Thames Path between Tower Bridge and Island Gardens

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In July, I picked up two of Japanese community newspapers – Japan Digest and Japan Journey – and one of them introduced a number of walks along Thames River. I found the one between Tower Bridge and Island Gardens interesting, and cut the article up for us to do a walk.







We decided to do the 5 mile walk between Tower Bridge and Island Gardens on 31 August, the Bank Holiday, the last day of August. Mark found the map with more detailed information on the Tfl website and printed it for us.







We had early lunch at home and headed for Tower Hill. We walked past Tower of London and turned left at the junction of the Tower Bridge to start the trail from St Catherine’s Way. We found a pretty water sculpture of ‘Girl with a Dolphin. This sculpture looked very picturesque with Tower Bridge.







We then walked on the footbridge and followed the pedistrianized edge of the dock. On the right corner, the historic building, Dickens Inn, appeared in front of us.







After making a small detour round the inlet, we walked on the residential area. We found the pub named Ramsgate Pub, a 15^th century ale house and popped in there. Because of Covid 19, we were asked to wait at the entrance to get served by one of the servants. We had drinks and went to the toilet there.







After a break, we went back to the trail and walked on Wapping High Street. After leaving the station building of Wapping, we found the sigh for ‘Thames Path’ and took a short lane towards the riverside walk. We saw a number of modern, stylish residential flats with balconies on the bays around St Hilda’s Wharf. We saw some wealthy residents sitting on their balconies and having drinks. In the meantime, we saw a number of skyscrapers around Canary Whart in front and skyscrapers like Shard behind and distance. There were a number of old brick buildings which were established in the height of docklands’ period, e.g. beginning of the 1930s – these buildings showed interesting contrasts with modern buildings and offices which have been built recently. Some of the historic buildings have been converted into bustling, stylish restaurants – there were a lot of diners and customers sitting in these terraced rooms of these restaurants.







There were a lot of cyclists, joggers and walkers on the riverside walk. After following the trail, we could see the distinctive dome of Greenwich foottunnel building and Cutty Sark on the opposite bank, and they looked nearer as we walked on.







A 5-mile walk was a long distance course – I urgently needed to go to the toilet and we popped in the little pub, The Ferry House. There was a friendly man who seemed to go there regularly.







Afterwards, we walked towards Inland Gardens. In there we found a couple of kiosks and bought a little snack. We looked out Green Navel College, National Maritime Museum and Observatory beyond – it reminded us to the day we went out with my parents, John & Mary in summer of 2016.







Finally, we took the DLR from Island Gardens. DLR line went past Canary Wharf and Mark pointed out South Colonnade, his office, which he has not been there since 20^th March.

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Photos

Thames Path
It is well marked throughout the course