Charlton's Wire Workshop

This is the final post of the day we spent most of the day on the Thames Path. I’ve already shared posts on the pigeon cruise, which I’ve since learnt is a former Mersey Ferry, and riverside industrial views. Today I’m sharing, what is probably my favourite part of the day, and the most unexpected. It was right at the start of the day that we explored part of Charlton’s Riverside and its faded glory prompted distinct memories of my trip to Cuba back in 2000. It’s true that the blue skies and the warmth of the sun helped!

The area is currently being redeveloped as part of the Faraday Works project. There’s plenty of information on the colourful hoardings and whatever your feelings about this, bringing these buildings back to life has to be the right thing. Though I’m sure there’s plenty of work, as looking at the site, the wire workshop (above) which dates to 1871-90 is currently inaccessible and missing parts of the roof and floors - even from these photos, that’s easily believable.

The site has a fascinating history, in 1863 the Faraday Works site was part of the Siemens Brothers first British factory manufacturing telegraph cables and other equipment. By the outbreak of the Second World War 9,000 people were working there in an area covering 35 acres; the factory helped in operation PLUTO (Pipeline Under the Ocean) which pumped petrol across the English Channel after D-Day.

In the 20th century the site thrived but social and economic change meant the Siemens complex closed. Some buildings were retaining but most were demolished.

The Wire Workshop, which most of these photos show will be restored to become a hub for local businesses providing collaborative working spaces, which sounds a great way of bringing the place back to life.

It will be interesting to see how this space develops. Let’s hope it doesn’t lose it’s history, and the buildings retain their character, but once again become useful and usable.

Reflecting on my week #138

I always knew this week was going to be a big and busy week at work, and so it’s Wednesday already and I’m only just writing this post. We had a couple of much needed days off at the end of last week and the two days couldn’t have been more different. Thursday was a slow day, a day for life admin and sitting in the sun on sun beds with an ice cream. Sometimes that’s just what’s needed isn’t it?

I had a second hair cut wearing a mask - it’s still weird, and I still find myself fascinated by breathing the material in and out. It’s daft but I become obsessed by it, so it was just as well that this visit was just a trim rather than the full blown colour.

Then the next day we headed over to the National Trust’s Chartwell for a wander - and a blow - around the gardens there. The house wasn’t open and it was our first visit there. It’s a lovely garden, full of picturesque vistas and the best walled garden. We followed the one way system around the garden but like many other visitors we adapted the route through the vegetable garden. I’m not sure anyone just wanted to walk through the central path and out onto the next part of the garden, so I think that will need some reconsidering.

We explored as much of the garden and woodland as we could, though I’m not sure that I was quite ready to find an acorn.

It’s been a while since we’ve done any proper gardening and we put that right too. We’ve a corner at the back of our garden which has become more overgrown than we’d like. A vine has popped over from next door and firmly lodged itself in our cherry tree. It’s clearly happy as we picked a few grapes, and there’s plenty more still to be picked. MOH, who pretty much eats anything tried them, and declared them passable. I tried them and the verdict is pips. The pip to grape ratio is high, and too high for me, so most are now in the bird feeders!

The good news though, is there’s only two working days left this week already!

Post Comment Love 21-23 August

Welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love.

The rain I was fretting about last week arrived. Typically on the day we had family over, for a barbecue. Well pork belly cooked on the barbecue. Having the oven on for a good few hours, even on low, wasn’t high on our agenda, and so, despite the rain we used the barbecue. When the weather got really bad, up went the parasol to protect the cooking area a little. Thankfully the next day was dry so it was able to dry out properly!

The pork was delicious, the jacket potatoes cooked and the coleslaw plentiful! So was the wine, so all was good. And it felt almost normal.

This week’s photo is another from Hyde Hall, the lime-y zingy-ness just appealed. We have some euphorbias in our garden, but the lime green ‘flowers’ are all gone.

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