From ROTHERHITHE STREET (THAMES PATH)
Diversions inside “THE ISLAND”: RUSSIA DOCK WOODLAND, STAVE HILL, ALBION CHANNEL
After ROTHERHITHE VILLAGE:
Along Albion Street > Swan St. > Albatros Way + crossing Albion Channel + along Canada St. > Archangel St > Russia Walk —YOU ARE NOW IN RUSSIA DOCK WOODLAND— >along Ladydock Walk and Ladydock Path + crossing under Salter Road > Rotherhithe St > Odessa — YOU ARE NOW on the THAMES PATH route
After SURREY WATER:
ALBION CHANNEL or along Dock Hill Avenue to STAVE HILL VIEWPOINT
Following the Great Surrey Canal (well, almost)
Dock Hill Avenue
It occupies part of ISLAND DOCK (3.813 acres).
L.D.D.C. Logo
STAVE HILL. Great views in all directions!
18 m high, made-up hill (using spoil excavated to make the ALBION CHANNEL, 1985-86). Its site coincides with the junction of three docks: RUSSIA, ISLAND, STAVE. The notorious RICE MILL CORNER was a nightmare for unpowered crafts to negotiate, until the mill burnt down and the junction was made easier.
The relief map sculpture, by MICHAEL RIZELLO, captures how the surrounding docks looked 100 years ago
STAVE HILL ECOLOGY PARK
A substantial woodland, designed by PHIL MASTERS, laid out in 1986 by the TRUST FOR URBAN ECOLOGY.5 acres of “species rich”habitat. Woodland,Scrub, grassland, wetland… attracting insects, birds, amphibians and small mammals. Changing Wild flowers.
A wind turbine pumps water for the park
RUSSIA DOCK WOODLAND
Former quayside. 800m/2.480ft long, 14.021 acres, 7m./17 ft. deep.
A place with great flexibility for berthing vessels, as its length is un rolen, uninterrupted by side connections.
Originally, 1807, a stretch of the GRAND SURREY CANAL, it was gradually widened. The masonry quays replaced the, originally, timber lined earth banks.
The main traffic here wa timber fr the BALTIC. Open-sided sheds used to line both sides, stacked with wood for seasoning. Rails for travelling cranes.
This area was devastathenightbof the 7/8 September 1940. No further traffic was handled from here. After rubble and wreckage was cleared, improvised dry docks were dug out of quaysides and used to built CONCRETE UNITS for Fahd floating MULBERRY HARBOURS , used for D DAY LANDINGS.
As well, here, were constructed MINE SWEEPING barges, and a new caisson for the DRY DOCK, at SINGAPORE, in case the Japanese destroyed the existing one before surrender.
An eerie place… like a Roman sit, where masonry sticks from the grass, but here only a couple of generation ago the dock was still in use!.