An Urban Wander around Limehouse, London E14

At last, as sunny day. It’s cold, very cold, but I much prefer this to cold and wet. Catching the train into London this morning I couldn’t help noticing, and not for the first time, that there’s a train at almost exactly the same time as the London train, that goes to Devon. Also, and I don’t think I’d noticed this before, it’s actually called The Devon Express. It would have been a perfect day to hop over on to the other platform for a day out of the rat race.

However, the rat race seems to be unavoidable for now, but fortunately I managed a temporary escape from it this week at work, when once again I found myself with spare time before a meeting over in Docklands. I alighted the DLR at Limehouse and wandered through the streets to Canary Wharf, taking a slightly different route to the one I’d taken a few weeks before (see my previous Limehouse to Canary Wharf urban wander). Today's urban wander took me by past some older, more interesting buildings than the new ones on the riverside and in the docks.

This first picture is of an old wharf building, complete with the winch fittings that would have been used to haul goods up to the first and second floors and in through the doors.

Limehouse Wharf, Narrow Street, London E14

Narrow Street, Limehouse, London E14

This third photo is probably my favourite of the batch, and the greyness of the sky is easily compensated by the vibrant blue of what I assume to be a former pub judging by its location, windows and signage.

Former pub(?), Narrow Street, Limehouse, London E14

However, what caught my notice more than anything on the wander were a couple of sign posts pointing north away from Limehouse along the Limehouse Cut, which goes up to the Lea Valley. Obviously no time to explore this route today, but definitely one for another day, and a quick bit of internet research this morning has promoted this future trip quite high up the agenda.

In other news, I am still struggling through Iain Sinclair’s Lights Out for the Territory. If I’m honest I’m finding it a bit hit-and-miss, with some chapters being such hard-going that I lose track, whilst others I seem to breeze through. Maybe it’s just me and I’m reading at the wrong times of day when I'm easily distracted by other things.

    

And stay tuned folks, I actually managed two urban wanders again this week. The second one was from King's Cross to Oxford Circus, through mews and passageways.

Urban Wandering: Bermondsey to Borough

My second urban wander last week was from Bermondsey to Borough, when I was fortunate enough to be travelling back from docklands towards the city around 5pm, with time to spare to jump off the tube early and continue at least some of my journey on foot. I chose Bermondsey as I had a loose idea that I might find the road that featured in the BBC TV series/book The Secret History of Our Streets: London but as I'd not properly prepared for this I had no recollection of what it was called or where it was ... for future reference I it's Reverdy Road. Instead however I drifted westwards from Bermondsey tube station, in the vague direction of home, but with no real idea where I was going or what I planned to see. The first section of my walk was a fairly uninspiring trek down the busy Jamaica Road. The first point of interest which caught my eye was a brick wall which shielded the road from the river below. I crossed the road and peered over the wall, only to be disappointed to find a river inlet filled with rubbish. I guess, that part of any urban wander is the experience, no matter how good or bad, but I was simply not in the mood for this today. After this let-down, I headed in towards some of the quieter side streets and the surroundings and my mood picked up immensely.

Turning into Shad Thames I was immediately greeted with what, to me, seems like real docklands. The road curved around to reveal tall, renovated, brick warehouses, so unlike the modern glass buildings in Canary Wharf. I assume the metal walkways running between the buildings at the upper floor levels were originally used to move good around (another reason I need to visit the London Docklands Museum).

 Shad Thames, London SE2

 Shad Thames, London SE2

Many of the buildings have restuarants and bars on the ground floors. A few of the signs are overstated and garish, but mainly most seem to have been created in a low-key, tastful way, in keeping with the area

Shad Thames, London SE2

Shad Thames, London SE2

Shad Thames, London SE2

As I left Shad Thames and headed past Tower Bridge, London Brigde and into Borough, the evening had started to close in, and the laptop bag was weighing heaving on my increasingly achy back, so I didn't stop to take any photos of the second leg of my journey, but  as I often do, I have made a mental note to return on a warmer and sunnier day, and maybe get some shots of the many railway arches. And I have to disagree with Iain Sinclair here when he says in his Lights Out for the Territory something to the effect that urban wandering should take place on a grey and dreary day.

