Thamesmead Town Centre to North Greenwich
Monday December 20th 2010
This was our first trip to Thamesmead (though obviously one
of the later numbers) and we were rather surprised to find that ‘Towncentre’
comprised half a bus station and a library. In fact Thamesmead seemed rather
short on the facilities that daily living requires such as shops and cafes or
pubs, though generously endowed with buses. When they extended the Jubilee Line
Thamesmead was hopeful of getting its own underground stop, but Stratford won
that particular prize and it does seem incongruous that an area housing up to
50,000 people does not have its own station.
There are as noted, however, several bus routes – including this one,
which runs on a 24-hour basis.
All we had needed to do on this very cold day was to get off
our previous route, cross the road and immediately we were in our customary
front seats on the top deck.
Thamesead North was large and densely populated enough
without thinking about the other three points of the compass – in good
socialist fashion the roads and some of the blocks are named after lots of
DW(EE)BS (Dead White Britons): Dickens, Lister, Fleming, Bentham and Hawksmoor,
a few of them more local boys than others; the list goes on. Off to the side
there was a patch of wildlife naming – Curlew and Fieldfare leading us to
wonder whether the increasingly ubiquitous green parakeets would soon get a
street or development named for them? Parakeet Pass perhaps? Anyway the town houses and newer flats were
nicely arranged along little waterways – today all frozen, leading to some
rather confused looking ducks and geese sitting on the ice rather than dabbling
as they usually do. I imagine it can be quite pleasant to stroll along here on
warmer days. Not surprisingly the bus was taking its journey quite carefully
and quietly, given the narrow clearance it had between snow and slush banks,
and it took on many passengers.
After emerging onto the main road, the bus then serves
Thamesmead West, which is in fact an industrial/business estate that presumably
offers employment to some of the residents of Thamesmead North. Many of the businesses seemed to be to do
with either car repairs or parcel delivery services – at this time of year
there were plenty of vans nipping in and out of different units. Again we were
not sure where the workers round here went for lunch as there seemed to be a
great lack of eating places except for one McDonalds. ‘Iron Mountain’ with its simple triangular logo was one of the
main warehousing agents round here, but on looking into what services they
might provide it seems they manage ‘data protection’ out of rather more
upmarket addresses in town than a slab of metal warehouse in Thamesmead – can
this be where all the confidential re-cycling waste actually sits then?? As
ours was the only bus route trundling along Nathan Way there seemed little risk
of having too many visitors anyway.
Our last bit of back street driving then finished by merging
into the busy riverside main road between Plumstead and Woolwich, and we stayed
Thames-side for the rest of the trip. Even from the top of the bus it is quite
difficult to work out what you are passing on the opposite riverbank. By the
Woolwich Ferry the last of Tate & Lyle was steaming/smoking away opposite
and there was a strange array of huge satellite dishes much bigger than the
domestic sort leading one to wonder where data protection ends and spying
starts?? Having recently flown into City Airport at night it was good to see
the river landscape by day.
Talking of river landscapes we suddenly realised that the
Royal Arsenal housing development we had been passing on so many routes actually had some completed blocks behind
the hoardings – not very inspiring was the conclusion, just oblong greyness …
( I promise I am not an agent for Berkeley but
as developers go they at least rehabilitate existing sites of interest) 
We zipped along the riverside route quite smartly, with its
reminders of seafaring past such a Hope and Anchor Lane, and Horizon Way, and then turned off into
Bugsby’s Way, which turned out to be our undoing. ( I think Bugsby must have been like Mr Gallion and family who owned stretches of the river down from the more expensive mooring in central London - a 'reach' is as far as a ship 'reaches' on a single tack .... apparently.)
We guessed there might be
some kind of malfunction in the nearby Blackwall Tunnel as there seemed to be traffic
everywhere but going nowhere so halfway down our driver evicted us onto the
frozen pavements to wait for the next bus along. We were only within 6 minutes
of finishing this route and getting home so it seemed a bit unreasonable but I
suppose timetables are timetables. I suggested to Jo we might take the next bus
along whatever the number, given that the routes were the same, but this is
clearly ‘against the rules’ even in sub-zero temperatures. As it happened the
next bus along was a 472 so we could complete the trip as it should be done.
Given the milling hordes it took longer than six minutes but
we eventually left the Blackwall scrum behind and sailed past the gasworks/dome
and housing mix to arrive back at North Greenwich where we had set off some
four hours earlier. By now the inside
of the bus was like paddling due to the snow coming off passengers’ shoes but
the 472 had taken us safely through the narrow and snowbound streets of
Thamesmead back to the Greenwich Peninsula.
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