Seeing things in better perspective: hiking away from the City of London on the Thames Path downstream from Woolwich Arsenal. Nothing is forever: sic transit gloria is also an aphorism of hope.
Walking the Thames Path from the Woolwich Arsenal downstream of the Thames Barrier and leaving behind the skyscrapers of the City of London and Canary Wharf. The apocalypse has happened, those high rise offices on the horizon were abandoned for the post-1984 horrors of working-from-home dystopia, the desk drawers in the abandoned offices left full with personal effects.
The river widens and the brown field sites have been re-used but still leaving the decaying remains of many former enterprises. Rectangular engineering meets the curves of nature. There’s a sense of continuity that’s comforting in this Covid crisis, the regularity of the tides, the lack of permanence.
Me and my hike mate arrive at Erith as the impressive clouds and the frontal wind of the next storm chills the salty sea air as we finish the last of our mince pies from the supermarket back in Woolwich. The tidal sea reclaims the mud flats where the birds have been feeding. Nothing is forever: sic transit gloria is also an aphorism of hope.