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Comfortable,
modern one and two bedroom apartments
at a location with superb history, atmosphere, and convenience. |
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THE
ACCOMMODATIONS: the Apartments at St. Katharine’s Marina are located
in two multi-story modern apartment buildings which border a rectangular yacht basin, the
historic East Dock at St. Katharine’s. The apartments come in various sizes, with
sleeping capacities of from 1-to-6 persons. The larger flats are maisonettes,
that is, two-story flats with 2 bedrooms, 1½ baths, kitchen, dining, and living rooms.
Most of the one-bedroom apartments have small
balconies overlooking the marina toward the famous Tower Bridge on the inside of the
square. The larger maisonette apartments have furnished patios. All of the apartments have
well-equipped kitchens, color cable TV (with CNN), washer/dryer, microwave, coffee maker,
and hair dryer, as well as a table-top coin-operated pay telephones.
The apartment buildings all have elevators
("lifts" in British) and locked entrance doors for security. Once each week all
apartments are cleaned and fresh towels and linens are supplied. Guests can contact the
helpful, welcoming caretaker with questions about the apartments or even about getting
around London. |
THE EAST DOCK OF ST. KATHARINE'S
MARINA.
HOME AT FIRST'S APARTMENTS ARE LOCATED IN THE APARTMENT BUILDINGS IN THE
BACKGROUND BORDERING THE EAST DOCK.
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CLICK THE ICONS
to see images of the Apartments at St. Katharine's Marina
and their spectacular setting by the Tower Bridge and the Tower of
London:
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THE SETTING:
St. Katharine’s Marina is an urban renewal success story. Two decades ago, the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge marked the border between
London’s commercial and banking center (called "The City") and Cockney East
London, with its tenements, warehouses, and docklands. St. Katharine’s Dock had been
the westernmost of these warehouse-lined dockyards, the last mooring before the Tower
drawbridge impeded ocean-going ships. Nearby Fleet Street was home to the many London
newspapers. |
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TOWER BRIDGE BY
THE ENTRANCE
TO ST. KATHARINE'S MARINA. |
During the 1980’s expansion brought developers into East London. The blight and decay
of East London was replaced by a well planned and fashionable
district called The Docklands. Entirely new neighborhoods with parks, shopping centers,
schools, and the Docklands Light Railway sprang up seemingly overnight in the district. Fashionable restaurants soon followed. One of the first
projects to take shape was the redevelopment of the St. Katharine’s Dock and
warehouses into an upscale yacht basin surrounded by apartment buildings,
offices, restaurants, and shops. |
| The dock was renamed St. Katharine’s Marina, and was restricted
to pedestrian traffic only. |
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In the years since completion of the redevelopment of St. Katharine’s
Dock the neighborhood has become one of London’s most desirable
addresses. Residents do not contend with the noise and bustle of
constant city traffic. They can shop and eat within their own complex,
and need not cross a city street to reach the nearest tube stop (at
Tower Hill Station) or to cross the Thames (on the Tower Bridge). |
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THE
SERVICES: St. Katharine’s Marina has numerous shops and restaurants
within a couple of minutes walk of any Home at First apartment in the complex. Best known
of all the restaurants is the Dickens Inn, a 18th century brewery that has been brought to
St. Katharine’s and houses a pub, a restaurant, and a pizza restaurant. The complex
also offers an ice cream parlor, and restaurants featuring Indian cuisine, seafood,
Continental cuisine, light meals, American cuisine, British cuisine, even a medieval feast
theme. |
AN
ARCADE OF SHOPS LINES THE MARINA'S CENTER BASIN. |
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Many shops line the marina, including those offering leather goods, fashions, beauty
shop/spa, hair styling, accessories, interior furnishings, jewelry, and art. In addition,
on the outside edge of the Marina is one of London’s largest, most modern
Waitrose
supermarkets, ideal for those wanting to take advantage of their apartment kitchens. |
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THE
DICKENS INN, ONCE A
BREWERY, HAS BECOME THE
CENTERPIECE OF THE MARINA. |
THE
LOCATION: A series of marked footpaths leads in all directions from St.
Katharine’s Marina. From most apartments the walk to the Tower Hill Underground
Station takes 5-10 minutes. The marina complex includes the Dickens Inn, with a pub and
restaurant, plus many other restaurants and shops. After a day of sightseeing in the
hustle and bustle of downtown London, guests find the marina’s quiet atmosphere a
joyful refuge. |
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| ACTIVITIES POSSIBLE:
St. Katharine’s Marina is an ideal location for those looking to enjoy the best of
London's history and culture while staying in a quiet, safe, beautiful environment. From
the Tower Hill tube station all of central London is within a 30-minute Underground trip
or less. London’s primary theater district centered around Covent Garden and
Leicester Square, and the major museums of Trafalgar Square, Moorgate, and Bloomsbury are
within 20 minutes of the marina. |
THE
TOWER OF LONDON |
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Getting to London’s major rail stations is also easy from Tower Hill Underground.
This makes it easy for guests to travel out of London on day trips to places like Windsor
Castle, Brighton, Rye, Dover, Oxford, Cambridge, Stratford-on-Avon,
Bath, Salisbury & Stonehenge, and even to Cardiff, Wales.
