Blogs Along the Thames: Canary Wharf to Greenwich

Faithful readers of Dottore Gianni's blog posts (is there such a fellow or lass who IS a faithful reader these days? One wonders...) will remember that the good doctor took a fine walk from Tower Bridge to Canary Wharf along the North Bank of the Thames earlier this spring.

Canary Wharf from the riverfront

The next task I set myself in conquering the Thames was to continue that walk, heading from Canary Wharf to Greenwich. I set out on this task at the very end of March, just about a week ago. If you've ever been to Canary Wharf, you'll know that the area is overwhelming, and meant to be. It can also be a bit of a maze and, to be candid, a damned difficult place in which to find public toilets. As I really wanted to start the walk...shall we say fresh?...I spent some time searching out such facilities whilst moving in the general direction of the riverside, and had no luck in the search. Undeterred, I trod on and managed the walk in spite of the lack of facilities, for which I can only give a very low grade to those who set up Canary Wharf. of course those who set up Canary Wharf never have need of public facilities, as they have their own private privies built for them!


If some of my readers are uncomfortable with talk of urges and privies and such, let me remind you that some of the greatest diarists fearlessly focused on them. Samuel Pepys, for example, was intrigued with and wrote about the qualitiy of his stools, and I don't mean the kind with four short legs! Personal needs aside, however, I shall endeavor to talk walk, and not any other subject!

The river at Canary Wharf

Once at the riverside I searched for Thames Path signs, even though I knew the direction in which I'd have to walk. I'm not sure the authorities at Canary Wharf were  concerned with cluttering their bankside with signs or what they were thinking, but there are precious few of these markers around, in an area that needs them. Scold, scold! I followed my nose and the rather obvious waterway through an area of rather unattractive construction and ended up on a broad promenade that followed the river a good bit of the way from Canary Wharf to the rest of the Isle of Dogs.

The promenade and the condos

I must admit that while it's great that the promenade covers so much waterfront in an area of expensive condominiums, the condos themselves are rather soulless affairs, sometimes a little scary such as the two buildings below that cantilever close together so that their penthouses (if that's what they are) seem like the set for Les Miserables just as the barricades are coming together!  

Penthouses inspired by Les Mis?!

Those two duelling penthouses are among the worst examples, per Dottore Gianni's brilliant architectural/cultural critique, of ostentatious and tasteless manifestations of power and money that are so typical in places where those two commodities rule. In fact much of the long-ish walk through the Isle of Dogs is one of the least interesting that I have taken on the river, as i don't really have a thing for cantilevered penthouses and a less than luscious riverbank on the opposite shore. 

One patch of green on the Isle of Dogs

The bankside on which I walked was nearly all such housing except for one roomy and hospitable looking park, a pretty patch of green sorely needed on this peninsula made mostly of concrete and steel, and across the river there was little to be seen but factories and more tall, barren condominiums. But the day was fair and warm, I was strolling next to a wide expanse of water, and while fhis was hardly my favorite walk along the Thames I can't or at least shouldn't really complain about it.


Finally, after almost too much of this wretched excess, Thames Path signs reappeared directing the pedestrian off the waterfront, or perhaps rescuing him from it! I for once found myself actually looking forward

to the diversion. I was right to feel that way, as almost as soon as I left the water there appeared an first unusual and cleverly transformed building that might have once been a church or some sort of transport station but which now served in part as a cafe/bar/restaurant called Hubbub, and also as a community arts centre called The Space. I just this minute googled it and it was in fact once a Victorian chapel for shipbuilders, in 1999 transformed into this place that defines its cafe/bar thus:

"Set in a former Victorian chapel, we are a true haven in Docklands.

From light lunches and mouthwatering snacks to home-made burgers with thick cut chips, we offer great value, fresh seasonal cooking to our loyal customers and visitors alike.

We have free Wi-Fi so you can surf while you to recharge your batteries with a coffee, or whilst enjoying one of our famous breakfasts.

It's the perfect spot to unwind, read the papers and relax with a glass of wine from our exciting list, or meet with friends for a drink on our too comfortable sofa!"

More fun off the waterfront than on!

St Edmund's Catholic Church, Millwall

This building was followed quickly by a small-ish Roman Catholic Church of not uninteresting design, a kind of modernized Italian Renaissance chapel with campanile in the eyes of Dottore Gianni. And then, when directed back onto the waterway only a short distance after this siting, buildings seemed to calm down a tad, and to increase in simple elegance, a great pleasure after the ridiculo-hideous condos earlier on in my walk.

