On the edge of Hanley, one of Stoke-on-Trent’s six towns, sits a little patch of five streets of Victorian terraces that were once marked for demolition. But that plan foundered, and instead, in 2013, the council decided to sell the homes – bought under the compulsory purchase scheme – for £1 each. One of those who bought a house was the artist Anna Francis. A few years later, fellow artist Rebecca Davies moved there too. Now they are running one of the most remarkable community arts projects I have ever seen.
Francis, Davies and their neighbours are turning an old pub into a creative centre for the people of this place – people who have been through a tough time as, in the long wake of the decline of Stoke-on-Trent’s ceramics, steel and mining industries, their area was condemned to oblivion and its amenities stripped away. But that hardly begins to describe the energy and optimism of the Portland Inn Project. It is an urban regeneration scheme that actually asks the people who live here what they want, rather than chasing them out, building more expensive homes, and replacing them with shinier, better-off people.
