Thames Path 2: Tower Bridge to Hammersmith

Date: Saturday, 5th January 2013

Route: Tower Bridge to Hammersmith Bridge via Thames Path

Distance: 11.5 miles

The second stage of the Thames Path starts on the pavements of the City of London and ends on a gravelly towpath amidst greenery, passing some of the most iconic London landmarks and bridges en route.

The first 45 minutes cover the area from Tower Bridge to Westminster, passing HMS Belfast, the Golden Hinde, the Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern, Southwark Cathedral, the South Bank Centre, the London Eye and many other historic buildings and places of interest. You could quite easily spend a lot more time meandering along this section of the walk and stopping to see the sights, but we were keen to press on today before this busy and tourist-friendly section of the Thames Path became too busy.

Once on the far side of Westminster bridge, the path runs in front of St Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth Palace and (rather surprisingly) the MI5 Building before hitting the slightly less picturesque surroundings of Vauxhall and the stretch that leads to Battersea Power Station.

As with the first section of the walk, there are a few diversions around building sites and in front of riverside developments, but there is more greenery too, particularly in Battersea Park and Wandsworth Park. Once past Putney Bridge, the river becomes the domain of rowers and sailors, the path becomes more rough and ready and the roads become more distant, giving you the feeling that you are leaving the city behind, albeit only until the distinctive Harrods Furniture Depository (now converted into flats) and the Hammersmith Bridge come into view.

As you walk from Tower Bridge to Hammersmith Bridge you walk over, under or alongside a variety of road and rail bridges, including London Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, the Millennium ("wibbly-wobbly") Bridge and the delicate Albert Bridge, as well as the ghosts of bridges past, columns sunk into the Thames that once supported bridges but now stand alongside their more robust replacements.

If we only walked the first two sections of the Thames Path, we would have seen a big slice of riverside London, from sights and flats to industry and wastelands - now it feels as though we are about to leave the bustle of the city behind us and get out into the countryside, although the source of the river is still a long way away!