SalvoFAIR: Mark's 40 mile epic journey

ARTIST Mark McGowan's next big adventure as artist-in-residence of this year's Salvo Fair starts this Friday 16th June at 10am from the Gherkin in the city of London, where he will attempt to roll head over heals for 40 miles to the Salvo Fair at Knebworth in Hertfordshire. The endurance event will last over two weeks. Mark is trying to raise awareness about salvage and believes that the current recycling phenomenon will destroy the planet. Mark will have sponge on his head and back and will be carrying an old door and four reclaimed house bricks the entire journey.

For more info and images see Mark's web site or call Mark on 07956084780.

Route and Days
-------------
10.00 Friday 16 June - Gherkin, Saint Mary Axe
10.30 Friday 16 June - Lloyds Building, Lime Street
11.00 Friday 16 June - Fenchurch Street, Lombard Street
13.00 Friday 16 June - Bank of England, Poultry, Cheapside
15.00 Friday 16 June - Temple Bar, St Paul's Cathedral
17.00 Friday 16 June - Newgate Street, Holborn Viaduct, Snow Hill, Farringdon Road

10.00 Saturday 17 June - Farringdon Road
11.00 Saturday 17 June - Guardian newspaper, Farringdon Road
13.00 Saturday 17 June - Bowling Green Lane

10.00 Monday 19 June - Clerkenwell Close
11.00 Monday 19 June - site of Clerkenwell House of Detention, Sans Walk
13.00 Monday 19 June - Woodbridge Street, Skinner Street, Rosebery Avenue, Farringdon Road, Kings Cross Road

10.00 Tuesday 20 June - Acton Street, Gray's Inn Road
12.00 Tuesday 20 June - Platform 9 3/4 Kings Cross Station
13.00 Tuesday 20 June - Pancras Road, Camden Street
17.00 Tuesday 20 June - Camden Lock - then via the Grand Union Canal

10.00 Wednesday 21 June - North Circular Road, Queensbury Road
11.00 Wednesday 21 June - Green Works, Queensbury Road
12.00 Wednesday 21 June - North Circular Road, Brentfield Road
13.00 Wednesday 21 June - Neasden Temple, Brentfield Road
14.00 Wednesday 21 June - Brentfield Road, Drury Way
15.00 Wednesday 21 June - Ikea, Drury Way
16.00 Wednesday 21 June - North Circular Road

10.00 Thursday 22 June - North Circular Road, Edgware Road

10.00 Friday 23 June - Colindale Avenue, Grahame Park Way
11.00 Friday 23 June - RAF Hendon, Grahame Park Way
13.00 Friday 23 June - Grahame Park Way, Hale Lane, Edgware Way

10.00 Saturday 24 June - Edgware Way, North Western Avenue A41 to Watford

10.00 Sunday 25 June - North Western Avenue A41 to Watford, Saint Albans Road, North Orbital Road, Bucknalls Lane

10.00 Monday 26 June - BRE, Bucknalls Lane
11.00 Monday 26 June - footpath through Brickets Wood, Station Road, Smug Oak Lane, Watling Street, Harper Lane, Shenley Lane

10.00 Tuesday 27 June - Herts Architectural Salvage, Shenley Lane, London Colney
11.00 Tuesday 27 June - Napsbury Lane, Mile House Lane, London Road to St Albans, High Street, George Street
15.00 Tuesday 27 June - West door, St Albans Cathedral
16.00 Tuesday 27 June - Saint Peters Street, Sandridge Road, Sandridge, Wheathampstead

10.00 Wednesday 28 June - Wheathampstead, Ayot Saint Peter, Kings Walden

10.00 Thursday 29 June - Kings Walden, Woolmer Green, Stevenage Road, A602 over A1(M)

10.00 Friday 30 June - private road to Knebworth
10.30 Friday 30 June - Knebworth entrance gate
11.30 Friday 30 June - Salvo Fair

11.00 Saturday 1 July - Fort Knebworth, crossing field
12.00 Saturday 1 July - Salvo Fair

11.00 Sunday 2 July - Fort Knebworth, crossing field
12.00 Sunday 2 July - Salvo Fair
--------------------------

Specific places Mark may pass en route and their connection to Salvo Fair
---------------
Mark McGowan will be available for an interview throughout his two
week progress. At various locations along the route other different
people will also be available, and there will be photo opportunities
for the press.

