14 September 2013

Walking from Vauxhall to Rotherhithe via ten pubs

There were several parts to The Peter Ackroyd Thames Pub Crawl including the walk itself, the tales shared with friends and the ten pubs we rested in. These are some of the pictures to go with the tales.



The walk started for the others at Westminster but I began my journey at Vauxhall after catching a train there from Richmond. This place has many memories for me.

For a while I worked at London Borough of Lambeth and that meant visiting the planning department who were in one of the blocks in the middle. Not one of those facing the river, obviously, but round the back facing the station.

After that I worked for a about a year for EDF Energy in Victoria and that allowed me to walk over the bridge every morning.



The EDF Energy London Eye is such a prominent feature on the Thames that it had to feature here.I like the construction of the Eye, rather than its plain circular shape, and a close-up shows that best.



We crossed the river several times including a north to south crossing on the Hungerford Bridge. I recall when this was a narrow bridge on one side only and the new bridge is one of the many things London has to thank Ken Livingstone for. Boris has given us a cable car that goes from nowhere to nowhere.



Another bridge but one we did not cross. The main point of this picture is the changing London skyline. I've taken similar pictures several times before but new this time are the Cheese-Grater and the Walkie-Talkie (a.k.a. the Fryscrapper).



Back on the north bank we passed this beauty in glass between London Bridge and Billingsgate. This is a part of London that not many people go to because, apart from offices, there is nothing there. I'm not even sure that I've been there before and I walk everywhere.



On the other side of the water, HMS Belfast is well disguised against the blue offices of More London behind it.



It was getting dark as we approached Tower Bridge and it was even darker when we finally crossed it as it was raised as we were just a few meters from the centre and we were sent back and had to wait for the ships opera to finish.



To get to Tower Bridge we had to pass the Tower of London with its steadfast wall of bricks. I like bricks.



It is hard to miss the Shard and I had taken a few pictures of it at various points along the river before this one. I like this one best because of the curved blocks in front of it, the office lights and the grey sky.



I took this picture on Tower Bridge while waiting for it to open. This is looking east towards the badlands. The floating lights in the centre are on cranes and are further evidence of the constant rebuilding and expansion of London.



Finally, in Rotherhithe in the dark and a look back towards the City on the north side.

I took lots and lots of photographs during the walk. It was a struggle to cut them down to just 96 for Facebook and even harder to cut that down further to 11 for this article. I love walking through London, especially by the river, and I hope that these pictures give some clue as to why that is.

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