March 29, 2006: Charlton to Erith

Richard Binggeli comes to attention at Woolwich Arsenal.

It may seem strange to find still another entry in this account of my walk along the Thames Path, but – as in the case of the South Downs Way – a later addition to the route meant that the book was not quite closed, even after, with a number of walking companions, I had walked for sixteen days from the Thames Barrier to the source – having reached the latter in 1998.

Sometime last year Tosh had mailed to me an article from our local Ramblers magazine announcing the creation of an extension, a kind of prequel, allowing walkers to follow a largely riverside path out toward the Thames Estuary itself. I was looking for a walking opportunity now because my friend Richard Binggeli had arrived to stay with us for four days en route to Greece. The ideal solution would have been for him to join us on a third day along the Chiltern Way but, even with lots of advance notice, the Lees had neither Wednesday nor Thursday free this week. I next proposed a walk along the Thames from Windsor to Cookham, a route I knew well – but while I was leafing through my Thames materials I came across the article that Tosh had sent me about the seaward extension. Richard was game and so this is what we decided to do.

There was no need to make a very early start since mileage would not be too protracted – and we had already switched to summer time. So Dick followed me through my usual morning dog duties in the park and we left Morshead Mansions at about 10:20. It looked as though we would have a mostly dry day and temperatures were supposed to be in the upper 50’s – a great improvement over the frigid temperatures we had endured for the previous month. I carried my rain gear anyway and Richard had his raincoat and a sturdy pair of street shoes as we entered the tube stop – where he could purchase a one-day all-zone travel pass that would be good on the trains as well. Indeed I knew that Erith, our destination, was in zone six, a bit of arcane information at my fingertips because Erith had also been the point of origin for our walk on the London Outer Orbital Path (now only three stages from completion for us). The Thames path extension actually continues beyond Erith for another mile or so but the Lees and I had already walked this path as part of the LOOP.

At Embankment we switched to the east bound Circle Line, sitting opposite a couple of gay guys with identical wedding rings. We bought some candy bars at Cannon Street where we had only a short stroll to a waiting train, one that departed at 11:11. There were lots of interesting sites for the tourist as we headed east, the Gherkin, Canary Wharf (where we had been the day before), the Millennium Dome, even the rigging of the Cutty Sark at Greenwich. We detrained at Charlton at about 11:30, replicating my arrival at this spot with Gavan many years ago.

The approach to the Thames had seemed a bit more straightforward then but there had been much building and rerouting since then – and we were encouraged by road signs to head east along the main Woolwich Road. When we were at East Moor Street we were at last directed toward the river along a busy, ugly industrial street full of warehouses and large lorries. I remembered this truly unremarkable stretch of territory because it was part of the Green London Way route we had used many years ago.

Around the corner and up the embankment was a tunnel marking the beginning of the 180-mile route upstream. The barrier bullets were open and Dick took a number of pictures  – we had great visibility and a cloudy bright sky today. There were a number of signs about the extension here and we were seduced into following one due east along the promenade. It lead immediately to a dead end at an information center and we had to backtrack, following pathways parallel to East Moor Street back to the Woolwich Road. This was the route suggested in the magazine article – which served today as my only guidebook.

We now trudged along the busy highway, crossing Warspite Road and turning onto Rustin Road. This essentially suburban street entered a large estate where we had to turn west (I always love heading in the exact opposite direction from that needed) then north as we twisted around a bit in parking lots before regaining the riverside. Dick was complaining of a twinge in one heel and also some back pain but he seemed game enough to continue without pause or rest.

I must say it was a great delight for me to be tramping along with someone who had been part of my walking circle as a child. We had trod the trails of California on many an outing with our own Forest Patrol and the Boy Scouts and even undertaken several expeditions in the High Sierra. But it had been at least forty years since our last trailside encounter.

We scrambled over a kind of sculptural stile and into the grounds of the Woolwich dockyard. We passed some ancient canons and caught a glimpse of the 1784 Clockhouse. But once again building works on the riverside prevented further passage (signs could have been better here) and we had to backtrack through another housing estate and make our way up to the Woolwich Road again. This wasn’t entirely a disappointment because I was beginning to look for a pub where we might have lunch. There seemed to be one on the other side of a roundabout that led one stream of traffic down to the Woolwich Ferry. It took us a while to scramble across but this put us outside an establishment advertising food all day. Unfortunately the dinner lady hadn’t showed up and they weren’t doing any food now.

