An Exploratory walk along the Lower Lea

(This wasn't a programmed EFOG walk, but was walked by two EFOG members - possibly as a pre-ramble to a possible ramble. If any members feel like doing it, let me know. It is a bit out-of-the-ordinary and a not-very-difficult 5 miles or so.)

A nice sunny day after a dull rainy one yesterday, and Pam and I decided to take a walk – which turned out to be a little on the wild side in a couple of ways.

I'd done this walk before, or something very close to it, early last year. Then – as today – was a bit of an exploration to see if it was yet possible to negotiate the lower reaches of the Lea without negotiating too much of industrial Canning Town. It turned out that it is not yet possible...

Pudding Mill Lane DLR was the starting point, and even the station entrance approach looked very different from when the Group had used it for last-year's tour of the pre-Olympic Park. Walking in the general direction of the Bow flyover, we first tried a somewhat overgrown ex-towpath to our right at the first bit of “back-river” that we came to. Apart from a welcome from a worried security guard, the way proved – not unexpectedly – not very welcoming and led us nowhere you'd want to be or could get out of.

An anti-nuclear ecological green man by the gasworksHowever, on the other bank and in the other direction (ie back towards Stratford), a new section of river (or canal)-side path has been created, so we went along that. It is a short stretch, and leads to a rather important lock in the confused water system here. I understand that it is a bit special because at one time it locked water that was tidal both sides. Whether that's true now I couldn't work out. There is a very attractive (sort of) ex lock-keepers cottage here, painted in a shade of blue that is almost totally out of keeping with the rest of the buildings hereabouts, but which will probably become famous.

Crossing the Stratford-to-Bow Road, we visited part of the premises of what used to be a pigment & resin company - or maybe paint. Something has sprung up here that looks like an on-end cheese skyscraper, but Pam explained that it probably represents one of the Olympic torches. There's also a plainly attractive outdoor seating area next to the cut, which is associated with an indoor eating experience with prices that represent just what the east-end is coming to.

We didn't eat there, but staved off hunger and thirst in favour of the more homely fare of the House Mill at Bromley-by-Bow – an area which the Group is completely familiar with 'cos I've walked you there before. Crossing the great tidal lock-gates at Bow Locks, we had to necessarily back-track along the first real wilderness: Gillender Street. This is the Gillender Street which the south-bound Blackwall Tunnel traffic is always backing up to, though why anyone would want to back up to this...

Canary Wharf from the Private bridge at Bow LocksThe back-track was to enable crossing of the Lea itself, by means of the Private bridge that always led to the gas-works. Now that the gas-works doesn't work anymore, the Private bridge now allows ordinary pedestrians, buses and vehicles that have due reason to cross it, across. I found this out the last (and first) time I'd been to “the other bank” (ie the Essex side), for now a new footpath - aptly but stupidly named “The Fat Walk” - has been provided as part of the 50 mile Lea Valley Path, from Luton to the Thames. Last time I'd walked the Fat Path alone, this time I had Pam with me so felt safer. It is nice and wide (“Fat Walk”, see!), has seats and lights, but is totally disconnected from any other human beings except walkers and rogues and footpads (and maybe cyclists) by a twenty-foot fence. You could have a great audience of spectators whilst a footpad was demanding your purse. Anyway, we saw a bloke walking his dogs – which barked but wagged their tails as well, so that was alright.

This lovely path – and it is nice, albeit the Middlesex bank is mostly scrapyards – runs alongside the tidal Lea, with the wildness of reed-beds and mud-banks edging it. Swans, Mallards, Cormorants, Gulls, rafts of Teal, Wagtails – even a Sandpiper – were all to be seen. Then we reached the barrier where I'd been stymied last time. A couple of hundred metres beyond can be seen what appears to be a continuation of the path, but between it and us is Cody Dock. I moaned of course that by the time any connection will be made to enable the Lea-side path to reach the Thames I shall be extinct or at least more decrepit than I am now. We turned back to where it is possible to follow a passage through the business estate area (reason for the fences) and out into real streets. One of the real streets – near Star Lane DLR – is Stephenson Street, and if you'd like a taste and smell of real Victorian-style east London, that'd be a good place to go. I don't like it very much.

Stephenson Street sort of spills -  or perhaps vomits - onto the Canning Town Flyover, but we went under it. There is an encouraging notice: “ Bow Creek Ecology Park”, and then the approach dives into a black hole to which at least somebody has added a burnt out three-piece suite, amongst other things. On the other side of the black hole, “Bow Creek Ecology Park” is writ in large friendly letters across the tarmac alongside part of the DLR. To cross the DLR and access Canning Town Station a new ramped bridge has been built. It had been built last time, but the same fence inhibiting access is still there, so you can't get that way to the station. I was back to my rantings about a tower block in Stratford going up between going to bed one night and getting up the following morning and the non-opening of a pedestrian bridge after two years.

Fat Boy's Diner at Trinity Buoy WharfThe ecology park is actually a nice place. I've been there before and it has a lot of managed wildness about it – very pretty and with bees and things in the summer. But it wasn't summer and the clocks have gone back and the sun was getting low, so we crossed the Blue Bridge and walked towards Orchard Place and our Thames-side destination. Orchard Place is one of those out-of-the-way places that is just being discovered by London and the World. I discovered it quite a few years ago, after hearing tales of the strange, in-bred community that once lived here, separated from their fellow men – even those that lived in Poplar a mile away.

Surprisingly, I thought, there were a few other visitors making their way towards London's Lighthouse. Oh Yes there is! It is an intrinsic component of Trinity Buoy Wharf, where there is also a Perpetual Music Player and Fat Boy's Diner, where we dined on burgers, cokes and milk shakes as the Sun went down. The tenders in the diner were Sicilians, but there was at least a woman customer from California to give it some sense of reality.

The metal gates of the old East India Dock were still open as we walked back along Orchard Place in a rapidly darkening evening, but we went in anyway to look at the river and Canary Wharf in a dull red sunset. Just opposite is the Doom, or Otwo as it is now termed, all illuminated-like. East India Dock Basin – now another wildlife and dog-walking area – was not illuminated and I had difficulty finding my way out the other side, but luckily a handy dog-walker knew her way, or the dog did, so we followed.

We came back by train, East India DLR station being nearby.

Paul Ferris, Remembrance Sunday, November, 2012

For more information on the missing link in the path at Cody Dock, have a  look at this website:

 http://www.gasworksdock.org.uk/index.php?mact=News

As walkers, you may even consider contributing to the fund, as I have done. We spoke to a member of the Gasworks Dock organisation who is trying to do something about it.

There is a nice pdf file available from London Borough of Newham about the proposals for the "Fatwalk" by clicking here