Commercial Road London

  We mainly used the buses to travel in and out of central London from Beckton as our Cambridgeshire bus passes give us free travel. The route included driving along Commercial Road with its mix of different era architecture and cultures. We spent yesterday walking and exploring its many interesting buildings etc. Commercial Road starts at Whitechapel High Street, heads east, crossing the Limehouse Basin, the Regents Canal and the Limehouse Cut and ends in the East India Dock Road continuing to the left and West India Dock Road to the right. It was constructed in 1802–1806 to link the West India and East India Docks to the City of London. It was fully populated with houses at this time (some still stand) but with the arrival of the railway, factories also sprung up and the area became overcrowded and polluted. WWII bombing destroyed a lot of buildings, replaced by community housing in the City of London plan. 

Frosty Toft Golf Course Walk

A few images from the very frosty dawn on January 11th - I was surprised to find so many golfers out on the course - frost must make it difficult to find the ball! Back in the early 70s, when this area was rough pasture, we once ringed 10 different Kingfishers in one day on this stretch of the stream during a similar cold period (thought to be on the move towards the coast following streams etc). I intended to walk further up over the fields towards Wimpole Estate you can see in the distance in the panorama but decided on breakfast instead!!

 

Bollington, A Town Based on Cotton Production

From the late 18th through to the mid-20th centuries, Bollington was a major centre for cotton-spinning. The high humidity enabled Clarence and other mills to produce the finest cotton in the world, and was sought after by lace makers in Nottingham and Belgium. .Clarence mill was the first in Bollington to be built for steam power.  The raw materials and finished products were transported on the Macclesfield Canal, designed by Thomas Telford. There was also a railway which served the town.

Greenwich and the Thames Path

On Sunday, we visited Greenwich and I retook the view that I had taken on my father's camera in 1953 and repeated in 2017. We then walked along the Thames path to the O2 Dome - so many new building have replaced the derelict factory sites though the Catholic church and Power Station still remain. 

Full panorama 2024

Same view in 1953 and 2017

Charlton London

 I lived in Charlton for the first 18 years of my life and wanted to see how it had changed; the answer is very little as regards Charlton Village and Charlton House and Park. My school, however, was very difficult to equate with the single building in my day and the open access and playgound. The views across London are very different but100 Canberra Road looked almost exactly the same as when I lived there over 60 years ago.