Started January 2010 [by Jack Thurgar]

This is a scrapbook dedicated to the study of London's weeds and the wild places where they grow. Wildcornerz also looks at the languages, cultures and mythologies that develop in these cracks.


What is a Wildcorner?

A Wildcorner is a term referring to a piece of land that has been left to grow wild in a man made landscape. To be a true Wildcorner, the land has to be restricted from public access. Many are hidden from public view altogether. A common type of wildcorner is referred to by govements and local authorities as a 'brownfield site'.

Wildcorners and corridors* are dotted all over the capital and vary in content, depending on their location and history. In this blog we focus particularly on the Wildcorners of south east London.

* Wildcorridors are networks of pathways that run through the city and facilitate the propagation and growth of weeds. Many are restricted from public access such as railway embankments and urban rivers. In the suburbs, footpaths such as the Green Chain connect public green areas by a network of alleyways and passages that skirt between houses and private land. It could be argued that these are also wild corridors.



Urban and Suburban Weeds

By the term 'weeds' we are of course referring to the cities wild plants and flowers. But their are also two other weeds that grow in the city.

'Graf' like its botanical relation, has many families and strains. Both of these weeds can often be found together, sharing many qualities including their adaptive nature and unregulated status. Both in many cases, originally entered and populated the city using the railway network.

Another 'weed' that historically flourishes in London is invisible and uses the tops of tower blocks to propagate. Pirate radio like its weed relatives, grows away from the public eye and is constantly adapting to exploit these same gaps across the cities FM radio spectrum, fighting and flourishing in-between the commercial stations.

© Copyright of Wildcornerz. All rights reserved. For enquiries please contact: wildcornerz1@yahoo.co.uk

Monday, 26 March 2012

Michael Finch's sacred tape collection



A Brief History Of Grime Tapes
The London urban music folklorists who made the DIY doc 'Tape Crackers' [ ft. pirate jungle tapes from the 90's ] are back with a radio show. This session charts the history and pre history of Grime again through Finch's amazing tape collections of recordings of tunes and sets from london pirate radio.

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Friday, 23 March 2012

Revisit to the SE14 Sighting.


A white tree has appeared above the spectral white stag at New Cross Gate.
It looks like a piece of street art, responding to the sighting. The tree has a more graphic/cartoon style with its black outline and simplified shape, more commonly used in street art and graffiti. The tree has been painted on top of the girder at street level and can be clearly seen to the passer by. The artist/artists have left there paint pot and water bottle. 
What is interesting to me, are the strange dripping bubbles at the end of the branches and the cut halfway down the trunk.


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