An example of this is Burrell's Wharf, which to my only slightly trained eyes continues a theme of the Italian Renaissance. I discovered from a bit of creative googling that I was in the area called Millwall, formerly known as Marshwall.

Burrell's Wharf Square

 Its current name is due to the presence in days gone by of several windmills. Corn was delivered to Millwall via the Thames, and here it was ground into flour. The area is also known for the launch in 1858 of the SS Great Eastern, the largest ship of its time. So large was it, however, that it could not head straight out into the Thames and had to be launched on its side! It was the last large ship to be launched from this spot on the river. In the 1860s the Millwall Dock was built and the spillage from its creation spawned a creation of its own, called Mudchute. While the name is not very pleasant, the fertile land that the spillage yielded has been turned into a wildlife habitat, another patch of green in this barren isle. That was threatened in the 1970s by high rise buildings, but residents fought to insure that the park itself would remain, and it has. An interesting place, Millwall.  It even has a great football team and a rising rugby team! If I ever had money and a choice, I'd spend my time in this section of the Isle of Dogs, and not that closer to Canary Wharf.

A pleasant section of the Isle of Dogs
in the vicinity of Millwall

I think that the finer sense of proportion I've just described has something to do with the nearness of Greenwich, which I was fast approaching. 

First sighting of Greenwich

In fact I saw some of its main features,  the steeple of St Alfege's Church, the Old Royal Naval College and the nearly completely resurrected Cutty Sark in the distance across the Thames not far past Burrell's Wharf. On the waterfront there is a Thai Restaurant with great views across to Greenwich, and just after that, Thames Path markers direct pedestrians back away from the waterfront, until they are returned to it quickly at Island Gardens, another green piece of ground on the Isle of Dogs with probably the best view of Christopher Wren's elegant creation across the river.

The Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, designed by Christopher Wren
in the center beyond the college, the Queen's House, designed by Inigo Jones
and just above that the Royal Observatory

Now, how to cross the River Thames? By ferry? Perhaps there once was one, but not today. By swimming? Brave men have become seriously ill trying. By a foot tunnel beneath the river? Unlikely, but in fact yes, that is the only method! 

Foot tunnel under the Thames

This tunnel was completed in 1902 and is currently undergoing major refurbishment. This translates to no elevator service on either side of the river, but it's not a terrible descent or climb, maybe 80-100 steps. Not terrible, that's to say, except psychologically. I have crossed under rivers frequently, in my car, and I've also crossed under the English channel via chunnel train, but there's something about walking under that leaves me feeling completely unprotected. Irrational? Of course! As if a Toyota Corolla or even a chunnel train would be of any protection if a larger tunnel under the sea would collapse! Still, I slightly fear the foot tunnel. As Dottore Gianni has famously stated, "It is one thing to walk along the River Thames, quite another to walk beneath it!

View across the Thames from Geeenwich

Once out of the tunnel I strolled through lovely, if somewhat crowded Greenwich before heading back to the waterside, now on the Greenwich side of the river, down by the Old Royal Naval College. I sat on a bench and ate an apple while staring across the river in the direction from which I'd come. The walk had been longer than I'd expected, but I thought I'd explore the river bank a wee bit farther on, and I was glad I did. Just past the college, which had started as a hospital, a place for injured sailors to recuperate and live, much like at Les Invalides in Paris, 

there is a well-known pub right on the water called The Trafalgar. This pub was erected in 1837, the year of Victoria's ascension to the throne of England, and is a great example outside and in of the Regency style. Famous men including William Gladstone and Charles Dickens dined here, and there is a small elegant statue of Admiral Nelson outside the building, which you might just be able to make out in the photo opposite. I continued from there along a small back alley that features another smaller pub called The Yacht, where I'd really like to have a pint at some point as it too fronts on the river, and beyond that some very nice-looking flats.

The Yacht

Cleverly placed flats, just down from
the Yacht, but with no river view

Farther along still I found a small hospital even older than the Royal Naval Hospital. Trinity Hospital. Constructed in 1616 this is the oldest building in Greenwich.

Holy Trinity Hospital, 1616

I decided to walk just a wee bit longer and stopped at another pub, The Cutty Sark, set in another elegant Georgian building.  And there I decided to end my walk.

The Cutty Sark Pub

I probably should have stopped in to whet my whistle, but I had come a long way and was more than ready to get back aboard the DLR and head back to Gloucester Rd for a well deserved rest.

Last look across the Thames from the Cutty Sark Pub