Southbury Art Trail_9
Anthony Fisher_POET/CHEMIST
Anthony Fisher is a poet whose life moves between chemistry, memory, and intuition. Trained as an industrial chemist after leaving medical school, he sees poetry and chemistry as the same process: both are ways of cutting through surfaces to reach something essential. For him, poetry is perfect communication, bypassing the protective shell people build around themselves and speaking directly to the inner self. He arrived in Enfield in 1947, passing through Ponders End as a child on journeys to see his father’s boat at Blackwall Tunnel. The area stayed with him as a place of controlled chaos, where people from many backgrounds lived closely, dressed similarly in the post-war years, and later diverged into greater colour, variety, and expression. He remembers the shift in atmosphere during the 1960s, from muted greys to brighter tones, though he still insists grey is a lovely colour.
Anthony describes Ponders End as somewhere he always felt safe. Over time, it became a place of nourishment, literally and creatively: cheap chickens from the butcher, honey mangoes, dates and Indian sweets, café food, conversation. He recalls gutting end-of-life hens and finding unlaid eggs inside, turning them into custard with cinnamon. These practical, intimate encounters with food, labour, and survival echo through his poetry.
Community matters deeply to him, but he believes it cannot be engineered. It must arise spontaneously, through conversation, instinct, and shared presence. He values places that are slightly seedy, dimly lit, and human-scaled, where talk matters more than performance. For Anthony, Ponders End has shifted from a grey place to endure into a joyful, colourful place that belongs to the world. He remains an optimist. He believes people are waking up, standing up for what they believe in, like a phoenix rising. His work is rooted in people, memory, voice, and the belief that language must be recorded before it disappears.
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.
