London's Quietly Brilliant Riverside Village.If you’re a Rotherhithe local – then apologies in advance. I’m about to big-up your quiet little corner of London. In my opinion, Rotherhithe (or Old Rotherhithe as it’s often called), doesn’t toot its own flute nearly enough. Just a 15-20 minute walk from the hustle and bustle of central London, Rotherhithe is a historic little village bursting with lovely sights, interesting places to visit and great places to eat and drink. Think cobbled streets, converted Georgian and Victorian warehouses and plenty of historic buildings that somehow escaped the heavy bombing that flattened so much of London during the Second World War. First things first – how to get there Getting to Rotherhithe from central London couldn’t be easier. My suggestion would be to take the scenic route and walk along the River Thames. It’s only a mile and a half from Tower Bridge. Or simply hop on the overground line and jump off again at Rotherhithe station. What to see and do in Rotherhithe Here are a few of my favourite places to visit – all within a stone’s throw of one another.  1. The Brunel Museum Tucked beside the Thames is a museum marking the entrance to the world’s first tunnel under a navigable river - a feat masterminded by Marc Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The Brunel Museum is easy to miss from the street, but pop inside and you’ll discover the shaft where workers descended to dig the Thames Tunnel. What they achieved here changed engineering forever and paved the way (or tunnelled it…) for the Underground tube network that Londoners rely on today.  2. The Mayflower Rotherhithe’s most famous pub - and one that gets a mention in my Fun London Facts book (page 291, “A Pint and an American Stamp Please”). This is where the first group of the Pilgrim Fathers were picked up before the Mayflower sailed down to Plymouth in 1620 and then onward to the New World. Inside, it's all sloping floors, creaking beams and candlelight. Outside, there’s a riverside deck, perfect for a pint whilst enjoying one of the best Thames views in London.  3. St Mary the Virgin This beautiful 18th-century parish church is worth a visit for several reasons - not least because Mayflower Captain Christopher Jones is buried in the churchyard. Step inside and you’ll find: Old box pews that are still intact and a three-decker pulpit - both of which are a rarity these days; four interior columns that aren’t stone at all, but ships’ masts and a roof structure that looks like the upturned hull of a boat. It’s a church built by a maritime community, for a maritime community.  4. Dr Salter’s Daydream Just a few minutes’ walk away, beside the river, is one of London’s most moving public artworks. Dr Alfred Salter (1873 - 1945) was a local MP and philanthropist who dedicated his life to improving conditions for the poor of Bermondsey and Rotherhithe. Dr Salter’s Daydream is a statue, that depicts him daydreaming while watching his daughter Joyce and their family cat - and the story behind them is well worth reading before you go.  5. King Edward III’s Manor House Right beside the Salter statue is the atmospheric remains of a 14th-century royal manor house, built for King Edward III around 1350. Today, only the stone foundations survive, but they offer a rare glimpse of medieval London - a reminder that this riverside stretch was once a strategic and desirable royal retreat. You can look down into the site from the walkway and imagine the Thames as it once was: quieter, wider and filled with royal barges rather than Uber Boats.  Rotherhithe is one of those rare pockets of London where layers of history unfold – maritime, royal, religious, social and industrial. It’s calm, characterful and in my opinion, completely underrated – a place that seems to have somehow slipped through the cracks of time. Check out my short video – to see what sights and delights you’re in, then go visit it yourself.   
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Last Monday (Easter Monday Bank holiday) I didn’t have walk booked in, so just by way of a change, decided to go on a walk; the difference being that I wasn’t planning on saying anything to anyone apart from myself. It was also threatening to be the most clement day of the year. Quite remarkably I’d never been to the Thames Barrier (central London’s flood defence), so struck upon the idea of walking from Tower Bridge to the Thames Barrier along the river Thames; a walk of about 11 miles. I parked my bike by the Tower of London and headed down past St Katharine Docks, up the stairs by Dead Man’s Hole and across Tower Bridge to the south side of the Thames. The old riverside warehouses, wharfs and docks of Shad Thames have been turned in to flats, apartments, shops and restaurants, but as you wander through you can still very much imagine the area as it was when Charles Dickens described it as “the filthiest, strangest and most extraordinary of the many localities that are hidden in London”. Because the tide was out, the river bed at St Saviour’s Dock was a field of silty mud, much as it was when Bill Sykes fell in to it an died in this very place, in Dickens’ ‘Oliver Twist’. St Saviour’s Dock marks the place where the River Neckinger (a subterranean river) meets the Thames, dividing the surrounding areas in to Shad Thames and Jacob’s Island. The name ‘Neckinger’ apparently derives from “Devil’s Neckinger” or “Neckerchief”, a reference to the noose used to hang the pirates at the mouth of the dock, an area notorious in the 18th century for moored vessels being attacked and robbed.  Continuing towards Rotherhithe I came across a tableau of bronze statues; an elder gentleman seated on a bench, a woman resting on a spade to his left, their gaze drawn towards a young girl leaning on the riverside wall on which perches a bronze cat. The ensemble is called ‘Dr Salter’s Daydream’ and references Dr Alfred Salter and his wife Ada who towards the end of the Victorian period dedicated their lives to caring for London’s poor through social work or in the case of Dr Salter (an early pioneer of the NHS), free medical care for the poor of Bermondsey. It would seem that their tireless dedication to their chosen cause ultimately cost them their only child Joyce, who died in 1910 of Scarlet Fever. After passing through narrow walkways that combine modern housing with converted warehouses I found myself in what felt rather like a rural country churchyard. It is in fact what could be called ‘historic Rotherhithe’, dominated by St Mary’s Church. There are a number of beautiful, if not slightly dilapidated Georgian buildings surrounding the church, some of which are obviously being restored. A little café nestled