Revisit to Wildcorner Beacon, Isle of Dogs

I first discovered this special corner back in 2007. Since then i have asked around and searched on the net for information about the beacon but to with no joy.

The tower stands tall above the thick weeds arounds it. Ivy crawls up its sides and it rules the corner with a silent majesty. From the street the sealed off corner looks like a fortified other world and the beacon, a relic from this other place and time. Perhaps it is a lighthouse of the wild, signalling at night to the underground, to the spirits that can read its code. Or perhaps it holds some kind of mysterious unknown function or posses an ancient magic.

 After a recent failed attempt at finding the corner again, I went back home and put my thinking cap on. Thanks to some detective work, I got a rough idea of where it was. Then I searched the area on good ol' 'street view' and to my delight I found it. I was excited to see the land was still wild and the beacon still standing. Was this still the case though? The google camera car could of passed there years ago for all I knew.

 So i was equally amazed to find the corner on a field trip over the river a few days later, still fenced off and untouched. 

Well .. apart from one thing.

Sadly the lantern at the top was not insight. I found the remains of it underneath thick Brambles and Knot Weed as I searched around the base. 

It could of been the Buddleia gradually prised it up and then the strong winds finally dislodged it.

Or was it the work of human hands?

 Once i got home that evening I searched on the net again for the beacon. Now I knew what to look for I soon came across a blog by a local guy who was asking for information about it. 

He had consulted old maps of the area and pointed out the beacon is 100 mtrs away from the water edge. He found the corner would of been at the edge of an area known as 'Popular Dry Dock' which was used approx up until the 1950's and then in the 1970's renamed Empire Wharf. His theory was that the beacon would of been used to guide ships into dock. 

 This though a well thought out theory, looks like it was just a theory as comments under his post suggest. It looks as though the area was once part of the Christ Church garden. When the police station was built sometime in the 80's the land was going to be turned into their car park, but a local man protested against this. This man was the legendary Ted John's the Island campaigner who was at the forefront of its unilateral declaration of independence in 1970. They say he campaigned with local residence for a community garden and won. The beacon apparently was a kind of folly in the garden in reference to the areas maritime history. 

 If this true, it is kind of disappointing that the little lighthouse isn't Victorian and was never used as an actual beacon.

 The tower still has its place in the history of the the area though and could be looked at in another way as a reminder from the past, standing as a beacon for people power and community spirit.

Lewisham's epic Shopping Centre Mural - 1996 [B. Williams]

The incredible mural at the back of Lewisham Shopping Centre was unveiled back in 1996 but still certainly deserves a mention in Wildcornerz. Bruce Williams and Gary Phillips's stunning piece of work is vibrant education resource to passers by. 

 Among many historic scenes there are the three arms of the metropolitan boroughs of Lewisham and Deptford and the amalgamated London borough of Lewisham [featuring the white stag.]

96 - The green dragon on a post, at Sydenham Wells Park was the sign of one of Sydenham’s medicinal springs. 

Deer sprit spotted Northbrook Park SE12

Iv have been sent these photos by 'Pete from SE4' which were apparently taken at the end of the summer. I visited the park myself just before Christmas and it took a while to find him.

.. but there he was, hidden away, grazing by an old disused gate.

Old Wildcorner Beacon - Millwall

I was going through my phone photo archive and found these pictures from 2006. I took these on a field trip around the Isle of Dogs. On the south of the island known as Cubitt Town, I found an old fenced off wildcorner.

 In the middle of the corner I found this old structure shrouded in weeds. 

It appears to be an old beacon for the river [which is now obscured by a new housing estate.]

 A rare relic from a by-gone era of the thames and the east end.

 I cannot find any record of it online. I am going to try the Island History Archive in Millwall.

I assume it has been demolished and the land, long since built on. I will revisit and post a report back soon.

Some press and net cuttings on Lewisham's white deer

{The Telegraph}

{Curriculum Enrichment magazine}

(Lib Dem's magazine 'In focus')

Here are a collection of some newspaper cuttings and web articles on The Lewisham Natureman from earlier in the year. The press coverage was sparked from liberal democrat councillor Cllr Chris Maines campaign to save the mural on Cressingham road. This has been already painted on and can be seen in the press pictures. [Notice the black paint over the mouth of the deer and over some of the background.]

