From the Docklands to Greenwich

This tour takes you back to the age when London was the maritime capital of the world, via the Docklands of the East End and the historic waterfront of Greenwich. We begin at Canary Wharf Tube Station on the Jubilee Line. It’s one of the most remarkable stations on the underground and feels more like an underground cathedral. It was designed by Sir Norman Foster and opened in 1999 as part of the Jubilee line extension. As you leave the station, feeling very small among the towering office blocks, walk down the right hand side of Middle Dock which is in front of you, turn right under the railway bridge and thread your way through to West India Dock, completed in 1802 on the open fields of the Isle of Dogs. And when it was finished this huge warehouse was the largest brick building in the world. On this side is the Northern Import Dock - the ships would come in here to discharge their cargo and when they’d done that they went through to the Southern Export Dock over there to load up again for their next trip. The huge advance was that they didn’t have to go and wait weeks and weeks in town to be checked by Customs and Excise. All the checks could be done here on the spot which speeded up the whole process enormously until it wasn’t long before they could get through 500 ships in the year.
If you cross the footbridge you'll reach the Museum in Docklands where you can get a great idea of how different this area was in its heyday. The streets were probably a bit like this one: dark, narrow, twisting, smelly lined with pubs and brothels and the sort of shops that sell things that sailors want - food, for example, and chandlers with rope and that sort of stuff. And of course they were full of thieves and vagabonds and people ready to prey on drunken and unsuspecting sailors.
- ‘In fact I think maybe I’d better scarper before I get my wallet nicked!’
Once you’ve explored the museum, walk down the quayside to West India Quay Station on the Docklands Light Railway. Take a train south to Cutty Sark Station. The Docklands Light Railway was opened in 1987 and, you’ll be pleased to know, it’s one of the more environmentally friendly ways to get around London. It gives you some great views of Docklands and, amazingly, it has no train drivers! But don’t panic because each train is controlled by an onboard computer which talks to a central computer overseeing the whole line and ensuring everything runs smoothly and isn’t it a smooth ride!
Leave the train at Cutty Sark Station and, once upstairs, turn left and left again. In front of you will be the Cutty Sark herself - in her day one of the fastest sailing ships afloat. Although she looks a bit of a mess at the moment that’s because she is in the midst of a 20 million pound restoration project, which itself was interrupted by a serious fire. Her masts and rigging have been taken down for safe storage and conservation. There’s a small temporary exhibition next to the ship if you want to find out more. Beyond the Cutty Sark, you’ll find Greenwich Hospital - a Home for old and disabled seamen built at the desire of Queen Mary.
In 1692, there was a fierce naval battle in which the British and Dutch beat the French. But there were terrible casualties and Queen Mary was moved to build a hospital to look after all those wounded sailors. She was also moved by the fact that Louis XIV had just opened the wonderful Hôtel des Invalides in Paris and whatever the French could do we could do better. So she appointed Christopher Wren the architect and he was going to build a huge great building with a vast dome right here in the middle. But then at the last minute she said ‘No, you don’t’ because that was her house there and it would have spoilt her view of the river! So he had to change all his plans and make a great big avenue down the middle so she could see all the way to the Thames.
Leave the hospital and heading away from the river and you’ll reach Greenwich Park. If you have time, the National Maritime Museum is just down the road. It has a huge and wonderful collection from all periods of Britain’s nautical past. Otherwise head up the hill to our penultimate stop, the Royal Observatory.
Ah, there you are! I've come here to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich to witness a rather curious thing. You see that red ball up there, looks like a sort of lolly on a stick. But that was, in fact, the world’s first accurate timepiece and it turned out to be absolutely vital for the shipping business. It doesn’t look much like a clock and in fact, it tells the time only once every day. But this is how it works - at exactly five minutes to one. The red ball goes halfway up the stick, at exactly two minutes to one it goes up to the top and at the point of one o’clock it comes down again. It’s very, very simple. There it goes, it’s only on its way up to the very top so that means it’s exactly two minutes to one. It can’t be long now, very close to one o’clock ... there it goes! It’s exactly one o’clock! Right, my watch is a minute and a half fast, at exactly one o’clock the ball comes tumbling down. Isn't that a wonderful time signal? They do astronomy shows at the Observatory every hour until 4 p.m., but if you are already feeling a bit weary I have just the thing! Head down Park Row, which runs along the right hand side of the Hospital and you’ll soon find the Trafalgar Tavern, Charles Dickens used to drink here and, like him, you can enjoy great views of the river and a great range of refreshing ales.