Top deck watchers 👀

Wild man Kyle Pidduck

Kyle Pidduck documents his life living wild around the uk with his two dogs. There's quite a lot of 'outdoor living' Youtubers out there. Some more interesting than others.

I first found his channel while he was walking and sleeping along the coastal path up to Scotland. 

After many months he decided to cross back over the border and settle down for the winter in a small cabin he built illegally in some woods. He lived there hidden away for months at the secret location. He recently gave up the cabin and is currently sleeping in a car he bought, still with his dogs.

His videos capture some beautiful scenes of the countrysides wild corners, as he strays off the path looking for places to sleep and gather wood.

In this video he takes us on a tour of some of his old skippers and haunts, growing up around the edge lands of the north east.

Some screenshots I took of his videos

 

Common Crown

Made this little intervention the other day up on Whitefield’s mount, which is the name given to the island of scrub growing wild on Blackheath. It is named after the 18th century Anglican preacher who would deliver sermons from it to audiences of thousands. 

Before this though, for centuries the patch was known as ‘Wat Tyler’s Mound’. Apparently speeches were made up here to the rebel encampments before they proceeded their march into the city, at the Peasants Revolt of 1381. 

From reading more about the mound on the excellent runner500 blog, it looks like it has been used as a gathering point by other rebellious political movements as well, such as the Cornish rebels before the battle of Deptford bridge, the Chartists and the Lewisham Suffragette’s.

Today it is now a quieter corner of the heath.

The bench there is known to some as ‘Ed’s bench’ in memory of a former class mate at my secondary school. It faces out on to a crater that becomes a pond in winter. 

In the summer the remains of rough sleeping can usually be found in the bushes of the mound, the thickets of gorse providing shelter from the wind and a veil from the main road. 

The detritus in the grass there reflects the mounds relatively isolated location and unregulated ‘wild’ character;

Beer cans, condoms, vapes, weed baggies and fag ends…

and the feathers of crows, who watch over the wild island from the solitary birch tree.

 

Wild corners connected

                        

This guy sets himself the challenge to cross Greater London without using any roads. Some of these Youtuber geo adventures can seem a little gimmicky at times but what is created here is fascinating. 

He maps a route using larger green spaces and in between these he navigates, trespasses an internal network of edges, alleys and water ways through the city and suburbs. 

See him passing through Lewisham in a section of the Ravensbourne. 

   

The Swamp [Vol 1]

Here is the full length version of my film The Swamp. A poetic documentary about my favourite wild corner, hidden on a secluded train embankment close to my childhood home. It is the place I was first told about the legend of the Lewisham Natureman and shown his scratched crown tag.

The film is made from a collage of footage I filmed there over the last 20 + years. It is the first of a series exploring different aspects of the Swamp. This first episode examines the mysterious pond and the unnamed stream.

Malcom Appleby's studio

One of many gems from BBC Archive's Youtube account. Lovely footage of Malcom Appleby's home and studio built in a derelict train station on a long discontinued line.  

Devils Steps Portal

Proper original Lewisham Wildcornerz stuff ... 

A post on Facebook that caught my eye recently.

 Devil's steps was an access point for local children to climb onto the railway which led to a huge disused gravel pit a little way along the tracks. This is obviously where the road name Granville Park came from.

 'A paradise for adventurers'. 

An old Lewisham Natureman white stag can sill be seen behind the creeping plants, calling into a portal at the bottom of Devils Steps.

 [My mum remembers accessing the same pit through the rail bridge further along known as Lover Lane, where the stag beetles would fly in the summer.]

Oil painting of Devils steps which used to hang on my grandmother's wall. 

Pirate Radio Pirate

More UK pirate interviews.

This time with Killer, former owner of Y2K Essex. He features in an episode of the now informous BBC mini series 'Tower Block Dreams' in 2003. Elements of this episode were directly parodied in early episodes of the comedy 'People Just do Nothing'. 

