Mick Hartley

Politics and Culture

South of the River

April 22, 2009

As regular readers of this blog will be aware, it's spring.

Continuing with my mission to provide a link with the outside world for those too busy to check on it themselves, I'd go further and say, not only is it spring, but it's a very fine spring. A very fine spring indeed. So fine that today could have been June rather than April. Yes, we had rain last week, but that's all to the good: keeps things green.

So, today, I went down to Kew Gardens:

It was, not unexpectedly, full of spring-y scenes. A little girl collecting fallen petals:

Azaleas in bloom:

Bluebells:

Trees, of course:

And ducklings:

More exotic birds, too. I came on this tense scene:

What's the story? Maybe this fella, guiltily skulking off into the undergrowth, knew more than he was letting on:

A few more Kew shots to round off:

And that's about it. I imagine it'll be back to inner city dereliction on my next excursion.

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9 responses to “South of the River”

Noga

April 23, 2009

I was wondering about this fascination with “inner city dereliction”. It’s a romantic inclination, isn’t it?

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Fabian from Israel

April 23, 2009

Hi Mick, beautiful pictures, especially the bluebells.
I have a question, if it is not a problem to answer: Is there any difference between North and South of the river in London? For example, North is richer, South is poorer, North is more industrial, south is more residential, etc?

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Mick H

April 23, 2009

Noga – yes I suppose so. Not sure to be honest. I’ll think about that one.
Fabian – as a generalisation, South London is the poorer relation. It’s a legendary cabbie’s response – “nah mate, sorry, don’t go south of the river this time of night”. The tube – London Underground – is 95% north of the river. It’s seen from the north as a vast neglected hinterland. But of course there are plenty of areas in South London, like Dulwich for instance, just as smart as the Hampsteads and Highgates of North London.

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Nicole S

April 23, 2009

Re bluebells: those look like the lovely proper English ones, which are being displaced or hybridised by the Spanish bluebell, the paler variety that spreads like mad in people’s gardens, with shorter, flatter blooms. The other way you can tell an English bluebell is that the stalk is not upright but bends over at the top. Just thought someone might be interested.

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Mick H

April 23, 2009

I’m interested! Thanks. Yes, I’m sure these are the English bluebells.

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Nicole S

April 23, 2009

Mick: you’re most welcome. By ‘flatter’ I meant ‘fatter’.

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Fabian from Israel

April 23, 2009

Thanks for your answer, Mick.
“The tube – London Underground – is 95% north of the river”
¡But it is London! How come you don’t have the resources?

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Mick H

April 23, 2009

Well….I think there’s something about the clay making tunneling difficult. It’s not like there’s no transport down there though. Plenty of suburban (overground) rail lines, plus buses…

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James Hamilton

April 24, 2009

Yes, the geology of South London is quite different from the North. And whereas the Tube was built to serve existing places in the main, the development of South London came, for the most part, after and as a result of the building of the railways.
Come back in ten years or so, spending cuts permitting, and the imbalance will have been corrected somewhat once current schemes are completed.

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