Thames Path parkrun, Woolwich

I finally made it down to Thames Path parkrun in Woolwich last week, an event that started out in 2023.

People meet up before the start by the statues in James Clavell Square by the Woolwich waterfront, where the old Woolwich Arsenal buildings nestle alongside new build flats. 

The actual start is a few hundred metres east along the Thames Path and from there it sets out on a nice flat stretch along the river. What could be better on a clear, fresh day? 

But wait, because in the middle section the route diverts inland to Gallions Reach Park and the challenging Gallions Hill - a landscaped mound built up of building rubble from nearby housing development. It's not particularly high or steep but it's quite a long and winding path to the top with fully 600m of ascent followed by a much more pleasant run back down.

Back out on the Thames path it's a straight path back to the finish near to the James Clavell Square meeting point.

Several generations of my ancestors worked at Woolwich Arsenal in the nineteenth century*, it's a slightly odd feeling running by buildings they would have been familiar with and indeed worked within. Not sure what they would have made of a few hundred runners charging up and down the riverfront, but I know some of that side of the family were quite sporty so I hope that they would have approved.

*My great great grandfather, Thomas William Cook (1835-1901) worked there and his father Thomas Cook (1812-1879)  and grandfather John Cook (1777-1850) before him. In the 1851 Census, Thomas junior is listed as a 'laboratory boy' and his father as 'labourer, Royal Arsenal'. Later his sister Jane worked there as a teenage 'cartridge maker' while another brother, John, worked as a 'metal turner' in the Royal Laboratory. Thomas William Cook and family later moved to Oare, by Faversham in Kent - on the 1881 Census he is described as an 'artist in fireworks' working at the Cotton Powder Factory.

Bude Sea Pool

 We finally made it to Bude Sea Pool this week, 88m lengths of beautiful swimming on Summerleaze beach in Cornwall.

The pool opened in 1930, dug out next to the beach's rocky cliffs. It is a tidal pool, which means the water is refreshed daily by the sea - though this also means of course that the pool can't be used at high tide when the walls disappear under the sea.

There is a shallower area on the coast side where children can paddle and learn to swim, with a deeper area on the side nearer the sea (maximum depth in middle of pool is around 2 metres).

The pool is free to use and is open all year round, but like many such places its continuing existence is dependent on a community of swimmers and other pool users. In this case the Friends of Bude Sea Pool who stepped up after the pool was threatened with closure by council funding cuts in 2010.  They maintain a friendly and helpful presence at the pool and also have some great merch!

A save the pool protest in 2010

The large sandy beach is popular with sunlovers and surfers. There are toilets in adjoining Summerleaze car park and changing huts above the pool.

Farewell to Seven Islands

Seven Islands swimming pool in Rotherhithe is due to close later in 2025 to make way for a new swimming pool/leisure centre at Canada Water. The new centre will no doubt have more up to date facilities than its predecessor but lets spare a moment for the fading grandeur of this 1960s classic.

Opened in 1965, it takes its name from a previous series of  ponds on/near to its current site. The pool itself is an unusual 33 metres long, so a bit more of a stretch than the standard 25m and very welcome if you are training. Southwark Aquatics Swimming Club have been based there for years.

There is a perspective on any pool that only the swimmer really sees underwater. In this case there is a sudden drop at the deep end, almost a cliff ledge, presumably at one time this depth would have enabled high board diving but no sign of that today

And let's not forget the magnificent tiling on outside of the building.

A summer night at the Old Roan Club

After a hot July evening Assembly League race around Sutcliffe Park this week, hosted by Cambridge Harriers,  a drink was definitely in order and we were lucky enough to be able to enjoy the hospitality of the Old Roan Club just across the road from the park on Kidbrooke Park Road SE3.  The playing fields here are owned by the John Roan foundation linked to the John Roan secondary school in Greenwich - rare and very welcome to see a state-funded school having access to such good facilities in an area where private schools seem to have more than their fair share of such spaces. It is home to the Old Roan Cricket Club which dates back to 1930 and Old Roan Football Club founded in 1907.

I love places like this and have come to really appreciate these oases which have been kept going for many decades, often by volunteers. In London in particular you have to marvel how any green space has been preserved against developers. 

Old Roan has all the classic ingredients - a pavilion with very reasonably priced beer, a trophy cabinet, and playing fields complete with a running track painted on the grass, and of course a cat that thinks it owns the place. It was a lovely place to watch the sun go down after running three laps round the park, my first time back out in a Kent AC vest for a while.

Hilly Fields 600th parkrun, 2025

Hilly Fields parkrun celebrated its 600th run today. Since the event started in 2012 nearly 16,000 different people have taken part at least once, and more than 1,000 people have volunteered to make it happen. The runners and walkers have notched up a combined distance of 607,020 km - all the way to the moon (384k) and most of the way back!

I started running there in 2013 and was there for their first birthday and their 100th run among other anniversaries. I have got to know lots of people, most of my contemporaries seeming to have gone through a similar trajectory - starting out and getting quicker and quicker, getting seriously into running and joining local club (Kent AC), taking part in lots of races from cross country to marathons, reaching a peak, running disrupted by Covid and then being injured. Most of us now seem to be have slowed back down and jog around Hilly Fields complaining about knees, ankles and other parts, but hey we're still going...

Still not everyone from my early days at Hilly Fields has slowed down - here's Olympian Alex Yee out front there in 2015 with me in the following group. Ten years later he's not doing badly is he?

Must admit I am not currently a regular a Hilly Fieldser as I have been in the past, but I have done 181 parkruns there as well as many other circuits in training. I know every divot in the course around the park and I would like to thank the trees along the way many of which I feel I know individually, including where to avoid their roots. On the Montague Avenue hill side of the park for instance there's a group of horse chestnut trees, currently in bloom, which cast a much needed shadow on one of the toughest parts of the course. Nearby there's a remarkable willow tree which split in a storm so that its main trunk is now horizontal - but still very much alive.  At the bottom of this hill there is a large London plane tree (I think) which marks the turning point on the winter course while another tree at the corner of Montague Avenue and Hilly Fields Crescent marks another turn.

What could the trees tell us about this place and its history? In his locally set novel 'Donkey Boy' (published in 1952 but set at turn of 20th century), author Henry Williamson refers to the 'socialist oak' on Hilly Fields where radical meetings were held, and indeed there was many such meetings at that time. On sunny days running up that big hill you can also see traces of the prefab houses built to replace housing destroyed in the second world war. And maybe one day future archaeologists will wonder about the origins of the compacted earth trackways around the park and their relationship to that mysterious stone circle... 

Tirzah Garwood Swimming Scene

Detail from 'The Four Seasons: winter, spring, summer, autumn', wood engraving by Tirzah Garwood (1927)

 

Tooting Bec Lido opens for 2025 summer season

Good to see Tooting Bec Lido open to the public again after the winter break. I have swum in various outdoor places throughout the winter, but this was the first time swimming this year with my face in the water. Had that 'swallowed an ice cream' headache, but soon recovered and was warmed up by the delicious falafels from the cafe.