I think I’ve written about what I call the urban palimpsest on here before. I find it absolutely fascinating how, amid all the regeneration happening everywhere in London, you can still find fragments of the past. Earlier today, for example, I thought I would go down to Woolwich for my usual trundle. Woolwich is an area which is developing fast, and these days I head that way quite often to get on the Elizabeth Line. Today, however, I wasn’t in much of a hurry, so I decided to do a little exploring.

Turning left off the road from Charlton, I headed down a street I’d never been down before. Of course when I was living with Lyn I got to know that area quite well; yet it is labrynthine enough that there are still some places I don’t know. I found myself going past what looked to me like seventeenth or eighteenth century walls. That area was once a massive military base for the Royal Artillery: much of it has now been converted into housing, but I really like how you can still find fragments of what was here before. The walls and gates I had stumbled upon were still highly ornate, bearing royal and military insignia, as if they evoked a long faded prestige. My guess is that there were some quite important or high status buildings there, long swept away to make way for houses. To be honest I found it rather amazing, as if I had come across some decaying artefact of a long forgotten past. There was certainly still beauty in what I had found; yet down that underused side street in Woolwich, I doubt many people would even know it’s there.