#LDNCycleSafari Goes Solo: A Trip To Thamesmead – Part 2 – The Ranty Highwayman
The Ranty Highwayman at Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Last week, I visited Thamesmead in southeast London, a place I worked in the late 1990s/ early 2000s. My cycle around the town ended at Southmere Lake and so this week, I continue the journey.
Most of what you saw last week was on the Greenwich side of Thamesmead whereas this week, I’m just over the border in Bexley. This split between the two boroughs has always added a layer of complexity with two planning departments and two highways departments which certainly had very different approaches during my time there.
If you go about 1km east from here, you will find yourself at Crossness Sewage Treatment Works which deals with a huge part of the southeast London’s sewage. The complex also houses the Crossness Engines housed in the original Crossness Pumping Station which pumped effluent into the Thames as the tide ebbed (way before anyone was living in the area). The sewer and pumping station were built under the supervision of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, my civil engineering hero.
1I went under the junction and turned south onto Harrow Manorway (well the residential street called the same running next to the elevated road). This area again has housing (mainly low rise) from different decades with that flanking the main road being more recent additions (below).