Greenwich to Canary Wharf via Millwall or Cubitt Town Short Walk

5.5 km/3.4 mi with negligible ascent/descent and 1 ½ hours of walking.

Follow quiet lanes from Greenwich Station to the Thames by the Cutty Sark, walk through the Greenwich Foot Tunnel onto the Isle of Dogs and follow any of three routes across the Isle to Canary Wharf.

The main route turns west along the Thames Path along Millwall’s riverside. Formerly the site of seven windmills, mainly for milling corn, later harbouring numerous port and heavy industry related enterprises, the path now leads mainly past new or recently built residential estates, scattered with remnants of the previous usages, while offering fine views across to Greenwich, Deptford and Rotherhithe.
A longish stretch though leads along a busy road where the right-of-way along the river has been closed a long time ago after petitioning by the former heavy industries located along that stretch.
Finally, you turn inland past the site where Millwall FC was founded and walk on to the South Dock where you cross a footbridge into Canary Wharf.

Alternative routes through the Isle of Dogs are described, either inland through Millwall Park and Mudchute Park and along Millwall Outer and Inner Docks or along the easterly riverside path through Cubitt Town.

Start at Cutty Sark DLR Station: cuts 680m. Turn left and pick up the directions at the asterisk *).
An out-and-back to a fine riverside path section within the Odyssey Estate adds up to 600m.
Alternative Routes across the Isle of Dogs follow…

• an inland route through Millwall Park and Mudchute Park with its City Farm, then along Millwall Outer and Inner Docks (cut 850m);
• the easterly Thames Path section through Cubitt Town and across the easterly lock of the South Dock into the Coldharbour Conservation Area and then past Blackwall Basin (cut 700m).

Several options on all three routes (see the walk directions for details), and plenty of options near Canary Wharf station.

Greenwich Station is served by Main Line Services on the North Kent Line from Charing Cross and Cannon Street to the Medway area (journey time from London Bridge: 8-9 minutes) and also by the DLR from the City to Lewisham (journey time from Bank: 20 minutes). Canary Wharf is a stop on the Jubilee Line (journey time to London Bridge: 6 minutes), the DLR branch from the City to Lewisham (journey time to Bank: 11 minutes) and on Crossrail, on the south easterly arm to Abbey Wood (journey time to Liverpool Street: 7 minutes). Both stations are in Travelcard Zone 2.

Greenwich Foot Tunnel
Constructed for the London County Council between 1897 and 1902, the 370.2m long cast iron foot tunnel replaced an expensive and at times unreliable ferry service, mainly used by shipyard and dock workers living on the south side of the Thames. Lifts and helical staircases, with 87 (north) and 100 steps (south) allow pedestrians to access the tile-lined tunnel, which slopes gently from both sides down to a midway low point at 15.2m beneath the river. The northern end was damaged by bombs during WWII and repairs included a thick steel and concrete inner lining that substantially reduces the diameter. The tunnel is private property and not a right of way and (little adhered to) byelaws prohibit cycling through it. It is open 24/7.

Isle of Dogs
The Isle of Dogs (its etymology is disputed) is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the Thames. It includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was once known as Stebunheath (later Stepney) Marsh and the name Isle of Dogs only appeared in the 16^th century, initially only applying to a small eyot (mud island) off the south-western part of it. The Isle lies mostly below the High Water Line and only became protected by earthen banks in the medieval ages. These were liable to be breached though. In 1660, the river even started to break through the neck of the peninsula on the western side, initiating a meander cutoff. This was arrested by human intervention, but it left a lake called The Breach (or Poplar Gut) for a long time. That area was later absorbed into the West India Docks.

Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf, now a privately owned financial district, developed on the site of the former West India Docks and consists of three parts: Canary Wharf, Heron Quays and Wood Wharf. From 1802 until the late 1980s, the area was part of the Millwall part of the Isle of Dogs and of Poplar. The West India Docks, a central feature of the area, were primarily developed by the West India Dock Company. The Port of London Authority took control of it in 1909 though and the subsequent thriving trade with the Canary Islands (mainly fruit) led to its modern name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Wharf

Cubitt Town
Cubitt Town, on the eastern side of the Isle of Dogs, was redeveloped as part of the Port of London in the 1840s and 1850s by William Cubitt, later Lord Mayor of London (1860–1862), mainly to house the growing population of workers in the local docks, shipbuilding yards and factories. It was also home though to industry, i.e. shipbuilders, and pottery, cement, brick and asphalt production.

Millwall/Millwall Football Club
Millwall, on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, was part of Poplar until the 19^th century when it became heavily industrialised, containing the workplaces and homes of a few thousand dockside and shipbuilding workers. Originally known as Marsh Wall, the area acquired its new name with its breakaway from Poplar on account of some – mainly corn-milling – windmills built on the river wall in the 18^th century. Among its factories were the Millwall Iron Works Company, much of which survives as today's Burrells Wharf. On 31 January 1858, the largest ship of that time, the SS Great Eastern, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was launched from Napier Yard. In the 1860s the large Millwall Dock was built, extending from the Thames at Millwall into the centre of the Isle of Dogs. Extensive bomb damage in WWII and the subsequent decline and relocation of the Docks led to large-scale regeneration.

Millwall is most famous for its football club, Millwall FC, founded in 1885 as Millwall Rovers (later also named Millwall Athletic) by the workers of a canning and preserve factory (a subsidiary of J.T. Morton’s of Aberdeen). Many of the workers were drawn from Scotland and the team adopted the colours of the Saltire as the club colours. Nicknamed ‘The Dockers’ they became known as ‘The Lions of the South’ after some heroic cup successes against larger and wealthier professional clubs from the North, while still being an amateur club themselves. The rampant lion was subsequently adopted as the club crest.
Millwall played at five different grounds on the Isle of Dogs in its first 25 years, but the expansion of the docks and needs for housing forced the club in 1910 to move where most of their supporters lived by then: south of the river. ‘The Lions’ called their stadium in the New Cross/Deptford/South Bermondsey/Rotherhithe borderlands ‘The Den’. For geographical and demographic reasons though, Millwall still consider West Ham United FC, founded at the Thames Ironworks just east of the Isle of Dogs, their fiercest rivals.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millwall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millwall_F.C.

Mudchute Park and Farm
Mudchute Park and Farm is a 13 hectare urban park and farm in Cubitt Town. The name (originally ‘Mud Shoot’) of the site is a testament to the fact that it is the former dumping ground for mud dredged from the Millwall Docks, initially during its build in the 1860s and then from the regular dredging needed to prevent silting up. A novel, pneumatic device was employed which pumped the liquefied mud through a pipe over East Ferry Road. The current park covers most of the former site, the ASDA Store to the north the rest. This latter area had an interim use as the third of Millwall FC’s grounds on the Isle of Dogs, before it was required by the Docks and the club had to move to a site now covered by Millwall Park.

During WWII the park was the site for four Ack-Ack anti-aircraft guns, one of which is still on display.
Mudchute Farm, established in 1977, is said to be the largest urban farm in Europe.

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National Rail: 03457 48 49 50 • Traveline (bus times): 0871 200 22 33 (12p/min) • TFL (London) : 0343 222 1234

Jan-26 Thomas G