Free self-guided walking tour of London along the Thames, from the Tower to the London Eye

This free self-guided walk through the Thames between the Tower of London and the London Eye is about 7.7 km long, with about 1 hour 40 minutes of walking and 15 stops. It starts at the Tower of London and ends at the London Eye. Every stop below has a short summary and a link to the source it is based on.

Distance and walking time come from the OpenStreetMap foot router (routing.openstreetmap.de), calculated along streets between the stops of Guidera's curated tour "London: Bankside & Thames Landmarks".

What does the route look like?

The route starts at the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, follows the South Bank past the Shard, Borough Market, Shakespeare's Globe and Tate Modern, crosses the Millennium Bridge to St Paul's Cathedral, returns to the river along the Victoria Embankment, and crosses the Golden Jubilee Bridges to the Southbank Centre and the London Eye.

What will I see on this walk?

1. Tower of London

The Tower of London is a historic castle on the north bank of the Thames, founded toward the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest. The White Tower, which gives the castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078. It is a complex of buildings within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat.

Source: Wikipedia: Tower of London

2. Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones and engineered by John Wolfe Barry. It was opened on 30 June 1894 and is 940 feet (290 m) long. It was built to give the large population east of London Bridge a crossing while still letting ships reach the Pool of London.

Source: Wikipedia: Tower Bridge

3. The Shard

The Shard is a 95-storey pyramid-shaped skyscraper designed by the architect Renzo Piano. At 309.6 m it is the tallest building in the United Kingdom and Western Europe. It was inaugurated on 5 July 2012, and its observation deck, The View from The Shard, opened in 2013.

Source: Wikipedia: The Shard

4. Borough Market

Borough Market in Southwark is one of the largest and oldest food markets in London, with a market on the site since at least the 12th century. The present buildings date from the 1850s, and today it mainly sells speciality food to the public.

Source: Wikipedia: Borough Market

5. Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, the Elizabethan playhouse first built in 1599 for which Shakespeare wrote his plays. The original burned down in 1613, was rebuilt in 1614 and demolished in 1644. The reconstruction, on the south bank like the original, was completed in 1997.

Source: Wikipedia: Shakespeare's Globe

6. Tate Modern

Tate Modern holds the UK's national collection of international modern and contemporary art and is housed in the former Bankside Power Station. Entry to the collection displays is free; major temporary exhibitions need tickets.

Source: Wikipedia: Tate Modern

7. Millennium Bridge

The Millennium Bridge is a steel suspension footbridge linking Bankside with the City of London. It opened on 10 June 2000 but swayed so much that Londoners nicknamed it the "Wobbly Bridge", and it closed for almost two years of modifications. It reopened in February 2002.

Source: Wikipedia: Millennium Bridge, London

8. St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral stands on Ludgate Hill, the highest point of the City of London, on a site where a cathedral was first founded in AD 604. The present domed cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren in the English Baroque style, was completed in 1710 as part of the rebuilding after the Great Fire of London.

Source: Wikipedia: St Paul's Cathedral

9. Blackfriars Bridge

Blackfriars Bridge carries road and foot traffic over the Thames between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge. The current bridge opened in the 1860s, replacing a toll bridge by Robert Mylne that opened in 1769.

Source: Wikipedia: Blackfriars Bridge

10. Temple Church

The Temple Church was built by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters and consecrated on 10 February 1185. It is famous for its round design, common for Templar churches, and for its 13th- and 14th-century stone effigies. Today it belongs to the Inner Temple and Middle Temple, two of the Inns of Court.

Source: Wikipedia: Temple Church

11. Cleopatra's Needle

Cleopatra's Needle on the Victoria Embankment is an ancient Egyptian obelisk inscribed by Thutmose III and later Ramesses II. It was moved to Alexandria in 12 BC, presented to Britain in 1819 by Muhammad Ali, ruler of Egypt, and erected in London in 1878.

Source: Wikipedia: Cleopatra's Needle, London

12. Victoria Embankment Gardens

The Victoria Embankment Gardens are a series of gardens on land reclaimed when Sir Joseph Bazalgette built the Thames embankment and sewer between 1865 and 1870. The gardens were created in 1874 and are open during set hours.

Source: Wikipedia: Victoria Embankment Gardens

13. Golden Jubilee Bridges

The Golden Jubilee Bridges are two cable-stayed footbridges on either side of the Hungerford railway bridge, linking Charing Cross on the north bank with the South Bank near the Royal Festival Hall and the London Eye. Each footbridge has steps and lift access.

Source: Wikipedia: Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges

14. Southbank Centre

The Southbank Centre is the largest centre for the arts in the UK, with the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room, the Hayward Gallery and the National Poetry Library. Its brutalist buildings are now listed.

Source: Wikipedia: Southbank Centre

15. London Eye

The London Eye is a cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank, 135 m tall with a wheel diameter of 120 m. When it opened in 2000 it was the world's tallest Ferris wheel, and it is the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom.

Source: Wikipedia: London Eye

Can I do this walk with an audio guide?

Yes. This route is one of the curated tours in Guidera, the iPhone app I build ("London: Bankside & Thames Landmarks", 15 stops). In Guidera, text stories are free (5 per day); audio narration and Walkman mode, which narrates each stop automatically as you walk, are part of Premium. You can stop and resume the tour where you left off. You can also download the tour and walk it offline: on the free tier one featured tour at a time, text only, after a short video; with Premium, up to 10 tours with audio. Map tiles aren't saved, so open the tour map once while online. Guidera runs on iPhone, not Android.

Also in London: London: Royal Westminster & The Heart of Power.

Sources

English Wikipedia articles, checked 1 October 2026: Tower of London, Tower Bridge, The Shard, Borough Market, Shakespeare's Globe, Tate Modern, Millennium Bridge, London, St Paul's Cathedral, Blackfriars Bridge, Temple Church, Cleopatra's Needle, London, Victoria Embankment Gardens, Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges, Southbank Centre, London Eye. Route and distances: OpenStreetMap foot router, map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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