The Millfield Link
Trust, Love, and Heart
Who remembers Hobson’s Adventure Playground? What about people dancing in St Martin’s Street while Lloyd Watson and The Soulmates rehearsed? Did you get ESOL lessons at PARCA? Did you spend your Sundays as a kid making cups of tea for the elders who visited? Remember the Peterborough Asian Centre? And the food!
Rathore Continental Food Store, Italian ice-cream, FMA Food Store, A Tasca, Chicken Palace…
“You’ve got the whole world at your fingertips in Millfield.”
The Millfield Link was an epic project that took place between 2019-2021.
It was inspired by the Link Road mural and funded by National Heritage Lottery Fund, Arts Council England, and Peterborough City Council. It celebrated the history of Millfield over the last 50 years or so.
The Millfield Link had 3 main strands:
• The restoration of the Link Road mural
• The collection of stories and memories of the neighbourhood
• The creation of new artworks and exhibitions
The Millfield Link couldn’t have been possible without the support of hundreds of people from Millfield. You can read more about everyone involved by clicking here.
What we did
The restoration of the Link Road mural
In the summer of 2021, a team of brilliant Peterborough artists came together to restore the mural. Street Arts Hire (Nathan ‘Nyces’ Murdoch), Tony Nero, Stuart Payn, Amanda Rigby, Jason Duckmanton, and Katie Scott all took on different sections of the mural. Working together with specialist paint, they brought the faded mural back to life!
The collection of stories and memories
We chatted to residents, both past and present, and recorded their experiences of living and working in Millfield in their lifetimes. A rich variety of stories were shared – spanning themes of Community Spirit, Pride, Making Millfield Home, Growing Up, and more.
One highlight of the project was Deljit Singh’s Magical History Tours of Millfield, which went viral on Facebook with over 30,000 views. Part one is available to watch at the top of this page, and you can watch part two on our Interesting Stuff section.
Other incredible stories include the Gladstone Carnival, Hobson’s Adventure Playground, Brown’s Dance Academy, making friends, playing in the parks, Portugal winning the Euros, going to school as a new arrival to England, hanging out in Chicken Palace, working at businesses on Lincoln Road, and loads more. Click the button below to see the amazing variety of memories gathered as part of the Millfield Link.
The creation of new artworks and exhibitions
Artists Matt Booker and Prin Marshall were selected by a community panel in Millfield to create new artworks inspired by the recent history of the Millfield area.
Matt created a series of ten banners, and Prin created a series of five “sticker-style” illustrations. Each one told a different story about the neighbourhood. The collection was installed in the garden of the Allama Iqbal centre during August 2021, and some of the pieces are now on permanent display.
We also had a series of artists hanging out in spaces around Millfield – from mosques to green spaces – and creating artworks inspired their time. All that brilliant work was exhibited in Peterborough Museum in November 2021.
When I think of Millfield, I think of out community getting together for loud weddings and you hearing the dhol play.
There was a certain amount of community spirit that kept people’s bonds together in the area.
There were people dancing on the corner of St Martin’s Street while the band rehearsed in my parent’s front living room.
Other Projects
Well if you found that fascinating come check out what else we've done!
Top tips and favourite bits: Peterborough Murals
Watch: a short film where 4 Peterborough street artists and the PP team tell you about their favourite murals. We also share some top tips to those interesting in working with artists on future murals
Deljit Singh’s Magical History Tours
Local legend Deljit Singh’s tours of Millfield and Peterborough city centre, exploring the history of places and people past, personal anecdotes, hidden gems, and days gone by.
Bretton Royalty
Bretton Royalty (summer 2021) was inspired by a Bretton resident’s experiences of feeling like royalty during the 1995 Bretton Festival, when she was ‘Bretton Festival princess’ for the day. We extended this feeling of being made to feel special by your community, and celebrated Bretton residents.