Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Thames path Part 3 The City (Kensington to the Barrier)

Once we reached Kensington the landscape changed to almost continuous industry. Having passed Teddington locks the Thames became tidal and we seemed to have hit a King tide. At Islewoth industry has been around for years. The cranes, barges and wharves in this area were decades old and surely had witnessed some colourful history.

The tide had breached the banks in a few locations. Despite the ongoing drought this grass was lush due to going under at high-water. The tide mark can be clearly seen. Must be a bit disturbing for adjoining property owners.

We quickly started to encounter many more bridges. As many have been covered in earlier blogs only a couple will get a mention here. Hammersmith bridge (1820 and built by William Tierney Clark who went onto build Marlow bridge – see 2024 blog) has hit the headlines by being closed to traffic for several years while a suitable strengthening plan is developed and funded. Fortunately, foot traffic is allowed as alternatives are quite a detour.

Occasionally industry is broken by some wonderful parks with huge trees. Battersea park was a huge oasis of calm.

A little further on there is flood wall that has been covered by thousands of hearts. Passers-by are invited to write memories about loved ones who succumbed to Covid. The wall goes for as far as the eye can see.

Despite participation in previous blogs there are some bridges that seem to insist on being picked again. The Millenium bridge with St Pauls in the background is a case in point.

The challenge with central London is that you could easily spend a day investigating a 1 km section and here we were marching through 20 kms in a day. Despite the speed there were some areas that screamed out “look at me”.

This rose window is from the West gable of the Great Hall of the London Palace of the Bishops of Winchester. It has been incorporated into a restaurant but can be easily viewed by passers-by and is a great draw card.  


Helen enhanced our activity with a couple of additions. Our Tower bridge day ended by catching up with cousin John and wife Jane for a meal at Canary Wharf. Always good fun catching up with the latest family dramas. We also preceded the following day’s walk with a trip to the Tower as it was marking 80 years from the end of the second world war with an imaginative display of glass poppies.

Some of the established display items were just as colourful. This 1607 Flemish gun on an 1827 British carriage was elaborately decorated depicting varying events including St Michael overthrowing Satan.

Even the quarters for the guards were vibrantly coloured (particularly on a sunny blue day). 

Adjoining the quarters is the White tower. Its colourfulness comes from its prisoner history. Although torture was reportedly infrequent, death sentences were not. If you were lucky, you could meet your end within the tower, but most faced the hang man outside on Tower Hill where large crowds would congregate, jeer and throw whatever was to hand at the soon-to-be-history victim.

Their plight was poignantly described in graffiti on the walls. Religious references dominated as all prepared to meet their maker.

The central tower then beckoned as it houses the crown jewels. What an interesting collection and history from the Koh-i-Noor 105.6 carat diamond to the two largest of the stones from the Cullinan collection. It was a fascinating display none of which was allowed to be photographed! 

A second view of the poppies also beckoned and of course another famous bridge managed to scrape its way into the background.

As we moved passed the hoards (where 4 k/h was impossible) we encountered numerous recesses into the bank where various wharves had been developed. This meant bridges were also a necessity some of which had to move out of the way rather than cause height restrictions. The Surrey Basin Bascule Bridge was well maintained. Bascule comes from the French term for balance scales and employs the same principle. It enables a quick opening with minimal power.

We then came across three ship museums in quick succession. The first was the Golden Hinde which although a 1973 replica of the original 1577 galleon was undergoing some significant refurbishment with new oak to planking.

Second was HMS Belfast which was commissioned way back in 1936, decommissioned in 1963 and finally became a museum in 1971.

And then once more back to more wooden times with the Cutty Sark a tea clipper ship built in 1869.

Despite being in the middle of London many pubs went out of their way to be attractively presented. I anticipate that whomever was in charge of the flowers at the Anchor (1682) was entitled to more than the occasional free pint. Certainly a more pleasant experience than Judge George Jeffreys who reportedly watched executions on nearby Wapping beach.

As we moved downstream into more industrial areas it was a surprise to come across what on its face could have been a royal palace. It was in fact the Royal Naval College. Now that would be an interesting place to study.

We slowly made our way around the circuitous O2 stadium, where new development was moving apace. The Cloud Cable car (2012) was clearly popular. Its modern spiral towers fits well with the adjoining quantum cloud sculpture.

And finally, we came to the end of the path with the Thames barrier. This was completed in 1982 to help prevent London from flooding. With Climate change and the potential for higher water levels there is now a review underway to see what can be done to increase protection.

In our case ends!

So what have we accomplished?

A few statistics may help:

We used 4 caravan sites as bases:

  • Burford 5 nights
  • Burcot 4 nights
  • Henley on Thames 8 nights and
  • Abbey Wood 5 nights

We walked a total of 302 kms if you go with the Thames Guide Book. There were 18 days walking which is an average of 16.8 kms per day. Realistically with diversions, walks to and from drop offs (stations, car parks etc) I suspect we did closer to 320 kms, which is about 18 kms per day.

Longest was Kingston to Putney a distance of 23.9kms or 39,930 steps (I suspect Helen would have clocked over 40,000).

Result – much fitter and a great feeling of satisfaction, albeit we will need a few days before planning the next walk!

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