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| The Emirates Air Line gondolas from the Royal Docks Terminal |
I was born in London, brought up there
and if it wasn't for the ridiculously priced houses I would be living
there now. Whenever I visit my parents we like to plan something to
do so when my Dad mentioned the cable cars by The O2 Arena I thought
that sounded like a great idea. Dad said he had previously been on
them with his 80 year old brother so I thought it would suit all
three generations of our family.
As my parents live in the same road as
one of London's suburban train stations getting around London is a
doddle by public transport. An All Zones Travelcard currently costs
£8.90, which may seem pricey at first but for a day out it proves to
be very good value. We stopped off first a couple of stations down
the line for breakfast in Raynes Park and once fuelled up we were
back on the train to Waterloo. We made our way to the Underground to
get on a Tube to North Greenwich. This line is the Jubilee which I
have liked since it opened. Benefiting from modern construction and
planning it makes travelling with a pushchair very easy (it was a
Saturday as well). Every station has a lift, there are clear barriers
on the platforms to prevent people falling/jumping/being pushed onto
the line and these also show where the doors will open.
Once you get to North Greenwich station
it's just a short walk past the O2 to the Thames cable car or to give
it its proper name The Emirates Air Line. Looking back from the car
park you can see how much this part of London has changed. My Nan was
born in the Isle of Dogs in 1908 before later moving to south west
London. She used to take my Mum to visit her own Mother most weekends
and the pair of them lived with her for a couple of years in the
1960s.
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| Regeneration of London's East End |
The weather wasn't looking too good at
this stage and I was a bit worried the service may be suspended due
to the threat of thunder and lightning or high winds.
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| Clouds looking ominous... |
Thankfully it wasn't and we were
quickly able to purchase our tickets. Since it is part of Transport
for London there is a discount if you have a Travelcard, Oyster or
Freedom Card. The return fare is normally £8.60 but reduced to £6.40
for card holders. You can buy a '360°'
ticket but this means you can't get off at the Royal Docks Terminal
and get back on again. You may as well get the return as it is the
same price.
Each
of the gondolas take up to 10 people and the staff were very good at
getting groups into their own cars. I'm not sure this would be the
case at busier times but it was appreciated by us. Once up the view
was a joy to behold. The dark clouds had suddenly disappeared and the
views over London were spectacular. I was surprised there wasn't a
commentary or board pointing out the sights. I didn't even spot a
guide book on sale. It wasn't a problem for us as we know London
well.
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| Thames Barrier viewed from the Emirates Air Line |
I
have to admit I'm a sucker for high rise views and spent two weeks in
Kitzbühel
riding on the cable cars so I wasn't perturbed by the journey.
However, if travelling in a metal and glass box suspended by a metal
wire which goes up to 90m isn't your thing I'm guessing you didn't
even make it to the ticket office. On the way back it did get a bit
windy and the gondola did wobble about a bit. My Brother was quite
pleased to get back on terra firma.
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| Up in the air |
On
the other side of the Thames is the Royal Docks station. We got off
to have a little wander about about. There isn't much to do at the
moment but it is a fine example of how an area can be changed and
improved for the better. It's worth getting off if only for some more
photo opportunities.
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| The O2, The Crystal, Royal Docks Terminal and Canary Wharf in the background |
Once
we got off we went in search of an ice cream for my Daughter.
Although the O2 is full of chain restaurants there didn't seem to be
one place we could get an ice cream so we headed back on the Jubilee
line to Canary Wharf. By this time we had decided that it was now
time for lunch and my Dad knew of a Wetherspoon's pub nearby (easy
for large family groups, they serve real ale and they don't charge
'London' prices). The walk across included two sightings of double
aperture pillar boxes. I like post boxes and these Type C are usually
only seen in London due to the need for high volume postings.
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| A Type C double apperture pillar box at Canary Wharf |
Enough
of the street furniture history lesson and we made our way to The
Ledger Building. It
used to be part of the West India Docks and the ledgers used to work
here. It' s a large pub with several separate rooms and we got one to
ourselves. I doubt it's like this on weekday but we were pleased to
take advantage of the exclusivity.
After
our lunch pit stop we popped in next door to the Museum of London Docklands. It forms part of the the Museum of London and has free
entry to its standard exhibitions (donations though are obviously
encouraged). It gives an excellent account of the surrounding area
through the ages and has secured many fine paintings and other
examples of social history. Well worth a look if you are in the
vicinity. After we had finished in there my Mum said she would like
to go over to Poplar to look at the church where her grandparents
were married. Onto the Docklands Light Railway at West India Quay and
a couple of stops before we got to the appropriately named All Saints
station. Sadly neither the grounds or the church were open when we
got there. It still looked very fine though in the spring sunshine.
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| All Saints Church, Poplar |
After
this there was a request from one of the younger members to go to
Hamleys. Mum knew that the number 15 bus could be caught from out the
front on the church which would take us to Regent Street. Within a
few minutes one had arrived and we were able to get the front seats
on the top deck. Forget about paying for a tourist sightseeing bus
and just get on a standard double decker. This route goes past the
Tower of London, Monument, St. Paul's Cathedral, down Fleet Street
and onto Trafalgar Square then round Piccadilly Circus before
stopping near Hamleys. It has to be said that Hamleys is a rip-off.
Apart from the concessions in there everything seems to be £5 more
expensive than anywhere else. They may say its due to the Hamleys'
'experience' but due to the heavy footfall the store is now pretty
grotty and the toys are not the quality they used to sell. However,
if you are seven it is still a delight.
On
the way home we had dinner at The Barrowboy & Banker pub in
Southwark near to London Bridge station. We had tried to get served
at the Nicholson's Mudlark pub but was told that the upstairs dining
room shut at 7pm on a Saturday! The waitress suggested that our group
of seven, including two children aged 7 and 2, should try to get a
table downstairs in the extremely noisy and packed main bar. We
declined. I'm glad we did have dinner at The Barrowboy & Banker.
We had a table on the mezzanine dining level overlooking the rest of
pub. On the menu was something for everybody and my Son had the most
enormous child's portion of fish and chips I have ever seen. At £4.95
most adults would have been pleased to have been served it.
Full
up and now slightly weary we made our way back to Waterloo to catch
our train home. A wonderful day, new sights seen and more memories to
treasure.
