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Post by htmb on Jun 18, 2013 17:10:58 GMT
Oh, yes. I even took a picture.
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Post by mich64 on Jun 18, 2013 17:45:32 GMT
Even though I am sure the rain was not pleasant, the photo of it against the window is.
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Post by htmb on Jun 18, 2013 18:02:36 GMT
Thanks, Mich. I didn't like it down in that cabin very much and was happy to sit outside most of the trip, even if it was raining. I should say the boat was very nice. There was woman selling soft drinks, hot drinks, and beer, and it had very adequate WCs. I also got a discount for having an Oyster card, so the whole trip only cost me 9£ one way and a couple £ to get back via Docklands Light Rail and the Tube.
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Post by htmb on Jun 18, 2013 18:51:07 GMT
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Post by htmb on Jun 18, 2013 18:59:30 GMT
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Post by htmb on Jun 18, 2013 20:05:59 GMT
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Post by htmb on Jun 18, 2013 21:41:12 GMT
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Post by nycgirl on Jun 19, 2013 3:41:43 GMT
When I hear the word "tavern," I think of a cozy place to have a beer. This doesn't look like that kind of place. Beautiful building, though.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2013 3:55:06 GMT
You can take a few billion magpies back with you, if you like. I'm sure we'll still have plenty!
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Post by patricklondon on Jun 19, 2013 5:23:23 GMT
Hardly ruined! Those were once industrial buildings and warehouses, now converted to expensive apartments. I don't know for sure, but it's possible some were connected with the original Thames Tunnel, the first of its kind in the world, which runs from near there and like so many pioneering engineering marvels never really had the success planned for it, but is now in use as a regular railway tunnel.
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Post by patricklondon on Jun 19, 2013 5:36:42 GMT
Some are, some aren't. There is a scheme to encourage co-operation between "detectorists" and local archaeological services, which has worked very well; there's certainly a strong relationship between organised/registered mudlarks and the Museum of London, but of course enforcement of permits isn't that easy, and who knows what a casual prospector might destroy? If anyone's interested, here's all about it: www.pla.co.uk/display_fixedpage.cfm/id/4018
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Post by htmb on Jun 19, 2013 7:10:19 GMT
Thank you, Patrick. I had been hoping, as a resident and expert on the area, you would contribute here. Your interesting posts are what got my attention in the first place.
I should mention the Royal Observatory Greenwich, seen on the hill in my last two photos. I did not visit due to time constraints, but hope to return again one day to see the place where the Prime Meridian was fixed in 1884.
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Post by htmb on Jun 19, 2013 7:14:48 GMT
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Post by htmb on Jun 19, 2013 8:11:48 GMT
When I first realized there was a foot tunnel connecting Greenwich and the Isle of Dogs I knew I had to experience it for myself. I had lots of questions: Would it be dark and damp? Would other people be there, or would I be all alone inside a fifty foot deep tunnel spanning 1,217 feet under the Thames? How well has the tunnel, opened in 1902, held up? Would I absolutely freak out down there? For me, going down in this tunnel was going to be a bit of a challenge. I said goodbye to the town of Greenwich and headed to the round, dome-topped building. There are two basically identical buildings on either side of the Thames, each containing a flight of stairs and a very wide elevator that can accommodate several people as well as bicycles and strollers. Here's a look from the inside of the elevator as the doors close. The tunnel is lined with white tile and it is a bit damp. It slopes down towards the center and then back up as it progresses underneath the Thames. This is a perfect place to race a bicycle and the temptation would be great even for me, but there are two gates midway to keep cyclists from tearing through the tunnel, plus signs stating they should walk their bikes. The tunnel was being used by many people crossing back and forth: young families with strollers, serious-minded bike enthusiasts, and casual riders, all out enjoying the fact that the weather had finally improved. At the opposite end of the tunnel I read this sign while waiting for the elevator. I also noticed this end of the tunnel appeared to have been reinforced with iron, making it slightly narrower than the rest. I later learned this was part of a repair job after bombing of the area during WWII damaged the tunnel. Taking the elevator back to the surface, I was truly across the river and now on the Isle of Dogs. Looking back across the river ... To the right you can just see part of the dome at the entrance to the foot tunnel. Greenwich Guide with foot tunnel information
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 19, 2013 15:48:40 GMT
Oh, Htmb! I was too busy the last couple of days to really scrutinize this thread. That's fine, though, because it meant looking at it more than once. What a magnificent presentation, especially considering you're doing it away from home. Just wow on the photos -- so inspired. Interesting, too -- the Thames Barrier is totally fascinating. I'm so enjoying the running commentary, too. Can't you stay longer? I want more of this!
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Post by bjd on Jun 19, 2013 16:45:00 GMT
I finally decided to look at a map and have now realized exactly where you went. For some reason I had thought Greenwich would be west of London, rather than east.
Was the Isle of Dogs really an island? On the map, the channels separating the land from Chattels of London (love the name!) look very straight and man made.
Keep it up -- this is all interesting.
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Post by htmb on Jun 19, 2013 17:20:58 GMT
Thank you both very much. I will defer to Patrick regarding the island part. I think it was an island very long ago. Reports I've read said Henry VIII used to keep his hunting dogs there. I suppose that was when he was staying at Greenwich.
