Archive for the 'Places' Category

I find it fascinating how people use public spaces in urban landscapes. This is a video I grabbed of some amazingly talented young girls practicing a dance routine at More London Riverside. They told us their group is called Esteem and they were in a show at the Unicorn Theatre in March. (The ambient sound on the vid is from inside the restaurant where I was having lunch when I happened to glance round and see them strutting their stuff - for music, they were in fact playng tracks from their mobile phones!)

This is a post that I wrote for Dulwich OnView that may be of interest to you if you’re visiting London and fancy a semi-countryish walk in the big city.

The sprawling mass that we call Greater London is actually made up of lots of little villages, which is often easy to forget as we are worn down by trying to get around this built up metropolis. But every now and then, it’s nice to be reminded that there are in fact many green spaces and quaint little corners to enjoy - especially when you get out to the farther edges of the city when the original ancient villages still bear some traces of their rural origins.

Dulwich Village is of course one of those but if you fancy a pleasant walk to discover other villages in London, we did this good one is from Blackheath to Greenwich. It’s around 2 miles as the crow flies but you can extend it by taking meandering detours around either of the villages and exploring Greenwich Park.

Take the train from London Bridge to Blackheath (about 10 mins) and from the station, turn left and walk up the slope towards the heath. There are plenty of smart boutiques, cafes and restaurants to browse en route. At the heath, take the little path to the left of the church and aim for the rooftops of Canary Wharf across the open expanse where Wat Tyler gathered his men to invade London during the Peasants Revolt in 1381.

Cross the main road towards the ornamental gates of Greenwich Park. (There are toilets here for those of you who worry about that sort of thing - I do!) If you then head straight on down the avenue, you’ll get to a viewing point over the river but it’s much more fun to have a wander round the park first - heading right will take you alongside a charming flower garden, for example.

We found One Tree Hill where Elizabeth I apparently came to think and meditate. In her day, she would not have had the site of the Millenium Dome or the Maritime Musuem or Canary Wharf or the Gherkin to clutter up the view north across the river to London!

From here, you can head downhill to the University of Greenwich and it’s rather grand buildings before making your way into Greenwich village by the Thames path, via the Cutty Sark (sadly still under wraps for restoration). There are food stalls in the covered market and also restaurants and coffee shops, though the latter seemed less smart than the ones in Blackheath (no doubt primarily catering to tourists and students).

The train from Greenwich takes you back to London Bridge - again around 10 mins.

My verdict: A pleasant morning out, with gentle walking and great views. But next time, we’d do it the other way round - climbing the hill from Greenwich and ending up in Blackheath for lunch at one of the smarter restaurants there, good food being one of our priorities on such excursions!

Do you have a South London walk or outing you would recommend? Pls email us (dulwichonview[at]googlemail.com) with a description such as the one above and include any photos and map* and if it’s right for the blog, we’ll publish it!

* To create your map, use Gmap Pedometer, save the route of the map you create and send the link to us.

Christianity built some amazing churches and cathedrals in this country and it’s these places we tend to visit when we tour the UK. But the myths and legends of pre-Christian Britain are also fascinating, though sometimes overlooked. Traces of this mysterious time remain around the UK in the form of standing stones, the most famous of which is Stonehenge. I remember reading an excellent book Albion, a guide to legendary Britain which evoked this mythological landscape brilliantly. Unfortunately, this title is out of print but you could try The Enchanted Land: Myths and Legends of Britain’s Landscape
- its blurb says: “Ancient folklore is bursting with tales of the land; legends revolving around its hills and mountains, caves and hollows, and springs and wells. Such stories tell of how these physical features first came into being - be it to hide an errant knight or the direct result of a local giant’s feral rage. These tales add a richness and depth to local history throughout the land, and the repeated appearances of monsters, fairies, ogres and spirits make them a delight for all ages.”

These ancient customs and beliefs went underground for 2,000 years when Christianity came to dominate and the people who practiced the old ways of worship came to be known as pagans. The word pagan is derived from the Latin paganus, meaning country dweller but somehow became associated with all who were non-Christians, with an implied negative meaning.

