Great River Bus Journeys No1 Mike Roden sits back and enjoys the ride from Plantation Wharf to

This rather different bus journey was We pass Battersea Park on the centrepiece of the churchyard, a spur of the moment idea when we the south side and Chelsea Royal now the Sackler Garden. Over on discovered that the ‘Secret Rivers of Hospital to the north as the boat the Westminster side there’s no ’ exhibition at the Museum of approaches Chelsea Bridge. Then hint of the sound and fury in the London Docklands in Canary Wharf we pass beneath Grosvenor Railway House of Commons as the Brexit was close to finishing and we decided Bridge which carries ten lines in and withdrawal bill is debated. Big Ben is to travel in style on a Thames Clipper. out of Victoria and the boat now pulls still shrouded in scaffolding much to A brisk walk takes us to Plantation alongside Battersea the disappointment of the camera- Wharf Pier on Battersea Reach, to pier, opened in November 2017. wielding tourists. catch the 10.04 – the final commuter Beyond Westminster Bridge boat of the morning. To set off later Theatre the bronze lions’ heads with open you’ll need to go to Battersea Power Circus West Village towers above us. mouths that line the side of the Station, where the service runs all day. With its growing number of restaurants Embankment act as a primitive flood Our boat arrives and we get a and the new Turbine Theatre under warning system: ‘When the lions coffee from the bar and settle back the arches (formerly the Village Hall) drink, London will sink/When it’s up to enjoy the view. A familiar voice it is gaining the destination status the to their manes, we’ll go down the announces that we are approaching Power Station developers hoped for. drains.’ Once rare, it’s not uncommon Pier. It belongs to The Power Station development these days for the tide to rise high Emma Hignett, the voice of TfL since moves inexorably towards completion enough to touch the bronze heads. 2006, who does the announcements despite occasional rumours of As our boat is tied up alongside the for the river bus as well as for London impending bankruptcy. Many of the far end of Westminster Pier we notice Overground and buses. other riverside developments are now that one of the heads is missing – complete, the Riverlight complex, and hopefully just for repair and not as Whistler the US Embassy of course, but there some kind of omen… The Harbour is a former industrial is still much building taking place site which since the late 1990s has along Nine Elms Lane. It will be a long County Hall been an enclave of luxury flats with time before the tangle of cranes is Across the river is the sprawling a central marina. We pick up a few finally dismantled. building complex which as County passengers and head downstream Heading to the Hall served as the HQ of London’s past the Lots Road Power Station Pier we pass the 50 storey building local government for 64 years until development where the new which is currently the tallest residential the abolition of the GLC in 1986. 37-storey tower will be joined in a building in the UK. After a brief Briefly the first home of the Saatchi few years by a 27-storey companion. stop the boat moves forward under Gallery it’s now the site of various Just before Battersea Bridge is the Vauxhall Bridge, turning towards the attractions such as the London boatyard from where Walter Greaves north bank as it does so. Just after Aquarium and the London Dungeon used to row Whistler on his painting Tate Britain is the Millbank Millennium and a couple of hotels. expeditions. The artist’s statue stands Pier, opened in May 2003 – the fifth is a good place near the north end of the bridge. and final pier funded by the Millennium to disembark for the Now on to next to Commission as part of the Thames or the National Portrait Gallery. And Albert Bridge. This was built in 1841 2000 project. Disembark here to visit you can cross one of the Golden to bring potential buyers to Lord the gallery, and if you wish you can Jubilee footbridges either side of the Cadogan’s new estate of houses in take another boat to Tate Modern. We Hungerford Railway Bridge to the Chelsea then rebuilt in 1875 when the continue under Lambeth Bridge. Festival Hall and Hayward Gallery, bridge was constructed. In the past Over to the right is the tower of and walk to the National Theatre. three years, Cadogan Pier Limited the church of St Mary’s at Lambeth, Waterloo Bridge opened in 1817. together with the Chelsea Society has now tthe Garden Museum. The tomb A century later the fabric was hosted the finish line of the Doggetts of John Tradescant the first great crumbling, and a new design was Coat and Badge river race. English gardener and plant-hunter is commissioned from Giles Gilbert

