Southbury Art Trail_10
Mary Duggan_POET
Mary Duggan is a poet whose work carries memory, fracture, and inheritance.
She grew up in Ponders End in the 1960s above her family’s shop on South Street -
A creaking Victorian building where the daddy long legs
filled the stairwell in summer
Where her bedroom attic window offered her an early, fixed view
of the world.
And nearby, Tommy Redburn’s pub - A place of strange spectacle and circus animals !
Mary speaks of her abiding memory of her childhood companion, Sooty, a black cat who followed her home and her parents’ absurd adventures when, against the London Smog they wore their home made fur tea-cosies as hats !
Her childhood life was dense with objects and industry -
Glass jars of sweets. Factory offcuts which made the teddy bears her father sold to Harrods. South Street was a divided village enclosed by a long factory wall, one end, and the rail line at the other.
The constellation of these South Street industries on week days heard the blasting sound
Of a siren to the start and the close of the workers day.
Then came the giant residential tower blocks dominating the landscape.
Mary describes the dense heartbeat of Ponders End
as a place with its own rhythm
That was later overtaken by the bleak, brutal expanding industry.
Mary’s hybrid life is rooted in her Irish identity. Ancestral echoes press to.her lyrical language suggest the harshness
Of landscape against the freedom of nature
Her incessant drive to write is fuelled by curiosity, history. Landscape and lived experience.
As a trained historian
Her writing often draws
On forgotten figures and moments
Portrays the conflict of peace, Chaos, negotiation, and human extremity -
Her relationship with language
is dazed by life’s encounters
Layers with her Irishness,
Past life and the physical cleft which carries its own psychological gift and conflict.
Her lyricism can be wild and emotional. Blunt and brutal.
Resists restraint and shape shifts a darkness and light.
Though Ponders End maybe more guarded she feels it has
a watchful spirit. A community, rich and enriching with hope at its heart,
Her voice reflects her narrative to life and claims her as a poet
through the years of persistence.
Her instincts, simple and defiant: She juggles and explores
the magic of words.
She grew up in Ponders End in the 1960s above her family’s shop on South Street -
A creaking Victorian building where the daddy long legs
filled the stairwell in summer
Where her bedroom attic window offered her an early, fixed view
of the world.
And nearby, Tommy Redburn’s pub - A place of strange spectacle and circus animals !
Mary speaks of her abiding memory of her childhood companion, Sooty, a black cat who followed her home and her parents’ absurd adventures when, against the London Smog they wore their home made fur tea-cosies as hats !
Her childhood life was dense with objects and industry -
Glass jars of sweets. Factory offcuts which made the teddy bears her father sold to Harrods. South Street was a divided village enclosed by a long factory wall, one end, and the rail line at the other.
The constellation of these South Street industries on week days heard the blasting sound
Of a siren to the start and the close of the workers day.
Then came the giant residential tower blocks dominating the landscape.
Mary describes the dense heartbeat of Ponders End
as a place with its own rhythm
That was later overtaken by the bleak, brutal expanding industry.
Mary’s hybrid life is rooted in her Irish identity. Ancestral echoes press to.her lyrical language suggest the harshness
Of landscape against the freedom of nature
Her incessant drive to write is fuelled by curiosity, history. Landscape and lived experience.
As a trained historian
Her writing often draws
On forgotten figures and moments
Portrays the conflict of peace, Chaos, negotiation, and human extremity -
Her relationship with language
is dazed by life’s encounters
Layers with her Irishness,
Past life and the physical cleft which carries its own psychological gift and conflict.
Her lyricism can be wild and emotional. Blunt and brutal.
Resists restraint and shape shifts a darkness and light.
Though Ponders End maybe more guarded she feels it has
a watchful spirit. A community, rich and enriching with hope at its heart,
Her voice reflects her narrative to life and claims her as a poet
through the years of persistence.
Her instincts, simple and defiant: She juggles and explores
the magic of words.
This is Southbury Art Trail
(click here to view additional sculptures)‘This Is Southbury Art Trail’ is a new creative placemaking initiative celebrating the Southbury and Ponders End neighbourhood shaped by community, resilience and industry. The new public art trail weaves together 3D portraits, poetry, and local voices to honour Southbury’s identity and bring everyday stories into the public realm.
DYSPLA, an award-winning art studio in Enfield, was commissioned by Enfield Council to deliver this innovative digital art and 3D sculptural project working with 30 community members, to shape this bold new public art trail and offers a wonderful opportunity for local people to come together and shape who they are, where they live and how their work is shaping the area.
The 3D digital art trail is approximately 1 km long, stretching from Southbury Road, along Kingsway and culminating on Queensway. This project is part of Shaping Southbury — a public realm and community engagement programme being delivered by Enfield Council’s Journeys and Places team and supported by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
