Glenister Green Revisited (well - sort of...)
A few months ago I was convinced that Glenister Green - the dull bit of land in between the old folks homes and Mister Fast Fry on Woolwich Road - was actually a cheap holographic image created to cover the tracks of an alien space ship, and that any unsuspecting fool who set foot within those sinister gates would be swallowed up and experimented on (see "Open Spaces")in horrifc fashion.
There is still something very sinister about this scrap of land, especially at night, when although completely visible from the road, the lonely pools of light and the paths that lead round and round lend it an otherworldly atmosphere. I won't go on about all that again - but I have, in the past couple of weeks, noticed that it's not quite as horrid as it has been.
Leaves on the trees have made a big difference, of course, but some man-made improvements have helped too. The mural that used to be outside the hospital has been spruced up (though the tiles are still too far apart, making it look like it used to be somewhere else...) and it now has a plaque (not that I've actually looked at it of course - I'm still not actually setting foot in there. The aliens still loom large in my imagination.) The grass (well, weeds, but it's all green, isn't it) gets the occasional cut and some of the low shrubs that were planted when the place got its 'redesign' have bushed out a bit. It's not enhanced by the giant monstrosity that is the extension of Mister Fast Fry - easily the same size again as the original building and the most uninspired design imaginable, but that's a Planning thing, not Parks.
The biggest difference is that I have actually seen people in there. Granted it's nearly always slack-jawed teenagers loitering round the bins, who have kindly added some enhancements of their own in the form of art-free grafitti but it is Life. And that encourages me. Unless, of course, the aliens have invented a cunning patch for their hologram program that populates their creepy dimensional timeshift gate thingy...
There is still something very sinister about this scrap of land, especially at night, when although completely visible from the road, the lonely pools of light and the paths that lead round and round lend it an otherworldly atmosphere. I won't go on about all that again - but I have, in the past couple of weeks, noticed that it's not quite as horrid as it has been.
Leaves on the trees have made a big difference, of course, but some man-made improvements have helped too. The mural that used to be outside the hospital has been spruced up (though the tiles are still too far apart, making it look like it used to be somewhere else...) and it now has a plaque (not that I've actually looked at it of course - I'm still not actually setting foot in there. The aliens still loom large in my imagination.) The grass (well, weeds, but it's all green, isn't it) gets the occasional cut and some of the low shrubs that were planted when the place got its 'redesign' have bushed out a bit. It's not enhanced by the giant monstrosity that is the extension of Mister Fast Fry - easily the same size again as the original building and the most uninspired design imaginable, but that's a Planning thing, not Parks.
The biggest difference is that I have actually seen people in there. Granted it's nearly always slack-jawed teenagers loitering round the bins, who have kindly added some enhancements of their own in the form of art-free grafitti but it is Life. And that encourages me. Unless, of course, the aliens have invented a cunning patch for their hologram program that populates their creepy dimensional timeshift gate thingy...
Labels: Green Greenwich, Open Spaces
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
08:40
5 Comments:
I only noticed that rotten old mural the other day - how long as it been there for? Looks like it's been dumped there.
I'd say at least a year. I don't have any real objection to it - after all GG is hardly going to suffer by its presence but I do wish that they'd put smaller gaps between the tiles - it looks messy.
I have passed Glenister Gardens countless, untold times, so thanks Phantom for actually encouraging me to boldly go...
If you make your way over to the far side there is quite a pleasing view of the main road through the trees. Seating and a hard paved area in the middle provides a place to sit and hang out- which is just about what passes for a youth club in these unfriendly times- so I'm not surprised that The Phantom has observed young people knocking about here. Perhaps the proximity of the road means that you wouldn't want to go and eat your lunchtime sandwich there (although I did think about it) but there are far, far worse places. Incidentally, the fish and chips from Mr Fast Fry are excellent and the friendly staff are only too happy to batter and cook a fresh piece of plaice for you if you are prepared to wait ten minutes or so.
The 'rotten old mural' is actually a mosaic. A bright new stainless steel plaque reveals that it was commissioned for Greenwich District Hospital in 1974. Created by artist and sculptor, Phillipa Threlfall, it consists of 60 concrete panels decorated with glazed and unglazed ceramics and beach pebbles. Its theme is people who have used the river at Greenwich throughout the ages. It was dismantled and moved to the present site, following the demolition of GDH in 2006. Minor repairs were undertaken by the artist, herself, in early 2007 (not bad being asked to return to tart up a piece of your work 33 years later). I’ve never been over-keen on the mosaic but it is much better than nothing.
I can reassure The Phantom that there was no sign of extra-terrestrial activity, although there was a large and friendly Alsatian dog in residence when I visited.
I had a proper look at it tonight. That (rotten old) mosaic looks worse there than it did on the side of GDH.
And it won't get appreciated there, because it's always been a dog-shit green. And despite opening it up to Woolwich Road, it still looked like a dog-shit green.
Fish and chips for me from Mr Fast Fry last night (not quite Olley's of Herne Hill but excellent nonetheless).
Glenister Gardens was well-lit, looked reasonably well cared for and was strangely inviting, despite it being a dark, mid-October evening.
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