'This terrible London bridge is everything wrong with walking and cycling in our city and I hate it'
| Published date | 14 August 2022 |
| Publication title | MyLondon (England) |
I don't doubt that on paper it provides a handy link between the housing developments of Silvertown and transport hub at Custom House, boosted by the arrival of the Elizabeth line, what I do call into question is why it seems every possible way of making the bridge as hard and unpleasant to use as possible has been taken. The view from the bridge also infuriates me.
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Let me explain by taking you on a short walk from Custom House to West Silvertown I made on Thursday August 11, across the bridge. Starting on the northern shore of the dock, the bridge itself is signposted, but what is on the other side of the bridge isn't. For the uninitiated, this is certainly frustrating, particularly given the scale of both residential and commercial development on the other side, notably at Royal Wharf.
The bridge itself is easy to find though, simply because it is so high -50ft above the water. This is so large ships docking at the City Hall -end of the dock can pass under the bridge, although this hardly ever occurs in practice. Currently, the only vessel is the Sunborn Yacht Hotel, which is docked just beyond the bridge. That means a choice of a glass-panelled lift where the shaft is exposed to give you a sort of bizarre view where you can stare directly into the yacht hotel or eight flights of stairs.
Of course, when I arrived, on one of the hottest days of the year so far, the lifts were out of order as they've been for at least five months and up I went. The metal cage of stairs is as unpleasant in all senses but isn't entirely covered -there are slats which mean you can peek out over the dock as you climb up and well... let the sunlight blind you. It's an odd public space which I can only describe as reminiscent of the music video for "Me Against the Music" when Britney Spears chases Madonna through a sort of maze. It's more of an escape room than a functional, pleasant to use stairwell -not that I had a choice.
When reaching the top, I noticed there was no sign to inform people the lift was out of order, nor was there a sign at the other end either. There were multiple signs...
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