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Flight Time
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SEPTEMBER 2018
Wanderlust
Now, the DLR – Docklands Light
Railway – is your knight in shining armour.
This elevated skytrain affords widescreen
views of Docklands as it glides above the
terrain. Watching the landscape through the
carriages’ big windows, the scene takes on
a filmic quality – perhaps a drabber, more
English version of
Blade Runner
.
But just getting from Billingsgate to
the nearest DLR, Blackwall, you really
understand the pedestrian’s lot in Docklands
– it’s only a five- to 10-minute walk, but
it’s fraught with frustration. You may find
yourself (like me) stranded on Blackwall
roundabout, for instance. Or (like me)
taking what seems the teensiest of wrong
turns, only to find there’s now one of those
large concrete things between you and the
DLR station. If you could just hop over the
concrete thing, you’d be there. But you can’t
– almost everything in Docklands is on an
inhuman, insurmountable scale – so you just
have to walk
alllll
the way around.
The DLR hums through the sky above
the mudflats, a not-quite spacecraft for
a not-quite dystopia. Away to the left, a
vast expanse like an inhospitable planet’s
surface stretches around the monumentally-
proportioned Millennium Mills, a derelict
former flour mill. Up ahead, there’s yet
another strange visual intervention as
the Emirates Airline cable car cobwebs
improbably into view, the cabins swinging
like Chinese lanterns. Are they ferrying
people back and forth to the O2 – or
airlifting despairing pedestrians to safety?
The scene is more serene at Thames
Barrier Park, a seminal bit of urban
landscaping, much underused by the public.
A sunken series of undulating hedges runs
directly towards the river here, leading the eye
to the magnificent barrier itself, which looks
like a phalanx of futuristic helmets, forever
protecting the city from flooding. Look along
the hedges in the other direction and you’ll
make out MillenniumMills in the distance.
The experience of being in the park is
like a Docklands version of standing on the
Millennium Bridge in central London, where
you turn from Tate Modern (the former
Bankside Power Station) at one end of the
bridge to the utterly-contrasting St Paul’s
Cathedral at the other. The main difference
here is that – unlike on the Millennium
Bridge – there’s quite a good chance you’ll
have the park to yourself.
Back to Pontoon Dock DLR, passing a
building site on the way. Traditional sights
Clockwise from top left: The Green Dock at
Thames Barrier Garden, a 130-foot-long sunken
garden; the Docklands Light Railway opened in
1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area;
Piggy’s in Billingsgate
porters’ trolleys parked at wonky angles; a
pair of police officers, their caps bearing the
red-and-white-checked band of the City of
London Constabulary.
They’re really winding down now. “What
have you got, Rich?” I hear one trader shout
to another, a large man in a tweed cap pinned
with a Union Jack badge, who’s standing
beside a porter’s trolley piled – as most of
them are – with polystyrene boxes. “Waddya
want?” Rich growls back in reply. I look closer.
The polystyrene boxes do not contain fish:
instead I see bars of Green & Black’s chocolate,
cans of deodorant, clingfilmed sausages and
other wares. Rich is running a sort of school’s-
out tuck shop for his colleagues.
I’ve already had one breakfast – at
5.45am. It’s 8am now and time for another.
Billingsgate’s on-site caff Piggy’s is small,
tatty and full of good cheer, Charlie Chaplin
posters and steam billowing from the tea urn.
The menu is pure greasy spoon with a fishy
slant: kippers, haddock and smoked salmon. I
go for the fusion option: a bacon and scallop
roll, plonked down on my table with a cup of
tea for the princely sum of £5 (yep, this place
definitely isn’t Borough Market).
Time for some fresh air – or as fresh as it
gets in Docklands, where you’ll often detect
a distinct chemical tang on the breeze – with
a trip to experience the strange beauty of
Thames Barrier Park. From Billingsgate, you
could walk it in 45 minutes – but it’s a nice
trip on the DLR to Pontoon Dock.