London: Docklands (Rotherhithe-Greenwich-Millwall-Canary Wharf)

14 July 2017

From Surrey Docks tube station, we walked up Redriff Road directly into the area that used to be Surrey Commercial Docks, now converted largely into housing and green space.  Right at the beginning of Redriff Rd a line of old (we estimated 40/50 years) Cherry-plum trees Prunus cerasifera occupied a bank above the pavement, obscuring the large Tesco complex behind.  Ripe fruit, variously purple and yellow, covered the pavement and kerbside, while others, red and orange-yellow, still clung to the twigs above.

Cherry-plums, Redriff Road

The road then passed over a pedestrian underpass that was once the connection between Greenland and Canada Docks.  Here has been transplanted (1959) a bridge (built in 1949) that used to span Deptford Creek (which would be crossed later on the walk), replacing the original wooden bridge here.  This gaudy red construction is a "Scherzer rolling bascule lift-bridge" designed by the American William Scherzer.  It opened and closed using a system of counterweights to hinge it about the rocker shown in the photo.

Scherzer rolling bascule lift-bridge, Redriff Road

Further along, the north side of the road used to be occupied by the Russia and Quebec Docks, part of the former Surrey Commercial Docks.  Lines of trees planted by the road here included Silver Maple Acer saccharinum (with galls of Vasates quadripedes, first recorded in Britain in 2002 but now prevalent in the south-east) and London Plane Platanus x hispanica with mines of Phyllonorycter platani (also new to Britain in 1981).  Lower plants included Black Mustard Brassica nigra and Maple-leaved Goosefoot Chenopodium hybridum.

Maple-leaved goosefoot

Just after Quebec Way a path descended to the left into Russia Dock Woodland, these docks having now been replaced in 1985 by housing estates and green space that was largely left to grow wild.  Materials, including ironwork, from the original docks was used in the construction of the park, where just a narrow stream and a few ponds remain of the waterways, while the main path included the remains of the wharf beside Russia Dock.

Russia Dock Woodland, path along old wharf

Beside the path rough grassland included a good range of flowers - Hedge Bedstraw Galium mollugo, Field scabious Knautia arvensis, Marjoram Origanum vulgare, Lucerne Medicago sativa sativa, White Campion Silene alba, Bladder Campion S. vulgaris, Common & Greater Knapweed Centaurea nigra & scabiosa, Montbretia Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora, Curled Dock Rumex crispus, Purple Loosestrife Lythrum salicaria, Great Willowherb Epilobium hirsutum, Indian Balsam Impatiens glandulifera, Bristly oxtongue Picris echioides, Wall Barley Hordeum murinum, Dwarf Mallow Malva neglecta, and Honeysuckle Lonicera periclymenum.  How many of these had at some time been sown here and how many had arrived of their own accord, it is difficult to tell.  One surprise, however, was more than one tree of Lord Derby apples (Malus pumila cv.) with their distinctive conical shape, which could not have come true from seed and must be presumed to have been planted.  Holly blues and hedge browns fluttered around the scrub.

Lord Derby apples

Hedge brown on hedge bedstraw Dwarf mallow

The path led directly into Staves Ecological Park.  A small pond was covered with Least duckweed Lemna minuta, and at its edge were Celery-leaved Buttercup Ranunculus sceleratus and Lesser Water-parsnip Berula erecta.  Nearby a large clump of Lavender Lavandula angustifolia was flourishing among the bramble scrub.  A weathered notice referred to the celebration of the Park's 30th anniversary, which would have been two years ago.

Celery-leaved buttercup Lavender

An artificial mound, Stave Hill, had been created where Stave Dock once was, giving good views over London and the docklands.

View from Stave Hill towards Tower Bridge

Below the mound we added more plants to our list - Harebell Campanula rotundifolia, Green Alkanet Pentaglottis sempervivum, Wild Strawberry Fragaria vesca, Chicory Cichorium intybus, Wild Carrot Daucus carota, Greater Celandine Chelidonium majus, Hedgerow Cranesbill Geranium pyrenaicum, Hop trefoil Trifolium campestre, Black Horehound Ballota nigra, Musk Mallow Malva moschata, Round-leaved Cranesbill Geranium rotundifolium, Shaggy soldier Galinsoga quadriradiata, and Thale Cress Arabidopsis thaliana.

