Welcome to to third post in this sporadically published series (see here and here). Today the London element of this post concerns Greenwich, which I have written about in some detail on my London Transport themed website (here).
GREENWICH
These days, since the Docklands Light Railway was extended southwards from Island Gardens maritime Greenwich has had its own station, called Cutty Sark after the old tea clipper (Ester has recently posted a picture of it on her blog). This section focusses on the various alternatives to using that station.
One stop north of Cutty Sark is Island Gardens, from which you can enter the Greenwich Foot Tunnel and walk under the Thames to get to maritime Greenwich.
Greenwich and Maze Hill stations are also within easy walking distance, and there is an interesting walk largely along the river front from Deptford. New Cross and New Cross Gate are both also within range. For the seriously venturesome one can travel to Woolwich to get a close look at the Thames Flood Barrier first, and then walk along the Thames westwards until arriving at Greenwich. If you use the DLR and alight at King George V station, one stop from the terminus at Woolwich Arsenal, you can avail yourself of the other opportunity to walk under the Thames by using the Woolwich Foot Tunnel (I actually did once do this precise thing in the days when what is now the DLR spur from Stratford to Woolwich Arsenal was the tail end of a regular train line that started at Richmond and finished at North Woolwich, located roughly where today’s King George V is).
If you do make a trip to Greenwich at some point when the situation allows, and your mobility permits you to be more venturesome I recommend at the very least making your destination for arrival Island Gardens and the point of departure for your return journey Greenwich. That will enable to you to enjoy all of Greenwich’s finest attractions.
My own plan of campaign for when the opportunity arises has two components for the outward journey depending on circumstances:
1. If the train from King’s Lynn to London that I am on calls at Finsbury Park, I will alight there, change to the Victoria line, change again at Highbury & Islington to London Overground and change one final time at Shadwell to the Docklands Light Railway, alighting at Island Gardens to approach Greenwich by way of the foot tunnel.
2. If the train to London does not call at Finsbury Park, I will board a Circle/ Hammersmith and City/ Metropolitan line train at King’s Cross, change at Baker Street to the Jubilee line and change to the Docklands Light Railway at Canary Wharf heading south to Island Gardens.
For the return journey I will aim for Kings Cross by catching a train from Greenwich and changing at Waterloo East to Southwark (Jubilee), and according to mood and time considerations will either change at Baker Street or stay aboard the Jubilee line train until I can make the cross platform interchange at Finchley Road.
A google maps creation showing my advocated stations for a visit to Greenwich. 
London connections view of the area 
Close focus on the stations around Greenwich. 
Showing the every station I mentioned as a possibility. 
The first of two relevant double page spreads from my ancient A-Z 
Close focus on the immediate area of interest. 
Close focus on Woolwich. 
BARNSLEY AND MANVERS
Manvers is a purely light industry location not far from Wath-on-Dearne. I had two jobs there, first for a mobile phone network provider, and then as a scanner operator enabling the destruction of paper copies of old documents. I was sometimes compelled to accept extra walking – the bus that actually went through Manvers did not start running until too late if I had a really early start (and in the second job, as a scanner operator, I worked split shifts, 6AM to 2PM one week, 2PM to 10PM the next). However I also sometimes chose to walk the extra distance to Wath-on-Dearne and get a bus back from there because it seemed preferable to waiting at the bus stop at Manvers. The first bus from Barnsley to Wath-on-Dearne left at 4:34 and there was another at 5:35, too late for 6AM start, but just early enough if one had a 7AM start. The first bus to Manvers did not leave until 6:33, too late to be of use for a 7:00 start.
A LINK AND SOME PICTURES
Given that one of the attractions at Greenwich is an observatory I thought this tweet from Milky Way Astronomers explaining the colours of meteors seemed an appropriate segue into my usual sign off…
aspiblog 