    

If you missed my first urban wander of the week, this can be found at Urban Wandering: Paddington to Lancaster Gate

Urban Wandering: London Docklands

I'm always a bit nervous about writing a blog post that features no pictures to break up my writing. However, the weather during my Urban Wandering today was too grey for taking decent pictures, and far too cold to take my gloves off. I have actually cheated a bit as you'll see as you read down through the article. My wandering today was half-planned, and half-forced upon me but some minor tube closures at Paddington. My original intention was to travel as far as Whitechapel by tube and then walk down to Canary Wharf from there, but I ended up taking a far more circuitous route because of the tube situation. Instead I caught a bus over to Bank, another to Shoreditch High Street, and then the Overground to Shadwell from where I then started my wander down to Canary Wharf.

If I'm honest the walk between Shadwell and Limehouse wasn't particularly inspiring. Maybe this was the route I found myself following, which was along a busy, main road. Fortunately, despite the fog, I could see my destination towering above the low rise flats, so there was no need to get my phone out for navigation purposes. Once I arrived at the westerly end of Narrow Street, the wander became more interesting, passing old pubs and wharves, after which I dropped down on to the Thames path and made my way along to Westferry Circus before heading up to Canary Wharf. I still know relatively little about this whole area, so it's another place to revisit, but when the weather is better! Also, having looked across the Thames quite frequently over the past few weeks, I've become curious about what's on the other side of the Thames and am tempted to take the ferry crossing to visit what I assume is the Rotherhithe, Bermondsey and Deptford area.

My journey home was a bit shorter as I had to get home in time for my Shrove Tuesday pancakes, but I did manage to walk from Canary Wharf to Westferry. This short walk took me through parts of the London docklands I'd not visited before, and right past the London Docklands Museum, which is already on my to visit list. Whilst I like to docklands, there doesn't seem to be much of the original docklands left, so I'm hoping that when I do manage to find time to visit the museum then I'll get a better glimpse of what it was like in its hey-day, before becoming run-down, and then recreated as a glass and steel banker's theme park.

As time was running short I caught the DLR at Westferry back to Tower Gateway. For the urban explorer, this is a great route to take, especially on a cold day. The majority of the journey is above ground, and all sorts of glimpses of disused London can be clearly seen from the train. One site that was particularly evocative was a fox on the curve of a disused railway track bed that peeled away to the north west just before the train pulled into Tower Gateway. I had no idea where this track would have led, but a quick check in my 1928 London guide book showed that it led to a goods station just south of Aldgate East.

Map of part of East London and London Docklands from 1928 guide book

And also a couple of vintage postcards that help give a better impression of what the approach to the docks was once like.

I've always had a passion for exploring London, but this passion has been renewed over the past few weeks, through two of my recent reads Edgelands and Psychogeography.

    

Urban Wandering: Limehouse to Canary Wharf

I was delighted this week to have found some time for space and unusually it was on my way to work. I found myself with about half an hour before I needed to get to Canary Wharf where I had a meeting for the day. Firstly I decided to take the Docklands Light Railway as it's much more enjoyable being above ground, and this particular DLR route offers views of some great Edgelands, and secondly with time to spare I alighted at Limehouse and walked the 30 minutes or so to Canary Wharf. The morning was clear and a little cold, so I was hoping to get some half-decent photos. If I say so myself, those I did manage to take are rather striking.

View across moored boats to residential area near Limehouse

 Looking eastwards along the River Thames, not long after sun rise

Residential buildings now flank the sides of a huge dock

  Looking west along the River Thames towards the Shard

Approaching Canary Wharf

In other news I am now about half-way through Edgelands and thoroughly enjoying it. Each chapter covers a different aspect of Edgelands, and having grown up on the outskirts of London, essentially between the city and the countryside, the childhood memories are flooding back. I really cannot recommend this book enough. I also bought Psychogeography of which the content of Edgelands could probably be considered a sub-topic. I've yet to start this one but curiously it has been picked up by my wife who has been inspired by it in relation to an art project she has just undertaken.

