The history, the evolution and the character of London is

inextricably bound up with the River Thames. Massive

bridges span the course, linking the north and south halves
of the city that the river once divided. Walk This Way is
designed to take you along this remarkable waterway as it
passes through the centre of London, illuminating some of
the majestic buildings that line the banks of the Thames.
See www.southbanklondon.com for a more detailed profile of the buildings and
streets featured in Walk This Way Riverside London.
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Tate Britain to the
Design Museum
Walk This Way
Riverside
London
architecture
+
history at your feet
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Bearing the marks of history
The town of Londinium originated as a bridging point for
Roman Legions, before evolving into the heart of English
trade, government and Empire. The river snakes its way
through this living metropolis, bearing the marks of over
a thousand years of history. Grand palaces, cathedrals,
castles, representing the highest architecture of their era,
stare at each other across the waters. Huge warehouses
and dockyards, constructed at the apex of industrial
Britain, are reborn for commerce leisure, and housing. The
Thames has drowned armies and hosted frost fairs; it has
moved the wealth of the world; it has carried the millions
of tonnes of building material that have created the city
that now embraces it.
Bridging the capital
A London bridge has spanned the Thames for nearly two
thousand years, but for much of the city's history, the real
money to be made from the river was by the ferry
companies, who were hostile to any new bridges being
built, despite the obvious need. In 1750, however, the
City of Westminster completed their bridge, prompting
their rivals, the City of London, to build their own,
Blackfriars Bridge, in quick succession. The following
century saw an epidemic of bridge-building in London as
population explosion and railway expansion demanded
ever greater access between north and south. Foot, road
and rail, more than twenty bridges were built over the
Thames, resplendent with their individual decorations and
built by the finest engineers of the age. While many of
these have been repaired, renamed and rebuilt into solid,
twentieth century constructions, each one retains its own
unique appearance and history.
The Influence of the River
Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,
Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.
T.S.ELLIOT (1922)
Twenty bridges from Tower to Kew
Wanted to know what the River knew,
For they were young and the Thames was old,
And this is the tale that the River told
RUDYARD KIPLING (1911)
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Map reproduced from Ordnance Survey Landplan 1:5000 mapping with permission of the
Controller of Her Majestys Stationery Office Crown copyright; Licence Number 398179
Key
1 Vauxhall Bridge
2 Tate Britain
3 Lambeth Bridge
4 St. Thomas Hospital &
Florence Nightingale Museum
5 Houses of Parliament
6 Westminster Bridge
7 County Hall
8 London Eye
9 Golden Jubilee Bridges
10 Royal Festival Hall
11 Somerset House
12 Waterloo Bridge
13 Royal National Theatre
14 Oxo Tower Wharf
15 Blackfriars Bridge
16 Blackfriars Rail Bridges
17 Tate Modern
18 Millennium Bridge
19 St. Pauls Cathedral
20 Shakespeares Globe
21 Southwark Bridge
22 Cannon Street Railway Bridge
23 Southwark Cathedral
24 London Bridge
25 Fishmongers Hall
26 Adelaide House
27 Hays Wharf & St. Olaves House
28 Billingsgate Market
29 Custom House
30 HMS Belfast
31 Greater London Authority
Headquarters
32 Tower of London
33 St. Katharine Docks
34 Tower Bridge
35 Shad Thames
36 Design Museum
Transport
General travel information can be obtained on Transport for
Londons 24-hour number: 020 7222 1234, www.tfl.gov.uk
Accessible Underground Stations
Westminster District, Circle & Jubilee*
Waterloo Northern, Bakerloo, Waterloo & City and Jubilee*
Southwark Jubilee *
London Bridge Northern, Jubilee, Thameslink & National Rail*
* Jubilee line exit is wheelchair accessible
Riverside (RV1) Bus Service
Riverside 1 is a bus service linking Covent Garden,
South Bank, Waterloo, Bankside, London Bridge and
Tower Gateway, providing a cost-effective, easily recognisable
link to over thirty of Londons attractions.
