Greenwich to Tower Bridge

Sunday September 30, Stefania, Ray, Raja and myself caught the 188 bus from Russell Square to begin the second of the Thames walks to the Source.

'The Thames' an abandoned pub in Deptford on the Thames path.

We began the walk from Greenwich where the walk left off last week

Just outside Greenwich we crossed Deptford Creek which is the mouth of the river Ravensbourne. Elizabeth I knighted the adventurer Sir Francis Drake on board his ship The Golden Hind in 1581. One of the first Royal Naval Dockyards was founded here by Henry VII in 1513. It closed in 1869. Deptford was also the place where several doomed expeditions to find a shortcut to India set off from. Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor set off on a quest in 1553 to find the 'Northeast Passage to India around the northern coast of Russia. They got as far as the White Sea on the eastern side of Finland. Most of the crew froze to death although Richard Chancellor trudged overland to Moscow to establish trade with the court of Ivan the Terrible. Twenty years later Martin Frobisher ventured on another series of futile journeys in an effort to find a route to India around the northern coast of Canada the so-called 'Northwest Passage' His expedition explored Baffin Island, Frobisher Bay and the Hudson Straits. Deptford was also the home of the famous English diarist John Evelyn between 1620 and 1706. The Russian Czar Peter the Great stayed in his house Sayes Court for many months in the year 1698.

Metal statue of Peter the Great on the riverside at Deptford

In Deptford Peter developed a fondness for hot brandy spiced with pepper. While drunk on this cocktail he liked to be pushed around in a wheelbarrow by his courtiers. John Evelyn was angered when Peter the Great's wheelbarrow destroyed his favourite holly hedge. Raja, Ray and Stefania with Peter the Great

But Peter's real interest in Deptford was to carry out a piece of early industrial espionage ie to learn about English expertise in navigation and boat building. See detail in picture below.

Deep mud warning in Twinkle Park, Deptford

Is this the way back to the riverside path?

Another dead end, steps down to an isolated beach

Head sculptures on Deptford residential block

Across the river the towers of Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs

Stefania and Ray at the Wibbly Wobbly boat pub in Greenland Dock, Rotherhithe

The docks at Rotherhithe began with the construction of the Howland wet dock in 1696 which later developed into the Surrey Commercial Docks which finally closed in the 1970s. The docks had a strong connection with Scandinavia and the Baltic and used to handle cargo such as grain, timber and whale blubber. There is still a Norwegian, a Finnish and a Swedish church in Rotherhithe. Sulphur from Palermo in Sicily, Ostrich feathers from Siberia and timber from Canada was also unloaded in these docks.

Stefania finds the donkey too high..

...before finding the pigs

Family of goats at Surrey Quays

Sculpture by Surrey Quays City Farm 1#

Sculpture at Surrey Quays City Farm 2#

Centipede climbs the beam

Sunflower Alley, Rotherhithe

Old Rotherhithe

Rotherhithe Wharves and the Mayflower

A Pilgrim Father, a small boy and a bull terrier. The Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World from Rotherhithe in 1620.

Raja and Bermondsey social reformer Dr Alfred Salter MP at Cherry Garden Pier in Bermondsey. He was well known local campaigner against poverty, poor health and slum housing in the area in the early 20th century

The sculpture is a representation of his dream and he is looking at his daughter before she died of scarlet fever at the age of nine and also his beloved cat.

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