Now, it looks like more and more people in the West are turning back to the ancient animist religion, drawn by its focus on nature and the earth and all its bounties, according to this BBC report:

My favourite legend, I think, is the story that brings together Christianity and the ancient pagan religion at one of the most sacred spots of ancient Britain, Glastonbury. Joseph of Arimathea is supposed to have brought the young boy Jesus to the UK. After the crucifixion, Joseph apparently brought the Holy Grail back to Glastonbury and buried it there. In pre-Christian folklore, Glastonbury is Avalon, and the entrance to the Underworld. Glastonbury is also bound together with Arthur , a pre-Christian mythic hero who was Christianised into the one we know today with the round table and the knights, and the quest of the Holy Grail (a magic cauldron in the ancient myth). It’s all a bit of a muddle but that’s part of it’s fascination for me - the themes of a messianic figure, resurrection and return and a quest for a holy vessel blur across pagan and Christian boundaries and underline for me our very human need for spiritual renewal whatever religous form that need ultimately takes.

via news.bbc.co.uk

We are so relieved that we hadn’t planned to travel anywhere this holiday season - the whole of the UK is frozen and it seems that the Continent and the north east of the USA are also locked in the weather’s icy grip. I’ve been watching the news reports of all those people stuck at airports and also traumatised by the Eurostar breakdowns (reported as due to the “wrong sort of snow” by Channel 4) - ooh, I really feel for them. What a hideous way to start the Xmas festivities!

We’re planning to spend the next few days snug at home. We have a full fridge and freezer, lots of wine and chocolate as well as a stack of books and DVDs. I’ve brought down some duvets and knitted rugs to the living room so we can sprawl on the sofas cosily. I also plan to catch up with some blogging and social networking on my cute little netbook - which I’ve worked out how to use while lying down!

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season - and to those who are trying to travel to friends and family: the very best of luck for getting to your destination as soon as possible!

Posted via web from Fusion View Lifestream

True to the fusion nature of this blog, after the last two Mondays sharing the bizarre world of Western opera, today I wanted to change gear to a more serious note and show this moving documentary about the dying art of Chinese Opera - just managing to keep alive in no other place than my homeland Malaysia.

The documentary summary says it all: “Chinese opera in Malaysia face another brink of extinction, not by heavenly super powers but simply by the lack of interest in the young generations to learn and explore the art. We meet a few of the very last Cantonese opera singers left in Penang and learn what makes them pursue and love the art and why they have accepted the fact that they might very well have to take the art with them to the grave.”

I regret to admit it but I suppose people like me are part of the problem. We are educated in Western music and arts along with other aspects of our schooling over here in Europe and lack exposure to Eastern styles of creative expression so start to drift away from our cultural heritage at an early age. Then later on, we find the tones and harmonies of Chinese music strange to our ears - and performances are rare or difficult to locate. I’m hoping that an aspect of globalisation is that Asian arts are rising in international prominence: think of “Farewell My Concubine”, the Monkey myths that have been made into series and dramas and also the Peking Opera making inroads into the West. China itself is increasingly influential globally in terms of the economy - and no doubt, this will lead to its cultural influence widening its reach, too. With social media and the internet as well playing their part in disseminating documentaries like this one and bringing Chinese opera and arts to a new online audience, I’m optimistic that Eastern culture will continue to thrive.

My cousin Joanne is CEO of the Clean Air Network (CAN) in Hong Kong, an independent NGO that encourages the public to speak out about the health impacts of air pollution. She sent me CAN video above via Facebook the other day. It doesn’t pull its punches and made me feel asthmatic even just watching it!

I blogged last week about the idyllic fake English town, Thames Town, being built outside Shanghai to recreate for the aspiring Chinese middle classes the loveliness of an English market town. The purpose seems to be to escape from “loud and dirty Shanghai” to this fantasy of an English way of life. The clean air issues for the congested island of Hong Kong are no doubt repeated in the megacity that is Shanghai, with its population of over 8 million people. In fact, clean air is a vital issue for all cities around the world, not just in China. It seems to me that the answer to the hustle and bustle and dirt of Asian cities is not escape to an idealised suburban sprawl (which actually adds to the problem by adding more cars and concrete to the setting) but to address the noise, congestion and dirt by implementing sustainable policies.

Here in the UK, the hot topics of the century (pun intended!) are climate change and sustainable communities. There is a huge public drive towards clean energy, recycling, minimising our carbon footprint and livable neighbourhoods and cities. We aspire towards walkable environments, pavement cafes (weather permitting!), neighbourliness and community, safety and good health for all - places that people want to live in and can thrive in. Sure, there’s a long way to go in many parts of the country but the journey has started and even dirty old London has electric buses, electric cars and campaigns to encourage more bicycling and walking; recycling schemes; windmills on top of some buildings; green roofs and more.