Holly blue on knapweed Round-leaved cranesbill

Shaggy soldier

A larger pond to the north played host to the birds one would expect: Heron, Mallard, Tufted Duck, and Moorhen.

Heron and mallard

Female tufted duck leads her brood away

Juvenile moorhen

From this pond we took a path east out of the park, past a school and through a built-up area to the Thames Path.  We turned south along this with a vista of Deptford and Greenwich ahead.  It was low tide and people were searching the exposed mud for "treasure". 

We walked past Surrey Docks Farm, with its animal statues and busy with school parties.

At the inlet beyond here to Greenland Dock at Helsinki Square was a metal sculpture 'Curlicue' by William Pye, erected in 1989.  It is symbolic of heavy dock machinery.

Near this statue the pavement cracks were filled with an interesting range of adventive plants - including Common Cudweed Filago vulgaris, Four-leaved Allseed Polycarpon tetraphyllum, Toad Rush Juncus bufonius. Ivy-leaved Toadflax Cymbalaria muralis, Buckshorn Plantain Plantago coronopus, Pellitory-by-the-wall Parietaria judaica and Mexican fleabane Erigeron karvinskianus.  Having just returned from Madeira we were struck by the similarity between this plant community and that of the streets of Funchal (where all the above also occur), showing how near the warm micro-climate of inner London approaches that of sub-tropical areas.

Common cudweed

Four-leaved allseed

Beyond here on the Thames embankment we also saw Wineberry Rubus phoenicolasius, Perennial Rocket Sisymbrium strictissimum, Hemlock Water-dropwort Oenanthe crocata, Canadian and Guernsey Fleabanes Erigeron canadensis and sumatrensis, Least Pepperwort Lepidium virginicum and Garden Parsley Petroselinum crispum.

Wineberry

Detail of perennial rocket with seeds

Least pepperwort

At the edge of Deptford the Thames path is forced inland through streets and through Sayes Court Park, a small park with a few trees, including a Turkish Hazel Corylus colurna at the east entrance and a Black Mulberry Morus nigra near the southern exit.  Many of the fruits on the latter were being collected by a local resident, whose hands were stained red, as it is impossible to collect them without spilling the juice.

Black mulberry

Coming into Wharf Street in Deptford we added Annual Mercury Mercurialis annua to our tally and came across another modern sculpture celebrating Dockland, 'Cochlea' by Ekkehard Altenburger 2015 - composed of three types of granite from different parts of the world and symbolising noise pollution.

We were now approaching Greenwich, passing (from right in the picture) new office blocks to let, built on the site of a retired power station, and seeing ahead the Cutty Sark docked at Greenwich, the dome over the entrance to the footway tunnel beneath the Thames, the Royal Naval College and Greenwich Power Station, still functional for standby power generation.

By the time we got to the Cutty Sark we had joined throngs of tourists.  The clipper was currently getting a lick of paint.

We walked up Greenwich Church Street to the main road, where we could take a break for coffee and a snack at Waterstone's.  It was a short distance to William Walk, leading to the NW entrance of Greenwich Park.  This was also busy with tourists, who were mostly visiting the Observatory and taking selfies with each foot on different sides of the meridian, but having done this some years before we bypassed it for the more botanical interests of the park.  At the top of Blackheath Avenue, which was lined by Horse-chestnuts Aesculus hippocastanum and Sweet Chestnuts Castanea sativa, stood a couple of veteran specimens of the latter, planted in the 1660s.  We measured one to be over 7.2 metres in girth.

We went on further SE from here to the Flower Gardens, where there were some Victorian cedars (including Deodar Cedrus deodara), a tall Ginkgo Ginkgo biloba, another Sweet Chestnut said to be nearly 400 years old, and a Whitebeam with large, almost circular, leaves which may have been Round-leaved Whitebeam Sorbus eminens, although it is difficult to separate for sure from extreme examples of Sorbus aria.

Sorbus eminens?

