Waterscapes (35 mins)
Location: Maribor Park and the River Thames
Transcript
[music]
This is the Woolwich Wandering podcast, a series of sensory sketches inviting listeners into the vibrant and complex world of Woolwich, a place in South-East London that I call home.
I am Lizzie Fort, community dance artist and researcher, and a resident of Woolwich since 2016.
In each episode, listeners join me on foot as I move, dwell and feel my way through the built and natural environments.
These are dispatches from a community in flux. Where public land and privately owned public space ambiguously merge.
A battleground where efforts to protect the soul and character of a place rub alongside agendas for the future.
OK, let’s get into this episode.
[music fades out]
—
[sounds of running water]
This sensory sketch is about public water spaces.
It is in two parts.
First, I follow a human made water feature that is part of Maribor Park on the Royal Arsenal Riverside. Starting at the source by historic Brass Foundry wall, I journey across stepping stones, through green spaces, encounter CCTV, high rise buildings and gentle waterfalls towards a playful water fountain by the Thames Path. The second part focuses on the River Thames and features four local women talking about their relationship with the river.
This sketch reveals how water is seductive, playful, and calming. How water is an important feature of public space and has been carefully designed into the privately owned public space by Berkeley Homes to create a strong connection to the river. While the invitations to rest and play are welcomed on my journey, there are questions around how long people can stay when public amenities such as toilets and water fountains are missing. My body is drawn to the river not only through the design of Maribor Park, but also through the stories of the women I spoke to during the Woolwich Wandering project.
—
[sounds of faint voices and footsteps, male voice talking to a child about the algae in the water].
[sound of flowing, running water, faint traffic noises in the background]
[Lizzie] So I am sat by a beautifully, human made water feature at the top of Maribor park. It’s the start of a really carefully put together design piece that is water and green space based, that runs all the way down to the river. This top end is by the Brass Foundry wall that was built in 1717. I am sat on a bench, under a tree. Its nice and cool on a hot sunny day. There are a few lads sat around with their bikes. There’s a dad and a little boy playing in the water. There is a gentle breeze. And the grasses that are planted are bobbing in the wind.
[sound of child’s voice and water, sound of teenage boys talking]
[faint sound of traffic noise behind the water sounds]
You kind of know the road is there behind you but somehow this place cocoons you for a little while.
And just literally a stone’s throw across the way are people’s houses. Its one of the new residential blocks built on the development by Berkeley Homes
There is a little bit of signage on the fence that just asks you to keep the noise down, to respect the residents that live here.
[sound of dad’s voice playing with his son]
Another sign hidden in the bushes that tells you that the water is treated, safe to play in but not to drink.
[sound of running water]
Its a really nice playful, shady, comfortable space. You can hop down the stepping stones, take your shoes and socks off, cool down in the water, enjoy a picnic, lie down on the benches.
[sound of water]
[inhale exhale sigh]
[sound of water, motorbike growling in background, teenage boys voices]
And as I am sat here I can tell I am being watched. There is a very obvious CCTV on a couple of posts. Surveillance and security are, I guess, somewhat gentle, the human presence is gentle. I have only ever seen a couple of the security people walking round, never had any problems. But knowing the cameras are there does make you think twice, or question or second guess what you are doing, how you are doing it, where you are doing it.
[sound on sirens in background]
[Child’s voice] “its that a little bit of water bit”
[Dad’s voice] “That’s its and here because two streams are coming together, even more water comes along. Those two stones right in front of you, to your right bubba. See those two stones, that is where the current is strongest.”
[sound of water flowing]
[Lizzie] I came here with a group of local residents in 2022. And we spent quite a while here. It was a really sunny day. There was a bottle and a cap on the floor that we popped in the bin but other than that it was really clean and tidy, and beautiful. We lay down on the benches, skipped over the stepping stones, it was a nice little break in our slow wander together that lasted just over two hours.
[sound of male teenage voices in the background and traffic]
[mum of the child playing arrives and says, “ooo it is chilly”]
[sounds of water flowing]
This is where the water escapes under the ground.
[sounds of seagulls]
And I am going to take a wander as I guess and follow where the water goes and re-emerges further down in the park. And hopefully you will join me there.
[sounds of Lizzie walking]
So as you leave the Brass Foundry wall the park continues across a quiet road onto another green space that opens out into the high rise buildings that have been built on this development.
[sound of sirens in the background]
The new builds are built round some of the older listed buildings that have also been converted into residences.
There are lots of nice things planted; shrubs, flowers, trees. Someone sat in the tree shade. A couple of girls sat on the bench chatting. You can hear the wirr of the road in the background. But it is much calmer, open and green.
