Correspondence: from letters to emails, from letterhead to Facebook #flatnames

Letter to the author addressed to her at her named flat (1991)

Letter to the author addressed to her at her named flat (1991)

The means by which we correspond or communicate, in written form, has changed immeasurably in the last 20 years. Personally I barely put pen to paper, and when I do now, it is a card rather than a letter that I am usually writing. When I started University in 1991 I paid $50 a week for my room in a four person flat, and spent a further $5 a week on stamps.  I wrote long letters to friends and family, and received many letters in return, often addressed to me at my flat, Mouse House, at 888 Cumberland Street.

In the 1940’s the residents of The Bach, at 208 Leith Street, designed a crest and motto and had letter head printed. Examples of the letters written by Bachite David Gardiner, to the Board of Divinities, can be seen in the Presbyterian Archive at Knox College.

In the 1960s a flat called Che Choux at 64 Heriot Row (“Cabbage House”, named for the Cabbage Tree in the front garden) also had letterhead which was printed at the Christ’s College Press. Unfortunately there are no copies of the letterhead available in their archives.

In the early 1970s a flat called The Spanish Slum, 16-18 London Street, also had letterhead, though it is unknown where this was printed.

It is interesting to see the shift in personalisation of communication forms from a hard copy print environment, to the digital; from email, to social media where platforms like Facebook suddenly make it very easy to communicate with many people simultaneously. Where once flats went to the extent to have letterhead designed and printed, today’s students can easily set up a Facebook page for their flat. There are several examples, of this practice, such as The Chateau at 47 London Street, The V Flat at 97 Dundas Street and the 8 Man at 627 Castle Street.

Did you have letterhead or a Facebook page for your student flat, or do you know of a flat that had letterhead or has a Facebook page? If so, I’d love to hear about it.

 

The toga parade that went bad, and the flat name that memorialized it #flatnames

The arrival of students at the beginning of each academic year usually brings a frisson of excitement to the city. At one time  a toga parade was established, as OUSA general manager Stephen Alexander (2009) stated in the Otago Daily Times, “so the community and students could meet and greet each other in a colourful way”. This intersection of town and gown met a sticky, smelly, violent end in early 2009.

The Debacle (2013)

The Debacle (2013)

Wandering down Cumberland Street today, you can clearly see a vividly painted door depicting a student in boxer shorts, seated on a green chair holding a stubbie of beer, and flanked by a bong. In the foreground on the floor sits an unopened pizza box. Above and behind the student’s head hangs a washing line, debecked with y-fronts, a plate, fork and knife. The word Debacle is emblazoned above in what can only be described as a colour and texture reminiscent of fecal matter. It’s the kind of scene some may imagine as a typical student flat. Interestingly, the the story behind the name is quite different.

The OUSA Toga Parade down George Street on the 24th February of that year deteriorated into bedlam which resulted in injury to people and property. The Otago Daily Times (25 February 2009) reported:

“As the large mass of students moved into George St, hundreds of eggs, bottles, rubbish, and buckets full of vomit and faeces, were thrown from first-floor verandas and alleyways, as well as at shop frontages.”

A number of students were disciplined for their involvement. OUSA’s decision to cease future parades was greeted with approval by many people, including retailers and Dunedin police emergency response commander Inspector Alastair Dickie, who said, “after the shamozzle of this year’s parade, we don’t want a repeat …”. An independent report of the event had been undertaken by the former University Proctor, Ron Chambers.

The end of the day saw some students involved in cleaning up shop frontages, and the end year saw donations from students to the City Council which was passed to Keep Dunedin Beautiful. Mayor Peter Chin was reported as saying, “I think it is an appropriate gesture of appeasement in terms of all the issues that have arisen.”

The Debacle (2010)

The Debacle (2010)

The event caused deep shock and consternation amongst the public, officials, the University, and naturally amongst some first year students who participated in the parade. The newly appointed Critic editor for 2009, Amy Joseph, let rip in an ODT opinion piece, declaring in no uncertain terms that the behaviour exhibited at the toga parade was not the “Otago way”, and that there should be no plan for reprisals.

“Please listen up and listen well, freshers: this disgusting display is not tradition here at Otago. The eggs, yes, and the flour bombs, sure. But before you start cultivating your own rancid buckets o’ crap for next year’s batch, remember this: those idiot bystanders were trying to hurt you.”

Dunedin City Councillor Dave Cull  and Otago University Students Association president Edwin Darlow were interviewed by Mark Sainsbury the following day on new programme, Close Up, and the shock of the event is clearly still with them.

Teige O’Sullivan and Ben Thomson were first years in 2009 and experienced the parade first hand, on the Dunedin Flat Names Facebook page, Ben said, “[We] got pelted with eggs, fruit, human feces and everything in between.” An other first year student commented in the Otago Daily Times,”As one of those first year students who was a participant in this event I was appalled by how violent this annual event was. … During this event I felt like I was being herded like cattle while the other students hurled bottles and things at us.”

In 2010 Teige and Ben took on the lease of  Cumberland Street flat with 7 other male students. They renamed it The Debacle, as Teige said, “… to represent the 9 boys that now live in it and the activities which take place within the flat. [The] name originated from this video from a[n] American news report on the toga parades last year.”

About 5 seconds in to the video you can clearly hear the reporter, Ed Donahue (Associated Press), describe the parade as a debacle.

Video source: The Associated Press (25.02.2009).

More flats added to the Dunedin Flat Names Project Map #flatnames

Even MORE flats have been added to the Project Flats Map in the last couple of days. I’m on a mission to get this map up to date. To me the most important thing is that I can visually represent all of the named student flats in Dunedin overtime, those I’ve either seen and documented myself, that I have read about in memoirs, or have been reported in various means.

Background

I built this map on 12 March 2009, back when playing with Google Maps was reasonably new and novel. It’s been viewed over 11,800 times since then. After some initial confused forays into the new Google Maps that was released this year, I’ve reverted back to the original version which seems to work the way I want it to, which is to map address, add detail to that record, and then display the embedded map in this blog.

How to find your flat

Google Maps does not list addresses either numerically or alphabetically, and I have ascertained no way of being able to do this. So the easiest way to find your address is to open the Dunedin Flat Names Map, do a find search (command F – rather than use the search box) and type in the address details. Here’s an example: 654 Castle Street.

Click on the address which should be highlighted in the list on the left, and up will pop the details (on the right) with a flat name and, hopefully, a photo. If the flat name has a clickable link, this will take you to a Dunedin Flat Names Project Flickr or Facebook page where you can make a comment or view some more information about the flat.

Google Map showing a FInd (command+F) Search for 654 Castle Street

Google Map showing a FInd (command+F) Search for 654 Castle Street. Note the name of the flat is clickable.

 

Update to the Dunedin Flat Names Google Map #flatnames

I’ve just spent a couple of hours updating the Dunedin Flat Names Google Map – it has LOADS of new flats listed, check it out, and if you find any missing, please let me know the address, name of the flat and year/s it existed with that name.

As always, I’d love to hear your stories and see your pics, either here on via the share your story form on the Project website.