South of the river

Today we went for a stroll around Rotherhithe. A while ago, Mirinda went there with Bob and they were very impressed. Today it was my turn.

The day started with a lovely and late breakfast at Carluccio’s. Having eggs (Benedict or Royale) at Carluccio’s is a wonderful way to start the day in Canary Wharf. And then we took the Hilton ferry across the river. It was a short but expensive trip to the south side. Being low tide meant that it was shorter and more expensive than normal.

In a day of many surprises, possibly the biggest was the farm. Surrey Docks Farm is 2.2 acres of farm animals and produce and is right on the south bank of the Thames. It’s like stepping into a matter transmitter and reappearing in the country. Extraordinary place. They have a website here and a lovely goat, here:

I think it’s a bit camera shy

From the farm we wandered further down the Thames Path, stopping at various spots to inspect blocks of flats so Mirinda could tell me why (or why not) she would like to live in them. The most notable thing was the quiet which is always a good reason for wanting to live somewhere.

We reached Helsinki Square (just at the entrance to Greenland Dock) and spotted the wonderfully fluid Curlicue by William Pye. It was put in place in 1989 by the London Docklands Redevelopment Corporation. It was, however, made much earlier than that. Pye created it in 1970 and called it Quillion. From the late 1980’s Pye has moved more towards water sculptures.

The whole area of Rotherhithe was once a series of docks, linked by locks and hump backed bridges. It would have all look pretty amazing (though would have also been very smelly and noisy) when ships were docked and unloading. These days, there are a couple of big areas of water and lots of pleasure boats.

We walked around all of it. And I took lots of photos of boats…of course. This was my favourite.

No idea what this means

From the big Greenland Dock, we walked under a bridge and, suddenly, we were returned to the real world of traffic, awful people with horrid kids and NOISE. Most of the noise was coming from a strange group of people with absolutely no shame. Dressed in weird Lycra onesies, they were dancing around highlighting some charity which was not obvious. We visited the ghastly shopping centre, stopping off for a Starbucks coffee before heading back to the serenity under the bridge.

We made our way to the Russia Dock Woodland. This is a thin strip of parkland that was once a series of docks and locks. In 1980. London Docklands Development Corporation filled the whole thing in and planted lots of trees and bushes and grass. It’s a wonderful oasis of green that runs between houses and roads. In a nice ironic (and I have no idea if it was deliberate) touch, the Russia Dock was primarily used to offload timber from Norway, Russia and Sweden.

In the woodland, there is Stave Hill. This is a man-made hill with a viewing point on the top.

Me, admiring the view

Having walked in a very big and elaborate circle, we ended up back at the Hilton. We jumped on the ferry for the short trip back to Canary Wharf having spent a lovely day on the south side.

Dinner was had at our favourite Lebanese restaurant, Byblos.