Thames Crossings - Thames Clipper - Masthouse Terrace Pier to Woolwich - Friday 10th October 2014

Oh well British Summer Time's almost over and I won't be able to take many photos of my walks home shortly. Even now its too dark by 18:00 to take any decent shoots. Well at least the video works pretty well in the dark and I must say I'm pretty pleased with my speeded up video of the trip on the Thames Clipper from Masthouse Terrace Pier to Woolwich. The trip actually took just under 20 minutes whilst my speeded up version is a little under three minutes, I even think the music fits well!

So what happened onto days trip, as normal not a lot. I made sure I left on the spot at 17:00 tonight as I was not sure if the trip would take longer than usual given the extended trip on the Thames Clipper. As it is I was home by 20:00 which is 20 minutes earlier than the regular walk.

I left by the back entrance, out via the tradesman's entrance and then it was the normal direct route, past Spitalfields, across Brick Lane.

Spitalfields

Brick Lane

I crossed Whitechapel Road, across Commercial Road, and into Watney Street market, still busy at 17:30.

Watney Street Market

Past Shadwell left into Cable Street then into Narrow Street and long the River front, with a good sunset developing. Then its all along the Thames path apart from the short road walk between Sir John Dougall Gardens and Docklands Sailing Club.

Thames Barge

I was quite surprised to find myself arriving at Masthouse Terrace Pier just across from Greenwich in time to catch the 18:26 Thames Clipper, if I was in time given the need to take photos, purchase a ticket and get the video camera out!

Sunset over the Pepy's Estate Deptford

Here comes the boat, but no ticket, but I did get the sunset over the Pepy's estate in Deptford, and the boat arriving but no video footage. The boat docked, people got off and the crew lifted the gangway, 'Hang on, I won't to get on' shouted the other passenger 'Only joking replied' the crew, I bet!

Thames Clipper arriving

I purchased my ticket on board, which cost £4.50 with a travelcard discount, I do feel the pricing of the service is a little steep compared to a tube or a train, but the view is far more spectacular! By the time I had completed the transaction we were arriving at Greenwich. I will need to remember this when I do that crossing and ensure I get my ticket first otherwise I will not be able to film!

Canary Wharf

I spent the journey filming, catching the sunset and the fading lights of Canary Wharf and then I concentrated on the river front at Greenwich and the Greenwich Peninsula. At the O2 or North Greenwich as the stop is called most passengers got off, mainly the "beautiful young people" obviously heading for a themed meal in one of the many high street chained restaurant or the cinema. Well I guess it beats paying £20 to park in the car park. Personally I don't like the O2 as a venue of choice for a night out, it was bad enough when I went there for the cinema, and don't get me going about the Tooting Car Moon exhibition in 2007!

Canary Wharf again!

On the final leg of the trip, I concentrated on the north bank and my favourite location Tate & Lyle. We slowed down to go between the Thames Barrier which was impressive all lit up and soon we arrived at Woolwich, and with a a final shot of the City I disembarked for the remaining 3 mile walk home, but not before taking some photos of the metal men in the Arsenal.

Assembly - Woolwich Arsenal

The walk home was quick, somehow I managed to walk through Woolwich and in particular Powis Street which meant I walking back on myself!

As I entered Academy Road it started to rain slightly but nothing to bad, and when I got home I had a lovely Bottle of German Weisse Beer!

A very good trip, the Thames Clipper at night is highly recommended!


View my video of the Thames Clipper Trip here!

Open City River Cruise - Wednesday 24 September

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thames Crossing - The Woolwich (Free) Ferry - Friday 22 August 2014

The last time I did this crossing was way back in January I went the wrong way and ended up going  via Bromley-by-Bow adding a good couple of miles to the walk and I ended up having to run along the ferry approach to catch the last Ferry of the day at 20:00. But that was not the worse part, that was the sense of exposure, almost threat I felt as I walked across the Lower Lea Crossing and turned into Dock Road. Remember this was January, it's was dark, nobody was around, I was in the middle of the Crossrail construction site, well the road that runs through it, a Hanson Concrete factory on one side and high fences and the Docklands Light Raiway high above me on silts on the other side. There was nobody about, it was rather creepy, I felt a little bit more comfortable, when the road opened out into the North Woolwich Road, and I had some new flats on my right. However once the road turned off to for City Airport I entered the realms of Silvertown, never a particularly attractive area dominated by the Tate and Lyle refinery, and the old North London Railway line running down the centre of the road, now it was even worse, the Railway line was, and still is, a construction site for CrossRail and a lot of the buildings down Actory Road have closed and been boarded up, no one was around, it was bleak. I remember getting to work the following Monday and retelling my experiences and stating I would not be going that way until the light evenings return.

