I apologize in advance for the rather suspect quality of this post, but I have finally been felled by the cold/flu bug that has been residing on my rez floor for the past week. Nevertheless, your intrepid urban wanderer still managed to take a walk along the Thames to get some fresh air, hoping to avoid acute cabin fever. So all bundled up like a little boy going out to play in the snow (although this is NOT winter, I don’t care what anyone says), I headed for the mysterious land that is ‘non-touristy’ London.
It’s frankly amazing how quickly the hordes of tourist all around Big Ben and Parliament vanish once one passes Westminster Bridge on the Southbank. Postcard London gives way to a more desolate environment, the kind of place where the tourist coaches park while their passengers go see the interesting stuff across the river. Hulking complexes (including the MI6 headquarters) come right up to the river’s edge, leaving room only for a small pedestrian walkway amongst the cast-iron fences and CCTV cameras. That is one thing that really creeps me out about London- so many buildings are fenced, barricaded and filmed from all angles (supposedly- someone told me that most of the time the cameras are off) you’d think we were all back in some feudal warlord state. And I’m not just talking about government ministries; simple residential complexes get in on the act. But that is a whole other story, one that I will likely come back to again in a post on my visit to the strange, alternate universe of Canary Wharf.
Ok, back to the point, I promise. As I reached Vauxhall Bridge, I was greet by an absolutely huge development project. I stopped. I gasped. I stared. I couldn’t believe my eyes….Had someone transported me to Beijing or Hangzhou? This thing had China written all over it, from its complete disregard for scale to its unabashed love for, well, whatever you call those random wavy things on the roof. Its unwillingness to fit in with the surroundings, its disregard for history, its likely astronomical price and rather random location- all of these brought a smile to my face. I miss China. If things were right in the world, this place would have a name like “Morden City London” (misspelled on purpose) , “Forever Garden New Town” or “Renaissance New York Soho Modern Home”. If I was in charge, though, I would call it “China-on-the-Thames”.
My little piece of China in London
And just in case you were wondering why I decided to head down that way in the first place, I was looking for the old Battersea Power Station, made famous to many by its appearance on the cover of a certain classic rock album. Well, I did find it (kind of hard to miss!), sitting all by its lonesome among aged industrial clutter. I’m sure it’s waiting for its turn to be redeveloped, just like its cousin further down the river. For now, though, it remains a rather sinister symbol of a time when people thought it was a decent idea to locate huge coal power plants in the middle of a city. So here’s a picture of Battersea Power Station in 2005 (without the flying pig, obviously). Enjoy.
