Flag House

There’s a Georgian house in my neighbourhood in Norwich with a tall flag post in its front garden. Almost every day a new national flag is hoisted into the air to commemorate a historic event. There is a small display noticeboard where a homemade A4 poster explains TODAY’S FLAG. The house is on one of the main roads into Norwich and many cars pass by the tall post and its rotating collection of regal flags. Solo commuters in their cars, double decker bus passengers, people in lorries, vans, fire engines, paramedics and supermarket delivery trucks all drive by each day. Workers walk by on their way to County Hall, and so do those registering births, deaths and marriage notices.

Walking to the house to see the FLAG OF THE DAY has been a part of my routine since spring 2022. I’ve seen the Japanese flag, Danish flag, Maltese flag, Finnish flag, Italian flag. I’ve seen flags I didn’t recognise and had to Google, like the Royal Arms of England flag.

I love that this person is basically hosting a small exhibition outside their home for the sheer hell of it.

I’m always curious to follow along and notice which event they deem worthy of honouring. I record my findings, take a photograph of the flag and the accompanying sign. I’ve noticed that the signs err towards military and royal history. “TODAY’S FLAG: HISTORY DAY! 29th MARCH (1565) START OF THE GREAT SIEGE MALTA.” The siege actually started on 18 May, according to Wikipedia. “TODAY’S FLAG: REGIMENTAL DAY. 16th APRIL. QUEEN MARGRETHE’S BIRTHDAY (COLONEL-IN-CHIEF THE PRINCESS OF WALES’S ROYAL REGIMENT. DENMARK” The flags don’t always make sense to me, and sometimes the sign actually makes the choice seem more oblique. “TODAY’S FLAG: 21 MARCH. FESTIVAL DAY. SPRING EQUINOX. JAPAN.” What links the Japan and the Spring Equinox? Cherry blossoms? I walk on none the wiser.

I’ve only seen flag man once in his front garden; I was passing the house as he was re-entering a smaller front door to what I like to imagine is The Flag Room. A dim place filled with shelves, that unmistakable old aroma of dust mixed with time, and boxes of neatly folded flags - probably neatly categorised with those embossed black and white labels.

I want to understand the reason for the flag flying. What’s his motivation? When did it start? How did he come into possession of the flags? Are others involved in this project, or is it a solo endeavour? I want to know but I also don’t want to know. I like the mystery.

It’s been impossible to follow these local flag displays without thinking about which historical moments I’d want to commemorate. Who or what would I fly a flag for? I don’t share the passion for royal or military history that Flag Man seems to have. But I like the idea of imbuing pop culture moments with the same historical weight. The desire to commemorate a military siege from 500 years ago is alien to me, I don’t understand the context or have the language for it. Just as commemorating pop culture moments might feel like an alien language for others. This is how I got to thinking about Spice Girls.

Spice Girls were my obsession from the age of 4, when they released their first single Wannabe. I looked up to them like big sisters. They were so fun and silly, outspoken and confident; they just seemed to be having such a good time. They enjoyed dressing up in alluringly cartoonish clothes, playing football, dancing and generally… yelling at boys? I was mesmerised. Each of them was celebrated for their individual personalities and passions; Ginger, flirting; Sporty, Liverpool FC; Posh, LBDs and Gucci; Scary, Leopard and being gobby; Baby, silly little backpacks and Chuppa Chupps. Geri squeezed Prince Charles’s bum. They could do what they wanted because they were cheeky but still kind and funny. Then there was the way that they (but Geri in particular) commandeered the Union Flag for themselves. They lived in a bus emblazoned with it. They posed in front of a glittery version of it. Geri wore it on-stage at the Brit Awards. And so I’d walk past Flag House with TODAY’S FLAG dancing in the breeze and think about my young (but let’s face it, enduring) love for Spice Girls and Geri’s dress waving in my tiny subconscious. Or should I say colonising my tiny subconscious?

I decided that I wanted to see Flag Man honour Spice Girls, and the mark they’d left on an entire generation. I knew he’d have a Union Flag in that flag room. I slipped a note through his front door. I left no name, no contact details.