In all these articles The Lewisham Natureman is spoken of as the name of the artist and not of the stag spirit itself.  Some have also reported the deer, as different members of a heard rather than the same solo spectre.

Not much is known about the stag or who created it but we do know [by looking at the writing underneath the mural piece on Cressingham road] is that it is some kind of tribute to the Lewisham Natureman and not made by 'him'. 

This is a name already know to us at Wildcornerz through our research and documentation of South East Londons' derelict gaps. The Lewisham Natureman was the name attached to a small carved symbol of a crown [in the same style as the boroughs logo] with a dandy-lion growing through it, though some report it as a Thistle or a Daisy. 

This tiny symbol was found in various wastelands and wild spots around the borough of Lewisham from the late 1970s to the end of the century. Sometimes they would be accompanied by a date and would normally be hidden away.

Due to their mystery, they became the subject of many urban legends amongst local children who would play in these wild corners. The basis of the myth / legend links the symbols directly to the wild places they were found and suggest their maker is some kind of shamon or wild man who lives in or uses them. Other versions describe him more as a 'spirit of wild nature', a 'familiar' to the weeds who helps them to grow and protects the wild corner.

The myth was also know to some in other communities that use these spaces, such as the local graffiti crews, travellers, urban fishers, the homeless and street drinkers. Fences are jumped and bars are bent to access these cracks and corners of the city. These fringe communities of London can still be found using these 'wastelands' spaces no matter how temporary the stay. Some of these would have used what was know as Common land centuries ago and the many bomb sites and edgelands around London in the last century. Now even these gaps; 'commercial wastelands' / 'brownfield sites' are becoming increasingly more transitory, due to the London Assembly's current building strategy for the capital. The core idea being to build on land within the city, rather than expanding further out.   

The deers are not signed and maybe their maker is not what is important.

We at Wildcornerz like to believe the stag is the Lewisham Natureman, in animal form; an embodiment of this same spirit of wild places in Lewisham.   

Interview with the great Ken White from 2011

Ken White - A filmed interview at his Forest... by f699457025

 This interview is with writer, local historian and geographer / topographer Ken White.
Ken has cycled all over South London taking notes, collecting samples and sketching the landscape. He is author of the incredible 'The Quaggy and its Catchment Area'; a detailed account of the river and its tributaries. The book has the appearance of some kind of amazing underground fanzine, with photocopied sketches and photographs and the text all scribed and printed in his beautiful hand.
 In one chapter, he maps a small obscure tributary he has named 'The Hither Green Branch'. We at wildcornerz believe this to be the feed to the pond in 'The Swamp'; a legendary wildcorner along the Hithergreen Sidings. The area is the home of the original Lewisham Natureman legend.
 The tributary becomes the part of the Quaggy known as the Chinbrook. White traces it over and underground through Grove park following the train line along the bottom of the valley. The river marked the boundary between the old Parish of Lee and Bromley.
There is copy in Lewisham Local Studies and Archive at Lewisham Library and will possibly be republished by QWAG.. we have been told.
Ken passed the same year this interview was filmed. Part of his ashes were scattered at the located source of the river he loved.

Besson St. SE14, Wildcorner Exploration

Besson St. Wildcorner Exploration, a set on Flickr.

These photographs are were taken from several explorations over the Summer, to the wild corner on Briant and Besson Street. A large corner where a former council estate once stood. Years ago the corner was viewable from the top deck of the 171 which used to pass by. Since the redirection of that bus the corner is not viewable from the street at all and is now only overlooked by a small number of flats.

 Specimen samples of flora and fourna from the site have been collected.

Notables things including an old known tag, Kist, 'Goodbye Charlie Bright', Broke, Badcat, Moral, Norf, Elmo, Eek, evidence of a traveller camp, a small temporary shelter with bedding inside, high hills of rubble covered with thick buddhlia bushes and a most special sighting of Lewisham's very own white deer.