Accessibility Information
Tate Britain 020 7887 8922
London Eye 0870 990 8885
Royal Festival Hall 020 7921 0971
Somerset House 020 7845 4600
National Theatre 020 7452 3000
Oxo Tower Wharf 020 7401 2255
Tate Modern 020 7401 5120
The Globe 020 7902 1409
Southwark Cathedral 020 7367 6700
Tower of London 020 7488 5694
Design Museum 0870 909 9009
Vauxhall Bridge
The original crossing, Regent Bridge,
was designed in stone by John Rennie
(engineer of the Waterloo, Southwark
and London bridges). In 1813, however,
the proprietors switched to a cheaper
iron design by James Walker, completed
by 1816 and replaced ninety years later
with a five-arch steel construction. On
the piers of this new bridge are bronze
statues to represent the Arts and Sciences
(the female statue Architecture holds a
model of St Pauls Cathedral).
Tate Britain
Millbank
Built on the site of the massive Millbank
Prison, the National Gallery of British Art
was created to house the nineteenth
century collection of Sir Henry Tate.
Bequeathed a number of modern
paintings in 1917, the Tate was also
constituted as the National Gallery of
Modern Foreign Art. In 2000, this modern
art collection was moved to Tate Modern
in Bankside, while the existing gallery, now
Tate Britain, retained its collection of work
by British artists. Constantly extended and
expanded throughout the twentieth
century (it has recently been upgraded for
its Centenary Development), the overall
appearance of the gallery is a surprisingly
unified one.
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Alexander Binnie
18951906
Sidney Smith
1897
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Lambeth Bridge
Approached from the north by Horseferry
Road, this point in the river was once
serviced by Londons ferrymen before the
construction of Lambeth Bridge. A
suspension bridge of three massive iron
arches, by 1929 it was rusted beyond
repair and a new five-span bridge of steel
and reinforced concrete was completed in
1932. At either end were placed giant
obelisks, topped by pineapples (introduced
to Britain by the Tradescant gardeners,
buried at the neighbouring St. Marys
Church). Adjoining Parliament, Lambeth
Bridge is painted red, the colour of the
Lords benches, while Westminster Bridge
is green the colour of the Commons
benches for the same reason.
St. Thomas Hospital & Florence
Nightingale Museum
Lambeth Palace Road
Opening in 1106 as the Priory of St. Mary
Overie, Southwark, in 1173 it was
rededicated to St. Thomas the Martyr.
Closed down by Henry VIII and re-opened
by his son, Edward VI, the hospital was
moved to its present location in 1871.
Influenced by Florence Nightingale, the
design is Italianate-hygienic allowing
sunlight and fresh air to reach each of the
seven pavilions. Bombed during the Second
World War, only three of these Nightingale
wards now remain, though the new
buildings, rebuilt from 1963, do contain a
museum dedicated to the life and works of
this nursing pioneer. The new grounds are
also decorated with the original hospitals
statues: Edward VI and its seventeenth-
century benefactor, Samuel Clayton.
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George Humphreys
19291932
Henry Currey
1871
Houses of Parliament
Palace of Westminster
The heart of English government, William
the Conquerors oak-roofed Westminster
Hall of 1078 still stands to this day. The
royal palace became a parliament in 1512
and was all-but destroyed by fire in 1834.
For the new Parliament, two architects
were commissioned: Barry for the general
arrangements, and Pugin for the Gothic
detailing (including an encircling Latin
inscription of the Lords Prayer to keep out
evil). By 1860, Parliament (complete with
its clock tower containing the Big Ben
bell) was finished, fourteen years over
schedule, 700% over budget and minus
two architects (Pugin died from nervous
exhaustion in 1852 and Barry succumbed
to the strain in 1860). The lavish interior
of the Commons was destroyed by
bombing in 1941, but the Lords was
spared and Parliament was rebuilt.
