This is the latest artwork on The Line, the meridian-adjacent sculpture trail between Stratford and Greenwich. It's attached to the back wall of Three Mills Studios and is called Dreams Are a Language Made of Images. The artist is Zineb Sedira and the text is based on a quote from the Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. It says DREAMS ARE A LANGUAGE MADE OF IMAGES. IN CINEMA, EVERY OBJECT AND LIGHT MEANS SOMETHING, AS IN A DREAM if you can't be bothered to click on it. Apparently the work 'encourages reflection about the interrelationship between dreams and cinema, here with the added element of the river', although I just thought the aluminium letters looked pretty with the sun on them at that angle.
I see a lot of these little key boxes stuck to the wall outside blocks of flats, all with combination locks or push-button pads. I've never seen so many as here, though, on a block of flats in the middle of Thornton Heath. Why do people do this, why don't they just carry keys? Or are these spare keys, or for Airbnbs, or something HMO-related? And isn't this risky too, I mean I could stand outside on the pavement and try several codes, and if I did it enough times over enough weeks I could eventually break into your flat. You've even labelled the flat number for me, cheers!
They've done up the Octagon Building in New Addington, the first thing you see as you get off the tram, with jaunty green paint and a digital sign and a really rather good local map. But why, I wondered? Turns out it's a project funded from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, a levelling-up cash-pot established by the previous government in 2022. Croydon council received funding for projects here and in Thornton Heath, Selsdon and Purley. In New Addington they also refurbished the market square stage and created some new lamppost banners, and it certainly brightens the place up but I guess half a million doesn't go very far.
There are a lot of these revamped See It Say It Sorted adverts cropping up everywhere, a new blue-background series encouraging you to clock suspicious behaviour amongst your fellow passengers. The usual dodgy suitcase stuff (THAT LOOKS A BIT ODD), skulking doors (ARE THEY GOING SOMEWHERE THEY SHOULDN'T?) and lurking ne'erdowells (ARE THEY AVOIDING THE AUTHORITIES?). In this case the exhortation is to query WHY HAVE THEY BEEN HANGING AROUND FOR SO LONG?, something which could have a perfectly innocent explanation. I find it sad that they're suggesting alerting the authorities, especially when someone's hugely more likely to be waiting for something rather than an evil terrorist. Also if you've noticed that someone's been hanging around for a long time then you probably have too, so just turn yourself in and be done with it.
This looks nice, except it's in Beckton so how can it be? Beckton Park doesn't have the greatest of reputations, a lot of blank grass with occasional pylons and a rat infestation at the northern end. But this is the southeastern corner, just opposite the DLR station, and it's had a full-on glow-up over the last couple of years. It now has two acres of wildflower meadow, currently roped off so it's pristine next month, also a path across the middle called the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Pathway. They had to get the Palace's permission to call it that. It's a bit worthy (they've planted 7 red oak trees, one for each decade of the Queen's reign, also a Dutch Elm 'demonstrating resilience and strength'). But it is a splendid improvement on before, for which we thank the Beckton Parks Masterplan, the Mayor of London's Rewild London Fund and the University of East London Sustainability Research Institute.
This is the new extension to the ExCel exhibition centre in the Royal Docks, recently opened. They built it across a former car park, this because multi-storey exhibition halls and conference suites are more valuable than windswept parking spaces. It's vast and generally empty, more full of bored-looking security guards than people, and also a dead end so you can't walk through it like the rest of the complex without looking a bit suspicious. But it's also very swish, with banks of escalators up and banks of escalators down, so you may one day find yourself here when attending a commercial gathering or while dressed as Darth Vader.
