I'm indebted to Ian Visits for alerting me that a new stretch of the Thames Path has just opened up. It's alongside Craven Cottage, the home of Fulham FC, where previously you had to divert inland around three sides of the stadium. That's no longer necessary because a new Riverside Stand has been built and for the first time incorporates a proper riverside walkway. It's not, as the club's website claims, "a transformation of the riverside walkway into a world class leisure destination", that's ridiculous. But it is a nice shortcut, and because it's very new it still smells of timber rather than football.
The clever bit is that there are big black gates at either end, intermittently overlooked by security, which means they can close off the new terrace during matches. It then becomes a mingling and circulation space, ideal for accessing bars, curated streetfood and gourmet hospitality options. But the rest of the time anyone can wander through and gaze inside at the bevy of workmen still finishing things off, or gawp outside at a statue of George Cohen, 1966 World Cup winner. Even if you dawdle, it won't detain you long.
The best part is that this is yet another shortening of the Thames Path by routing it properly along the river. In recent years we've had fresh access alongside the industrial estates of Charlton, underneath Barnes Bridge, in front of Battersea Power Station and around Queenhithe in the City of London. Which left me wondering how much of London's Thames riverside remains inaccessible and whether one bank is more accessible than the other.
Here's my attempt at cataloguing the inaccessible chunks of riverbank on both sides of the Thames and their approximate lengths. I haven't included any gaps shorter than 100m. Breaks of 1km or more are in bold. The colours show general levels of accessibility (green good, amber intermittent, red poor).
SOUTH BANK
Hampton Court Bridge
NORTH BANK
Surbiton (600m)
Kingston Bridge
Hampton Wick (2km)
Teddington Lock
Teddington Reach (1km), Twickenham (400m, 200m)
Hammerton’s Ferry
Richmond Bridge
Ducks Walk (500m)
Richmond Lock
Isleworth (100m, 100m), Syon Park (1.5km)
Kew Bridge
Chiswick (1km)
Chiswick Bridge
Barnes Bridge
Chiswick Mall (200m)
Hammersmith Bridge
*newly cleared*
Putney Bridge
Putney (350m), Wandsworth (250m)
Hurlingham Club (1.6km)
Wandsworth Bridge
Chelsea Creek (150m)
Battersea Bridge
Albert Bridge
Chelsea Bridge
Battersea (250m, 100m)
Pimlico (300m)
Vauxhall Bridge
MI6 (150m)
Lambeth Bridge
Palace of Westminster (350m)
Westminster Bridge
Waterloo Bridge
Blackfriars Bridge
Southwark Bridge
Clink St (300m)
London Bridge
Tower Bridge
Bermondsey (400m), Rotherhithe (350m)
St Katharine Docks (150m), Wapping (600m, 300m)
Rotherhithe Tunnel
Rotherhithe (400m)
Limehouse (300m, 200m)
Canary Wharf Pier
Doubletree (200m), Deptford (700m)
Millwall (300m), Island Gardens (300m)
Greenwich Tunnel
Blackwall (500m, 200m)
Blackwall Tunnel
Yacht club (125m), Charlton (500m), Thames Barrier (250m)
Overall, I think you'll agree, there is an extraordinary level of access to the Thames through London. It runs for over 40 miles between Hampton Court and Erith - that's 80 miles of potential path - and yet there are only nine places where access is blocked for 1km or more. What's more every single one of those red zones is on the north bank of the river, leaving the south bank pretty much accessible throughout. From Surbiton to Putney and from Vauxhall to Southwark is pretty much unbroken access.
Out west the lack of proper Thames Path is usually housing related, a lot of well-to-do people having snuck in and bought their own piece of riverside. Out east the blockages start off being residential but as the estuary broadens it's commercial uses that smother the riverside, this having been a good place to hide industry and to allow waterborne delivery. Wharves, sewage works and former car plants don't mix well with recreational wanderings, and maybe never will.
The blockages in central London are really impressively few - the Houses of Parliament and the environs of Southwark Cathedral - plus a number of smaller interruptions which don't meet my 100m threshold. It'd be great if a few more gaps could be closed, as at Fulham, and here future development is key. Deptford's dockyard will one day be housing with an additional 700m of riverfront, ditto the 400m at Albert Island and further gains out near Barking Riverside. On a more serious note, as sea levels rise it turns out most of the defences that'll need strengthening are along riverside paths, not riverside buildings, and maybe that'll make the engineering easier.
Whatever, the Thames remains one of the very best places in London to go for a walk because in most places you can just head off without having to worry about too many intrusions along the way, especially along the south bank. I walked from Fulham to Kew yesterday and it was unbrokenly glorious, for which all Londoners should thank the foresight of years and years of careful planning.
