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 gap that has been left to grow wild in the city. The term encompasses every wild piece of land no matter the size, from large disused sports grounds to small patches of commercial wasteland, to a crack in the pavement. As long as this gap in the man made landscape harbours some kind of weed, then it is considered a Wildcorner.

Wildcorners and Wildcorridors* are dotted all over the capital and vary in content, depending on their location and history. One thing most have in common, is that they are normally restricted in someway from public access or boarded off and hidden from public view altogether. In this blog we focus particularly on the Wildcorners of south east London.

* Wildcorridor; a word used to describe a channel or pathway that runs through an urban landscape, which facilities the propagation and growth of weeds. This includes railway sidings, rivers and canals.



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

Friday 29 June 2012

The Lewisham Natureman / The Wild-Walker


News of a new sighting of the lone stag was reported to me last night. This morning I set off for the spot, in a wild corner on the edge of Blackheath [the Lewisham end]. 
.. and there he appeared to me, at the top of the hill. He was standing in a forgotten doorway, in the middle of an old wall with faded 'KNOWN' tags * around him. 
He is South-West facing, looking across Lewisham and appears this time, to be crowned with the emblem of the borough.






 * KNOWN was a prolific name from Lewisham. Active during the mid 90''s]

Saturday 23 June 2012

Nine Lighthouses of the Great River


Here is a link to a fine page paying tribuet the Nine existing beacons that line the tidal part of the Thames known to sailors as 'The London River'.
 It also remebers the lighthouses that used to light the river, that have been demolished, replaced or lost to the water. It has their names, locations, histories and pictures from the late G. E. Danes's [an old Trinity lighthouse keepers] personal postcard collection.

Wednesday 13 June 2012

White stags in other cultures




A webpage found on White Stag's place in global mythology and history. This research isn't of Lewisham's own stag of course but it is interesting to read about various other legends and beliefs that include white stags.
 As I have written about previously, the stag that appears throughout the boroughs wildcornerz and corridors is thought to be an incarnation of The Lewisham Natureman [see right hand side column at top of page.] This old south london graffers legend has links to The Green Man; the old Saxon god of vegetation and the woodlands, Cernunnos; The Celtic God of fertility, animals and the underworld, and The Woodwose; who featured in various art and literature from Medieval Europe. 

Tuesday 12 June 2012