A ghost story told in a street sculpture
For the 2018 edition of Clerkenwell Design Week, four architects were selected to create a wayfinding sculpture to act as a beacon to lead visitors on a trail through the district. Working as StudioDA (the collaboration between Russian For Fish and Pierre D’Avoine), designed a temporary street sculpture in accordance with the two stipulations of the
brief: it had to be made with polystyrene (which would subsequently be shaved down and reused) in CDW’s signature pink, and it had to respond to one of the many ghost stories that are attached to this part of London. We found inspiration in the tale of the Cock Lane Ghost, Fanny Lynes, who was reported to have haunted her former home after her death in 1760, communicating from beyond the brave by knocks and scratches. The result was a freestanding pink door, in the street beside Smithfields Market, invited the
public to climb the stairs and listen out for ‘Scratching Fanny’.