Waterloo Paradise
2015 saw the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, an event which helped shape the town of Ramsgate. Many thousands of troops assembled in this seaside town before sailing off to fight. The victory of the Duke of Wellington, who led the British army, is marked in the street names.
The National Army Museum marked the anniversary by collating 200 objects associated with the battle and it was these that became the inspiration for the bunting to be installed in Wellington Crescent, Ramsgate. Mooch was commissioned by Ramsgate Arts to produce an installation in the town (with the generous help and creative talent of the local people) for the arts festival on the theme of Paradise.
Paradise had several meanings for the military, it was the last town from which one departed for war, the first to which one returned from the battle and the name of brothels visited at home and abroad. Ramsgate would have been Paradise to many soldiers who would never see home again as the Battle of Waterloo saw 44,000 men dead by the 18th of June 1815.
Victory against the French military, led by Napoleon, was by no means a certainty for the British. If Wellington had not had the help of the Belgian, Dutch and German allied troops the future of Europe would have been very different. As it was, Napoleon’s dream of reclaiming his empire had been crushed and Europe saw a sustained period of peace.
On the 18th June 2015, a commemorative event took place at the original battlefield on the Plains of Waterloo in Belgium. Part of the reenactment took place at one of Wellington’s strongholds, Hougoumont Farm, where the British troops struggled to keep the French out. In a deliberate reversal of the actions of their predecessors, 10 British Coldstream Guards, dressed in 1815 uniform, carried out an official opening of the gates to the renovated farm in a new gesture of welcome. This colourful installation is in the spirit of the Coldstream Guard’s gesture as the 2 sides meet in a 2015 Ramsgate paradise.
Mooch would like to thank
The Haberdashery Shop Ramsgate
Designmap for their generous support in this project.
Also thanks to Jezz Etheridge and Chris Constantine for their photography skills.
