Monday 27 May 2013 - London. Thames Barrier & O2 Arena

Another sunny morning with a cool breeze and we headed off to see the Thames Barrier, a closeable flood barrier located on the Thames River downstream of London, which was completed in 1982. It is designed to prevent the floodplain of all but the eastern boroughs of greater London from being flooded by very high tides and storm surges moving up the river from the North Sea.

It is an amazing structure 520m wide and cost about £534 million to build. Although the gates are tested regularly, it has only been used in anger twice, once in 1988 and once in 1993.

There is an information centre and cafe on the south side of the river at North Greenwich where we visited and watched very informative videos of the  construction of the Thames Barrier.

As we sat with our coffees outside in the pleasant surroundings overlooking the river, Lyn was thrilled to see a Robin searching for scraps under the tables.

Real time readout of the power generated from Solar Panels on the roof of the Thames Barrier learning centre.


We then caught the bus to The O2, a large entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsular. At the centre of The O2 is a huge, multi-purpose arena (O2 Arena) which was used for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. During the Olympics it was known as The North Greenwich Arena.
It is now one of the most popular venues in the world for concerts and family shows.

View of the O2 from the Thames Barrier

We had a look at this TV at a Sony display shop inside the O2 Arena. The picture was very detailed. The 3840 x 2160 Triluminos display offers almost four times the resolution of standard 1080p HD TVs, and will upscale most HD content.