Last week, on a damp, grey and dreary day, I decided to take a camera for walk around the Royal Docks with my mate Daniel. Starting from Barrier Park and we worked our way towards the North Woolwich Pier Head and onto Gallions Point before finishing at the University of East London campus at Cyprus DLR station.
The area is such a place of windswept contrasts, with derelict relics of industrial and docklands past sitting alongside massive redevelopment projects. Smart blocks of expensive “luxury” flats and run down terraces of Victorian dockers’ cottages. An abandoned railway station sits unused as modern DLR trains glide on overhead viaducts, with engineers making the finishing touches to Crossrail, which weaves its way though the area.
For once I decided to go digital rather than film, fancying some instant results, so I took my Nikon D750 out with me, along with the cheap and cheerful Nikkor 28-80mm G lens.
Thames Barrier
The Barrier as seen from Barrier Park
A new residential block overlooks Barrier Park
The Tate and Lyle factory, still functioning amongst the industrial ruins
The temporary fences surround what was the trackbed of the Woolwich Branch of the North London Line. Crossrail is now buried beneath, surfacing a little to the west to use some of the previously abandoned NLL infrastructure.
Looking north up Pier Road towards King George V DLR station
The former North Woolwich railway station building, latterly a museum, but now closed
The former late 20th century entrance to North Woolwich station, which closed in 2006. A DLR extension nearby provides a more frequent replacement service.
Abandoned public toilets at the gates of Victoria Park
Empty play area in Victoria Park
King George V dock from the Bascule Bridge
Take-off from City Airport
The old Gallions Hotel, dating from the 1880s, a rare survivor from the area’s docklands past
Redevelopment at Gallions Point
At the end of our walk, Daniel has a well earned cuppa in a cafe at UEL
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