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 gap that has been left to grow wild in the city. The term encompasses every wild piece of land no matter the size, from large disused sports grounds to small patches of commercial wasteland, to a crack in the pavement. As long as this gap in the man made landscape harbours some kind of weed, then it is considered a Wildcorner.

Wildcorners and Wildcorridors* are dotted all over the capital and vary in content, depending on their location and history. One thing most have in common, is that they are normally restricted in someway from public access or boarded off and hidden from public view altogether. In this blog we focus particularly on the Wildcorners of south east London.

* Wildcorridor; a word used to describe a channel or pathway that runs through an urban landscape, which facilities the propagation and growth of weeds. This includes railway sidings, rivers and canals.



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.

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Thursday 12 August 2010

The Oysterhouse Lighthouse, Kings Cross




Here's a page investigating the mysterious old Lighthouse, on top of a derelict fish n chip shop, opposite Kings Cross station. The whole block has been derelict for over 20 years.
What this page doesnt say, is that the site was previous, where a monument to king George 1V was erected in 1830. It was sixty feet high and topped by an eleven-foot-high statue of the king. The upper storey was used as a camera obscura while the base housed a police station and then a pub. The monument was unpopular and was eventually pulled down and the Lighthouse was built in its place. Locally, the building was thought to be an advertisement sign for Nettons oyster bar below. These rumors now are thought to be untrue. The area remains know as kings Cross after this monument.

As it stands this is one of four Lighthouses in London.
Check:
http://www.urban75.org/london/oyster-bar-kings-cross.html