Westminster Bridge
Battling against the powerful established
interests of the London ferrymen,
campaigners for a new bridge were finally
permitted a public lottery to raise funds
for their Bridge of Fools. The bridge
foundations were laid in 1739,
commencing an eleven-year project beset
by European warfare, ferrymen sabotage,
the death of the bridges sponsor, a small
earthquake and the Thames freezing over.
Even when the bridge finally opened, it
tended to sway on its foundations and
was never fully trusted. Work began on a
replacement in 1853: a seven-arch
wrought-iron bridge, with Gothic detailing
by Charles Barry, architect of Parliament.
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Charles Barry,
A W N Pugin
183560
Thomas Page
18531862
British Airways London Eye
Jubilee Gardens
Already an established landmark that
attracts millions, the inspiration for the
London Eye came from: The perfect
symmetry of a circle which from a
distance seems to be transparent,
embodies the passages of time. An
integration of architecture, engineering
and design, the creation of the London
Eye was a project that brought together
engineers from all over Europe on a British
design. The sections of this 2,100 tonne
construction were transported down the
Thames and raised a massive 135 metres
high. From that height, 15,000 passengers
a day, travelling in the 32 glass
observation pods, can view up to 25 miles
over the city and beyond.
Hungerford Bridge
Originally a suspension footbridge, the
Hungerford Bridge (named after the north
bank market) was bought in 1859 to
extend a railway line to the new Charing
Cross station. The old suspension elements
were removed and used in Bristols Clifton
Bridge, while the new bridge of trussed
iron girders (steel from 1982) is the only
London crossing to combine foot and rail.
In 2000 a 50 million project was started
to create two new foot bridges to replace
the single dilapidated footbridge. As well
as delivering a new visual landmark for
London, the structure will open up new
upstream views over the Palace of
Westminster.
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Marks Barfield
2000
Isambard Kingdom
Brunel
1845
The Sturgeon Lampstandards
These cast iron Victorian lamp posts with
their globe-like lanterns and encircling sea
creatures were created for the illumination
and decoration of the Albert Embankment.
Running along both banks of the river,
from Vauxhall Bridge to Tower Bridge,
each lampstandard alternately bears on its
base the initials of the monarch or the
date of its creation, becoming newer as
you walk east.
County Hall
Belvedere Road
Home for the London County Council, the
Main Building is a six-storey, symmetrical
construction, faced with Portland Stone, in
the Edwardian baroque style. It took
twenty-five years to complete (outlasting
its architect, who died in 1929), with
North, South and Island Blocks added
thereafter (the last in 1974). The capitals
government, known as the Greater London
Council from 1965, was abolished in
1986. County Hall now houses Dali
Universe, the London Aquarium and two
hotels.
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George Vulliamy
1870
Ralph Knott
19111933
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Royal Festival Hall
Belvedere Road
The only permanent legacy of the 1951
Festival Of Britain and the first post-war
building to receive a Grade 1 listing, the
Royal Festival Hall is a Modernist
building of glazed screens, Portland Stone
facings and a green roof of weather-
exposed copper. Inside, the auditorium is
built high on the upper floors, insulated
from the sound of the nearby railway,
while beneath are galleries, shops, and
performance areas. A 1965 redevelopment
scheme defines much of the Festival Halls
outward appearance: a re-cased Portland
Stone exterior; an extended river frontage;
and a new riverside entrance. In 2001 a
60 million programme was commenced
to renovate and upgrade the capabilities
of the Peoples Place.
Somerset House
Victoria Embankment
Once the site of the Earl of Somersets
Renaissance palace, Somerset House was
Londons first purpose-built government
office block, despite its grand and
Classical style. Before the embankment
was reclaimed from the Thames, the 800ft
riverside frontage was accessible by boat,
the great river arches still present at
ground level. Until 1973, the building was
responsible for recording every birth,
marriage and death (the hatch em,
match em and dispatch em department)
and is still partially filled with state
bureaucracy, while the remainder now
houses heritage treasures and fine art: the
Courtauld Institute, the Hermitage Rooms
and the Gilbert Collection.
