So Why the Greenway?

About this record

For the last 4 years I have been involved with Newham Heritage Month, photographing and documenting the events that take place around the borough.

My days would be spent cycling up and down the Greenway, using it as a traffic free route to the many of the venues I needed to visit. In June the grass verges on much of the route are now filled with wildflowers attracting birds and insects and I would often stop for a short break between assignments. It was during one of these breaks, sitting listening to the birds and watching a repair team in the distance working to the side of the path that I decided I needed to know more about why, in an otherwise relatively flat landscape does this huge construction cut through the houses and factories of the area, and what were those people in Hi-vis clothing working on?

It turns out to be the work of the Victorian engineer Joseph Bazalgette. Contemporary of Brunel but little known unless you have an interest in sewage or civil engineering, the Greenway or as it was originally known “Sewerbank”, has been a walking route for Ghandi, allowed London, during a period of great population growth to expand and deal with its waste, helped rid the city of stench and disease. And today is still making the city a liveable place.

If you explore these records you will find out more about Bazalgette, the history, construction and contemporary uses of the Greenway, but this first page is a photographic record of some of the interesting sights you will see along the route as you head down to Beckton.

The western end of the Greenway is in Victoria Park Hackney. The route runs alongside Wick Lane, to Fish Island and It then crosses the River Lea into Newham, and continues through the borough ending at Beckton Sewage works, Europe’s largest water treatment facility.

Thanks for your interest and for taking the time to visit this page.

Keith