A SYMBOL FOR SYDENHAM

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My favoured Sydenham Symbol:

Green Dragon
27
73%
Grey Hound
4
11%
Either
1
3%
Neither
5
14%
 
Total votes: 37

leenewham
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A SYMBOL FOR SYDENHAM

Post by leenewham »

I get fed up of seeing the same Lewisham signage, horrible generic plastic Lewisham bins with Borough of Lewisham plastered all over them.

I live in Sydenham. I want to be reminded of where I live when I walk down the street, I don't want to keep being reminded of 'brand Lewisham', the local authority who take away our rubbish and 'ahem' clean our streets.

With all this talk about regeneration and roundabouts I think it's high time we got our own indentity.

Reading old posts in the history forum a symbol comes to mind. The Green Dragon from Wells Park road is one of the oldest symbols associated with Sydenham. Why can't we have this (or whatever symbol) on 'welcome to Sydenham' signs (they have a coat of arms in Beckenham), or on every bin in our rejuvenated high street (you can have any design you want cat into your bespoke metal bin, each one costs about 650 pounds, I checked).

The symbol could be made ou t of planting on the roundabout outside the greyhound (yes it can other authorities do it, there is no reason it can't be done here).

Do you think we should have a symbol we can identify with? Do you like the idea of using the green dragon, possibly the oldest symbol associated with Sydenham?

Don't get too worried about what it will actually look like at this stage, we are talking about the idea. Do you like the idea of being a little different or do you want to be merge into Corporate Lewisham?

Political reasons aside there is no reason why this can't happen.

Here are some images of the green dragon (thanks to Falkor in another posting on this site). If anyone has any more info on it please post!

Image
Image
Image
ALIB
Posts: 1553
Joined: 12 Oct 2006 21:34
Location: East Sussex

Post by ALIB »

Love the idea Lee. What can be done to get your suggestion under consideration.?

Alib
leenewham
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Post by leenewham »

Get more people to post saying things like that.

Get more information on the Green Dragon is anyone has any.

PM me or post in here if you want to take it further. The more support, the more chance we have of making this a reality. If it get s support I will take onboard some comments and work up a presentation on the Symbol.

Support it and it can happen.
Juwlz
Posts: 749
Joined: 26 Oct 2005 20:49
Location: Outer Sydenham

Post by Juwlz »

Hi Lee,

I love the idea of the dragon symbol, I think its excellent. I am a graphic designer so let me know if you need any help getting drawn up, I'd be happy to assist if you need.
lizzie
Posts: 74
Joined: 12 Sep 2006 12:15
Location: sydenham

Post by lizzie »

Can I just say I think this is a great idea. It's a shame when an area loses its historical identity, so I'm all for it. Lots of British counties have their own county flags, but you rarely see them. Maybe we could have a flagpole somewhere? :)
castiron73
Posts: 132
Joined: 24 Oct 2006 10:05
Location: Sydenham Thorpes

Post by castiron73 »

Think it's a great idea. A version of that dragon on a post would look good on the Cobb's corner roundabout, even as it is now, even better with some shrubs. You could run the words Welcome to Sydenham around it.

At the moment all we have near there is a traffic sign saying 'superstore straight on'.
admin
Site Admin
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Joined: 20 Sep 2004 21:49

Post by admin »

castiron73 wrote:Think it's a great idea. A version of that dragon on a post would look good on the Cobb's corner roundabout,
Briliant idea castiron. Let's just do it ... the amenity fund should just cover the cost and give Mayor Steve et al a terrific photo opportunity. Much better than hard to maintain planters!

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leenewham
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Post by leenewham »

Wow, well, I will work on this with the support of a few who have pm'd me.

It will take a little time to prepare what I have in mind. I'm the meantime I may post in here to ask for images etc so keep looking back here.

I will keep you all updated.

Lee
Steve Grindlay
Posts: 606
Joined: 4 Oct 2004 05:07
Location: Upper Sydenham

Post by Steve Grindlay »

I agree that the Green Dragon would be an excellent choice as a symbol for Sydenham.

Here are a couple of high-res pictures of the dragon (it's not very scary):
Image Image

I've also uploaded high-res pictures of the original images here.
The Thomas Bonnor engraving of 1770 is probably the original while the others are variations of it.

