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Hiking, Biking, Boating, Touring,
Climbing, Riding, Flying, Running,
and Exploring in HOME AT FIRST's destinations.
ADVENTURE OF
THE MONTH—JULY, 2003
 EAST LONDON:
The City of London—i.e. the old, original, walled Roman city of Londinium
that has become today’s financial center—ends at Tower Hill,
where they used to mete out medieval justice on the enemies of old England. The
2,000-year-old Roman wall extends to the moat of the Tower of London,
itself 1,000 years old and also the construct of invaders—this time the Normans of William
the Conqueror. Here at this historic corner of London is also one of the
world’s most easily misidentified landmarks—Tower Bridge—that
great symbol of London that for the last century has been confused with the London Bridge
of nursery rhymes.
East of the three towers—Tower Hill, the
Tower of London, and the Tower Bridge—is East London, home to East
Enders and Cockneys, and to the revitalized region called the Docklands.
photo © HOME AT FIRST
During the 19th century the docks of East
London brought in goods from all over the empire and employed thousands of workers who
lived in the boroughs north of the wharves, including Wapping, Whitechapel,
Shadwell, and Limehouse. These neighborhoods were
overcrowded, smoky, noisy, and not unfamiliar to crime, vice, disease, and political
unrest.
The area was home to a strange mixture of the
famous and infamous:
• Capt. James Cook, the great world
explorer who brought Australia and New Zealand into the realm, lived here when not sailing
around the world.
• Jack the Ripper—the first great serial killer—preyed on
the prostitutes of low class Whitechapel. The traditional foggy, mysterious, dangerous
imagery we associate with East London comes from The Ripper and the fictions of Sherlock
Holmes and Fu Manchu that were set here.
• A Whitechapel freak show theatre exhibited "The Elephant Man",
Joseph Merrick, until the London Hospital—opposite the freak show
venue—discovered the exploited man suffering from the rare Proteus Syndrome and took
him in as a ward until his death.
• Russian Bolsheviks—permitted the freedom to pursue their revolutionary aims in
liberal Victorian Britain—convened various gatherings in the same Whitechapel
neighborhood. Young Joseph Stalin was one of the Russian revolutionaries
of Whitechapel, living on Fieldgate Street. His home was near an ancient bell foundry that
had cast the great bells for Big Ben and the Liberty Bell
for Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
 THE THAMES PATH EAST:
An excellent orientation to the much altered,
but still historic East London neighborhoods along the north side of the River Thames east
of the three towers is to walk an hour along the Thames Path. The Thames
Path is a 180-mile-long walkway from the river’s eastern tidewater at the Thames
Barrier to the river’s source spring in the
Cotswolds,
about 7 miles from Home At First’s cottages at
Tetbury.
In London, the Thames Path follows the winding river whenever possible, but must
occasionally turn inland to circumvent an obstacle like a building or an old wharf.
photo © HOME
AT FIRST
 • Dickens Inn (St. Katharine's Dock; TEL: 020 7488 1226;
Restaurant: 020 7488 2208). Just east of the Tower Bridge, the Thames Path crosses the
entrance lock where St. Katharine’s Dock meets the Thames. Home at First guests at
its St. Katharine’s Marina will find the
path on the river side of the cobbled courtyard in front of the Dickens Inn.
The first of our historic pubs of East London, therefore, is just footsteps away from
Home At First's St. Katharine's Marina apartments. The Dickens Inn,
while historic, is a newcomer to the marina. Originally a 18th century brewery, then part
of a spice warehouse along the docks, it was moved brick by brick to its current location
when redevelopment first came to the Docklands. The large barn of a building now rests on
the East Dock of the complex. It is festooned with flowers from the courtyard to its upper
balcony. Inside is a traditional pub on the first floor, and a popular restaurant and
pizzeria on the upper floor. (Open Mo-Sa 11AM-11PM; Su 12N-10:30PM.)
photo © HOME AT FIRST
Walking the Thames Path
east from St. Katharine’s Dock leads into this largely unknown and quite entertaining
region, no longer seedy and impoverished, and not quite all yuppies and redeveloped
townhouses. Our walk stays close to the river, an area which would have had few residences
a century ago. Starting in the 1980’s the disused warehouses and wharves of East
London were replaced with neat, upscale housing developments. A number of historic pubs
have been saved from demolition, and now serve an area that is home to some traditional
East Enders and some nouveau Cockneys. Several of these pubs serve meals. Our walk leads
us past some of the best of these as well as past several new restaurants that are worth
trying.
photo © HOME AT FIRST
WAPPING:
Starting at the St. Katharine’s Dock
Thames inlet, find the sign pointing the way of the Thames Path east into Docklands. The
path exits St. Katharine’s Dock onto St. Katharine’s Way. In a couple of minutes
you pass through an area of redevelopment and St. Katharine’s Way becomes Wapping
High Street, the main street of the London Borough of Wapping, which borders the Thames.
Along the river (right) side of street you will pass a number of pub/restaurants,
including:
 • Town of
Ramsgate (62 Wapping High
Street; TEL: 020 7488 2685), a friendly pub serving traditional food at modest prices.
Located next to an alleyway known as Wapping Old Stairs, leading down to
the riverside where fishermen from Ramsgate, Kent, formerly sold their daily catch. There
has been a pub here continuously since the 15th century. The current pub
witnessed the centuries when Wapping was a bustling warehouse district and men were
press-ganged into serving on ships. The building dates from 1758, and is set on the exact
location of Execution Dock, where Captain Kidd was
hanged for piracy 300 years ago and where his body was thrice washed over by the tidal
Thames. The Town of Ramsgate is said to have served Captain Bligh and his
mutinous subordinate, Fletcher Christian, prior to their round-the-world
voyage on the H.M.S. Bounty. photo © HOME AT FIRST
Pleasantly decorated, the pub/restaurant has an
unusual wooden ceiling, a patio seating area overlooking the river, and a mock gallows.
Open: Mo-Sa 11AM-11PM (serving food 11:30AM-3PM and 6-9PM) & Su (12N-10:30PM).
 • Captain Kidd (108 Wapping High Street; Tel: 020 7480 5759),
restaurant and bar featuring upscale British and American style food with small beer
garden overlooking the Thames. The pub—on the ground and second floors of a converted
warehouse—is named after the famous pirate who was hanged—it took two
tries—nearby on May 23, 1701. (The gallows had been moved to Wapping from St.
Katharine’s Dock 100 years earlier.) On the first try to hang Kidd the rope broke.
After a successful second hanging, the pirate’s body remained tied to the wharf at
the Wapping Old Stairs until the three tides of the Thames had washed over it, then it was
hung in chains along the river as a warning to would-be pirates.
HOME AT FIRST photo
CONTINUED - GO TO PART II
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.
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