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Saturday 10 September 2011

Sailing, swimming, sunning, sauna, cycling, sculpture at Deptford Basin



It has recently been said that the Great Basin on the Convoys site cannot be opened as it would be a dead space. It seems that the only dead space is in the imagination of the developer and perhaps even Lewisham's own Design Panel, advisors to the Planners. If you don't have any good ideas of your own then why not borrow successful ideas from elsewhere? For starters, there's the swimming barges in Berlin

Or the sauna and swimming club on the lake in Zurich


If all of this is possible elsewhere in Europe then its possible here in Deptford too.

How amazing to be able to spend the day by the water, on the water even, cycling up to and around water based sculptures, taking a swim or a sauna or just enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. Even if its raining, won't such sculptures look even better, especially after an invigorating swim and a relaxing sauna.

So let's not settle for shopping only, so far it seems that's the idea proposed for the Olympia site. Open the Great Basin, re-instate the impressive caisson gate to the river and the bridge across the Basin mouth, install some remarkable international eye-catching sculpture, float the swimming pools and saunas on the water, and be the first to create waterborne Boris bikes.

Create a unique place for Deptford and satisfy heritage policy, health policy, arts and environmental policy in one stroke.

3 comments:

  1. Hi there - i was looking online for a good walking route from Greenwich westwards as far as I can go (up to the rotherhithe tunnel or thereabouts I guess) - but can't find anything - can you help?

    I don't why I'm so ignorant of this side of the thames walk - I've been walking the route down to the Thames Barrier on and off for 30 years...

    thanks in advance for any info

    ReplyDelete
  2. have you tried walking the foreshore at various points? its a far more intimate way to connect with the river than the monolith of the Thames Path?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I Completely Agree with Restoring the
    Great Basin just as with the Rest of the
    Deptford Royal Dockyard Site

    It would be Nice to see some Wooden Warships
    like a Recreation of HMS Triumph of 1623
    Anchored There

    Bring Deptford Dockyard Back to Life
    Bring Deptford Back to Life

    ReplyDelete