiful countryside, and with this very dense, very industrial, important other side of it.

Milling is a long-running tradition in Ponders End, which can be traced to the Domesday Book of 1086. First birthed in 1867, G.R Wright and Sons is London’s oldest independent family-run mill, now on six generations! Innovation and adaptation - from tech to tastes - has been vital to running over 150 years, quite the achievement! Watch a lovely ‘history of’ video on their website.

With La Caverna too, here we have two examples of long-standing family-run businesses.

The blue the green and everything in between

Clare Moloney – Co-Place Shaping Team Lead & Create Enfield Manager, Enfield Council

The River Lee Navigation, 

a tributary to Enfield’s past, present, future.

One day sluggish, the next in a rush

to spill and spare its secrets.

Long ago offerings resurface

and lick around the water’s edges

revealing the ebb and flow of industry.

The whispers of the workers

of Wrights Flour Mill and Royal Small Arms

of wheat pressed to powder

of metal made malleable 

crafted into cannons, bullets and guns.

The river an ever evolving narrative

inspiring a new generation of makers. 

The work of culture; the culture of work

awakening a new democracy of making

assembling, disassembling 

art from the elements 

from the blue the green 

and everything in between.

Cobalt

Owen Wall Ceramics – ceramists based in Edmonton supplying fine tableware to restaurants

We wanted to try something new with cobalt – a colour used in many traditional forms of pottery. For Under the Jet Plane Sky – our newly commissioned public artwork as part of the Festival of Industry – a reflection of the sky is created across multiple tiles using a soluble cobalt. The watercolour glaze permeates the porcelain, creating solid impenetrable colour that mirrors the density of sky blue. The artwork is installed on a WW2 anti-tank block situated in Angel Gardens, Edmonton, N18 2NX.

Sunflower Yellow

Des and Kelly, Performing Pets – pets and animals for therapy, film, theatre, events and education, family-run business. Based and raised in Enfield. 

A colour to represent our work would be sunflower yellow. A nice bright, vibrant, happy colour.

Coco, the yellow Indian ringneck parakeet is the same colour as sunflower yellow. 

Yellow is a happy summer colour that signifies joy, happiness, hope, warmth, positivity and optimism. All the feelings that we try to create with our wellbeing therapy sessions. 

Curlew Purple

Loraine James – musician & producer, grew up in Ponders End

Curlew Purple in reference to Curlew House, the flat that I grew up in in Ponders End.

Curlew House was on the Alma Estate - which has since undergone redevelopment - and the other main blocks had colourful exteriors too. Images of these buildings have been used in album artwork and performance visuals. Loraine started making music here, recalling in a Pitchfork interview “You could just see sky. It was inspiring.” A sense of space, expansiveness, grit and tenderness is all woven into their sound palette. Gentle Confrontation is the latest album, a tribute to their teen-faves: math rock and emo-electronic.

Portraits by Jase Cooper plus album artwork For You And I

Colour Prism

Richard Fisher – Director, Fisher Cheng Architects

My story is a celebration of the emerging art industry in Upper Edmonton, with particular regard for our recently completed project: Fore Street Open All Hours Gallery. 

The project has uplifted and reinvigorated the high street and surrounding areas by creating a gallery of colourful outdoor artworks on security shutters, council-owned bins and walls. The artworks were developed through engagement between local artists, businesses and the community, facilitating a sense of local pride.

After business hours, shutter artworks enliven the night by bringing colour and interest to combat unease and safety concerns. Revamped bins have helped improve the street scene, while drawing attention to their presence to encourage use, addressing the significant littering problem along Fore Street. Murals installed on walls in and around Angel Yard, act as wayfinding to its location off the high street. 

Sanctuary Green

Vas – lived in the borough most of her life. Greek/London drummer, one half of the band deux furieuses, who've always rehearsed in Enfield and currently rehearse at Clang Studios

Your lovely Earthly Undertones installation was in Forty Hall surrounded by green, and it is also my favourite colour! Sprawling cities are destroying more and more natural habitats.. Sanctuary Green is a reminder of what we've lost but also what we should treasure now more than ever. It's sad to see Enfield, which is known as one of the greenest boroughs, under threat of losing its wonderful green spaces; Spurs planning to take over Whitewebbs park to build football pitches being one example.

Yellow is another colour for me, of spring… daffodils, buttercups, new beginnings, rebirth and creativity… all of us coming out of hibernation and joining forces to create!

deux furieuses filmed the video for Dream For Change in Ponders End and Russia. It contains the rousing lyrics “Sometimes everything changes!”. All We Need is Sanctuary is about a journey from the city, with a video filled with green.  

Stage Black

Jake Saunders – owner of CLANG Studios and freelance AV technician

CLANG Studios is a purpose built rehearsal facility for musicians with studio recording and equipment hire, based in Ponders End. A unique art collection can be found dotted around the walls, with a bathroom gallery showcasing local industry memorabilia and ‘90s rave flyers.

