About 25 people turned up for a Beating the Bounds psychogeographical walk around the Headingley (Leeds, UK) DPPO Boundary. It was run by me and the Leeds Psychgeography Group. Tina runs and blogs about the group, and there’s a Leeds Psychogeography Group Facebook Page to boot. All photos here were taken by Mark Jaffé, cheers!
A DPPO stands for a Designated Public Place Order. Essentially within that area, if you are causing a nuisance or annoyance, a police constable can stop you drinking, confiscate booze, up end cans etc. If you don’t comply then that is when you may be breaking the law. It’s a law to stop street drinkers mainly. In the Hyde Park and Woodhouse DPPO area, well over 80% (over 300 in a few months) of people stopped, were students. Phil Kirby went on the first of the Beating the Bounds walks, and has blogged about it on The Culture Vulture.
We were to talk widdershins, anti-clockwise around the boundary – a magical act, designed to disperse any energies or what have you. I brought along some sticks (loop cane, chopped in half) for people to beat the ground at certain points. Oh, and we drank as we went – essentially beating the restrictions.
We passed through some nice areas – here on the ridge, was the Wassailing tree. We also encountered the strangest plot of land in Headingley, fish and chips and had assorted adventutres.
Games developed, whereby when a DPPO warning sign was found, a drink had to be taken.
It took about 2 hours. I was quite tipsy at the end. in the above picture, we can see a stick being used in it’s traditional role of beating a boy.
I’ll be doing some more psychgeography posts in time. The next beating the bounds walk will go around the city centre – it’s a huge area!
thinkwhere 
