From Cathall Road there is a near perfect view cleared by the M11 Link Road. At an height level with the steeple of St. John’s you can scan across the speculative skyline from Canary Wharf to St. Mary Axe (it’s an alignment that the London Psychogeographical Society could conjure something from: St John = Baphomet/Isis, pyramids, obelisks). Late afternoon full moon. Across the top of St. Pat’s tombstones Lea Valley pylons against a red sunset. On Water Lane there’s ‘The Brothers Fish Bar est. 1966’ chips and cheer wrapped in greasy paper, in my imagination opened to commemorate West Ham winning the World Cup. I wander into the porch of Ithaca House on Romford Road – The Working Men’s Hall and Club Rooms 1865. A lady tells me that it’s now all martial arts, body mind and spirit etc. She was unaware of its age or original purpose. Old Labour replaced by the New Age Brigade. In her work-out gear she views me with suspicion through the door, me a working man, son of a gardener, grandson of a miner. A quick google shows it to have been bought for £1 by the Independent Newham Users Forum.Wind up in the gentrified King Eddie. My cheese and onion crisps arrive as Double Gloucester and Red Onion Kettle Chips. The saloon bar where we sat on the floor in 1989 has distressed wooden tables, floorboards, smoochy tunes and a Heston Blumenthal inspired menu.
3 comments:
Leytonstone was, of course, the birth-place of the Panandrum, that curious big-wheel affair designed to roll across the beaches at Normandy triggering mines during operation Overlord. There is a film of said contraption running along a beach spitting rockets in all directions. Eventually it falls over and a dog is seen careering away and barking his head off.
Thanks Montagu. I shall have to find this footage. I'm planning a screening of topographical films for next year's Leytonstone Festival and so far have two crackers but this might be an interesting oddity. Talking of films, yours is on the way I promise. Would Video be any good to you, or are you strictly digital?
I'd prefer DVD even though I have no technology for viewing whatsoever. You really must join my new organisation, The Northern Heights Footpath Association. We are devoted to the preservation of field-side strips, producing water-colour landscapes of semi-rural views and the liquidation of psychogeographers from LT zones 3,4,5 and 6 (A,B,and C).
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