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Robert Matthew,
Leslie Martin
194851
William Chambers
177686
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Blackfriars Rail Bridges
Too weak to support modern trains, all
that remains of the original Blackfriars
Railway Bridge are the piers of
Romanesque columns and the company
insignia on the South Bank: London,
Chatham and Dover Railway.
The second crossing was once St. Pauls
Railway Bridge, named after the Station
on the north bank. Made of wrought-iron,
it is still in use today by Thameslink train.
When St. Pauls Station changed its name
to Blackfriars Station in 1937, the Railway
Bridge did likewise.
Tate Modern
Bankside
Tate Modern is now one of the most
successful and popular art galleries in the
world. The building was originally
Bankside Power Station, a monolithic steel
construction of four million bricks and a
325ft chimney, which operated from 1952
until rising oil prices caused its closure in
1981. The Tate Gallery acquired the
option on the site and, in 1995, began a
process of demolition, preparation and
conversion to transform the building into
the new home for its collection of modern
art. For illumination, the lightbeam was
constructed: a two-storey glass roof
structure placed on top of the power
station, flooding the upper floors with
natural light and housing a caf that
gazes across the river.
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Waterloo Bridge
Intended as the Strand Bridge, this granite
construction was bought by the
government, re-named Waterloo Bridge
(after Wellingtons recent victory) and
opened in 1817. Falling into neglect, by
1923 the bridge was deemed beyond
repair and closed permanently. Work for a
replacement was delayed almost
immediately the outbreak of World War II,
though work still continued, labour
shortage and V2 rockets notwithstanding.
With few men available for construction
work, most of the work was done with
female labour and The Ladies Bridge was
complete by 1945.
Royal National Theatre
Upper Ground
In 1976, after more than a century of
planning and fourteen years in the Old
Vic, the National Theatre company moved
into the three theatres of their new
building: Lyttelton, Olivier, and Cottesloe.
Lasduns Modernist design of reinforced
concrete and horizontal lines, with a
skyline augmented by the massive Olivier
and Lyttelton fly-towers, has become a
landmark of the South Bank. In 1997 work
began to develop and renovate the
National Theatres main entrance, box
office, bookshop and foyer performance
areas; the backstage equipment was
upgraded; and a new exterior performance
space added: Theatre Square.
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Giles Gilbert Scott
193745
Denys Lasdun
19691976
Stanton Williams
19972000
12 15 14
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Oxo Tower Wharf
Upper Ground
Built as a power station, the Wharf was
acquired in the 1920s by a Meat Extract
Company, whose great riverside cranes
could load directly from Thames barges
into the factory. The Company also built a
tower to bear the illuminated name of
their product. Designed to circumvent
strict laws about exterior advertising, the
letters that spelt out OXO were in fact
shapes on stained glass windows. In the
1970s a developer proposed to demolish
the building (now derelict) and build a
skyscraper development, provoking the
local community to protest and eventually
prevail, forming the Coin Street
Community Builders to restore and
regenerate the area. One of their tasks
was to refurbish the Wharf, adding retail
units, exhibition space, restaurants and
housing.
Blackfriars Bridge
Opening in 1769 as William Pitt Bridge
(after the Tory Prime Minister), the
unpopular title was soon changed and
named after the Black Friars, Dominican
Monks that had settled in London in
1279. The bridge itself had nine elliptical
arches of Portland stone, resting on piers
of Greek columns that (the designs are
depicted on the walls of the southern
underpass). Badly deteriorated a century
later, it was rebuilt with five cast-iron
arches on granite piers.
