Stephen Lawrence Centre fences to go!

It's not often that I am sufficiently moved to put an exclamation mark in a headline, but when I discovered that the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust had submitted a planning application for new landscaping around its building on Brookmill Road, and when I realised that this new landscaping includes TEARING DOWN THE FENCES, my heart sang.

I've always felt that this was a woefully unfriendly building - even finding the entrance door can be a challenge - and the fencing around it makes it look more like a Northern Irish police station at the height of the Troubles than the community building it is intended to be. This may be the reason I've never been inside. I don't dislike the building itself, just the overtly unwelcoming face it offers to its neighbours. 

Unfortunately the building was vandalised just a week after opening in 2008; the huge wall of glass designed by Chris Ofili was smashed by bricks thrown from outside the perimeter in what was dubbed a racist attack at the time. The fences failed to prevent the attack - finally they are going to be removed and hopefully the centre will start to have a more neighbourly relationship with the local area. 

First phase of the centre's reinvention was this week's launch of the new 'co-working' space which featured in Wallpaper magazine. It seems that the next phase will address the poor public realm on the site itself, and its relationship with Deptford.

There's not much in the way of renderings in the planning application, but the main change is going to be the removal of the steel fences and the gates, with just a low wall retained. A new pedestrian  route into the site will be created right in front of the building entrance, and a range of landscaping, picnic tables and raised planting will be installed within the site. On the Brookmill Park boundary there will be raised allotment beds.

I look forward to getting a full length view of the magnificent windows. 

Twinkle Park pond update

With Twinkle Park currently a no-go zone and work to reinstate the pond seemingly halted, comes an update from the Twinkle Park Trust.

The bad news is that the reinstatement of the park's pond is going to take longer than expected - but the good news is that the cause of the mysterious loss of water has finally been found (...and the question on everyone's lips is how the previous investigations managed to miss it!)

The official line is as follows:

The work started was due to be completed in mid-May but unfortunately there has been a delay which has resulted in work being halted until July, at which point we will finally get our pond back! 

In the first few days of work, as the vegetation which had taken root over the past few years was being cleared and the contractors began to tackle the liner, they found evidence of subsidence. In the months following the draining of the pond, the Twinkle Park Trust commissioned costly scans of the pond bed to be undertaken, none of which showed any conclusive results, so to finally have found the probable explanation for the water’s disappearance was a relief, but there was obvious concern that the discovery might jeopardise the entire project. 

Further examination quickly followed, and a dig around the area uncovered a brick structure with a void, into which some soil had collapsed. It seems that the pond was originally built on top of an old cesspit or well, which had been disturbed (perhaps by the building or utilities works, ongoing in the area at the time), causing a degree of collapse. 

Following advice from a range of architects and builders, as well as consulting with the project’s funders, the Trust has been able to determine a course of action which will see the safe completion of the pond restoration. Unfortunately, owing to the delay, our contractor was forced to move on to their next scheduled job, forcing our own building work to pause. 

The contractors are scheduled to return as soon as possible and are now expected to return to recommence the work on 2nd July 2018. The Trust is grateful for the assistance and advice we have received from all parties involved in the project over the past few weeks, and whilst we are naturally disappointed that this unavoidable delay has occurred, we are thankful that the project has not been threatened. 

Whilst we recognise that it is not ideal, we are sure that the surrounding community will agree that the return of the pond to Twinkle Park will be worth the price of a couple of extra months of fences and exposed soil.

Twinkle Park to get its pond back

Twinkle Park at the bottom of Watergate St is one of the hidden secrets of Deptford - it used to be one of my favourite haunts in happier days when its pond was a beautiful centrepiece.

Sadly and somewhat mysteriously in October 2013 it sprang a leak and all the water drained out overnight.

Since that time the pond has remained empty, and has turned into a kind of grassy crater in the middle of the park. Not really what was intended.

So I was delighted to discover that the Twinkle Park Trust, which manages the park and neighbouring Charlotte Turner Gardens, has finally raised funds to pay for the pond to be relined and renovated.

