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.
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.
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.'
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
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.