A Mystery Walk - Sunday February 2nd 2014
The only information that Ian would give us relating to his “Mystery Walk” on Sunday 2nd February was that we should meet at Snaresbrook Station at 11.50, and that it would be “interesting”.
Along the Thames PathSo fourteen of us met there, caught a tube and changed to the Jubilee line at Stratford for London Bridge. A nice bright day amongst so many dull wet ones, not very windy and not very cold. Reaching the River, we headed through the tourists to and across Tower Bridge then, past the sailing barges and huge yachts, through St. Katherine's Dock. We then walked alongside the ex-warehouse homes of the poor East london locals and past some nice old ex-industrial buildings such as the power station of the London Hydraulic Power Company, and on towards Limehouse. Occasionally we even managed to access the Thames Path through the so-often-locked security gates of the poor-peoples' dwellings.
London Hydraulic Power Company's stationOn the way we stopped for meals at a local hostelry. I didn't make a note of the name because the whole place seemed a bit of a farce to me. You had to go upstairs to eat, although there was plenty of room downstairs, and it wasn't possible to eat outside, although some of us would have liked to. They had no lemonade, and water and coffee turned up late and the latter was not hot - and no-one working there seemed to have any idea what tortillas are supposed to be.
Ascending towards Canary WharfAt Limehouse there are at least a few older-style dwellings still in existence – 1930s maisonettes and the like – where they hadn't been bombed out or bought out, although the local Barley Mow pub has been turned into a gastro-pub by somebody called Gordon Ramsey. On a previous walk in October 2005, following much the same route, somebody outside of Wapping Station had asked if we were lost. I suggested that I'd almost certainly known the area before he'd arrived, and probably before he was born; I think now he may have been right.
Still enjoying the sunshine after a 3.6 mile stroll (and a very spread-out one, as seems to be the way with EFOG), we all managed to get onto the same DLR train to return via Stratford.
Paul Ferris, 3rd February 2014
A 3.6 mile walk. Those taking part were: Ian Greer in the lead (some of the time), Annick, Bernie, Fozie, Fred, Fritz, Jacky, Jenny, Lynne, Pam, Peter B., Peter G., Paul and Val.