The Thames from Westminster Bridge to Shadwell Basin

I started out intending to walk to Greenwich along the walkway beside the Thames. The day was fine, relatively warm and with scattered cloud. So I started beside the Waterloo Bridge and followed the Victoria Embankment down the true left bank. The walking is easy going and the path well maintained. I crossed over or under various bridges, around buildings and pubs, and with one or two detours eventually arrived at the Tower of London. At this point the sun came out in full and the walk was pleasantly warm. I stopped for coffee and to replenish my water bottle. Before long however, the clouds returned with reinforcements, and the weather became quite grey and cool. By this time I had reached Wapping, where the path diverts from the riverfront through streets of warehouses and forbidding apartments. The grim view, coupled with impending rain convinced me to head for the Shadwell train station (misplacing the path at King Edward VII Park and heading up Glamis Rd might have influenced the decision as well....), and to take the Dockland Light Rail to the Cutty Sark Station to visit Greenwich.

Waterloo to Paul's Walk

The start of my walk at Waterloo Bridge took me beside Somerset House, previous home of the Birth Death Marriage registers

Part of Victoria Embankment

A close-up of a typical (!) light stand

A view down river with Blackfriars Bridge in the background

The reverse view up-river past the London Eye to Westminster Bridge

Building 1

Building 2

Detail of Blackfriars Bridge

Yes, it really is Pauls Walk

Blackfriars Bridges and the piles of an earlier version

The Millennium Bridge

A pleasant part of the walk

Paul's Walk to The Tower

Looking up under the Millennium Bridge

The tidal range on the Thames is huge. You often forget it is a tidal river

There are various barriers along the walk, including this one where cranes lift rubbish skips onto barges

The gate worked, but the warning lights did not

and this is the cause of the holdup - rubbish being loaded onto barges.

..and under London Bridge

Tower Bridge comes into sight, as do two London Bobbies, walking their beat...

Sections of the walk head underground...

Pleasant fence alongside HM Customs Building

The same fence seen from the river

The old Billingsgate Fish Market

I didn't stop to wait for the treasure, but with their investment in spades, metal detector and 1metre deep hole, they were clearly hoping for something