After this period he became better known within pirate radio circles as a prolific rig thief and racketeer, preying on stations throughout the uk. 

Tales from the darker side of pirate radio culture.

Brains of the top Pirate

Eastman, head honcho of London's top pirate Kool FM. Great documentation of 'the complicated life' of a great London character. He shares memories with his old friend Dj Ron of growing up in 1970's Hackney and Sound system culture. Its interesting hearing about some of the trials and struggles of running such a successful pirate station in London and how they overcame them and flourished. 

He is a formidable character, especially as a younger man. Being the stations boss, his face was always pixelated out of group photo's backstage at raves. It feels like if it wasnt for finding pirate radio, he may have ended up as some kind of crime boss and been equally successful at that. 

If London pirates are radio weeds, Kool has got to be the most successful strain of Willow herb. The empty hissing gaps in the fm radio spectrum are the restricted scraps of wild land in the capital, awaiting commercial development. 

To flourish for 31 years is an amazing achievement and the legacy of the station in british music and club culture cannot be over looked. 

Skippering

Another element often found in the wildcorners of South London are traces of 'Skippers'. This slang term was used by homeless communities of old London, meaning a temporary site used for rough sleeping. 

The word is derived from Skepper or Skypper; another name for a Barn. The term seems to appear often when referring to the barn as somewhere to sleep the night.

 It gradually widened to include all general out-houses and shelters for over night stays. 

Skippers are temporary, often improvised and hidden away from public view for safety reasons. This is why the high wooden hoardings and advertising boards of wildcorners make them an ideal location for 'skippering' in modern day cities and towns.  

[2008, The Swamp]

 John Healy mentions skippers in his classic The Grass Arena [1988] which documents his years of homeless and extreme alcoholism.

'Skippering is illegal; also rough. Some skippers are fair; most are bad. One feature common to both - they are all lousy.'

 'Fights break out in the night; the police come in, nick you or throw you out. depending on their mood; any nutcase can walk in, burn the place down while you’re in a drunken stupor. You try to sleep in the attic with the birds but end up in the basement with the rats.' 

 

Anti Piracy Ads - VHS, DVD and Downloads

Telephone box Painter

Nice short doc by Matthieu Livingston about Robert Pammen; London's last [official] telephone box painter. 

 

Motorway Ditch [Road-side Microworlds], 2023

Wild Corners on the Western Borders

Exploring Lewisham's far South Western border, in search of wildness.
Behind some flats in the shadows, a dark path can be seen through scrub and pine trees.

It continues and starts to climb into steps upwards, away from the visibility of the road.

The trail then steadily falls into a small woodland valley; a remaining shred of the ancient Great North Wood. Remains of the Crescent Wood Tunnel start to surface through the ivy.

The Tunnel cuts into the Sydenham hill. The portal is to a long forgotten internal network eventually leaving Lewisham at its furthest south western boundary and entering Crystal Palace. 

The tunnel first opened in 1865 to facilitate a train line which ran from Nunhead to serve the great exhibition. The tunnel was design by the same architect who designed the palace; Joseph Paxton. 

A section of the line was painted in a landscape by Camille Pissarro during the days of steam.

[1954, Pic Subterranea Britannica]

After many years of struggling, the fire that destroyed the Crystal Palace also sealed the fate of the line, as it declined further and finally closed in 1954. 

For several years there was talk of the tunnel being used as part of the Bakerloo line southern extension but the plans were scrapped.

[1980, Pic Disused Stations]

The tunnels were still accessible up to the 1980’s and used by local kids until some younger local children went missing and police searched the tunnels. No children were found but the council sealed them off with heavy gates after this.

[2005 Pic Subterranea Britannica]

On approach to the Tunnel, a familiar shape can be seen through the trees. 

The stag can be seen feeding on hind legs to the left of the entrance.

