Charlie Ann Buxton, Birkenhead Tapestry

Charlie workied with us on our Uncovering Birkenhead's Working Class History project to produce a large scale tapestry. Utilising the stories, images and memories that have been shared with us by the community across the project. The tapestry explores local iconography and personal histories from the 1900s right up to the present day. This new commission will be shown next week at the closing exhibition and celebration taking place at the Stork Hotel. 

More about charlie and her practice: 

Charlie Ann Buxton is a Designer, specialising in Textiles Print. With a love for illustrating, her work is often described as surreal and dreamlike, influenced by 1960s art, while adding a contemporary touch. Charlie is multidisciplinary, she graduated from Central Saint Martins studying Textile Design, specialised in Print. Her love for vintage and print design has navigated her towards a love for scarf design, launching her own scarf brand in 2022, which was featured in Elle UK Magazine. The scarves are an exploration of Merseyside’s forgotten seaside towns and unique fashion identity and culture. Alongside this she also works on commissions from fashion studios to galleries to album artworks for independent bands. 

Grange Life, Astles Poetry Book

A series of poems for the place Dan has called home for the past 2 years. During the Convenience Gallery project to Uncover Birkenhead’s Working Class history we worked with local musician Dan Astles for them to tell a series of stories of his working class Birkenhead. This series of 5 poems are Dan’s ode to Birkenhead. 

The title Grange Life, is inspired by Dan’s time living on Grange Road West, and is a play on the song ‘Range life, by Pavement’. 

More about Dan: 

Daniel Astles is a musician, songwriter and performer who also specialises in community music workshops. As a performing artist Astles has been described as ‘gorgeous, lilting indie’ by the NME. As well as having been supported by the PRS Foundation Momentum funding, and recently signing a Publishing Deal with Sentric Music and Starwood Management (Michael Kiwanuka and The Kooks) as well as being signed to London Label 7476 (Matt Maltese, Mathilda Mann). He has also performed with artists such as Bill Ryder Jonea and The Mysterines. 

As a community musician Astles has ran songwriting workshops for multiple different charity’s across Merseyside, a few examples beimg : Oomoo (Running songwriting workshops for young people in care, creating, recording and producing an album with them), Spider Project ( running songwriting workshops for adults in Drug , Alcohol and Mental Health Recovery) and Rawd (Dedicated to helping disabled people grow within the arts, creating and performing a song about self compassion) , As well as running a community choir and open mic at the Bloom Building. 

Finally Astles also has a First Class Honours Degree at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts in Song writing and Production, and was awarded with the Beatles Story Prize for 

‘application, attendance, enthusiasm and skill in music.’ 

Working Class Memes, Jon Edgley

Jon has been working with us on the Uncovering Birkenhead's Working Class history project to produce a series of illustrations taking inspiration from his youth across the mid 2000’s whilst traveling to and working in Birkenhead. 

More about Jon in his own words: 

“I’m an artist from the Wirral Who’s Practice consists of drawing because it’s the cheapest thing to do. 

I draw to vent my frustrations of my working class life which end up as absurd and humorous (well I find them funny) images. For inspiration I binge and doom scroll, memes, cartoons and art things and screenshot it all so I can claim it as research.

I’m always looking for ways my drawing can take form in the world. So far they have existed as books, prints, billboards, bedsheets, installations, a giant light box and other odd stuff. 

For this show I have drawn from my experiences of being a kid from Leasowe and using Birkenhead as a place to shop or place to travel through to create my own series of memes and puns.”

Photography, Declan Connolly

Declan uses photography, narrative and sculpture to look at how people find meaning in objects and landscapes. For Uncovering Birkenhead’s Working Class Histories, Declan is using pose, body language and the history of portraits to produce studio artwork of people responding to where they live. This is a drop-in and casual workshop. 

Declan has provided examples of how class has been photographed over the years and is asking people to pose in relation to how they feel about their area in Birkenhead. Are they proud? Are they a bit annoyed? If you were to pose yourself in response to that question, what would you want to look like? Do you recognise any postures in how these other people have been photographed / painted / drawn? 

Birkenhead Playlist & Archival Footage, 

David Bell a.k.a SUGARSHACK

DJ Bell from SUGAR SHACK sound system took us on a sonic journey through the sounds and songs of Birkenhead's history, starting and the 1940s leading right up to the 90s. 

Sugarshack also be presented footage from a historic Birkenhead rave from the 1990s that took place at pacific road.

Listen to the playlist on Spotify here: CLICK HERE

Queensway Tunnel Film, Luna Thee Frenchie. 

Luna Thee Frenchie showcases her 20 minute audiovisual work depicting what the 2 mile stretch linking Birkenhead to Liverpool, the Queensway tunnel, means to her. Made up of footage in and around the tunnel, layered over dreamy underwater shots the visual elements of the work hint at trippy, psychedellic traits. A 20 minute mix paired with a distorted narration of secrets from this no-mans land transcribes some dark realities both personally and historically. 

Luna Thee Frenchie is a multisiciplnary artist from Birkenhead. Most commonly known for her involvement in the electronic music industry across the region, she is a visual artist by trade. LTF runs a community interest company called Queensway, which aims to promote and platform underrepresented artists within the music industry, working predominantely with female, non-binary and LGBTQIA+ people. 

The Stork Hotel

Inventory. According to the Tile & Architectural Ceramics Society, the fabulous tiled frontage was probably installed by the Birkenhead Brewery Co in about 1903; they say that the tiles were fixed by George Swift and may have been made at his Swan Tile Works, Liverpool.

http://breweryhistory.com/wiki/index.php?title=Stork_Hotel,_Birkenhead

Street corner local in central Birkenhead close to Hamilton Square. Built in 1840, this Grade II listed highly ornate pub has a wonderful mosaic floor, etched glass and carved wood. It retains many original wall fittings plus a circular bar with leaded stained glass serving two further rooms including the 'news room'.

Built in 1840, this highly ornate pub has a wonderful mosaic floor, etched glass and carved wood. A Threlfalls pub then Whitbread described in 1980 as having an interesting tiled exterior, magnificent woodwork and a hectic lunchtime trade selling Whitbread Special Cask Bitter. It retains many original wall fittings plus a circular bar with leaded stained glass. The main bar serves two further rooms including the news room', still with its original bell pushes. The black & white photos show the Stork in 1980. The pub is Grade II listed and listed in CAMRA's National Inventory.

https://whatpub.com/pubs/WIR/039/stork-hotel-birkenhead