I can’t put it off any longer and must start the next stage. The weather doesn’t look too good, but it doesn’t look too bad either. The news is suggesting that it has rained everyday since the new year. So I think waiting for a fine day is futile. I caught the first off-peak train to London, as such I had to stand the whole way. Not a great start for a long walk.

Arriving at London Bridge Station, to start a walk amongst all the commuters and tourists felt strange. I haven’t dressed too “hikery” so I can blend in! A quick visit to London Bridge (as its the first fixed Bridge that links Kent with Essex) and I headed east on the Thames Path. Initially there were lots of familiar sights such as HMS Belfast, views of the City and Tower Bridge/Tower of London in the distance.

The first surprise was that the iconic Mayor of London’s City Hall is being completely refurbished. It looks like they are taking all the glass off and everything. I don’t think it is very old. I thought I’d better look it up, and it seems it hasn’t been City Hall since 2021, and is being refurbished into shops and offices.

After passing through a tunnel under Tower Bridge, you enter the very olde world of warehouses, and docks. They have all been repurposed as housing and they look really smart. Although you can still imagine what it would have been like a few hundred years ago. Many of the pubs seem to have been untouched for centuries, and you can well imaging them being full of drunken sailors.

I’m walking on a Wednesday, and one of the most striking things is how quiet and deserted this part of London is. I’ve seen the occasional jogger and workman, but that’s about it. I got to Rotherhithe, where I have been before, and the Brunel Museum. The museum is in an old pumping station right next to the Thames Tunnel. This was the first tunnel ever to be constructed under a river (or any water). Looking across the Thames, it was quite an undertaking. It was initially a foot tunnel, with alcoves for people to sell their wares. It’s now used by the London Overground’s, Windrush Line. If you visit the museum (which I heavily recommend), you can ride through the tunnel on a normal train, but it goes slow and they turn the lights on so you can see the alcoves. [Looking at the museum website, I’m not sure if this is still true but the train uses the tunnel between Rotherhithe and Wapping so you can look out the window for free!]

The Thames Path is quiet tortuous, with the riverside path blocked by private developments or industrial areas. I followed a few blind alleys where I would have to turn around, and other times stayed on the roads longer than necessary after missing a tiny turnoff. It was an interesting mix of old and new buildings, and seemingly affluent areas right next to more deprived housing. All arranged around old docks, harbours, warehousing and bridges. The history of the area hasn’t been lost. I came across my first temptation for a stop at Surrey Quays Farm. It had a nice looking cafe and was a real surprise to see a farm (albeit for children) this close to the city. I didn’t stop, but should have as I was getting a tired. Clearly standing for an hour on the train earlier and it seems much harder walking through the streets than through the countryside. Well that’s my excuse anyway.

The Thames Path then crossed over the entrances to a couple of big docks which according to the map are Surrey Quays. The Greenland Dock is the biggest and looks more like a marina now and is full of small craft. There is still evidence of huge hydraulic rams that would have been used to close (I imagine) massive lock gates.

As I skirted around a couple of industrial and redevelopment areas which took me inland through some more darker and deprived areas, I took a call for work. Not the best place to hang about, but it was fine despite what Domald Trump wants you to believe. As I approached Greenwich, newer residential blocks began appearing. It seemed the best ones were either side of the Deptford Creek, looking rather muddy and neglected with the tide out. Not a fantastic outlook in my opinion.

I could see the masts of the Cutty Sark in the distance, and the domes either side of the river covering the stairs down to the Greenwich foot tunnel. It was good to briefly cross the path of my Greenwich Meridian Trail walk back in 2023. That was only my fifth day of walking (and blogging), I’ve walked a lot further since then!

It was very quiet around the Cutty Sark and the Naval College, just a few visitors and one school party as far as I could see. It was a dull, dream day that was threatening to rain at any moment, so perhaps it is no surprise. The surprise to me was the hulking Greenwich Power Station, with four black chimneys. It’s massive and lurking next to really fine architecture of the 1616 Trinity Hospital/Church/Almshouses, which I initally took to be French, but it may just be Latin. According to Wikipedia, the power station is now used as an emergency standby for London Underground. With the size of the station and especially the unloading jetty, it’s hard to imagine the huge amounts of coal being unloaded and the chimneys benching out smoke so close to such a touristy area. You sort of forget that was what Bankside (Tate Modern) and Battersea Power Station did before they were gentrified and Power generation moved out of the cities.

The weather was beginning to turn a bit as I headed towards the O2, or as I call it The Millennium Dome. It was on the horizon and appeared to be in a relatively straight walk. The reason I say this is that Canary Wharf was now on my left side, but it had been on my righthand side only a few hours ago. More dramatically, The Shard, the tallest building in London, was my starting point, that too varied by over 180° as I walked away from it. I think this proves that the mapping is correct and the Thames is quite wigglely as it leaves London.

The approach to the O2 and Greenwich Peninsula was rather uninspiring as it was fenced in almost the whole way. In the case of a golf driving range the fencing seemed appropriate, but generally it was just walls stopping any interesting views. A temporary diversion around a construction site gave me a glimpse of the Blackwall Tunnel entrance, which seems to have been styled on Tower Bridge. The tunnel goes right under the Dome and the Dome was built over one of the ventilation shafts, which explains the cut out you can see  in the roof.

The rain started as i approached the Dome and I decided to pop in and have lunch (and visit the toilets, the lack of provision on this section has been appalling!). I’d walked 15km, but I did have a plan to walk to Erith, which would have been 30km overall. Although, had I left my watch recording as I walked the whole circumference of the dome looking for toilets it would have significantly improved my mileage.

After a cheeky KFC (my KFC clock has been reset, so can wait another six months until my next) I left the Dome into a rain drenched concourse. During lunch I’d planned to push on to Woolwich and the Thames Barrier if it wasn’t raining. It seemed that I had missed the rain while eating, so headed off towards the London Cloud cable car. I didn’t get far before another downpour sent me running for cover. After hanging around for a while I decided to quit while I was near a tube station, rather than getting caught out later in the day.

I took the opportunity to have a look at the downpipes from the Dome as I helped design the surface water drainage network. It was a really prestigious project, and only meant to stand for a few years – seeing it standing 26 years later was not something we could have envisaged at the time. The whole site was an old gas works and one of the most polluted places in London. Just going on site practically required full “hazmat” suits, it was so bad. It’s great to see it as one of London’s principal attractions.

As I jumped on the tube, I felt satisfied that I’d at least started “Kent” and I will build impetus over the next few weeks.