Already I have found something new, told to me by a Chelsea Pensioner…..
More later…..
More later…..
Wapping Wander - E1 to SW3 to SW11 to SE1…..And on….
- Thread starter Wapping
- Start date
"They don't like it up 'em Capt Mainwaring"?
was he in the SAS?
And counting…….
Stopped at 15:30 for refreshment at the Ship and Shovel, a pub split in two….
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12.8 miles (apparently) door-to-door or 28,704 steps with nine sets of stairs, whatever that means.
09:30 Home > Shadwell > DLR > Bank > Central line > Queensway > Hyde Park > Kensington Palace > Royal Albert Hall > Museums etc > Thin House > Michelin Building > Sloane Avenue > Saatchi Gallery > Royal Hospital > Chelsea Bridge > Battersea Power Station > Bus > Lambeth Palace > Lambeth Bridge > Houses of Parliament > Westminster Abbey > Parliament Square > Whitehall > St Jame’s Park > Buckingham Palace > The Mall > St Jame’s Park (again) > Horseguards Parade > The War Rooms > Cenotaph > Downing Street > RAF memorial > New Scotland Yard > Trafalgar Square > Charring Cross > Strand > Savoy > Aldwych > Fleet Street > St Paul’s > Bus > Tower of London > St Katherine Dock > Home 17:30
Pictures etc to follow
09:30 Home > Shadwell > DLR > Bank > Central line > Queensway > Hyde Park > Kensington Palace > Royal Albert Hall > Museums etc > Thin House > Michelin Building > Sloane Avenue > Saatchi Gallery > Royal Hospital > Chelsea Bridge > Battersea Power Station > Bus > Lambeth Palace > Lambeth Bridge > Houses of Parliament > Westminster Abbey > Parliament Square > Whitehall > St Jame’s Park > Buckingham Palace > The Mall > St Jame’s Park (again) > Horseguards Parade > The War Rooms > Cenotaph > Downing Street > RAF memorial > New Scotland Yard > Trafalgar Square > Charring Cross > Strand > Savoy > Aldwych > Fleet Street > St Paul’s > Bus > Tower of London > St Katherine Dock > Home 17:30
Pictures etc to follow
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Kudos, as they say on Strava.That's a fair old stroll my knees and feet are aching just thinking about it, I would definitely have to do that distance on my pushbike since my achilles went ping.
I ruptured my Achilles on 31st May 2024. Whilst it’ll never be ‘as good as new’ I don’t have too much trouble with it, thankfully. I do though still do the exercise regime, prescribed to me by my physiotherapist through the three months of physio I went through, once the boot came off.
As usual, it started with a walk from home in Wapping to Shadwell station to catch the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) westwards to Bank, in the heart of the City of London.
A crowd pleasing one degree when I set off. Being in the middle of London, it doesn’t freeze too often here. The London plane trees, cut right back as usual at the end of autumn are already showing good signs of new growth. Fantastic trees, which suck in CO2 and give off oxygen, shedding their bark naturally:
Along the ornamental canal (this is all built on the reclaimed London Dock) leading to the repurposed Tobacco Dock, in the top left corner:
Normally, I’d follow the canal to Wapping Woods, a small green park, and then turn north to cross the Highway to Shadwell, but this time I took an earlier road north, past the former dick wall, towards St George’s in the East chuch, to walk through its chuch yard and out onto CableStreet and look at the mural:
The Victorian ‘Nature Studio’ ruin is (Tower Hamlets Council promise) going to be restored, as a part of the regeneration of the St George’s public swimming pool, which has been closed for a few years:
London has a lot of these small parks, quite separate from the large ‘Royal Parks’, two of which we will see later.
en.wikipedia.org
A crowd pleasing one degree when I set off. Being in the middle of London, it doesn’t freeze too often here. The London plane trees, cut right back as usual at the end of autumn are already showing good signs of new growth. Fantastic trees, which suck in CO2 and give off oxygen, shedding their bark naturally:
Along the ornamental canal (this is all built on the reclaimed London Dock) leading to the repurposed Tobacco Dock, in the top left corner:
Normally, I’d follow the canal to Wapping Woods, a small green park, and then turn north to cross the Highway to Shadwell, but this time I took an earlier road north, past the former dick wall, towards St George’s in the East chuch, to walk through its chuch yard and out onto CableStreet and look at the mural:
The Victorian ‘Nature Studio’ ruin is (Tower Hamlets Council promise) going to be restored, as a part of the regeneration of the St George’s public swimming pool, which has been closed for a few years:
London has a lot of these small parks, quite separate from the large ‘Royal Parks’, two of which we will see later.
