The Thames Path

The mighty River Thames has long been key to making London the city it is today. A vital
trading route, it’s played a central role in many of our country’s most historically-important moments, and remains a strategic as well as an increasingly
busy location for both commerce and leisure.
The Thames Path National Trail – at one end a narrow rural waterway, at the other, a massive expanse of industry and commerce – runs for 180-plus miles from the river’s source at Kemble in Gloucestershire to the Thames Flood Barrier at Woolwich.
One of the delights of The Thames Path is that, in the city, it offers a choice of walking routes either side of the river – the Tower Bridge to Thames Barrier section, for example, on the south bank route is 10 miles, while the north bank route to Island Gardens is 5.5 miles. The start of the latter skirts St Katharine Docks, ahead of Wapping and the inland water basins of Shadwell and Limehouse (below) before reaching Canary Wharf and the final stretch to Island Gardens, mostly along broad promenades beside modern apartments. In contrast, the south bank route starts with a glimpse of how the Victorian docklands would once have looked, before passing through residential areas on the way to historic Greenwich, the ‘home of time’. Highlights include Rotherhithe, from where the Pilgrim Fathers departed to America in 1620, plus Greenwich itself, where working wharves give an industrial flavour to the area, and decaying warehouses serve as a reminder that London once was the busiest port in the world.
Greenwich to the Thames Barrier is a further 4.5 miles and from here a 10-mile trail extends the walk further east, linking the Thames Path to the London LOOP at Erith, after which these two routes join the Cray Riverway, to the Ness.