Work on the pond is due to start tomorrow (Monday 9th April) and is expected to take about a month. Twinkle Park Trust is hoping to celebrate the reinstatement of the pond at its summer festival this year.

The river Ravensbourne in Brookmill Park

I came across this short film by Elly Hazael (@ehazael) yesterday, and loved it.

The quiet, slow movements and lives of the birds and the gently flowing water of the Ravensbourne as it drifts through Brookmill Park are set against the backdrop of the rattle of the DLR, passing lorries and the detritus of an urban river. It's magical and soothing, with its soundtrack of birdsong and water rippling over stones.

It always fascinates me to see how these shy birds carry on with their lives tucked among such densely-populated parts of the city.

The cycle route between Deptford and Lewisham is shunned by many as it winds back and forth through the park and there's a much quicker, direct route on the road, but for me the chance to catch a glimpse into this kind of gentle scene always outweighs the need to get there quicker.

Folkestone Gardens and Quietway work

I regularly go through Folkestone Gardens and am often saddened by the neglect and abuse this little park suffers.

With gates wide enough to admit cars at two sides of the park, it often fell victim to fly-tipping and I once witnessed a motorist trying to drive a car through the park on the footpath and flying into a rage when a dog-walker challenged him. Eventually the park managers clocked that it might be a good idea to restrict access at these gates, and the problems stopped for a while.

Where once was shrubbery...

Meanwhile the vicious 'pruning' exercised by Glendale last year saw the bushes and trees decimated to a shadow of their former selves, and problems with rough sleepers using wood from the remaining trees to create campfires does not help.

..now is a campsite

As part of the implementation of TFL's new Quietway cycle routes, the council has been able to leverage some funds to make improvements to Folkestone Gardens, and both of these projects are under construction concurrently, albeit at a snail's pace.

A new skateboard park is being built at the east end of the gardens, as part of a scheme that was intended to make much better use of space in what was originally a somewhat sprawling play area. This came out of an initiative by a youth group who successfully applied for a grant of £50k towards improvements to the piss poor skate ramps that were already in the park. The council weighed in with a further £225k from section 106 funds and carried out a consultation exercise about what it proposed for the new 'skate and play' park.  

The consultation document had some plans of how the skate and play park would look.

Unsurprisingly, given the name, and the published plans, local people were expecting that there would be some new 'play' as well as some new 'skate'. Now that the work is almost finished, however, it has become clear that the new 'play' is just the old 'play' in a smaller area. 

Promises of new equipment have not materialised, and it seems that the contractors have just lifted the old play equipment and moved it to the other side of the play area. 

One beacon of hope is that the disused toilet block next to the road has been given planning permission to be refurbished and opened as a cafe. I suspect a new roof may be necessary, but it will be good to have this rotting shell brought back to life.

As far as the 'Quietway' goes, the paths through the park have been made bigger, presumably to accommodate cyclists as well as pedestrians. But they seem oversized to me, especially the huge junction by the old toilet block - I've been using the park for years and the only conflict I've ever witnessed on the footpaths was the aforementioned car driver and dog walker. I think the park would have been better with a bit more grass left intact.

It will be a great improvement to have better surfacing in the tunnel between the park and Gosterwood Street, which has always been a bit of a gloomy route at night and prone to fly-tipping. Let's hope that there will be lighting too, which might deter some of this abuse.

I was disappointed to read in Lewisham Cyclists response to the plans for the quiet way that in Folkestone Gardens they made a plea for 'significant vegetation clearance around the route to make it more visible, particularly on corners'. Well they certainly got that.

I found this comment particularly unnecessary because there are two routes through the park; the one with the vegetation, blind corners and absolutely no lighting, and another one with very little in the way of blind corners, and which is lit by the street lights at night. In the summer I tend to take the former, in the winter I take the latter. They both lead to the same place. There is also a perfectly reasonable, direct alternative on the road for anyone who feels uncomfortable using the park when it's dark.

It does beg the question of whether it's a park or a cycle route with some greenery. I would like to see them co-existing happily, but the recent changes seem to be putting more emphasis on cycle access than on the green environment, wildlife and somewhere that can be quietly enjoyed by all.

