Fulham Reach and Oscar Wilde

Yesterday's post about Oscar Wilde's Impression du Matin brought a number of comments which raised issues such as artistic references and the character of the young woman he described, but no one mentioned exclusive riverside properties.

It was on the way back from Geneva in the BA in-flight magazine that I saw an advert for the Fulham Reach development and soon googled its web site. It is what an ex of mine would call "fancy": facilities include not just a gym but also swimming pool, spa (with sauna, steam room, treatment room), screening room, virtual golf and a wine cellar (obviously).

There is even a movie you can watch, but note on the page about the apartments the interior designs were apparently inspired by "Oscar Wilde's evocative poem about the River Thames, 'Impression du Matin".

Hmmmm..... lets look in more detail about the images in the poem. The yellow fog for example - this reference suggests the yellow could be associated with decay. Another article takes a more chemical approach considering how the yellow could be associated with tar soluble in fog water - in other words, industrial pollution.

The young lady is in many articles described as... well, shall we say lady of the night? She could have political overtones, for at the time a contentious issue was the contagious diseases act that attempted to prevent the spread of VD but the approach outraged many as an insult on working women.

In summary, as this article put it, this is not a "stop and smell the roses" poem. It promises sparkly water but gives the reader a glimpse of London's dark underbelly.

Not what one would usually associate with an upmarket property development, I'd fancy.


Picture from: Fulham Reach web site