About This Camera
Camera Location & Hazard Overview
Pear Island is a small roundabout with an outsized job: it sits right at the mouth of the Blackwall Tunnel, where the A102 meets Boord Street and the slip roads serving Greenwich Peninsula. Anyone turning off for the O2 or joining the tunnel's southbound bore passes through this exact point. The roundabout's tight geometry means even a single stalled vehicle can back traffic up across all its approaches within a few minutes.
Traffic Pattern & Congestion Trends
The roundabout behaves differently to a simple approach road because it absorbs both peninsula-bound traffic and tunnel through-traffic at once — expect stop-start circulation rather than a straight queue, especially when an O2 event coincides with the evening peak. Bank holiday Mondays see an unusual pattern here, with leisure traffic to the peninsula often outweighing the reduced commuter flow. Conditions can shift quickly here, so a clear camera feed is only ever a snapshot rather than a guarantee, and rear-end shunts during the stop-start circulation are common enough that a car accident claim isn't unusual after an O2 event.
Traffic Fines & Camera Enforcement
Both the Red Route restrictions on the A102 and a bus gate on Boord Street are covered by camera enforcement here. Overheight vehicles rejected by the tunnel sensors often loop through Pear Island trying to find another way out, adding further to the congestion.
Road Closures & Alternative Routes
If Pear Island itself is gridlocked, drivers for the peninsula are better off approaching via Millennium Way rather than looping back through this roundabout, while through-traffic should divert to the Woolwich Ferry before reaching this point at all. Local cab drivers tend to avoid this roundabout entirely during O2 events, routing instead via Bugsby's Way further round the peninsula. As always, checking live conditions immediately before travelling is more reliable than assuming yesterday's pattern will repeat.
Driver Safety & Local Tips
Locally, this roundabout is a good early-warning point — if it's moving freely but the tunnel camera further along shows queues, the delay is inside the bore itself rather than on the approach, which usually means a longer wait.
ULEZ & Emissions
Greenwich sits inside the expanded Ultra Low Emission Zone, which has run 24/7 since August 2023. Non-compliant petrol cars pre-2006 and diesels pre-2015 pay £12.50 a day on top of any Congestion Charge liability. Check a specific plate at tfl.gov.uk/ulez before travelling into the borough.
Parking near A102 Pear Island, Woolwich and Thamesmead
Pear Island itself isn't somewhere to park, but the surrounding Greenwich Peninsula has several pay-and-display and multi-storey options serving the O2 and Design District, most bookable in advance or paid via the RingGo app on arrival. IKEA Greenwich offers free customer parking nearby if you're combining a shop with an O2 visit. Boord Street and the immediate roads around the roundabout fall under a Royal Borough of Greenwich CPZ, typically enforced Monday to Saturday daytime hours, with residents-only bays common. Single yellow lines allow loading outside those hours but not parking. On event nights, arriving early and using the O2's own car park is far more reliable than hunting for street parking. PCN queries and permit information are on royalgreenwich.gov.uk/parking.
If on-street parking is hard to find, apps like JustPark and YourParkingSpace let you pre-book a private driveway or car park nearby — typically from around £2–£6 per hour or £10–£25 per day depending on how central the location is.
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