Structures of Forgotten Origin, a collaboration with Lesley Sharpe
There are approximately 210 19th century Coal Tax Posts forming an irregular loop around London and marking the boundary at which coal entering the city was due. They now sit redundant, some by the side of busy junctions, others obscured by forest and undergrowth or made inaccessible by an overlooked urban stream and private land.
Keen cyclists with arts practice rooted in psycogeography and approaches to recording traces of industrial history, the artists took inspiration from the Randonneur cycle race - a long distant route passing through pre-determined control points at which cyclist’s brevet cards are validated to prove completion.
The artists have drawn upon an amateur historian’s research to plot the location of each post and form a new Randonneur’s route, the posts becoming control points and brevet cards replaced by fieldwork consisting of the collection of photographic and organic evidence.