Greenwich Cruise Terminal

31 January 2011
Carry on Cruising
Greenwich is set to get an international cruise liner terminal after plans were approved by the council on Thursday night. The terminal will be at Enderby Wharf, half way between Greenwich town centre and The O2 arena on Greenwich peninsula, and should be ready for its first visitors in 2012.

The development will eventually include a 250 room hotel, over 700 new homes, a Thames Clipper river bus stop, hospitality skills academy, a creche and improved access to the Thames Path through a river-front open space.

Only the terminal itself, the Thames Clipper stop, and access road will actually be complete by 2012 - we can't work miracles, you know, not even in Greenwich - but they should be in operation in time for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Cruise ships and Navy vessels have docked in Greenwich before, of course, but there's never been a purpose-built facility for large ships. The developers are optimistic about the popularity of the terminal and are projecting that 30 ships will visit in the first year of operation followed by 50 in 2013-2014 and 100 in 2014-2015. That's a lot of ships.

If you'd like to take a look at where the terminal is going to be built, take a walk through the Old Royal Naval College the next time you're in Greenwich. Walk down to the river and take a look downstream - that's over to your right for the non-maritimers among you. See that big old gas-holder? Just to the right of that is where the cruise liners will be sitting out in the river when they're moored up to the new terminal.

There should be a spectacular view of the ships from the riverside walk and an even better one for their passengers, back to the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich Park and the Royal Observatory. Here's a map for all you technical types... 

---