Here is an interesting, if rather fanciful, quote from Chamber's Edinburgh Journal, apparently written by "a local authoress" (unfortunately undated, but published between 1832 and 1854) in which the dragon soliloquises thus:
It was in the year 1760 I received the last touch of the artist, and was declared worthy of being exalted to the top of a pole to point out to passers-by the original old well of the Sydenham waters. Yes, there I hung - the green dragon of Sydenham - no mere painted picture or shadowy representation, but a real, substantial, wooden, dragon "nat'ral as life" as everybody said... Beautiful was I as I hung aloft, now turning jauntily on my swivel, and now looking down with benevolent eye upon the drinkers at the well.
The soliloquy carries on for a further five pages, giving a fairly full, although rather verbose, history of the wells.
Juwlz
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Post by Juwlz »

I like the fact that the dragon on the cottages is friendly looking rather than scary.
admin
Site Admin
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Post by admin »

Something I didn't know ... according to Wikipedia:

"Green Dragon is an alcoholic beverage made by leaching the leaves of the cannabis plant in a high-proof alcohol, most commonly vodka. The THC dissolves into the alcohol resulting in a dark green or brown liquid. Sugar is often also dissolved in the alcohol to mask the extremely bitter taste of the dissolved cannabinoids."

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leenewham
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Post by leenewham »

I wouldn't worry about other green dragons. This will be OUR green dragon, unique to Sydenham. ;-)
Gaz
Posts: 366
Joined: 17 Sep 2007 23:22
Location: Sydenham

Post by Gaz »

Yep, great idea Lee. I think the choice of the Green Dragon is excellent too as this symbol has an easily associated characterisation (and so better than just a 'Sydenham' font, an image of a well or the Crystal Palace etc).

It looks from the description above that the original Dragon was a wind-vane - would a similar 'vane' work as well on a roundabout?

Gaz
Ronski
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Joined: 6 Jan 2006 01:19
Location: SE26

Post by Ronski »

Nice idea, be good to give a unique identity to the place.

Shame there weren't any Victorian graphic designers in Sydenham with a better image though :)
leenewham
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Post by leenewham »

Why not make the symbol out of planting on the roundabout.

Or make the roundabout into a large sleeping dragon?
user100
Posts: 194
Joined: 13 Dec 2006 11:47
Location: Sydenham

Post by user100 »

Love the idea of the dragon symbol Lee.

But based on previous history, I am a bit concerned about trying to get it incorporated as part of the roundabout.

They previously couldn't manage to build a basic roundabout-shaped roundabout, without it turning out like an over-ripe Camembert.

Asking them to build a sleeping-green-dragon-shaped one could be looking for trouble.
Juwlz
Posts: 749
Joined: 26 Oct 2005 20:49
Location: Outer Sydenham

Post by Juwlz »

I think Gaz's Dragon weather vane idea is good, or something along those lines. I somehow envisage a metal sculpture in the middle of the roundabout.
admin
Site Admin
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Post by admin »

Juwlz - I agree with Gaz's weather vane idea too. On a pole it won't cause anymore traffic sight restriction than the current pole yet be clearly visible from all directions and be evocative of the prints above.

Only the birds would fully appreciate a veggie dragon.

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user100
Posts: 194
Joined: 13 Dec 2006 11:47
Location: Sydenham

Post by user100 »

Weathervane idea is good, seeing that was the original model, as well as using it as an icon for street furniture.

Could be good (if controversial) to have more than one, at the main entry points to Sydenham, as a kind of visual cue that 'you have arrived in Sydenham', in the same way that dragons / griffins guard the entry points to the City of London.

Wobbly roundabout is the obvious place for one. Not sure if there is another quite so obvious place though.......and might spark off a massive Upper/Lower Sydenham border dispute....
user100
Posts: 194
Joined: 13 Dec 2006 11:47
Location: Sydenham

Post by user100 »

Of course it would also make a great name for a re-developed pub...

I am not advocating renaming one of the pubs whose names have a long history in Sydenham, but if ever anyone takes over Th'e Tw'o Half's'....

Mind you they probably serve Green Dragon in there.
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