Photos of a Journey Across the Thames on the Olympics Cable Car

Approaching the Royal DocksPeninsula Central - and the car parkCanary Wharf - from the Peninsula car parkTake-off on the Emirates Air LineLooking back at the Olympics cable car terminalAlong the river from the Olympics cable car
The Dome and Canary Wharf from the skyThe River Lea from the Emirates Air LineThe River Lea and the Olympic ParkThe Thames - still a working riverThe Dome and Canary Wharf from the eastThe Olympics cable car prepares to land
Looking south from the Olympics cable carLooking north west along the railwayLooking west along the Lower Lea CrossingThe Royal Docks from the skyComing in to land on the Emirates Air LineThe O2 from the Lower Lea Crossing
The East India Dock BasinThe O2 from the East India Dock Basin

A Journey Across the Thames on the Olympics Cable Car, a set on Flickr.

On August 6, as I explained in a previous article, Jamaican Independence and a Giant Tent: Photos of a Visit to the Olympic Site at the O2, featuring photos and commentary, I cycled along the river from Deptford to Greenwich peninsula with my wife and son, to visit the O2 (recorded in that previous set of photos), and also to travel on the Emirates Air Line, the cable cars across the Thames, which run from North Greenwich, near the O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome) to the Royal Docks. The visit was for fun, but was also part of my ongoing project to photograph the whole of London by bike, which I have been recording here since June.

Intended to transport Olympics visitors from one venue to another, the Emirates Air Line project — named after the Emirates airline company, the biggest sponsor of the cable cars, who provided £36 million in a ten-year sponsorship deal — also provides a useful way of crossing the river at a point where there are few other options — just the Greenwich Foot Tunnel to the west, and the Woolwich Ferry to the east — and it is both remarkable and commendable that bicycles are also allowed. Read the rest of this entry »

Jamaican Independence and a Giant Tent: Photos of a Visit to the Olympic Site at the O2

The Olympics at the O2The Olympics in GreenwichFlags on a house in Ballast Quay, GreenwichCanary Wharf from Blackwall Tunnel ApproachThe Olympics cable car from Greenwich peninsulaRavensbourne College
Close-up of Ravensbourne CollegeThe entrance to the Olympics at the O2Pink balls at the O2Usain Bolt selling the OlympicsSelling Britain's heritageCelebrating 50 years of Jamaican Independence
Jamaican coloursOlympics corporate sponsorAmerican girls at the Olympics

Jamaican Independence and a Giant Tent: A Visit to the Olympic Site at the O2, a set on Flickr.

As Olympics fever continues to grip the UK, I can just about about cope with the competitiveness of the Games on an individual level, and have admiration for athletes’ self-discipline and determination, although I maintain that the greatest achievement of humanity is cooperation and not competition, and I also believe that it is important to bear in mind, as the hyperbole threatens to engulf us, that, as well as not being the highest form of human achievement — something that should be reserved for endeavours that improve all our lives — sport is not generally an undertaking that contributes to the political well-being of a nation and its people, beyond a kind of short-term thrill.

In thinking of the disturbing subtexts of the Games — including their humourless corporate greed, their ballooning costs, unchecked by government, the instigation of various forms of social cleansing, and their use as an excuse for empty nationalistic displays, which always do more for warmongers than for peacemakers, by encouraging a sense of supremacy amongst groups whose athletes do particularly well — I have been reminded of the phrase “bread and circuses” (from the Latin panem et circuses), for which an excellent description exists on Wikipedia: “In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the creation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion, distraction, and/or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Andy Worthington

Investigative journalist, author, campaigner, commentator and public speaker. Recognized as an authority on Guantánamo and the “war on terror.” Co-founder, Close Guantánamo and We Stand With Shaker. Also, photo-journalist (The State of London), and singer and songwriter (The Four Fathers).
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