What a Wapping day....

needing to finish off our walk book, we headed out during the Olympics to the Docklands. There are two walks, and while we planned to do both in one day, the threatening weather said otherwise. But we did get  the first one finished. Starting off at St Catherine's Docks, (near Tower Bridge) which is now home to luxury condos but once was the original port for London back in the 1730s. Being centrally located did it no favors and soon it outgrew it local. the docks moved eastward, but what was left were these deep water basins and great sea walls. now it's home to a beautiful marina. the Danish had invaded for the Olympics and set up expat head quarters.They had some great displays!

cool old wa

Marina with Victorian warehouse & tower

a pub

yes, it's Lego and it was turning....

some Danish culture

But no time for dawdling. Much to see. We wandered down along the Thames Path which is the public path on either side of the river. This lead us to Wapping. I'm familiar with the name because of Wapping Road in Middletown RI. I used to drive it all the time getting from A to B. But here I am now! That's the cool thing about the UK, stumbling across  names we know and seeing the original.

bollard

old and new

Georgian lock keepers cottage

unused basin

Wapping is a tiny area along the north Thames which used to be a bustling dockyard. Now it appears to be all condos and a commuters haven. But hidden on the streets of the High streets are some gems.

Old Customs House #3

our lunch pub

Tobacco basin

Tobacco Dock's gate

St George's in the East church

Raines Charity School 1719

This is one of those walks that has a lot of history to it blah blah blah. But what I enjoyed immensely was no matter where you looked, there was stunning Georgian architecture if not earlier. Not going to see much of this in Singapore. Did I mention the packer come in under two weeks. Time to soak all this in as much as I can. It's about to end....