    

Sunrise over Hyde Park

A strange week just gone by. I found some space that was not what I thought it would be, and also found some space that I'd been to before that was better than I'd expected. So turning first to my disappointment if I can call it that, which was a brief surfacing at Canada Water when changing trains to get out to Canary Wharf. But first of all, why was I at Canada Water anyway? Well, on this particular occasion it was easier for me to travel on the Waterloo line rather than the Paddington line, but rather than going into Waterloo and taking the obvious Jubilee line tune across to Canary Wharf, I decided instead to change at Clapham Junction and take the newly joined-up outer-circle line, or the London Overground as it's really called. I'd not been on this part of the London Overground so it made a pleasant diversion from my normal route, passing through some places I'm pretty sure I've never been to before, so as usual a mental note was made to return at ground level.

To get to Canary Wharf involved a change at Canada Water, and I originally thought I could walk between the two, but alas this was not possible as there was too much of the River Thames in the way. Having not looked around that part of the docklands before I decided to surface above the underground and see what was there. Perhaps I did not explore enough but as far as I could see it was just a retail park, and quite a cold and sterile one at that. It was freezing cold so maybe I caught it on a bad day and it's normally more inspiring, but on that particular day it wasn't for me. Needless to say I took no pictures and was glad to get back underground to continue to my destination.

Later in the week I had an opportunity to walk across Hyde Park to the office. I must have done this walk tens of times before, if not more, but this particular day was special as it was just as the sun was rising on a very cold and crispy winter's morning.

Sunrise over Hyde Park, January 2013

So, it looks like we are going to get some snow after all. I know this is bad news for many people, but I for one absolutely love the snow. I did leave work on time today and headed straight back to West Berkshire on the train as I'd much rather be snowed in at home than at work. Hopefully there will be good opportunities to get some good pictures to share.

    

A small glimpse of summer in London docklands

I know it's very British to moan about the weather, but this year has been spectacularly poor. It has however made me appreciate the few glimpses of summer I have been lucky enough to find. The two pictures below were taken just after I had arrived at Canary Wharf and before I locked myself away in a windowless meeting room for the day. The blue skies were a welcome sight in the morning but needless to say they did not last very long.

Canary Wharf, DLR station

Canary Wharf

Fortunately when we broke for lunch, I was able to get a half decent picture from up high, back across London. This will almost certainly be the last time I visit London docklands area for a while now as it's set to get crazily busy for the 2012 Olympics.

View from the Clifford Chance building

I had hoped to be able to photograph some more London mews in the sunlight, but alas the weather has not been on my side. Hopefully we'll get a late summer so I'll be able to do this again later in the year.

In other news, I can't say that I've been able to get out on my mountain bike as much as I'd have liked, mainly due to the weather. My reading of Parallel Lines remains slow, and I've yet to even open Mile by Mile.

On the music front however, I have been quite active. I've bought quite a few CDs over the past couple of weeks. Favourites to date are The Orb featuring David Gilmour - Metallic Spheres, and Pearls Before Swine - The Use of Ashes / These Things Too. As with most of the CDs I buy, these will ultimately end up on my web site as I tend to limit the misc I keep in physical form these days.

Sunset over docklands, and a bit of India

Having had to work at Canary Wharf yesterday, I had planned to leave at a reasonable time so my trip back to West Berkshire wouldn't mean that I got back too late. Unfortunately though I did end up leaving later thna planned, but my reward was a fantastic sunset, which thre an incredible light over docklands.

Clifford Chance Building, Canary Wharf, London Docklands

Since my last update I've also been to India. This was a much better trip than the last time I visited back in 2007 during monsoon season. Although the majority of the trip was business, and involved taking an air-conditioned taxi from one air-conditioned building to another, I did get out and about a bit, and had some fantastic food. I don't have any pictures of the food, but do have some of the air conditioned buildings.

View from the Westin Hotel, Pune

Artwoek in the Westin Hotel lobby, Pune

Stonewater Grill, Pune