TP: The Yo-Yo City

The Yo-Yo City

Staines-upon-Thames > Shepperton > Hampton Wick > Richmond > Putney Bridge > London Bridge > Thames Barrier

216.1 – 296 km

Why Yo-Yo? Because all through the City of London, the TP walker can choose which side of the river they want to traverse. There’s a lot to see, and the glass-half-empty person would say that no matter which you choose, you miss out on something. I think the only way I’ll ever feel like I’ve done the whole thing is to traverse the opposite side from what I chose, but I’m pleased with the way I tackled the TP through London.

Symbolically, the city starts at the point when the TP crosses under the M25 motorway – the ring road around London. This happened about a kilometre west of Staines-upon-Thames. I celebrated the change with an afternoon off from walking to go and enjoy a movie and some mindless non-tourist time – to restock the enthusiasm bank. That done, I was back and ready to enjoy the sights of suburbia along the Thames.

While there still are green spaces within the City, they generally came in the form of estate land or city parks, and the scale of them tapered off pretty quickly past Richmond.

At first it’s mostly green…

…then it’s speckled with green…

…and then it’s hardly green at all…

All the chrome made the wild fields of the Upper Reaches seem very far away, but do you remember all those meadows, carpeted with dandelions? The rain seemed to have caused them to erupt with as much vigour as the mayflies had a few days prior. Dandelion fluff is also difficult to photograph, but I did my best. On some days, it was so thick in the air that it was hard to not breathe them in. Talk about ticklish nose…

This photo was taken on the day I arrived in Shepperton, but it wasn’t till the following day that I took the one and only necessary ferry (unless you want to walk a long diversion) on the TP.

In an aside, those of you who have been following me both on the SWCP and the TP may notice that I’ve had a little bit of a change in walking uniform. I bought this shirt on a quick dive through a charity shop without trying it on. All I needed was a long sleeve top to protect against the constant rubbing of the Beast’s arm strap that had already taken off one layer of skin. It wasn’t till I looked in the mirror at the end of the day that I realised I’d been channelling a lumberjill!

This is also a pretty good time to mention the progress of my toe-nail (just to satisfy those of you on toe-nail watch). It was no longer pale enough to romanticize and call it an opal. Mauve had progressed to purple and then on to violet, and it continued to curl tighter and tighter till it occupied only a third of the width of my toe. The good news is that it was no longer sore.

Beyond Shepperton there were many impressive sights, both expected and unexpected.

Nearing Hampton, the Molesey Cricket Ground was a cute surprise…

I’d already been to Hampton Court Palace twice on previous trips so, while it’s a very impressive place to visit…

…I decided to explore Bushy Park instead – a huge green space filled with deer and ducks and mums pushing strollers. The group of deer with the big antlers were merrily munching on nettles!

Richmond Park was a little more wild. I climbed up the King Henry’s Mound Lookout, where I could just see through the purposeful tree hollow, and through London smog, the vague outline of St Paul’s Cathedral (photography impossible, I’m afraid – you’ll just have to believe me when I say it is there)…

I found deer her too, and squirrels…

A few people I’d talked to in the area advised me to find the Isabella Plantation – a gated and manicured section of Richmond Park. The blooms were a bit past their spring prime, but it was still beautiful.

Anyway, getting back to the boats through the Yo-Yo City stretch. Including the Shepperton ferry, they varied significantly, but one of the most curious sights was this yellow submarine…

The Thames continues to widen…, until the tide decides to have its way with the Thames…

Engineers amongst you will appreciate the elaborate Teddington Lock (the biggest), and Richmond Lock (the last lock and what ensures the Thames upriver maintains a boat-worthy depth).

From this point on, the Thames is clearly tidal and the only locks are adjacent to the river (like St. Katherine’s Lock), keeping marinas afloat.