As an aside, and with reference to my post about the high street rat-running problems, the initial plans for the quietway included a road closure at the junction of Childers St and Rolt St, but this was vetoed by local people who didn't want to have their driving routes impacted. I thought it was a great idea and suspect if it had gone ahead we wouldn't now be faced with the continued problem of rat-running on the high street! 

Kingfishers in the Ravensbourne

Several months ago I stopped to chat to a fella who was hunkered down on a low seat overlooking the Ravensbourne right outside Elverson Road DLR station.

I spotted him first on my way into Lewisham - he was facing the bit of the river that's barely visible from anywhere else, where it runs in a wide concrete channel behind the rail station and into Brookmill Park. At first glance I thought he was fishing, and given the level of river water, that he was also hopelessly optimistic.

But on my way back I saw he was watching a camera on a tripod in the river bed, so I stopped to have a chat and he told me all about his kingfisher watch. He told me that he spent several hours a day trying to get good photos of them, that they covered large distances along the river looking for food, he showed me their favourite perches and told me other places that were good for spotting them.

I was surprised and delighted to hear that there were kingfishers on this stretch of the river - I've only ever seen them down at the end of the Creek although given their range it was probably the same ones! - and impressed by his dedication to something he had such a passion for.

Tomos and his kingfisher photos were featured on the One Show yesterday and you can watch the clip here.

Some reporters get all the best jobs - crouching in a concrete culvert for three hours wearing a bin bag. Luckily they did get a sighting!

Secret Garden Project Lewisham

Sue Godfrey Nature Park in Deptford features in a number of events based along the Ravensbourne and Pool Rivers as part of the Secret Garden Project, a pan-London programme of environmental art commissions focussing on the capital's lesser known green spaces.

  

Artist Rebecca Beinart will be exploring the history and botany of the Sue Godfrey Nature Park during a three month residency, starting with a number of events in the park.

The website describes the park as 'a small and inconspicuous wild land, wedged amongst residential blocks in the heart of Deptford which has become a haven for wildlife. Originally the site of the Parry's pottery works, when industry trades began to diminish in Deptford it was left as a wasteland, with parameters ringed and only the ruins of a 17th century kiln as a nod to its past. 

'However, after a lengthy campaign by local residents, Sue Godfrey Nature Park was established in 1984, opening the site back up to the public and wildlife alike and who have since successfully fought off several attempts for redevelopment. 

'Drawing on the the rich history of local activism, trade and green spaces in Deptford, Beinart will host a series of medicine making workshops, conversations and shared meals over the coming months. The project seeks to open up wider questions around urban ecology, local knowledge and land use in cities.'

As well as events in Deptford, the project involves the creation of new permanent artworks for Ladywell Fields and Cornmill Gardens, as well as development of a mobile app and digital sound installation for the River Pool Linear Park down towards Bellingham.

Meanwhile here's a photo of my favourite 'secret' artwork in Sue Godfrey Nature Park - you will only get to see it if you walk right through the middle.

Twinkle Park

Just over the border in Greenwich borough is one of Deptford's best kept secrets. Twinkle Park is right at the end of Watergate Street and it's a place you might only happen upon accidentally. But when you've been once, you will occasionally be drawn back to this tiny cobbled street a stone's throw from the river.

When I visited it yesterday it was the busiest I've ever seen it - a construction worker from the adjoining Paynes & Borthwick Wharf development (more of that tomorrow) was taking a shady break on one of the benches, opposite a sleepy looking chap enjoying a can of beer on the other side of the pond. While I was there a fourth visitor joined us, although she preferred to read her book under the 'bandstand' type structure in the adjoining Charlotte Turner Gardens.

The pond looks particularly lovely surrounded by a band of yellow irises in bloom and their green spiky leaves, its surface almost totally covered in the tiny little leaves of some type of pond weed.

Teeny tiny moorhen chicks

Five very young moorhen chicks - so small they could have been on their first outing - were struggling to paddle through the weed, led on by mum.

You would hardly think you were in Deptford!