For me black is all about working in the shadows behind the arts. Most of what I do running a music studio is working behind the scenes to facilitate artists. I like being in the background dressed in black, being the unseen hand that can help things to be created. My business has become an extension that in many ways, we are like the man behind the curtain working in the shadows. Black for me is important in the way I dress as a sound tech and its use in staging and set dressing. It allows for the internal workings to be hidden and for the art to be pushed to the fore.

I started a gallery in the CLANG loo a couple of years ago when we changed our name. I was looking at lots of local history for inspiration, and found eBay collectors selling all sorts of bits from the Enfield area. So I just keep an eye out for photos or invoices etc from businesses that used to be on the street, and even an old rave flyer. The loo also features an illustration of 'Tutenkamen on holiday' from Peter Kuznicki who did our rebrand. Upstairs I have a series of black and white photography prints of London based bands from Andrea Lemos. Then on the stairs there is a print from Sophia Ward of a feminine shape. In the mixing room there are colourful prints of video art made by the wonderful Tomas Jefanovas.

Guerrilla Pompom

Cellina Momodu Doswell – long term resident of Upper Edmonton. Vice Chair of Residents of Edmonton Angel Community Together (REACT) and a Director of Fore Street For All CIC.

I like to use these pompoms when I make bags. The colours remind me of flower meadows, to plant along our alleyways from Fore Street to Meridian Water. I envision these alleyways as colourful pom pom pathways, showcasing our mosaic community. 

My colour is Guerrilla Pompom red. Red is vibrant, energetic and activates dull space. A Guerrilla Girls billboard was recently positioned opposite Silver Street station; it captures REACT's sentiment. 

I would like to see diverse industry collaboration activism for the betterment of the area. Art, food, music and drama brings intergenerational diversity to life.

The Guerrilla Girls are anonymous artist activists formed in New York in the 1980s, who “believe in an intersectional feminism that fights for human rights for all people. We undermine the idea of a mainstream narrative by revealing the understory, the subtext, the overlooked, and the downright unfair.” Their projects and billboards have been seen all over the world.

Alan and Lynne got creative at our Colour Explorers workshop at Forty Hall. They live in Winchmore Hill, active members of a local u3a (University of the Third Age) group and the Enfield Arts Circle.

Metallic Grey

Alan

I played with Matchbox cars as a kid of the 1950s. Metallic Grey signifies industry and in particular, the bodywork of Matchbox cars prior to them being painted.

Matchbox is a toy manufacturer, famous the world over with a loyal fanbase. Matchbox car models (and much more besides) can be found at the shop Past Present Toys at 864 Green Lanes, Winchmore Hill, N21 2RS.

Olive Green 

Lynne

Olive Green reflects my connection with enjoying gardening, visiting nurseries and parks in the Enfield area. I understand that the nurseries are under threat in the Crews Hill area with respect to housing development.

Everyone needs a hug. It’s lovely to see the trees getting a hug in our lovely green spaces. I felt very drawn to it when I saw it and wanted to find out about the project. It’s a lovely thing to see happening in the community.

Lynne’s collage represents an industrious craft project: knitted arm ‘hugs’ were made by members of MHA (a charity care provider) Communities. These hugs were then safely attached to trees in various parks, along with drawings and poetry to share kindness and joy.

Little Dragon Green

Richard Reeve – Publican, Little Green Dragon Ale House

There’s been a pub called the Little Dragon for sometime in the area, having moved around and been in different hands. The last Little Green Dragon pub is now a Waitrose. I kept the same name for continuity.

Little Green Dragon Ale House is a micropub. This summer we collaborated with Beerblefish Brewing Co. (who used to be based in Edmonton) and brewed our own "Summer of Dragon" beer. We have music on here twice a week. Community is absolutely key. People bring us in dragons of all kinds.

Relaxing Rivers & Pinky Light

Ola and Alan

Water, relaxing rivers, canals, open space, nature, slow down. More green and nature in Enfield. Keep the nature of Whitewebbs.

The Bluelands

Anna Hart – artist, AiR 

A spectrum of blues from Ikea Blue (Pantone 2145C) to Drumsheds Blue (something near to Pantone 5473…) linger at the edges of the city where gas stoves were made and flat pack-furniture shifted. Blues of distance and desire framing this space of loss and dreaming.

AiR is an artist collective working in response to the place where they are, currently Hastingwood Trading Estate in Edmonton. The Bluelands is a work-in-progress in a rapidly changing piece of city.

THANK YOU!

A MASSIVE thanks to everyone who has participated in PALETTE EN:IN, made artworks, get involved in creative conversations, and shared tales of colour and industry with us! Thank you to the teams who have supported us at Enfield Council, Enfield Archive, Museum of Enfield, and the Arts Council Place Partnership Initiative. We appreciate you all!