Thames Path London: The Complete Walking Guide from Richmond to Greenwich

Walking London's Thames Path is the best free thing you can do in the city. The river has shaped every chapter of London's story — Roman settlement, medieval trade, Victorian industry, Blitz damage, and postwar reinvention — and following its banks strings those chapters together in chronological order, roughly west to east.

The full Central London stretch from Hammersmith to Greenwich covers about 14 miles, manageable in a long day but better split across two. The South Bank section — from Vauxhall Bridge to Tower Bridge — is the highlight reel: the Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe, Borough Market, the Golden Hinde, Bermondsey's food scene, and Shad Thames' Victorian warehouse conversions all within easy reach of the path.

The North Bank from Westminster to the City is more formal but no less interesting: the Embankment gardens, Blackfriars, and then the sudden transition from financial towers to the medieval streets around the Tower of London. The Thames Clipper river bus runs the same route if your feet give out.

Further east, Wapping and Rotherhithe are underrated walking territory: the Victorian Brunel Tunnel entrance is now a museum, and the cluster of old Scandinavian churches in Bermondsey tells stories of the Baltic timber trade. Reaching Greenwich by foot takes about four hours from London Bridge; arriving this way, with the Cutty Sark and Old Royal Naval College appearing around a river bend, is deeply satisfying.

The best day for the walk is midweek — Borough Market in particular gets overwhelming on weekends. Start early to avoid the tourist crowds on the South Bank.