Bloggo Trentiottesimo: A Walk along the Thames, from Tower Hill to Canary Wharf, March 2012

It was such a beautiful Sunday (11 March) that I decided to take in another portion of the Thames Path London that I'd not yet seen. I had walked a good bit of the same general area on the south bank of the river, from Tower Bridge to Rotherhithe, but I'd not yet been beyond St Katharine Docks, just east of the Tower Bridge, on the north side. 


So I began there, and took in Wapping, Shadwell, and Limehouse, ending at Canary Wharf. Interesting walk, with not much river to be seen at first, but in the latter part of the journey a good bit more open promenades along the Thames were made available to the pedestrian. I knew little of the history along this route, and still don't know all that much, except to say that it's all about sailors, pirates, immigrants made use of as cheap labor -- a bit of a mess recently transformed into very posh neighborhoods with river views.


I started at the Tower Hill tube station and crossed under the Tower Bridge. 

Marina at St Katharine Docks

I must admit that I got turned aound a tad, and at first had a difficult time finding Thames Path markers! And the first ones I found pointed me only in the direction I'd already covered. When I finally got my bearings and found the signs for the direction in which I wanted to go, there wasn't at first much Thames to be seen. Residential buildings sitting right out on the water hid the river, and the walk through much of St Katharine Docks was on a street with expensive lodgings on either side. But! I finally did get pointed to a promenade actually on the Thames, and for a bit the walk became what it was defined as, the THAMES Path.

About the docks, the name St. Katharine comes from a hospital of that name on the site from as early as the twelfth century. 

Dickens Inn, St Katharine Docks

As London grew in power generally, and as a sea power in particular, much of the area on the banks of the Thames, including St Katharine Docks, became increasingly filled with slums housing poor laborers. When the industrial revolution occurred numbers incereased exponentially and conditions worsened  until the early nineteenth century. The slums were torn down, but over 11,000 workers were displaced. Thomas Telford, the famous engineer, re-designed the docks, and built warehouses directly on the river. For a time valuable cargo was unloded here, but in the early 20th century, when cargo ships became too large to be accommodated at St Katharine Docks, the area grew less viable commercially. The docks were heavily bombed in World War II and the site was re-developed in the 1970s, a good example, said some, of urban renewal. 

One of the first chances I had to look back at the river

Today it is a private community of residences for the wealthy, yacht basins, several shops and nice places to eat as well. Perfect for a stroll on a Sunday in early spring!


From St Katharine Docks I walked on to Wapping. The upcale housing continued along the river, but a good bit of the route took me down the narrow Wapping High Street, another not at all unpleasant place to stroll, today. 

New Crane Wharf, Wapping
new posh residences

The Town of Ramsgate Pub  
see the sign about the stairs

Wikipedia quotes a sixteenth century historian who describes the street as "a filthy straight passage with alleyways of small tenements or cottages, built, inhabited by sailors' victuallers." Along this street there is little view of the river, except for tiny passages that lead onto stairs straight down to the water, such as those at the Town of Ramsgate Pub.  Like St Katharine Docks, Wapping depended on the river for its existence, and was not always nearly as gentrified as it is today. Back in the day it was filled with slums and workhouses and pirates, some of whom were hanged here on Execution Dock - the most famous? Captain Kidd! Character-filled old pubs along the river in Wapping include one named for the good (or bad) Captain Kidd himself. Another is called the Town of Ramsgate (I've already noted that one and the photo is opposite). Still another one claims to be the oldest pub on the river in London (though that claim is disputed), the Prospect of Whitby, founded circa 1520. These and others are still very much open today, and were quite busy on the lovely afternoon that Dottore Gianni chose to stroll along this interesting stretch of the River Thames. In fact he was tempted to join in with the many customers in one or another, but he was on a mission - to Canary Wharf or bust!

The Prospect of Whitby pub -
oldest on the river?

Im the light research I find myself doing for these blogs, I discovered another interesting footnote about Wapping. It is the site in the Threepenny Opera of the brothel where pirate (and prostitute) Jenny betrays Macheath to the police. Highly theatrical, so of course I like that...and I suppose it also tells you a little about the atmosphere of Wapping in the good (or bad) old days!

