Tanks for the memories
Jul. 4th, 2011 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pallas_athenaWhenever I get one of those red we-tried-to-deliver-a-lovely-parcel-but-you-were-out notices, I feel a certain joy alongside the usual annoyance: it means I get to go visit the tank.
The first time I went to pick up a parcel at the depot, I did a double-take: there, in a garden at the junction of the Old Kent Road and Mandela Way, stood a little tank! It was colourfully painted by graffiti artists, standing in a little back-garden overgrown with nettles and morning-glory vines.
It was certainly a surprising thing to see, but my double-take was due in part to the fact that I'd seen this tank before. In the summer of 1995 I was lucky enough to direct Oscar Wilde's Salomé at Queen Mary and Westfield College. I'd been standing around outside the theatre with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mothninja and some friends when we heard an almighty racket in the road; our heads turned to see a little tank roll by, painted bright pink. Afterwards there was one of those "You saw that too, right?" moments. Thus, finding the tank again on Mandela Way was something of a resolution to an old, old question. I learn from the Evening Standard that 1995 was the year the tank was purchased by its current owner.
Today I did some searching, and it turns out that the tank has its own Wikipedia page! It's a Soviet T-34-85, of which a huge number were produced; it saw service in the present Czech Republic. It was used in the filming of Ian McKellen's Richard III-- apparently the T-34 was a popular tank with filmmakers-- and now it defends its little garden on Mandela Way.
So that's one more thing to love about my new neighbourhood! I love you, tiny tank.
The first time I went to pick up a parcel at the depot, I did a double-take: there, in a garden at the junction of the Old Kent Road and Mandela Way, stood a little tank! It was colourfully painted by graffiti artists, standing in a little back-garden overgrown with nettles and morning-glory vines.
It was certainly a surprising thing to see, but my double-take was due in part to the fact that I'd seen this tank before. In the summer of 1995 I was lucky enough to direct Oscar Wilde's Salomé at Queen Mary and Westfield College. I'd been standing around outside the theatre with
mothninja and some friends when we heard an almighty racket in the road; our heads turned to see a little tank roll by, painted bright pink. Afterwards there was one of those "You saw that too, right?" moments. Thus, finding the tank again on Mandela Way was something of a resolution to an old, old question. I learn from the Evening Standard that 1995 was the year the tank was purchased by its current owner.Today I did some searching, and it turns out that the tank has its own Wikipedia page! It's a Soviet T-34-85, of which a huge number were produced; it saw service in the present Czech Republic. It was used in the filming of Ian McKellen's Richard III-- apparently the T-34 was a popular tank with filmmakers-- and now it defends its little garden on Mandela Way.
So that's one more thing to love about my new neighbourhood! I love you, tiny tank.