From Teddington Lock the TP splits into two paths – one north of the river, and one south of the river – with bridges between to cross whenever the mood strikes. I stayed south till Barnes train bridge, where I crossed to the north side based on a recommendation from a guy I got to talking to in a pub at Mortlake. The north TP took me through lovely Chiswick where the climbing tide threatened the TP, and the road and the private river-side gardens…

…and on through Hammersmith to Putney Bridge where I ditched the TP for the night.

My penultimate day on the TP, I picked the path back up at Putney Bridge, and stayed on the north side for a while, passing through industrial and wharf areas that weren’t all that pretty…

…and the grounds of the Royal Hospital where the Chelsea Flower Show had set up shop.

At Lambeth Bridge, I crossed to the south side, from where you can get great views of central London and all the recognisable landmarks – Westminster, Big Ben, the London Eye, St Pauls Cathedral, the Tate Modern, The Globe, Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London.

I stopped for the night at London Bridge, picking the TP up again on the last day under the shadow of the Shard, before crossing to the north side via the glorious Tower Bridge.

From here the TP passed through some areas of London that were entirely new to me. Through Wapping, the preserved wharf buildings evoke a time when the Thames would have been the superhighway of commerce…

…and as the river winds south in a big loop around the Isle of Dogs, the gleaming towers of Canary Wharf and Millwall shine like an alien city amongst sooty brick and iron.

At the southern tip of the Isle of Dogs, an under-river tunnel that links both Thames banks…

…popping up right beside Cutty Sark and the Old Royal Naval College.

From here the TP can only be walked on the south side of the Thames, winding between development sites and some truly ugly industrial land. For a while I entertained myself with a game of trying to find the ugliest view. Which would you choose?

Giant Lego, anyone?

When the spikes of the O2 Arena became visible on the near horizon, pointing up to the sky like an enormous tiara, I knew I was almost at the end of my TP journey.

Only a few more miles to go to the Thames Barrier. With the sun shining down (purely in celebration of my efforts, I’m sure) on a spectacularly warm day, I rocked up to the weirdly-shaped, silver Barrier pods, rounded the works station (that was on high security alert following the horribly sad Manchester attack), and finally arrived at the Thames Barrier Information Centre.

Can you tell that I was happy to finish (photo taken by a very enthusiastic Polish weightlifter)? These two ladies were happy to act as my welcoming committee, helping me decide what would be an appropriately celebratory drink to cheers my arrival (pineapple juice, anyone?).

Finishing the Thames Path was enormously satisfying, and a lot of fun, but, I have to admit, the end point is a little anticlimactic. After a stroll and some posing around the Thames Barrier gardens, I returned upriver a short way to the North Greenwich Pier to board a commuter ferry that seemed to be travelling way to fast, and way too easily, after all my efforts on foot. I have to say, though, my feet did enjoy the ride…

And that, as they say, is it.

Below is a revision of the entire TP, but first I want to leave you with pics of some of the weird and wonderful art and signs that grabbed my attention on my Yo-Yo trip down the Thames in London.

Diana Fountain in Bushy Park

Can you see the MI6 building behind the weird stone blob?

Gotta love bubbles!

This seemed nautical, but I have no idea…

War and Peace

The best coffee house ever!

There was a whole story on this Greenwich wall, but this was my favourite bit.

Poor, weak raisins, they get such a bad wrap.

I was going to look up this poem, but I don’t want any of you to be deprived of a good google search

Hmm…

Something to do with chemistry, I think…

Coloured in by school kids.

Seasoned by birds, but still readable.

The TP: In a Nutshell

The Source > Cricklade> Lechlade > Tadpole Bridge > Newbridge > Oxford > Abingdon > Shillingford > Pangbourne > Sonning > Henley-on-Thames > Marlow > Maidenhead > Eton > Staines-upon-Thames > Shepperton > Hampton Wick > Richmond > Putney Bridge > London Bridge > Thames Barrier

 0 – 294.7/297.2 km (let’s call it an even 296 km)

 [Surge Stats: 403.45 km, 359 floors, 619921 steps]