Tower Block Tales

 

Uncle Dugs

When I first moved to London to attend university I lived in the student accomodation at Temple Mills. While my flat was in one of the maisonettes my friend lived on the top floor of one of the tower block "Templars House" where I spent many hours playing chess. After a couple of years I had moved into the Clays Lane Housing Cooperative opposite. I learned how London pirates like "weekend rush"  would on occasion use  the top of the Temple Mills tower blocks as a site for their transmitter.

After moving out of Clays Lane I spent a year living at the Yellow Dragon Centre/ Jen Wai Tong Temple nr Old Street. We used to do our Sunday "Tai Chi" classes in the park opposite, which was adjacent to a very tall towerblock. Every Sunday my instructor would take the class to the same spot in the park. One Sunday he was not available so my fellow student Black Steve was asked to take the class, he led us to a different area of the park. We were all somewhat dubious about the location change but he was in charge. No sooner had we started the class than we heard a rush of air and a thud behind us. Some poor soul had jumped from the top of the block, We never did "Tai Chi" in that spot again.

A couple of years later for a short period my Capoeira Master Axe shared a flat on the top floor of a towerblock in South London. The views over the city were phenomenal, particularly late at night.

Of course the most iconic Tower blocks were the Twin Towers of New York which I visited in the 90's and were brought into conciousness with the events of 9:11 2001

Tower blocks for me resonate something subliminally, so it was no surprise after I thought I had finished this blog post that the final piece fell into place courtesy of the usual suspects at K2 Plant Hire.