Tuesday 18 March 2014 – Greenwich.
After applying for a few jobs throughout the the morning I decided to take a walk to Greenwich after lunch. I have been there a few times before and have never had a really good look around as it is quite a big space; not that I ended up with one this time either. It is a good two hour walk there from my place so by the time I arrived things were winding down, and I was a bit knackered anyway. I did spend an hour there and knocked off a couple of things I wanted to do, like walk under the Thames in the pedestrian tunnel and try to find the bank building were my mum worked when she first left school.
I did manage to walk under the river, but I failed to find the bank building as the high street of Greenwich Town has changed a lot since then. Sorry Mum !!
As I will return to Greenwich another day I didn’t really make note of the things I took pictures of, so not a lot of detail here about the history of the place. Another time perhaps. I did enjoy the walk and I did enjoy taking pictures.
I walked from my place in London Bridge as much as I could along the side of the Thames. The way is a wee bit confusing, poor signage and new building works, plus having to go around all the little wharves make it a longer walk than it looks. A couple of miles up the Thames from home is the Brunel Museum, somewhere I have yet to visit, and I didn’t today due to time restraints, the building is cool though.
This says a lot of things about this part of London !
Yesterday, when I vaguely planned going for a walk this afternoon the forecast was for a bit of cloud and a bit of sun, I think the sun may have passed by in the morning while I was head down in my laptop as I had to delay my departure due to a brief shower. There were a couple along the way, but this was made up for by some lovely clouds, and the sun did briefly pop out once I had arrived.
This is Surrey Docks Farm, a small farm garden in the heart of Thames side south east London, very neat. It would be great to see more community vegetable spaces in London.
A lot of the Thames Walk passes around the side of old and new housing estates and blocks of very expensive flats. In most cases you can walk river side of these blocks, but sometimes there is a detour round the side streets.
The whole of the east city area of the Thames was a working port and most of the older building are the warehouses that served the many many wharves along the banks. Here and there are relics from the days when ships were worked here.
Peter the Great, the Russian Tzar once studied shipbuilding as a youth and lived in Deptford in the late 1600s, I assume before he was the king 🙂 There is a monument to him on the river side.
Once I arrived at Greenwich my first stop was for a coffee and the cafe I chose just happened to also be the brewery for the lovely Meantime beer, we sold a couple of varieties in the pub I worked in. I was well behaved and only had a coffee, decaf ! Oh, Ok and a chocolate chip biscuit 🙂
I spent most of an hour wandering around the royal college area at Greenwich, as well as walking up to Greenwich town in a failed attempt to find mum’s bank.
Apart from nipping inside the Painted Hall just before closing I was outside the Old Royal Naval College. I really enjoyed the fact that there was hardly anyone around while I was there.
The Cutty Sark.
I have been to Greenwich, and written about it a couple of times before, but I did not realise the tunnel under the Thames was still running until my flatmate mentioned it recently. I had walked past the entrance at least a couple of times on earlier visits and just did not realise what it was.
So I decided to walk under the Thames to the other side, it takes a few minutes and is a little weird as there are numerous damp patches on the walls.
I took a photo of the Old Royal Naval College from the other side and then walked back through the tunnel to Greenwich, where I caught a train home.
It was a really enjoyable walk and again I was happy with the photos I took.
Where is Phil now? 