When I photoed this photo, I’m pretty sure that it was the Big Things in the background that I was thinking about. 22 Bishopsgate, is it? No sign of that. Or of the Scalpel. The Cheesegrater still under construction.
But as for all those people lounging about in the Park, sunning themselves, or meandering about next to the lake, well, that’s not going to change, is it?
Burgess Park, May 2013. Burgess Park is one those London Parks that not everyone has heard of. Or maybe what I mean is I never noticed it until about 2013, when I seem to recall realising that it might be a good way to walk from my place to that of Michael Jennings. I recommend it.
The park was pretty crowded at times in the summer, at times quite rowdily. (People couldn’t go to the pub, so there was lots of people drinking beer in the park). Nothing as carefree as it looks in that photo, though. I’ve done a lot of walking and cycling in Burgess Park this year, as have a lot of people. It’s mostly been more pleasant than doing it in the streets.
Burgess Park isn’t a particularly old park. The Grand Surrey Canal was filled in in the early 1970s, and they used the route of it as the spine of the park, and there is still some canal infrastructure providing decoration in the park. Local politicians at the time had grand plans about how Burgess Park should be to inner South-East London what Victoria Park is to inner North-East London. It was somewhat controversial at the time, as there was a lot of compulsory purchase of people’s homes to make space for it, and the council then ran out of money with large sections of the park unlandscaped, and even with sections of closed but not removed local roads going through it. Every few years Southwark Council manages to get the London or national governments to give them some more money to develop a bit more of it, but it is still a fairly scruffy park. It’s very popular with and much used by locals, though, even if not being terribly well known to people from further afield.
Actually, I recall you telling me in about 2013 that you had been on a photo expedition to Southwark Park in Rotherhithe (which is a Victorian park), and despite the grandness of the name you had found it disappointing. I suggested that you make a visit to Burgess Park, because I thought you might like it. Apparently you did.
(And yes, the most direct walking route from your home to mine goes directly though it, which also provides a reason).