So for Hong Kong, Shanghai and any other city in the world whether it’s London, New York or my hometown of Kuala Lumpur, I hope very much that sustainability is or will become part of the DNA of their evolution. With people like my cousin Joanne (whom I’m very proud of, by the way) taking a lead in one such factor for sustainability in a major Asian city - and I am sure there are many other passionate advocates for livable cities around the world - I am optimistic for the future.

Looking at the images in the slideshow above (taken by British documentary photographer Dave Wyatt), you’d think they were snaps of a quaint English market town or a Dutch or German village. And you’d be wrong. The photos were taken in China. Shanghai, in fact.

Shanghai?

But where are the pagodas and curly slate roofs, rounded doorways, bright red paint and lavish dragons of old Shanghai? Or even the imposing, megalithic skyscrapers and roaring highways of new Shanghai, proclaiming here is a modern city of the East?

Well, this is Thames Town China. Its website says, “Loud, dirty Shanghai seems a far cry from the yew and plane- lined avenues and cobbled pedestrian-friendly streets of ThamesTown. Here the broad sun-hats of the Chinese workers putting the finishing touches to the development are the only indication that you are on the outskirts of China’s biggest city. Not in a posh commuter town in the stockbroker belt of a British city.”

The blurb goes on: “Residents can sip their bitter in a traditional English pub, “The Thames Town”, as children scamper across the medieval market square to a bilingual school, while red-brick warehouses form a commercial area on the waterfront. Developers are targeting British companies such as Tesco and Sainsbury to add to the authentic high-street feel so the town’s expected 10,000 residents can shop in true British style. There are sporting facilities and everything a town of its size should have.”

This is apparently one of nine towns in this area modelled on European market towns, including Dutch Town, German New Town, Nordic Town and Italian Town (with Venetian style canals!). Unnervingly, the website declares proudly that German New Town, was designed by Albert Speer, the son of Hitler’s favourite architect….

I find it curious that the aspirations of the rising Chinese middle classes would be to live in a mock-European setting rather than in surroundings inspired by their own heritage and perhaps re-modelled for the 21st century. I could understand the desire to live in modern houses with all modern comforts and facilities but it’s the recreation of Victorian or Tudor houses that are then modernized with fake modernized medieval streets that is odd in my mind. There is also the fantasy of what England is - or perhaps should be - like that seems straight out of an Enid Blyton book: lovely local colour down at the pub while The Famous Five and Secret Seven scamper safely in the market square.

Meanwhile, in the real England, Victorian terraced houses are pokey and dark, Tudor houses are impossible to upkeep because of Grade II listing, youths are knived outside pubs, others vomit and piss in the street on a Saturday night, the homeless sleep in the streets and cars clog up the market square and medieval streets.

Hmm, maybe we in the UK should all move over to China to the sanitized version of our towns…!

And perhaps that’s the point of these fake places. People can live the idyllic lives they imagine in “exotic” surroundings, without ever leaving home and without ever having to deal with the real natives of those “exotic” settings. Who needs reality when these days, money can buy you your dreams…

But having said all that from the cynical Brit part of me, being an Enid Blyton fan, there’s a part of me that fancies living in a fantasy version of Old Blighty! What about you? Would you like to live in Thames Town or Italian Town? Or what about if an Old Shanghai Town were to be built next to Surbiton just outside the real London?

Slideshow photos: thanks to DaveWyatt on flickr.com

One of the most interesting things about living in London is that history is all around us - often going back hundreds if not thousands of years. But I often tend to forget that history isn’t just about the great national monuments like Nelson’s Column or the London Wall and other tourist attractions. The suburb I live in in South London goes back to medieval times, I believe, though there are no visible remains of the Dulwich of that period. The current “settlement” arose in its present form in the Victorian times, created by developers out of fields and farmland for wealthy London businessmen and merchants who wanted to retire out of the smog-filled city to the countryside.

How do I know all this?

Dulwich has the good fortune to have a very knowledgeable local historian, Brian Green, who has written a number of books about the area when he’s not busy running the local art shop/ stationers. He gave a talk last weekend at the Dulwich Picture Gallery on Victorian Dulwich, which has changed the way I look at my little world around my house.

I tend to stride purposefully from home to the train station or bus stop and back again or hurry along to the local shops, not noticing much around me other than that I’m in a pleasant leafy suburb. After Brian’s talk and his brilliant collection of photographs ranging from fields and muddy lanes and a few grand Georgian houses (pre-1850s) to horse-and-buggies along the high street (late 1800s) and architectural details of terraced and semi-detached houses (as they are in the present day), I find myself looking at the houses and streets around me as if I were a tourist, ticking off in my head the various points he had highlighted for us. For example: ah, yes, there’s a Florentine style turret. And here’s a Victorian Gothic arch. There’s some Swiss hanging droplets. And some plaster heads and carved foliage - inspired by the Doge’s Palace in Venice.

