London Walks - Mayflower to Brunel's Tunnel
As I'm still in London, I'll be posting stuff I get up to over here before I move over to Florence.
And as I said in my first post, I plan to make the most of my time in London - just incase I don't come back! So you will see a few posts popping up about my days out in London. I've now finished work so I have lots of time on my hands :)
Today I went on one of the guided walks www.walks.com offer. With well over 10 guided walks a day, it's a little bit overwhelming to decide which one to go on, but as I know very little about this area of London and that I am desperate to visit the Brunel Tunnel, I travelled down to discover what Rotherhithe had to offer.
With a no booking policy, and only £10 for around a 2 hour walk, it's such a great way to learn about certain areas of London from very knowledgable guides.
The Mayflower to Brunel's Tunnel walk
The walk started out at Bermondsey tube station - already an area I'm not familiar with (like anywhere South of the river). Starting off with some interesting facts, how certain roads got their names, points of history and random stories, we then reached the River Thames. Tim, our excellent and engaging guide for the walk, then went on to talk about what seemed like the whole history of London! Pointing out land marks, explaining certain points in history and how the South of the river was back when Charles Dickens, Turner, Whistler and Brunel walked the banks...We then worked our way through Rotherhide, a quiet area which seems like a tiny village, miles from inner city London. It's an area steeped in history, and with help from Tim, it wasn't hard to imagine all the stories and events in history he was describing so well.
The tour finished at The Brunel Museum, where we were led down the original shaft which marked the start of the construction of the tunnel back in 1825, by Marc Isambard Brunel (father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel). With ever increasing traffic on the Thames, a solution was needed to ease the congestion, thus began the building of the first tunnel underneath a river. Now used by the Overground, still connecting Rotherhithe and Wapping, we were entertained by Tim enlightening us about all its history in its entirety.
After seeing the Captain Kidd pub across the river earlier on in our walk (and being told the history behind it) I decided to take the overground to Wapping to pay a quick visit - the famous pirate, Captain Kidd was held beneath this pub whilst he awaited his fate - beer selection from Samuel Smith, and sat right over the Thames.
I haven't given much away in terms of the content of the walk, as I really urge you to go for yourselves, I would recommend this walk for everyone! Tim knows this area like the back of his hand, and makes great entertainment along the way, keeping everyone engaged throughout the whole 2 hours - the time flew by!
Visit www.walks.com see their daily schedule, but after now doing a few of their walks, I'm sure you'll be impressed in whichever one you decide to go on.
And as I said in my first post, I plan to make the most of my time in London - just incase I don't come back! So you will see a few posts popping up about my days out in London. I've now finished work so I have lots of time on my hands :)
Today I went on one of the guided walks www.walks.com offer. With well over 10 guided walks a day, it's a little bit overwhelming to decide which one to go on, but as I know very little about this area of London and that I am desperate to visit the Brunel Tunnel, I travelled down to discover what Rotherhithe had to offer.
With a no booking policy, and only £10 for around a 2 hour walk, it's such a great way to learn about certain areas of London from very knowledgable guides.
The Mayflower to Brunel's Tunnel walk
The walk started out at Bermondsey tube station - already an area I'm not familiar with (like anywhere South of the river). Starting off with some interesting facts, how certain roads got their names, points of history and random stories, we then reached the River Thames. Tim, our excellent and engaging guide for the walk, then went on to talk about what seemed like the whole history of London! Pointing out land marks, explaining certain points in history and how the South of the river was back when Charles Dickens, Turner, Whistler and Brunel walked the banks...We then worked our way through Rotherhide, a quiet area which seems like a tiny village, miles from inner city London. It's an area steeped in history, and with help from Tim, it wasn't hard to imagine all the stories and events in history he was describing so well.
The tour finished at The Brunel Museum, where we were led down the original shaft which marked the start of the construction of the tunnel back in 1825, by Marc Isambard Brunel (father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel). With ever increasing traffic on the Thames, a solution was needed to ease the congestion, thus began the building of the first tunnel underneath a river. Now used by the Overground, still connecting Rotherhithe and Wapping, we were entertained by Tim enlightening us about all its history in its entirety.
After seeing the Captain Kidd pub across the river earlier on in our walk (and being told the history behind it) I decided to take the overground to Wapping to pay a quick visit - the famous pirate, Captain Kidd was held beneath this pub whilst he awaited his fate - beer selection from Samuel Smith, and sat right over the Thames.
I haven't given much away in terms of the content of the walk, as I really urge you to go for yourselves, I would recommend this walk for everyone! Tim knows this area like the back of his hand, and makes great entertainment along the way, keeping everyone engaged throughout the whole 2 hours - the time flew by!
Visit www.walks.com see their daily schedule, but after now doing a few of their walks, I'm sure you'll be impressed in whichever one you decide to go on.
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