 Twinkle Park Trust, which runs the park, is holding its annual summer festival on Sunday 17th June, so if you haven't been yet, it would be a good time to visit. And if you have been, you might like to find out about the proposals for the final works to Charlotte Turner Gardens, which are to be installed later this year. The festival takes place from 2pm–7pm and includes family activities such as DJ Stormy playing reggae music, Artyparty making animal masks, and pond dipping. The Paul Zec Jazz Quintet will play from 4pm–7pm.

Fordham Park planting

Pootling around on the bike this morning I was happy to see that the planting and turf in Fordham Park is starting to mature and really give the park some character. Of course you have to overlook the bits of rubbish blowing around the pathways - inevitable given the footfall - but in general it strikes me as a rather well-maintained public space.

At the entrance from the Woodpecker estate, the shaded grassy hillocks where the spring flowers bloom are still unmown and currently covered by some beautiful purple flowers.

Next to Deptford Green school, a whole range of planting presumably intended to withstand arid conditions is flourishing - the lavender in particular looks stunning, and I was pleased to notice a couple of small sea buckthorn bushes among the grasses and other plants. (There are lots of sea buckthorn bushes - usually fully laden with fruit for those keen foragers among my readers - around the tip of the Greenwich peninsula).

On the east edge of the park a different planting regime has been used, including some beautiful yellow broom which is just coming into flower.

The turf of the football field seems to have fully recovered from its disastrous, waterlogged start. It might have been painful to have the field fenced off for so many months, but it seems to have done the trick in giving the grass the chance to establish itself properly at last. Can't comment on the properties of the field for playing footy or other games - hopefully it's not too lumpy - but it certainly looks pretty lush.

Bugs and bats

Can't tell your ladybirds from your shield bugs? Got a keen interest in bats (whether in your belfry or elsewhere)? Want to know more about local wildlife?

In which case you're in luck; Lewisham's ecological regeneration manager, Nick Pond, is seeking keen naturalists who would like to get some free ecological training next spring/summer 2012.

He is currently managing a funded project called Rivers & People (which I wrote about earlier this year in relation to some of the events here) and wants to gauge local interest in training in survey techniques.

If there is enough interest to make the project viable, he wants to train naturalists in survey techniques so that the borough can encourage a trained body of volunteers to collect ecological species data and generate more complete records of protected species for Lewisham and its environs.

The training for the funding will come from a Big Lottery grant called Access to Nature, and it will take place in a number of locations in the borough. These are likely to be the Creekside Centre in Deptford), Devonshire Road Nature Reserve SE23 and possibly at the Horniman Museum and/or at LWT Wildlife Garden Centre in Southwark.

For more info contact Nick.Pond@lewisham.gov.uk or call 0208 314 2007.

You might also be interested to know that Lewisham has a new blog for all things nature-conservation-related - you can find it here.

Deptford birds: Ring-necked parakeet

It seems the borders of Deptford have finally been breached by the Ring-Necked Parakeet, Britain's only naturalised parrot which has been common in much of south-east London for years.

While I've heard and observed them regularly on walks in other pars of Lewisham and Greenwich boroughs, I've never seen them in Deptford before. The last few weeks I've heard their raucous cries frequently from my balcony and it seems that a group of them has taken up residence nearby; presumably the continued expansion of their SE London population means them having to find new territories.

Opinion is split on ring-necked parakeets - some people love the idea of having tropical birds in their back gardens, others (me included) find their squawking cries rather grating. They perch in the high branches of trees and it's not easy to see them except in flight, so it's difficult to decide whether their plummage is sufficiently exotic to excuse all the screeching! That being said, many of our native birds cannot sing for toffee either, and some have just as annoying cries such as the magpie that I can currently hear squawking in the trees nearby.

However there are also genuine concerns about their potential impact on Britain's native species, particularly woodpeckers, starlings and nuthatches with whom the parakeets compete for nesting holes. No detrimental impact has yet been established, but the RSPB is keeping a watching brief on the situation.

