Thamesmead — Abbey Wood

Thaabb two
Verified route

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 100.00% of reviewers

By Daisy C on 22 Feb 2023

Distance

4km/2mi

Ascent

26m

Descent

26m

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Description

This is a very green and off-road route for urban London. North Thamesmead was developed with pedestrian/cycle routes in mind and on this route the only road section is 700m of older streets just before Abbey Wood station, you don't even need to cross. The footpaths mostly follow small canals (whole area is reclaimed marshland) through a chain of small parks with Southmere Lake as the central point (where there is an arts centre/studios with a cafe). All the roads are crossed by footbridge or underpass. On the far side of Southmere Lake is the location for Clockwork Orange, but some of the brutalist architecture has been redeveloped, although the large towers remain.

Compared to ThaAbb 1 it's shorter, avoids the wide faster roads, and the northern section uses more green links and less paths between housing than ThaAbb 1 (second half is the same). ThaAbb 1 does use the waymarked Green Chain Walk, but I've found some of that signage ambiguous or hard to see

This is a very green and off-road route for urban London. North Thamesmead was developed with pedestrian/cycle routes in mind and on this route the only road section is 700m of older streets just before Abbey Wood station, you don't even need to cross. The footpaths mostly follow small canals (whole area is reclaimed marshland) through a chain of small parks with Southmere Lake as the central point (where there is an arts centre/studios with a cafe). All the roads are crossed by footbridge or underpass. On the far side of Southmere Lake is the location for Clockwork Orange, but some of the brutalist architecture has been redeveloped, although the large towers remain.

Compared to ThaAbb 1 it's shorter, avoids the wide faster roads, and the northern section uses more green links and less paths between housing than ThaAbb 1 (second half is the same). ThaAbb 1 does use the waymarked Green Chain Walk, but I've found some of that signage ambiguous or hard to see

Status

This route has been reviewed by 3 people.

There are no issues flagged.

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Information

Verified route

Route status - Live

Reviews - 3

Average rating -

Is this route good enough? -  Yes (3)

There are currently no problems reported with this route.

Downloads - 1

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Geography information system (GIS) data

Total length

Maximum elevation

Minimum elevation

Start and end points

Thamesmead
Grid Ref TQ4637780781
Lat / Lon 51.50701° / 0.10780°
Easting / Northing 546,377E / 180,781N
What3Words online.spill.poet
Abbey Wood
Grid Ref TQ4738479026
Lat / Lon 51.49098° / 0.12157°
Easting / Northing 547,385E / 179,026N
What3Words mixer.swift.palace

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reviews

Jane Taylor

11 Apr 2024 Spring
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Walked Abbey Wood to Thamesmead.
The route is almost entirely off road and makes the most of Thamesmead’s pedestrian friendly design.

Another plus is that it follows the Green Chain network in places, so signposting is generally good.

The starting point at Abbey Wood confused me until I worked out that I needed to start at the upper (station) level, then use the lift to the north of the station entrance to drop down to street level, where I could pick up Felixstowe Road and go under the A2041.

There is one diversion where the path around Southmere connects at the NE corner to Bazalgette Way. There’s now a big building site in this space - I backtracked a few metres to the orange Lakeside cafe (photo), and took the path to Bazalgette Way from there. Once on Bazalgette Way the route is clear. The diversion is supposed to be temporary.

There was one rather damp underpass which I didn’t like very much (photos 7 and 8), but apart from that all was most pleasant. It’s an interesting area, lots of water, which is part of the Thames flood defences.

The meeting point at Thamesmead is a rather imposing tower; good bus routes including Superloop bus to Bromley about 2 minutes walk.

As the previous reviewer points out, if approaching Abbey Wood from Thamesmead and you want to connect with the Lesnes Abbey area (and maybe even go on to Erith on Abberi) then you can walk straight there by continuing along the Abbey Way footpath, without going all the way to Abbey Wood station and back out again.

Andrew

07 Jan 2024 Winter
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This is a very cleverly devised route which is almost entirely off-road and traffic-free. There were only two occasions when I had to cross a road, and neither was a through road. It is a great tribute to the planners and developers of Thamesmead that there are pedestrian/cycle routes under or over all of the intervening thoroughfares on this 3 mile route right across (not around) Thamesmead. There are even further footbridges which take you over the railway to the ruins of medieval Lesnes Abbey, and the delightful Abbey Wood beyond.

Daisy C

12 Nov 2022 (edited 22 Feb 2023) Autumn
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I designed the route and was still pleasantly surprised. Follows small canals, small parks and round Southmere Lake, which was beautiful at sunset. The area is designed with pedestrians in mind and I barely saw a road until a few hundred metres before Abbey Wood station.

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Other Routes for Thamesmead—Abbey Wood See all Slow Ways

Thamesmead—Abbey Wood

Thaabb one

U U

Distance

5km/3mi

Ascent

18 m

Descent

15 m

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