Thanks to the Google Map Pedometer you can view the route I took here (don't forget to zoom in on the map.) This image gives an idea of the landscape in this area:
The area around the DLR station has a bleak post-apocalyptic feel. It is predominated by light industrial business such as scrap and recycling merchants. Dirt covers everything like a layer of fallout. On a wall opposite the station there is a solitary white tile bearing the words TATE MOSS.
Further investigation reveals that this is near the site of a warehouse where artistic happening and parties take place. The organisers' website (www.tatemoss.com) says
'We aim to question authorship and branding and to create a discourse about the freedom of information and the use of technology as an exploration of unmonumentalisation of art work based in our lived environment.'
If anyone knows what unmonumentalisation means then please let me know!
Walk under the DLR bridge and there are more industrial sites.
Buildings have signs warning of the high level of theft in the area and others supporting the Olympics.
Double-back under the bridge and walk through more filfth and debris. Detritus obscures neglected steps up the side of the Northern Outfall Sewer. This corridor is optimistically entitled the Greenway. It gives a good view of the surrounding landscape. A mixture of trees nearby, then warehouses and new buildings under contruction near Stratford. One of the images I made today was of the aftermath of a fire: -
Nearby a weeping willow moves gently in the breeze.
Sadly it is joined by a discarded TV and motorbike sitting in the water.
I continued west and stopped to look down on the River Lea. The atmosphere improved as walkers and cyclists used the towpath. An old concrete pill box sits incongrously in front of a trendy block of flats. Its an intresting location in which to live. Very peaceful but not really near anything.
At one stage, this area which is called Fish Island was to have been concreted over and used as a car park for visitors to the Olympics. Instead there will be a temporary arena for basketball.
I walked home through the wonderful Victoria Park: -
You can view these and other images from this project on my website at www.peterspurgeon.com
Posts
