Brutal Burial

Memories, fabricated.

Distortion of the past. Telling yourself a million times nearly convincing yourself these are your own memories.

Imprinted, almost.

Maybe they are.

When Sunday swim became a ritual of my own, I started to include others to sink with me.

Someone who you feel comfortable of having limited dialogues and being semi-naked and wet together. It is another form of intimacy and romance. Sharing. Transient.

Me and Aurélie have been talking for a while about this. So she finally decided to take me swimming in the neck of her woods, provided that I could wake up in the morning. '7am' She said, 'Meet me in front of Golden Lane Swimming Pool. The previous night, multiple alarm was set in case missing the time.

The very first time commuting to Golden Lane Estate Swimming Pool was different, a bus 55 instead on walking to Lido. After getting off the bus, walk pass London College of Fashion, along Golden Lane. A Sunday morning, you can find post-party debris from the Saturday night. Aside from everything was quiet and still, as if no one seemed to bother preparing for the day. The moisture of air is refreshing, quiet and calm. Suitably concrete with the Brutalist landscape.

I was surrounded by one of the greatest British social housing. (Now doomed to gentrification...) However, the architecture reminded me so much of the housing estate that I grew up back home. The false sense of aspiration of the communal area, playground, now deemed to be lonely, derelict and utterly brutal.

Amongst the banners hung by the campaigners protesting luxury block being marketed in Hong Kong, I came to acquaint myself a resident kitty - I named it Golden Lane Kitty. It was very verbal and friendly. Our noses touched each other as a gesture of acknowledgement.

As we arrived to the pool, we didn't realised that the pool opens at 8am so we had roughly 45 minutes to kill. We had a chat in the middle of the estate, we talked about absolutely anything. The beam of light leaked through the high-rise. It was nice when you have someone like-minded you could talk to.

So we arrived to the pool with the fellow slow lane swimmers. The pool water was rather toasty, a mixture of warm air and chlorine trapped in a small space - from the window you can see the Golden Lane Estate. Feeling unreal to have a swimming pool inside the housing estate. Yet, perhaps it showed the false Utopian ambition in days forgotten?

The water is shimmering, glistening, from the sun shining through the estates. A microscopic landscape, urban, yet honest.

Soleil Je T'aime.

Golden Lane Sport & Fitness
Fann St, Golden Lane Estate, London EC1Y 0SH

Opening times:
Monday - Friday: 6am - 10pm
Saturday & Sunday: 8am - 6pm
Time Table

Entry: £5.00