A W Moore
1928
Lifschutz Davidson
1995
J. Cubitt
186069
Western Bridge:
Joseph Cubitt &
F T Turner
18621864
Eastern Bridge:
John Wolfe Barry &
H M Brunel
18841886
Giles Gilbert Scott
194763
Jacques Herzog and
Pierre de Meuron
19952000
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Millennium Bridge
Bankside
The first completely new pedestrian bridge
to be built over the Thames for a hundred
years, the Millennium Bridge is a
combination of art, design and
technology. The three main contributors:
engineer, architect and sculptor, designed
the bridge to be streamlined, using an
innovative and complex structure to
achieve a simple form: a shallow
suspension bridge that spans the river as
an elegant blade. As the bridge opened,
an unexpected wobble was discovered in
the structure and the bridge was closed to
install a passive dampening solution.
St. Pauls Cathedral
Ludgate Hill
The first church on this site (604 AD) was
replaced in 1087 by St. Pauls, a Gothic
cathedral which was obliterated by the
Great Fire in 1666. Work began on the
36-year process of rebuilding in 1675 by
young architect Christopher Wren, though
first proposal was rejected (the original
model can be viewed inside) and a second
design had to be agreed with the
conservative clergy. Despite the
compromise, Wrens creation is spectacular
and the massive dome, constructed from
50,000 tons of Portland Stone and rising
360ft, is second only in size to St. Peters
in Rome. Having miraculously survived the
devastation of the Blitz (in which a third
of the Square Mile was destroyed), the
Cathedral dominates the north view of the
Thames, especially during the summer,
when it is floodlit.
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Foster and Partners,
Anthony Caro, Arup
200001
Christopher Wren
16751711
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Jon Greenfield
1997
Southwark Underpass:
Artist: Richard Kindersley
Delivered by Groundwork
for CRP
Shakespeares Globe
Bankside
The original Tudor playhouse was financed
by a consortium that included William
Shakespeare and was the venue of many
of his theatrical works. Burnt down in
1613, the replacement was demolished by
the Puritans in 1642 and the site
remained empty for the next three
centuries. American director Sam
Wanamaker began the project to create an
accurate, functioning reconstruction of the
Globe, built as close as possible to the
original site and using contemporary
craftsmens techniques (including the first
thatched roof London has seen since the
Great Fire, albeit with a sprinkler system).
The Frost Fairs
Underneath the southern end of
Southwark Bridge are slate etchings of the
famous Frost Fairs: winter events actually
held on the iced-over Thames. This was
possible as the numerous arches of the
original stone London Bridge slowed the
river enough to allow it to freeze over.
Beginning in 1564, these festivals of food,
drink and revelry continued during the
coldest winters until the new London
Bridge (with its larger spans) was
constructed in 1814.
Behold the Liquid Thames frozen ore,
That lately Ships of mighty Burthen bore
The Watermen for want of Rowing Boats
Make use of Booths to get their Pence
and Groats
ANON
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Southwark Bridge
Crossing a very narrow point on the
Thames, there were fears that the arches
of Southwark Bridge would impede river
traffic. To reduce obstruction, the solution
was an impressive feat of engineering: an
iron bridge of only three spans, two of
210ft and a massive central span of 240ft,
the largest ever achieved in cast-iron. In
disrepair by the twentieth century, the
Great War delayed work on the five-span
replacement for a decade.
Cannon Street Railway Bridge
Built as Alexandra Bridge, this rail crossing
was named after Alexandra of Denmark,
wife of the future Edward VII. Re-named
after its north bank railway station,
Cannon Street Bridge was a five-span
construction of shallow plate girders on
Greek-style fluted cast-iron piers. It was
widened in 1886-93, and strengthened in
1981, when much of its decoration was
removed.
Southwark Cathedral
Borough High Street
Already the site of a Roman Villa, pagan
shrine and Saxon monastarium, the first
church to be built was St. Mary Overie
(meaning over the river) in 1106. Fire-
damaged in 1212, and again in 1390s,
the church was extensively repaired before
being confiscated by Henry VIII. Used as a
heresy court for Mary I and a swineyard in
Elizabeth Is reign, in 1614 the
parishioners pooled their resources and
bought the church (now called St.