A couple of oaks had been fenced off because of infections by Oak Processionary Moth Thaumetopoea processionea, but we saw no evidence of caterpillars; perhaps they had been successfully treated.  The flower-beds were invaded not just by the usual yellow-sorrels but also by the larger-leaved Pale Pink Sorrel Oxalis latifolia (which, unlike other pink-sorrels, has no orange warts underneath the leaves).

From the hillside in the park we had a good view north to Royal Naval College and, across the river, Canary Wharf, our final destination.

The only wildlife we saw in the park were the Grey Squirrels bothering tourists for hand-outs

but when we left the park down William Walk we found ourselves tailing a female Mallard and her brood of eight healthy-looking ducklings.  To get to the Thames, their presumed destination, would involve crossing the extremely busy main road (perilous enough even for human pedestrians).  We had not time to follow their progress and we only could only hope they made it safely.

We returned to the dome by the Cutty Sark that marked the unique tunnel beneath the Thames to the Isle of Dogs, reached by a long winding staircase.  Only when we inspected the photo afterwards did we see the shrub growing on the roof of the dome.  Its pinnate leaves, the leaflets with distinct stalks, marked it out as most probably False Acacia Robinia pseudoacacia.

Cutty Sark seen from entrance to tunnel

This tunnel, opened in 1902, is a boon for walkers and also cyclists, although we wished the latter had obeyed the instruction to dismount, as they came past us at dangerously high speeds.  The dome over the exit on the other side, at Island Gardens, Millwall, appears to be identical to that at Greenwich.

We crossed Manchester Road and entered Millwall Park.  This is mostly recreation ground and bare grass, but at the far NW corner is a mound where vegetation is allowed to grow with a fascinating profusion of Maple-leaved Goosefoot, Fennel Foeniculum vulgare, Horse-radish Armoracia rusticana, Crow Garlic Allium vineale, Twiggy Spurge Euphorbia x pseudovirgata, and Sand Lucerne Medicago sativa ssp varia, the latter distinguished by its seed-pods coiling for no more than half a circle and flowers ranging from cream to yellow to green to pale blue to deep blue to purple to almost black, sometimes mixed in the same flower-head.

Twiggy spurge with horse-radish

Colour forms of sand lucerne

There was also a profusion of docks, although these were all in seed with brown spikes and withered leaves.  We saw the common Rumex crispus, Rumex pulcher, Rumex obtusifolius but also good numbers of Greek Dock Rumex cristatus, its broad fruits with one prominent tubercle and their dentate wings net-veined.

Greek dock in fruit

North of here was Mudchute Park, which, like Surrey Docks, hosted an educational farm, but also had large areas of scrubby vegetation.  There was more Twiggy Spurge and Greek Dock, plus Perennial Nipplewort Lapsana communis ssp intermedia, Viper's Bugloss Echium vulgare, Black Mustard, Perennial Wall-rocket Diplotaxis tenuifolia, Hoary Cress Lepidium draba, and Alexanders Smyrnium olusatrum.

Perennial nipplewort

From the SE corner of Mudchute Park we took the side-street to Manchester Road and walked north, between the Thames and what was previously docks.

Manchester Road

There were views of Canary Wharf (replacing India and Millwall Docks) to the west and the O2 arena across the river to the east.

Canary Wharf from Manchester Road

O2 Arena from Manchester Road

Along the road we added more plants to our list - Water Bent Polypogon viridis, California Poppy Eschscholzia californica, and Common Poppy Papaver rhoeas.  We went as far as the Blue Bridge, opened 1969, crossing the east entrance to West India South Dock.  It was based on the traditional Dutch drawbridge and, at the time, was the largest single-leaf bascule bridge in Britain, using hydraulics to raise it.

From here we found our way west through the confusing array of water basins and buildings comprising Canary Wharf, which by now was crowded with people who had left work, packing the squares and outside cafés and bars.  The only street-side plant we recorded here, in this well-manicured environment was Garden Lobelia Lobelia erinus.  We managed to get a table inside in the Roka restaurant before catching the tube from Canary Wharf station to travel home.

Looking east from Canary Wharf towards the Blue Bridge