The Deep Topographer Nick Papadimitriou has just relaunched his website Middlesex County Council. It's a brilliant piece of work. An honouring of the county "utilising prose and poetry, photographs and local history lore. " Anyone who has seen my films of Nick will be familiar with his unique vision of that area of London only sometimes referred to by its proper name.
The films by the way are: A Blakean Vision, Deep Topography with Nick Papadimitriou, Beyond Psychogeography, From Dan Dare to Pornography
The River Run pages represent a detailed study of the rivers of the borough and are an essential read. I have for two years now always had a bundles of dog-eared beer-stained copies of some of Nick's writing in my bag. The pages can be downloaded as PDFs so that others can too share this privilege.
5 comments:
I'm glad you’ve kept the same intro to your site Nick, esp. 'drivers languidly farting in their Ford Capris' (I recall Datsuns being particularly abundant in my corner of Middx, c.'70s/'80s)
One of these days, I’m going to stay behind after everyone else has left work and print off all the riverruns, to peruse at home of an evening, an A-Z close at hand. The sections that I have read so far have certainly inspired the desire to fill the hip flask and strike out through the undergrowth into this other world.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks John for your kind words. Actually the site contains many errors and there are three pages missing still at this stage. They are:
The Hendon Lake (19th century name for the Welsh Harp)
The Fuel Lands Brook (a tributary of the Strawberry Vale Brook)
Rivers North (a study of the sources of the Mimmshall Brook rising in Arkley and High canons).
I was so burnt out after slinging the material together that I can't seem to quite lock with the missing items just now.
Regarding the errors, I'm suprised my arch-enemy Montagu Tregaskis, of the Northern Heights Footpath Association hasn't commented yet. He's usually off the mark pretty quickly. I have heard rumours he's hanging round the Roding finding evidence to undermine John Rogers' researches in that area. Even as I write he's sniffing down Jenkins Lane, edging out beyond Barking creek, an evil glint in his eye....
I look forward to the addition of the three missing pieces, particularly the Hendon Lake/Welsh Harp one. As a kid, I would often accompany my Dad on a walk circumnavigating the Harp. It also lurked in the background of my imaginative world as a sinister living presence, as every summer there seemed to be stories of kids getting tangled up in its underwater weeds and drowning there. A rapacious and murky beast. There were probably only ever a couple of such tragic incidents (in the ‘70s at least), but like other (sub)urban myths - e.g. the nameless kid who rode his bike along the top of a steepening wall that ran alongside Neasden underpass at the end of my road, fell off and got his brains splattered across the tarmac by a juggernaut - it assumed a life of its own.
Perhaps you could think of a ruse to lure Mr Tregaskis there to his own watery grave (or at least trap him for a while behind a sluice gate). Then again, he’s probably more entertaining alive and tramping those Northern footpaths, a vindictive smile on his taut dry face.
Very good website - interesting take on the usual regional study. I was impressed with the range and depth of the river survey.
I live next to Mill Hill golf club and have spent my life walking around the area. This site is very accurate. Well done!
Post a Comment