A Wander’ette Wapping to Rotherhithe

[Wapping]

Having been to the doctor’s for an MOT and PSA check and having read about the ‘Time and Talents’ (see the Bermondsey mini-Wander) I thought I’d wander over and see what’s what across the river. As the crow flies, it’s not so far, straight across the river:



That’s more than 10,000 steps (4.5 miles) knocked off.

More to follow as I have nipped into the Town of Ramsgate (back north of the river) to charge my about to die phone up and because I know they’ll give me a pint on trust.

Our History - Time & Talents

One of the wonderful things about Time & Talents is that many of the older people we work with, now in their 90s, remember T&T from when they were children. [...]

www.timeandtalents.org.uk

 

[Wapping]

My MOT and PSA check over and a coffee had in the Cinnamon cafe, it was off eastwards along Cinnamon Street towards Limehouse:



About 100 yards or so along, you can find vestiges of the area’s past. Theee woukd make great garages and workshops; I’ve always wondered who owns them:





Along with the hotchpotch of flats, thrown up after the war, the area having been flattened in the Blitz, alongside the steady collapse of the docks. The round squat low tower in the gardens, is a ‘breather’ for the train line between Wapping and Shadwell stations:




Walking along, still eastwards, you can see where the modern housing has been built across the old street. London has a habit of retaining the layout of old streets, many going back centuries or longer:



The developers, I guess, took advantage of there being ‘a building left behind’ (most commonly a pub) after the Blitz or demolition and placed another in its place, as planning permission would be easy. We’ll cross over to walk along the alley (or is it a passage) between the two buildings in the centre of the picture:



Coming out of the alley or passage onto Garnett Street:



Before carrying on eastwards still, along Wapping Wall, with its repurposed dock warehouses, now all flats:

Wapping - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[timeandtide]

You definitely have an ‘eye’ Richard

 

[ShakeyGS]

You definitely have an ‘eye’ Richard

I really rather hope he has two!

 

[The Other PaulG]

Blimey, I mis-read Rotherhithe in the title for Rotherham. Nearly fell off my perch!

 

[simondippenhall]

Richard. As always, enjoying your wanders. This week's Economist (yep, the biker's best friend ) has an article about London's rapidly dwindling pie and mash shops (another one - Manze's?- closes down this weekend).

Any chance you can do a Wapping Wander past one of the surviving ones and share its pleasures with us in a few photos?

 

[Steptoe]

Richard. As always, enjoying your wanders. This week's Economist (yep, the biker's best friend ) has an article about London's rapidly dwindling pie and mash shops (another one - Manze's?- closes down this weekend).

Any chance you can do a Wapping Wander past one of the surviving ones and share its pleasures with us in a few photos?

There’s a Manze’s in Sutton. Pop along and have a 2and2 with liquor, splashed with chilli vinegar and plenty of white pepper

 

[Wapping]

Richard. As always, enjoying your wanders. This week's Economist (yep, the biker's best friend ) has an article about London's rapidly dwindling pie and mash shops (another one - Manze's?- closes down this weekend).

Any chance you can do a Wapping Wander past one of the surviving ones and share its pleasures with us in a few photos?

Thank you.

The mini-wander I made:

Thread 'Mini Wander Bermondsey Street to Tower Bridge Road'

Jan 19, 2025

If only to show that there’s something to see in only about half a mile.

The old warehouses and mixed architecture, the glass blowing shop, Tanner Street Park, the Time and Talents Settlement building and the Albert McKenzie VC memorial:

https://bermondseystreet.london/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Tanner-Street-Park-Bermondsey-Street-Back-Stories-Number-1.pdf

London Glassblowing

The UK's foremost Studio & Gallery for contemporary glass art

londonglassblowing.co.uk

Our History - Time & Talents

One of the wonderful things about Time & Talents is that many of the older people we work with, now in their 90s, remember T&T from when they were children. [...]

www.timeandtalents.org.uk

...

