November 7, 1999: Plumstead to Woolwich Dockyard

Some three weeks after reaching Plumstead the Lees and I decided to undertake our seventh day on the Green London Way. My walking companions had been in the States only the previous weekend and I was feeling the occasional effects of high blood pressure, but we were all anxious to take advantage of a relatively mild and sunny Sunday to continue our walk. We agreed to meet shortly after 9:00 at Charing Cross, where I bought my ticket and did some food shopping – including an apricot Danish and a cup of cappuccino for the journey.

Our train left at 9:27, getting stuck half way on the bridge over the river, from which we could see barges offloading the cubicles for the London Eye, the giant Ferris wheel that would become part of the Millennium celebrations. We had only a short journey back to Plumstead and by 10:00 we were making our way back up Griffin Road to Plumstead Common. Respectable black families were on their way to the Baptist Church (curiously sited on Brewery Road) and a van with a flat tire trundled unconcernedly down the street.

At the top we turned east on Old Mill Road, passing a pub topped by the stump of an old windmill. For much of the day we had been instructed by our guidebook to follow the signs for the Green Chain Walk, but we discovered that some of these posts were missing and that there were many branches to this old route ­– so that we had to be very careful that we were following the correct variation. I had always feared that this could be a difficult day for route-finding because of the construction of the East London River Crossing motorway. This challenge had been averted by the concerted efforts of conservationists, but there were still plenty of ambiguities and I would say that we missed our turning on at least six occasions on this day – never straying too far off line – but always on the lookout for the next curve ball.

We followed Old Mill Road and took a route across the common. I found a path down into a hollow known as the Slade, with its own pond, but on the other side we were confused by Green Chain Walk posts into circumnavigating a children’s playground on the wrong, northern side. I could see no likely continuation so we continued around this site until we could move forward on Winns Common. I was able to take my leather jacket off and walk in my black sweatshirt now. Winds were light today, but I doubt that the temperatures ever rose much beyond the mid-fifties.

At the end of Winns Common Road we turned into Grossmont Road and followed a line of houses, hunting for a gravel path down into the next canyon. Some local ladies were out for a walk here too and I assured them that the gravel path we were now descending would take them to Wickham Lane. There was no signpost, as there should have been, but I had my compass around my neck and I was certain that this was the path we were looking for. We had to climb a fallen tree and Harold and I, sneaking ahead of those ladies, had a quiet pee before heading out to the busy road that had once been slated as the course of the motorway.

We crossed this and, still following Green Chain Walk signs, did a dog left to the left, finding a grassy green corridor (“No Hard Ball Games”) that lead us up to the next section of woodland, Bostall Woods. When we reached our first crossing track we abandoned the Green Chain Walk signs to follow Gilbert’s direction, which put us on a broad track descending toward Bostall Hill Road. We found the grassy slope we were supposed to ascend at the bottom of this hill but I never saw a flight of steps leading down to the left as we climbed upwards. I could see where we were supposed to end up because I had xerxoed and enlarged pages of the A-Zed, but I was still a bit nonplussed as we made our way through a delightful woodland in autumn colors, with leaves everywhere beneath our feet. We emerged at some public buildings near the road and here Tosh used what she thought was the gents – only to be told by me that it was the ladies after all, someone having broken off the “Wo” of “Women.”

I did discover a bus shelter on the road and a path out to the top of a plateau on the north side of the road, but we seemed to have had a much more level route than that suggested by Gilbert, who had called for a steep ascent. Not to worry, we were soon past the grassy open space (though the promised bench was derelict) and heading north, downhill, toward an Abbey Wood estate. The suggestion that we find a path behind houses near the bottom no longer seemed relevant; what there was behind the high rise flats was overgrown – so I suggested we continue forward to our eventual destination, Commonwealth Road. We followed this to Federation Road and turned east, reaching busy Knee Hill and crossing directly over to climb a grassy embankment in search of a track in a hollow of trees.

After curving northeast this track put us out on New Road and across the way was a paved path into the lovely grounds of Lesnes Abbey. We had a look around and Tosh insisted we use some steps (instead on a nice bench in the sun) for an early lunch. It was shortly before 12:00. I ate an egg mayonnaise and tomato sandwich in a mini-loaf and drank some water. There were lots of families about and dogs (on lead) and it was still fairly sunny, though there was a bit of a wind and before long I was up and about and longing to get moving again. Tosh bribed me to sit down again with a few fresh grapes  – and then we were off.

