Unchartered Streets

@uncharteredstreets

London musings by Matt Haynes; also occasional depository for goings on at Sarah Records and suppository for what’s supposed to have gone on. UNCHARTERED STREETS:

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Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· 21d

Few people know that when the last ice sheet retreated from Leytonstone it left these “glacial erratics” scattered along Church Lane. [@lucycmunro.bsky.social (on left) provides sense of scale; Poundland (in distance) provides sense of perspective – it used to be a British Home Stores.] #Leytonstone

A pavement-level view up a main road towards a branch of Poundland. Large lumps of rocks are positioned at regular intervals along the kerb.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· 21d

Oi, you two – you can stop that right now! #EppingForest

Two trees alone in a forest just doing what comes naturally.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· 21d

More Epping Forest: the Rodney “Gipsy” Smith memorial near Waterworks Corner, and a hollow tree and a bit of a tree graveyard somewhere towards Loughton; it’s very easy to lose track of where you are, despite the Central Line being just… over there… somewhere. #EppingForest #Walthamstow #Loughton

A stone with an old horse-drawn caravan carved into it and a plaque reading: Gipsy Rodney Smith MBE who preached the gospel of Christ to thousands on five continents for seventy years was born here on 31 March 1860 and called home journeying to America on 4 August 1947. What hath God wrought.

A dead, hollowed-out tree surrounded by ferns.

A fallen tree in a forest clearing with the stumps of other dead trees nearby.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· 22d

The other thing about growing up in East London was that my Grandad was Father Christmas. He worked in Carpets at Bearmans department store and, every December, when the real Father Christmas was on lunch, he had to take over. And he absolutely hated it. I’m not sure the kids enjoyed it much [1/2]

An old advertisement for Bearmans department store protected by clear plastic on a tiled subway wall. The wording says: “RECOMMENDATIONS. We like them – of course we do, but more important, we realise that recommendation over the past 50 years has played a large part in building our store up to the reputable shopping centre it is today. We hope our many customers regard us more as friends – so if we please you, tell others, or tell us. At any rate, tell someone. BEARMANS. The store with the personal touch.”

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· 22d

If you don’t believe the cow thing, check out the top-left image in this poster. THERE WERE COWS. On the right is Whipps Cross Lido, scene – allegedly – of at least one bit of bovine blundering. The last image is more of a puzzle, as that’s not Brisbane Road and Orient have never won anything. #LOFC

A poster attached to the gate of a church advertising a talk on “The Leyton That Used To Be”. It contains three images: one of two cows walking down a suburban street, one of a lido, and one of a football team holding a cup aloft in a large stadium.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· 23d

The thing about growing up in East London is that you start thinking it’s perfectly normal to have a chunk of ancient woodland at the end of the road and to occasionally find a cow in your front garden. It’s only later on in life – when you meet people from, say, Balham – that you realise it [1/2]

A steep-banked stream winding through trees.

A steep-banked stream winding through trees and under a wooden bridge.

A view across a tree-shrouded lake with sandy humps in the foreground and an empty log seat.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· Jul 15

So, yeah… thing is, when we asked you to paint a mural illustrating the history of Palmers Green, we were thinking you’d probably start with, well, I guess Broomfield House, and then maybe the coming of the railway… we didn’t realise you were going to be so… thorough… #palmersgreen #broomfieldpark

Three panels from a mural on a hoarding in a park depicting a primordial forest, some dinosaurs being struck by a meteorite, and a woolly mammoth.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· Jul 14

For some people, a scorching hot Saturday in July means strawberries at Wimbledon and a jug of Pimm’s. For those with more refined tastes, however, it means a fry-up in East Barnet and a walk along Pymmes Brook, from Jack’s Lake (pic. 2) to the North Circular at Silver Street (pic. 3). [1/2]

Deep in the woods, a wooden signpost for the Pymmes Brook Trail.

A large lake stretching serenely into the distance, with lily pads in the foreground.

A river hemmed in by concrete and railings with a road sign in the background.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· Jun 24

Maps notwithstanding, were Bromley really a London club? I'm not so sure. So we detoured to look at their ground and… it had a bloody horse in front of it! A horse!!! Not a police horse in riot gear to keep the hooligans in order, a… civilian horse. This horse. [2/3]

A scruffy-looking horse in a field. Beyond a white fence on the far edge of the field is another field, and beyond that are the stands and floodlights of a small football stadium.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· Jun 23

So, Principality Building Society… although you initially accepted that I was not a robot, you now think that, in the five minutes it’s taken me to compose my question to you, I might have BECOME a robot… is that correct? And does this happen much, in your experience? [1/2]

A screengrab of a Captcha pop-up saying: “Verification expired. Check the checkbox again.” The checkbox text says: “I’m not a robot.”

