At the beginning of this project my lovely friend Coral saw a post about our proposal for the balloon and got in touch.
I knew Coral as professor of sculpture at Alfred University in Upstate New York….What I didn’t know was that she had spent her formative, teenage years in Thamesmead.
Here, Coral shares her memories of growing up in and around Thamesmead. The changes that occured as she grew up there and the very real and lasting impact this has had on her life and arts practice.
“I believe Thamesmead really contributed to emboldening my sense of adventure: to us at the time it was ‘our’ exciting urban utopia.”
“I remember when it was being built it was where all the Gypsies lived in their wonderful caravans: we had several real Gypsies at my school and I often wondered what happened to them, they lived along the tracks so the part closest to the pedestrian walk over to Abbey Ruins: I remember the day the bridge opened so we could venture over to the concrete city and listen to OMD : my friend lived there and her bedroom still smelled of wet concrete!”
Link to the Pathe video: https://www.britishpathe.com/video/thamesmead-woolwich-london
Thank you Coral!