Notes from the Island

The Island welcomes everybody. Every day many visit and thousands pass close by, though few notice it. It is a place of brief encounters, of buried secrets, of moments glimpsed in rear-view mirrors. A brief pause on a journey. The Island has no border controls, no prisons, no buying and selling. Is it a utopia? Perhaps it could be, a sanctuary of non-interference amidst the surveillance cameras. The Island, London SE14 - much more than just a traffic island on the A2, New Cross Road.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Black Dog, White Hart and the Boogie Man

Does the Island have its own tales of enchantment and mystery, of heroes and villains, of monsters glimpsed in the moonlight – in short, its own folklore?

Observed last Sautrday, a mother waits to cross to the Island with her child and black dog. 'Watch for the green man' she says. Next to her a young girl wanders off, ignoring her mother calling her back who shouts 'The boogeyman is up there'. Overlooking the whole scene, the old inn of the White Hart.

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