Somewhere pretty: a riverside walk If you're seeking prettiness in Tower Hamlets, it's probably best to head for the edge of the borough. To Victoria Park or the River Lea, for example - much more scenic than an exhaust-choked stroll down the Whitechapel Road. I headed south and went for a walk along the Thames, from St Katharine's Dock to Limehouse (via Wapping). If you're interested in following in my footsteps, the council has an excellent leaflet to help you spot all the interesting bits along the way. by DLR: Tower Gateway, Limehouse; by tube: Wapping; by bus: 100, D3
• St Katharine's Dock: The westernmost of London's old docks, hidden beside Tower Bridge behind some of the ugliest hotels in town, now transformed into a marina for yachting millionnaires [photo]. Tourists come to ogle the floating wealth, to spend money in nautically-themed boutiques and to get a completely wrong picture of what British life is like. All the genuine locals are of course shopping at Waitrose, just round the corner.
• Cinnabar Wharf: Every new riverside development round here is called "Something Wharf", in memory of the demolished warehouse on top of which 300 yuppies are now living. Pick the right apartment and there are some excellent views along the river towards Limehouse or Tower Bridge [photo]. But I'm not sure how residents ever get any sleep, what with the incessant river traffic and all the geese honking outside their windows.
• Wapping: There are several faces to Wapping. At first glance it's all cobbled streets, old pubs and historic dockside warehouses. Look more carefully and you'll spot narrow alleyways leading down to the river, and forgotten churchyards, and converted pumpingstations, and the river police heading out on another crime-busting mission, and some rather large council blocks just inland. I can see why people choose to live here.
• Ratcliff: Once a notorious dockers' haunt, this original Tower hamlet has been wiped from the map. Slum clearance (and the building of the Rotherhithe Tunnel) ripped the heart out of the area so convincingly that you may never have even heard of the place. One survivor, in name only, is Free Trade Wharf - now a huge residential block which looks like a half-constructed brick wall [photo].
• Limehouse: Narrow Street is one of the most sought-after addresses in the East End. Sir Ian McKellen lives here, as does Sir David Owen, and probably several other Sirs to boot. The street's famed for its old pubs and restaurants - and Gordon Ramsay's just moved into one at the southern tip of Limehouse Basin [photo]. Yesterday's menu at The Narrow offered cock-a-leekie pie and mash for £8.50, and braised faggots with peas and gravy for £9.50. I was almost tempted (although I prefer to pay less than £2.75 for my chips).
If you're seeking prettiness in Tower Hamlets, it's probably best to head for the edge of the borough. To Victoria Park or the River Lea, for example - much more scenic than an exhaust-choked stroll down the Whitechapel Road. I headed south and went for a walk along the Thames, from St Katharine's Dock to Limehouse (via Wapping). If you're interested in following in my footsteps, the council has an excellent leaflet to help you spot all the interesting bits along the way.
