Eclipse of the Laban

Though I've always had reservations about the perspex-like cladding on the Laban - it reminds me of document folders that Rymans used to sell back in the 80s - there's no doubt that it stands out pretty proudly when viewed from the Ha'penny Hatch.This was how it looked about 6 months ago (summer 09) - the blues still form a link between sky and water. But I took stock of the view again yesterday (Feb 10) and the view has changed dramatically.
Ok, fair enough, it's a greyer, murkier day and it's not taken from exactly the same spot but the Laban's lines no longer reach the sky, instead they hit the grey-green cladding of the Creekside Village behind it. And it's still going up. It's beginning to look like a squat box dominated by the apartments of the ''village,'' and the Laban will get smaller and more insignificant as this goes on.

That's not the reason I had a camera with me on the Hatch: I'd brought it with me to photograph a periscope that some visual comedian has installed just on the Greenwich bank, west of the bridge. There is also a black binliner in an improvised holder attached to a post with cable ties and there were 3 clumps of artificial flowers that had disappeared the previous night. I have visions of a night carouser drunkenly presenting his girlfriend with a Valentine's day bouquet that night who is now walking with a very definite limp...
I tried taking a photo of what you can see through it but as I didn't have my glasses on I didn't notice that the camera's settings had got changed. So all you can see is that light does pass through it and it looks a little like a tunnel
I have absolutely no idea what linked the periscope, the bin plus liner and the plastic flowers - apart, of course, from the people who put them there. Curiously, the last person I bumped into and had a quick chat with on the hatch is called Perry.

Anyhow, here's an old view of the railway bridge and the hatch from an altogether different era