An Imaginative Tribute to Romford’s History
Romford Market after closing time is usually visited by me when I need to dart to Iceland,
or check into the Premier Inn on a family visit. So, there was something novel about this
well-known haunt as the setting for a giant replica sculpture of the Liberty Fountain:
intrigued? I was! Masterfully lit against the night sky, this sculpture became the canvas
for Vickie Donoghue’s text, James Bulley’s atmospheric sound and NOVAK’s video
projections, as Romford’s past seemed to echo through the heart of the town.
Created by David Shearing and presented by Havering London, Meet Me by the Fountain
combined spectacular projection and sound to carry us from bustling medieval fairs to
wartime destruction and the 1980s disco scene. For me, as Schools Producer for the
Queen’s Theatre, seeing contributions from young people involved with QYouth and the
Ionians made this a particularly memorable celebration of creativity and community.
As the installation drew to a close, the bells rang out from St Edward the Confessor
Church, each peel adding a full stop the utterances of traders, shoppers and disco
dancers gone by, and an ellipsis for voices still to come…
Francesca Bailey, Schools Producer at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch
