please empty your brain below
One of the reasons for poor recycling might be that so many blocks of flats have "rubbish chutes" on each floor. Your rubbish bags containing all your rubbish go in, and, weekly, a large truck collects all the stuff from the huge bin at the bottom of the chute.

Separating out bottles, foot waste, etc., and then leaving their bags in the street - probably daily as most flats have no storage - is impractical and very untidy.

Paul B | 07.03.25 - 7:29 a.m. | #

I will continue to wish that there are magic undersea kingdoms elsewhere.

MartinG | 07.03.25 - 7:39 a.m. | #

My guess is that to access the Silvertown Tunnel from the south, you do so via the Blackwall Tunnel southern approach.

Still Anon | 07.03.25 - 7:42 a.m. | #

I've visited Lyle Park a few times and love the desolate feel of the place.

Good that it's going to get more use by local people but I'll miss the old feel to it.

I'll have to find time for another visit.

Hadders | 07.03.25 - 7:50 a.m. | #

Lyle Park, elementary Jane Jacobs “eyes on the street” innit?

Lorenzo | 07.03.25 - 8:10 a.m. | #

Presumably "use the Blackwall tunnel if the Silvertown tunnel isn't open yet". It is indeed obvious that one cannot use the Silvertown tunnel before it's open, but it might be less obvious what one should do instead.

Lmm | 07.03.25 - 8:32 a.m. | #

You don't need to be told to use the Blackwall tunnel now, as that's what people have been doing for 100+ years already!

It would be like having a sign up, 2 months before the Elizabeth Line opened, telling passengers at Liverpool Street heading west to use the Central Line. Correct but unnecessary.

Mikey C | 07.03.25 - 9:08 a.m. | #

Many people think the bike baskets of the lime/human forest (and similar) ebikes is the council litter basket provision.

(I unfortunately have a council provided ebike bay directly outside, and the baskets are so used even thought there is a bin in full view barely 10m away across a road. Entitled ejits.)

MilesT | 07.03.25 - 9:12 a.m. | #

First question reminded me there was recently a Mudlarking exhibition and there will be another one in The Museum of London Docklands in Canary Wharf soon (4th April?) that's talks about maybe not the bottom of the river itself but things people find there at low tide! Really cool!

Ola | 07.03.25 - 9:23 a.m. | #

I suspect what the confusing sign might indicate is, as one of your suggestions, that ‘for Silvertown Tunnel (after it’s opened), follow signs for Blackwall Tunnel’. One sees this sort of advance notice for new things, probably to save money on erecting new signs. Probably they should have put ‘follow’ rather than ‘use’ though!

Stephen | 07.03.25 - 9:25 a.m. | #

Imagine that once the Silvertown Tunnel opens and charges are levied to use it along with the Blackwall Tunnels the Woolwich ‘Free’ Ferry will see a massive increase in traffic clogging up all the approach roads. This sign - which does not mention the tolls - is an attempt to extract money

RogerEssex | 07.03.25 - 10:09 a.m. | #

my take on the tunnel sign is that they are probably putting up lots of new directional signs for the silvertown tunnel this month.. but telling you to use the Blackwall tunnel for now.

so "ignore signs for silvertown tunnel" would be clearer.

Alistair twin | 07.03.25 - 10:11 a.m. | #

Perhaps the sign is saying that the opening ceremony for the Silvertown Tunnel will be such a lavish extravaganza that the tunnel itself won't be available for use that day and people should use Blackwall instead.

Jonathan Wadman | 07.03.25 - 10:14 a.m. | #

The oppressive description of Lyle Park on here and IanVisits was a draw and so I went to discover it for myself a few years. It looks like I'm due a return visit to feel the change for myself.

The recycling post reminds me of a friend in London who was shocked when I told him that it's not normal outside central London to have rubbish collected every day (or in this case, twice a day). I'm glad I don't have to stick to set hours as I'm not sure I'd ever remember, instead my flats have a bin room.

Anders | 07.03.25 - 10:53 a.m. | #

I wish London would learn from other European cities how to do proper recycling. People there live in flats too.