1. Gherkin (10.00 Friday 16 June - Gherkin, Saint Mary Axe)
When the old Baltic Exchange was damaged by a bomb in 1992, the
marble and stone cladding was carefully photographed, dismantled and
moved to warehouses in Reading with the intention of rebuilding it,
but the supporting structure was instead demolished to make way for
the Gherkin completed in 2004 by Norman Foster for SwissRe Insurance
Co. The cladding, interior trading halls, fixtures and fittings were
eventually sold to Derek Davies who moved them to a yard outside
Manchester, and this was all then resold to Dennis Buggins of Extreme
Architecture who moved it to Kent. There will be a 50ft scroll of
photos of some of the fab marble work on display and Mark McGowan,
Dennis Buggins and Thornton Kay will be available for interviews.

*Extreme Architecture will have the largest stand at this year's
Salvo Fair where they will be displaying elements from the Baltic
Exchange, parts of the 1958 Lloyds building in Lime Street which is
being replaced by another Norman Foster edifice, the Temple Bar
lodge, and elements from the Royal Box at Ascot.

2. 51 Lime Street (10.30 Friday 16 June - Lloyds Building, Lime Street)
The new Norman Foster tower is being built on the site of the former
1958 Lloyd's Building, itself incorporating earlier elements, some of
which will be on the stand of Extreme Architecture at the Salvo Fair.
Mark McGowan, Dennis Buggins and Thornton Kay will be available for
interviews.

3. Temple Bar (15.00 Friday 16 June - Temple Bar, St Paul's Cathedral)
When Temple Bar, Wren's old gate to the City of London, was
demolished in the 1870's Valerie Meux, wife of brewing magnate Sir
Henry Meux, bought the stones as architectural salvage and erected
them in a glade in the park at their home Theobalds, Hertfordshire,
not far from Knebworth, from where they were bought for £1 in 1998,
and returned to London to be re-erected. The lodge that abutted
Temple Bar was not needed in the move, but was bought by Extreme
Architecture and will be for sale at Knebworth. The story is that the
Lodge was used during ceremonial processions to store the pearl-
encrusted sword offered to monarchs by the Lord Mayor of London when
they entered the City, as a sign of allegiance. Mark McGowan, Dennis
Buggins and Thornton Kay will be available for interviews.

4. Guardian newspaper (11.00 Saturday 17 June - Guardian newspaper,
Farringdon Road)
The UK press have been extremely supportive of the UK salvage
industry, especially the broadsheets, apart that is from the Guardian
who seldom mention reuse of old building materials. Perhaps Mark
McGowan somersaulting past their offices in Farringdon Road with a
reclaimed door and some reclaimed bricks may draw the attention of
their editor to their lack of support. Traditionally, reuse has been
a conservative value, so it is perhaps not surprising that the Daily
Telegraph has been in the forefront of support for the reclamation
industry, followed by The Times and Independent. The same could be
said of governments, with the most support coming from conservatives
like Chris Patten, Tom King, Michael Heseltine and even John Major,
way back in the 1980's - not exactly from the ministers but from
their wives and daughters, many of whom were staunch salvageurs.
Chris Patten's 'This Common Inheritance' was the first government
policy document promoting the reuse of old building materials.
Perhaps that is why the Guardian's support has been a bit slow. The
salvage industry needs all the press and media help it can get at
present, because so much is being recycled and destroyed instead of
being reclaimed and reused. Mark McGowan and Thornton Kay will be
available for interviews.

5. Antique Doors (11.00 Monday 19 June - site of Clerkenwell House of
Detention, Sans Walk)
The UK throws away 2 million doors a year of which 5 per cent are
rescued for reuse. In order to encourage more reuse this year Salvo
has produced a lovely door poster, which will be on sale at
Knebworth. Salvage dealer Jason Davies of the Architectural Forum in
Islington bought 160 doors from the old prison located here which he
is now offering for sale. Artist Gini Coates will be bringing an art
door and explaining how art and salvage can work. Both Gini and Jason
will have stands at this year's Salvo Fair. Gini Coates, Jason
Davies, Thornton Kay and Mark McGowan will be available for
interview. Photos of prison doors and Gini's art doors (the prison
itself was demolished aprt from what remains underground, and it is
from here that the doors were removed).

