At Large in London – The South Bank

Regular readers know that May Bank Holiday is time for camping and gathering with old friends of long-standing. In fact we’ve been doing that for well over twenty years. This year for a variety of reasons but primarily family unity and togetherness we did something different. TJF is not much of a fan of the walking and outdoor weekends and with TJS approaching A-Levels we felt it would be better so stay closer to home. I’m also acutely aware of the fact that family holidays are coming to an end and both me and TBF wanted a trip that we could all enjoy together. After the huge successes of trips around European cities last year we decided on a long weekend away in London.

We rented an apartment in Hammersmith and with a huge slice of luck we didn’t see a cloud for the whole three days. On our first day we took in the classic South Bank area kicking off with a walk past the Tower of London and over Tower Bridge.

The views from, and of, what is in my opinion London’s most iconic landmark were breathtaking. Along the Thames….

Over to the City

And City Hall and the Shard

As if that wasn’t enough we were lucky enough to see them raise the bridge a couple of minutes after we walked across

A fine view back across the Thames to Tower Bridge

And the Tower of London

Lunch was beckoning and we hit Borough Market. I love food markets and the quantity of sumptuous treats was amazing. We feasted on burgers, wraps, paella, fruit, cakes and fudge – along with about a million other people it seemed. It’s not the place to avoid the crowds.

Southwark Cathedral where I planned to eat our picnic but they don’t let you take food through to the gardens any more 😦

Time to work off that lunch with a walk along the South Bank. One of the best city walks. I remember a visit to London in the late 80’s and walking along here, thinking how down-beat and edgy it was. Nowadays its a stunning parkland style walk with plenty of sights all with views across and along the river.

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

St Paul’s Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge

We took a walk over the bridge to take a closer look at the cathedral

It looked stunning, gleaming white under a clear blue sky

We took a trip to the roof garden of a shopping mall (don’t remember the name) from where you get a good close up view

Then back across the river to the impressive Tate Modern. Since I was last here they have opened a new viewing platform and its wonderful. Considering its free and open to all it offers a superb view across the city

We decided not to look at the art. As I’ve described before, proper culture is wasted on us and besides it was too nice a day to sit inside

Having said that we were on our way to an indoor visit. I’d deliberately avoided the usual tourist hot spots as the weather was so good and I was reluctant spend money! We continued our walk along the South Bank towards Westminster

Past the London Eye and County Hall. London is always busy but it was mental around here

And over to the Houses of Parliament. I actually had no idea you can take a tour on Saturdays and Sundays and expected it to be booked up months in advance but easily managed to book a self guided audio tour. It was excellent, really informative and comprehensive. Having seen the various rooms, chambers, House of Lords and House of Commons many times it was pretty cool to be able to see them close up. Our enjoyment was further enhanced when TJS told us he’d mistakenly been given a child audio tour by mistake! 🙂

Its well worth the trouble to take a tour if you are in London over a weekend. You can’t take photos inside unfortunately so you’ll have to take my word for it that its fabulous inside

We finished off the day with a walk along the Mall to Trafalgar Square and a slap up Chinese Meal in Chinatown

I think we walked further than if we’d been out in the mountains as usual