London's Left Bank
Walk the most dramatic reinvention story in London — from brothels and bear-baiting to the cultural heart of the city. Eight stops along the Thames Path, from the London Eye to Borough Market.
4.60|90 minutes|3.3 km|8 Stops
Start
London Eye
End
Borough Market
Tour Stops (8)
1
London Eye
A structure that nearly didn't exist — born from a newspaper competition with no winner, funded by two architects who remortgaged their home, and assembled flat on the river using oil-rig engineering.
2
Southbank Centre / Royal Festival Hall
The sole survivor of the 1951 Festival of Britain — Churchill's government demolished everything else. Beneath it, the Undercroft has been London's most important skateboarding venue since 1973.
3
National Theatre
London's most divisive building — Prince Charles called it 'a clever way of building a nuclear power station.' Its architect, Denys Lasdun, designed the public spaces to be open to everyone, ticket or not.
4
Tate Modern
The greatest act of architectural recycling in history — a decommissioned power station turned into the most visited modern art museum on Earth. Free entry, always. The Turbine Hall alone is thirty-five metres high.
5
Millennium Bridge
The bridge that wobbled. Ninety thousand people crossed it on day one, and it closed within two days. The fix cost five million pounds and advanced bridge engineering worldwide.
6
Shakespeare's Globe
A reconstruction of the 1599 theatre that shouldn't exist — the life's work of an American actor who spent 23 years being told it was impossible. He died four years before it opened.
7
Clink Street / The Clink Prison
Where the phrase 'in the clink' was born — a medieval prison run by the Bishop of Winchester, who simultaneously licensed the brothels next door. The most spectacular conflict of interest in English ecclesiastical history.
8
Borough Market
A thousand years of feeding London. Legally protected 'for the use and benefit of the public for ever' since 1756 — and when the railways tried to demolish it, they had to build over it instead.