A cruise port on my doorstep?

As some of you may know, I live in the very beautiful and historic Greenwich, South East London. Home to the original Royal Naval College (now Greenwich college), the National Maritime Museum (formerly the home of King Henry the 8th) and the beautifully restored Cutty Sark. So it’s safe to say that this location, being right on the River Thames is steeped in maritime history. Including it’s bordering neighbours of Deptford and Woolwich, but they are no where near as glamorous.

I mentioned in one of my previous blogs about the new Viking Ship the Viking Star, and that one of her ports of call will be Greenwich for London. You can read that blog here  Viking Star in case you missed it.

Thankfully, the Thames and the current landing docks at both Greenwich and London Bridge, can only accommodate small cruise ships, no more than 650 feet/200 meters. So no big Royal Caribbean will be spoiling the view of my great home town.

Silverseas Cloud & Windstars new ship Star Legend have already earmarked Tower Bridge as their mooring platform this summer, while Greenwich will accommodate MS Europa, Hebridean Princess and the Viking Star.

Originally, planning permission was granted in 2012 for a cruise port landing platform at Greenwich, however they are now seeking to make this a cruise embarkation and disembarkation point. If the proposal is granted, works are due to start later this year with a new terminal opening in 2017.

Now as a resident of Greenwich, I am a little unsure if this will affect the town as it is now anyways, as this has always been a very popular destination to visit for tourists from the UK and around the world. My only concern would be the traffic and parking which is already not great even at the quietest of times. However, we are very fortunate to be on the main line train and DLR, which is just 5-7 minute walk from the proposed site, so access by public transport will be easier than say to Southampton.

I recently sailed out of Tilbury Port, which currently is the closest port to London. This port is already used by Cruise & Maritime Voyages and sometimes Fred Olsen, again only small ships. For those wishing to see London, Tilbury is just a bit further out, actually based in Essex, with Stansted or Southend being the nearest airports. By train and bus, you will be looking at approx 1 hour to get to central London.

So I can see the appeal to use Greenwich and Tower Bridge as the gateway to London and build the Cruise Market even further. You have more direct flights into the 3 major airports, London Gatwick, Heathrow and the fabulous compact (and my favourite) London City Airport. This will certainly make fly cruise packages a lot more attractive to the non Brits wishing to sample the best of Europe and believe me, you cannot get much better than Greenwich.

It will bring more trade to the area of course and with 2 large hotels and several smaller ones already built in the area, it will be a perfect location for a pre or post stay port.. mmm I wonder how much I could get for my spare room?

Dawn

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