We now followed Green Chain Walk signposts again, heading in a southwesterly direction through more lovely woodland. We crossed several roads and the entrance to a sanitarium and emerged, again on Bostall Hill Road, opposite the greensward of Clam Field Recreation Ground. This we crossed, looking for a continuation on the western side and finding more Green Chain Walk signs leading back into Bostall Woods. Unfortunately, I had not fully understood yet that there are a number of branches of this walk system and, in the absence of a signpost that would have offered us a choice at a critical dividing of the ways, on a leaf-strewn track, we continued on a more westerly line following the signposts we could see. Before long the territory ahead began to look familiar as we were perched above the green corridor that had lead us into these woods from Wickham Lane only an hour or so earlier.

I could tell right away that we belonged much father to the south, though still on the same street, so we reached the pavement of East Wickham Lane and turned left. I followed our progress on the A-Zed as we neared the Plumstead Cemetery, where we should have emerged (Green Chain Walk signs mocking us here). Our immediate objective was a pub mentioned in the guidebook. This turned out to be the Forester’s Arms, a very nice pub where the Lees had half lagers (and I a Diet Coke). We didn’t linger long, for the place was filling up with young men out for some sporting occasion (The Rangers-Celtic game was on the telly too).

We next turned west to reach a hilltop of the East Wickham Open Space. We headed west, with allotments on our right and a tower on Shooter’s Hill serving as a beacon. At the end of this green space we emerged on Glenmore Road. We now followed a literary itinerary along Dryden and Keats Roads (Shelley Drive, Blake Close, and Wordsworth Road were nearby), emerging on another open space and heading westward, with a stream and a hedgerow on our right. A suggestion that we follow our path as it curved left did not seem at all useful and we were soon up against a fence. Fortunately a portion has been smashed down, giving us access to a few more suburban streets and Shooters Hill Road. Again I could see we had come out too far to the east, but here there wasn’t too much of a detour west (past the wonderfully named We Anchor In Hope pub) before reaching an entrance to Oxleas Wood.

I recalled that much of the fight against the proposed East London River Crossing had been on behalf of this precious piece of woodland. We were careful this time to take the correct turn off, one that lead us uphill and out onto a grassy plateau with a great stretch of green between two stretches of wood sloping down to the south. This was Oxleas Meadow, where a huge mob and their dogs in all varieties had gathered to make use of a tearoom. The Lees waited in line for mugs of coffee; I had one of tea with the second of my egg sandwiches, an act that aroused the envy of many a passing canine.

The last of the sun had been seen and it was getting rather chilly and grey as we continued westward, still following Green Chain Walk signs, passing through some ornamental gardens and past the folly of Severndroog Castle. A last stretch of woodland (where Harold and I had another quiet pee) brought us out to Eltham Common and we followed a path in the grass to the police station on Shooters Hill Road. Here I changed guidebook pages (relying exclusively on xeroxes for these today too) and we turned north on Academy Road for a short distance before sloping off onto Woolwich Common. I was a bit confused by the phrase, “At the next crossroads turn right following down the common and eventually round to the left.” How eventually?

In the meantime we were seduced into continuing forward by some circus tents and by the time we reached them I realized that we needed to be off to the left, at an exit from the Common onto Stadium Road. After a last correction we continued forward across Ha Ha Road (there was a real ditch here) and onto Repository Road. We were in distinctly military surroundings here, with lots of artillery on display and a college on our right. I was slowing us down just a bit because I could see we had plenty of time for our train connection. We followed Frances Street into urban Woolwich, turned right on Belson Road and at 4:05 arrived at Woolwich Dockyard station, where we had about a twelve minute wait. I phoned Dorothy with my e.t.a. and settled in for a little nap on the short ride back to Charing Cross.

To continue with the next stage of our walk you need:

Day 8: Woolwich Dockyard to Honor Oak

Day walks from London:

If you are looking for additional London-based walking opportunities you may want to have a look at our experiences on the following routes:

A Chilterns Hundred

The Chiltern Way

The Green London Way

The Greensand Way

The London Countryway

The London Outer Orbital Path

The North Downs Way

The Ridgeway Path

The Saxon Shore Way

The South Downs Way

The Thames Path

The Vanguard Way

The Wealdway