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· Jun 22

The railway arches south of the Elephant are home to many mysterious goings-on. Some we should probably draw a discreet veil over. Or possibly a galvanised-steel roller shutter. But some are the Orbit Brewery taproom where, as the sun went down, [1/2]

People drinking beer at tables in a sunlit yard beside railway arches with a large barbecue smoker in the foreground.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· Jun 19

… and then, somewhere on the road from Twickenham to Teddington, everything suddenly faded to black and white, and we felt a strange chill in the air… [Still walking from Shepherd’s Bush to Sunbury…] #StrawberryHill #Twickenham #Teddington

A black-branched, leafless tree in front of Strawberry Hill House, a huge, white, Gothic Revival villa. All other trees are in leaf.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· Jun 17

So, as you can see, this stone pillar on Brentford High Street commemorates three local events: Cassivellaunus’s confrontation with Julius Caesar in 54BC, the resolution of King Offa’s dispute with the Bishop of Worcester in 781, and Edmund Ironside’s victory over Cnut in 1016. [1/2]

A stone pillar on the pavement of a large road. On the side facing the camera is written: BC54. At this ancient fortified ford, the British tribesmen under Cassivellaunus bravely opposed Julius Caesar on his march to Verulamium.

A stone pillar on the pavement of a large road. On the side facing the camera is written: AD780-1. Nearby, Offa, King of Mercia, with his queen, the bishops and principal officers, held a council of the Church.

A stone pillar on the pavement of a large road. On the side facing the camera is written: AD1016. Here Edmund Ironside, King of England, drove Cnut and his defeated Danes across the Thames.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· Jun 15

No checkpoints yet, but you know when you’re across, as the first house on the other side looks like this. After that, it’s security gates and personalised number plates all the way to Weybridge. All colours are real. [2/2] #SunburyOnThames #Hampton

The security gates outside a large but architecturally uninspired house just visible at the end of a long drive. The walls beside the gates are painted bright pink. The house is called Heronsgate and the gates are decorated with herons. It may be a visual pun.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· Jun 9

After Reform’s banning of the Pride flag from their council buildings because (to quote Zia Yusuf) “flags should represent everyone, not divide”, the new Reform council in Havering, where we were the other week, has cancelled the borough’s annual Pride celebration and will only fly flags that [1/2]

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· Jun 4

Among Bromley’s many other attractions is this bit of rock from Lochinver in north-west Scotland. “One of the oldest rocks in the British Isles”, according to the plaque, it was presented to the people of Bromley in the year 2000. [1/3]

A lump of rock with a small metal plaque screwed into it saying: “Bromley Millennium Rock. This boulder of Lewisian Gneiss from Lochinver in North West Scotland was presented to the people of Bromley by the Highland Council to commemorate the Millennium year. It is a metamorphic rock over 2,000 million years old and is one of the oldest rocks in the British Isles.”

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· Jun 3

On our walk to Keston we passed this tribute to local lad Charles Darwin in Bromley town centre. Sadly, someone’s chucked silver paint around Chuck’s legs and feet. Probably a Reform supporter made angry by the thought of evolving. And B&Q, presumably, were out of red-white-and-blue paint. #Bromley

A mural covering the whole of the side of a shop. It depicts Charles Darwin sitting by a tree in the branches of which are several images connected with the theory of evolution. There are splatters of silver paint on the lower parts of the mural.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· Jun 3

All I’m saying is, in the course of ten miles, this (pic. 1) will become this (pic. 2). And, on the way, it will experience Catford. [River Ravensbourne in Padmall Wood, Keston, and entering the Thames at Greenwich.] #Keston #Bromley #RiverRavensbourne #Deptford #Greenwich #Catford #PadmallWood

A narrow sparkling stream wiggling between trees and ferns through a shady wood.

