In 1871 Camille Pissarro and Claude Monet were in London in order to escape the ravages of the Franco-Prussian War. Pissarro sought refuge with his relatives living in South London, in the borough of Lewisham, and over the course of his year long stay he painted several famous landscapes, two of which we ventured out to do research on; the Avenue at Sydenham, and Fox Hill in Upper Norwood. We caught the train from Waterloo Station fully expecting a day of photography, interviews, and marvelous views, but as we were quickly finding out even the slightly hastily laid plans of mice and men oft go awry. Locating the Avenue wasn’t too difficult, nor was recreating the perspective and borders of Pissarro’s famous painting, which sold in 1984 to the National Gallery in London for the hefty sum of £625,000. It was, however, complicated getting anyone to agree to speak to us on tape, apparently because of a certain tendency in Britain to not have an opinion on anything relating to our project, or rather a steadfast resistance to telling us said opinion(Tripp’s note: for further information regarding British modesty consult my new personal Jesus, Bill Bryson). To top it all off, it seems that most people in Sydenham are unable to direct you to Lewisham, Norwood, or evidently anywhere in their immediate environs. So instead of recording the reactions of several Sydenham locals after taking photos, we received a series of recommendations about where we might find someone with expert information about Impressionist paintings and their relationship to South London. Thus began what can only be classified as a whirlwind wild goose chase around the seedier side of the city upon the Thames. Our inquiries at the Church of St. Bartholomew led us to walk back to Sydenham proper and search for a book store whose owner, we were assured, would be willing to talk to us. Actually he claimed to have no thoughts with regards to any of our questions and told us we might be better off going to the Lewisham Library, which is located “just down the street”. The problem now was that we were off the map, so we went into the post office to ask directions to the Library, where there was no help to be found. Finally we made for the nearest bus stop and headed in what we hoped was a southerly direction, winding our way for almost half an hour through towns with names like Brockley, and something along the lines of Cat Garage until we arrived in central Lewisham and located the Library. Things were looking up for us, it seemed. We then spoke with a man who, though you may not know it, is something of a celebrity in the greater Lewisham area. Who could this be, you might ask, why certainly no self-respecting celebrity would speak to you two, but there you would be wrong, because we met with none other than John Coulter, librarian and archivist extraordinaire of Lewisham Central Library, and author of several books on the history of Sydenham and Norwood. He showed us several maps, listened politely to our somewhat jumbled thesis and further research ideas, and sold us a book about locations of famous paintings in London, after which point we asked to take his picture for our records. “If you wish,” he chuckled, clearly wondering what planet we were from, and ever so modestly positioned himself for a portrait for his biggest, if not youngest, fans (for authorized portrait of John Coulter see previous post).
Upon departure from Lewisham Central Library we were off to Fox Hill, Upper Norwood. After missing our stop, or the bus just not taking us there, we found ourselves in Lower Norwood (though it now proclaims itself East Norwood). It was here we came to the conclusion that your everyday Joe-London has not the slightest clue about their locale, so we decided to use our instincts and walk to Fox Hill. We climbed for about 20 minutes and came to the spot where Pissarro painted the road on Fox Hill with its distinctive curve and twenty degrees of steepness. We snapped our photo and began the ascent to the top of Fox Hill, the second home of Victorian England’s Crystal Palace. Little did we know the disappointment that would ensue as we became eager to see this world renowned establishment, formerly the home of many a classical music world premier and the world’s first cat show. It turns out that the Palace is now nothing more than a barren mall of grass with a few sphinx heads and a statue of an Indian man. So it was, and off to catch the train back to Waterloo we went, walking back through our esteemed Sydenham along the way and stopping at a chippy for take-away chips with just not enough salt and vinegar to make it worth it. Don’t be discouraged, reader, on this day we reveled in our disappointments and had a blast.
