M’off… on Friday

[Wapping]

On my wanders around Docklands, I’ve often noticed a low red brick (somewhat unassuming) warehouse type building, totally out of keeping with the modern concrete and steel structures, towering around it. I’ve often wondered what it is and why it has, so obviously, been kept.

Friday gives me a chance to find out, on a guided tour….

 

[johnnyboy]

On my wanders around Docklands, I’ve often noticed a low red brick (somewhat unassuming)
warehouse type building, totally out of keeping with the modern concrete and steel structures, towering around it. I’ve often wondered what it is and why it has, so obviously, been kept.

Friday gives me a chance to find out, on a guided tour….

Nosey bastard

 

[Loiq]

casing the joint...?

 

[Jockser]

Look forward to the report & photos

 

[Burridge01]

On my wanders around Docklands, I’ve often noticed a low red brick (somewhat unassuming)
warehouse type building, totally out of keeping with the modern concrete and steel structures, towering around it. I’ve often wondered what it is and why it has, so obviously, been kept.

Friday gives me a chance to find out, on a guided tour….

Great history around the docks.I've worked in and around the docks since the late 80's(steel erector on Canary Wharf)Last job was over in Bermondsey on the Tideway tunnel.Looking forward to some photos and info.

 

[JoeBiff]

…, I’ve often noticed a low red brick (somewhat unassuming)
warehouse type building, totally out of keeping …

Are you referring to the engineering bricks used up to DPC level?
They're generally a much harder, less porous brick and fired at a higher temperature to resist water absorption.
On the other hand…. I don’t know, and might be talking shite.

 

[Wapping]

Nosey bastard

 

[The Other PaulG]

Please drop a pin when you are close, to give the GSer extraction team a starting point should you disappear.

 

[Wapping]

Please drop a pin when you are close, to give the GSer extraction team a starting point should you disappear.

Will co.

40 minutes away by public transport, which is free (for now at least). A little under an hour if I wander, which is also free.

 

[Wapping]

Today’s the day.

I’ve decided to walk the 45 minutes or so to get there, not least as it appears to have stopped raining. When I say, walk, I will be stopping off at some pubs along the way. One has to do one’s bit to support the local economy and the licensed victualers. Departure at Garry Cooper ie. High Noon for arrival a bit before two.

 

[ymfb]

I don’t miss my regular visits to Charlton, Silvertown, Dagenham, not sure if Docklands is included in there.

There are a few other choice places I don’t miss, not so much because of what’s there, it’s just that area is a right PITA to drive to from the West.

 

[Wapping]

I don’t miss my regular visits to Charlton, Silvertown, Dagenham….

My daughter’s passport records her place of birth as Dagenham.

 

[Wapping]

An excellent day out.

Three pubs, bumped into a former colleague and a friend of a friend and a guided tour of a surviving (and still working) engineering oddity.

 

[leadfarmer]

My aunt used to live not far from there, Beckton, not far from the ski slope

 

[Wapping]

My aunt used to live around there, not far from the ski slope

Beckton Alps, now gone.

 

[Boxerboy55]

As a little diversion - I'll be cashing in a gift voucher to visit the Shard round the corner next week.

It's fuckin' miles from home but I managed to put my grateful smile on

Dear wife has added a show and now we've added a visit to Tower bridge as we're bunking up beside it.

Might even say hello to a sister who lives across the river.

 

[johnnyboy]

An excellent day out.

Three pubs, bumped into a former colleague and a friend of a friend and a guided tour of a surviving (and still working) engineering oddity.

View attachment 473274

View attachment 473275

Engineering oddity, pray tell....

 

[Wapping]

I haven’t forgotten.

I’m just eating for the pictures to come across.

 

[DrFarkoff]

I haven’t forgotten.

I’m just eating for the pictures to come across.

 

[Wapping]

Off we go….

To get to the Thames Path, which I’ll follow all the way to the Isle of Dogs, I follow what is now an ornamental canal, built as part of the regeneration of the old London Dock, which I live on. The London Plane trees have (as is usual) all been hacked back in the late autumn but are already sending out new branches. They’ll all be ‘Back to life’ in the summer. That’s the Shard in the background, away over the Thames in Bermondsey, about a mile or more away:



There are two swans that live permanently on the canal, successfully raising a large brood of cygnets each year. Hopefully they’ll do the same this summer coming:



We gone about 100 metres and are now pretty close to the Thames. This shot looks back where we’ve walked. In it you should be able to see the stone entrance walls to the dock on either side, beneath what is now a permanent road bridge. The walls still have their Roman numeral depth markers:




This is the former entry pool to the dock. The low red brick building must serve the same purpose as the building we’ll see later:



Let’s wander on eastwards and as it’s High Noon stop off at my ‘local’ the Town of Ramsgate:



As is common along this stretch of the river, there is a little passage that leads to the river. There’s about eight to nine metres of tide along this stretch: