10 The Sunday Times February 6, 2022NEWS
An aspiring artist has taken a novel
approach to portraiture, drawing
strangers based solely on the
“sound and energy” of their voices.
Elenor Hellis, 28, a graduate of
Central Saint Martins in London, has
created dozens of pen and pencil
sketches of people she has never
met after a single phone call.
“A voice can give you a sense of
personality or identity,” Hellis, from
Kilburn, northwest London, said.
Some of her attempts have
proved remarkably accurate, such
as that of Andrea Halverson, left.
Others have been less so: she drew a
man named Lindsay as a woman.YOU SOUND LIKE THIS
Richmond, on the banks of the Thames, is the setting for Ted Lasso, belowTake a look, Rochdale:
it could be you in 2030
streets and what’s on them, crime and
local hospitals, as well as things that
improve a community, like youth clubs
and hubs — rather than trains and tracks.”
Alex Maria moved to Richmond from
Australia. For the 31-year-old, one thing
stands out: “People smile at each other.
That’s very unusual for London. It’s kind
of weird, but nice.”
She is surprised by how much she
enjoys living here. “There’s a cinema and
sanctuary where they highlight up-and-
coming jazz artists,” she said.
This is the view of Richmond that the
local MP Sarah Olney is trying to pro-
mote. The Lib Dem, who deposed the
Tory Zac Goldsmith in 2019, points out
the range of “top-class” cultural and his-
torical institutions such as Kew Gardens
and the National Archive.
“Finally, and most importantly, we
have a thriving voluntary sector with
numerous community activities. Not
only does this give residents the opportu-
nity to spend time on the activities they
enjoy, but it means that there are social
networks for people to join, and groups
that make a real effort to ensure that
nobody is left out,” Olney said.
Richmond lags behind in one key fac-
tor, however: a sense that “things done in
life are worthwhile”.
James Gray, 42, a gardener, said: “The
thing is, the area is changing quite a lot.
Of my client base, the older generation
are all creatives — artists, writers and
journalists — who are pretty chilled. But a
lot of the 40 to 50-year-olds have plastic
grass and can’t look up from their lap-
tops. On the surface Richmond probably
seems like the nicest place to live, but I
think there’s an undercurrent of stress.”
Peter Griffiths, 65, said it would be
hard for the rest of the country to repli-
cate the things in Richmond’s favour —
“and they probably wouldn’t want to”.
Other factors, he said, were easier to level
up. “Barney, our border collie, is 16 now.
As long as you’ve got spaces around you
where they can flourish, dogs really are
the key to a healthy and happy life.”
@TomHCalver
Dominic Lawson, page 22How do Conservatives want the UK to
look in 2030? Step forward, Richmond
upon Thames: the leafy outer-London
borough — famous for its deer park, Kew
Gardens, winding river and celebrity resi-
dents — is Michael Gove’s vision of a
levelled-up Britain.
That is according to an analysis of 25
indicators published by the Office for
National Statistics (ONS) on Wednesday
alongside the government’s 332-page
levelling-up white paper.
Many of these barometers, which
include success in school, low rates of
smoking and obesity and better broad-
band, will help ministers measure the
impact of their flagship policy over the
next eight years.
They have been pulled together in a
digital dashboard on the ONS website,
which was developed in consultation
with the Department for Levelling Up,
Housing and Communities.
An analysis of the measures in England
— not every indicator is available in other
nations — lays bare the places in greatest
need of support. Middlesbrough, Black-
pool and Rochdale rank lowest, largely
because of poor pupil achievement and
healthy life expectancy. Men in Black-
pool enjoy just 54 years of healthy life.
The aim is to close the gap between
these northern boroughs and those at the
top of the tree: Woking, Runnymede and
Richmond.
Data geeks are not the first to recognise
the lofty appeal of Richmond upon
Thames. Tom Hardy, Angelina Jolie and
Sir David Attenborough have bought
homes here, and nearby Teddington was
named the best place to live in London by
The Sunday Times last year.
Richmond recently captured inter-
national fame as the setting for the US TV
series Ted Lasso, about an American
coach, played by Jason Sudeikis, who
manages the fictional football club AFC
Richmond. The Prince’s Head pub on
Richmond Green, rebranded as the
Crown & Anchor on camera, receives
hundreds of tourists a day asking ques-
tions about the show.Tom Calver Data Projects EditorData used by levelling-up officials says towns should aspire to be like affluent Richmond
GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO“It’s countryside, but it’s still so close
to everything,” said Iris Falkenberg, a
hairdresser working in Kew. The 50-year-
old moved to Richmond ten years ago. “I
couldn’t have imagined living anywhere
else during lockdown,” she said.
Her Australian shepherd dog, Profes-
sor, is sulking under a new harness but
loves the 2,500-acre Richmond Park. “I
had to get a dog because nearly everyone
has one here,” Falkenberg said.
Wealth and connectivity help: the
town is just 19 minutes from Waterloo.
The median salary is £36,400 a year. It
has some of the best education in the
country: nearly 95 per cent of five-
year-olds are at the expected level
in communication.
Men enjoy 71 years of healthy life,
the most in the country, thanks to low
smoking and obesity rates.
Reducing wealth inequality and
improving connectivity is a cru-
cial part of the government’s
levelling-up strategy.
On Wednesday, Michael
Gove called the UK an “unpar-
alleled success story” but lik-ened it to a jet firing on only one engine.
“As some areas have flourished, others
have been left in a cycle of decline,” he
said.
Boris Johnson said that levelling-up
was “the defining mission” of his govern-
ment. “It is a vision for the future that will
see public spending on R&D increased in
every part of the country; transport con-
nectivity improving; faster broadband in
every community; life expectancies ris-
ing; violent crime falling; schools improv-
ing; and private sector investment being
unleashed,” he added.
Yet people are often more
interested in less tangible
factors.
James Johnson, of JL
Partners, has been
running focus groups
of red wall voters for
the past two years. “When
it comes to levelling-up, there
is much less of a focus on infra-
structure than you might
expect,” he said. “Instead it’s
much more the feel of a place
that matters to voters. High