Message In A Bottle - World Record Attempt
It is with great excitement that turntable gallery is announcing their first world record attempt, and we need as many of you to be part of that as possible! Join us, in creating the largest display of messages in a bottle the world has ever recorded!
We’re looking for people from the area to send in their messages for us to bottle for you. To do this, email your message and name to messageinabottle@turntablegallery.uk – or click the button!
Alternatively, you can physically drop a completed message, either in or without a bottle, to turntable gallery! We’ll record your name and message, and add them to the list of participants! You too can be part of the towns newest record.
Ending with a display and a final count at this years Festival of the Sea Grimsby (22/06/2024). We know we can best the 1100 record held by the United Arab Emirates. Let’s bring this one home!
Also on at Turntable Gallery
Turntable Gallery is very proud to present a photographic project by esteemed local photographer, Richard McClean: Better Than Watching TV.
In the 1960s a close-knit community to the east of Freeman Street in Grimsby was dispersed and their homes cleared for the construction of six fifteen storey tower blocks or ‘Houses’; Albion, Bevan, Garibaldi, Nelson, Tennyson and Thesiger. The last residents of the close knit community that developed were dispersed in 2017 and the towers demolished in 2018. In 2024 the site remains derelict.
This collection of documentary photographs by Richard McClean with research by Carla Linford and stories from local residents charts the history of the site from WWII bombings through utopian brutalism to the long decline and eventual demolition. The humour and poignancy of the memories shared contrasts with the photographs of the empty flats and their destruction and invites us to reflect on our own relationship with the towers which cast their shadow over Grimsby for over five decades.
Richard mentions:
“In terms of influence… there’s no one specific but the Café Royal series of books is. I kind of aim that my photos might be something they would publish in 20 years. A kind of future nostalgia, documenting today’s mundane in an artful way so it becomes more interesting as time passes.”
Whether our view was from the windows looking down on the daily comings and goings on Freeman Street or looking up as the cranes tore down a chapter of local history, it was better than watching TV.
Exhibition made possible by Create North East Lincolnshire, supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
Additional photographs by Andy McClean.
Opening Hours: 11am – 2pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with special opening hours for Festival of the Sea on 22 June 2024 (11am – 4pm).
