Friday 3 September - eastwards on the river

Decide to take the river bus east to Woolwich Arsenal and it's a glorious day to be on the river. Almost miss the bus because don't realise the bus from Embankment pier saying London Eye is the one I need. It goes from Embankment west to the London Eye and then heads east. The river bus is a great discovery, I can use my oyster and it's much more enjoyable than the underground (and most of it is under cover for less clement weather and you can get coffee). It's more like a sightseeing tour than a commute.

The other slightly confusing thing is that travelling this way you really understand how twisty the Thames is. Buildings keep popping up at odd angles, landmarks suddenly superimposed on one another in odd combinations. At Canary Wharf we are travelling south and landmarks seem to be in the wrong place. Out of the city and the boat picks up its skirts and speeds down the river at a pace that fits with its 'clipper' name. Most of the old wharves have been converted to luxury apartments and past Tower Bridge there are vast acres of new developments - nice if you get the river view and a balcony, less appealing views from the back. The old working spaces of river frontage have been gentrified but glimpses further back say that the changes don't go very deep. Beyond the gated and gentrified are the council blocks of south London.

The apartments seem to go on for miles. There are a few working spaces on the south bank but it's Woolwich before there is much sign of work on the north bank. Sugar (Tate & Lyle) and rubbish (to be sent downstream)are the visible signs of industry. The Thames Barrier sits ready to keep the waters at bay. And then we're at Woolwich (and I am the only passenger left to get off the boat). There are people waiting to commute west into work.

Woolwich 'Royal Arsenal' (spot the re-branding by Berkeley Homes) is not what I was expecting. There are a cluster of Anthony Gormley figures by the pier. The buildings are beautiful and everything is immaculately landscaped. The Thames Path is still running so I walk towards Thamesmead, the new town that will provide affordable housing (or so we're told). There are plenty of apartment blocks facing the river but things look a little less glamorous. The buildings are already showing a few signs of age and the landscaping is beyond tatty, the plants have died. I hadn't thought about landscaping before, but nice plants make a difference. I wonder what happens once all the properties are sold - who does the gardening then? 'Royal Arsenal' has pretty plants and gardeners keeping them looking nice, but they are still in the building/selling mode. Will this be the same when everything is sold - who will replace the begonias and do the deadheading?

But within a mile or so I am beyond the buildings and it feels like the countryside - well a slightly industrial countryside. The river widens out and pigeons have been replaced by gulls. Suddenly it's quiet and I can hear the birds (with the interruption of planes taking off from London City airport). The hedges are full of fruit, but the path is fiercely fenced, we are free to wander the Thames Path but not allowed to stray off the path. I can see the Barking Barrier ahead of me and a huge windmill turning in the distance. It's a very pleasant spot but virtually no people. Two or three cyclists pass in the hour I am walking, a couple of runners and three dogwalkers. Otherwise no-one on the path. As I turn back there are more people present in the flats, I can hear music and laughter and people smoking on their balconies.

Royal Arsenal seems like a beautiful ghost town, there is no-one around. I stop for a coffee in a delicatessen (talking about artisan products and local production but demand seems to be for bread, milk and cakes). I wander around, the original buildings have been kept and converted, windows reveal the high ceilings (and the 'sleeping platforms' inserted half way up the windows). There are wide paths between the buildings but still no people. I have noticed in other parts of the country that although the theory of regeneration says that bringing money into an area will improve it; in reality it seems that the regeneration effect doesn't spill more than a few streets. Here it doesn't even manage to cross the road (admittedly a busy road).

I cross and go into Woolwich High Street and it is a different world. Here there are people out and about, chatting, shopping, laughing, rowing. All human life, it is much poorer but much more alive. People, all ages, all colours, all shapes and sizes, lots of walking sticks and motability scooters (disability a sign of poorer areas and still can't work out if it is industrial injury or smoking). It is vibrant and alive. None of the empty beauty of the gentrified space. I keep being told there is 'no such thing as class anymore' there is only 'lifestyle choice'. Here you see the impact of social class and over the road are lifestyle choices; beautiful but soulless. Here it looks less pretty but it has soul.

I take the Woolwich Ferry back over the river. Boats shuttle between the north and south sides of the Thames and lorries and cars are queuing for a space. As a pedestrian it's much easier. There seems to be a real camararderie among all the people working on the river (Serco manages the ferry for TfL), people know one another and chat and joke as they pass. It transforms a functional industrial space into a human place. From the ferry it's a walk through an industrial estate. There are huge satellite dishes pointing skywards - according to the sign this is the 'London Teleport'. Beaming phones? internet? telly? who knows, not me. Lorries trundle along the road. I can see buses but I am the wrong side of a disused railway line. On the other side of the railway are houses. Small houses, some bricked up. In the days of work on the docks there would have been plenty of work, not sure where people work now and can't cross to find out more.