River Reflections is an audio project by artist, writer and river dweller Harun Morrison.
It stitches together memories of working on the river from three local residents, installing these recordings in a listening bench in Chimney View Park, Northfleet, where anyone can pay it a visit to sit and soak up their stories.
The audio recordings describe intergenerational experiences of life in the once booming docks, wharfs and harbours of Gravesend and Tilbury, shipping cement and coal to all corners of the globe. Pop by Chimney View Park to hear tales of mudlarking, golfing on tug boats and a 16th century ferry service run by nuns.
River Reflections is part of Ebbsfleet Citizen Archive, a community-led project capturing and preserving the varied stories and histories of the people and places of Ebbsfleet, Greenhithe, Swanscombe, and Northfleet, inviting local people to work with artists, historians and fellow residents, to explore the area’s unique historic and contemporary identity through objects, sounds, videos and photographs, collected by and from residents past, present and future.
Thank you to Barry Dowe, Tony Farnham and Jacqueline Byrne for recording their memories to be shared with the people of Northfleet.
Ebbsfleet Citizen Archive is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund and supported using public funding by Arts Council England. With additional support from Ebbsfleet Development Corporation, Gravesham Libraries, Dartford Museum and Libraries, and Kent Archives.
You can find the exact location of the listening bench here, where it now lives permanently.
All the materials gathered through the project can be now be accessed via ebbsfleetcitizenarchive.org, where you can also upload your own contributions.
Harun Morrison is an artist and writer based on the River Lea and Regent’s Canal.
He is currently an associate artist with Greenpeace UK. His forthcoming novel, The Escape Artist will be published by Book Works in 2025. Since 2006, Harun has collaborated with Helen Walker as part of the collective practice They Are Here. He is a former trustee of the Black Cultural Archive (est. 1981).
Follow Harun on Instagram via @harunishere.