Cousins Messing About, 1988
Marc and Ravelle – both cousins, messing about seeing who was the tallest that Christmas. The cabinet was pride and place. Woo!! That wallpaper was picked by my mother, she loved her browns and burgundy. If you could only see the settees. The cupboard next to them was Mum’s pride and joy, it took up practically the whole of the front room wall that we weren’t to go in. Caroline Leacock
Cheeky Chappy, 1987
Check out the radiogram. Brilliant – it was Blaupunkt Blue Spot!! Fantastic sound, great bass and you could lock away drinks and records. Bit of the settee you can see. We could not really sit on it, it was for guests. What a contrast to the wallpaper, oh and a black and white TV that was for just in case the colour broke down. Don’t really know why that picture is behind my son. He is probably saying, “Don’t put it up!” That would have been 1987.
Caroline Leacock
Wallpapergate, about 1986
This boy of mine is what the Bajan would call ‘too busy’. Cheeky Ravelle wanted to stay up late and he did, till 2am. My mother was going to Barbados and was packing. Bedding was very frilly, and the wallpaper was ‘beautiful’ as it was my mother’s bedroom. He was was trying to stay up – it’s in Mum’s bedroom – you can just about see the bedspread, the pink thing on the bed.
Caroline Leacock
Having Fun Without Toys, 1985
The coat, red chair and those two combs that you see on the lovely striped carpet, gave my son Ravelle great pleasure many a day. It was 1985, everything was striped. Don’t judge!!
Caroline Leacock
Summer of ’86, 1986
I was ten years old, we’d just moved to Rusholme – Heald Place, into a 6-bedroom house, after coming out of a 3 bedroom house. There were eight of us at this time; Mum was a single parent. When we first moved in, there was no wallpaper, nothing. Then we literally went to school, and when we came back from school – it was like in one week or something like that, it was so quick – this wallpaper was there. This wallpaper. And it just set the tone for the house. It was like, this is the main room, the front room, everybody would congregate, would eat in there, play in there, watch TV in there, get beaten in there, everything. That was the room. My mum was pregnant when we moved there. Then a year later, she was pregnant again. I mean, she had 10 children, she was very busy, very active. A year later, my uncle, who was a security door supervisor at a shebeen – which is like nightlife in Manchester, Moss Side – was shot and killed and his body was brought to this house here, and he was in that front room. And that wallpaper has witnessed everything that happened. With so many pictures that wallpaper is in the background. It witnessed everything so if it could tell a story it would be telling a lot. It was there for about… at least into the early 90s. It witnessed so much. It was a time of family celebrations, Christmases, birthdays, school reports, watching Countdown. Even at the back there where you can see the little… some kind of shelving type stuff hung up there at the back at the left at the top. Even that there where we used to place small things like keys in there, or I used to hide sweets in there, play hide and seek and it was like, “Guess where I’ve hid it, guess where I’ve hid it!” It was just really a great and exciting time. It was mixed with jubilation and joy, and then it would turn to sadness, but there are such great moments that always made it a heightened state for me and all my brothers and sisters, and I think it was a beautiful time. And if I could relive that moment again, I would have the same wallpaper, I wouldn’t change a thing, because it set the tone and it meant something then, and it still means something now.
Eugene Sobers
OPEN HOUSE 