Our starting point is St. Paul's tube station (central line - straight shot from Lancaster Gate for those of you following a previous suggestion, only seven stops!).
Depending on whether you're interested in this sort of thing perhaps check out St. Paul's cathedral - obviously it's right there. St. Paul's is architect Christopher Wren's crowning achievement; Wren was commissioned to re-build the cathedral after the original burned down in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It has historically been used for royal weddings, including Princess Diana's. Unlike the vast majority of museums and galleries in London there is an admission fee. As a quick side point London actually has two cathedrals, St. Paul's in the City of London (a one square mile incorporated area) and Westminster Abbey technically in the City of Westminster to the immediate west. Westminster Abbey houses the royal coronations. If you're not super into checking out old cathedrals, but feel that you ought to do one, I'd say Westminster Abbey is definitely the better call. Lots of fascinating and quirky things of interest inside, tremendous 'flying butresses' outside, and in fact, in my opinion, it's a must.
So either you go into St. Paul's or you don't, but any which way make your way to the south side of the cathedral and you'll see a street leading right down to the River Thames, perhaps two or three blocks away.
Stroll down this street.On the left hand side is a quite impressive building that houses the world headquarters of the Salvation Army; inside is a simple restaurant on the ground floor that's open to the public that's actually a great place for healthy, very well-priced meals or snacks.
This street funnels you onto the stylish, pedestrian Millennium Bridge (pictured above) over the Thames. It's impressive being on the bridge because of the landmarks within clear view: the Tate Modern Gallery directly on the south side of the bridge, the Globe Theatre just to the east of the Tate and the iconic Tower Bridge also spanning the Thames perhaps one mile on the left.
The Tate Modern is super cool and is absolutely worth visiting disregardless of one's interest in modern art. The building is massive, it used to be a power station that fell into dis-use. The gallery houses a wide variety of art from the 20th and 21st centuries. It's an example of 'adaptive re-use' at its best.
Having marvelled at what passes for art in the Tate Modern (perhaps I'm being a bit harsh), walk along the pedestrian path on the south bank of the Thames to the Globe Theatre. Take the tour - it's great. The Globe was quite recently built to commemorate Shakespeare's original Globe Theatre (no longer standing) in the immediate vicinity, and is a stunningly faithful reproduction (in fact no metal was used in its construction and all the nails are wooden pegs, like in the original). It is, of course, an open air theatre with productions of Shakepeare's work in the summer. The tour takes perhaps one hour and offers much insight into Elizabethan life and theatre.
Continue walking on the river path towards Tower Bridge, and you'll get a great view of The Tower of London on the north side of the Thames. Stay on the south bank and walk past Tower Bridge and you'll soon find yourself at Butler's Wharf. This whole area is also super cool. As the name suggests back in the day it housed many wharehouses along the river whose purpose was to store tea and other products bought back from the India and the Orient on the big clipper ships. The wharehouses also fell into dis-use for many years and the area essentially became an industrial wasteland. Over the past twenty years or so, however, the wharehouses have been converted into lofts, restaurants and bars. Today it covers a quite large area and it's fun to walk through it's streets, alleys and lanes that hug the banks of the Thames. At dusk it is easy to imagine one's back in the London of Charles Dickens or Jack the Ripper, in fact Dicken's villainous character Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist meets his end in a muddy tributary off the Thames in Butler's Wharf!
Let's keep going. Back to Tower Bridge and walk across it to the north bank. The bridge opens mid span to allow ships to go up or down river, and if you're fortunate you may actually see it open. Given the familiarity we all have of the image of Tower Bridge it's fun to walk across it - a real London experience and great memory.
The Tower of London is located right on the north side of the bridge. Although almost always crowded with tourists The Tower of London is an absolute must-see, and in my opinion if one were to visit only one attraction in London the Tower should be it. The Beefeaters (all former British military personnel who served with distinction) conduct the tours and are exceedingly informative and usually a hoot. Enjoy!
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