BROOKMILL PARK, SE8
London Archive Chronicles
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Let’s assume that we know neither the medium nor the title of this picture.
This is an image of four colours: black, white, lime green, and forest green. The two bolder dark lines, coming together almost in the middle of the image, divide the square space into three sections. A blot of black or almost black dominates the right lower corner and the same colour writhers across the whole square space of the image. The top right triangular-like section is coloured with forest green, underpinned by the black and dark grey sprawling lines. A few blotches of light green are here and there. The middle section is divided further in two by a dark line in the middle. Its top part is filled with forest green, lime green, and white blotches and crossed over with dark lines. The lower part is dominated by a monotonous range of specks, patches, and lines. In this way, the eye surveys the surface of the picture. And the mind, what does it make of it? We see with our brains, not with our eyes. The image is busy, disorderly, full. Does it represent anything to us; can we find meaning in what we see? If we decide to have a dialogue with the image, we have to interpret – or are we guessing? Ww say it is ‘like this’ or ‘like that’ or some element or the sum of them all represents something to us. What we see is just a trigger to a whole set of processes of engaging with the image, of us trying to join the dots, so to speak. If we were given a title, it would act as a guide to this process, whether the verbal title would be abstract to us — a cause of further contemplation -- or as an anchor. If the title was ‘Birds’, would we see birds in the image? Where would we place them? Or would the ‘birds’ represent something else in our minds? When we are told that it’s a photograph, the eye is permitted to look out for the signs of perspective: foreground and background, the diminishing scale of objects and the vanishing point towards which everything flows, like into a black hole. The eye and the mind do this, re-ordering, redefining the image, almost involuntarily. The shapes conjure up an illusion of depth, and we see a river bend. The black strokes are branches, the white area is a reflection on the water and the blotches of different shades of green are leaves. The eye, the mind, is placed outside the scene as if we could walk into it, but only as if. We are outside, looking in. I had looked up a route to walk from Greenwich to the Lewisham hospital. The map showed the thin River Ravensbourne going all the way to Ladywell, running behind the hospital buildings. Although it didn’t show a path next to it, I thought I would give it go. I am yet to find a stream in London without a foot path alongside it. That is how I first came across Brookmill Park although I have lived in the area for over a decade. I was nothing short of enthralled. Even accidentally interrupting two men in a thick cloud of weed, listening, their heads nodding to Coolio’s Gangsta Paradise playing on repeat, didn’t dim my amazement. I said hello, smiled and looked them in the eye with the courtesy one greets strangers. I was relieved that my non-chalance seemed to have distracted them at the same time as I was embarrassed by being so wary. Brookmill Park started as a small recreation area in the 1880s in between river Ravensbourne and what is now Brookmill Road. It was expanded in the 1920’s on the grounds of the disused Kent Waterworks reservoir, on the east side of the river. It was further enlarged in the 1950s when the nearby World War 2 bomb damage was rebuilt and in 1990 with the extension of the DLR line from Greenwich to Lewisham. It gets its name from the corn mills that used to be in the area — 17th- century diarist John Evelyn is recorded to have bought one of these Brookmills. There is an ornamental garden, benches, a wisteria arch, a path along the river, flowers beds along the paths, a pond with birds and various trees with their different shapes of leaves and shades of green. The park is situated along the 11-mile-long River Ravensbourne, a river which, although now a minor stream, has shaped the nearby Lewisham and provided energy for various industries in the area. The source of the river is Caesar’s Well in Keston, south of Bromley. According to the legend, Caesar was camping there with his troops who needed water but with none in the vicinity. A raven was spotted frequently alighting near the camp and, concluding that it come there to drink, the Caesar ordered the bird to be observed. As a consequence, a spring was found and was later named Raven’s bourne or brook. It is odd to look at paintings of the area before industrialisation depicting such tranquil rural scenes. During my online research, I came across a comment of someone in his 50s whose grandfather had remembered the area being fields and farmland. By the diminishing collective memory of another London spoken of like a rumour, I was struck by it. Looking back, I got a bit snap happy that evening. I was so amazed by this park. Might that be the reason, or might it be a consequence of the shrunken radius of our lives that I have taken a sudden interest in the local flora and fauna? I spotted mallards, moorhens, and coots on the pond out of the birds listed on the information boards. All these names were unknown to me before reading them on the information board, even as their Finnish counter parts. Another time I saw a grey heron in the river. I have even begun to nurture a dream to see the blue wings of a kingfisher there. (originally published 29.04.2021) |
© Carita Silander
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SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:
http://edithsstreets.blogspot.com/2010/03/thames-tributary-ravensbourne_15.html https://www.londonslostrivers.com/river-ravensbourne.html https://runner500.wordpress.com/tag/river-ravensbourne/ http://brookmillroadconservationarea.org.uk |
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Yard to the rear of a house on Mill Lane, now Brookmill Road. The street had turned into a slum and was cleared. Photograph, 1895
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Part of the Greenwich Hospital seen from the Ravensbourne River. Lithograph, 1822
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A view of a mill near Lewisham, on Ravensbourne River. Engraving, 1770.
Images courtesy of London Picture Archive.
Images courtesy of London Picture Archive.