A27 - Bad Tidings

This one of several sketches I did at the mouth of the River Arun at Littlehampton on 21st March. The others can be viewed on my Water and Art blog. This one was looking across the river from the West Beach car park to the East Pier, about an hour before high tide. Particularly during the two hours or so before highwater, it can be very rough here with strong currents sweeping around the pier and in from the beach, along with eddies and white breaking waves. It's like this even when the sea is becalmed by an anticyclone bringing very light northerly-northeasterly winds, as it was that Saturday. It is particularly rough here because the flow of the tide in and out of the harbour is constricted between the East and West piers. Shingle banks have intruded onto the riverward side of the West Pier wall through longshore drift. Though the mouth of the river is the roughest bit,  the strong currents persist all along the lower Arun, beyond Arundel to at least Bury, making this stretch of river one of the fastest flowing rivers in England. Even when it’s relatively calm at the turn of the tide or during the more subdued neap tides, I’ve always perceived this as a moody river. On overcast days, it can look glum, with turbid green-brown water, especially during the late autumn and winter when the sun is lower and the slopes of the Downs along the valley are in shadow.

Lately, I've thought of these as troubled waters whatever the weather, with a dark cloud still hanging over the valley. A metaphor for the prospect of a beefed-up A27 / new Arundel bypass slicing through across the floodplain here (see previous entries this winter). When I say that, I am projecting my own feelings onto what are purely meteorological and tidal effects. Others may project differently: vested interests / devout petrolheads taking these strong currents to be a sign  - Bring It All On! Regardless of the consequences.

Depressingly, the continues fast flowing in favour of these costly, contentious proposals along the A27 throughout Sussex.  Almost as bad as the new road itself is the completely undemocratic way in which it is all being rushed through, with outright contempt for the public and environment a like. Local media coverage has remained biased. Apart from letters of protest to the local press from members of SCATE, all the debate has been deliberately one-sided. Further to the government’s A27 Feasibility study published on 12th March, my spring reveries and general positive vibe from a stimulating past few months painting / sketching were dampened by yet more bad news on this front. Firstly, according to SCATE, yet another clandestine meeting in the Sussex area. Once again, all those for a turbo-charged A27 slicing through the Sussex countryside, invited. All those against shut out, at least until it’s all done, dusted and unstoppable. This one in Littlehampton on 24^th March.   

Then , further ominous tidings about mini-motorways. The A27 through Sussex an extension of the M27 eastwards (Chris Todd, SCATE by email 24/03/15):

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/11872403.Plans_to_upgrade_parts_of_the_A27_into_a_mini_motorway_to_be_announced/

To paraphraise Chris Todd says in the above article in the Brighton Argus, a throwback to the 1980s. 

More (sense) from the Acorn 6 - Highways to Hell, 30th March and a critical review of the A27 Feasibility Study at A27 Alarm, 20th March.

Updated 2nd April 2015

Thames Towers

When sketching along the Thames through London, my focus has been on the growing number of high rise tower blocks dominating the skyline. The three key areas are Canary Wharf, The City and the area around The Shard / London Bridge / Borough Market on the south side of the Thames. A bit further upriver, the developments at Battersea are lower rise, though still not life as we know it. 

My sketches here were done on 14th March, either along the river (Waterloo Bridge, near Oxo Tower) or on the train back from Waterloo referencing them or drawing as far as possible from memory.

These are links to a series of reports in the Guardian and Observer newspapers about the high rise of turbo-charged corporate capitalism; stratospheric property prices excluding everyone but the stratospherically rich; and how and where such properties are being marketed.