Nick | 07.03.25 - 11:00 a.m. | #

Re oppressive parks, maybe King George's field in Dagenham (I think you've been there) might be a contender. Definitely suffers from the same only one entrance/exit, in relatively isolated location, issues

dg writes: I have been. It has three exits. Bleak, but not oppressive.

Although that gets me wondering if there is a park on the Scrattons Farm estate nearby that might also qualify, but I've but been down there for decades, indeed since the current A13 arrangements there have been in place.

Dominic H | 07.03.25 - 11:11 a.m. | #

Brent Lea Recreation Ground in Brentford is a completely enclosed, walled in space, described thus in a Google review:
‘It's a good park to walk your dogs as it is enclosed and only has one main gate so your dog can't escape. There is always a lot of litter and dog poo everywhere. People are brushing their dogs in the park and leaving masses of fur everywhere. Also teenagers and drunken adults use the park for drugs and drinking sessions. It's also been known to have travellers set up camp and leave mess. It has a basketball court and a tennis court. Both a little run down but people use them regularly."

ActonMan | 07.03.25 - 11:40 a.m. | #

With no signage on display, it wasn’t obvious for a long time that my neighbouring major road (in Harringay) had designated spots for people in flats — mainly above shops — to leave rubbish/recycling for collection. Unfortunately, several of them were next to the few pavement rubbish bins, so in practice mounds of uncollected waste built up, making the road look like a fly-tipper’s dream. This seems to have eased more recently (either Veolia collect more often or the council’s told flat-dwellers not to do it) but rubbish atrracts rubbish, and having bags of it dumped on pavements makes a street feel more scruffy and run-down, and creates an anti-social environment. There must be a better way, but goodness knows what.

Labourer | 07.03.25 - 11:48 a.m. | #

I thought that they couldn't build residential properties on gas holder sites due to pollution of the earth below (radon gas etc). The only development I have ever seen on such sites is retail etc.

dg writes: you thought wrong

Anyoldname | 07.03.25 - 7:15 p.m. | #

Greenwich has a great track record in confusing signs. They mucked up the ones to their new LTNs by putting a disabled sign on the entry points which disabled badge holders took as meaning they could drive into them. They couldn't without pre-registering and thus got fined. Cue much angst so Greenwich had to go around putting temporary white stickers over the disabled signs.

The 'use Blackwall Tunnel' signs have appeared in quite a few places in the borough and I think they mean when the Silvertown opens, use the Blackwall tunnel signs as the Silvertown branches off from the Blackwall Tunnel approach. Simples!

Chris | 07.03.25 - 7:16 p.m. | #

I live in a flat, albeit not in Tower Hamlets (or even London), and we manage both recycling and good waste just fine. There’s a huge communal blue bin downstairs for recycling, a brown one for food waste, and black one for everything else. Doesn’t seem to faze our local authority. Maybe we’re more advanced out here.

Nick | 08.03.25 - 1:57 a.m. | #

I live in the Borough of Greenwich and in a tower block with bin chutes, however we have communal gardens and there is several recycling bins for glass, paper and plastics,which are frequently used, though from the noise I hear daily from the chute, there is definitely glass bottles chucked down it

Rachel | 08.03.25 - 8:37 a.m. | #

Back when I lived in Rotherhithe our block of flats had a communal recycling scheme for bottles and paper. Every week one person with a car would take everything to the recycling bins at Surry Quays mall.

It was a small block though of only 14 flats and everyone knew each other, so I guess easier to manage.

Southern Heights (Light Railway) | 08.03.25 - 9:41 a.m. | #

In Hounslow they’ve recently put ‘grit bins’ on some pavements for flats above shops to put their rubbish and recycling bags in for collection. This replaced the previous ‘put it out by the lamppost before 8.30’ arrangement which could get messy.

This isn’t helped by each London borough having its own scheme which residents who move about take some time to get the hang of. For example, Ealing has two wheelie bins while residential Hounslow across the road has four colour-coded rectangular tubs.

ActonMan | 08.03.25 - 5:05 p.m. | #











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