The Thames Walk with "London Walks" - a unique experience seeing London's unusual sights

The company “LONDON WALKS” has for many years operated walking tours of the city. I have been on tours with them earlier. They are a group of dedicated expert guides who care about the city and their guided tours are informative and educative. I had not seen the Thames area so I went with them. It was a great experience.

 Our guide was Scott Russell. Once the group assembled at Embankment Tube, we made our way past the monument to WS Gilbert (light opera with Sullivan) and down to the Pier. There the Thames Clipper sightseeing voyage starts here. The best views in central London glide past our window. The chimes of Big Ben. London’s attractions and famous landmarks all laid before you. And the story of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, voted second Greatest Briton (after Churchill) and Britain’s most famous engineer. As Scott said : “Little man, big hat, big cigar, big chains, big ideas”.

To Westminster Pier

Under Hungerford, our first Brunel Bridge, past the monument to Bazalgette – the man who built the sewer and moved the river. On our right, Royal Horseguards, a five-star hotel that started out as a property scam. The building with green roofs and all the flags is the Ministry of Defence. Here is the first of the four white ensigns on our trip. The golden eagle is the memorial to the Royal Air Force ‘Per Ardua ad Astra’ and the bas relief in bronze is the memorial to the Battle of Britain. The woman on the chariot is Boadicea, mother of all rebels, next to the mother of all parliaments (Charles Barry and Pugin).

To Waterloo Bridge (1942 Sir Giles Gilbert Scott), known as the Ladies’ Bridge

Westminster Bridge (1862) is a seven-arch, cast-iron bridge designed by Thomas Page, Gothic details by Charles Barry. Scott said cast iron is good for arches (compression), but has no tensile strength, so Brunel didn’t like it. At this end of Parliament, the seats are green, and the bridge is green. At the far end, House of Lords, the seats are red, and Lambeth Bridge (1932 Humphreys, Blomfield, Forrest) is red. Just colour coding for the intellectually challenged. Old Scotland Yard and through the gap a glimpse of Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral. The first Waterloo Bridge (1817 Rennie) was broken up and bits given to Commonwealth countries. The present bridge apparently was built by women.

We passed wonderful views of the famous dome of St Paul’s Cathedral (Christopher Wren). Royal Festival Hall is on the site of the Festival of Britain held 1951, exactly one hundred years after the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park (1851), first international trade fair, sponsored by Prince Albert. Blackfriars Road Bridge is red & white. Peeping through the arches, the orange piers of Cubitt’s railway bridge for the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (grand pediment in gold, green, red and blue crest). The grey bridge with canopies is Blackfriars Railway Bridge, our second Brunel bridge, built by Henry Marc Brunel and Sir John Wolfe Barry. Three generations of engineers in the Brunel family. Gold rosettes on the road bridge, and above the onyx columns, swans! Travelling under bridges, you see all the details. Blackfriars railway station is the first railway station in the world to span a river

We go past Tate Modern, previously Bankside power station, the most successful visitor attraction in London. In the background, you will see the Shard, the tallest building in the United Kingdom

London’s biggest thatched roof. This white half-timbered building was rebuilt by the American actor Sam Wanamaker. Brunel also built a theatre, an underground theatre, which was the entry hall to the Thames Tunnel. Here there were sword swallowers, fire eaters, Indian dancers, Ethiopian serenaders, Chinese singers. Brunel’s theatre is half the size of Shakespeare’s Globe, but built above the ground and then sunk under its own weight. A giant one thousand tonne pastry cutter, but for the engineer the world’s first caisson.

This is the famous millennium bridge, the Wobbly Bridge. Do you know the command before a regiment crosses a bridge? A sign ‘Break Step!’ Is still on Albert Bridge. Otherwise ’sympathetic resonance’ shakes it apart  – it happened in Manchester. But this isn’t a bridge, look at it, it’s a hammock! Low stanchions give wonderful views up and downstream. 

To Tower Bridge (1894 Brunel & Wolfe Barry) our third Brunel Bridg   Downstream of the Tower pier, as we see the Tower of London, above a bricked-up arch is written in white letters “ENTRY TO TRAITOR’S GATE”. Difficult to see from the north bank, and from the south bank you look right across the river, but you get the best view from this boat. Actually, I suppose traitors got the best view, but you will enjoy it more…

Tower Bridge is one of the most famous bridges in the world, and our third Brunel Bridge (Henry Marc again), but the Victorians hated it. They thought it dishonest. The bridge is made of steel but clad with masonry to fit in aesthetically with the Tower of London. The conceit is that Tower Bridge is the drawbridge for London, but the Victorians thought if you build a steel bridge, it should look like a steel bridge. If you want it to look like a masonry bridge, build it out of masonry

To Masthouse Terrace  ------------ We pass six famous riverside pubs. Town of Ramsgate where condemned men had their last drink (before left at Execution Dock where the tide covered them three times); Captain Kidd named for a notorious pirate who was hanged here twice (the rope broke); The Angel where Captain Cook planned his first voyage (now haunted by hanging Judge Jeffries); the Mayflower from where the Pilgrims sailed; Prospect of Whitby (named for the coal ships); and The Grapes, Sir Ian Mckellen’s local (Gandalf’s staff is behind the bar). We pass the King’s Yard, where Samuel Pepys worked, and Drake’s Steps, where Queen Elizabeth knighted her explorer, privateer and the first Englishmen to circumnavigate the globe.

We disembark at Masthouse Terrace where Brunel built his last ship, SS Great Eastern, the first iron ship in the world and the first luxury cruise liner. Here Scott gave us a detailed briefing on Brunel and his expertise in ship building,

Continuing down the river front, we passed many old buildings which have been modernized and are now fancy apartments. However, I was told that many of them don’t have any lifts (elevators) which must be a real nuisance for daily life. 

The Isle of Dogs has a fascinating history and role in London’s life through the ages.

James Bazalgette started to clear the sewers at Deptford which was where all the sewers collected their garbage. In the centre of the photo one can see the sluice gates. 

Someone has even created a anti climb paint which Scott said is very effective in stopping cat burglars !!

Scott brought us here for the view. This is sometimes called the ‘English Versailles’. Not a hundredth the size of Versailles, but an English attempt at grand perspective and formal architecture. There’s a column for every ship that was at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Perched on the hill and looking down on everything, the Royal Observatory, established by King James to solve the longitude problem.

       Ball on Greenwich Dome drops daily at 1.00pm. so all ships followed the time – reference point. Palace of Queen Anne of Denmark is where Nelson lay in state.

Train Journey to Rotherhithe - From Island Gardens we were meant to journey by elevated railway through the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf (Docklands Light Railway ‘the coolest of the top 10 train journeys in Britain’: Daily Mail). Then a train journey through the doric columns and classical portico of Brunel’s Thames Tunnel, one-time shopping arcade, fairground and underwater banquet hall, now the oldest tunnel in the oldest subway system in the world. HOWEVER, we did not do this and I cant recall why – I have no photos of these places and memory recalls being left at Greenwich from where I took a bus to the centre of the city.

London Walks have some excellent tours covering day and night walks through all parts of the city. The best way to see a city which you think you know it well but actually don’t know at all !! 

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