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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Thursday 17 June 2021

Evening Walk - The best stretch of the Thames Path: Greenwich to Woolwich

COVID 19
Track-and-Trace: please provide email address (preferred) or mobile phone number at the start
Rule of Thirty: up to June 21 (at least)
 

The most fascinating stretch of the Thames Path: Maritime Greenwich, Greenwich Peninsula, Charlton, Thames Barrier, Royal Woolwich Arsenal

Length: 11.0 km (6.8 mi) [Shorter and slightly longer Walks possible, see below}
Ascent/Descent: negligible
Net Walking Time: ca. 2 ½ hours
 
Take the 18.02 Rainham train from St. Pancras I’nal via Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars, London Bridge (18.18) & Deptford Fun City (18.25), arrives Greenwich 18.27
You can also get to Greenwich with the DLR (from Bank via Canary Wharf; Lewisham train). 
Note: check the walk directions pdf for the start point of the walk! We will not wait… 
Return trains: six per hour (xx.00, xx.04, xx.14, xx.30, xx.34, xx.44), all via London Bridge, then either to Cannon Street or Charing Cross or via Central London Thameslink stations.
Greenwich is in Zone 2, Woolwich Arsenal in Zone 4.
 
Follow quiet lanes from Greenwich Station to the Thames by the Cutty Sark and turn right downstream along this extremely fascinating stretch of London’s main river along Maritime Greenwich and around the rapidly changing Greenwich Peninsula with the O2-Dome and the ‘Emirates Air Line’ cable car as well as its views across the river to Canary Wharf, the Mouth of the River Lea and the Royal Victoria Dock, before walking past Charlton and the Thames Barrier, with Silvertown and its Tate & Lyle Sugar Refinery opposite, and on to the finish at the former Royal Arsenal site in Woolwich.
You pass reminders of Britain’s great maritime past, many historic pubs, the imposing Greenwich Power Station, some new housing developments as well as some long-established industrial sites (including some spectacular Aggregates Businesses), some large outdoor artworks, an Ecology Park, Woolwich Dockyard and the refurbished Royal Arsenal site with its mixture of historic buildings, new and old housing, food & drink establishments and an Arts Centre (in development).
 
Walk Options: 
Alternative Starts are possible from various points along the route (from 680m to 7.1 km into the walk). For details see the start of the Main Walk Directions. 
Earlier Finishes:  For details see the webpage. 
 
Refreshments en route: positively plenty, see the webpage or the walk directions pdf for details. 
Tea: six establishments to choose from - between café, boulangerie, pub, bistro, restaurant. See the webpage or the walk directions pdf for details.

For walk directions, maps, height profiles, photos and gpx/kml files click here. T=short.42

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Return from Woolwich Arsenal, recommend to take Uber Boat (Thames clippers) passing through Thames Barrier.

Single ticket to London Bridge/London Eye: adult £8.2 (TFL travelcard £7.15), freedom pass £4.1.

Thomas G said...

Just me, at the posted start point, at the posted start time. It had started to seriously rain just before I left the house, so I wasn't expecting many folk, but still: no one attending at all looked a bit harsh.
But then 3 figures appeared up on the platform waiving at me, they had - of course - not read the walk posting in detail and tried to start from the wrong exit...
A bit later there was a text from a 5th walker who mysteriously was ahead of us, so eventually we proceeded as a group of n=5.
A useful feature of Thames-side walks like this is that usually they feature plenty of pubs, which in bad weather offer a potential refuge from particularly inclement periods. So about 500m into the riverside stretch of the route, we succumbed to the lure of the Trafalgar Tavern, just to shield from some hard rain for a moment. The footie was on, the first glass soon empty, so that a vote was taken on whether to move on or to have a meal there. A meal it was.
Sometime later (it was halftime at the game), the rain had turned to barely perceptible drizzle, so we did walk on. We took the shortcut across the Peninsula and then the short ending at Charlton station, for the 22.07 train.
w=mostly-wet