Single Aspect Blog

A beautiful sunlit day, unlike yesterday which was overcast and raining, so off again to Thamesmead, this time to cover the bits I missed and to get some decent photographs.

London Bridge to Woolwich Arsenal, 244 to Abbey Wood passing through Thamesmead West and getting off at Gallions Reach, the weather so good that I decided to walk all the way to TM Centre along the riverside.

Housing in TMWest is lowrise, mainly houses with gardens plus the odd block on stilts but not 70s brutalist, this is more 80s brick.  At Gallions Park I got off to walk along the riverside, and noticed that the whole estate has a very green feel to it especially on a sunny day.

Alongside the river at Gallions Reach are blocks of low rise flats, taking advantage of the location and the view to Woolwich, a great improvement I have to say on the view from the bit further round, near TM Centre.  From here you can see the whole of the Woolwich riverside and the ferrys crossing all day long.

I passed a WWII pillbox set into the bank, not long after the flats stop.  Further along still is a lookout point, raised above the riverside path, with benches.  In the middle distance green banks of earth on land not yet recovered for housing.

In the distance the PoMo clocktower marking the shopping centre.  A pale shadow sadly of the efforts made at Stevenage and Harlow to mark their centres but this is of a different, and less attractive, time.  People will be looking at photographs of Stevenage town centre for some years to come, I doubt that to be true of TM Centre which consists largely of a car park surrounded on three sides by retail sheds, the largest of which is Morrisons.  It’s a tarmac desert to be honest.  Stevenage benefits from being designed with an urban feel, with streets of shops facing each other at a close enough distance to engender a feeling of community.

Nearby a modern block of flats looks forlornly over a lake.  I think I’d prefer the river view given the choice.

Further back still from the river stands the first in a long line of béton brut Modernist housing blocks of the deck access type so derided by Alice Coleman fans and not dissimilar to the Heygate blocks only shorter.

They are the only ones of their type in this part of TM and stand out accordingly.

The rest of the housing in the same area is low rise pitched roofed, houses with gardens and low rise flats.

TM North, or Crossways is another area devoid of raw concrete and delightful in its mix of trees grass, houses with gardens, and water.  Thus once again disproving the myth that TM is a concrete jungle.

Oh by the way, the heron is plastic.  Either that or it sat there in the same place for 24hrs perfectly still.  It’s plastic.

P.S. Sorry that several of the photos are taken from a bus.  Thamesmead is large and time was short.  I could not always get off and walk then wait to catch another bus.  They are representative of the area.

A film about the development from 1970 Thamesmead and Plumstead Marshes on film

More photos here if you’re not bored yet:-

https://www.flickr.com/photos/singleaspect/sets/72157627422297385/