Total Distance: 5.3 miles
Time: 2 hrs 45 min
Points of Interest:
Tower Bridge
HMS Belfast
Borough Market
Southwark Cathedral
The Golden Hinde
Winchester Palace
Shakespeare’s Globe
Millennium Bridge
Tate Modern
Southbank
The London Eye
Palace of Westminster
The National Covid Memorial Wall
Lambeth Palace
US Embassy
Battersea Power station
and so much more
We have walked this stretch of the Thames many times.It can be busy, especially on a weekend, but it takes in many historic and well known sights. If you’re visiting London, I highly recommend this walk as there is so much to see along the way.
I was joined this week with my good friend Simone and her cockapoo, Miki. We met at, what was, the City Hall building or as former mayor Ken Livingstone called it, the ‘glass testicle‘. From here we walked towards HMS Belfast with the skyscrapers of the City of London towering over it in the background. I remember when I moved to London the Natwest building was the tallest building in the City, then came the Gherkin. Both are now hidden amongst newer structures.
HMS Belfast has been permanently moored here as a museum ship since 1971. She was in service from 1939 to 1963. I still haven’t been on board, maybe I’ll add it to my ’50 things’ list! No time today, so we carried on through Hay’s Galleria, which was originally a warehouse, but is now a mix of shops and restaurants.
We then approached London Bridge. There has been a bridge here since Roman times, the current bridge however was built between 1968 and 1972, with the previous bridge sold, dismantled and shipped across the Atlantic. It now stands at the resort town of Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
Moving along the path, you have to walk up some very awkward steps (they are set at an angle, and are far too narrow, glad we haven’t had a drink yet!) Once we reached the top, we crossed over a busy road and down another (easier) set of steps to Borough market. I do love this market, the produce on offer is incredible, but today, as you can imagine on a weekend, was extremely busy. I picked Cher up, as she doesn’t like crowds, and made our way out, no time for browsing, unfortunately.
Southwark Cathedral is a short walk from here (another place to add to my list!), the oldest gothic church building in London. This has been a place of Christian worship for more than 1,000 years, and the first written reference is the mention of a ‘minster’ in the Domesday Book of 1086.
Our next stop was the Golden Hinde, a replica of the ship that Sir Francis Drake sailed on, and he became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe between 1577 and 1580. From here, along Clink Street, where the ruins of Winchester Palace stand. Built around the 12th Century, the palace served as the townhouse of the Bishops of Winchester.
Continuing along the path, and a bit more history with the Globe theatre. This modern reconstruction was opened in 1997 and is built close to where the original Globe theatre stood. The original Globe theatre was built in 1599 and many of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed here.
A little further along is the Millennium Bridge, opened on 10th June 2000, the bridge was soon closed after the bridge began to sway too much. It finally opened again in February 2002 after the issues were fixed. The bridge is a great way to cross the Thames to get to St Paul’s Cathedral on the opposite side of the river.
The Millennium Bridge stands in front of the Tate Modern. The gallery houses the United Kingdom’s national collection of international modern and contemporary art. The building was once Bankside Power Station, but was re-developed in the late ’90’s and opened in 2000. The gallery is free (apart from special exhibitions) so it’s well worth taking some time to have a look around.
We continued our walk towards the South Bank, one of the cultural centres of London, and probably one of my favourite places in London. The South Bank is home to the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and The Hayward Gallery. The Royal National Theatre, the London IMAX super cinema and BFI Southbank There is often a lot going on here and can get busy. We were in need of refreshment, so we grabbed a take-away beer from Gabriels Wharf, and continued walking along the route.
As we enjoyed our beer we approached the London Eye which was built in the late 90s and was formally opened in 1999 in time for the Millennium celebrations. I remember watching it from the north bank being raised ever so slowly, and then on Millennium eve, from a side street, with the crowds counting down to midnight.
Passing under Westminster bridge, the poignant National Covid Memorial Wall comes into view. The wall is covered in pink and red hearts with messages to loved ones who died during the Covid-19 pandemic. The memorial stretches for more than one-third of a mile. There are more than 240,000 individually hand-painted red hearts, each representing a person who died in the UK with Covid-19 as a direct cause of death.
We sat for a while to finish off our beers. We’re almost half way there, so a little rest was needed, especially for Cher and Miki, although they were still very energetic.
Continuing along the path, we passed Lambeth Palace, the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The heaven’s opened at this point, and so we sought shelter in a barge bar, the Tamesis Dock. The Tamesis is a converted 1930s Dutch barge, permanently moored between Lambeth & Vauxhall Bridge. On a good day you can sit outside and admire the river views, we wanted to stay dry so we stayed inside!
The rain finally stopped and now all refreshed we continued along our way, along the Albert Embankment, passing some clubs I used to fall out of on a Monday morning back in the day! Over Vauxhall Bridge we continued along the path with the chimneys of Battersea Power Station in view in the distance, not far now!
This area of London has completely changed in recent years. Since the Embassy of the United States moved here in 2018, the area has had a radical transformation. The redevelopment of Battersea Power Station has also been a boost to the area. Since being decommissioned in 1975 the power station had remained empty. Various plans were made to make use of the building, but none were successful. However, worked commenced in 2013 to redevelop the power station and surrounding area and in 2022 it re-opened with a variety of shops, bars, restaurants and leisure venues. Just to note, the shopping centre is dog friendly as long as they are kept on a lead.
This was our last stop for today, and we stopped off at No 29 Power Station West for a well deserved beer and a light snack. Another thoroughly enjoyable walk, taking in many of London’s historic sights along the way.
