Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE THAMES PATH
The
Thames Path
is a 184-mile National Trail that runs along, or close to, the riverbank of the
Thames from its source to the Thames Barrier. The London section exists on both banks, and is
clearly signposted, so you can
walk
the two miles from Tower Bridge, via Wapping and
Limehouse to Canary Wharf. And if you're feeling really energetic, you can continue right
round the Isle of Dogs to East India Dock near Trinity Buoy Wharf.
14
continues apace, with the end result destined to be, as one critic aptly put it, “a chain
of highly polarized ghettos epitomizing the gulf between the rich and poor, home-
owner and tenant”. For the local community's views, visit
W
wharf.co.uk.
Wapping
Once famous for its boatyards and its 36 riverside pubs (a handful of which remain),
Wapping
changed forever with the construction of the enclosed docks. Cut off from the
East End by the high dock walls, its inhabitants crowded into unsanitary housing, the
area became notorious for thieves, attracted by rolling drunk sailors and poorly guarded
warehouses. With the destruction wrought during the Blitz and the commercial demise
of the docks, Wapping was very rundown by the 1980s and an early candidate for
Docklands regeneration. Restoration of existing property rather than demolition and
redevelopment has been the rule, so much of Wapping's Victorian atmosphere remains,
and, as it's only a short walk from the Tower, this is easily the most satisfying part of
Docklands to explore.
St Katharine Docks
W
skdocks.co.uk •
!
Tower Hill or Tower Gateway DLR
St Katharine Docks
were built in the late 1820s - in the process some 11,300 people
were made homeless, and the medieval hospital of St Katharine demolished. The docks
specialized in luxury goods such as ivory, spices, carpets and cigars, but were very badly
bombed in the Blitz and, in the early 1970s, were turned into a luxury yacht marina.
With little of the original warehouse architecture surviving, the docks' redeeming
qualities are the old
swing bridges
, the one or two old sailing ships and Dutch barges
that moor here, and the central
Ivory House
warehouse, with its clock tower and
wrought-iron colonnade. Built in 1854, at its peak this warehouse received over
200 tons of ivory annually (that's four thousand dead elephants), plus hippopotamus
and walrus teeth and even mammoth tusks from Siberia. Halfway along East Smithfield,
you can see the original gates with elephants on the pillars, and on the corner of Thomas
More Street, a section of the
original dock wall
survives, plus the main entrance to the
former London Docks, with two Neoclassical Customs and Excise o
ces from 1805.
Dickens Inn
, an eighteenth-century timber-framed brewery warehouse, was airlifted
in 1969 from its original site several hundred yards to the east. At the centre of the
docks is the ugly
Coronarium chapel
(now a
Starbucks
), built for Queen Elizabeth II's
Silver Jubilee, and as near as possible to the church of St Katharine, which was
owned by the Crown.
Tobacco Dock
East from St Katharine Docks down the busy Highway lies
Tobacco Dock
, a huge
warehouse built in 1814 and initially used to store tobacco and wine. A fascinating
combination of timber and early cast-iron framing, it was converted into a shopping
complex in 1990 by postmodernist Terry Farrell, but the place closed soon afterwards
and has been a dead mall for decades now. On the south of Tobacco Dock, a tree-lined
canal walk
- all that remains of the huge Western Dock that once stood here - will take
you effortlessly down to Wapping High Street.
