The area between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge on the south bank of the River Thames is known as Queens Walk. There’s quite a lot going on this side of the river although some of the buildings aren’t that inspiring. As you walk down the steps from Waterloo Bridge the first thing you see is the ugly, concrete floors of the National Theatre which may have looked good on a 1960’s drawing board but needs knocking down in the 21st century. I’m sure there’s some good stuff going on inside but a ‘national’ theatre needs a building to do it justice.
Close the National Theatre, under Waterloo Bridge is the National Film Theatre, run by the British Film Institute and showing independent and foreign language films. Outside is a second hand book market where they also have a nice range of lithographs of old maps if you fancy something between £30-100.
Just west of Wateloo Bridge is the Royal Festival Hall and the Queen Elizabeth Hall and if you start walking east you’ll pass the London Television Centre before getting to the Gabriel’s Wharf where there’s nice area full of restaurants, cafes, and unique little craft shops selling handmade interiors, fashion, jewellery and art, you can also rent bikes from a shop there.
Along Queen’s Walk there are a number of small piers, about 20-30m long, that go out into the river and people use as a quiet place to eat a lunchtime sandwich.
Just up from Gabriel’s Wharf is the Oxo Tower Wharf, an art deco style warehouse formerly used for the manufacture of Oxo beef stock cubes. It’s been converted and now houses the well known rooftop Oxo Tower Restaurant with its great views of the river.
On the lower floors are apartments, specialist design shops for ceramics, glass, lighting, furniture, fashion and on the ground floor in the gallery@oxo is currently a good exhibition of beautiful landscape photography taken all over the world, a lot of it highlighting the effect of global warming.
Worth going in but if you like the look of the framed photos the cheapest was about £500 going up to £1000.
Queen’s Walk carries on along to Tate Modern and there are a number of pubs on the way where you can get a pint to keep you going.
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