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 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.

© Copyright of Wildcornerz. All rights reserved. For enquiries please contact: wildcornerz1@yahoo.co.uk

Wednesday, 1 January 2014

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.




Posted by at
Labels: , ,

2 comments:

  1. Unknown22 November 2017 at 02:18

    Hi,
    I've been looking for this beacon, as I last saw it over 20 years ago. As I can't find it now can I assume that it has been demolished?
    Shame on someone if it has.
    Brian Parkin
    brian.parkin2@hotmail.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wildcornerz 7 January 2018 at 16:07

    Thanks for your comment Brian. I have sent you a quick email about it.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)