Saviours) from James I. The new
Basil Mott,
Ernest George
19121922
John Hankshaw
186366
William Pont de lArche
& William Dauncey
1106
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nineteenth century London Bridge
approach road threatened the building
but by sacrificing some of its smaller
chapels, St. Saviours was saved and
became a Cathedral in 1905. After a
thousand years of restoration and
rebuilding, Southwark Cathedral now
contains a varied mix of architecture: from
the original Norman walls to the new
Millennium restoration and landscaping.
London Bridge
The first recorded Thames crossing was
built by Romans in the first century AD,
several hundred yards east of the present
London Bridge. For the next thousand
years the wooden bridges were
occasionally brought down by marauding
armies (such as Queen Boudicia and King
Canute), inspiring the famous nursery
rhyme. The Norman Conquest prompted a
massive stone bridge to be constructed:
nineteen arches, a drawbridge, a chapel,
housing rows and the occasional severed
head. It was this London Bridge that
lasted over six centuries, until it was
rebuilt in 1823-31, a graceful five-arched
design from John Rennie (who died in
1921). Too narrow for modern traffic the
bridge was replaced in 1967-72, while the
old bridge was sold to an American
developer and transported, stone by stone,
to Arizona.
First Stone Bridge: c.1176
Fishmongers Hall
London Bridge Approach
The Fishmongers Company, est. 1272, is
one of Londons oldest livery companies
and still functions today, inspecting every
fish sold in London. Their sixteenth
century livery hall was lost to the Great
Fire, and the replacement lasted until the
1820s, when the site was required for the
new London Bridge approach road.
Rebuilt entirely from 1832-35 as an
impressive Greek Revival building, the
river face is a two storey Portland Stone
frontage of seven bays and six giant
columns, placed beneath a central
pediment. Below, once at river level, are
five arches of a granite plinth that led
from the wharf to the basement
warehouses. The building was partially
converted into offices and residential
accommodation from 1961 to 1981.
Note: To reach the river from London Bridge, take the
steps leading down labelled Thames Path West this
will in fact enable you to head east along the riverside.
Adelaide House
London Bridge Approach
One of the first commercial buildings in
London to break away from Classical
design (despite the black marble columns
at the entrance), Adelaide House
incorporates a Chicago style with Egyptian
finishes in an office block that was, at 148
feet, the tallest in London. As well as
innovative architecture, it also contained
other features never before seen by 1920s
London: central ventilation, an internal
mail system, and a rooftop golf course.
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26
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St. Olave's House & Hay's Wharf
Tooley Street
Once a nineteenth century warehouse that
unloaded the foodstuffs of the Empire
straight from the Thames (a loading crane
still decorates the building), Hays Wharf
was converted into an Art-Deco office
block. The former warehouse displays its
name to the river in great gold lettering,
while underneath are placed three large
bronze reliefs representing capital, labour
and commerce. On the south face is St.
Olaves House, which bears an engraving
of Olaf Haraldsson, Viking King,
Norwegian Saint and destroyer of London
Bridge in 1016. Further east along the
river was formerly Hays Dock, built at the
same time as the Wharf and closed down
in 1969. The Dock was rebuilt in 1982-86
to incorporate shops, offices and
apartments, with a vast steel and glass
roof covering what is now Hays Galleria..
Billingsgate Market (former)
Lower Thames Street
An ancient fish market on a Saxon quay,
Billingsgate was expanded and rebuilt
until its present-day incarnation. A French-
style building of yellow brick and Portland
Stone, the arcade is set between flanking
pavilions and illuminated by semi-circular
windows, while the exterior includes
frolicking dolphins and the fish
weathervanes. Inside was a massive fish
market which, supplied from the river,
could move 400 tonnes of fish daily.
Thronged with traders, porters and
customers, the market gave rise to
Billingsgate Backslang, allowing traders
to converse about prices in secret.
