Reality Checkpoint: Difference between revisions

[[File:Reality Checkpoint - New paintworkcmglee_Cambridge_Reality_Checkpoint_Dinky_Door.jpg|thumb|The inscription after its 2017 restoration. and a Dinky Doors sculpture at its base]]

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}} </ref><ref>[http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/Lighting-trialled-on-Parkers-Piece-amid-safety-fears-28012013.htm Cambridge News - Lighting trialled on Parker's Piece amid safety fears] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130130140047/http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/Lighting-trialled-on-Parkers-Piece-amid-safety-fears-28012013.htm |date=30 January 2013 }} "...the central column known as Reality Checkpoint..."</ref>

There are fourthree main theories as to the meaning of the name.

#* It may mark the boundary between the central [[University of Cambridge|university]] area of [[Cambridge]] (referred to as the "reality bubble") and the "real world" of the townspeople living beyond it. One is warned to check one's notions of reality before passing.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/R/Real-World.html |title=Real World |work=The [[Jargon File]] |date=29 October 2003 |publisher=[[Eric S. Raymond]] |accessdate=11 February 2008 }}</ref>
* ForThe studentsname atarose Cambridge,because whothe walklamppost outforms toa [[Mill Road, Cambridge|Mill Road]] across Parker'suseful piecelandmark for anpeople evening incrossing the "realpark world",at usuallynight including&ndash; aperhaps visitintoxicated toor one of Mill Road's selection of pubs,in the lamppostfog marks&ndash; thesince endit ofis the "realityonly holiday"light asfor theymore walkthan backa tohundred centralmetres.<ref Cambridge &ndash; back into "the bubble".name=Webb/>

A lamp at the centre of Parker's Piece was first proposed in 1890<ref>''Cambridge Independent Press'', 18 January 1890.</ref> and work commenced in January 1894, when a pipe was laid from Parkside, running parallel with the path opposite Melbourne Place. Once the connections were completed, the pillar was erected. This attracted a great deal of interest and was described as a "very handsome ornament to the Piece".<ref>''Cambridge Independent Press'', 2 February 1894.</ref> It iswas made of [[cast iron]] by the Sun Foundry of George Smith and& Company in Glasgow. It stands on a square-section plinth with [[Waterleaf (architecture)|waterleaf]] decoration on the top edges. The base of the shaft of the circular section is encircled with four intertwined [[Dolphin#Heraldry|heraldic dolphins]]. The shaft carries four lamp holderslampholders by means of scrolled [[wrought-iron|wrought iron]] stays. It is said to be the oldest electrical lamppost in Cambridge.<ref name='cambridgeonline'>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cambridgeonline.co.uk/articles/Parkers_Piece/ |title=ArchivedParker's copyPiece, Cambridge |access-date=26 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804180653/http://www.cambridgeonline.co.uk/articles/Parkers_Piece/ |archive-date=4 August 2017 |dead-url-status=yesdead |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

One report claims that the name was first painted on the lamppost in the early 1970s by students from Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (now [[Anglia Ruskin University]]) under the guidance of one of their teachers.<ref name="cambridgeonline" /> Another claims that it was originated in 1970 by the Emmanuel Liberation Front (ELF), one of whose members first scratched the name onto the lamppost. The ELF was a group of radical students at [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge|Emmanuel College]] between 1969 and 1971 influenced by the [[Situationist International|Situationists]] with their slogan "Do not adjust your mind. There is a fault in reality." Emmanuel adjoins the northwest side of Parker's Piece.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Until the early 1970s the lamppost was painted a dishwater grey or discoloured cream.<ref name=Webb>{{cite web|last1=Webb|first1=Robert|title=Reality Checkpoint|url=https://sites.google.com/view/reality-checkpoint/|accessdate=17 May 2018|date=2018}}{{Self-published source|date=May 2018}}</ref> In 2017 two brothers, David and Sandy Cairncross, revealed that they had been responsible for repainting it in bright colours in October 1973, a task undertaken with the written permission of Geoffrey Cresswell, the Cambridge City Engineer.<ref name=Webb/> At the time, David Cairncross was a student at [[King's College, Cambridge]], and [[Sandy Cairncross|Sandy]], was a postgraduate research student (he is now a distinguished epidemiologist). The repainting did not involve anyone from Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology.

The Cairncrosses confirmed that the name "Reality Checkpoint" had previously been inscribed in marker pen on the pillar "a year or two earlier" and that their painting of the name was initially a placeholder for more sophisticated lettering.<ref name=Webb/> On how the lamppost got its name, David Cairncross acknowledged the influence of [[Checkpoint Charlie]] during the [[Cold War]], and the popularity of [[Carlos Castaneda]]’s 1971 memoir ''[[A Separate Reality]]'' (1971).<ref name=Webb/>

The CairncrossesCairncross brothers' repainting remained throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s. By 1980, however, the lamppost was looking shabby, as wasis clear in a photograph of the poet [[Tom Raworth]] taken next to it in 1980.<ref name=Webb/> Eventually [[Cambridge City Council, England|Cambridge City Council]] painted over the decoration with a dull faux [[verdigris]].

Since then the name has been informally inscribed or scratched into the paintwork many times, despite its repeated removal by Cambridge City Council or obliteration by [[graffiti]]. At one point in the mid-1990s, according to Graham Chainey writing in ''[[The London Magazine]]'',<ref>"The Other Cambridge", 1995</ref> "Reality Checkpoint" was scratched on one side of the plinth, while on the opposite side was scrawled "The Comfortably Numb" -, a reference to a [[Comfortably Numb|song]] on the album ''[[The Wall]]'' by the Cambridge band [[Pink Floyd]].

For the first half of 1998 the lamppost carried an unofficial [[Commemorative plaque|plaque]] bearing its name, until it was removed by the council.<ref name="cam"/>

ComedianThe comedian [[Ben Miller]] featured the lamppost in his [[BBC Two]] physics documentary "What Is One Degree?" for the science series ''[[Horizon (BBC TV series)|Horizon]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xhz90#synopsis|title=What Is One Degree? |work=[[Horizon (BBC TV series)|Horizon]] |date=10 January 2010|accessdate=10 January 2010}}</ref> At that time the lamppost had the words "Reality Checkpoint" scratched into its paintwork in at least two places. The lamppost also features briefly in an episode of the crime drama [[Professor T. (British TV series)|''Professor T.'']], in which Miller plays the eponymous role.

The inscription was restored in June 2017 by the artist Emma Smith, with the approval of the Cambridge City Council, as part of the art project '"Hunch'" commissioned by the University Arms Hotel.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Elliott |first=Chris |date=2017-06-03 |title=Getting to the bottom of the legend of Reality Checkpoint in Cambridge |work=cambridgenews |url=https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/getting-bottom-legend-reality-checkpoint-13131097|title=New Cambridge exhibition features Reality Checkpoint|last=Elliott|first=Chris|date=2017-06-03|work=cambridgenews|access-date=2018-06-03}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Cox |first=Tara |date=2017-06-07 |title=Reality Checkpoint given a makeover as name officially painted on listed monument |work=cambridgenews |url=https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/reality-checkpoint-parkers-piece-cambridge--13153282|title=Reality Checkpoint given a makeover as name officially painted on|last=Cox|first=Tara|date=2017-06-07|work=cambridgenews|access-date=2018-06-03}}</ref>

[[Category:StudentGrade cultureII listed buildings in Cambridge]]