All my attempts to visit sites during the recent Open City weekend failed, everything I applied for was full, I was offered a slot early on Saturday morning in Beckton which was just too early and too far for me.
So what was I trying to visit? Mainly sewage works, water works, CrossRail works and waste regeneration works. I even tried to visit SS Robin in Royal Victoria Dock, but at least that has a happy ending as I've booked a slot in October. I did suggest going to Trinity House wharf but Beverley was less than under whelmed!
So having failed, I signed up with the Open City Architectural River trip from Greenwich to The Dartford Crossing (although in reality we only got as far as Erith). This was going to be interesting as it was a commentated trip leaving at 18:15 and let's face it its dark by just gone seven, so I was not sure how much we would see. Nevertheless it was a glorious evening weather wise and we were treated to a fairly good sunset.
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| Greenwich |
The commentary was going to be provided by the magnificently named (and he must have taken some stick whilst at school) Benedict O'Looney, and I kid you not. He did a grand job talking us through the entire trip to Erith and back. Although on the way back, as I expected he was referring to sites we could barely see, for example the lock gates to the King George V dock, I saw it because I new where it was supposed to be, well I saw a dark murky shadow.
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| The trip was well supported |
There must have been getting onto 100 people making the cruise and on a boat that accommodates 250 there was plenty of room. Most people rode up top in the open on the way out, with the current and against the tide, the return trip most people retired to the lower deck as we were now heading in to current, it was dark, and now pretty breezy.
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| Angerstein Wharf near Greenwich |
As for myself I was switching from side to side and between decks. The return trip was slightly spoilt by a number of people who obviously found it a bit boring deciding to have a bit of a booze up, speaking very loudly thus making it heard to hear the commentary. The boat had a bar, and I was taken aback when I was charged £2.50 for a cup of tea! But this was softened slightly when I was given a complementary Snickers bar. The boat, whose name I can't recall, was similar in layout to a Thames Clipper, was very smart and well appointed and comfortable.
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| Tate & Lyle Refinery |
So what did I gain from my two and half hour trip, quite a lot really, it was very interesting, some I already knew, some was incorrect and some was new to me.
Benedict was very enthusiastic as you would expect, he is an architect himself, has his own practice in Peckham called O'Looney Associates (titter, titter schoolboy style) and he delivered his words either off the cuff or pre-prepared. He's not what I would call a natural public speaking but he knows his stuff especially the architects who designed a lot of the building we saw. He was guilty of trying to use one too any superlatives and sometimes found it difficult to conjure up the right one, but I don't want to put him down as he did a great job and kept me interested, neither I'm not going say rather him than me because I would love to do something like that.
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| Thames Barrier |
So what did we see, well loads as you would expect. We started with the Greenwich Navel College, now Greenwich University, The Queens House, Greenwich Power Station, Trinity House Hospital, Millwall, the Isle of Dogs and we hadn't even got round the first bend in the river!
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| The Woolwich Ferry |
I was really chuffed to "sail" past the Tate & Lyle Refinery and get a good look from the river, I was interested to learn that Thamesmead was never completed as originally planned, I overheard one table state 'Thamesmead, that really rough' and I wouldn't disagree at all. I refereed football matches down there a couple of times, my god that was uncomfortable, in the end I refused to referee down there.
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| View upstream towards the City |
Then onto Canary Wharf and all the building architects got a good airing, mainly Americans although one of the taller towers was a Norman Foster effort. The Ravensbourne College on the Greenwich Peninsula was pointed out, this now explains it's wonderful colour scheme. There's a Gormley statue near Greenwich Yacht club and the Dome which Benedict pointed contains the shape of Gormley when looked at in the right way, just like one of his metal men. I've seen this statue a number of times and this evening was the first time I had noticed his shape - wonderful!
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| Erith Waste Centre |
The Dangleway apparently cost £43million, my god! The Thames Barrier was expected to be raised about ten times a year when originally planned, my god! There's an indent around the barrier housing which indicates the water level at Westminster, if the water raises above this indent at Woolwich it means Westminster is being flooded! Apparently it's not just a case of raising the Barrier, there's a sequence of closures involving Barking Creek and the River Darant amongst others. We went past the sewage outfalls or at least where they used to be under the London sewage extraction scheme created by Joseph Bazalgette which included his two huge swear outlet pipes from London following the big stink. We could just make out the Crossness pumping station where there is one, if not two, working beam engines, well worth a visit.
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| Former Ford Dagenham wharf |
We were now at Erith and here we have the modern Human waste processing plant, and a waste incinerator which turns waste in to electricity, but most fascinating was the nut oil factory (actually I don't know if that's factually correct) it has a number of concrete silos which date back to 1916, amazing.
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| Canary Wharf |
I was fascinated to learn about the Beckton Gas works which was apparently enormous, and whilst all gone now, the metal piers which supported the jetties and wharfs still remain firmly embedded in the river shore, looking like sentinels guarding the foreshore in the semi darkness.
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| More Flats being built |
We went up close to the site of the former Ford Motor works at Dagenham and what a site that must have been it even had its own blast furnace at one time, the only one in Southern England. At the time of passing there was a huge ferry boat and I mean big, I don't know what it was doing as they don't make cars at Dagenham anymore.
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| Canary Wharf |
So all in all a good adventure, the only downside was getting home, which took me an hour, two buses and a walk and it's barely four miles away. I will certainly be booking up for more of these trips.
