Over the years since I moved into the docklands area, I have listened to people denigrating the area. Too often I am told the area lacks a “soul”, that it is full of glass and steel towers with no character and that there is no heritage or “nooks and crannies” to explore.

I often dispute this, as while there are indeed steel and glass towers, there are also a wide range of smaller buildings, Victorian heritage and some of the early office blocks have a lot of nice detailing to them.

I am told that the area is empty at weekends, which it might look like if you travel through on the DLR – and don’t stop off to visit the two massive shopping centers in the heart of Canary Wharf, or the bars along the docksides – or the museum.

However, my main gripe with the armchair experts who decry living in docklands is the oft-cited claim that it lacks any character.

Accepting that almost anything looks nicer in the snow, below are some photos taken just a short walk from my flat or Canary Wharf – being the Mudchute Park and City Farm.

I can easily lose an hour wandering around the area with its “country-lanes” and fields, and I will always be grateful to the local residents who in the mid 1970s blocked a plan by the GLA to build a load of tower blocks on the land.

I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story:

More photos over at Flickr.

How can anyone tell me Docklands is just bland glass and steel towers after seeing these?

I am writing about this not because I think the contest is noteworthy due to wondrous prizes, but for the sheer irony of the issues it raises.

Over the years I have lived in the docklands area, I have on many occasions been stopped from taking photos either on the DLR stations, or within the Canary Wharf estate.

Although the Canary Wharf estate management office assures me that, despite the actions of their security guards, my photography is fine, I have never had a reply from the DLR about their official policy.

Flicking through one of the free rags given out in the area, I notice a photo competition.

The terms are simply delicious – they want photos taken from DLR trains or on their stations.

Yes – there we have it! The next time I am stopped from taking photos on the DLR for security or privacy reasons, I shall inform the person that I am entering a competition run by their own company.

Huzzah!

Anyhow – more details here.

A slightly depressing development in Christmas Tree decorations.

As an aside, do we still need signs in shopping centers etc that CCTVs are in use? Considering how ubiquitous they have become,  I’d have thought most people would now automatically presume they are being monitored by cameras when in such places.

A lobby group has been pushing for a pedestrian bridge to be built linking Canary Wharf with Rotherhithe – a route currently serviced by either a ferry service or (via a short walk) the Jubilee Line. It is being reported, with the expected screams of anguish that the plan will not be getting any funding from Transport for London – and is hence highly unlikely to go ahead.

Now, I happen to think a pedestrian link between the two points would be very good, so while disappointed that a link is not going ahead, I am bouncing with delight that the proposed bridge has been scraped.

Something slender such as the wobbly millennium bridge at Bankside would add greatly to the area, but the proposed monstrosity would have ruined it. The bridge has to be over-sized for its usage due to the need to allow boats to pass upstream to Tower Bridge and hence it would dominate the area, and not in a good way.

Personally, I think a sunken tunnel would have been a much better idea. By dredging out a channel and then dropping in pre-cast concrete tunnel units, a large pedestrian/cyclist tunnel could have been swiftly built. I also note that there are two former dock inlets on both sides of the river which would provide ideal landing points and the necessary length for the tunnel to slope down to the sub-aqueous sections. Once the sloping tunnels entrances are built, the docks can be reinstated above them again to hide the tunnel.

I’d expect the cost to be similar to the bridge (if not cheaper) and it would not result in the gigantic spiral eyesore ruining the area.

It seems that the economic downturn hasn’t quite reached the exalted atmosphere of Canary Wharf’s banking classes judging by the price of a new bottle of beer, Deus Brut Des Flanders that the local Waitrose has started selling.

The label says that it works out at £16.20 per litre – ouch!