And then there is the high rise buildings
[sound of wind and water trickling]
There is a cut through between two of the blocks where there is a small step by step waterfall where some of the water reappears… works its way down a granite, mosaic of grey, white, and black tiles. Finishing with three boulders. And I can see the Thames. Its almost like the park is drawing you gradually down the river through the waterscape.
[sound of wind and trickling water]
Its like a little wind tunnel in here. Its nice and cool on this hot day.
There are lots of places to sit, relax, enjoy nature, watch the butterflies, socialise.
[sounds of seagulls]
And then on a bigger scale just further along in-between two really tall buildings is a playful space. The stepping stones continue down a human made river with water flowing down to an open fountain space where kids are playing. Families are picnicing, people are working, snoozing, on their phones. It’s a very seductive place. It’s a very playful place.
[sound of music in the background – Max Romeo’s Chase The Devil (1976)]
I am gonna hope along the stepping stones all the way down and hopefully not get wet.
[sounds of breath as Lizzie jumps from one stepping stone to another]
[sounds of water flowing and music in background]
[sounds of voices in conversation, laughing, water]
[Female voice] “are you recording the sound, right?”
[Lizzie] “yeah just recording the sound.”
[Female voice] “Oh we will stop talking.”
[Lizzie] “Oh its alright you carry on.” [laughs]
[Male voice] “I hope you didn’t record my naughty conversation…naughty stuff”
[laughter]
[Lizzie] “I was so engrossed in the water. I will listen back to it and if there are any rude words I will make sure I cut them out.”
[laughter]
[Male voice] “You don’t wanna hear what I said.”
[laughter]
[Male voice] “The water sound is nice as well I listen to it on YouTube when I want to sleep.”
[Female voice] “I didn’t know. I have been in Woolwich over ten years and I didn’t know.” (referring to the park she is sitting in)
[Lizzie] “This is the first time you have been here today?”
[Male voice] “Yeah I said ‘come let’s explore’.”
[sounds of water flowing]
[Child’s voice] “when you get onto the next ground, then you step on that grey”
[sounds of children playing and chatting]
[Lizzie] So I am now sat down where the fountains are right on the Thames path.
[sounds of the fountains, whooping and shouting from the children playing]
There are cyclists whizzing by, there are kids playing in the water. The Yoga Space has opened a studio and a café with river views right next to where this playful water feature is.
From this vantage point you can see the planes flying in and out of London City Airport which is just over the water.
[sound of airplane taking off, and wind noises]
You can see the two sides of the River Thames where the free passenger and car ferry takes people back and forth.
[sounds of male voices talking]
Maribor Park is a public space on private land, that leads to a public walkway the Thames Path.
[sounds of seagulls]
This journey has followed its human made waterscape from its source by the Brass Foundry, through a patchwork of new high rises, listed heritage buildings, manicured green spaces, towards a cascade of steppingstones that lead pedestrians playfully into the water fountains.
[sounds of banging and building work]
It is clean and well maintained with CCTV surveillance. There are many invitations to rest here. Except, there are no public facilities for drinking water or going to the toilet. I either need to go into the Yoga Space, or walk along to Woolwich Works, or one of the pubs or cafes to go to the loo. This means spending money, or being brazen and hoping they don’t notice.
While my time here may be limited by how long I can hold my bladder, it does offer some respite from the busyness of the town centre for a little while at least.
And like most places in Woolwich, as I sit by the river I am caught in a contradictory tangle of old and new, global languages, sounds of the social, the traffic and the industrial mixing into an aesthetic of ambiguity, the rapid regeneration projects keeping me on my toes as I navigate this complex place I call home.
[sounds of water lapping at the shore line, building work and machinery]
And drawn in by the water scape of Maribor I am now trying to get as close to the river as I can.
[sounds of building work overhead, and water lapping on the shore]
I have managed to get right up close to the water’s edge by walking down Warren Lane Stairs that were previously part of Warren Lane. The layers of London website tells me that there used to be a public draw dock and a ferry here at the bottom of these steps, that ran across the river to Barge House on the north bank. And the layers of London website says that this closed when the free Woolwich Ferry opened which I believe was in about 18891.
[sounds of water lapping on shore line, machines making high pitched noises, and banging]
Just round the corner from Warren Lane Steps, behind the Water Front Leisure Centre, is a concrete, curve shaped bench, facing north east. The bench is raised on a stepped platform for the river views. The eye can imagine the Thames on its way to Erith, Dartford and Gravesend and out to the sea. When I sit here I am reminded about what local people have told me about why they love the river and the Thames Path. Their Covid pandemic lockdown stories about needing the open air and the open space – where the river path became a sanctuary, a place of escapism, a place to walk, run and row, to go mudlarking for hidden treasures.