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4 3
H S Goodhart-Rendel
193132
Horace Jones
187478
28 25 26
Henry Roberts
183134
John Burnet,
Tait & Partners
192125
9
In 1982 Billingsgate Market was moved
to the Isle of Dogs, ending over 900 years
of tradition. The empty building was
converted into a stock market, the glazed
screens of the arcade creating a giant
trading floor.
Custom House
Lower Thames Street
A consistent feature of Britains maritime
economy, the present Custom House is
the fifth incarnation of a building which
has stood in the vicinity for over seven
hundred years. This particular Custom
House, built just before its predecessor
burnt down, may have been rushed to
completion since, in 1825, the riverside
faade collapsed due to inadequate
foundations. The architect Laing
was professionally ruined, and the
reconstruction work was undertaken by
Sir Robert Smirke: the Portland Stone
faade of a six-columned Classical portico
(porch), found on the wings of the
riverside face, was repeated in the centre,
projecting forward to the Thames. During
World War II, the East Wing was heavily
damaged by bombing, and was rebuilt in
replica in 1962-66.
H.M.S. Belfast
Morgans Lane
This 11,500-ton battle cruiser was
completed in time for the Second World
War when, in 1943, it participated in the
destruction of the battleship Scharnhorst.
Retired after service in the Korean War,
the Belfast moved to the Thames in 1971,
becoming a tourist attraction and floating
naval museum.
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30
David Laing
181317
Royal Navy
1938
29 30
Greater London Authority
Headquarters
Tooley Street
When completed, the new home of the
Greater London Authority will resemble a
glass globe with no front or back, intended
to symbolise the transparency of the
democratic process. This radical shape
minimises the buildings surface area
and incorporates energy efficient features
such as natural ventilation, and use of
underground water for sanitation and air-
conditioning. Allowing a high degree of
public access, the lower floors are open
public spaces while the immediate
surroundings will be developed into a
landscaped piazza, with seating, water
features and trees overlooking the Thames.
Moat Walkway
Most of Tower Hill was once the Tower
Liberty, the area beyond the walls under
the jurisdiction of the Tower, not the City
of London. Encircling these walls is a path
on the site of the fourteenth century moat,
built by Edward I, which leads from the
riverside, around the Tower and into St.
Katharine Docks. At one point, the walk
passes by the Tower Hill Postern, the
excavated remains of a medieval gate,
also built by Edward Longshanks. From
the Postern, an underpass detours from
the walk to Tower Hill Tube Station. This
underpass is decorated with new
enamelled wall panels that incorporate
vibrant works of art by Stephen Whatley
depicting the history and character of the
Tower and the Pool of London.
31
Foster and Partners
19992002
31
32
Note: The western entrance of the Moat Walkway is
found adjacent to the ticket booths for the Tower. To
walk around the Tower, pass through the gates marked
Tickets (no ticket is required to use the Moat Walkway)
and continue heading east.
Tower of London
Tower Hill
A living record of the past thousand years,
a museum and monument to the Crown
and the most important piece of military
architecture in England. The long history
of the Tower of London includes its use as:
an arsenal against foreign enemies; a
fortress against domestic ones; a palace
for medieval royalty; an execution site for
traitors, martyrs and monarchs; and a high
security prison with a guest list ranging
from Anne Boleyn to Rudolph Hess. It has
also been a treasury, record office,
armoury, observatory, royal mint,
repository of the crown jewels and zoo
(animals presented to the monarchs were
kept here until 1834). It was William the
Conquerer who began the construction,
building the White Tower in 1097 to
secure his hold on the land of the Saxons.
Around this central citadel, Williams
successors added stone walls, an
encircling moat and no fewer than twenty-
two towers. The Tower was virtually
complete by the fourteenth century,
although additional construction (like the
Waterloo Barracks) would occur well into
the nineteenth century. Since Edward IV,
security has traditionally rested with forty
Yeoman Warders (Beefeaters) and eight
flightless ravens, whose departure will
spell the downfall of England.
