OFF: Battersea (was Re: Mountain Grill)

[Jon Jarrett]

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005, Eric Siegerman wrote:

> Heh.  I had a similar experience, coming into London for my first
> time, very early in the morning on the overnight train from
> Frankfurt via the Oostende/Folkestone ferry.  I had no idea of
> the geography of the place, but happened to see a graffito --
> DOGS OWN HOME BATTERSEA.  No clue what that meant, but "Cool, the
> power station's gotta be around here someplace!" I thought, and
> started looking eagerly around for it.  Sure enough, there it
> was.  No pig, but still...

        My guess... The other thing that Battersea is famous for is its
lost dogs' home. You can see this from that train journey too, soon after
you pass by the power station on the same side, but being as it's only a
collection of corrugated iron sheds it's not quite so impressive. I
suspect the graffito is a parody of phrases like "Yorkshire: God's own
county" that we sometimes get bandied around here. Along the lines of the
joke about the dyslexic agnostic insomniac who used to lie awake at night
wondering if there really was a Dog.

> > Wreck of a place [...]
>
> Well they're fixing it up now, looks like.  And even a few years
> ago (end of 2000, I think), Cirque du Soleil had taken up
> residence.

        Yeah, they got it back together a while back but I'm not sure it's
currently safe. Still: it's the sort of place that should clearly become a
fortress if London ever falls apart in Moorcockian dystopia :-) Yours,

Jon

--
                Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College, London
    jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk/ejarr01 at students.bbk.ac.uk
  "As much as the vision of the blind man improves with the rising sun,
       So too does the intelligence of the fool after good advice."
       (Bishop Theodulf of Orleans, late-eight/early-ninth century)