It's not what you'd expect to find on a street corner in Bermondsey (specifically the corner of Page's Walk and Mandela Way, SE1).
This is Stompie Garden, home to a genuine Soviet T-34 tank installed by a local resident with a grudge against the council. The tank was built in Czechoslovakia in 1953 and probably saw action on the streets during the Prague Spring uprising of 1968. Following the fall of the Iron Curtain it found its way over to England as a film prop, specifically facing off against Ian McKellen within the ruins of Battersea Power Station during the film Richard III. Shortly afterwards it was bought by Page's Walk resident Russell Grey for £7000, splashing out on an extra-large birthday present for his son.
Russell had previously been refused planning permission for this vacant plot, so got his own back by submitting a request to install "a tank" instead. Southwark council supposedly assumed it would be a metal container holding some kind of liquid, so granted approval, and were then shocked when it turned out to be an armoured vehicle. It's been here since 1995, initially with its gun barrel pointing towards council headquarters but no longer quite so vengefully aligned.
Over the years Russell has been happy for artists to give the tank a makeover so it spent a considerable time being pink, while its latest colourful coat replaces an all-blue tribute to the NHS. He also gave it the nickname Stompie as a tribute to the teenager murdered by Winnie Mandela's bodyguards in 1998, hence the corner plot is now known as Stompie Garden. Originally the garden was sealed off but recently one of the fences has been removed and a public open space created complete with picnic table, bark chippings and a couple of flower beds. It's all very pleasant, but not what you'd expect to find on a street corner in Bermondsey.