A wide river flowing under a swing bridge into the Thames beside a shiny apartment block with Canary Wharf’s skyscrapers in the distance.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· Jun 2

that doesn’t mean that that’s not where the source is, though, and on Sunday we walked to Keston – which is where the woods are – to take this photo of what’s confusingly called Caesar’s Well, but don’t get me started on that… [2/2] #Keston #Bromley #RiverRavensbourne #Deptford #DeptfordCreek

A circular, brick-lined, sunken enclosure in woodland. In the middle of the enclosure is a pool of water, with a narrow channel leading away from it towards a distant lake hidden by trees.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· Jun 2

Even those who didn’t get beyond the first paragraph of my book about Deptford (see attached) will know that Julius Caesar didn’t discover the source of Deptford Creek (aka the River Ravensbourne) while on a camping trip in the woods just south of Bromley; [1/2]

A page from the Unchartered Streets book about Deptford, with the following text:
From the south exit at Deptford Bridge station take a few steps west and be surprised to find yourself on a small bridge… or maybe not so surprised, as there was a clue in the station name. The frothing torrent below is the River Ravensbourne – aka Deptford Creek at its tidal end – which rises at Caesar’s Well, eleven miles to the south in Keston. According to legend, Julius Caesar was camped near Keston when a thirsty raven led him to a handy spring – hence Caesar’s Well and Raven’s Bourne. But if that strikes you as a bit twee, or you don’t reckon our Jules was the sort to go camping, being more of a boutique hotel kinda caesar, then consider also that a raven featured on the Danish flag when King Æthelred and his brother Ælfred battered the Danes hereabouts in 871, which hardly sounds like coincidence, does it? 18th‑century dictionary dude Samuel Johnson had zilch to say on the name, he just thought the Ravensbourne was ‘the vilest stream on earth’, which seems a little OTT; then again, Dr J. had previous with rivers, having famously dismissed the Mersey as ‘nothing but a long thin puddle, sir’ and produced a series of scurrilous drawings of the Great Ouse.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· May 30

Farage’s mob say in London you can’t set foot outside your house without encountering a mugger; whereas I say in London you can’t set foot inside a clump of trees without encountering the moated remains of a medieval manor house. #ScadburyManor #Chislehurst

A reedy strip of still water in front of bits of old wall, steps and other brickwork, all overgrown with grass.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· May 30

Right, I can see what you’ve done wrong here, Bexley – you’ve only gone and ordered the top of your spire in metric, and the bottom in imperial, haven’t you? #Bexley

A church with a spire that is a different shape at the top and bottom.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· May 29

On her way through Hall Place Gardens that morning, Fiona suddenly realised that life on Earth would never be the same again. #Bexley #Crayford #Bexleyheath #HallPlace #RiverCray #QueensBeasts

A line of giant topiary animals beside a path. As if that explained anything.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· May 29

So, on the right is the Darent, flowing down to the Thames. And on the left – trust me – is the Cray. In other words, this is where the Cray empties into the Darent and ceases to be. And we’ve just spent 35 minutes walking from Dartford station to not quite see it doing it. #Dartford #RiverCray

A river flows past mud banks and scrubby grass. Another river joins it from the left but, because it’s low-tide, only the mud banks are visible.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· May 29

Kent has one of England’s most beautiful stretches of coastline. I think it’s somewhere round Broadstairs. #Dartford #RiverCray

A signpost for the England Coast Path in front of a wooden fence and some bits of rubbish. Beyond the fence is a flat expanse of nondescript grass and an electricity pylon. The sea is not obvious.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· May 28

I call this one “Horses”. After the Patti Smith album. #Dartford #RiverCray

A scrubby bit of field marked off by temporary metal fences teetering at random angles. It contains a strip of water and two horses. To the right of the field, a concrete structure sports a graffito of the Manchester United crest.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· May 27

In its standard form, the Union Jack is twice as long as it is tall. The uprights in a typical set of railings are not. So whatever you might think about the politics of the Right’s more artistic elements, you really do have to acknowledge their… what’s the word… oh, let’s just stick with stupidity.

A set of railings beside a river. On one of the uprights, someone of little brain has attempted to paint a Union Jack.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· May 27

So, yes, on Saturday we walked up the River Cray from mouth to source. Which meant, sadly, briefly crossing the border into Kent – Dartford, to be precise, home of the Great British Bin. #Dartford #RiverCray #Kent

A plastic rubbish bin on the corner of a trading estate, entirely painted over with a Union Jack.

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· May 27

Another photo that pops up from time to time is this one of them sitting in a garden, and I think that garden belonged to a house on Camberwell Grove... so maybe you were always destined to end up where you have, and we're not all just floating aimlessly in an ocean of meaninglessness after all...

Unchartered Streets@uncharteredstreets· May 26

... and speaking of wonderful things, as I was, Denmark Hill station was also, of course, back in 1991, the location for this rare Field Mice photoshoot… [Photo by Richard Bellia] #TheFieldMice #SarahRecords #DenmarkHill #Camberwell