Sunday morning cycle ride

One way to avoid the crowds and the heat is to get up early on a Sunday morning and bike down the river to Surrey Docks for a couple of hours.


Join the cygnets in admiring how (relatively) delightful Surrey Quays is without any shoppers;



...bask in the early morning heat along with the ducklings and assorted waterfowl;



...explore the unexpected beauty of the Surrey Quays hinterland and wallow in the cool shade of Russia Docks Woodland along with the other early risers.

Deptford birds: Black Redstart

Regular readers will know I am a bit of a twitcher, although not enough to go romping round the country in pursuit of rare birds. But I do enjoy spotting and identifying birds as I go about my daily business.

So I was particularly thrilled to get the opportunity to watch a Black Redstart singing its delightful song, perched on top of an aerial above Tomi's Kitchen as I waited for the London Bridge-bound train last night.

According to the RSPB site:
The black redstart is a small robin-sized bird that has adapted to live at the heart of industrial and urban centres. Its name comes from the plumage of the male, which is grey-black in colour with a red tail. With fewer than 100 breeding pairs in the UK, the black redstart is on the amber list of Birds of Conservation Concern.

If you go to the website you can listen to a recording of its song if you need help identifying it from a distance, as I did. I didn't have a good enough camera to photograph it, but managed to take a short video of it singing, which helped me to confirm its identity. I won't inflict the video on you, it's really not worth it!

My ID process was as follows: dark brown/black head, pale pinky/tan chest, longish tail, slightly bigger than a robin, small sharp beak. The song was the final giveaway, and apparently it is most often spotted when it is perched and singing. Deptford Creek has been known to be home to two or three breeding pairs since 1998, and I'm chuffed to have finally seen one!

For more information, you can see the Creekside Centre page or find out more info about its habitats and distribution at this page.

Deptford in the green!

No, not a political post, just a comment about how our trees have finally come into leaf!

Deptford Foreshore and Creekside Walks

The FROG blog is a series of reports made by volunteers in the Foreshore Recording and Observation Group which works under the auspices of the Thames Discovery Programme. Recently Luke and Gustav made a trip to the Deptford Foreshore to see what they could find at low tide, and Luke sent me a link to the report.

It makes fascinating reading, and made me think that perhaps I might go down there and have a mooch around, except I won't be doing any scrambling, that's for sure!

Anyone know anything about the elephant?

Meanwhile on another watery topic, the Creekside Centre has released its programme of Deptford Creek Walks for the spring and summer season. Well worth making the effort; I've done one myself a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. And definitely no scrambling!

Walks in Deptford

If you don't like walking by yourself or want someone to show you the best routes and tell you a bit about the sights along the way, make a note in your diary about the series of 'Keep healthy' walks starting on 13 April in Deptford.

All the walks will start at the 999 Club on Deptford Broadway, every Tuesday from 11am till 1pm and will run until September. Organised by Family Services UK and funded by the NHS, they are intended to encourage people to discover the physical and mental benefits of walking, as well as offering them company and some local history along the way.
Click on the image to see a larger version of the flyer with full details.

Meanwhile another series of free walks is being organised by the Creekside Education Trust and Lewisham Council, intended to improve access to our glorious Ravensbourne (the lower part of which you will see every time you cross the Ha'penny Hatch footbridge).

This Sunday you can visit part of the Waterlink Way on a guided walk which starts in Ladywell Fields and will take you as far as Bell Green. Meet at 2pm by the cafe/rangers lodge in the northern field.
I can thoroughly recommend the Waterlink Way, I cycle it occasionally and it offers a very unexpected green oasis through a large part of Lewisham borough.

Future events for the coming months include guided walks and wades, conservation days, river clean-ups, education events, environmental training and family fun days. You can join the mailing list if you email Chris.McGaw at lewisham dot gov dot uk.

Creekside hermit

Thanks to Helen for sending me the link to the Creekside Hermit, another local blog which has so far passed me by.

The hermit is Creekside's artist-in-residence one day a week for the coming year, and will be posting about plants, the weather and wildlife of the creek. Pop over there for some short videos of the creek in spate, very atmospheric, and some interesting information about medicinal uses of some of the plants you can find growing in the creek.

