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.

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

Thursday 8 November 2012

Field Trip Down River.


Last week i cycled with two friends down our great river to visit the Margaret Ness Lighthouse. It is the first of the nine beacons along the Thames from the City. 
[ pictured in my previous entry; Nine Beacons of the Great River.
 http://wildcornerz.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/nine-lighthouses-of-great-river.html ]

 Notice the stencil over the warning sign and the flotsam and jetsam washed up along the banks.




  ... and further down river near Crossness, we passed two old dubs; 'EGOR' and 'EWOK'.
 This was the name of the incomplete dub in the wild corner in Lee, SE12.
 Though the lettering is different. Is this the same Tagger? Was still a surprise to spot in another wild place, but so far away.
 http://wildcornerz.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/among-ashes-se12.html




 This picture of the river and its first settlers, was in the middle of a long, blank concrete wall opposite Crossness Pumping Station, also know as 'The Cathedral on the Thames'.





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