6. Reclaimed Bricks (12.00 Tuesday 20 June - Platform 9 3/4 Kings
Cross Station)
Mark McGowan will be offer Warner Brothers a reclaimed brick at
Platform 9 3/4. The UK film industry and its American overlords, like
Warner Brothers, has received huge subsidies and uses large
quantities of materials, but seldom salvages them for reuse. 'Saving
Private Ryan' scoured Europe for reclaimed materials with which to
build an entire French town at Leavesden studios which, when filming
ended, was all taken to landfill, despite requests from Salvo.
Luckily, film stars themselves are much more salvage-friendly, even
young ones. A major young Harry Potter star came to the last Salvo
fair where they purchased a Victorian oak gothic harmonium from
Chancellors antique church dealers. Every 12 bricks embodies the
energy of a gallon of petrol, and the UK makes 3 billion bricks a
year and destroys almost 3 billion bricks a year. Around 150 million
are saved for reuse, but saving UK bricks is getting harder and
harder as big corporates say it is easier to take them off to
landfill or crush them for hardcore than allow them to be saved for
reuse. Thornton Kay and Mark McGowan will be available for interview.

7. Canal boat transport (17.00 Tuesday 20 June - Camden Lock - then
via the Grand Union Canal)
A reclaimed or new brick can travel 2500 miles by road before the
energy embodied within it is used up. By canal or sea (or rail) that
figure increases dramatically. The pressure to build and develop is
such that speed is of the essence and the means of transport is the
fastest possible irrespective of environmental cost. Slowing things
down = improving the environment.

8. Re-Desk flooring (11.00 Wednesday 21 June - Green Works,
Queensbury Road)
As part of a DTI funded scheme looking at the reuse of reclaimed
materials in a specific project in Birmingham, Thornton Kay of Salvo
who was the reuse consultant suggested that Green Works be asked to
look into the possibility of using old chipboard desktops as a
flooring material, rather then sending them off to be burnt in waste
incinerators. Buro Happold, who ran the project, devised a testing
system, and now a new product has been created, which will be
officially launched at the Salvo Fair and is called 'Re-Desk'. Colin
Crooks (or another Green Works spokesperson) and Mark McGowan will be
available for interview. Photo opp Mark McGowan somersaulting over
ReDesk flooring, with another new ReDesk walling product in the
background.

9. Imported flagstones (13.00 Wednesday 21 June - Neasden Temple,
Brentfield Road)
Ten years ago, no new flagstones were imported into the UK. Now
thousands of tonnes are brought into the UK, many from India. It is
not known whether these are quarried under 'fair trade' labour
conditions, but it is known that bonded labour (= slave labour) does
happen in India. In the 1980's salvage yards rescued flagstones from
UK demolitions for resale to discerning gardeners and landscapers.
Now there are fewer available but new Indian riven flagstones look
very similar to reclaimed, so many salvage yards now stock them. The
Salvo Code requires businesses to offer fair trade alternatives where
they are know to exist. The trouble is that we do not know of any
fair trade flasgtones. Mark McGowan will be asking people at the
Neasden Temple if they know of any 'fair trade' Indian flagstone
suppliers. Mark McGowan will be available for interview.

10. Reuse suggestion (15.00 Wednesday 21 June - Ikea, Drury Way)
Ikea UK famously launched itself with an ad campaign suggesting women
should throw their good old solid natural wood furniture into skips
and buy new less solid unnatural furniture from Ikea. Sadly this
concept has been reinforced by the media, spearheaded for 10 years by
the BBC with programmes like Home Front and Changing Rooms - now
thankfully both banned by the BBC's watchdogs. However, the concept
of old furniture being treated as a consumer durable is very much
still with us, and every day millions of pieces of furnitire are
thrown away and millions more new ones are made and sold. The London
borough of Brent is the most reclamation-friendly in the UK, with
even the Salvo site linked to its own 'use reclaimed materials where
possible' web page. Mark McGowan will be somersaulting to Ikea to ask
the manager of the Ikea store in Brent Cross to reinforce this
message by giving our postcards for the forthcoming Salvo fair so
that a few more people may realise that there are alternative
options. Mark McGowan will be available for interview.

