The Ghats of Doom

I was discussing the project and the idea of the Artists' Quarter with Rochester-based underground bookdealer Chris Berthoud. I mooted some ideas and asked for suggestions and he came up with this rivetting image:

"I suggest the setting up of vast ghats on the street corners, burning carcasses night and day (perhaps of executed child-killing pit bulls) to evoke the death wrought by the shipping built on the Medway around the globe... probably something to do with the slave trade. These palls of stinking black smoke would be very photogenic as they left their crematory stains on the buildings and obscured alleyways, suddenly revealing them as the wind changed, like Dickensian whores whipping up their petticoats. It would also provide an interesting commentry on global warming (I think the Ganges is drying up) and the English obsession with barbecues (they could be tended by men in "bra-and-knickers" plastic aprons.)"

We'd be keen to hear of other such visions for the Artists' Quarter for inclusion in a newsletter we will be publishing for Architecture Week.