Well here I am almost eight months later the light evening have come and are almost gone, so I needed to fulfil my own promise to walk this route once more in the daylight. I need to get there by 20:00 to catch the last Ferry, although not so critical as I can always use the foot tunnel after all that's next week's walk.

I left work at 17:30 slightly later than I anticipated and took almost the same route as last week although rather than walking down the Commercial Road I kept to the back streets, Stepney Way as far as Limehouse. I know this area quite well have delivered a number of local walks for the Ramblers Association a few years back. This route passes through a conservation area, with attractive yellow bricked two up, two down cottages, which 50 odd years ago would have been called slums! 

I passed a chap standing outside his house, with shopping bags and reading a book "left your keys behind?" I called out, he responded with a nod "been there, done that" I replied, well at least it wasn't raining! 

Unlike the other week, when I crossed via the Dangleway, this time the weather was brighter and everything looked a lot fresher, I expect the view from the Dangleway was good this evening

The walk along Dock Road and the North Woolwich Road was not at all threatening this time, it was light, there where people about and traffic was frequently passing me, and as I passed the Docklands Stations there were plenty of people hurrying home to their flats that a) either weren't there before or b) were hidden away in the dark.

One building I definitely did not see before was the Tate and Lyle building, I obviously saw the refinery at Silvertown before, but not this one at West Silvertown, in fact I don't recall having seen it from the other side of the river either.

Tate & Lyle Building

When I arrived at Actory Road I made sure I crossed the Crossrail works at the earliest opportunity as there is still no access to the ferry along this road. Funnily enough the footbridge I used is the original railway footbridge that used to be at Silvertown Station.

Crossrail Site (Tate & Lyle refinery in background)

Actory Road did not feel as threatening this time either, although the Henley Arms, not a pub I would be that keen to visit, was a little, how can I put it? Meanwhile the Crossrail works are progressing, they have built a very impressive eight foot concrete wall down the middle of the road where the North London Line used to run, and is it horrible, yes it is, just what you want when you walk out your front door, but I guess it's required to help reduce the noise of the Crossrail trains which are going to be far more frequent than the old North London Line, that ran at best two trains an hour, one each way.

Nice View!

Poor old Silvertown does not have much to offer, there's been quite a lot of new developments but it's not somewhere you would make a point a visiting, not of course unless your me! It must suffer somewhat as this is where the North Circular Road ends and the ferry crossing to Woolwich is still very popular with heavy and high vehicles as both the Blackwell and Rotherhithe tunnels have height restrictions, so I expect a number of heavy duty lorries rumble through here during the day.

The Woolwich Ferry

There was no need to run to catch the Ferry as it ws only 19:20 and therefore I should be able to catch the 19:30 sailing, although I did note that the road to the approach road was closed with a sign stating the 'Ferry Closed' that was ominous, although turning the corner my fears were proved unfounded as cars where queuing further along the approach road. The problem was that they had taken one of the Ferries out of service which meant I in fact once again ended up catching the last ferry!

Loading the Ferry

The crossing is very quick only about three minutes, plus a a couple of minutes to weigh anchor and dock. There were only about six foot passengers, most of the business no doubt taken by either the foot tunnel or the Docklands Railway. The passenger accommodation below decks is cavanous, there's even some no-smoking rooms!  I stood on the starboard side of the ferry ( actually I don't know which side starboard is) but was asked to move to the Port side for disembarkation.

Anchor's aweigh!

The sky was fairly dramatic, large grey clouds, a slight threat of rain, interspersed with blue and looking up river with distant views of Canary Wharf the sun was begining to set giving the underside of the clouds a warm orange glow. 

View down River

Apparently there's been a river crossing here since the fourtenth century although the present service was introduced in 1889 as a free service established by the Metropolitan Board of Works, the forerunner of the Greater London Council, it was originally served by three paddle steamers named Gordon (after the General of Khartoum, you know Chalton Heston) Duncan and Hutton. The current fleet was introduced in in 1963 and are named after local politicians John Burns, Ernest Bevin and James Newman.

Sunset across the Thames

Having crossed the river I continued home up the hill passing the Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich Common and then diverting past the Woolwich Academey up Red Lion Lane to Shooters Hill through the woods past Sevendroog  Castle, which looks very smart now it's been repaired, they have even floodlit it and then home, and another mission accomplished.

And here's the film of the trip on the Ferry about six minutes