William the Conqueror
c.1190
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St. Katharine Docks
St. Katharines Way
The twelfth century priory The Royal
Foundation of St. Katharine endured until
1827, when it was demolished to build St.
Katharine Docks: one of Londons new wet
docks designed to cope with the massive
cargoes from Britains burgeoning world
trade. Despite the enormity of the task,
the two basins (East Dock and West
Dock), entrance lock and giant keyside
warehouses, were completed in two years.
Proving very successful, St. Katharines
often stored high-value goods (as the
names Ivory House and Marble Quay
indicate) and, even as late as 1930,
was considered the worlds greatest
concentration of portable wealth.
Suffering extensive damage during the
Blitz, the surviving warehouses continued
to operate until 1968. From 1969 an
ongoing redevelopment scheme has
transformed the derelict spaces into new
commercial, retail and residential areas.
Tower Bridge
One of the lowest crossings over the
Thames, the requirement to allow 135ft of
shipping headroom resulted in the design
of twin lifting sections (bascules). Marvels
of Victorian engineering, the steam-driven
hydraulic machinery of these bascules is
still on display after the 1976 conversion
to electricity. High above the bridge,
spanning the towers, is a pedestrian
walkway and approaching the towers from
each river bank are the side-spans,
effectively individual suspension bridges.
The Gothic detailing of the bridge was
required to suit the neighbouring Tower.
Shad Thames
Butlers Wharf
A corruption of St. John at Thames (the
Templar Knights who once controlled
the area), Shad Thames was the main
thoroughfare to the largest warehouse
complex on the river. From their
completion in 1873, these Victorian
warehouses unloaded and stored vast
quantities of goods from around the world:
tea, coffee, fruit, wines and spices
(indicated by names such as Spice Quay,
Cardamom Building and Cinnamon
Wharf). Closed in 1972, the derelict
warehouses were subsequently
transformed to incorporate restaurants,
museums and residential apartments. The
distinctive iron walkways used to move
goods between the river and warehouses
were retained and are still visible today.
Design Museum
Butlers Wharf
The first museum in the world to be
devoted to the design of everyday, mass-
produced, consumer goods. The building is
itself a clever achievement in design: an
extensive restoration of a 1950s red-brick
warehouse that appears to be a stuccoed
1930s building. The white painted walls
are prominent among the other former
warehouses of Butlers Wharf, while the
layered frontage and glazed screens are
utilised by the first floor Blueprint Caf
which incorporates extensive riverside
balconies.
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34
Conran Roche
1989
33
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36
Thomas Telford
182728
John Wolfe-Barry,
Horace Jones
18811894
34 34 36
More Walking Guides
If you have enjoyed this guide then please visit
www.southbanklondon.com to discover the other titles in the series:
Walk This Way South Bank
From the London Eye to the Imperial War Museum
Walk This Way Golden Jubilee Bridges
From Soho & Covent Garden to South Bank
Walk This Way Millennium Bridge
From St Pauls Cathedral to Bankside and Borough
Walk This Way A Young Persons Guide
A discovery of the Thames, especially written for young people
Acknowledgements
The Walk This Way series has been researched and published by
South Bank Employers Group, a partnership of the major
organisations in South Bank, Waterloo and Blackfriars with a
commitment to improving the experience of the area for visitors,
employees and residents.
This guide has been made possible thanks to funding from the
Cross River Partnership, which is supported by the London
Development Agency, South Bank Employers Group, Tate Modern,
Tate Britain, Shakespeares Globe and Pool of London Partnership.
For further information about Walk This Way or the South Bank,
please see www.southbanklondon.com
South Bank Employers Group
103 Waterloo Road
SE1 8UL
T: 020 7202 6900
E: mail@southbanklondon.com
Photography: Peter Durant/ arcblue.com
Graphic design: Mannion Design
Map design: ML Design