A Potted History | Made In Stoke-on-Trent

Paladin Works is a time capsule of a building that embodies the history of Stoke-on-Trent. It began life as a pottery factory, but since that went bust it has hosted manufacturing, sales teams and even a cannabis farm. Does it hold the key to Stoke's future?
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[@theGuardian]

Watch the rest of the Made in Stoke-on-Trent series here ► www.theguardian.com/cities/ng-interactive/2018/jan/08/made-in-stoke-on-trent-episode-1-we-have-lift-off

[@c.j.griffin]

Brilliant idea for a series, and I hope The Guardian explores more of these overlooked places and spaces in the UK. This is only the tip of the iceberg. London is important, but it doesn't represent England. Nor Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland for that matter. The quicker the media touches base with the rest of the country, and authentically portrays what out communities really want and, more so, need, the quicker we can try to close the divisions between us all. Personally, despite failing to achieve city status, I hope my hometown of Northampton is put in the limelight. It's as big as a city, and has a great history. And I think its best days lie ahead. But, in truth, I doubt The Guardian and others will take this further. Still, one can hope.

[@milels6917]

Too old to late for me writing on the board Thank you Justin I was one of the girl’s who working at Royal Doulton Nile Street Burslem You could save are lovely Buildings POSITIVE THINKING 👍🏻

[@eliakimjosephsophia4542]

Regeneration not replacement. Historical buildings are important to the historical culture.

[@carloscasillero4422]

ELIAKIM Joseph Sophia absolute nonsense!

[@stevewiles7132]

Stoked

[@baldvale5418]

Original.

[@blockydrums846]

awesome series Bravo Guardian

[@mozdickson]

Local solutions. Local visionaries.

[@patrickraftery.]

It's Patrick from the self confidence group. Is that Emily on the thumbnail?

[@PrzekornaDusza]

I came to England in 2004. The streets were cleaner lots of shops and everything was cheaper. Now everything is very expensive after Brexit, people have no jobs, they look like after the war.

[@delroywashington3185]

Go on stoke , up oak cakes , we are boothen end lads der

[@ukdream5982]

Cheapest house but council never give needy people really ridiculous

[@MultiDiane64]

Did I hear right cannabis farm??

[@gaz1tinsley]

supported by rockefella ??? wtff ??

[@rollthetape88]

where did you hear that?

[@moonturkey]

As someone from Stoke I deeply dislike this developer. Stoke doesn't need more capitalism, it needs compassion and facilitation of community and cooperation a la Participatory City in London.

[@ThoseCaliKidzz]

He's someone trying to help bring jobs and wealth back into the city and you're disparaging him? Get a grip on reality, compassion isn't coming anytime soon.

[@moonturkey]

​@@ThoseCaliKidzz And I think that's a massive problem with capitalism. Compassion, care and what is best for people can't be done unless it can be monetised and work within a market. Which of course almost always leads to people being taken advantage of and a privileged few profiting immensely. Having a socially atomised society with most interactions being influenced by money is going to make suffering from the societal collapse that will accompany the environmental breakdown we're about to endure all the worse. And that makes me worried as hell. The world of stable jobs, even the existence of enough jobs, and the ability of those jobs to support someone is one of the past. It's gone. It won't come back. The system needs to adapt and that's not happening in Stoke.

[@moonturkey]

@@ThoseCaliKidzz Also, I'm curious if you looked up Participatory City in London. I could give you some links if you'd like :)

[@ThoseCaliKidzz]

moonturkey I understand what u mean mate, but under capitalism world poverty has drastically decreased and people are able to access equal opportunities (if the society is democratic). In a socialist society I feel that innovation would not be incentivized as people will be leas motivated to work. However, participatory city looks great, but it can be a useful tool to work hand in hand with capitalism. We will always face problems with money, but we can try and work past that as a community :)

[@moonturkey]

@@ThoseCaliKidzz I would actually disagree with the poverty thing. The threshhold for poverty was changed, not the living conditions of most of the world's poor. Meanwhile productivity has risen without wages raising the same amount throughout the Western world. I don't know what your definition of socialism is as it's a word that's been messed around and misdefined by our culture a lot. But it comes down to if the workers own the means of production so that they're able to work how they like for the pay they deserve. I mean, that sounds nice but it doesn't fully address the problem which is that our society has a very narrow definition of work and continual production and growth is destroying the world. But hey. We can talk about the commons another time, I guess. As for your worry about people not having the incentive to work in a less capitalist world (where I guess people don't have to worry about being homeless if they lose their job), humans do amazing things all the time without money as an incentive. We didn't invent art, fire, agriculture etc because we'd get paid. We get paid in mostly shitty jobs because we have to because otherwise we would die. I'm super glad you dig participatory city! Personally I think capitalism is incapable of fixing the crises it has caused and will lead us into environmental and social apocalypse... but, hey, this is the internet. We can agree to disagree :)