Patrick Comerford
I have had my first beach walk since returning from Crete after Easter. Well, I suppose you could call it a walk on a beach.
We had been at Choral Evensong in Southwark Cathedral and then met an old friend who was retiring from the cathedral for an early dinner at the Old Thameside Inn on Pickford’s Wharf, on the decking above the river at Bankside Pier, between London Bridge and Cannon Street Bridge, and looking across to the City.
The rain had stopped, and we strolled around Southwark, by the Golden Hide, Winchester Palace and the Clink, and then walked west along the river at Bankside, past the Ferryman’s Seat, a chunk of stone built into the side of the Real Greek, a Greek restaurant.
Tourists on walking tours of Bankside and Southwark are told the Ferryman’s Seat was once a resting place for the ferryman who operated a water taxi service across to the north side of the Thames and back. It was a thriving trade until 1750, when London Bridge was the only other way people and goods could cross the river.
In those days, the south side of the Thames was regarded as a lawless place, filled with ‘stews’ or brothels, bear-baiting pits and theatres. The seat is on the corner of a street called Bear Gardens, named after the Davies Amphitheatre, the last bear-baiting pit in London.
From there, we walked on past the Globe Theatre and Southwark Deanery, with views across the river to Saint Paul’s Deanery, and then on to the Millenium Bridge, where a family from Ecuador were posing for photographs and quinceañera celebrations with their daughters in elaborate ball gown, marking their 15th birthdays.
From the Millenium Bridge, we made our way down the steps to Bankside Beach where a stretch of the Thames foreshore is exposed at low tide and is also a popular place for mudlarking.
There are two sets of steps leading down to Bankside Beach close to one another, one by the Millennium Bridge and the other at the Tate Museum, and both are in good condition.
Bankside Beach is on the south bank of the Thames, where the foreshore is much wider and shallower compared to the north side. This means that when the tide is coming in, it is possible to walk on the south side for longer than on the north side, before the water gets too high. The stairs down are wide and shallow, making it much easier to get down onto the river bed.
When the Romans first settled in London, they chose the north side of the river with ground that was easier to build on. The south side was marshland which was isolated from the city of London until London Bridge was built.
It is possible to walk either under Blackfriars Bridge towards Gabriel’s Wharf, or under Millennium Bridge towards Bankside Pier. But there are no exit points between Southwark Bridge and London Bridge, and the gate to the stairs at London Bridge is always locked.
From Bankside Beach, we had views of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, which is directly opposite, and of the river traffic.
This late Sunday walk was the first time I had ever been on one of London’s beaches, and I was surprised there were few restrictions on access to the foreshore. However, some parts are off-limits at times, for reasons of safety, privacy or heritage.
The foreshore at the Tower of London was once a popular urban beach but is now off-limits as part of the Tower’s World Heritage Site protection, and Queenhithe Dock in the Square Mile is effectively off-limits as a scheduled ancient monument.
Bankside Beach is an unusual experience in the heart of London, offering a new perspective of the City and unusual views of Blackfriars Bridge. Yet were away from the traffic and the crowds and walking on soft sand and felt closer to nature and. We saw the remains of old jetties and piers from the industrial age, the tide-worn bricks from long-gone buildings, and fragments of old pottery or perhaps old clay pipes.
But we were also aware of the risks. The steps down to the beach can be slippery at times, and there are other hazards on the shoreline, including bits of shipping, twisted metal and rusty old nails.
Nor is this a place to think of swimming. The Thames rises and falls by 4-7 metres twice a day, with high tides and low tides. The stretch between Southwark Bridge and London Bridge can easily trap the unwary, so it is important to have enough time to walk back before the tide cuts off an exit point.
As well as this, the water is polluted and fast-moving, there are dangerous hidden patches of mud and there is the added and constant risk of Weil’s disease.
The foreshore is owned by the Port of London Authority or the Crown Estate, and a few sections even have private owners. Despite its popularity, mudlarking or searching for unusual objects is tightly regulated. Only people with foreshore permits may scrape, dig or metal-detect, and then only in certain places, and the Port of London Authority and the Crown Estates tightly regulate permits. Despite occasional sandcastles and sand sculptures, the rules apply to the whole length of foreshore, including the sandy spots.
Anyone wishing to organise group activities on the foreshore, including walks or guided tours, needs written permission from the Port of London Authority’s Estates Department, although many parties have taken place over the years, including some during the Covid years that are marked by a guerrilla plaque at Bankside.
Further west of us, in front of the Oxo Tower, the stretch of shoreline is known as Ernie’s Beach. It is named after John ‘Ernie’ Hearn, a local resident who campaigned for the recognition of the Thames as a public asset and amenity of London and against property developers privatising the foreshore.
There are other beaches on the river to explore too, including Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Wapping, the Prospect of Whitby and Greenwich. But Sunday’s walk along Bankside Beach was a new experience, and I know now that there is the prospect of more beach walks.
A walk on the beach … in London (Patrick Comerford, 2025)
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