Across the street we located the Castle Tavern and our inquiries were here answered in the affirmative. We both ordered Diet Cokes (with ice and lemon) and I had the sausage and mash and Richard the shepherds pie. The bar person was a very obliging and friendly young lady who asked me a number of questions about our walk. In a room next door a very raucous billiards game was keeping the job seekers from total boredom. When the food arrived we tucked in. My sausages were triangulated on a mound of mashed potatoes while green peas were doing the backstroke in a moat of gravy. Dick’s shepherds pie came with chips – you could sense Dr. Atkins spinning in his gravy. We had a second round of Diet Cokes, used the loos and left about 1:30. We had only walked three miles or so at this point. The bar girl hoped we wouldn’t encounter any rain.

We used zebra crossings to inch around the rest of the roundabout and then followed some back streets out to the river again. We watched the lorries creeping onto the ferries and then turned our back on Woolwich, soon having the company of the old Royal Arsenal on our right. There were some interesting old buildings about and also a sculpture with rusty humans shapes at attention. Each of us, remembering our old days in the ROTC, posed among these soldiers for a photo. Mothers were wheeling prams about and speaking in an African tongue neither of us could recognize. At least the route now seemed to be a little less mysterious and we were making good progress along promenades and walkways out to Tripcock Point. A mileage sign indicated that we still had five miles to go to reach Erith but Dick swallowed his disappointment and plodded on.

We kept up a constant yakking, passing back and forth between ancient memories and contemporary issues – Dick was very interested in how little commercial traffic ploughed the Thames of today. Retrospective views were wonderful and, though there were some dark clouds ahead of us, we only felt a raindrop once or twice. There was quite a breeze behind us and one petrified leaf made a tremendous racket as it bounced along at our heels. We passed a guy with a Jack Russell and Dick said we were out walking our leaf. Fortunately the leaf in question finally overtook us at this point so the remark did not seem quite so mad.

There weren’t many landmarks to measure our progress, particularly after we passed Thamesmead, but mileage signs showed that we were only a few miles from the end. I tried to use the old Landranger sheet 177 (East London area) to see exactly where we were but this was still not completely useful. As we neared the end there was continuous industrial and maritime activity on our shore and we had quite a few twists and turns on walkways and ramps to get around all this. Across the river the hillock behind Coldharbour offered some alternative to the flatness on either side but Dick, who wanted to know if this were not some Neolithic barrow, had to settle for the fact that the hill is actually made up of more modern garbage.

As soon as we reached the first buildings of Erith we headed inland to pick up the roadway that would take us toward our train station. Dick would have wanted to stop for a cup of tea but I said I couldn’t take on any more liquid without a pee first. In the event there wasn’t even a suitable pub on our route and before long we were on the twisting approach roads leading to our station. We had to cross to the other platform and sit on a bench for a few minutes while waiting for our train. It was 4:45 and we had walked nine miles.

It took forever, it seemed, just to get back to Charlton, but eventually we returned to Cannon Street where we could reverse the morning’s journey. We were pretty lucky to find seats on both our tube rides. On the way out Dick, standing, had been offered a seat by a young woman. He concluded, “If a pretty young woman were to offer me a seat these days  – to hell with vanity – I’d take it.”

If you are looking for information on the route, as we walked it from Charlton to the source, you need:

Day 8: Charlton to Tower Bridge

Footpath Index:

England: A Chilterns Hundred | The Chiltern Way | The Cleveland Way | The Coast-to-Coast Path | The Coleridge Way | The Cotswold Way | The Cumberland Way | The Cumbria Way | The Dales Way | The Furness Way | The Green London Way | The Greensand Way | The Isle of Wight Coast Path | The London Countryway | The London Outer Orbital Path | The Norfolk Coast Path | The North Downs Way | The Northumberland Coast Path | The Peddars Way | The Pennine Way | The Ridgeway Path | The Roman Way | The Saxon Shore Way | The South Downs Way | The South West Coast Path | The Thames Path | The Two Moors Way | The Vanguard Way | The Wealdway | The Westmorland Way | The White Peak Way | The Yorkshire Wolds Way