ADVENTURE OF THE MONTH—JULY, 2003

PART II                                                                                                                  BACK TO PART I

SHADWELL:
        Shortly after passing Town of Ramsgate pub, you will pass Wapping tube station with both Underground and bus (route 100) connections back to Tower Hill. Immediately after the tube stop, Wapping High Street ends, as does Wapping. Continuing on the street called Wapping Wall, you enter the Shadwell neighborhood. But Wapping’s unofficial ‘Restaurant Row’ continues around the corner with the wonderful:

• Prospect of Whitby (57 Wapping Wall), London’s oldest riverside pub with a large bar menu and a restaurant with a greater offering. Once known as "Devil’s Tavern", the Prospect of Whitby dates from 1520. During the seventeenth century it earned its unsavory reputation as a meeting place for smugglers and villains and was known to hold bouts of bare knuckle and cock fighting. The Prospect of Whitby attracted some famous Londoners as well. Among its regulars were Charles Dickens, Samuel Pepys, and James McNeill Whistler. Its broad river views attracted numerous artists—including J.M.W. Turner and Whistler—who sketched the Thames from here.
        After a fire destroyed the tavern in the eighteenth century it was rebuilt and renamed Prospect of Whitby, after a ship that was moored nearby. Old photographs on display in the pub show how seedy and rundown the pub and its surroundings had been. Today the pub’s main room has a flagstone floor, a long bar with barrels built into it and a distinctive pewter counter. The ceiling has exposed beams, and the room’s wooden pillars are sections of a ship’s mast. A small balcony overlooks the Thames. A second bar has a serving area for bar food and an elevated no-smoking dining area with river views. A furnished outdoor terrace provides seating in good weather. Upstairs is the restaurant, into several delightful paneled rooms with river views. Another terrace, with iron garden furniture, overlooks the river.   photo © HOME AT FIRST
        The Prospect of Whitby has a very popular restaurant attracting the famous (Kirk Douglas, Prince Rainier, Princess Margaret) and the anonymous alike. Reservations are recommended. Open: Mo-Fr 11:30AM-3PM & 5:30-11PM; Sa 11:30AM-11PM; Su 12N-10:30PM.

LIMEHOUSE:
        After crossing the canal entrance to the Shadwell Basin, the walkway follows the river into Limehouse, once London’s Chinatown, with all the incumbent mystery and danger of fiction’s Fu Manchu. As you walk along the broad riverside promenade that serves as the Thames Path in this area, London’s second skyline, the modern glass and steel towers of Canary Wharf, stands as the horizon.                 photo © HOME AT FIRST
        Alas, Limehouse, like Wapping and Shadwell and other river-hugging neighborhoods of East London, have undergone the great makeover into modern—many say sterile—upscale bedroom communities for City of London workers. Fortunately, one little bit of old Limehouse survives, a classic and historic pub called:

• The Grapes (76 Narrow Street). This may be the very pub Charles Dickens—who as a lad sang to pub patrons from the tabletops here—writes about in Our Mutual Friend. When built in 1720 on the site of a previous pub, the Grapes was a working class tavern, serving the dock workers of the Limehouse Basin. Stories are still told of drunks being smuggled from the pub to be drowned in the Thames, that their bodies might be sold as cadavers to medical students. The narrow pub’s traditional dιcor includes dark paneled walls, unmatched wooden chairs and tables and bare floorboards. The back bar has an open fire and steps leading to a deck overlooking the Thames. Narrow stairs lead up to the small restaurant (room for about 20 diners) with a small balcony that overhangs the river.
        The small restaurant has earned big awards for its seafood dishes (editor's comment: well-deserved awards for superb fish). As a result, it is important to make advance reservations. Open: Mo-Fr 12N-3PM and 5:30-11PM; Sa 7-11PM; Su 12N-3PM and 7-11:30PM. Bar food available Mo-Fr 12N-2PM and Mo-Sa 7-9PM. The restaurant is serving Mo-Fr 12N-2:15PM and 7:30-9:15PM.

        Returning from Limehouse to St. Katharine’s means walking two blocks north (stay west of the Limehouse Basin) to the Docklands Light Railway Limehouse station at Commercial Road. Take a westbound DLR train two stops west to Tower Gateway station. From here it’s a traffic-free 5-minute walk back to St. Katharine’s Marina.

This walk is one of the many suggested activities included
in Home At First's exclusive "London Activity Guide".
The "London Activity Guide" is the accompanying guidebook keyed to Home At First's
London travel program. It is issued only to all Home At First London guests.
Get yours by traveling to London with Home At First.