St George in the East - Wikipedia
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Out onto Cable Street, past the mural which depicts the East End rising up to block the march of Mosley’s ‘Black Shirts’ fascists, in the so calked ‘Battle of Cable Street’ in 1936. Four years later, German fascist bombers would return to flatten the area in the Blitz:
Turning right onto Cable Street to walk eastwards to Shadwell Station:
Past Shadwell Fire Station. People will remember that, a few years ago, the number of London’s fire stations was reduced. This produced umpteen sworn predictions from the Fire Brigade Union of a disaster. A disaster which, touch wood, has never materialised:
Turning left onto Watney Street, you can see more evidence of buildings (very often pubs) left behind after the Blitz and now turned into shops or flats:
But first a stop off at the very good Algerian run cafe, built into the railway arches:
Then up the stairs to catch the DLR west to Bank and the City:
The driverless trains running underground from roughly Tower Hill:
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
Turning right onto Cable Street to walk eastwards to Shadwell Station:
Past Shadwell Fire Station. People will remember that, a few years ago, the number of London’s fire stations was reduced. This produced umpteen sworn predictions from the Fire Brigade Union of a disaster. A disaster which, touch wood, has never materialised:
Turning left onto Watney Street, you can see more evidence of buildings (very often pubs) left behind after the Blitz and now turned into shops or flats:
But first a stop off at the very good Algerian run cafe, built into the railway arches:
Then up the stairs to catch the DLR west to Bank and the City:
The driverless trains running underground from roughly Tower Hill:
Battle of Cable Street - Wikipedia
Cable Street Mural - Wikipedia
Docklands Light Railway - Wikipedia
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Bank Station, the last stop, has been hugely modernised, to coincide with the opening of the new Elizabeth Line, itself a big success:
The DLR line is deep, requiring two sets of escalators to reach the Central Line (itself an escalator ride to the surface) and benefits from a new moving pathway, to cut out a lot of the walking:
Each of the tube’s individual lines, crissscrossing the huge capital and beyond from north to south and east to west are colour coded. We’ll need to take the red Central Line westwards to Queensway. You do though need to know your east from your west and your north from your south, to ensure you walk the right way to the correct platform:
That said, the whole network benefits from very well designed maps of the lines and show the long distances the individual lines travel across. Epping, well beyond London in the east is a long way from West Ruislip (again, beyond London) in the west. The journey between the two, taking the Central Line, would take an hour and a half.
It being the New Year holidays, the tube is already reasonably busy, mostly with tourists off to the West End. I guess, in a sense, we are tourists, too:
The DLR line is deep, requiring two sets of escalators to reach the Central Line (itself an escalator ride to the surface) and benefits from a new moving pathway, to cut out a lot of the walking:
Each of the tube’s individual lines, crissscrossing the huge capital and beyond from north to south and east to west are colour coded. We’ll need to take the red Central Line westwards to Queensway. You do though need to know your east from your west and your north from your south, to ensure you walk the right way to the correct platform:
That said, the whole network benefits from very well designed maps of the lines and show the long distances the individual lines travel across. Epping, well beyond London in the east is a long way from West Ruislip (again, beyond London) in the west. The journey between the two, taking the Central Line, would take an hour and a half.
