The Mudchute was originally created during the 19th century. The spoil from the construction of the Millwall Dock was dumped onto near by land. Later, when the dock was completed a clinker embankment was built round the dumping site and the silt, which had accumulated in the dock, was pumped in. The spoil and silt together formed an area local referred to as ‘The Mudchute’.
With time a wild habitat developed and this became a magnet for local youngsters to explore, even though the public were not officially allowed access to the land.

The Mudchute Park and Farm is 32 acres in total

Mudchute Park and farm is an area of "Herb rich grassland".

Designated a site of Metropolitan Importance for nature conservation by the London Ecology Unit

Bofors anti aircraft gun similar to the one at Mudchute Park. The area was a gun emplacement during World War Two.

Borehole made at 50 Westferry Road in 2007.
Shows made ground covering 1.50 metres clay and silt.
Below this is 2.40 metres of brown peat.

This indicates that in a drier warmer period 6,000 to 3,000 years before present the area was forested. after this time the weather became cooler and wetter and the area was probably under water and being covered by silt. (Late Holocene rise in sea level)

More recently (2009) boreholes have been made in Mudchute Park and showed high levels of arsenic and lead were present.

Monk Parakeets have been at Mudchute for a few years. Originally from South America. Discreet populations occur in Europe and North America, due to milder winters.

Old maps of the area

Locating the Omphalos

I have scanned in the map showing the circle off the East Ferry Road. The blue diagonal line is the ley line going from Greenwich Park and up towards Queen Mary University site!

What is this?

Left from the WW2 gun emplacement area. Has more recently been used to house animals on the farm.

Canary Wharf looming over Mudchute allotments

Latest immigrants to the Isle of Dogs.
Monk Parakeets on a communal nest, which they have fashioned with twigs cut using their secateur like bills.

4 go to Mudchute

Shots from our first foray into Mudchute. Cold and grey!

Images of the area

Thinking about psychogeography,we have been considering the idea of mapping the area and have been looking at contemporary ideas such as those of Guy DeBord 'The naked city' and Keith Coventry 'Route taken by 10,000 English fans through Spain during the 1982 World cup'.

e-mail 21.03.11

Hi you poor invalids,
I hope you are both feeling better.

Tracy and I didn't have time to discuss much about the project today. The presentations start at 2.00 next Monday in the lecture room and we have to present to the whole group! So we are hoping if you are both better by the end of the week that we might get together over lunch on Friday?? In the meantime we are aiming to saturate the blog so if you two have anything to post please do. Neda can you manage something on the history before you go away? I've just posted a report on last week's tutorial so we need to pick up on some of those points. We think that coming up with a narrative for our project is probably the next step before we agree a format. I'll try to sketch some ideas and post them but if you have any other ideas please post them too. We probably should communicate entirely via the blog from now on.

We (Tracy, Irene and me) probably also need to meet next Monday before the presentations. Irene and i have tutorials with Neil so we can confirm when we get the timetable from Neil.

Virginia

John Dee

Here are some links to the John Dee story. Judge for yourself!

This is the one with the pictures and the ley lines: http://www.zenatode.org.uk/ian/misc/omphalos.xhtml

http://dangerstreet.co.uk/?page_id=512

http://dev.null.org/psychoceramics/archives/1998.02/msg00010.html

Tutorial 14th March - Report

Tutor: Brigid Crone

Our project is based on psycho-geography. We have all read Psychogeography by Merlin Coverley.

Our topic is Mudchute on the Isle of Dogs.
We have several strands which we are following up individually:
Tracy - has collected found objects both from our group walk around Mudchute and on forays in the area since. Photographs of these are being posted on the blog. She is also investigating the social history of the area.
Irene - is interested in the geology of the site. She has posted a diagram of the sedimentary layers of the place and also maps showing the IOD history.
Virginia - is pursuing the (probably apocryphal) legend that John Dee conjured up the British Empire at the ompholos at Mudchute where it intersects with ley lines.
Neda - is researching the industrial history of Mudchute and the IOD

We have several ideas for an artwork but have not settled on any one yet. Elements might include:

1. A narrative of our walk/s around Mudchute. Could include fictional elements.
2. A large map on the floor or on a table on which we place pictures, diagrams, objects (or photos)
3. A series of maps, possibly in layers to reflect the history
4. A cabinet of curiosities to display the objects
5. A video or a photomontage of our trip.
6. A cartoon strip of the John Dee story
7. A glass bottle or tube containing the sediment layers

We discussed these ideas. Brigid questioned how the cabinet would work with the rest and whether the objects would be homogeneous enough to fit in. Might photos work just as well and be more flexible for presentation.
We then discussed the potential for a kind of artist's book as a means of presenting all or most of the story. large format? concertina?

Next steps:
We agreed to explore the book idea in addition to our other ideas.
At the same time we need to agree a narrative to tie all the elements together whichever means of presentation we use.
In the mean time we would continue to research our various strands.

Some of the artefacts that have been collected.

Isle of Dogs Geology

Action plan

Hi everyone, it was a great meeting on Monday. thanks to all. We discussed: psychogeography in relation to Mudchute - creating a map either collaging, combining drawing and print (enlarging a photocopy?); collecting artifacts and objects. for aerial photographs look up www.jasonhawkins.com. We thought we should have a combination of :
*Stories - these could be: the black-magic/Nazi/Charles Dickens/etc... angel
*writeups
*Objects
*geology/archeology/ecology

Action plan:
Virginia: look into Black-magic and other stories
Tracy: collecting artifacts
Irene: geology.ecology
Neda: history of the Island

Agriculture and commerce .1/3/2011

Mudchute and the omphalos

Fascinating trip to the Isle of Dogs yesterday. Thanks Tracy.

I've been chasing up the references to John Dee conjuring up the British Empire on the spot where the fort is, mentioned by Coverley. It all comes from Stewart Home who is into the occult but also a known prankster. The quote also references Derek Beackon who was a notorious BNP leader in the eighties. Basically there is supposed to be a ley line running from Greenwich through Mudchute and up through the city that channels force sof evil. It's been taken up by a whole raft of freaky fascist types as well as occultists who follow the satanist Alistair Crowley . I can find no evidence that the fort actually exists, let alone the omphalos, though we can ask the Island History people when we go. I still think we might have some fun with it in our presentation. I love the idea of John Dee and Christopher Marlowe conjuring visions.

Here is a link to the maps of the Isle of Dogs from mid 18th c 'til now.
http://www.mernick.org.uk/elhs/maps/maps3.htm

Irene

off to experience "psychogeography" - a bit of urban drifting!

Island history trust

Here are the details http://www.islandhistory.org.uk/

The people that work there aer very helpful and i have just noticed that there is an open day arranged there soon.