11. Spitfire spitroast (11.00 Friday 23 June - RAF Hendon, Grahame
Park Way)
At the end of the second world war some businesses involved in
wartime production turned their skills to making aluminium kitchens.
English Rose and Paul were two such brands. In the 1990's old
aluminium kitchens had no secondhand value until Hazel Matravers
started trying to matchmake disposers with possible users and managed
to get an article about the kitchens in BBC Homes & Antiques
magazine. Since then a handful of dealers have started resscuing
them, the prime mover of which is Rod Donaldson of Source in Bath who
will be erecting a complete old kitchen and be bringing it to
Knebworth via RAF Hendon where we hope to have a picture of the
somersaulting Mark McGowan, and an English Rose kitchen alongside its
Spitfire counterpart. Rod Donaldson, Mark McGowan and an RAF Hendon
curator will be available for interview.

12. BRECRE (10.00 Monday 26 June - BRE, Bucknalls Lane)
Very few quango's, research, construction bodies, government or local
authorities have any interest in reuse of old building materials with
the glaring exception of the women of the 'Construction Resource
Efficiency' unit of the Building Research Establishment, now the BRE.
They are very keen on reuse and have always joined in with the Salvo
Fair, and this year are sponsoring the new look 'Construction
Professionals' afternoon at the Salvo Fair on Friday 30 June. Mark
McGowan will be somersaulting in to the BRE to send best wishes from
the salvage trade to Gilli Hobbs and Katherine Adams and to thank
them for their ongoing reuse and reclamation support in the face of
much recycling pressure. If there ever was an England Reclaim team,
Gilli and Katherine, both keen footballers, would be in it. The BRE
will be at Salvo Fair again this year. Gilli Hobbs, Katherine Adams
and Mark McGowan will be available for interview.
13. Salvage Yard (10.00 Tuesday 27 June - Herts Architectural
Salvage, Shenley Lane, London Colney)
Mark McGowan will be calling in at a real salvage yard to do more
somersaulting over large piles of bricks and reclaimed doors. Herts
Architectural Salvage will be returning the compliment by having a
stand at the Salvo Fair this year. Lloyd Hampson, Dean Carradine and
Mark McGowan will be available for interview.

14. Reclaimed bricks (15.00 Tuesday 27 June - West door, St Albans
Cathedral)
When the Norman builders of the fine cathedral of St Albans needed
materials despite the novelty of vaulted gothic with flying butresses
and stained glass walling they did not baulk at reuse as a pragmatic
sensible and even Christian thing to do. Why waste vaulable resources
making bricks when they existed from structures made a thousand years
before by the Roman builders of Verulam. So they took these bricks
and reused them, and they can still be seem in the walls of the
current cathedral today. That reclaimed bricks last for 2,000 years
is a fact that seems to have eluded some planners who say that
reclaimed materials should not be reused in their fiefdom under any
circumstances. Salvo's advice is to ignore these planners and reuse
the old bricks anyway, and offer to pay the planners bus fare to St
Albans. Salvo does not believe that planners have the legal powers to
prevent reuse, but some like to think they have and tend to bully
people into believing them. As part of 'Salvage 2006' Mark McGowan
will pay homage to the medieval cathedral builders and to the Roman
brickmakers that came before them, and will berate any planners who
would like to turn up about their reuse recalcitrance. In the
vicinity we hope to have an 11ft high statue of St Michael attacking
a serpent, showing the age-old allegorical battle of 'Truth
Overcoming Falsehood', which here means truth of reuse over the
falsehood of recycling. Lack of building materials reuse means that
the enough energy to heat 10 million homes is lost every year in the
UK. The statue of St Michael will be at the Salvo Fair on the stand
of Laurence Green of In-Situ Manchester, along with a giant camel and
huge ceramic insulators which can be reused for something, possibly
as water features in a large garden. Mark McGowan will be available
for interview.

15. Salvo Fair (10.00 Friday 30 June - A1(M) J7, the road to Knebworth deer park) Mark McGowan will be somersaulting the last mile to the Salvo Fair to
arrive on the fair site at 10.30am