A riverside park in Wapping

As I continued to walk there were increasingly more openings onto small parks and promenades on the water that could be shared by residents and the public alike. Some were more appealing than others, but of course even the dullest did boast a river view.

Open promenade along the Thames

On next to Shadwell, along the same narrow road, another area on the river that was dependent on maritime business and trade. 

A "bascule" bridge in Shadwell basin

St Paul's Church there is known as the Church of the Sea Captains, as seventy-five lie at rest in its churchyard.  In the nineteenth century a large number of South Asian seamen lived there, brought over by the British East India Company. In smaller numbers Chinese and Greeks also settled there.  In the Shadwell Basin canoes and small fishing boats are most of the seascraft you'll see these days, and like Wapping there is a lot of lovely housing to be had, if you can afford it. 

The Thames, and in the distance, Canary Wharf

One site that becomes apparent when one strolls this far down the River Thames is the great business complex known as Canary Wharf. In the photo just above it looks quite a way in the distance. in fact as I look at it now it still does! It was a good long walk I took that Sunday afternoon.


But one more area needs a brief report, just before I get to my final destination,

A narrow pub
on Narrow Street

and that is Limehouse, for me the most interesting of these riverside communities. Like the others it had its roots in the medieval era and specialized in the maritime business. In this section along the Thames a large Chinese community grew up as a result of the booming trade in tea and opium, and in the nineteenth century it became notorious for its many "opium dens" and the crime that went hand in hand with that drug. A 1930s crime film called Limehouse Blues starred George Raft and the first Asian American film star, Anna May Wong, who was frequently cast in stereotypical "Dragon Lady" roles, and there is a famed jazz standard also called "Limehouse Blues," made famous by Gertrude Lawrence, but also recorded by Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt, Count Basie, Tony Bennett and a host of others.


The central street in Limehouse is so narrow that it is actually called Narrow Street! I walked along it, but by this time there were even more opportunities to walk on the bank of the river, and for longer stretches. That's because I was approaching the final stop on my walk, that futuristic community in service of Pluto and more modern gods of money, Canary Wharf. 

Canary Wharf - last chance I had to get a shot of the full complex

Canary Wharf is so called as it was located in the West India Docks, created just at the turn of the nineteenth century to service goods from the important trade company of that name. These docks became at one point the busiest docks in the world, so much so that more docks were built later in the century and called the East India Docks. The idea was to be able to load and unload ships of those companies there rather than force them to sail farther up the very congested and thus potentially very dangerous River Thames. 


The docks are located on an area in London at a sharp curving or "meander" of the Thames called The Isle of Dogs. The history of the isle goes back much further in time than do the docks built upon it, as maps of mid-sixteenth century London labeled the area The Isle of Dogs. There are too many possible theories to enumerate concerning how the isle got its name, so I'll prefer the most dramatic one; that the name is a satirical reference to the Isle of England. Ben Jonson and Thomas Nashe wrote a play called The Isle of Dogs on that subject that was performed briefly in 1597 before being suppressed for its slanderous content. If you don't like that theory, not to worry, there are plenty of other possibilities, I'm just not going to go into them here. Recent history? In 1988 building began on the gargantuan business complex, the then tallest building in the U.K., One Canada Square, and other buildings were completed in 1991, but shortly after the commercial property market collapsed and Canary Wharf filed for bankruptsy in 1992. When the economy recovered, so did the area. In 2004 a consortium of investors took it over and today it Canary Wharf and today it thrives. All in all an isle hardly gone to the dogs!

The riverfront at Canary Wharf

Whether or not I could ever afford to live on it - NOT would be my only choice, unless I win the lottery -- it IS set up rather nicely for an urban space. On that lovely Sunday outdoor seating at cafes along the riverfront were packed with people, and many others were parading  along the promenades or just basking in the sun. I must admit that by this time in my afternoon hike I was more interested in buying a bottled water and hopping on the Jubilee Line for a quicker, easier way to get back to from where I'd started -- ICLC. I hope to write on more of the Thames Path soon -- join me!

Interesting placement of the stairs from the waterfront
to the massive buildings of Canary Wharf