Yesterday's post was a prime example of the dull local stuff you only get because I got a flat in Bow.
But what dull local stuff would you be getting if I'd got a flat at the foot of the Isle of Dogs instead?
✉ Postcards from Island Gardens
✉ If you've ever walked (or jogged) round Newcastle Drawdock, you'll have seen this marble carving of a woman kneeling by a cross, but have you ever wondered where it came from? The only obvious clue is an adjacent block saying Re-Erected 1882, also embedded in a brick wall that's plainly much much younger. But further clues are embedded just around the corner in a tiny unloved alcove shielded by a burst of shrubbery. I hesitated to duck inside because the grass looked like the kind of place where the Island's staffies would do their business, but it turns out there are three more stone plaques here, plainly rescued from a long-demolished building. These were laid to commemorate the enlargement of a chapel in 1905, and because the minister was a Superintendent it can only have been a Methodist place of worship. Subsequent research confirms they came from the CubittTownPrimitiveMethodistChapel, established 1862, which peculiarly was located halfa mile up the Island (roughly where Cubitt Town Junior School is now). The stunted Gothic building with lancet windows and panel tracery was alas demolished in 1978 (at a cost of £2200, no less), and today all that remains are these unlabelled stones nowhere near where they ought to be.
✉ Up at Christ Church, the big one with the spire overlooking Manchester Road, Tuesday morning is always foodbank morning. They call it the Parish Pantry and you have to be referred by Island Advice or local healthcare professionals, but it must be doing an unenviable service because in the space of one minute I saw three people heading inside.
✉ The Waterman's Arms overlooking the drawdock started out as the Newcastle Arms, then The Waterman's Arms when 1960s ITV presenter Dan Farson bought it, then The Great Eastern, and for the last 18 months The Waterman's Arms again. The new owners made the fateful error of ending a luxury makeover just in time for the start of lockdown, so were forced to serve Ozone coffee and freshly baked pastries to a takeaway dribble. I take particular issue with their claim to have a Secret Garden, because its existence is emblazoned across the outside of the pub so it can't be. Anyway, the most important current news is that all the chefs are on holiday so you won't be able to grab any buffalo cauliflower wings or Cornish monkfish until August 18th. Perhaps donate your dinner money to the Parish Pantry instead.
✉ The dispenser outside Docklands News & Wine has run out of lottery slips, but if you drop inside I'm sure the shopkeeper has plenty.
✉ Island Gardens is one of the stations embroiled in the Docklands Lights Railway's big summer activity for kids, the DLR Discovery Treasure Hunt. The idea is that you and your family start out at Tower Gateway where you collect an information pack, then download an app and set out on a quest to spot pirate stickers at nine stations round the network. Here's the map (pdf)(jpg) if you fancy playing along. Island Gardens is number 7 and you're looking for a gold sovereign. A compass stuck on the floor of the concourse then points to an additional activity available beside the information window, where you're invited to pick up a sheet and fold a paper boat which has DLR mascots Dave and Doris on it. I am not making any of this up.
The designated route inexplicably suggests a walk from Pontoon Dock (2) to Royal Victoria (3), then avariciously invites you to dangle across the Thames and advance via the Jubilee line to Canary Wharf (4). All in all it's a bloody expensive family outing, especially when one of the instructions is "Remember to touch in and touch out at every station". They do suggest "For the best value get a one-day ticket or use Oyster or contactless", but the Z1-3 cap is £8.70 and a one-day ticket would set you back a whopping £13.90... and neither of those include the Dangleway. It'd be a lot cheaper (and I'd wager more fun) to skip the smartphone faff and sit at the front and drive the train to the end of the line and back.
✉ At my local bus stop, otherwise known as Langbourne Place, I'm disappointed to report that one of the timetables is missing. It used to be that only three buses served the stop, that's the 277, D7 and N550, and these completely filled the timetable panel. Then in 2018 a night version of the 277 was introduced and nobody's ever thought it worthwhile to add an extra panel to squeeze in the N277. At least the three timetables we have were last replaced in April 2021 so are totally up to date. The other thing that's missing is a spider map. An Island Gardens map definitely exists because Bus Stop A across the road has one, whereas here at Bus Stop F (with its much broader set of potential destinations) there's nothing.
✉ The lift at the southern end of the Greenwich Foot Tunnel is out of action again, apparently. There again a sign at the entrance still says'The Greenwich Foot Tunnel is open for essential journeys only', so I wouldn't believe a word the Royal Borough of Greenwich posts up on the Tower Hamlets side.
✉ The front of the Island Gardens cafe is now filled in with breeze blocks as it awaits demolition and transformation into something chichi-er.
✉ In future weeks you can look forward to my ongoing series 'Memorial Benches of Island Gardens', kicking off with David T Hale, Lillian & James Manley and the Soper family.
✉ Here's something special in the pavement on Westferry Road, a Poplar Borough Council-branded inspection cover. I see it was made by Henry Edie Co Ltd at Bow Foundry, which I've discovered was still operational during WW2 and was located just off the High Street in Bromley-by-Bow, E3. That sounds like an interesting neighbourhood - I wonder how different this blog would be if I lived up there.