[2023, Wildcornerz]




Sources: Subterranea Britannica, Disused Stations, Portals of London, 'Sydenham and Forrest Hill Through Time' - Steve Grindlay, History of the Borough of Lewisham - Duncan Leland, Lost Lines of the South - Nigel Welbourn

Bunking - a Mini Workshop

This is a mini workshop I ran as part of a two day online event for Chisenhale art studios, the Alt-MFA and Into the Wild alternative art programs:

Local hiding places. 

If you were a kid, where would you bunk school? 

 Workshop by Jack Thurgar [WILDCORNERZ]

A workshop focussing on hiding places, spaces away from authority and the public eye.

This is a quick exercise in imaginative thinking.

The workshop aims to create a small five minute window out of our studio practice

to focus-in and meditate on a specific place. 

Participants are encouraged to think like a child, reinterpreting the local area to find their own hiding place. Think about how it stimulates all senses. Describe its location and geography. Why did you choose this place for bunking?

As a group we will spend 5 minutes drawing a quick sketch and/or write a few sentences about the place from memory/imagination.

Participants then spend the last few minutes sharing back to the group. 

Sketch by Michael Davies [workshop participant]

Lightship Artwork

 

Radio producer Cathy FitzGerald and digital innovator Tony Churnside collaborated on this excellent audio installation on the LV21 Lightship, as part of the Thames festival 2016. The work is broadcast on an fm radio signal and is received on the ship by a column of the thames salty estuary water which is used as an aerial. 

The audio, softly played out on the deck, is made from FitzGerald's interviews with characters she meets at the riverside, along the estuary where the river gets wider and wilder - Here

Governors, Duo's, Lone-wolfs - Graf Storytellers of old London Town

Here are some of my picks from the Killa Kela podcast.

This is a selection of my favourite characters behind some of the biggest tags, from the 80s and 90s London scenes. The Char and Steam interviews are particular jewels. 

They tell childhood stories, growing up in a different era of London, as well as tales of missions and danger, memories of names and locations that interweave to form part of the rich tapestry that is London graffiti folklore.

 

Uncle Yammy; The great storyteller of life behind the door

Thought this was definitly one for the wildcorner corner. Check out Yammy B's youtube channel for his regular stories from over 40 years in the uk prison system.

Yammy came from an extremely traumatic childhood and was put into care at the age of 9 and then on to borstal and then prison. He spent years in the 'Cat A's' where he got hooked on class a drugs and became a notorious hitman for various inmates.

He is now many years clean and a reformed character. He is an amazing story teller; with bags of charisma and street wisdom. His stories come effortlessly from his memory and couldn't be told better if they had been written and rehearsed a hundred times. 

Here also is his excellent James English interview which goes back to his childhood and where he is at today. 

The Swamp [Vol 1] Extended Trailer - NEWNESS!

This is a trailer for my first video in a new series. 

The videos explore the infamous Swamp; a secluded piece of wild land in Lewisham and are made from footage I filmed there over the last 20 years.

In this first chapter I look at the mysterious pond and the unnamed stream.

Run time of full film: 24 mins

Wild Cornerz Show this week in Peckham

 Im showing my new video 'The Swamp' this week as part of a group show named after this very blog. The video is the first of a new series made of footage filmed at the infamous swamp over the last 20 years. Accompanying the video I am showing my shrine to the Swamp [pictured below]. 

Im exhibiting alongside three other local artists; Andrew Finch, Tobias and Ed Carter who's work also explores wildness in someway. 

Heres a small feature about the show on Radical Art Review: https://www.radicalartreview.org/post/floods-riots-and-pirate-radio-exploring-lewisham-s-forgotten-corners

A Shrine to the Swamp 

Still from 'The Swamp' by Jack Thurgar

Wild Cornerz is showing at Satterlite Store, Holdrons Arcade, Peckham [Thurs 13th - Saturday 15th Oct].

Andrew is screening his film 'The Love Below' Featuring myself and Ed Carter in the river Quaggy, on the closing night at 6pm.