Road to Home 2022 Day 23: Southwark - Abbey Wood

24 km

There are two things scarce matched in the universe: the sun in heaven and the Thames on earth

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 - 1618)

The Thames was my constant companion today, walking with me alongside my hosts, Alison and Ian, experienced pilgrims with whom I crossed paths in southern France in 2017, when they were on their way to Rome and I was walking in the direction of Santiago de Compostela. 

Before setting out along the Thames Path we paid a visit to Southwark Cathedral, founded by St Swithun in the year 860. Morning prayers were underway, and after they were over I asked the Dean for a stamp for my pilgrim credential. He gave me not only a stamp but a special blessing for my pilgrimage, as well! 

The Paul Bunyan Pilgrim's Progress window 

The Geoffrey Chaucer Canterbury Tales window

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee window

We also visited another site of significance in Southwark: the site of the Tabard Inn, point of departure for Chuacer's pilgrims to Canterbury!

Bifel that in that season on a day,

In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay

Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage

To Caunterbury with ful devout corage... 

My hosts explained to me that Southwark was full of coaching inns in the past. The coaches would set off to travel southwards from various points on the south bank of the Thames, so that they didn't have to enter the city of London and were not subject to its rules and regulations. And because these rules and regulations did not apply outside the city, the south bank was rife with brothels and gambling houses, so the Tabard Inn would have been a very lively place! Chaucer's motley group of pilgrims gathered here to travel together to Canterbury, and their host from the inn proposed that they pass the time along the way with a storytelling contest, the prize for which was to be a free dinner at the Tabard Inn upon their return. The innkeeper himself went with them to act as contest judge. 

"It happened in that season that one day 

In Southwark, at The Tabard, as I lay 

Ready to go on pilgrimage and start 

For Canterbury, most devout at heart, 

At night there came into that hostelry 

Some nine and twenty in a company 

Of sundry folk happening then to fall 

In fellowship, and they were pilgrims all 

That towards Canterbury meant to ride. 

The rooms and stables of the inn were wide; 

They made us easy, all was of the best. 

And, briefly, when the sun had gone to rest, 

I’d spoken to them all upon the trip 

And was soon one with them in fellowship, 

Pledged to rise early and to take the way 

To Canterbury, as you heard me say."

Alison, Ian and I took our way towards Canterbury along the Thames River Path, passing underneath London Bridge and Tower Bridge. 

We passed the pub called The Mayflower, allegedly built on the spot from which Pilgrims of another sort departed for America aboard the ship of the same name. 

The new Canary Wharf business district on the north bank of the river remained in sight all day, from different angles and distances! 

We passed through developments on the south bank where warehouses had been converted into luxury flats with view over the river and the "hythes" in which ships used to dock when London was a thriving industrial port. 

Watching a carp attempt to swim through a lock

"Only" 115 miles to Dover! 

After what seemed like a very long time we arrived in Greenwich, where an immense navy ship was moored, alongside the Cutty Sark, now encased in glass. 

We left the river bank to take a shortcut rather than walking right around the bend in the river in which the O2 is located, crossing from Greenwich into Woolwich along a major road. Then we cut through a shopping centre and an industrial area to return to the river at the Thames Barrier, where we stopped to eat the kebabs and falafels we had picked up from a Turkish shop along the way. 

We decided we would walk as far as Abbey Wood Station, and to get there we once again left the river, after passing the gigantic Tate and Lyle sugar factory in Silvertown on the opposite bank. 

Here we took the brand new Elizabeth Line train back to Southwark - not because it was the fastest way, but because we wanted to try out the new purple line! 😅💜

Back home after such a long day of walking, fish and chips turned out to be the perfect solution for dinner. 

Had no gps signal for a bit