Even somewhere as inauspicious as the Beckton Alp, a toxic 19th century spoil heap, is redolent with value for the people who use it.

Despite the only way in being a hole illegally made in the fence, the alp is a vibrant social space used by a diverse range of people for the kinds of adventure we just don’t have anymore.

During three months residency in a portacabin at the base of the alp we observed and documented use and evidence of use, both human and otherwise.

In 50 days of actual presence on site, over 300 people were observed.







The paradox of this “bad” landscape as also a place of the sublime and of adventure was tested during the residency by hosting social encounters. One of these encounters was an invitation to lunch below the summit extended to the scaffolders from the yard at the base of the alp. Both tested scenarios and observed use formed a brief to return the alp as a fully accessible, social, bioremediated landscape, but one that retains the intrinsic qualities that make it so beguiling.

The concept for bioremediation is to treat the surface rainwater as both a source of pleasure and potential poison and by making visible a treatment system so reference the hidden marsh landscape now sealed away beneath the surface. 

The design will separate the surface water from the leachate, rills and pools with reed beds as green sponges will cleanse the less toxic surface run off, and will keep it as far as possible from penetrating the reinstated clay capping.  

That water which does penetrate the cap will percolate through the toxins and as leachate will be collected at the base in an enclosed chamber, the “bad” water will be pumped up using renewable energy to be let down again through an enclosed serial system to filter out the toxins.   

The proposal is for a hybrid landscape of remediation and the sublime, for adventure and for the knowledge of risk.  The form this landscape may take is evidenced through the natural and cultural history collection of the alp. This collection is based the Enlightenment tradition of knowledge through observation and comprises of artifacts and “specimens” entirely constructed from material found on site. The Collection is cultural evidence of the value of the intrinsic paradox of the alp.

The collection was made in collaboration with local individuals and organizations, the Beckon adult education art class made landscape paintings, the director of the local undertakers narrated a roll call of loss, the Over 50s book club donated memories and a botanical illustrator made drawings of constructed species.


Date: Tuesday 04.03.08
Time: 08.45
Weather: sunny clear sky but clouds over by 09.45, strong NW wind
Methodology:
observations on site
off site research to Charity shops in East Ham high Street to source ceramics with similar blue and white design to fragments found on site
Tools used:
Samples to laboratory: 
black clothing and jewelry from east fence edge
Human occupation off alp site:
10.30 4 young men are playing football in the insulation yard on the north side of Alpine way with a ball made from industrial cling film
Human occupation on alp site:
12.50 man ascends from wooden platform with camera(cleared again to blue sky)
13.30 2 boys, one in uniform on wooden platform until 13.44 then descend to amphitheatre and begin making a den on the ridge
14.30 the den making boys leave the site by the south fence and walk east along Alpine Way
14.47 2 young men (late 20's) are at summit, gesturing to points on the horizon and drinking from bottles leave at 15.00
15.21 2 young boys in school uniform descend from wooden platform tentatively towards amphitheatre and inspect the den , joined by 3 other boys, all leave via south fence and head west along Alpine Way
Non human occupation on site: 
Ambient sounds: 
Ambient smells: 
Remarks:
09.20 returning from alp the rubbish in front of the porta cabin door includes 8 cigarette ends, an empty 10 pack of marlboro lights, a crumpled five pounds sterling note and a receipt for a visa application passport number 157390059 from the Pakistan high Commission date february 8th
Animal tracks on the north and west face very evident in the damp grass.
looked along west face for feathers seen last week but they are gone, either rotted into the ground, blown away or removed
13.30 - 13.45 helicopter (not police) circling overhead
Occupation images:
Inventory images:

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