Kiwi Roaming

London in summer can be amazing, it was 28C when we landed but has steadily deteriorated and living by the Thames is very very windy (not Wellington wind but elsewhere in Aotearoa wind).

Paul made an amazing Timelapse video once from the balcony for 24 hours. It shows the amazing volume of craft that travel up and down the Thames every day. Worth a watch – https://youtu.be/Md0lxvTidXY?si=7UuoERf7T-jBdJKv

Our plan is to do as many free London activities as possible, and if not free as cheaply as possible. The NZ$ is not performing terribly well so ensuring our funds go as far as they possibly can is top of mind, so we have spent time researching free activities in London – and there are hundreds.

Transport – The one caveat as I report on free London things, is these activities and their cost will exclude the cost of transport. To give you an indication however for a single ride from ASDA to the apartment costs £1.75 or $4NZD. Transport for London do offer daily caps so most of our tripping around ends up costing the capped daily rate of £8.90 or $20.48NZD. The capped rate is for all of your train, underground and bus rides in a 24 hour period, which is pretty good.

#1 Greenwich Foot Tunnel

A 30 minute stroll along the Thames path and through the Greenwich Foot Tunnel gets us into the touristy part of Greenwich. The Thames Foot Tunnel was finished in 1902 and other than some bombing damage which required a whole section to be replaced post WW2, it’s been in continuous operation since.

Apparently 5000 people walk through here a day and every time we’ve been through it’s been busy and alive with activity.

To get down / up there is a lift or about 100 steps (we walked down and took the lift up). Then you’re in the tunnel. It’s well lit and pretty clean, we have walked through here a number of times now and always feel safe. There are signs everywhere with “the rules” – which include no e-scooters, no riding of bikes, no ride share bikes, no busking, dogs on leads – basically all of the rules were being broken when we walked through.

You can see the tunnel marked at the bottom of this map above, it emerges at the Cutty Sark. There is another tunnel under the Thames the Woolwich Foot Tunnel, we plan to check this one out as well.

From here we headed to the first of many food spots I’ve book marked after watching influencer shorts on Instagram. This one is called Goddard’s at Greenwich – a pie shop. The concept is fantastic, a pie, mashed potatoes and gravy for £7.20. It’s a big plate of food, I opted for Chicken and Mushroom. The issue is – it was completely tasteless. We are so spoiled for great pies in NZ people! don’t take our pies for granted.

A quick nosy round the Greenwich tourist shops and massively tourist market then we hopped on the DLR to seek out the Thames Barrier.

#2 Thames Barrier

Two DLR rides later and we were back across the Thames where we alighted at Pontoon Dock and walked through the Thames Barrier Park to the waterfront where you can see the Thames Barrier up close.

The Thames Barrier is another fascinating piece of engineering. Conceived of in the 1950’s, designed in the 1960’s and constructed from 1974-1984 when it opened, the barrier is there to protect London Town from flooding basically. I recommend you read the Wiki article (linked above) on its design and operation and how often it has been deployed.

There is a museum over on the other side of the river we later realised we could have walked east to the Woolwich foot tunnel then back to the museum. But instead we wandered along the waterfront as far as we could to the west where we were really impressed with the gardens, parks and green spaces of the Royal Wharf area. Basically mid sized apartment towers with schools, childcare, playgrounds, cafes and a wonderful set of outdoor exercise equipment right beside the Thames.

Successful first free London day. Below, painting is looking great, our busy map of free things in London and a car charging at a lamppost.