A walk from Chinatown to the outer reaches of the Home Galaxy
After the Copped Hall evening-walk-and supper the night before, 7am on Sunday 6th February 2011 was bit of a hardship for me, but at least it wasn't as dark.
It was also a bit of a numbers game, because tickets had been booked for a show at Greenwich, and some were walking there (almost) from Westferry near the Isle of Dogs, and some were meeting us at the show-house.
The initial some were 13, and essentially by means of two separate DLR trains we arrived at Westferry (originally known as Chinatown) to depart therefrom on Susan B.'s Sunday Walk. Therefrom isn't a word and is thus underlined in red on my word processor, but I don't care. 
Limekiln Dock - old warehouses, new homes and efogersIt was a breezy walk, too – enhanced by the proximity to the Thames; indeed, the River was a major player in this walk. One of our first details of note was a reproduction gate in a purposeless wall beyond which was dock that served the lime house from which the area took its name. You can't actually use the gate – it's a bit like a film set where the camera crew just go round the edge of the scenery whilst the actors go through the door; in this case, we were the film crew. Still – it all looks quite quaint, with the remains of warehouses alongside the dock and mud in it.
Holding onto our hats, (some of us had hats) we walked along the Thames Path until. Inevitably - as is the way with the Thames Path - we were detoured inland, in this case towards number One Canada Square (Canary Wharf Tower - 770ft), which enabled us to look at some traffic lights. If I'd been driving I wouldn't have known what to do; apparently they're some sort of sculptured tourist attraction. Walking away from the river here, though – depending on your take on these things – is something of an experience. The range of architecture and building styles (if these can be separated?) is quite astounding. From the Canary Wharf area developments based on New York through to Victorian terraced housing – and pubs, fire-stations and chapels – these intermingle and change from street to street and view to view. Particularly outstanding, perhaps, was the lovely Italianate chapel, once a Presbyterian Church, now a social centre and café. The last aspect of present usage encouraged a few of our number to grab a hot drink.
St. Paul's Presbyterian Church - chapel - cafe - theatreWe regained the Thames soon after, to view the original timber balks that formed the slipway down which Brunel's ship “The Great Eastern” was launched. I find it strange that a ship was named after a railway company, and am somewhat dubious about the ship having been launched here – sideways or otherwise – because there is a road in the way. Still, to press on – adjacent to the launch site there is the remains of Burrell's Wharf, where the ship was built (I suppose this does add some credence to it). I don't mean remains in the sense of dereliction, because as is common here, new – and expensive – housing has been built and sometimes adapted from older building. The glory of the old here were the somewhat Italianate Gantry House and Mast House buildings and a magnificent octagonal chimney stack.
The sign says that the island's oldest building is the Ferry House Pub in Ferry Street, of 1722 - but there are a couple of mysteries here. Firstly, it doesn't look like something built in 1722 and secondly - even it it were - how comes the other claim that it served the likes of Samuel Pepys when he died in 1703? There is an odd time anomaly here, perhaps something to do with Greenwich being the other side of the river. Nearby is Johnson's Draw Dock which still gives valuable and easy access to the river itself. Some of us took advantage of this by having a paddle until a police launch arrived and Lynne frightened me by saying it was all my fault. The ferry boat of course no longer plies across to Greenwich, and instead a foot tunnel doesn't at present provide an alternative, so we resorted to a one-stop trip across on the DLR. The DLR, by the way, is a very heavily used toy train.
The Ferry House pub: a mystery of timeGreenwich is south of the river, so by its very nature is weird. It is quite interesting, though, and still does everything it can to maintain its maritime heritage. It's exactly like the Isle of Dogs in that way, except that on the Isle of Dogs it's housing and docks and in Greenwich it is naval and shops. Greenwich is also uphill, whereas the Island doesn't have any (except at the mudchutes – and they are artificial). Oh – and they also do Time here, as well.
With the latter aspect of our journey probably completely out of mind for most of us - except for what time the show was - we proceeded uphill to the observatory complex, and didn't waste any time doing the usual east-west thing. We were also too early for the show, so we separated into three or more sub-groups for toilets, inside snacks and outside snacks. I chose the outside snack option, complete with starlings. These weren't part of the show but were doing a busking act: singing lustily to encourage the offerings of a sandwich or a cuppa.
At last the show-time came; we took our seats – preferably near the back as Susan advised - and lay back to enjoy the performance. I was awake through most of it, but that was probably because other members of the group were snoring - and I enjoyed it immensely. We were taken on a journey from Greenwich beyond one of the outer arms of a somewhat insignificant spiral galaxy to a point in space (and time?) where we could view not only our galaxy but quite a few others. On the way we were shown how “the ancients” had devised names for apparent clusters and groupings of stars that really have nothing to do with each other at all (except on a somewhat universal level). The ancients must have had either really very different eye-sights from me, or were vastly more artistic in their interpretations, because – apart from perhaps three exceptions – none of the things like bears, crabs, teapots and umbrellas looked anything like any of those things. Blimey – if a group of stars doesn't even look like an umbrella...!
Scaling the heights of the Isle of DogsAnyway – mustn't knock it – nobody came out saying they didn't enjoy the show and it was nice and warm and comfortable and interesting. It wasn't nice and warm and comfortable outside, though. I forgot to mention – and won't play about with moving the paragraphs around – that we had by this time picked up a few more EFOG'ers who had met us at Greenwich, so our numbers had increased by four.
The numbers were not to last long, because people began disappearing into various watering-holes (or noodle-bars), or churches – and one even mysteriously disappeared on visit to a ticket-office! There were horses to be fed and homes to go to, so trains and people came and went, and numbers dropped and then picked up again at Stratford where reunions were made with the lost. Those were soon broken with the arrival of an Epping train, and I was left alone amongst the delayed crowds on Stratford Station until Louise and Ian turned up. The last I saw of Susan's Excellent Sunday EFOG Walk were two of our members heading for Ilford.
Paul Ferris, 6th February 2011