A small neighbourhood tucked away in Jalkin's north-east corner which has gained a repute far greater than its size. The district, originally and still officially called Parklands, was built in the early 1100's by a firm intending it to rival the emerging Lewis Avenue sector. Though it was briefly fashionable, the company's ambitions were thwarted first by the authorities checking northwards expansion of Jalkin (to stop Rykes Gardens being swallowed up) and then by the smell from the newly inaugurated Drayers Square cattle market to the south. The district languished in genteel poverty for a long while, but in the late 1100's, perhaps attracted by the wasted elegance of its buildings, it began attracting the Cities bohemian population. The colonisation gathered pace, and soon artists not only from the locality but those newly arrived to the Cities began settling on Finchlac Road, Osterley Avenue and the rest.
Today Artists Quarter is amongst the Cities' most autonomous and individualistic neighbourhoods, rivalled only by the Torgun and Kakranfan quarters. In theory it is legally no different from any other neighbourhood, but a good deal of informal arrangements with the authorities have allowed it to plot its own course. It has, for example, no single praetor representing it. Instead a council of fifteen residents are annually elected to oversee its affairs, and none play much part in broader Jalkin politics. (They never attend the Goslan Hall meetings, for example). A somewhat grandly titled Citizens Militia, which is a voluntary body staffed wholly by locals, handles ordinary law and order matters. The Guards do intervene in more serious affairs, however, which tend to crop up quite frequently. Most strikingly, Artists Quarter has been allowed to design its own buildings, free from the usual Town Council regulations. As it attracts a number of radical architects itching to redesign their landscape, the results have been spectacular, if not always practical. For example, Brianda Nask filled Elder Grove with a line of spiralling slender tower-like houses linked by aerial walkways, all beautiful and all lasting five years before being demolished by very minor earth tremors in 1314. More longer lasting have been the two houses somehow built to resemble a squatting man and women, with their brick outstretched arms clasping across Orlin Way. A house whose facade uncannily resembles a dragon's face, its front door a gaping mouth, stands on Osterley Avenue; as does an unusually good example of parody architecture, being a gross (if scaled down) mimicry of the Thoj. In general, though, the buildings - which have entirely replaced the original 1100's crop - aren't novelty items but simply follow quietly innovative and very good designs; some are prototypes for styles later reproduced across the Cities. Many are built by architects who have made their fortunes and want to bestow gifts on the environment which first nurtured them. Others are literally giant advertisements by aspiring new architects keen to attract patrons by showing in bricks and mortar what they are capable of.
Other embellishments have been added to other buildings, including bright and often horribly contrasting colour schemes and richly embroidered tapestries hanging from eaves. Three of the main public buildings, Castor's Princeling inn and the Sunburst and Charlatan's Hall theatres, are unremarkable externally but dramatically decorated in the interior. The walls of the Sunburst are covered with a mural of a theatre interior, and it is so realistic that it makes the room look at least three times its actual size. Castor's Princeling, meanwhile, gives its walls over to legion of mural artists, each allocated a certain amount of wall space. The result is a series of brilliant if extremely contrasting paintings; again, the practical function is to give the artists exposure and hopefully attract commissions. Marking the entrance to the quarter itself, on Finchlac Road, is a grand arch decorated by etchings of some of its famous sons and daughters.
