Places to Visit in South London - North Greenwich and Charlton

If I was writing this blog in the 1990s, I probably wouldn't have come close to the Greenwich Peninsula. For most of its existence, it's been an industrial area, most notably the centre of the largest gasworks in Europe at its peak, but also other industries such as chemicals, steelworks, and linoleum at various occasions. As the gasworks became more prominent in the 19th century, the area started to be known as East Greenwich, probably because, well...it's in the east.

The east of Greenwich.

All this suddenly changed in the 1990s, however. By this point, the gasworks were long gone, and all of a sudden you had lots of land which could be redeveloped for entertainment, retail, and housing. There was even a shiny new Tube line which needed to be extended for the new millenium. All of this led to the construction of the Millenium Dome, which was built to house a large exhibition for the arrival of the 21st century, and the opening of North Greenwich station along the Jubilee, both in 1999. Whilst the former wasn't really a success, the latter did help change the name of the area for likely forever. Today, the peninsula stands as the greatest success story of late-stage New Labour capitalism.

Welcome to North Greenwich!

 

The O₂

Even though the Dome wasn't particularly successful - truth be told, none of the exhibits sound appealing to me whatsoever - that didn't mean the structure itself lay dormant for long. In 2005, the Dome transitioned into a new entertainment complex, with way too many restaurants, and a massive concert hall to boot. 

 

I've been to two concerts here before; I went to see Depeche Mode and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, both a few years ago, and both were fantastic. I'd like to claim that's more on the bands than on the venue itself, but in terms of size you can't deny it's very impressive. 

 

As you walk around the peninsula, it's hard to avoid its hedgehog-shaped body, with those yellow towers peeking out from behind the trees whenever you're nearby. The building is the centre of North Greenwich - if you're travelling here, odds are it's only for the O2. There really isn't that much else to do here:

• Yes, you could go to the other restaurants on the plaza, but there are restaurants wherever you look in London. Would you want to take the Jubilee just to end up there? (Many will say yes, to which I don't judge you.)
• Yes, there is the artwork. There is the Line, a series of sculptures spanning the Thames that starts here, and loads of them are very impressive. I didn't go to see them in person, but apparently I've visited some elsewhere already. But again, it does feel more like a thing you'd find out about when you're in the area already.
• Yes, there is the cable car, which I will defend (a bit). Alright, it goes absolutely nowhere, and the ticket prices are a joke. But as a kid, when I went on the cable car loads of years ago, it was incredibly enjoyable despite the overall experience likely being dull looking back on it. It's not great for actually getting people around, but bloody hell, it's not an affront to society.
• No one comes here for the Blackwall and Silvertown Tunnels. At least willingly.

But one thing you can do is walk around the peninsula, along the Thames, occasionally staring across the river bank at the other capitalist behemoth nearby, Canary Wharf. There's the odd jogger passing by, this being a Saturday morning, though it was also a teriffically cold one. And whilst it's a nice walk, it's sometimes quite depressing, as on the other side of the Thames, you have a sealed-off area which is part construction site, part golf course, the latter having so many golf balls all over the place. It makes you want to tell them "go clean your course".

   

You'll never truly escape the O2's orbit if you hang around in North Greenwich as an unimpressed tourist, though. Truth be told, that's the magnet that draws you in and spits you out. If you're lucky enough to go and see a band, be prepared for lengthy queues for the Tube on the way back home. It's miserable waiting for a late train no matter what, but I can't imagine the retail complex making it any better when it's bloody cold and dark.

 

So I did the only thing I could, and got on a bus to Charlton.

The Valley

I only came here because I was in the area, but I'm not sure if I should have. You see, it was a Saturday, and Charlton Athletic were playing at home that day. So instead of getting a regular quiet walk around the stadium, taking the odd few photos from outside the stadium, I had to handle walking with several Charlton fans. None of that is a bad thing, of course, but it does mean some of the photos get a bit crowded, and you never want to look extremely awkward photographing random strangers. All the better when you're a plain-clothed Millwall fan.

 

The Valley has been home to Charlton for most of their history. Tucked away amongst the houses, it's impressively-sized at 27,000, and has been here since 1919, with Charlton playing here ever since, with two exceptions. The first was in 1923, when they decided to move to Catford, but moved back here a year later. The second was sadder, and was the result of the club almost going out of business and being effectively kicked out of the Valley in 1985. They only moved back seven years later, with the stadium newly renovated and expanded since then.

 

It's even kind of impressive how successful Charlton have been in that time. For most of the 2010s, they were probably the south London club in terms of prominence, and all in an area which can easily go avoided. Charlton is your run-of-the-mill suburb in almost every way, with terraced houses and estates all around you - it's definitely not as glamorous as either North or regular Greenwich are. They even managed to win on the day I visited - luckily for me, they also lost a week later. 

(And I can't not mention that apparently the loudest concert ever - the Who, back in 1976 - occurred here. They reached 126 dB!) 

Epilogue

From here, it was the matter of getting home. I made my way to the train station, satisfied with the whole trip. In fact, I hadn't even left home that day with North Greenwich in mind - that's for a future blogpost - so I'm glad everything worked out in the end. Not just because I've now visited all south London league football stadiums, not that I was counting. But because I've now blogged about all the boroughs this side of the river.