Last weekend I went on a walk that I’ve always meant to – I wanted to walk east along the Thames past City Airport and up Barking Creek.  If you click on this link to see where I mean on Google Maps (and zoom in), you can clearly see what looks like a public footpath along the Thames and then up the west side of the creek.

But I walked everywhere (about 14km, shown to the right in red) and every access to this footpath was blocked off with big metal spiked fences, with no explanation as to why.  Every time I was walking along what looked to be the right way, I would encounter a big spiky wall.

I later learned that the thing that takes up the big space between where I walked and the creek is the Beckton Sewerage Works, the largest sewerage treatment plant in London.  But from Google Maps it really does look like the path goes around the outside of the plant!  I even emailed Thames Water (who run the plant) to see if they could tell me, but haven’t got an answer [EDIT: 13 days later I did get an answer - see here]

But I did take a couple of photos from my mobile – I wish I had’ve taken my camera!

The walk took me right beside London City Airport, right by the runway.

I love airports, because they make me feel like I’m about to go somewhere interesting.  I like the idea of going somewhere, but not the idea of flying.  Anyway, that’s not the point.

Here are the University of East London student apartments that have just opened (first picture).  They’re very cool, and they’re brand new, but I’m not sure how the students get any work done being right across the water from the airport – the second picture is the view from their window.  It’s so noisy when the planes land.