Margaret McMillan Park redevelopment

When I visited the Deptford Update exhibition last year I took the opportunity to read up some of the documents there that related to plans to improve public areas around Deptford, including Margaret McMillan Park, Fordham Park and the underpass that links the two, and Folkestone Gardens.

I meant to write about some of them but other priorities came and went - now I see that work has started on redevelopment of Margaret McMillan Park and the footpath is currently closed off while the work is done.

I tried to track down some information about what is being done, to back up what I vaguely remembered from the exhibition, but all I could find online was a minimal amount of stuff on the Lewisham Council website, and a draft plan, which was a bit mysterious anyway without a key.

The gist of the report, as far as I can remember, was that the footpath link from New Cross Station to Deptford through this part of the park is badly lit and rather overgrown, making it unattractive in the hours of darkness. I can certainly attest to this - I would rather walk the long way round along New Cross Road to Deptford High Street than take that short cut in the dark.

The play area is rather cut off from the main thoroughfare, making it seem like a totally different park. There is very little seating and the sightlines are bad from one end of the park to the other - which contributes to the feeling of insecurity.

I eventually found the planning application documents, which revealed that the main intention of the work, as well as improving lighting and sightlines to make the park seem less forbidding at night-time, are to introduce changes that will encourage local people to use it as a place to to meet and interact, rather than just as a route from one place to another, whether that be Deptford to New Cross Station, the shops to the Waldron Health Centre, the Albany to the Amersham Arms, etc etc.

The improvements are basically going to be:

- removing or trimming back some of the shrubs that are close to the footpath
- resurfacing the footpaths and creating some new footpaths
- opening up the entrances to give them a stronger identity
- removal of two small trees
- new soft landscaping
- new street lighting
- new furniture including seating, cycle stands, bins and signs

There's a sketch but it's not very exciting in black and white I'm afraid - looking from the Deptford end.



Here's a picture of the entrance to the park at the New Cross end, to remind you what an underwhelming entrance it is!

Deptford's winter visitors

Having spent some time this morning watching a whole flock of redwings pecking around in the dog run (eugh!) I thought it was time for a vaguely twitchy post for all you wannabe ornithologists.

I've lived in the glorious south east of London for about 20 years now and I don't think I've ever seen so many redwings in one place in the whole of this time - certainly not outside of the parks.

These winter visitors are quite easy to identify, both they and the fieldfare are members of the thrush family and you might at first mistake them for thrushes. However the distinguishing features are quite clear.


With redwings, the clue is in the name. They have a quite bright stripe of red feathers just below their wings, as well as distinct yellow and brown markings on their heads. They are about the same size as the song thrush, with a similarly coloured breast, but unlike the song thrush, they are usually seen in groups. This morning's flock was somewhere between 20 and 30! They are not often seen in towns, much less cities, but the recent cold snap is the culprit. With much of the surrounding countryside still under snow, now is your best chance to spot them in our urban landscape.


Fieldfares are also winter visitors to the UK, and sometimes hang around with redwings. They are similar to the mistle thrush, much bigger than the song thrush, but with a more bluey/grey colouring to their plumage.

When it gets too warm for these colourful birds, anywhere between March and May, they will return north to Scandinavia and Iceland to breed.

Take a good look at them. You will see from the RSPB site that both are endangered.

Docklands and Lee Valley

One of the presents I received for my birthday, just before Christmas, was Sustrans' new book Cycling in the UK (now being reprinted thanks to unprecedented demand, I see from the website!). It's an excellent book which gives directions for short sections of some of the UK's national routes (ranging from about 7 to 25 miles in length), along with info on refreshments, things to see, places to hire bikes from, what age/experience the routes are suitable for, how many hills they include, where the nearest train station is, and what routes they link into. There's a section on longer tours and challenge routes, as well as suggestions of the best industrial heritage routes, birdwatching routes, coastal routes and so on. (Incidentally I do take issue with their claim that the latter includes Dover to Folkestone - the worst section of the south coast's part of route 1 in my opinion and one that I would definitely bypass on a future trip!)

