London Docklands DIY Walking Tour
London Docklands DIY Walking Tour
Walking Distance: 3 or 6 km (4+ miles); Duration: 2-8 hours
The London Docklands DIY Walking Tour includes two sections covered by public transport. The actual walking part covers a totally flat distance of under 3km (or 6km if you want to continue your walk to Greenwich itself).
Spending time at the London attractions which interest you, speeding past those that don’t – and stopping to eat and drink wherever and whenever you want (and for as long as you’d like).
Points of Interest: Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, Docklands Light Railway, City Hall, the Greenwich Cable Car across the Thames, Greenwich Peninsula, the Tide Art Trail, the O2 Arena/the Millennium Dome, the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich & the Cutty Sark (optional), a cruise along the Thames at night, seeing central London from the River Thames.
Enjoy the very best of central London – and at YOUR pace!
Accessibility:
Technically, this entire route is accessible (and step-free).
However, it involves crossing the Thames at Greenwich Peninsula by cable car.
The cable car is indeed accessible. However, it’s definitely not easy. And there is definitely no space to turn a wheelchair around inside the gondolas – so you will have to either board in reverse, or depart in reverse. So a degree of ability/confidence is needed.
Fear not though. There is an alternative route (which misses out the DLR/northern Thames section completely):
Simply take a Jubilee Line tube train to “North Greenwich” station (all Jubilee Line stations east of “Westminster” are accessible).
Then follow the rest of the route as you wish (as you will have missed out the section at the start, I would definitely recommend that you follow the route between Greenwich Peninsula and Greenwich itself – this part of the route is open to the elements though).
London Docklands DIY Walking Tour: Step-by-Step Walking Instructions
Detailed step-by-step walking instructions are based on Google StreetView, and include 360-degree photographs of every street-crossing and junction (and for other wheelchair users/stroller-pushers, the location of every dropped kerb), and cost just £5*.
* Your support enables me to create even more DIY Walking Tours. And, for other wheelchair-users, allows me to continue creating/updating informative accessibility articles for the attractions found along each route.
There are currently 4 different London DIY Walking Tours. And all 4 are connected:
Tower of London > Tower Bridge > former City Hall > HMS Belfast > Hay’s Galleria > View From The Shard > Golden Hinde > Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre > Tate Modern Art Gallery > Millennium Bridge > St.Paul’s Cathedral > One New Change > Bank of England > Royal Exchange > Mansion House > Monument (to the Great Fire of London) > Sky Garden.
The London City DIY Walking Tour connects with the London Docklands DIY Walking Tour at Tower Bridge. It also connects with the London Thames DIY Walking Tour at either St.Paul’s Cathedral, or again at Tower Bridge (depending on your walking direction).
London Docklands DIY Walking Tour:
Tower Bridge and the Tower of London > Docklands Light Railway > City Hall > Greenwich Cable Car > Greenwich Peninsula > Tide Art Trail > O2 Arena/the Millennium Dome > Old Royal Naval College > Greenwich > Cutty Sark > and finishing with an evening cruise along the River Thames – seeing central London from the river.
The London Docklands DIY Walking Tour connects with the London City DIY Walking Tour at Tower Bridge. The London Docklands DIY Walking Tour also connects with the London Thames DIY Walking Tour at The London Eye.
London Thames DIY Walking Tour:
Westminster Abbey > Houses of Parliament and Big Ben > Westminster Bridge > County Hall > London Eye > Golden Jubilee Bridges > Southbank Centre > Waterloo Bridge > National Theatre > OXO Tower > Tate Modern > Millennium Bridge to St.Paul’s Cathedral (side-trip) > Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre > Golden Hinde > London Bridge > Hay’s Galleria (and access to The Shard) > HMS Belfast > former City Hall building > Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.
The London Thames DIY Walking Tour connects with all other DIY Walking Tours of London. It connects with the London City DIY Walking Tour at either St.Paul’s Cathedral, or again at Tower Bridge (depending on your walking direction). It also connects with the London Docklands DIY Walking Tour at Tower Bridge. And, finally, the London Thames DIY Walking Tour connects with the London West End DIY Walking Tour at Westminster Abbey.
London West End DIY Walking Tour:
Houses of Parliament and Big Ben > Westminster Abbey > St.James’s Park > Buckingham Palace > Green Park > Piccadilly Circus > Leicester Square > Trafalgar Square > National Gallery > Whitehall > Horseguard’s Parade > Downing Street > and finally returning to Westminster Underground Station.
The London West End DIY Walking Tour connects with the London Thames DIY Walking Tour at Westminster Abbey.
At a very minimum, I would do all four London DIY Walking Tours over three or four days though (but even more time simply means more London attractions to actually visit – so a whole week would be even better!).