Trinity Buoy Wharf and East India Docks

Last Sunday I had a day alone in London so hunted for something to do, coming across an outdoor dance event involving a shipping container (Dance Umbrella). It was at Trinity Buoy Wharf which I'd never heard of let alone visited.  Boy, if you'll excuse the pun, was I in for a treat!


Trinity Buoy Wharf used to owned by Trinity House who, amongst numerous nautical services, manage the lighthouses and buoys around England and Wales.  They used the wharf to house spare buoys and run lighting trials: indeed Faraday experimented here.  There were even trial lighthouses built.

The Corporation of Trinity House withdrew from the wharf in 1988 and 10 years later Urban Space Holdings took over and since then have created an amazingly creative living and entertainment space opposite the O2.


I'd heard of this innovative container housing. In the area it was, with its wonderful river views, I suspect these are not cheap.

This is the second lighthouse that was built, Bow Creek Lighthouse (they demolished the first).

It was free to climb - and so I did.  Wonderful views across to the O2.

And it has the smallest benchmark I've even seen.

One thing that excited me greatly was discovering that the measurement of MSL was first defined here - before Liverpool before Newlyn. I knew Liverpool pre-dated Newlyln but had no idea that Trinity Buoy Wharf pre-dated them both. Sadly you can't see the datum line - maybe I'll need to hire a boat next time to have a proper hunt?

This wharf has the first ever tidal/lunar clock, alunatime.  The clock face shows the lunar cycle and the chimes musically play the state of tide.

Anyway, the reason I initially headed to the wharf was for the dance show. Well, it was weird to be honest. It involved 40 minutes of watching a container slowly unfold and an artist drape herself around it to some mournful bongs from a speaker.

She stood on top and swung an axe.

It wasn't really my cup of tea but I'm delighted it got me to this amazing wharf.

I headed back towards the DLR and realised that East India Docks were open. That drew me in...

On the dock gates I spotted a marker for MSL.  Not the marker, but the one for these wharf gates - where O-D = Ordnance Datum.

There you go - enlarged.

You can see the lovely clear tidal height marked in the wharf walls on the other side.

As I wandered to the East India DLR station I espyed the wonderful sign "Prime Meridian Walk". And as I turned I realised that it was directly across the Thames from Greenwich.

I turned and followed it north as long as I could, which wasn't far.

I took the DLR to Bank and then decided to walk back to Vauxhall.  This took me a while, especially as I stopped and explored the interesting Gabriel's Wharf on the South Bank en route.  And to end my long traipse, a view of the Thames as the sun faded. Beautiful.

London Greenwich

It's not the first, and certainly the not last, time I've visited Greenwich but every so often I like to go check it's still all there.  This time I was with my brother and his sons.

It was a grey day but you always get good views from up by the observatory.

And I have no idea how many times I've had my photo taken with these measures and benchmark.

It was time to find the meridian (well the OSGB36 variant) and stand a nephew in each hemisphere.

We then wandered down to the play area, finding a lovely sun dial on the way.  It was quite hard to explain the concept of this to the boys in the absence of a shadow.

After a charge around the park we visited the National Maritime Museum.  Again, I haven't been here for years and it was just oozing lovely maritime-y goodies including this absolutely monster map.

I retraced a journey with my feet for the boys that I did earlier this year: Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Windhoek, Johannesburg and Mbabane and back.  Robin scooted of towards the Middle East...

I know these aren't terribly popular items but I find them fascinating.  Our history of positioning at sea when all you have is a sky to navigate by.

And a familiar old face.

Plymouth Remembrance

I went to Plymouth yesterday to see the 14-18 WOW poppies which are on tour following their Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red exhibition which I saw at the Tower Bridge in 2014.

I hadn't realised they'd been touring since then, until I heard they were in Plymouth. The Wave structure is amazing.

It is fittingly draped over the Naval War Memorial.



Once I'd completed the World War remembrance I started my own memories.

Plymouth and I go back a long way.  My first real memory of it was in September 1990 when we moved there just after getting married.  Our first house was in West Hoe, which one can see from the Hoe.

We only lived there a year but I remember it being wet most of the time - it doesn't really 'rain' in Plymouth, you just get damp by being outside.  I initially worked in Saltash for a survey company so would cycle across into Tamar into Cornwall every day.  Oh, and we got burgled.

Once we moved to Exeter, and I started working at the UKHO, most of my trips to Plymouth were Navy focused.  I must have had over a 100 trips to Plymouth.  I visited the hydro school at HMS Drake numerous times to learn, teach and most recently, be an external examiner.  I've visited the Royal Marines at RM TAMAR and sailed on various Naval vessels in the Sound.  Outside of work I was in the RNR briefly at HMS VIVID and was an external examiner at Plymouth University for 4 years.  I have attended Hydro Society and RICS lectures there and even paddled across the sound with the Exeter Canoe Club.

