Little Venice to Kensal Green

I decided to take a walk down along the canal starting at Little Venice and finishing in Camden. Well that was the plan! Instead I ended up getting lost by following the wrong part of the canal when it divided and ending up in Kensal Green. Even though I made a major mistake by taking the wrong route and it took me forever to get home, it was really interesting following that section of the Grand Union Canal. It took me through housing estates, under flyovers, past newly developed habitat sites, gas works and past an old section of the canal which had the original horse bridges.

Sutcliffe park (Quaggy river)

In focus week I visited Sutcliffe Park, an example of a flood management scheme. In the 1930's South London became heavily developed which resulted in open sections of the Quaggy River being encased in culverts. This meant that in heavy rain fall, water would surge through the culverts and flood low-lying land.
To reduce the risk of flooding, sections of the Quaggy River have been taken out of the culverts and Sutcliffe Park has become part of a flood alleviation scheme.
Sutcliffe Park has been turned into grassland, meadow and wetland with the Quaggy River meandering through the site.
Sutcliffe Park has been awarded Green Flag Status for 2008-2009

Kew Gardens

We went to Kew Gardens on the 16th of December and were taken on a tour through the gardens learning facts along the way. The tour was really good. We were taken to the greenhouses, uprooted rose garden, the river, Japanese hut and finally ending at the tree top walk. The tree top walk was really interesting. It starts at ground level, i.e. looking at the roots and insects, working up to a walk around the tree canopy where there were great views of the garden.

London Tour

Our tour started in Paddington walking along the canal, then Hyde Park looking at the Serpentine Gallery and Diana Memorial, V&A Museum and ended in Sloane Square at the Saatchi Gallery.
The Saatchi Gallery showed some strange, sureal but gripping art, some of my faves are shown below....

Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre

The first part of this focus week was on the 4th Nov at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Barnes.
When you visit the site it is difficult to believe that you are in London because it's so vast and peaceful. The Wetlands Centre covers 42 hectares and is the best site in Europe to watch wildlife.
It was interesting to see the different site areas, from grazing wetlands to pond and lakes, and the different animals that make them their homes.

www.wwt.org.uk/centre/119/visit/wetlandcentre/.html

Brentford Biopsy

The Brentford Biopsy was a really good excuse to explore areas of Brentford I didn't know.
Some of us were asked to wear emotion detectors (these measured sweat. The more sweat produced, the greater the emotion. This could be something exciting, new or interesting or, in my case, panic or shock when a dog suddenly barked) and GPS.
We were then told to walk around Brentford for the next one and a half hours and not to enter any building because we would lose signal.
We then returned and our information was mapped on to the computer and it was possible to see our subconscious emotions from the peaks and troughs of our journeys.
It was really interesting to find out the results of the sensory research and how if you connect the emotional biopsy with the sensory research you create a perfect site analysis.

http://publicbiopsy.net/

East Beach Cafe

We then head to Little Hampton where East Beach Cafe designed by Thomas Heatherwick had been built. The design was built on the seafront and it seemed to be based on the shape of a shell or to mimic the ripling of the waves. The strange thing was that the design detail faced the carpark and not the sea.





http://www.heatherwick.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=51

Weald and Downland open air museum

When we arrived at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum we started to explore the site climbing through doorways, looking at the different buildings and meeting volunteers. We then went to a talk explaining how the 'Gridshell' building was built. The guide told us how the building was created using different types of wood and built by moistening the wood so it bends creating the curves of the undulating form on the building.