There was a sign outside the pub reading “Riverside Walk East/ Riverside Walk West”, which inspired the sign in this scene. In those days, the Thames Path didn’t run all the way around the peninsula – walkers had to go via River Way and cross the A102 at the footbridge. The street was closed off a few years back, and it’s now used as a vehicle inspection station. In some of these shots, you can see the grey hoardings of the Jubilee Line construction project, which had just begun. These shots were filmed on Ordnance Crescent, which was an emergency escape route for traffic which couldn’t fit in the Blackwall Tunnel. The pub and cottages are just behind, the buildings on the right are the remains of Blackwall Point Power Station. Here’s an odd one out – this is the Sun-in-the-Sands roundabout at Blackheath. This is River Way looking away from the Thames – you can see the silo of Tunnel Refineries in the background, which were demolished in 2010. So the Parklife video is a reminder of a Greenwich that’s being erased before our eyes. It’s hard to imagine what the peninsula was like before the turn of the century – and trying to get an accurate “then and now” record of what’s changed is impossible as the most of River Way is now being built upon. The arrow was left behind by the Parklife crew. Left and centre: The Thames-side end of River Way, spring 1998. The Pilot’s not marking the anniversary of its little entry into British pop history – it’s staging Shakespeare in its beer garden instead. Remarkably, the Pilot’s landlord resisted offers to sell the place until well into the 21st century – it’s now owned by Fullers and was refurbished last year. Two years after that, the street was gone, although the pub and the cottages remain. Less than two years later, the Greenwich Peninsula was chosen as the site for the Millennium Experience. River Way, some time in 1998 – the Pilot would be on the left. The Pilot would have been out of shot on the right, I think. River Way from Blackwall Lane, taken in autumn 1998. It was a dead end, leading up to the Thames and the original base of Greenwich Yacht Club. In those days, if you travelled up Blackwall Lane onto the Greenwich Peninsula, River Way was a turning on the right before Blackwall Lane ended at the junction of Boord Street and the gates to the old gas works. It was filmed over two days – 8 and 9 August, 1994 – with most shooting taking place in River Way, a street containing the Pilot pub, some cottages, an industrial estate and the remains of the old Blackwall Point Power Station.

Blur parklife