8 Left to right: Lots Road Power Station, Battersea; The Note: All of the Great Bus Turbine Theatre, Circus West Village; lions’ heads with Journeys have been cleverly On the south side of the river the mooring rings on ; The Golden extracted from Battersea Brunel Museum is housed in the Matters and can be Hinde, Southwark; Blackfriars Bridge downloaded from Engine House which contained the www.batterseabus.co.uk steam-powered pumps used to extract water during the construction of the great engineer’s Thames Tunnel. This is far beneath us linking Wapping and stations – which, oddly, are part of the Overground system. Just before the entrance to Shadwell Basin is the historic Prospect of Whitby pub. It claims Scott of of the London Assembly since July to be the site of the oldest riverside fame. Construction did not actually 2002. This is a good place to halt for tavern, dating from around 1520. start until 1939, and then slowed visiting Hays Galleria, HMS Belfast or All that remains from the building’s almost to a halt both by enemy action Borough Market. earliest period is the 400-year-old and because most of the male labour There’s a sudden flurry of stone floor. The site of the notorious force had been called up . movement as passengers crowd Execution Dock is probably near here. It’s long been dubbed the Ladies’ by the windows at the front. The historian and inveterate gossip Bridge because of claims that mainly Everyone wants the perfect shot John Stow recorded in the 1590s that women construction workers finished of which despite its it was ‘The usual place for hanging the bridge. This was confirmed in archaic appearance only dates to of pirates and sea-rovers, at the low- 2015, when some photographs and a 1898. Emma Hignett’s dulcet tones water mark, and there to remain till documentary interview finally provided announce that ‘this bus terminates three tides had overflowed’. proof. The women’s work is now here’. Clearly someone has forgotten officially acknowledged: there are to add ‘river’ into the sentence. Pyramid plans to erect a plaque to this effect. But the message is correct. This There’s another tunnel far below us, service goes no further than Tower this time the busy Rotherhithe road Peace and quiet Millennium Pier and the boat will now tunnel. The boat passes the entrance On Victoria Embankment you can still go back the way it came. to the Limehouse Basin, and we see the Somerset House Watergate Most of those who disembark head see the towers of Canary Wharf’s which marks the point of the river for the nearby Tower, but a few of us financial district. This is dominated level before it was fully embanked in join the queue for the next RB1 for by One Canada Square, apparently the late 19th century. The grounds of Canary Wharf and . After the second tallest building in the UK, the large houses on the Strand used a brief wait we’re on our way into the whose pyramid pinnacle contains a to back on to the river as did those open water of the Pool of London. flashing aircraft warning light visible of the legal district known as Temple There’s an announcement warning us for miles around. Then (after about (after the circular Templars church to sit down, as the boat – restricted in an hour’s travelling) we’re at journey’s at its centre). It’s well worth walking its speed until now – suddenly feels end. Canary Wharf takes its name through there to enjoy peace and like it’s about to take off. from No. 32 berth of the West Wood quiet quite at odds with the din of the With Wapping on the north bank Quay of the Import Dock built in 1936 city street outside. we’re into dockland where cargo ships to receive cargoes of fruit from the We’re in sight now of the ‘wobbly’ from around the world came and went. Mediterranean and the Canary Islands. Millennium footbridge and there’s a The shoreline is now dominated with From the pier it’s a ten-minute lot to take in with St Paul’s on the converted warehouses and modern walk to the Docklands Museum. north side, Tate Modern and the flat developments. The Town of The exhibition didn’t detain us for Globe on the other where the boat Ramsgate pub dates from 1756 but more than an hour. We headed in pauses at . It’s only was built on much earlier foundations search of lunch and discovered 10.30, but the tourist numbers fuelled so has been quenching the thirsts of the nearby Ledger Building, a huge by half-term are building up. watermen, dock workers and sailors Wetherspoons pub. It occupies a very Past Southwark Bridge now and for many centuries. grand old office building with acres heading to London Bridge. On the A little further on is Wapping Police of seating space, and a wonderfully way there’s the Golden Hinde, a Station, the headquarters of the mixed clientele of building workers replica of the little ship which Drake Thames River Police. This is England’s and those who earn their living in the captained on the circumnavigation oldest police force, founded in 1798 to financial services. And tourists like us, of the world from 1577 – 1580. It’s a deal with looting from ships at anchor. of course. Mellowed by cheap beer, popular sleepover venue for children The station’s old carpenter’s shop is sandwiches and chips we walk briskly as a birthday treat. London Bridge the site of a fascinating little museum to Canary Wharf station and are City Pier serves as the main pier for telling the history of river policing. whisked back to Clapham Junction the City and City Hall, headquarters Visits by appointment only. via the Jubilee line and Waterloo.

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