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Walk the walk of Southwark pride
Mental health and the past walk hand in hand as Kelly Mullan takes a toddle through the history of histrionics in south London
Physical
exercise, community involvement, and having a laugh: three ingredients
recommended for good mental health now available to the public in the
form of the Largactyl Shuffle.
The Lambeth Walk’s newest neighbour, the Largactyl Shuffle is a regular disability-themed guided tour of Southwark in south-east London. It is the toddling brainchild of Cooltan Arts, a creative collective of survivors of mental distress.
Cooltan’s founder and Chief Executive, Michelle Baharier, says: “Largactyl is a drug to treat mental illness that causes the appearance of physical impairment; it makes you walk like you need a hip replacement.
We used to mess around doing silly walks as another way to turn a painful situation into humour.”
After being “medically retired” from her job as a play worker Michelle was unable, due to disability discrimination, to get back into work so she started up Cooltan in a squat in an old Suntan lotion factory.
Several premises and incarnations later, Cooltan now runs a variety of arts workshops and ongoing projects and is blazing a trail with the innovative Largactyl Shuffle.
Michelle explains the thinking behind the walk: “Treating mental illness is relatively new. Before, people were locked away. Southwark is steeped in this history and we wanted to explore it.”
Walkers meet at the Maudsley hospital and follow the winding trail of crumbs dropped by basket-cases from throughout the area’s rich mental health history.
The notorious “Bedlam”, now the Bethlem Royal Hospital, once had a site in Southwark, and did you know … that Charlie Chaplin, late exponent of the funny walk, hailed from Southwark and that his mother was in an asylum? And that it was on the streets of Southwark that Edwardian do-gooder Octavia Hill pioneered her methods still used by modern social workers?
And that pioneering electrical experimenter Michael Faraday lived here, close to the famous Maudsley hospital where ECT (electro-convulsive therapy) is still practised today?
Michelle sees the Largactyl Shuffle as part of Cooltan’s ongoing work of highlighting and creatively campaigning against disability discrimination. The idea is that as people walk and talk, the barriers between the guides, the participants using mental health services, and members of the public on the walk begin to break down. Physical, mental and social well-being are all enhanced, keeping Southwark residents “healthily mental”.
• For details of the next walk see www.cooltanarts.org.uk