However that's all just a roundabout way of saying how lucky we are in Deptford to be close to so many great traffic-free cycle routes. I've written before about the Thames path down to Erith and beyond and the cycling around Surrey Docks. We are also at the start of the Waterlink Way and the Lee Valley route (scroll to the bottom of the page where you can download a free pdf of the route), both of which feature in the book. I've ridden the waterways of East London several times but today I went further north across Hackney and Walthamstow marshes, and into the Lee Valley. It's well worth a trip if you want pleasant, largely traffic-free day out - about 23 miles in total there and back, with plenty to look at and places to stop for coffee and cakes/a nice pint! Do be sure to take a map though, because some parts of the route are badly (if at all) signed.

From the north side of the foot tunnel I take the Thames path along the west side of the Isle of Dogs. It's a little patchy and there's a couple of annoying places where the path runs out unexpectedly, but it's well worth the effort to enjoy the views of the river and to pass the site of the Millwall Docks where Brunel's Great Eastern was built and launched.

Close to the top of the island you will pass an old pier which is usually a great spot for seeing some of our larger sea and wading birds. Today it was providing a resting place for about 20 assorted shags and cormorants, and three herons.


Once you have navigated through the Limehouse Basin to the Regent's Canal, the next few miles to Victoria Park are fairly simple and well-signed. You can either stick to the canal, although this can be busy, or follow the cycle route through Mile End Park, which is rather meandering but more picturesque.

At Victoria Park, turn right and follow the path along its southern border to the east end of the park, then dip back to the bank of the Hertford Union Canal (also known as Duckett's Cut) and follow it to its junction with the River Lee. Once you've crossed the bridge (and marvelled at the new Olympic Stadium, which is just over the fence next to the river) you can either head north up the Lee Valley for a longer ride, or south back towards the Limehouse Basin.

Today I headed north to explore Hackney and Walthamstow marshes along the Lee Navigation.

The route is fairly easy to follow although you need to pay attention at a couple of junctions and mind your head at the very low bridge (5ft headroom!) just before the Lee Valley Marina. There are free maps of some parts of the park that you can download from the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority website here.



I made it as far as Markfield Park before stopping for a cup of coffee and cake at the lovely new cafe right next to the shed which houses the restored beam engine.

Heading back down the Lee, go straight on at the junction with the Hertford Union Canal, continuing along the edge of the Olympic site. There's some great graffiti along this stretch, and the buildings are a mixture of decaying warehouses and modern apartments, spattered with some impressive industrial heritage and quirky bridges.





At Bow Bridge the riverside path evaporates and you have to cross the big roundabout at road level. Ignore all the cycle path signs and go straight across at the roundabout as if you are going towards the Blackwall Tunnel, then immediately turn left down a short dead-end road and it will bring you back to the river again.

Three Mills Island with its historical tidal mill sits at the junction of various waterways and rather incongruously opposite a large Tesco's supermarket.
Turn left across the bridge towards the mill and then right between the Lee Navigation and the River Lea, which emerges below the tidal mill as a proper river.

The path runs between the two for half a mile or so to Bow Locks, where you cross a very quirky concrete bridge and then follow the 'pontoon' footpath along the edge of the water into the Limehouse Cut. From here it's a straight run back to the Limehouse Basin.


If you are cycling this route on a weekend it can be very busy with walkers and other cyclists, so don't forget to give a couple of rings on your bell in good time if you are approaching people from behind. If they have to make a concerted effort to enable you to pass, for example if the path is very narrow, it's no effort to say thank you and I find this courtesy always leads to smiles and responses.

The only downside of this route is the need to deal with the idiosyncrasies of the lifts in the Greenwich Foot Tunnel. I was pleased to see they were both in operation as I set out, and was sure to check the closing time for my return journey. However no-one saw the need to put up a notice about the south lift being closed mid afternoon for servicing - very frustrating since I'd taken the opportunity to do a bit of shopping on the way back through Canary Wharf and so had to lug both the bike and the shopping up all the steps. Tsk!