Lost along the River … somewhere beyond Ballast Quay .........

Fifty-five years ago, I regularly walked along the River from the food factory I worked at to the Cutty Sark pub.

The silos, a dog and that walk, 1979

It was an after-shift stroll to finish off a day in the local food factory turning powdered milk into granules. 

Looking at those silos from the River, 1979

It wasn’t the worst job I have had, but on hot Thames days the dust in the air caked your boiler suit in a mix of crusted dried milk, and after eight hours the walk to the pub was a welcome relief.

Four years later an equally hot day I retraced my steps talking pictures of the wharfs, landing stages and river traffic.

The negatives say for over 40 years in our cellar and only recently coming out of the shadows.

Some stretches I can identify, but this one eludes me, despite wandering up and down Olympian Way all I can be certain of is that it is possibly somewhere between Enderby’s Wharf and Morden Wharf.

They say you should never go back more so when we are counting in decades and pretty much all the landmarks I knew have gone.

And I have no idea when Glenville’s Food factory by Tunnel Avenue, went or the silos in the picture, and the whole complex that was Tunnel Refineries.

But as you do, I turned to that excellent book, The Greenwich Riverside by Mary Mills.*

Walking towards Ballast Quay and the Cutty Sark, 1979

It is my go-to reference book whenever I want to follow up memories of home by the River, and there was a chapter on Tunnel Refineries and what I think must be my silos.

Now, I won’t lift the stories of the company other than to say she references the smell which I can still vividly remember.

It remains with me to this day, long after the dried encrusted boiler suit, the noise and dust from the powder in the air when the milk plant was at full tilt are but anecdotes to bore my kids and grandchildren with.

Looking back at pictures of that walk and of others I took of the waterfront is to be reminded of just how the area has changed and with it have gone so much that I knew and regarded as permanent.

The Cutty Sark, 1979

But atleast the Cutty Sark at Ballast Quay continues to do its job of offering up beer and cheer.

Leaving me just to hope that Gary and a few other chums and acquiesces will be able to place that dog, the silos and me more precisely along the waterfront.

Location, my London

Pictures; walking the River, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

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