East London Thames Pubs

Posted on 2009/02/14 12:43:12 (February 2009).

[Sunday 8th February]
Chie went out to meet a friend in the daytime today, so I spent a very pleasant afternoon exploring some of the great pubs to be found by the Thames in East London.


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Went to five pubs in total - the Angel and the Mayflower on the South bank, and then the Captain Kidd, the Prospect of Whitby and the Grapes on the North bank.

To my embarrassment I hadn't really realised that there are no bridges over the Thames downstream of Tower Bridge, and the next place to cross the river on foot is the Greenwich foot tunnel which I think is about 5 miles from Tower Bridge. So I'd rather naively started progressing East along the South bank, and after visiting those first two pubs, thought I'd just carry on until I found a place to cross.

Eventually I got to a place on the river where I was across the river from Canary Wharf, and it had started to get very residential indeed - the edge of the world as far as I was concerned. So I had to make the difficult decision of cutting my losses, and at least partially going back on myself, to get to Canada Water. I then got the tube from there to Canary Wharf, and the DLR from there to Limehouse, where I resumed my walk.

I think the first and the last where my favourites - the Angel and the Grapes - these were both very much still "real" pubs which looked like they had real locals. The ones inbetween were notably more touristy, but I guess all still interesting pubs in their own right. Every single one of the five was right on the river, and every single one had a back patio or a deck looking out over the water, which - given the time of year - I had largely to myself.

A very pleasant to wile away an afternoon alone.

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