• Wapping

• 

Will end up in Manze’s on Tower Bridge Road. I’ll finish the thread when I’m back.

 

[LOLGEOFF]

There’s a Manze’s in Sutton. Pop along and have a 2and2 with liquor, splashed with chilli vinegar and plenty of white pepper


View attachment 379969View attachment 379970

Hmmm, pies upside down or flakey pastry up? And what's with the fork in the last picture?

 

[ChasMill]

Two P&M shops in Chelmsford High Street. It looks like as Londoners migrate to Essex they are taking their cuisine with them.

Steptoe, you forgot the large spoon of eels to go with your 2 & 2?

 

[Steptoe]

Hmmm, pies upside down or flakey pastry up? And what's with the fork in the last picture?

Movement, it’s an action shot as the fork heads for pie

 

[ChasMill]

Movement, it’s an action shot as the fork heads for pie

I thought the traditional eating irons were a fork and spoon?

 

[Wapping]

My apologies, we stalled at post #2, so let’s get back on track:




To our right, the Prospect of Whitby pub (a popular ‘Must do’ on the tourist trail and on the ‘Wapping pub crawl’) and to our left the former Wapping Hydraulic Power Station:



Then continue over the bridge, which crosses the former eastern end entrance to Shadwell Basin:



Looking westwards towards the City:



Looking eastwards towards Canary Wharf:

 

[Wapping]

Before turning hard right, to follow the Thames Path footpath towards the King Edward Memorial Park and the Rotherhithe Ventilation Shaft number 3.

Large parts of the Memorial Park were taken over by the contractors, working on the Thames Super Sewer, which is a massive project, all but now complete. I came wandering down here a lot during the Covid lockdown and can remember the dreadful and needless of the kids’ playground, leaving the children locked up in the tower blocks. We’ll meet the Rotherhithe Tunnel’s vent shaft again later:

 

[Wapping]

Leaving the park, we pass by the plaque to Captain Cook and join the Highway, walking towards the Limehouse Link Tunnel, with the signs of the nonstop redevelopment:

 

[Wapping]

Well not be walking through the Limehouse Link Tunnel, but instead turning left up Butcher Row:





There has been a recent set of art installations (I guess they are) appearing on London billboards:



A Google has turned up an answer as to what they are:

New Year, new poster collaboration with artist Mark Titchner: IT’S THE HOPE THAT KEEPS US HERE - BUILDHOLLYWOOD

Mark Titchner’s art practice takes many and varied forms. He works across a range of mediums: digital print, video (often accompanied by hypnotic, sometimes ear-shocking soundtracks), installation, site specific painting and 3D objects. Much of the artist’s output is situated in the public...

www.buildhollywood.co.uk

 

[Wapping]

Leave Buthcher Row and turn right on Commercial Road, with the Half Moon (Young People’s) Theatre. Commercial Road was built to take goods from the riverside docks, straight to the City:



Before turning right towards the Rotherhithe Tunnel, which we’ll be walking through, under the Thames:

 

[Stevie4scoops]

Richard. As always, enjoying your wanders. This week's Economist (yep, the biker's best friend ) has an article about London's rapidly dwindling pie and mash shops (another one - Manze's?- closes down this weekend).

Any chance you can do a Wapping Wander past one of the surviving ones and share its pleasures with us in a few photos?

Richard - You could team up with Hannah Rickets on U Tube. She does some great walks around London.

 

[Wapping]

On the approach to the tunnel, there was a strange set of Sc-Fi type remote security monitors:



The Rotherhithe Tunnel is unusual in that pedestrians and vehicles and bicycles can use it. But, at about a mile long, it’s not necessarily somewhere you’d want to walk through too often:



And out the other side, onto the the south side of the river:

Rotherhithe Tunnel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Wapping]

Let’s wander first through King’s Stairs Gardens and Southwark Park, before we get to the river bank and its views across to the City:

Rotherhithe - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

King's Stairs Gardens - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Southwark Park - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org