17 Under One Roof - Installation
WIP
17 free standing thread wrapped pillars - contained within the spatial dimensions of 3m x 4m, pink and purple threads.
The pillars are of variable heights which correspond to the different ages of the dwellers of 24 Tredegar Road, London, E3 at the census count of 1881.
The 3 x 4 m overall dimensions are taken from the main ground floor room of 24 Tredegar Road, London, E3. This was once the house of my ancestors, my Great Great Great Grandfather is listed on the census in 1881 along with 16 other residents. I come from a long line of East End tailors and only discovered this fact many years after I started utilising threads in my work. My recent research project (ACE DYCP Award 2022) focused on the historical and social conditions of Victorian East End tailors and their lives. During my research, when I discovered this previous address of my ancestors, I wrote to the current dwellers of the house, explained my project and randomly asked if they would be willing to let me cross the threshold. Amazingly, they said yes and I experienced first hand the space my family had lived in - a dwelling where 17 people all lived under one roof - including my Great Great Great Grandfather Samuel Abbott, his wife, his 3 daughters, 2 grandchildren and 10 members of another family.
The pillars are different heights – reflecting the age and sex of the dwellers – adult males (4) 168cm, adult females (5) 160cm and children (8) variable heights 75-137 cm. The threads wrapping the pillars are pink and purple – directly corresponding to those colours charted by Charles Booth on his Poverty Maps (1886-1903). Every street in London was colour coded according to its level of poverty, the East End being one of the poorest areas in London :- black was the lowest level, yellow was the richest – pink = fairly comfortable, good ordinary earnings; purple = mixed, some comfortable, others poor.
The life of a Victorian East End tailor was extremely harsh – this piece stands as a testament to those 34000 tailors who are thought to have lived in the East End in 1881.