[sounds of water lapping on the shoreline]
[Bianca] “The main attraction is the river. Its just like living by the ocean and you can take the boat to anywhere, you know?”
[sounds of water lapping on the shoreline]
[Kate] “I think it took a really hot day where I was literally like I cannot bear getting on the tube and I suddenly thought ‘oooh I don’t have to I can get the river boat all the way home’. Umm and that just felt glorious. It felt like a mini holiday being able to see the whole city from the river and you arrive at Woolwich its just so lovely and I would maybe hang round the water for a bit coz It feels so…I love being by the water anyway because it always feels like a departure point for something. Its a bit like, this is really weird analogy but you do cooking and you fry onions and it always feels like that smell of potential because it’s the start to so many cuisines. I kind of feel water is the same it’s the start to so many things.”
[sounds of bigger waves crashing on the shore line]
[Lizzie] Kate’s analogy of the water being a departure point for something really resonated with me. I was reminded of one of my favour places growing up. It’s a beach three miles from where my parents live on the south coast. Its called Lepe beach. As a teenager it was somewhere I went if I needed some time to myself to think or to daydream. The wide expanse of the sea that looks out onto the Isle of Wight. The fresh salty air on my face was refreshing and calming all at once. Here being by the water allowed me to journey into my imagination, even for just a little while, which is something Bianca talked about too.
[Bianca] This is not London. It feels like you know you are in uh, I don’t know, a sea resort or something like that. [laughter] I mean just hearing the seagulls all the time, its like I am feeling I am by the sea. [laughter] Its like ‘where am I actually, you know?’ I come from a large city in Romania, which was by the river as well. It’s called Klos. It’s in Transylvania. So I was born in a very cultural city by the river. So I’m used to having some water (laughs) in my city. And then my grandmother used to live in a village where there were like five lakes and we always had water around us. And then I moved to Spain and lived like almost in front of the sea. So I lived by the Mediterranean Sea as well. I think I always liked spaces that have a bit of water, and green space. It feels like you actually can be anywhere just looking at all the parks and just closing your eyes and just seeing the ships and the river, it feels like you can escape, the, how do you say, the crowdedness that comes with the city kind of a thing. So it’s not like you’re stuck indoors, but in a way, it’s like, there is nature just in front of you. And you know, you can, with a few steps, you’re there. And my building is oriented towards the river. So each time I work, I can just do like this [moves head round] and see the ships, and I feel like I am anywhere I can think of in the world, the river and some ships. I could be in Bangkok, I can be anywhere, actually, you know. So I think I really love places that gives you an opportunity to dream about and probably is because I’m always dreaming and creating worlds.”
[sounds of waves crashing on the shore line]
[Lizzie] The river Thames not only seems to enable people to find joy in its fresh, open air to escape into their imaginations, it also evokes strong connections to home.
In her journal for the Woolwich Wandering project, Sofia wrote about her connection to the river. She is from a place called Galati, which is the largest port on the River Danube and grew up in a block of flats that’s just by the river bank. And at the time it was something that she took for granted an it wasn’t until later in life she became aware of how connected she was to the river and she wrote in her journal,
[Sofia] “I’ll never forget the moment I truly connected to the Thames, same as I used to back home. I was walking round Central London with a Uni friend. From St Pauls we started to walk towards the river and once we got there I saw there were steps to go down, because it was low tide. At that moment felt like everything stood still. It was just me, and the river. I could smell it. That murky smell, not so pleasant – but oh how it reminded me of my Danube. And that’s it. That’s how I knew I can call London home because I had the Thames river now.”
[Lizzie] And when we spoke about this extract from her journal in a later conversation she expanded on these definitions of home.
[Sofia] That moment where I got really close to the Thames, and, that smell evoked memories of the Danube, that was a bit of urm, may be more of a home sick feel that reminded me of back home. Whereas now how I would describe feeling at home here in this place Woolwich is, this is my home its different to where I come from; two different types of home (laughs). This is more of the place where I made it my home. It’s a bit like, um, the Little Prince and his fox that he tamed. So, I feel liked I tamed London and now we have a connection (laughs). Whereas the home where I come from, that was just the circumstance; I got given that home. Where as this one I made it my home.”
[sounds of water lapping on the shoreline]
[Lizzie] What is striking and heart warming about Sofia’s relationship with the River Thames and with Woolwich is how much of an advocate she is for this place. Not only has she tamed London to call it home, she has tamed Woolwich too. She has made such an effort to explore Woolwich in her spare time, to be one of its biggest cheerleaders despite some of the less flattering tropes that appear on social media platforms. Yes, Woolwich has its problems, as most urban places do. But for Sofia, her journey to living in Woolwich is one of social mobility. From modest beginnings in Romania, she moved to London aged 18 to study at university. Full of dreams but unable to afford a coffee with her university friends because it would mean less food for the week. Now she acknowledges how privileged she is to have been able to work and save to buy her first home in Woolwich, which she describes as ‘the biggest achievement of her life.’