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Post by htmb on Jun 19, 2013 17:54:59 GMT
I found an interesting website for Isle of Dogs information. Here's an excerpt and the link: The earliest reference to the area as the Isle of Dogs is on a map of 1588. This makes it possible that one of the attributions for the origin of its name, as the place where Henry VIII kept his hunting dogs, could be true. On the other hand, it could equally well have been a dismissive term.
The West India Docks were opened by the then Prime Minister Sir Henry Addington in 1802. Expansion followed with, for example, the warehouses built on West India Quay to the north of Canary Wharf. What remains of these are the most important and elegant warehouses surviving in London Docklands, built 1824-25 to the design of George Gwilt.
The East India Docks were opened in 1806. They were amalgamated in 1838 with the West India Docks. Millwall Dock followed between 1864 and 1868, the spoil dug out with the aid of a mudchute, and deposited on the site of today's Mudchute Farm, Europe's largest urban farm.. Link
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Post by htmb on Jun 19, 2013 18:22:30 GMT
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Post by mossie on Jun 19, 2013 18:48:10 GMT
An excellent report. Greenwich is a fascinating place, full of history. The Cutty Sark has only recently been rebuilt and opened to the public after being practically destroyed by fire. I notice a pub? called Gypsy Moth, at one time Sir Francis Chichester's yacht Gypsy Moth was beside the Cutty Sark.
He was the first to sail single handed round the world at the age of 65. He had been a pre war pioneer aviator and was the first to fly single handed from New Zealand to Australia in a single engine Gypsy Moth biplane. He navigated by taking sun shots with a sextant as per sailors, which was a remarkable feat considering he was having to control the aircraft and take precisely timed shots from an open cockpit. He partially wrote the manual from which we were taught navigation.
Magpies are a quarrelsome bird with a bad reputation for taking the eggs and young of smaller birds. Their numbers have soared in recent years as birds are protected. In the "good old days" the gamekeepers used to shoot them to protect the game chicks they were raising.
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Post by htmb on Jun 19, 2013 18:58:48 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2013 19:01:07 GMT
It all looks great. I was already fascinated when Patrick had posted his report about Greenwich, but now I am even more intrigued, since I have never been there.
My trips to London have always been so short that I have never managed to stray from the centre. Actually, I did spend a couple of weeks in London once or twice for work (training courses at our London training centre in Chiswick), but my will was weak back then and rather than striking out independently to explore as I should have done, I always seemed to be roped into activities that various colleagues had organised -- crappy restaurants and even, god help me, a performance of Evita in the West End. What a waste of time and money!
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Post by htmb on Jun 19, 2013 19:14:40 GMT
You would have HATED the fabulous performance of Les Misérables that I saw this afternoon, Kerouac.
You are so close to London, perhaps you will come back and visit this area.
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Post by htmb on Jun 19, 2013 19:31:16 GMT
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Post by htmb on Jun 19, 2013 19:43:32 GMT
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Post by patricklondon on Jun 20, 2013 5:46:10 GMT
Until the Docks were built it was essentially marshland, so would have been quite isolated anyway. With the docks dug out and locks opened to the river (originally one each side of the peninsula), it did become an island for a time; even after one of the locks was closed, access to and from it was limited, as now, to the road running round the outside, and the railway in the middle. By the 1970s, with the docks and local industries declining fast, some local people decided to draw attention to the situation and lack of local services (only one bus route, no secondary school, and so on), by "declaring independence" and blockading the road: eastlondonhistory.com/2011/06/16/ted-johns-and-the-isle-of-dogs/
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Post by mossie on Jun 20, 2013 7:14:04 GMT
Thank you Patrick for diverting me into that website which will have to take much more time later. And thank you again htmb for another wonderful chapter. Between you you have taken me back 64 years to my time in the boys hostel in Bower St Stepney.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2013 12:50:03 GMT
Ah, those great days of corporal punishment and cold showers!
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Post by htmb on Jun 20, 2013 12:53:39 GMT
Mossie, I know you've mentioned Bower St. Stepney before, but please refresh my memory. Where exactly was it located and what work did you do while there?
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Post by mossie on Jun 20, 2013 18:44:33 GMT
Bower St ran between Commercial Road and Cable St., nowadays it has changed shape to accommodate modern flats. I lived in an old warehouse, demolished to make way for the flats. Barnados converted it into a hostel housing about 50 or 60 boys between the ages of 14 and 18. They were mainly boys who had been living in Dr Barnados Orphanages and was a base for them to go out to work. The Fenchurch Street to Tilbury and Southend railway ran close to one end of the building, as we slept on the top floor it was noticeable that the place trembled when a train passed by. You would have travelled on that line if you took the DLR to Bank or Tower Gateway
I worked in the City at a Chartered Accountants as an office boy, but left after I got a job working for the Meteorological Office and was posted away after training.
I would stress that I was not an orphan, the place was found for me by the Labour Exchange youth employment officer. I had left my home in depressed East Kent to find my fortune where the streets were paved with gold ;D ;D
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