Day trip to London

[whole diary]

[froome]

Some great photos, thank you for sharing
I was in London last week to see Phantom of the Opera, but got to do the Tower Bridge tour, also found a "secret" path (found on Tiktok) opposite the bridge that takes you down to the edge of the Thames, I got some great photos of the bridge opening from the waters edge

One other building I visited was the Sky Garden (top of the walkie talkie building) free entry but advised to book a slot in advance, has views all over London

I was in the Wapping area, no far from Tower Bridge, several weeks ago, and found a very narrow path leading to very steep steps down onto a tiny beach by the Thames. The beach stopped where the water met the buildings a few yards away, and it was quite frightening seeing the erosion of the buildings back walls and foundations by the river. I went back up, and realised that about 20 minutes later the river was flowing fast just where I had been standing on the beach.

[froome]

I hope your guests enjoyed the trip Graham. It would be interesting to hear their viewpoint.

The Special Party Routemaster photo reminded me of a special trip we did in London several years ago. It is possible that I've told this story here before, in which case apologies, but it is a trip I would recommend, despite some mishaps.

When my eldest brother reached 75, he invited us to join him on a day's trip around London in a green Routemaster, on a trip organised by the National Trust. It was to visit various places around London that are examples of brutalist architecture. I'm not a fan of this type of architecture, but he was, and it was fascinating, not just for the places we visited, but for the trip itself, seeing much of London I didn't know, including the 19th floor of a tower block in east London overlooking the Thames, and somebody's flat in the Barbican - the latter wasn't actually part of the trip, but it went to the Barbican and the person whose flat it was was also on the trip, and invited us in.

The main mishap was that it overran by at least 3 hours, and we finished quite late in the evening as darkness fell, somewhere in the wilds of south London (we were supposed to be dropped off in north-west London!), and had to make our own way to the nearest station to make our own ways back to wherever we needed to be!

[stuving]

I'm still trying to work out where on the river bank could be "opposite the bridge". Surely the only thing opposite Tower Bridge is ... the other end of Tower bridge!

[grahame]

I hope your guests enjoyed the trip Graham. It would be interesting to hear their viewpoint.

They did - utter amazement at so many things in London.   Highlights were riding in the front upstairs seats on double deckers as we went across London.   Low points were perhaps the train noise on the Northern Line extension from Kennington to Battersea Power station and again on the Northern line the sardine conditions from Leicester Square to Tottenham Court Road.   The other thing that took them by surprise was just how soon our return train pulled out of Paddington - on time at 18:28 as I had rushed them onto that as the next Didcot and Swindon service rather that awaiting the 18:32 which offers the official (and tighter) connection.  "Defensive journey planning" to me is getting the first available service to your change point.

They want to go back and see more of London, including going into a carefully selected few attractions.

I will point out that these are not in any way folks interested in the train stuff, so very much "passenger view".   So much new ... as we stood on platform 3 in Swindon, our train was announced for platform 3 and "where's that" they asked.  "Here" says I. "No - this is platform 2" they explain, pointing to the sign just above our heads that says "platform 2" and has an arrow on the end of it pointing towards the bay. Things like that are a real reminder of just how much we take for granted on home turf.

[Mark A]

Ah, stairs. They're what London had before bus stops and not only on the Thames as before many were covered over, certain tributaries made a contribution to passenger transport, the Fleet being an obvious candidate. Whether it would have been possible to pick up a wherry at the likes of Battle Bridge, outside the present day Kings Cross station, I don't know.

Londoners must have wished there was an App. The watermen would have been up for that too - and they'd have certainly seen off the likes of Uber.

https://www.twotunnels.org.uk/greenwood/map_e8o.html

Mark

[Bmblbzzz]

If the "sardine conditions" on the Northern Line are those in the photo, I think your guests will have experienced far worse back home on a daily basis! Good trip.

[grahame]

If the "sardine conditions" on the Northern Line are those in the photo, I think your guests will have experienced far worse back home on a daily basis! Good trip.

No, they're not - that was before Leicester Square where the crowds piled in; it was rammed thereafter, so much that I was concerned that some of our party might not get off.  Our particular guests - no - exceptionally they will not have seen the same thing in their daily lives.

[Phantom]

I'm still trying to work out where on the river bank could be "opposite the bridge". Surely the only thing opposite Tower Bridge is ... the other end of Tower bridge!

Walk down the steps down to Shad Thames walkway and then walk past the little beer garden on your left.
You will see a doorway on your left with steps going upwards - called Horsleydown Steps
Walk up the steps through a gateway then at the top you will see the steps go down to a little beach

The last few steps aren't there but it is not too difficult to step down, I timed it with a bridge lift so got a different view to normal
But as above be VERY mindful of how fast the tide moves, I was only there 10-15 minutes and in that time the area I was stood in was surrounded by water, a few minutes later and I would have been very wet, and this is coming from someone who has lived in WsM all my life so used to fast moving tides

At the end of my review there are two pictures from the area, I put more on my FB
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g186338-d187552-r846864950-Tower_Bridge-London_England.html

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Profile/Phantom74?fid=edc9f7e3-1d97-499e-af50-1c3fda245434