inside the old Watch Tower, it’s customers basking in the sun in the adjoining park. My guess is that the main draw to this particular enclave on the river is The Mayflower, a sure fire hit of a pub with Londoners and tourists a like (assuming they can find it). In 1620 a group of Protestants (known as the Pilgrim Fathers) set sail from Rotherhithe to Plymouth to pick up more passengers before embarking on a journey to the New World. The original mid 16th century pub, which the crew and passengers of The Mayflower would have known had variously been called ‘The Shippe’ and ‘The Spread Eagle’. The name of the famous ship passed to the pub in 1957 after it had been restored following a direct hit from a doodlebug in World War II. I’d never actually been in to The Mayflower, so took the liberty of stopping for a quick drink. I can imagine that American tourists (especially those with ancestors who were aboard the original ship) start salivating upon entering the cramped and atmospheric boozer positively festooned with all sorts of paraphernalia. They even sell American stamps.  After leaving the pub, I immediately found myself outside The Brunel Museum, marking the southern side of the Thames Tunnel. The Brunel’s are quite a famous family, you could perhaps say, an engineering dynasty. Opened in 1843, the Thames Tunnel was the first tunnel to be built underneath a river anywhere in the world. On its first public day of opening, it is said that 50,000 people each paid a penny to walk beneath the river. Three months later, half the population of London had descended the steps to marvel at what was being described as ‘the 8th wonder of the world’. The museum itself with its prominent chimney resides in the Engine House, built by Sir Marc Brunel to house the engines that drove the pumps that in turn kept the Thames Tunnel dry. As well as a permanent exhibition about the construction of the tunnel, there is, as you would expect, much information about Marc Brunel and his son, the extravagantly named, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The Brunel Museum hosts regular concerts, gigs, events, guided walks and trips down in to the tunnel, so keep an eye on their website to see what’s occurring. Continuing eastwards, the imposing financial structures sprouting out of Canary Wharf dominate the skyline. The site was a hugely important dockland area that was basically obliterated during World War II. If you do happen to find yourself in that area, then you should definitely pop in to the Docklands Museum, which as part of the Museum of London will give you a fascinating insight in to the area before it became a purpose built finance district. Canary Wharf is situated on the north end of an area known as the Isle Of Dogs and due to the huge curve of the river at this point, the imposing array of financial buildings seemed to follow me for most of the remainder of the day, like the eyes of portrait painting following you across a room. I passed the Surrey Docks farm, one of London’s numerous city farms, built on the site of an 18th century shipyard. Outside in a display case they had a great collection of porcelain and ceramics found on the Thames foreshore next to the farm. This stretch of the river is littered with the occasional remnants of an industrial and shipping past, as well as the odd canon towards Deptford on the site of the old Tudor docks where Sir Francis Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I for circumnavigating the world and stealing lots of loot from the Spanish. I also noticed references to the 17th century diarist and Naval administrator Samuel Pepys and fellow diarist and enthusiastic gardener John Evelyn, remembered in Pepys Park and Evelyn Street.  At this point I had to go off piste through the council blocks of Deptford and what the writer Russell Hoban would have described as ‘low budget drinking clubs’ as a vast swathe of riverside land is being developed or at least turned in to a building site. Before I knew it, I was approaching the throngs of bank holidayers swarming like seagulls around the base of the Cutty Sark. The transition from Deptford to Greenwich was really quite startling, as if someone had flung back a curtain and pushed me in to the midst of what my mother might call ‘Paddy’s Market’, full of ice creams, tourists and Morris Dancers. Here, I shall end 'Part 1' of this minor stroll along the Thames from Tower Bridge to the Thames Barrier, and resume again, beginning in Greenwich in 'Part 2'.  Deptford  View from Tower Bridge of the direction in which I'm heading  Dr Salter's Daydream  Historic Rotherhithe & St Mary's Church  The Brunel Museum  Canary Wharf On Saturday morning I had my second ever 'Hen Doo'. Due to logistical reasons, we did a different route from the usual Saturday morning walk and I met the ladies by Liverpool Street station for a walk around Spitalfields, Brick Lane and Shoreditch, an area positively oozing with history, character and street art. I was very pleased that they turned out be a lovely, cordial, well behaved bunch (not what you hear about Hen parties), so thanks very much to Josephine, Karen, Gillian and co. Here they are in Corbett Place, nestling within the Old Truman Brewery, just off Brick Lane.  The Old Truman Brewery In the afternoon I did my usual St Paul's to Monument walk and had a really nice group of ten people, mainly hailing from NORTH America (Jen), so basically a mix of Canadians, Americans, a couple of New Zealanders thrown in for good measure and Chang from Taiwan ... oh, yes and Mandy from South Africa (although she didn't sound remotely South African). There was even one English guy. Here they are in Borough Market, just to the south of London Bridge in the shadow of Southwark Cathedral.  It's quite strange, because I don't remember John there on the right, being quite that tall. Jeepers, he's turned in to a giant. Sundays walk got rained off, so I went to the Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe instead. It's a tiny, slip of a museum inside the original engine house of Marc Brunel's '8th wonder of the world', the first ever tunnel in the world to go underneath a river, and the only project on which Marc and his son Isambard worked together. Although it's pretty small (only costs £3) they organise lots of events and guided tours and Madame Bowl Of Chalk informs me that on selected days you can go down in to the tunnel shaft and former subterranean grand entrance hall.  Brunel Museum - Rotherhithe Some Awards
Group most unlikely to say 'Neil', 'Wedding' or ' Dress' - Hen Party Tallest - John (obviously) Only one not to wear a coat - John Best Moustache - No Winners |
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