It being the New Year holidays, the tube is already reasonably busy, mostly with tourists off to the West End. I guess, in a sense, we are tourists, too:
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Off at Queensway and the start proper of our Wander……
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Up above ground at Queensway Statiin, we cross Bayswater Road to enter the first of two Royal Parks we’ll visit today, Kensington Gardens, divided from Hyde Park by the Serpentine lake:
At the entrance, there is a gaggle of tourists, all enjoying a guided tour on bikes, conducted by a Irishman:
As the map shows, the park is divided into a series of ‘walks’. We’ll go straight ahead to Kensington Palace:
It’s not too warm in the shade, as my graffiti shows:
The Victorians and Edwardians did like a memorial or two. This one is the ‘Time Flies’ Clock Tower and Memorial by the Elfin Oak:
And on, past the Round Pond to Kensington Palace:
en.wikipedia.org
www.londonremembers.com
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
You could spend a full morning or even a full day, just visiting Kensington Gardens:
www.royalparks.org.uk
All of London’s 5,000 acres of Royal Parks are wonderful.
To be continued…..
At the entrance, there is a gaggle of tourists, all enjoying a guided tour on bikes, conducted by a Irishman:
As the map shows, the park is divided into a series of ‘walks’. We’ll go straight ahead to Kensington Palace:
It’s not too warm in the shade, as my graffiti shows:
The Victorians and Edwardians did like a memorial or two. This one is the ‘Time Flies’ Clock Tower and Memorial by the Elfin Oak:
And on, past the Round Pond to Kensington Palace:
Kensington Gardens - Wikipedia
Time Flies clock tower and drinking fountain
This inscription fails to name the person(s) who erected this substantial memorial, nor does it name the dedicatees. The British Newspapers Archive holds The Graphic, 25 December 1909 which has an image of the shelter and tells that the children's playground was laid out this year; that this...
www.londonremembers.com
Elfin Oak - Wikipedia
Round Pond (London) - Wikipedia
Kensington Palace - Wikipedia
You could spend a full morning or even a full day, just visiting Kensington Gardens:
Kensington Gardens
Kensington Gardens is one of London’s eight Royal Parks covering an area of 265 acres of old and new park pastimes and green space.
All of London’s 5,000 acres of Royal Parks are wonderful.
To be continued…..
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I was on a mission enough as it was 
Kensington Palace behind us, it’s time to take one of the ‘walks’, past the bandstand, diagonally across the Kensington Gardens to the Royal Albert Hall:
It’s sometimes possible to forget that people live all around the park and lead lives as ‘normal’ as families in Cornwall or Norfolk or Northumberland:
We can now turn left on South Carriage Drive, past the park gates:
Giving us our first sight of the recently fully restored Albert Memorial, opposite the rear of the Royal Albert Hall:
The memorial is high end Victoriana at its finest, with the four different corner pieces having depictions of what I take to be the ‘Peoples of the Empire and Dominions’:
Turning to our right, there’s the back of the Royal Albert Hall:
But we can take a look at the front too and at the two statues which flank the main entrance, both added later:
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
It’s sometimes possible to forget that people live all around the park and lead lives as ‘normal’ as families in Cornwall or Norfolk or Northumberland:
We can now turn left on South Carriage Drive, past the park gates:
Giving us our first sight of the recently fully restored Albert Memorial, opposite the rear of the Royal Albert Hall:
The memorial is high end Victoriana at its finest, with the four different corner pieces having depictions of what I take to be the ‘Peoples of the Empire and Dominions’:
Turning to our right, there’s the back of the Royal Albert Hall:
But we can take a look at the front too and at the two statues which flank the main entrance, both added later:
Albert Memorial - Wikipedia
Royal Albert Hall - Wikipedia
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We are now in South Kensington, London SW7 and passing by the Royal College of Music and the entrance of the Royal School of Mines:
I often like to read the inscriptions (this one unfortunately a bit obscured) but still putting Great Britain plc into the context of the time. The inscription on the Royal School of Mines is from 1909, when Eire was still part of ‘us’ and we still ‘owned’ India:
Wandering on and turning southwards on Exhibition Road, we pass Imperial College and the rear of the Science Museum (well soon get to the V&A) all evidencing the explosion of interest in science, nature and the arts that the Victorians encouraged:
Along with the the eponymous Victoria and Albert Museum:
And views of their fronts on the Cromwell Road:
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
I often like to read the inscriptions (this one unfortunately a bit obscured) but still putting Great Britain plc into the context of the time. The inscription on the Royal School of Mines is from 1909, when Eire was still part of ‘us’ and we still ‘owned’ India:
Wandering on and turning southwards on Exhibition Road, we pass Imperial College and the rear of the Science Museum (well soon get to the V&A) all evidencing the explosion of interest in science, nature and the arts that the Victorians encouraged:
Along with the the eponymous Victoria and Albert Museum:
And views of their fronts on the Cromwell Road:
Royal College of Music - Wikipedia
Royal School of Mines - Wikipedia
Imperial College London - Wikipedia
Science Museum, London - Wikipedia
Natural History Museum, London - Wikipedia
Victoria and Albert Museum - Wikipedia
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You could comfortably spend two or three days, just visiting the the museums alone. But we have to move on….
