Mayflower Meandering
It’s a nice sunny Bank Holiday Sunday, and there is a plan for a group of us to go up to London and make our way up to the Mayflower pub in Rotherhithe. I had gone to get coffees for the train journey and Maccy D’s was even more chaotic on an early Sunday morning than any other morning I’d been in there. At the other end it was the first time I’ve got off at London Bridge since they had finished the modernisation, and it is a vastly different experience, and for us, heading to the river, it is so much easier, cleaner, and brighter there, and we pop out opposite Hays Galleria.
Which we cut through to the Thames path by HMS Belfast.
And we head east passing the gonad. (It does have a proper name, but that doesn’t matter.)
With each step Tower Bridge looms larger,
On the other side of the Thames is the Tower of London,
And the modern cluster of tower blocks. From here you can no longer see the once familiar sight of the Gherkin, as it has been surrounded by taller builds.
We have breakfast sat outside a café in a square behind Butlers Wharf. There is a fountain / artwork there, but without any running water.
Helen has arranged a pub crawl of sorts to get us to the Mayflower. The first of which is under Tower Bridge. Whilst people have their first drink of the day I head down onto the stony beach under the bridge.
All those times I have visited London before, walking for miles on paths by the river, I don’t think I’ve ever been down on the shore before. There are mudlarkers down there, but I’m enjoying it as a different vantage point to take photographs from.
From there it is inland a bit and up to Druids Lane and alongside all the railway arches as the lines from London Bridge head out into the country. Doing so we pass other old pubs, and little hidden squares with statues and artworks in.
There are more wharf buildings which must have been fun and games to get goods to and from the river from them.
The area is known as the Pool of London, and they have their own versions of blue plaques.
And Southwark council have their own blue plaque system going on as well.
The arches have several types of businesses in them, and quite a few of them have artwork on their shutters.
It is a surprise how many of them have been converted into bars or microbreweries, although it looks as if they have managed to spell jerks incorrectly on this sign for one of them.
Further along was the one we were heading for, an Anspach & Hobday bar called the Arch House. As people are drinking, I’m wandering around taking photos, it’s strange to be out going from pub to pub now that I don’t drink.
But I am given the responsibility of getting people from one pub to the next. The next wander takes us through the Dickens estate and LCC blocks of inter-war flats. One of which catches my attention as it is called Weller house.
The next destination is the Old Justice.
Which has a plaque to Sir Paul McCartney on the outside.
Across the street from it is a building which has a stone inscription on the front, saying it was the Sewer, Surrey & Kent Duffield Sluice and built in 1822.
We are back to the river now and as others drink, I am at the river taking photos, including a shot which looks like it is the still from a video with the play button in the middle of it. Only it is a triangular sloped roof, and the sun is shining on it at an angle to make it look like that.
As we head along the river to the next pub there is an angle where a photo lines up the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral perfectly framed in the middle of Tower Bridge.
Just before the next pub, there is an open piece of land, where some old stone ruins can be made out under the grass there. It is the remains of a manor house built for King Edward III.
Between it and the river is a little square laid out with various sculptures and information boards to Doctor Salter and his wife and the work they tried to do to allow education for poor children in Victorian times.
Next to this is the next pub, The Angel.
After a drink we continue along the river. On the north bank we can just about see the infamous Captain Kidd pub.
Before heading back inland to the next stop — The Ship.
It is on the wonderfully named Elephant Lane.
Opposite it are buildings with the plaque saying, “Henley Close” and a crest of arms. They are blatantly lying, as Henley is a good eighty miles upriver.
We are now in Rotherhithe, and there are more wharf buildings here, such as the Hope (Sufferance) Wharf.
And a plethora of plaques on buildings with half a dozen within about one hundred yards of each other.
A house has statues on the front.
And is opposite the Church of St Mary, Rotherhithe.
Which has a plaque on it to the sailing of the Mayflower in the early seventeenth century.
Behind it is the main planned destination for the day — The Mayflower pub.
It has been renamed to mark the ship that sailed from its wharf. Back then it was called the Spreadeagle, but it is the departure point for the sailing of the Pilgrim Fathers.
The pub is full of curios and is apparently the only place outside the USA which can legally sell US stamps. The place is absolutely rammed, and it is a good job we booked a table for the party of us.
After a couple of hours it is time to head back. There are no detours inland for any other pubs, heading along paths as close to the river as possible, where various buildings have upper-level walkways over the paths.
It also meant that I could line a similar shot up to the St Paul’s Cathedral one earlier, this time, it is the Post Office (or BT) tower in the middle of the Tower Bridge frame.
There are more massive wharf buildings and a swing bridge over one of the remaining docks on this side of the river.
The Happy Houseboat doesn’t seem very happy. It is bobbing up and down quite energetically as the water is choppy.
Back towards Tower Bridge and the water is a lot higher now than when I was down on the beach earlier in the day. It would be above my head now.
We walk past our first pub of the day and are heading to London Bridge to go to the Mug House, as some people are quite interested by the sound of them having a Port menu. But it isn’t open.
Some of the group head for home now. The rest of us across over and go in the Mudlark instead.
There is still time to wander around the side of Southwark Cathedral,
And out past the closed Borough Market onto Borough High Street,
To the last pub for the day — The George, the last galleried coaching inn left in London and a National Trust property. The National Trust membership doesn’t get a discount here though.
The sun has set, and twilight takes over whilst sat on the balcony of the galleries overlooking the courtyard with the shiny point of the Shard overlooking us.
On the way out the fact that the E on this sign makes it sound more like an insult than somewhere selling doughnuts. “You’re a doughnut Tim”.
The trains aren’t going everywhere that people are wanting to go, but for us they are going as far as Three Bridges which is good enough for us at the end of a good day out.
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