[sounds of water lapping on shore line]
Kate also moved to Woolwich because it was somewhere affordable and near the river.
[Kate] When I moved to London, it was really a conscious choice that I had to live somewhere near-ish the Thames. That’s why the city’s here right, that’s the whole point. I chose to live in Woolwich because its basically its near the Thames and I afford to live here because its not posh. So when I commuted back into Woolwich that has always been like, the key thing is being by the water, and seeing the birds over the water, seeing the river traffic, sometimes doing a bit of mudlarking and just being near that space and feeling that kind of…there is a kind of temperature and a kind of fresh air to being near the water that feels really cleansing and lovely. And Woolwich is quite rough but it does have that. Its still got that sense of open space because obviously there are no buildings on the Thames, there can’t be, so you have got that space, that breathing space, even though you are somewhere really urban. [ check edits]
[Lizzie] Open space within urban environments was something that a lot of people craved during the Covid pandemic, when the social distancing restrictions limited us to one hour a day of exercise. Many local people, like Lucy, took to the River Path as an antidote to the confines of their home…
[Lucy] We got into the habit of doing, kind of, all the way to the O2 and back, which is like 10k or something and the other way into Woolwich. I think it was really nice to see a wide expanse of space as well and feeling so entrapped at least it felt when you were there it feels a lot more open a different landscape. You are not surrounded by streets or houses so yeah so it just feels very different from going for a walk in the park.
[Lizzie] there is a viewing platform along the Thames path its right behind the Clockhouse Community Centre and it is the shape of a boat so you can stand at the front of this viewing platform. It’s a little bit like a scene out of Titanic if you can imagine Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet stood at the front of the boat with their arms out pretending to fly. You can kind of re-enact that scene on this platform (laughs). I was up there with a group of local people in September 2022 and what was really amazing was as soon as we got onto the Thames path everybody’s faces lit up really, and Patreace talked about it being one of her favourite places to walk rest and take photos with family and friends. And the conversation was really animated. The women we were with started talking about all of the different noises that the factory made. Patricia started saying ‘clang clang clang’ talking about when the boats are loading things from the factory. And someone else starting going “shhhhhhhhhhhhhhttt” to echo the industrial sounds. And they started reminiscing about the smell of molasses and Lesley remembered the pungent smells that wafted from what was the Castle and Knight soap factory. And they used to make soap from bones and she said that on a warm windy day the smell was just really, really disgusting, it was really awful. And so it was just a really lovely moment of sharing stories and being a bit nostalgic.
[sounds of water lapping on the shoreline, and machinery and building work]
My wanderings and conversations with local people in Woolwich strongly indicate that the presence of water in public space is important. Water spaces, The River Thames and the Thames Path are social, open places for time with others and time alone. Water is a mode of transport, a place to play and a place to escape. As I finish making this sound sketch, Beresford Square in Woolwich Town centre is being regenerated to include a water feature, trees, planting and a new seating area.
Once complete, people will be able to take a water themed journey from Woolwich Beach in General Gordon Square, through Beresford Square, over the A206 main road to Maribor Park, and then wander down to the Thames Path. This journey helps to rebuild the connection between the town centre and the riverside.
[sounds of the water fountains and children playing, whooping, shouting]
[sounds of water lapping on the River Thames shoreline]
—
[music fades in]
The final episode takes a different approach. I discuss two underpasses that cross under the A206 dual carriageway, as examples of the poor connections from one side of the road to the other. This episode is recorded at home, since spending time recording in the underpasses was not safe.
For more information on the Woolwich Wandering project or to contact Lizzie directly with comments, responses and suggestions, visit www.woolwichwandering.com
All resources that have informed the making of the sensory sketches can be found in the show notes.
Thanks for listening.
—
Show notes
This podcast was created, recorded, and produced by Lizzie between August and December 2023.
With thanks to the research companions who contributed their voices to this podcast, Bianca, Lucy, Kate and Sofia. And to those companions whose stories from our walk together are included: Lesley, Patreace and Patricia. Research companion reflections and contributions are included with consent.
Music – ‘In the City’ by Oleksii Kaplunskyi from Pixabay https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/
Sources consulted
- Streets, E. (no date) Ship and Half Moon Lane, Layers of London. Available at: https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/contribute/user/4372 (Accessed: 8 February 2024).
woolwich wandering 