To be continued….
To be continued….
The Albert Hall ticked off, we can move on still southwards, along Thurloe Square and the views of the hundreds of chimneys which used to belch smoke into the London air:
Which brings us to the oddity of the ‘Thin House’ on the corner of Thurloe Square and South Terrace:
Carrying on, you see the hotchpotch of buildings, the every present chimneys and the ‘renewal’ of London taking place:
en.wikipedia.org
Which brings us to the oddity of the ‘Thin House’ on the corner of Thurloe Square and South Terrace:
Carrying on, you see the hotchpotch of buildings, the every present chimneys and the ‘renewal’ of London taking place:
Thin House - Wikipedia
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On from the ‘Thin House’ and next up is the ‘Michelin Building’ on the junction of Pelham Street and Sloane Avenue:
Then swerving Sloane Avenue itself, let’s take Draycott Avenue instead:
Past an old favourite restaurant:
And shops / services catering not always for brand new:
And on past the ‘Admiral Cod’ (or just ‘The Cod’) pub in Mossop Street:
Down past the primary school (there’s been one on the site since 1902) and a local taking her dearly loved cat somewhere:
Again it’s the mixture of architecture and the pollarded plain trees that often catches one’s eye:
Across Kings Road and past the former Duke of York’s HQ:
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
Our next destination is coming up…..
Then swerving Sloane Avenue itself, let’s take Draycott Avenue instead:
Past an old favourite restaurant:
And shops / services catering not always for brand new:
And on past the ‘Admiral Cod’ (or just ‘The Cod’) pub in Mossop Street:
Down past the primary school (there’s been one on the site since 1902) and a local taking her dearly loved cat somewhere:
Again it’s the mixture of architecture and the pollarded plain trees that often catches one’s eye:
Across Kings Road and past the former Duke of York’s HQ:
Michelin House - Wikipedia
Duke of York's Headquarters - Wikipedia
Our next destination is coming up…..
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The first two locals out for a stroll:
Not many cities have a private cricket square, a football pitch and tennis courts right at their centre. If we include the HAC’s sports field in the City, London has two. This is Burton Court, an adjunct of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, home of the Chelsea Pensioners:
Arriving at one of the hospital’s gates, these three residents asked me if I knew about the new cafe and the museum that has been moved. I knew the old museum but didn’t know that it had moved or about the new cafe. They were kind enough to give me directions:
It was a short walk, past the front of the building and into the former stable yard:
It really is very good and the museum (it’s free) is worth a look, too:
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
To be continued…..
Not many cities have a private cricket square, a football pitch and tennis courts right at their centre. If we include the HAC’s sports field in the City, London has two. This is Burton Court, an adjunct of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, home of the Chelsea Pensioners:
Arriving at one of the hospital’s gates, these three residents asked me if I knew about the new cafe and the museum that has been moved. I knew the old museum but didn’t know that it had moved or about the new cafe. They were kind enough to give me directions:
It was a short walk, past the front of the building and into the former stable yard:
It really is very good and the museum (it’s free) is worth a look, too:
Burton's Court - Wikipedia
Royal Hospital Chelsea - Wikipedia
To be continued…..
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