The Ebbsfleet Citizens Handbook was commissioned by Cement Fields for Ebbsfleet Citizen Archive and is a collaboration between artist Lu Williams and current residents in and around Ebbsfleet Garden City. It features written contributions from historian Christoph Bull; art, poetry and photography from residents; and contains activities for current and new residents to contribute to, opening up the publication to grow into the future.
Online copy can be downloaded here.
Artist Lu Williams worked on the project over 10 months of public and community-focused workshops and call outs for contributions, complemented by Christoph Bull’s research and history walks.
The Handbook’s screen-printed cover on recycled board invites you to complete its stories with stickers, found in an inside pocket. The stickers are printed on apple pulp paper.
Inside, you’ll find a pull-out poster with illustrations of citizen contributions from activity sheets asking residents to draw their own home or a future home and photographs of handmade fridge magnets generated from a workshop with Lu at the Ebbsfleet Fusion Festival in 2023. You’ll also find another pocket, containing a full colour zine with residents’ artworks. The Handbook itself contains a mix of colour and risograph printed pages produced in the artist's studio by hand at The Old Waterworks, on recycled paper. Risograph printing is the most sustainable way of printing, with little impact on the environment. It uses stencils and high luminosity colours to produce very tactile prints.*
Concept, drawings, writing, production & printing by Lu Williams
Words by Christoph Bull
Contributions from hundreds of residents including Swanscombe & Greenhithe Local History Group, Margaret and Leslie, St Mary’s Groups, Swanscombe Brownies and Rainbows, the Bingo ladies, Castle Hill community centre, Eastgate Community Centre, Ebbsfleet Design Group, Ebbsfleet Academy, North Kent College, Mandi Knight, Huggens College, local history walking groups, Pam Childs-Kelly, Peter Day, Steve Kelly, Gili, Alison C, Alison Hillman, Precious Othieno, Winnie Jones, @mard.arts, KD, hollyportfolioo , @wasteofspace885 , Derek Parris, Steve Mace, M. MCarthy and those who joined us at Heritage Community Hall.
It also includes a poem by poet Dzifa Benson, commissioned for This Must Be the Place.
Special thanks to assistants on the project: Gillian Austen (editor), Elleanna Chapman, Liam Cosford, Fanny Von Beaverhausen and Gülşen Güler.
You can pick up your free copy from the following places:
Dartford Museum and Library DA1 1EU
Gravesend Library DA12 1BE
Blue Bean Cafe DA10 1AD
Bellway Sales Office Northfleet DA11 9AS
Swanscombe Library DA10 0BZ
Hive House Library DA11 9DE
Dashwood Library DA11 7LY
Fleetdown Library DA2 6JZ
Greenhithe Library DA9 9EJ
It will also be available at Ebbsfleet Development Corporation pop ups at the following events:
Ebbsfleet International 10th July 16:30 - 18:30
Cherry Orchard Summer Fayre 18th July 15:00 - 17:00
Ebbsfleet Summer Market Jubilee Park 20th July 11:00 - 17:00
*More on risograph environmental impact from Risotto Studio:
‘The cold process consumes little energy, and the riso prints with soy based (non-toxic) inks, and stencils made from plant fibres. Unlike litho printing, it only takes a single print for the stencil to be fully inked and ready to print. It uses little electricity and eliminates the need for up to 100,000 litres of water and 10,000 litres of alcohol (per year) consumed by a typical mid-size printer.’