Embedded Files
Caption:
When you’re in Dire Straits, remember Love Over Gold.
Description:
Local residents may remember the colourful ‘Love Over Gold’ mural, which was painted along Creekside by South London artist Gary Drostle in 1989, with the help of local primary school children. The mural was supported by Deptford’s most famous export, the band Dire Straits (then called the Cafe Racers), who had named their 1982 album ‘Love Over Gold’. Saved pieces of Drostle’s mural have been reused in Cockpit’s Craft Garden.12
Caption:
The right to be – not to buy
Description:
Residents of Crossfields Estate back in the 1980s will remember Thatcher’s ‘Right to buy’ scheme, but not everyone saw it as a golden opportunity. Recognising the value of community and the need for council housing led many to decide to stay on the estate, following the ethos of the original ‘Love over gold’ graffiti, which was thought to have been daubed on Drake House by an art student (and Crossfields resident) back in 1975. In 1977, Dire Straits performed one of their early gigs on the estate, which has long been home to artists and creatives.
Caption:
Plant carrots not carats. We can’t eat gold.
Description:
The tulip pictured on this tile is a detail from the Love Over Gold mural that once existed here on Creekside. The tulip flower is said to represent different qualities, depending on the colour: red for perfect love, yellow for cheerful thoughts, and purple for royalty.13 That might explain why the famous, intricately carved steps at nearby Queen’s House in Greenwich are known as the Tulip Stairs. As well as being the first self-supporting spiral staircase in Britain,14 it is on these stairs that Rev R. W. Hardy snapped his famous ghost photograph in 1966.
Caption:
Two lips planted softly, like a kiss to the earth.
Two lips planted softly, like a kiss to the earth.
Description:
The tulip pictured on this tile is a detail from the Love Over Gold mural that once existed here on Creekside. The tulip flower is said to represent different qualities, depending on the colour: red for perfect love, yellow for cheerful thoughts, and purple for royalty. That might explain why the famous, intricately carved steps at nearby Queen’s House in Greenwich are known as the Tulip Stairs. As well as being the first self-supporting spiral staircase in Britain, it is on these stairs that Rev R. W. Hardy snapped his famous ghost photograph in 1966.
Caption:
This is the way we… make art. (By Moira)
Description:
Remember the song ‘Here we go round the mulberry bush’? According to historian RS Duncan, the rhyme comes from Wakefield Prison, where female prisoners used to walk around a mulberry bush for exercise. In Deptford, people have been going round the mulberry bush for centuries, with mulberry trees planted at least as far back as the 16th century.16 The mulberry tree was also the inspiration for this illustration, created by Moira, a participant in a Cockpit art session with over-50s community group Meet Me At The Albany.17
Caption:
The wrong tree – that turned out right. (By Jim)
Description:
In a bid to produce silk in England, King James I set up a mulberry plantation in Greenwich. Silkworms are said to thrive on white mulberries, so the king imported thousands of saplings – all of them black mulberries. In a fascinating post on London mulberry blog Morus Londinium,18 the authors explain that while the black fruits may have been the ‘wrong’ mulberries for silk, they tended to survive better in England and offer up ‘succulent, juicy fruit’ as well as welcome shade.
Caption:
A whale of a time. (By Mohamed and Victsnan)
Description:
As part of the making of this mural, a community workshop was held at Drumbeat School, a special needs school for autism in Brockley. These two illustrations (a tree and a whale) were created by pupils Mohamed and Victsnan, who responded to a creative challenge to ‘draw what you see on your way to school’. A whale may sound unlikely in these parts, but a few of the big sea mammals have been discovered in the Thames: including a two-tonne finback whale in 1842, which was harpooned off Deptford Pier and apparently ended up in the British Museum.19
Caption:
On the way to school, I saw… (By Ebube)
Description:
This illustration of three trees was designed by Ebube, a pupil at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School. A community workshop was held at the school to involve local school children in the project of creating the Head, Heart, Hand mural.
Caption:
Young trees of the Tidemill forest. (By Ruweyda and Amelia)
Description:
Tidemill Adademy pupils Ruweyda and Amelia drew these trees in one of the community workshops held as part of the creation of the Head, Heart, Hand mural. The trees are what the creative duo see on their way to school. Trees are important to Deptford locals: when Tidemill Academy (then Tidemill School) was moved from its original site to make way for flats, there was fierce local opposition to the felling of trees and removal of a community garden.20 In response, it was promised that 59 trees would be planted.21
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