Memorial day - 12

Every Wednesday for the last couple of months, I have posted blogs on memorials and public art works. These are normally prestigious works of art located in prominent locations. Today’s memorial is very different, and is probably the most moving.

A hundred metres south of Waterloo Bridge, London, there is a roundabout at the junction of four roads. To allow access from the South Bank to Waterloo Station there is a warren of underpasses radiating from the roundabout. In the 1970’s, 80s and 90s these underpasses were the site of a large cardboard city; the home for hundreds of homeless, drug addicts and mentally ill patients prematurely discharged from hospitals as part of Margaret Thatcher’s discredited “Care in the community program”. The existence of the homeless squat was an embarrassment for the “well-to-do”, passing men and women sleeping in cardboard boxes, as they made their way to a concert at the Royal Festival Hall, or to watch a play at the National Theatre.

The cardboard city was removed in 1997 to allow an IMAX cinema to be constructed in the centre of the roundabout. The homeless were dispersed, some to hostels, others to find new nooks and crannies to sleep in.

About two years ago, a few started to drift back to the underpasses, to beg for money.

Early this year a very simple memorial was painted on the walkway from the National Theatre.

The words are heart felt and poignant.

YesBut that was the third week of July

One of the joys of being in London during the summer months is the number of free shows that can be seen.

Did I say weather permitting? The weather wasn’t on its best behaviour last Sunday afternoon for the Turkish Fest at Bernie Spain Gardens. For 20 minutes the heavens opened: torrential rain accompanied by thunder and lightening.

For the month of July at the Scoop, More London, near the Tower Bridge, you can relax or swing to music at lunchtimes and in the evenings.

But by far my favourite event is the National Theatre’s free summer festival, "Watch This Space" held in the square adjacent to the Thames. The week before last, there was a very cheeky performance by Te Matarae I Orehu, a troop of the finest Maori dancers from New Zealand.

Last Sunday I was listening to “’Death to America’. Anti-Americanism Examined”, on BBC Radio 4. A member of the Muslim Brotherhood was interviewed in Egypt. He said, and I paraphrase him,

"the trouble with Americans is they want to be loved, and will continue to kill you until you love them”.

That’s a trap bloggers can fall into, no not killing people, but wanting to be loved. The content of their blog is influenced by the desire to please and for their blog to be Bookmarked. The result is, it ceases to be their blog, it becomes an artificial construct, based on what the blogger thinks will please people. The difference between a good blog compared to an average blog is honesty. Blog for yourself, if people like what you write, OK, if they don‘t, so what?

And finally back to the weather. The photo on the left was taken not in the middle of a winter snow storm, but at noon yesterday, i.e. the middle of summer. You might be able to make out the outline of St Paul’s Cathedral. Torrential rain and flash floods are the order of the day.

YesBut how do you cut the grass?

Click here to see a gardening challenge.