For those in no particular hurry, a bus stop for London’s famous red buses is just 3
minutes from most St. Katharine’s apartments. |
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Like history, restaurants, walking, and shopping? It’s a short walk (5 minutes) to
the infamous, medieval Tower of London, and just as short to
visit the landmark Tower Bridge. Walk north to discover the fascinating, historic, and
relatively unknown City of London. And, while restaurants and
shops abound in the marina and its adjacent neighborhoods, it’s also easy to walk
across the Tower Bridge to the South Bank to discover more shops and restaurants. And a
walk east or west along the Thames
Path is a walk through 2,000 years of British history in the fascinating and ever-changing
context of the River Thames. Also reachable on foot from St. Katharine’s are: St.
Paul’s Cathedral, Wren’s Monument to the Great Fire, Shakespeare’s Globe
Theatre, the Bank of England Museum, the Tate Modern museum of
art, Southwark Cathedral, the |
ST.
PAUL'S CATHEDRAL |
| historic
pubs of Wapping and Limehouse, and All Hallows by the Tower
church. Nearby are open-air markets at Bermondsey, Borough, Gabriel’s Wharf,
Riverside Walk, Spitafields, Petticoat Lane, Brick Lane, and Leadenhall. |
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Want to bring the whole family or just a favored child or grandchild?
The apartments at St.
Katharine's are perfect for families with children: TV, DVD players,
grocery, laundry, and pizza
restaurants within 5 minutes from your front door, a safe traffic-free
environment, surrounded with
2,000 years of touchable history. All this can be yours for a price that
can be much less than a trip to
Disney World! See here for more information:
•
Jacklyn Goes to London (a grandmother brings
her 7-year-old granddaughter).
• "Disney World or London"
— a surprising price comparison!
• "Kids Stay Free!" —
HOME AT FIRST's special Family Travel promotion.
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2000 YEARS OF LONDON
HISTORY
CONVERGE ON TOWER HILL. |
THE HISTORY: The
land that has become the modern complex of apartments and shops built around an attractive
yacht basin has been involved in commerce since before the Romans came to Britain. When
the Romans built Londinium in the first century, the landing wharves of what would become
St. Katharine’s Dock were on the river’s edge just outside the city walls.
Near the end of the first millennium
Saxon King Edgar awarded 13 acres of prime riverfront land to a group of
knights. This group bequeathed the property to an
Augustinian priory shortly after the |
Norman Conquest. At least a portion of the land was used for a hospice—a
medieval concept providing safe lodging for travelers and hospital for the sick. Around
1150 AD, Queen Matilda gave royal recognition to this hospice as the "Royal
Foundation of St. Katharine".
Over the centuries of the Middle Ages the
hospice at St. Katharine’s survived despite Henry VIII’s dissolution of the
monasteries, civil war, and the devastations of plague and fire that swept through London.
What it could not survive was the Industrial Revolution. |
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During the 18th century rapid commercial growth brought more and more trading ships up the
Thames to London, creating a need for new wharves and warehouses close to the markets of
the city. The great Scottish engineer Thomas Telford
was contracted to build new, high-tech docks at St. Katharine’s. The
medieval hospice buildings—including the church of St. Katharine’s—that
had survived so much turmoil were demolished for the new docks, which
opened to great fanfare in October, 1828. For the next 150
years St. Katharine's Docks served |
THE OPENING OF THOMAS TELFORD'S
ST. KATHARINE'S DOCK IN 1828. |
central London merchants as their closest major shipping and warehousing
facility. Many of the most valuable of imported commodities—including
rare feathers, decorative shells, tea, indigo, marble, perfume, and
ivory—came through St. Katharine’s Docks, which warehoused "the world’s
greatest collection of portable wealth" during much of its useful life.
That useful life ended during the Blitz of
World War II, when German bombers concentrated on St. Katharine’s Docks and the other
warehouse and wharf facilities of East London in an attempt to break the economic backbone
of Britain. So effective were these raids that St. Katharine’s was largely destroyed.
For the most part the docks and warehouses were not rebuilt after the war, and the area
remained a derelict eyesore on the east end of London. By 1970 all commercial operations
at the docks ceased. |
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THE EAST DOCK AT ST. KATHARINE'S
MARINA. THE QUITE, BEAUTIFUL
MARINA IS ONE OF LONDON'S
MOST DESIRABLE, FASHIONABLE RESIDENTIAL AREAS.
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A creative vision of a revitalized Docklands along the Thames transformed London’s
former warehouse district during the last two decades of the twentieth century. New
housing, new shops, a new light rail line and an extension of the London Underground has
turned the blight of the old docks into a fashionable district to live and work. No
portion of the Docklands redevelopment has matched the success of St. Katharine’s
Docks, which have become London’s premier yacht basin, and a pleasant, traffic-free
destination for shopping, dining, and recreation. The quiet,
upscale, and beautiful confines of the renamed |
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St. Katharine’s Marina
are now among London’s
most desirable, fashionable residential areas. |
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AVAILABILITY: For current availability information, call HOME AT FIRST at (800) 523-5842,
or contact us by e-mail at: info@homeatfirst.com
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Learn more about
travel with HOME AT FIRST to
LONDON
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