So, memories galore, I wandered across the Hoe.  I said 'hi' to Drake and his globe.

Smeaton's Tower. On a clear day you can see the stump where it was sited next to the new Eddystone Lighthouse.

Indeed, welcome to Plymouth.

It was a moody day - mainly sunny but occasionally there were raindrops (don't forget, I was in Plymouth).  However I caught a fair weather window and sat outside on the damp benches and did some work.  However, the clouds made for some atmospheric photos.

I was also able to indulge myself with a hug of the quirkiest trig I know.  Such that you can hug a wall.

The last time I was in Plymouth I was walking the SWCP.   Another memory.

I strolled down into the Barbican.

I love the light in Autumn.  It is a richer colour and the lower sun angle creates a taller Ruth (I need all the help I can get).

Considering I only lived in Plymouth for a year, the subsequent decades have filled me with hundreds of memories.  Next to my home town, my university city and my current home city, Plymouth is a familiar and comfortable place and yesterday was another delightful memory.

Northumberland at Large

I've just had a fabulous few days in Northumberland (including Tyne and Wear and Durham to be exact) visiting an old university friend.  He lives just west of Newcastle in Walbottle and whilst he was at work on Friday I took my Mac - have Mac will travel - down to the Tyne and caught up on emails and my MSc.

That evening Simon and I wandered eastwards along the north side of the Tyne ending up in the central waterfront area.  So lovely to be back here.

Simon has a wonderful old house which is just across the road from the line of Hadrian's Wall and has a benchmark to boot (see bottom left side of the house).

He is quite high up, well, 77.28 m above MSL to be precise (yes, we looked up the height of the benchmark) and has amazing views as the sun sets.

On Saturday is was gloriously sunny and we headed towards the coast, staying south of the Tyne.  As we drove around the A1 I spotted the Angel of the North up on the hill.  Simon hadn't realised I'd never seen it up close (it's a new fangled thing for someone who graduated in 1990) so we hopped off to have a look.  It's a fascinating sculpture - I love the 'panelled' style of the metal work.

We returned to the car and headed off towards Seaham.  As we did I pointed out an atheneum type monument on a local hill.  "Let's go there," said Simon.  And so we did.

It turned out to be Penshaw Monument, a folly built in 1844 and reminding me of a similar structure in Edinburgh.


As we wandered up I pointed out that it would be a fine location for a trig pillar.  Simon and I did the same surveying degree so he accepts my geo-geekiness with full understanding and empathy.

Anyway, lo and behold, look what we found around the back!  TP5394


We eventually made it down to Seaham and enjoyed a scramble around the rocks...

...ending up at Seaham Harbour.

An interesting First World War memorial - erected in 2014 to mark the 100th anniversary of the start.

Simon was playing at a gig that evening so we had to be home for him to turn around and leave again but, with a spare 15 mins, we popped up to the local remains of Hadrian's Wall at Heddon-on-Wall.  Interesting how many buildings locally are built of this stone.  I'm sure after the Romans left the locals dismantled it for their own dwellings.

I stayed in on Saturday night and watched/read the amazing book by Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild, about Chris McCandless.

Sunday was duller weather wise, but still dry, and this time we headed north.  We started off in Bednell wandering around the harbour enjoying the massive cloud show.

The harbour.

We then drove down to Seahouses.

And again ambled out to the harbour.  It contained lots of fishing vessels (both commercial and taking tourists out line fishing), divers with massively thick dry suits for their North Sea forays, and numerous ferries shuttling tourists to/from the Farne Islands.

We drove out of Seahouses and stopped near the dunes, hopping over to picnic on the beach.  It wasn't too windy so stayed warm however I was not to be tempted to join Simon for a paddle.

We probably sat there for over an hour playing 'spot the ferry'.  There were 3 to 4 in action and at any one stage we could see 2 as they chugged and weaved in and out of the islands, which you can see on the horizon in the left of the photo.

Last stop for the day was Bamburgh Castle.  There was a croquet game in flow on the green and I explained the rules to Simon.  I thought everyone played croquet on their grandparents' lawn as a kid. Turns out he played bowls as a kid and no doubt thought everyone did same too.

We consulted the map before heading back and realised that we really were rather close to Holy Island of Lindisfarne and its causeway.  So being fluid with our timings we continued northwards and parked up to inspect the route.  As we'd surmised, the tide would be in, but it was receding at quite a fair lick.

We calculated it was retreating at roughly 1 white line every 3 minutes so it was quite addictive to watch.  However, as the causeway wasn't due to be drivable for another 2 hours, we decided to head back.

Monday saw me working from Simon's house whilst he was working.  I sat and watched the rain drip down being most grateful for the wonderfully dry weather I'd experienced for my first 3 days.  Simon and I have packed a lot in, not to mention hours of university reminiscing, quaffing wine and whiskey and talking nonsense.    It's been a blast!