Thames Path - Battersea to Limehouse and on to Stratford

Today was Day 3 of this year's 3-day walk along part of the Thames Path. Following on from last year's 4 days walking West from Walton-on-Thames (see here), this year we started in the same place, but went in the opposite direction. Today we walked from Battersea to Limehouse and then from there to Stratford for our journeys home.

Organised by Joyce, this is what she said...

"If you joined our 4 day break last March, then you will have already walked 40 miles of the Thames Path- one of 16 National Trails in the UK. The Trails - National Trails. You will remember that we alighted at Walton on Thames train station and over the 4 days made our way over to Shiplake - 40 lovely miles.  On this break I am hoping to add another 28- 34 miles as we have such good walkers ‘in tow’. 

Tuesday 28^th March TBC but one idea is to take a train to Battersea and maybe walk to Tower Bridge (6 miles) or further? . We would see about 11 different bridges  – make our way home from there. Obviously carrying our light rucksacks? "

This was our route today.

Here are a few of my photos.

We returned to Battersea Park station. Unlike yesterday when we had sunshine and blue skies, it was rather wet again.

We passed the famous Battersea Dogs Home.

We returned to Battersea Power Station to explore a bit more....

...and read the timeline.

But we didn't linger as the rain eased off for a while, so we thought we'd make the most of it. after skirting some new developments, we returned to the river at Nine Elms Pier.

The tide was out again.

On William Henry Walk a little to the west of Vauxhall Bridge we passed  a bas-relief mural by Stephen Duncan which casts Old Father Thames as the master of the fish. 

All along the embankment between Vauxhall and Blackfriars bridges are these famous 'dolphin' lamp posts. This one was cast in 1964 with Neptune in the centre, his trident on the right and the caduceus, Hermes’s winged staff, with two intertwined snakes on the left. Read more about them here.

Now we were approaching Westminster passing government offices and the Houses of Parliament.

We walked along the National COVID Memorial Wall of 150,000 hearts.

It was pretty wet again now as we passed the London Eye.

Even so, the queue was long and rain ponchos were much in evidence.

We took refuge at the Royal Festival Hall café for our drinks stop. I'd last been here in 2012 on a Friends of Bury County Music Service trip.

It was still raining as we continued along the South Bank past the National Theatre.

Some more familiar sights... St. Paul's Cathedral.

The Globe theatre.

We passed a busker under Southwark bridge.

The shard.

The ruins of Winchester Palace..

The Golden Hind.

HMS Belfast.

And finally Tower Bridge.

Here we took stock. It was still raining but we weren't too wet. It was still quite early so we thought we would have time to continue to Limehouse Basin along the Thames Path and then walk to Stratford where we could our trains home.

We crossed Tower Bridge to walk on the other side.

The city skyscraper looked impressive from the bridge.

We passed through St. Katherines Dock, which I had visited after my Crossword Central get together last May as I killed some time before my train home.

We continued towards Wapping where Julian, our social secretary, had located a suitable stop for lunch - The Town of Ramsgate pub.

Onwards past the wharves of Wapping....

...past Shadwell Basin...

...and this shaft for the Rotherhithe tunnel....

...we reached Limehouse Basin, where we started our Regent's Canal walk in July 2021.

Here we left the Thames Path and took the Limehouse Cut towards Stratford. The canal is at the heart of the area’s industrial heritage, dating back to 1766. It links the River Thames at Limehouse Basin to the River Lee in Bromley-by-Bow.

This is Bow Locks. Bow creek on the other side is tidal. This marks the start of the River Lee Navigation.

We passed the 18th Century tide mill House Mill,

Nobody here at Mill Meads.

Then it was into Sratford and our final destination.

I enjoyed a sit down with a coffee here while waiting for my train home. After carrying everything on my back all day, I was quite weary. And now I've totted it up, including Friday's Angles Way Part 7, I see from my steps count that I've done 78 miles in the last five days. No wonder my feet were sore!

Thank-you Joyce for organising and leading us and to the rest of the group for the company.

You can see more details of our route here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr.