Hard Facts Community

.. at least, north of the main road towards the river it is lovely, in what is called 'Woolwich Arsenal', where the site of the old Armoury has been redesigned, keeping lots of the beautiful old buildings and cannon dotted about here and there, with wide pedestrianised areas and big blocks of upmarket flats with balconies.

Always kids on their little bikes going up and down here, lovely they have a nice safe place to ride






And there's a stream with cool places to sit under trees and the kids can paddle (cleverly incorporates one of the old Brass Foundry walls, see plaque)


Quite often this changed its nature like a theatre mask, from pretty and playful to seedy, as it was also the favourite haunt of local druggies come to buy, sell, and enjoy , but it's a lovely place when families with little children have it to themselves





Friendly baby squirrels

We went to the pier (5 mins walk) quite often and took the Thames clipper Uber boat towards inner London, these boats are lovely, lots of room, comfy seats in or out, a cafe aboard, and the most wonderful views of famous London places:




Through Tower Bridge from both directions



Through the Thames barrier! very exciting, I have always been obsessed with it (large mechanical structures in deep water... shiver)


You can hop on and off the UberBoat like a bus, but I don't know how much it costs if you break your journey, as we did, but who cares when you can get cakes like this at a wonderful cafe (Brera) overlooking the Thames at Canary Wharf!

The O2 arena (used to be the Millennium dome: now a place for concerts and lots of shops inside:

Inside - a golden staircase and glittering baubles

And a few random photographs

Last but not least, everywhere we go, we seem to see one of these. This was one of the nicer ones, carefully made in Gummi Bears

Nice pics. I especially like the mother and daughter one. Maybe worth printing?
I'm not sure what to make of the gummy bears shape. Is it meant to look like a phallus?

Did you get to climb on the roof of the dome?

Furby wrote: ↑Fri Jul 14, 2023 1:13 pm Did you get to climb on the roof of the dome?

I didn't fancy it in the end! it was £35 EACH and you had to be chained on and follow a line of people... I thought there was a better use of money really!

Nice pics. I especially like the mother and daughter one. Maybe worth printing?
I'm not sure what to make of the gummy bears shape. Is it meant to look like a phallus?

Yes (love the polite word there ) and people draw them EVERYWHERE ?! on every advert, every blank space of wall...

£35? Its only £33 pounds for Buckingham palace. I remember the dome was supposed to be a temporary tent and they were going to take it down and build something else so I suppose its remarkable just by being there to see and now merry has seen it.

The London Eye was supposed to be taken down as well, but that has found a way of surviving.

I love these pictures!!! Woolwich looks beautiful. Kind of like these areas that used to be shabby but then they made them really nice. We've got some of them in Vienna as well (in fact, I live in one of them).

The cake looks absolutely delicious and now I'm hungry again.

The Thames Barrier is fascinating.

And the O2 arena. I have a dvd recording of the Les Miserables 25-year-anniversary concert at the O2 which is beautiful.