Thames Pathway: Woolwich to Greenwich

THE FOLLOWING IS A SUMMARISED VERSION OF THIS WALK FROM THE FORTHCOMING BOOK:

"Pilgrimage: A Husband, a Wife and their Dog Walk the Thames Pathway"

"If you are in a bad mood, go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for another walk."

Hippocrates

"I have two doctors, my left leg and my right." 

G.M. Trevelyan

It's a mid winter day in December and a chill wind is blowing along the river Thames. The tide is in and the river is swollen close to it's maximum height, the awesome power of its current clear for all to see as waves crash against the retaining walls built to contain its power. The water is muddy, a dirty brown colour and in a state of constant flux, as if a restless beast stirs beneath. A wooden branch, perhaps severed from a tree by the wind, bobs and weaves along the water surface.

I stand on a jetty that protrudes out into the water and ponder its depths. Thoughts of headless torsos washed up on the banks of the river fill my mind, an occupational hazard for writers of crime fiction. I turn to my wife, who is bracing herself against the wind, dressed in her winter coat with more layers of clothing under it than you could count in a month of Sundays. She is holding our small dog, Freya – a cross between a Pekinese and something else – close to her. It seems to me Freya is like an extra layer, a furry scarf to keep out the chill.

Our journey begins at the Woolwich Foot Tunnel, a marvel of engineering that's been ferrying folks under the river since 1912. Descending into the tunnel feels like stepping into a Victorian time capsule, though it was actually built in the Edwardian era. The gleaming white tiles and slightly unsettling echo of footsteps create an eerie atmosphere. Local legend says if you whistle in the tunnel, you'll summon the ghost of a maintenance worker - a tale that sent me running through here in terror as a young boy.

A short westerly walk brings us to the magnificent Thames Barrier - London's very own robotic sea monster. Built in the 1970s and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1984, these silver-plated leviathans are one of London's most underrated architectural marvels. The barrier spans 520 meters across the River with 10 steel gates as high as five-story buildings, each weighing 3,300 tonnes. Its effectiveness was proven during the winter of 2013/14 when it closed 50 times in just 13 weeks, preventing flooding that could have affected 2 million people.

As we continue our walk, the skyline of Canary Wharf looms across the water, a glittering testament to the area's transformation from dockyards to derivatives. These monuments to mammon have a certain beauty, especially when the setting sun turns them into towers of gold. It's a far cry from the bustling docks that once stood here, where cargo ships from across the Empire unloaded everything from sugar to silk, the air thick with the smell of salt, tar, and exotic spices.

The Greenwich Peninsula reveals itself as an outdoor gallery of public art. The Greenwich Art Trail features Antony Gormley's 'Quantum Cloud' - a fuzzy human figure that looks like someone tried to do a Star Trek teleportation but lost connection halfway through. Nearby stands Damien Hirst's 'Demon with Bowl,' a 60-foot tall headless bronze figure covered in coral. Hirst created an elaborate backstory about a freed slave's sunken art collection, part of his 'Treasures of the Wreck of the Unbelievable' series.

We pass the O2 Arena, looming before us like a giant punctured golf ball. Once the much-maligned Millennium Dome, it has transformed into one of London's premier entertainment venues. The transformation from white elephant to success story perfectly captures London's ability to reinvent itself.

Public Art: Richard Wilson's 'Slice of Reality'. Go figure.

Richard Wilson's "Slice of Reality" appears - a vertical slice of a sand dredger standing in the Thames like some bizarre maritime cross-section. We pass the historic Enderby House, an elegant Grade II listed building from the 1830s where the first transatlantic telephone cables were manufactured - the Victorian Internet of its day.

As we approach central Greenwich, the magnificent Cutty Sark stands proud, her three masts reaching toward the sky. This fastest of tea clippers has found her final berth, preserved in all her glory as a testament to the age of sail. Nearby, the Trafalgar Tavern where Charles Dickens once dined on whitebait still serves patrons, connecting present to past.

The walk concludes in the heart of Greenwich, where Christopher Wren's masterpiece, the Old Royal Naval College, spreads before us like an architectural feast. Now housing Greenwich University, students hurry across courtyards once paced by naval officers learning their craft. Above it all, the Royal Observatory stands watch over the river as it has done since 1675, marking the spot where world time itself is measured.

Through winter winds and historical revelations, our pilgrimage along the Thames Path reveals London's many faces - its industrial heritage, maritime history, modern art, and architectural treasures. But more than that, it's a reminder of how the river has shaped countless lives through the centuries, from kings and sailors to merchants and engineers, all flowing past like the eternal Thames itself. Three pilgrims - a husband lost in historical reverie, a patient wife grounding him in the present, and a small dog making new discoveries - found their own meaning in this ancient pathway along London's great river.

In the beginning: Entrance to the Woolwich Foot Tunnel

Alzheimer's Society