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.' 

 

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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