Strange tales from the River Thames: A Self-Guided Walk along the Southbank

Description

A Walk Beyond Time And Place

A walk along the Southbank of the River Thames is something tourists love to do. It includes many famous sights and views in a lively and busy area and it also leads along the “brown god” Father Thames, the river that has been here since the beginning of London and may have been one of the reasons for its foundation and therefore has many strange tales to tell. This walk leads you along a familiar and beloved area, but offers a view of the river and the city that you have not had before and will never have again afterwards…

A self-guided walk along the Southbank – This is the tourists’ companion to a familiar route

I never really feel like arriving in London if I have not been to the river Thames. Many of the guests in my interview series TALKS BEYOND TIME AND PLACE have named the bridges that cross the river and the views from there as their favourite spots in London. Londoners love their river. It has been here since before there was a city and has seen all its development. The River Thames flows for 215 miles (346km) from Gloucestershire to the North Sea. We are focussing on the stretch between Westminster Bridge and Tower Bridge and listen to London’s “liquid history”. The river has played a key role – be it cultural, economic, political or social – since the Romans founded Londinium on its banks two thousand years ago.

This self-guided walk comes as a downloadable guide book that includes photographs and maps.

The tour

Start: Westminster (Underground Station)

End: Tower Hill (Underground Station)

Duration: Approximately 2 hours 30 minutes

The self-guided Thames Walk includes:

• The story of a MP who decided to swim to work through the Thames
• The London Eye and how the Thames almost prevented its construction to be finished on time
• Historic Thames tales from the exhausting premiere of Handel’s Water Music after which many musicians collapeds to the “The Great Stink” that made life in London unbearable and a modern-day river awash with cocaine
• A selection of designs for Tower Bridge (and why many tourists mistake it for London Bridge)
• Why the sight of a polar bear at the Thames by The Tower of London was nothing unusual to 13th century Londoners