What a rather splendid day today has been. I proceeded forth on the walk along Deptford Creek and as a result am now slightly more in tune with its unique allure, as I mentioned before, the creek itself is a prominent feature of the landscape so I felt this exercise necessary in my own education on Deptford.
It was a fantastic day for it with the sun dousing us with its bone warming presence, I arrived at the Creekside centre, slightly late due to yet another near miss on my bike in Brockley: a Mini Cooper failed to indicate as it swung a left, filling me with rage as it forcing me to slam on my breaks. Now I don't usually follow cars but in this case I made an exception and pursued it for an apology, idiots. Anyway, I managed to catch up the group partaking on this fine days walk alongside the Creek, waders on, walking stick in hand, I was straight out there, they even provide fresh additional socks which is was a surprising gesture, thanks.
About fifteen of us in total, armed with nets, boxes and other inspection devices, trundled through the low tide of the creek in search of its alluring little gems. Our guide, Jim, a botanist who relentlessly emanated enthusiasm and wisdom for the creeks entirety tirelessly provided a wonderful history, from plant life, animal life, fender existence, breeding cycles etc... alongside a string of humorous warnings about the sinking mud. For the walks duration he bellowed from his belly the most contageous of laughs.
The creek itself is home to numerous species of often procured wetland/dryland plant and animal life which are currently are all springing to life, herons, kingfishers plus numerous other species alongside its expected first schools of flounder and stickleback in the coming weeks. Interestingly, despite the flounders cross eyed positioning on on side of its head it actually hatches with one either side, so during the its first weeks one slowly creeps over to the other side due to it's redundancy. Also home to the omnipresent chinese mitten crab of which there are thousands, originally released by sailors in ballast from the chinese waters, a valuable economic source in China, something which I gather the UK is quite keen to consider farming in the Thames. It was the second world war that secured the fate of the creek, allowing its decline to be fully realised, not necessarily a negative factor as it allowed an array of plant life to flourish and colonize. It was during the 1996 that its potential was realised and a clear up operation commenced, a total of 400 trolleys were excavated by the Creekside centre, but of course many still protrude alongside an array printers, laptops, bottles and bodies eerily the mud.
I must confess that I had never considered the lengths that had been ploughed into the preservation and nourishment of the creek, it is quite astonishing. One factor most interesting I found was how time has manipulated the cultural perceptions of the riverside. During the early 20th century you would expect to see deck chairs lining its shores at low tide whilst hundreds of children swam bobbed to and fro in its debatable waters. Social housing was frequently peppered around its banks due its perceived undesirability. Now though, despite the waters considerable purity in comparison with waters past people simply wouldn't dream of it, and also the social has been replaced with the private so in that sense cultural transformations are quite insightful.
The Creek therefore, has quite a history and it is unique in that its banks are still very evidently mixed, original wooden fenders, varieties of concrete all amassing to facilitate unique plant colonisation and breeding whereas almost all of London's other creeks have undergone the brutal transformation of lining their crumbling banks with steel with banishes beauty and forbids natural growth and with two tides a day exploration opportunities are never infrequent.
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