Artists Quarter's autonomy has sometimes strayed a little further than is comfortable. In the 1240's and 50's it was monopolised by a mixture of anarchists and radical feminists. Outraged by what they saw as the failure of Elzerbeth Cooper's administration, and in particular by the failure of the Equal Rights Act, they declared the district to be a separate federal province in 1258 and barricaded off all exits. An attempt to retake it by force led to total chaos, a score of deaths on either side and the Guards limping away in embarrassed retreat. Cooper cannily ordered the Guards to wait until the rebels started to bicker amongst themselves. They promptly did and order was soon restored with only a few token arrests being made (and none of those tried for treason). Callism visited the neighbourhood as nowhere else in the early 1300's. Duly inspired, it declared in 1306 its total independence and establishment as the Nowhere Nation; a typical Cane Callar dream of a country without laws, justification or purpose. No roads were barricaded off this time - people simply stopped following rules - but the Guards still didn't intervene. Central Command had already infiltrated the districts with agents and Chancellor Tannerz simply ordered them to stir up trouble and carry out a few selective murders until even the artists were crying out for Guards intervention. For a time afterwards Artists Quarter was forced to follow the same dictates as everywhere else (including disbanding the Citizens Militia) but gradually abnormal arrangements returned and the Central Command agents were recalled. By 1334 the earlier laissez faire has returned, though the authorities are suspicious of the quarter for two reasons. One is its tendency to shelter any illegal immigrants who have a smattering of creative talents. The large buildings are generally partitioned up into a network of small flats, and with friendly neighbours a settler can be hidden away indefinitely. The other, less grounded, belief is that the neighbourhood also harbours the Cities' few Zabric independence activists who have evaded capture, or at least contains the printing presses for their propaganda leaflets.
The general view of the quarter rests less on its political radicalism and more on its perceived debauchery (which is largely unjustified) and squalor (which isn't) of the artists' lives. This notwithstanding, the Cities views it with indulgent, patronising pride. Sightseers often visit to gape at its buildings, wealthy intellectuals or students frequent its pottery stalls, painter's workshops and tapestry shops. Only at night is it shunned; more because it only has one decent pub than for safety reasons. (There is generally a lively night life but it depends more on invite-only and small, exclusive gatherings than big, public outings.) It is also known for a string of sensational murder cases which have regularly plagued the quarter. Most have been caused by the complicated love interests and fragile personalities of various artists and all have enthralled the rest of the Cities. Perhaps the most sensational was in 1314 when a failed painter Solon Repeic hacked off the heads of both wife and mistress and hid them under the floorboards; he was caught and executed the same year.
Not all artists are drawn to the quarter. Playwrights and novelists prefer living in wider society, philosophers avoid it with an ascetic shudders, those associated with ceramic painting or lace weaving rarely come to the Cities anyway. Actors reside in some numbers to prefer living in the apartments behind the Domes; the greatest concentration is of poets, architects, painters, tapestry weavers and musicians. (Though not bards, who aren't considered 'proper' artists). And of these groups a number always prefer to avoid the cloying atmosphere of the quarter, or to remain on university campuses with their cloying atmospheres. Rather unkindly, it is said that the quarter only attracts the aforementioned illegal immigrants or the rebellious progeny of rich families keen to leave home in as shocking a way as possible. It is more accurate to say that those living there are primarily artists starting out in their field, or those who haven't made much money from it but persevere nonetheless. The successful general flee the district for more rarefied surroundings; the less dedicated get sick of the mess after a few years and get a salaried job. Hence the tiny apartments and overall poverty of the neighbourhood; and also, to an extent, its rebellious and fractious character.
The focal point of the neighbourhood is the Farrison Cultural Centre, on the corner of Finchlac Road and The Loop of Jelan. The Farrison was completed in 1264 and named after the landowner whose munificence funded most of it. It is an imposing sight, with octagonal and marble lined walls and four high pillars which rise from the roof and curve inwards to meet each other. There were various complaints about the Farrison's overbearing (and allegedly phallic) appearance but the interior is more refined, with a main entrance hall covered in beautiful, soothing murals and a fountain in the centre of the floor. Assorted recitals, exhibitions etc. are held at the Farrison, and it is also the meeting place of Artist's Quarter's governing council. Topics debated include the usual mundane matters of neighbourhood forums - rubbish collections etc. - but they also decide the running of the neighbourhood militia, mediate on local disputes and occasionally order the eviction of errant residents. Most contentiously the supervise the distribution of the cultural fund. this is made up of a small tax levied on all Artist's Quarter residents and, more significantly, gifts screwed out of wealthy philanthropists. Its function is to subsidise struggling artists and fund the occasional grand public event. As all major artistic professions are represented on the governing council and as all members have their particular favourites and rivals, the rows over who should get precisely what can be mighty.