Travelling the River at Greenwich …… with thoughts on old friends and new ones

Now I like the way stories shoot off in unexpected directions and so it is with this one which flows from descriptions of the river, to mutual friends and acquaintances and ends up with a new friend.

Looking at out on my River, 1979

When I was growing up, we were never far from the Thames, which offered up a place to play when I was young, and later where I photographed the water traffic, the warehouses, power stations and pubs that stretched its length from Deptford, through Greenwich to Woolwich.

As kids our adventures ran from playing amongst the barges at low tide to the west of the Greenwich foot tunnel and taking that slightly unnerving trip under the river.  

Later still there are the memories of sitting in front of the Cutty Sark pub watching the pleasure boats head down river and listening to the barges gently banging to together in their wake.

Working the River, 1979

And like many of my generation I retain a love for the Woolwich Ferry, which offered up endless short but free rides with stunning views.  

It was also the Ferry which got me out of trouble after I misjudged a journey back from Kent towards Manchester and having messed up with M25 I tried to retrieve the situation by taking Tina through Eltham, passing the old family house on Well Hall Road and making the river crossing at Woolwich.

And it worked, because Tina who is Italian was entranced by that short river crossing, and still a decade later talks about the magic of the River.

So, I was pleased to come across a new book on the Greenwich river side, written by Mary Mills who knows the area well, was a Greenwich Borough Councillor for a ward that hugs the shoreline, and has written several other accounts of the area along with a history of the gas industry in south east London.

The Greenwich Riverside, 2021

The book, “The Greenwich Riverside. Upper Watergate to Angerstein" is an “in-depth itinerary along the Greenwich riverside from the Lewisham border to the Charlton border. This is not a book about the areas the tourists visit - but about what was, and is many ways still is, an industrial and residential riverside with a strong relationship to river-based work and activity. 

It looks at how the area developed because of river use, but also how the proximity of the Royal Court, and closeness of the City of London influenced the nature of much activity. It is also a story of some superlatives - the first this, the biggest that, and how the world changed because of what went on here”.

My copy is heading north as I write, and in the meantime, I am also thinking of how Mary and I came across each other and became friends.

And that is one of those odd events, because she discovered a book I had written which included Alan Hollingun, who like me lives in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in south Manchester.**

Alan Hollingun, 2017

Alan and Mary grew up together, and by chance she came across the reference to him on the internet in my book and  as she says “there he was, couldn't believe it!  When I was in the juniors he was in the babies and us big kids always had to look out for the little ones.”

So that is it …… the story that travels from Manchester, home to south east London and settles on Woolwich and Greenwich, and reflects on the friends we make along the way.

Location, Greenwich, and Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; views of my River, Greenwich, 1979, the cover of The Greenwich Riverside. Upper Watergate to Angerstein, and Alan Hollingun, painted by Peter Topping, 2017, from The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 2017

* The Greenwich Riverside. Upper Watergate to Angerstein, Mary Mills, 2021, available on Amazon

**The Quirks of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, Peter Topping, 2017