Put it in your diary!

I've long loved Footpath 47 at Barking Riverside for its estuarine bleakness, a half mile of undeveloped Thames foreshore with open access to the river. I've also long urged you to visit before a wall of flats encroaches and the river's edge is tidied up to incorporate a promenade and coastal garden. Well, you need to hurry up because the men with strimmers have arrived and the environmental tipping point approaches. landfill. But it is exceptionally rare to be able to walk along a broad grassy path beside unprotected estuary, and before long it won't be possible at all. Works have just started on what's known as Foreshore Package 0-1, the western half of Footpath 47's shoreline stroll, kicking off with vegetation clearance and the relocation of existing wildlife. They're also in the process of installing 'ecology fencing', notionally for safety reasons rather than to deter the passage of reptiles, but the net effect is to prevent the public from straying down to the tidal edge, perhaps forever. The long-term plan is to create Foreshore Park, an 18 acre green stripe connecting fresh city blocks to vegetated banks and coastal grasslands. This'll have a raised promenade suitable for cycling overlooking a terraced landscaped area, creating 'waterfront public realm' for tens of thousands of new residents. It'll kick off near the pier with a meeting spot called The Terrace, merge into a small recreational area near the existing Project Office and skirt a more natural basin including a lower walkway and a short perpendicular spur called The Lookout. Importantly it'll also raise flood protection from the existing crest level of 7.1m to the 8.2m needed to satisfy the Thames Estuary 2100 Plan. Standing here near an open bank I did wonder if that could possibly be sufficient, but apparently even the appalling inundation of January 1953 only reached 5.1m hereabouts. pavement-bashing arc through the new estate and along the unforgiving slog of Choats Lane, thus technically providing a link to the eastern half by the Goresbrook. The new earthworks to create Foreshore Package 0-1 should take about twelve months, with Footpath 47 reconnected via a temporary link path as soon as appropriate. The eastern half will then be terraced and promenaded in a similar manner, with the new retaining wall complete by the summer of 2030 according to one document I've seen. I've also seen one document saying the two metal navigation beacons here will be retained and relocated, and another saying they've been deemed of insufficient heritage interest so will simply be removed. Ultimately Footpath 47 will be the forgotten name for a riverside promenade a tad further back than the existing path, all fully accessible, and a key interface that finally provides Barking Riverside residents with easy access to the river. At present no new flats have been built anywhere near the Thames, indeed less than a quarter of the proposed 20,000 homes have yet been completed, all much further up the landfill mound. It could be 2046 before developers finally pack up and go, but these preliminary works need to begin now to allow further phases to continue. You can read more about the immediate evolution of the foreshore here, and see greater detail in the consultation boards pack here, but mainly I urge you to come and see how Footpath 47 looks now before the Closed/Diversion signs appear, which could be soon. This untamed unpaved path has been gradually encroached upon for the best part of a decade, but what happens next will kickstart an inexorable step change to terraced residential waterfront, by no means anodyne but alas no longer unique.

Catch up on what you missed this week.

25 things we learnt from TfL FoI requests in July 2025 1) It's anticipated that buses on route SL7 will eventually be replaced by electric double deck vehicles with single doors and 2m of luggage space. Current vehicles have either 1m or 3m. 2) Non-foldable e-bikes without the battery attached may be taken on TfL services. A non-foldable electric bike with the battery removed is in effect a normal non-foldable bike. 3) Although flows can be reversed in the Silvertown Tunnel, it is not designed for safe contraflow operation in a single bore. This reflects the significantly increased risk of collisions, and thus fire and other consequential issues in the high-risk tunnel environment. 4) In 2025/26 the Freedom Pass Concessionary settlement was £308m. This is paid by London's boroughs for the provision of free travel on TfL services. The calculation of Revenue Forgone does not include journeys that would not be made in the absence of the scheme. 5) From stations on the Morden branch of the Northern line, demand via the Bank branch is approximately 50% higher than for equivalent trips via the Charing Cross branch. This trend is consistent throughout the day. Thus more trains are routed via Bank to better align with where and when people are travelling. 6) Train operators on the Victoria line have a legal obligation to wear suitable hearing protection as the assessed levels are above the UEAV of 85 dB(A) Lep. 7) It is not the case that Underground employees are subject to random hair tests. Typically urine testing is used for unannounced and post-incident checks for banned substances. 8) From December 2025 Arriva Rail London and Greater Anglia will be working collaboratively to write a new Weaver line timetable with the aim that all Overground services should call at Bethnal Green in both directions. 9) Since a ban on open containers of alcohol on tube services was introduced in 2008 there have only been 14 prosecutions (ten of them in 2021/22). 10) TfL don't know how long a bucket has been in place below a ceiling leak at St Pancras Underground, nor when another meeting will be scheduled with Thames Water to identify the rogue sprinkler pipe, but will continue to work to resolve this situation as soon as possible. 11) Prior to 29 June, some passengers on route 108D were erroneously charged a fare on what should have been a free bus. n.b. These double deckers operate after 10.30pm from North Greenwich to Lewisham so don't actually pass through the Blackwall Tunnel. 12) 518,211 distinct customers hired a Santander bike in 2024. 13) The conversion of bus shelter lighting to LEDs will be complete by the end of the summer. 14) TfL no longer hold records created in support of the Chelsea-Hackney line proposals because their standard retention period for information is seven years. 15) The X80 bus route is not currently permitted to use the Silvertown Tunnel for diversions. 16) TfL refuse to reveal the drawings for the proposed toilets at Morden station "as it could be used by individuals who wish to cause harm or disruption to customers, staff and the London Underground network." 17) An accelerated cleaning programme has been deployed in response to the specific increase in graffiti on the Central and Bakerloo lines. Teams are removing around 3,000 tags per week (on average one tag every three minutes). 18) Until 2018 TfL published a set of 14 paper cycle maps covering the whole of Greater London. They were excellent, and you can now download the full set. 19) Last year 59,522 electric vehicles received a Cleaner Vehicle Discount for journeys within the Congestion Charge zone, on a total of 1,906,185 occasions. 20) So far this year there have been six incidents of "accidental discovery or release of harmful substances" in public areas on the Underground - three of asbestos, two of dust and one of ice melt. 21) The tube line with the most maintenance issues is the Central line with 16,543 work orders over the last nine months, followed by the Piccadilly line with 9297 and the Jubilee line with 5709. 22) Train brake blocks containing asbestos have not been in use on the Underground since 1985. 23) There are approximately 2620 trips per weekday on bus route 310. Of these approximately 690 are made exclusively on the section between Stamford Hill and Finsbury Park, approximately 1540 exclusively on the section between Finsbury Park and Golders Green, and approximately 390 between these two sections. 24) If you're the patronising obsessive who submitted 1400 words on everything they would do differently about tube maps, I bet TfL loved replying "No such recorded information is held" to all your questions. 25) TfL has no plans to phase out the Oyster Card. Always nice to have that confirmed. 60+ Oyster application update Q: Please can you provide any information regarding the decision not to allow applicants to apply until 10 days prior to 60 birthday rather than 14 days as per website. A: We are not clear where a 10-day period comes into effect as our checks show that applicants have 13 days in which to apply before their 60th birthday. To prevent continued confusion, we will be updating the website to reflect this. Observation: They have not updated the website to reflect this. Observation: When I tried applying for the 60+ Oyster, the helpline told me I could apply 10 days before my 60th birthday. Observation: I actually managed to apply 11 days before my 60th birthday. Observation: I was definitely not able to apply 13 days before my 60th birthday. Observation: The application system is an administrative mess.

A fish and chip made entirely from felt — and it's a delight!