These details were made available by builders in their catalogues to independent housing speculators looking to make a buck. The speculators developed clusters of houses (with a minimum of 6 houses per site) back in the late 1800s as an economic upturn fuelled a Victorian “buy to let” market. Aimed at the up and coming middle class family, the terraced houses in East Dulwich aspired to grandness within a modest budget.

But the market floundered as uptake of the properties did not meet initial expectations. The reason? Public transport to Dulwich was practically non-existent so the clerks and office workers targetted by the speculators didn’t come in their droves as hoped. It was only some decades later when the commuter railway was built in the wake of the Crystal Palace exhibition complex that this part of South London revived.

These days, we’re still cut off from the tube and it’s a hassle to get to and from London on the trains, with their ever reducing timetables, and on the buses, stuck in traffic endlessly along the Walworth Road. That’s the thing about Dulwich that we moan about - but it is also the thing that keeps this leafy “village” still village-like. So, while the Dulwich of today is home to both the wealthy and not so wealthy, at the end of our long days of slog in the smog-filled city we can still all enjoy feeling as if we’ve retired to the country for the night!

Photo of Lordship Lane: with thanks from ideal-homes.org.uk
Photo of Brian Green and me: my own collection

I love autumn.

After the heat of the summer, the cooling air is so refreshing. But it’s not yet bitterly cold because the energy of the sun absorbed by the earth over the last few months still maintains an underlying warmth so we can wander around in T-shirts but without that feeling of oppressive heat that characterises July and August. We’ve had a couple of fantastic weeks here in London when we’ve been able to bask in the gentle sunlight in the garden without burning to a crisp or gasping for air. But it’s distinctly colder now and you can feel the radiating warmth from the earth slowing dying down.

It’s not just this sense of being air-conditioned while the sun shines that I love. September here in the northern hemisphere is the time for new beginnings - even as the year is waning. It’s the time that the new school year starts and my first experience of September in the UK was coming to London in 1975 to start my first term at a British boarding school. It was all so new and different from Malaysia. I was excited, scared, nervous, curious and full of wonder all at the same time - at this new country, the pale people, the different way of doing things and at the new adventure lying ahead of me. This September mingling of warmth and coolness always reminds me of that time.

And I guess each year, it’s not just the school kids and students who start new adventures in September. This is the time when everyone else also comes back from their summer holidays, refreshed and reinvigorated. The streets of London noticeably fill up again after the summer lull and the traffic is worse - that part of September I really dislike! Projects that have been postponed over the August holiday period get picked up again. There’s a sudden spurt of activity as people catch up with each other.

I often feel energised in the autumn. I’ve started running again - I had been finding it awfully painful trying to keep that up over the summer because of the heat and now, the cool air makes plodding round the park so much more bearable. I’m starting a new book project - which, fingers crossed, if all goes well, will come to something: more on that next week after a meeting that I’m having with my editor at Kogan Page… There’s a round of talks I’m scheduled to give as well as a bunch of social activities with friends. Yes, autumn is the time of new beginnings.

I’m struck by how the changing seasons really influences the way we mark time here in the temperate zone. The financial year is marked out in quarters and the legal marker dates for leases and quarterly payments fall on traditional feast days that celebrated each distinct season. When planning medium to long term projects in the business world, there seems to me a natural tendency to think in three month chunks. In our daily lives, we look forward to or plan for Christmas, Easter, the school holidays in July and the time when people are back from their holidays in September. We notice the winds and rain or storms during the “in between” seasons of autumn and spring. We grumble about the rain in winter - and also the rain in summer. We look back at our lives in seasons - “I remember around Easter last year…” or “Aaah, the summer of 1976…” (famous for its long heatwave).

I’ve never lived in Malaysia as an adult although I grew up there - it’s on the equator and has a warm tropical climate year round. I’ve also never lived in a place like California where there seems to be perpetual sunshine and an even temperature. I wonder how I would mark time if I were to migrate there? How would I remember my past if it all looks and feels like one season? Would I miss the variety of having a different ambient world every three months - and the opportunity to have a change of wardrobe every few months? Or would I just embrace the year round sameness and be glad that I were no longer in rainy London?

Photo: thanks to hichako from flickr.com (CCL)