Nordic Walking The Thames Path: The Last Leg - The Cutty Sark to Woolwich Foot Tunnel

Leg Fifteen: The Cutty Sark to Woolwich Foot Tunnel

When: Saturday 20th September 2025

Miles Walked: 6.52

Steps Taken: 13,910

Moving Time: 2:05:38

Elevation Gain: 43 ft

Today we have woken up to a dull, grey morning at the campsite and due to my extra long walk yesterday we have time to have a slower morning and properly pack up our camp (ready to go home later) before I start my last stretch of the walk today, I even have time to collect myself some sweet chestnuts from around our pitch - they’ve been dropping out of the trees around our pitch for the last few days. After we have packed up the van we head off to Woolwich station to park the van and get a train back to Greenwich. We arrive in Greenwich and decide to get lunch before setting off, we end up in Pizza Express and enjoy a delicious bowl of doughballs before our pizzas. With our bellies full and satiated we wander over to The Cutty Sark, Steve is going to walk part of the route with me today and my brother is going to appear on his bike to intercept me at some point.

Greenwich is a UNESCO World heritage Site and has a rich history, it is the site of the 15th Century Palace of Placentia (now the Old Royal Naval College, those twin domes are a part of the masterpiece designed by Christopher Wren), there is also the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory. The Thames Path keeps to the riverside giving a unique view of all the impressive buildings!

The route leaves the riverside and goes through some narrow streets passing Trinity Hospital, a group of Almshouses built in 1613 for the ‘poor men’ of Greenwich. I pass an interesting wall which has lots of ceramic plaques embedded in it, it’s an artwork entitled ‘The illustrated Thames tale’ by Amanda Hinge. The story begins with a message in a coke can which Stan sets out to interpret and follow, the footprint is part of it. We pass the Grade II listed Cutty Sark pub, this is it’s third name originally it was the Green Man and then the Union Tavern, it was only named the Cutty Sark after the Tea Clipper arrived in Greenwich in 1951. We pass a sculpture of an anchor which is a 2004 sculpture by Wendy Taylor called Anchor Iron, it has a plaque detailing the history of the local area.

Just around the corner someone hollers at me out of The River Gardens Café, it is my brother who is grabbing a coffee & pastry after his morning ride! After a little catch-up and a selfie we part ways and Steve heads back to Greenwich. So now it’s just me and the path once more.

I pass some colourful apartment blocks as the path heads back closer to the riverside, it gets a bit industrial around Morden Wharf, a little run down and feels like it could do with a revamp! Morden Wharf was a 500 capacity pub with a terrace which sadly has closed.

As I approach the O2 arena there’s some fun graffiti on some of the lego-esque concrete blocks, the area is so drab and grey they brighten it up! I pass a mile post marker which celebrates the Millennium and the creation of the National Cycle Network. As I round the O2 I start to encounter The Line, a public art trail that connects Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the O2, following the waterways and the line of the Greenwich Meridian. A slice of reality by Richard Wilson is a sculpture featuring a sliced vertical section of an ocean going sand dredger.

The 5 metre totemic sculpture is called Tribe and Tribulation by Serge Attukwei Clottey. The path is lovely and wide around here and a few people are milling around, but it is peaceful as I contemplate each sculpture as I pass. Liberty Grip by Gary Hume, a bronze based on the arm of a shop mannequin - it is huge! The Greenwich cloud cable car comes into view arcing across the river, as I walk along Olympian Way!

Located at the heart of The Tide overlooking the River Thames, The Mermaid (2014) is one of six public pieces from Damien Hirst at Greenwich Peninsula.  Quantum Cloud is a galvanised steel sculpture by Antony Gormley. I’m enjoying the street furniture along here as well as the sculptures! This huge headless sculpture is another Damien Hirst, how do you even go about constructing something so vast?

I pass a polar sundial which was created to mark the Millennium, it was designed by Piers Nicholson. Around the corner is Greenwich Yacht Club, I have actually visited this yacht club on a Team building event a few years back! Greenwich Yacht Club was founded by Thames watermen and river workers in 1908, this current clubhouse was built as a result of the construction of the Millennium Dome (O2) on the then redundant Peartree Wharf. I pass through an area that supplies aggregates to the building and construction industries - it’s quite sandy! Pizza in the hut made me laugh! it’s opposite the Anchor & Hope pub.

Only half a mile to go to The Thames Barrier, I can see it in the distance, The Thames Barrier, one of the largest movable flood barriers in the world, spans 520 metres across the Thames. Its ten, movable steel gates protect 125 square kilometres of central London from tidal-surge flooding. When raised, the 3300-tonne main gates stand as high as a five-storey building and as wide as the opening of Tower Bridge. It’s very impressive!

In a tunnel there is a linear map showing the elevation gain of the river Thames from sea level to Kemble, 0-105 metres over 180 miles. It’s quite mad to think I have walked all the way from Kemble to here! It is definitely more industrial out here! I can see the Tate & Lyle sugar refinery on the opposite bank.

It’s a shame to see this old ship, the MV Royal Iris dumped and rotting. I continue on and pass gun emplacements, defence cannons at the former Woolwich Dockyard. I can see the Woolwich ferry in the distance, it’s not far now!

The Woolwich Ferry is a free service providing a link between Woolwich and North Woolwich run by TFL. Just before the ferry terminal here there is a great rapid charging forecourt, Glass Yard EV provides charging points for 8 vehicles. Around the corner is the official end of The Thames Path - The Woolwich Foot Tunnel was designed by Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice, who also designed the Rotherhithe Tunnel, and connects Woolwich with North Woolwich, it opened in 1912. The role of the tunnel was to provide easy access to the docks north of the river, for dockworkers who lived south of the river, it was created to operate alongside the Woolwich Ferry and is 1, 655 feet in length and 69 feet deep. The digging of the tunnel was achieved through the use of a tunnelling shield, however the excavation was done entirely by hand. The tunnelers worked day and night in eight hour shifts, managing to dig about 10 feet every 24 hours.

As I’m taking my selfie my phone starts to ring, it’s Steve. “where are you, you need to come I’m in the queue for the ferry, I texted you!” The original plan was for Steve to meet me here on foot, but he’s decided we should go on an adventure, so feeling a little bamboozled and rushed I depart for the ferry, missing jumping into the van as he has gone beyond the barrier! I embark as a foot passenger and leave the area for pedestrians to jump in the van and it’s a this point I remember I was supposed to walk 5 minutes further on to the Woolwich Works at Woolwich Arsenal to get the last stamp for my Thames Path Passport, but we are now on a ferry heading across the river, grrr, I’m not happy. To be honest it’s a bit of a rubbish end to my epic Thames Path Adventure and Norbert didn’t get a photo at the end either. But it is done, I have Nordic walked the length of the Thames Path from it’s source in Kemble to the original end at the Woolwich Foot tunnel.

According to Strava below are the totals for this entire adventure.

TOTAL MILES: 211

TOTAL STEPS: 437,592

TOTAL TIME: 68:57:59