Walk through London

You might think: why a post on one of the most crowded places in Europe? But believe me, I have my reasons.

So this summer I’ll go to London with a friend of mine. And while I was looking at things to do and thinking about how to get from one place to another, I got this amazing idea that it was maybe also possible to create a hike through London.

So I opened Google Maps, looked at all the spots in London one has to visit and I started to work. I created a route of roughly 9km (5.6 miles), but I’m still not sure at which end of the route we have to start, so I’ll show you the result of the route below, but if you plan on walking this route, you can chose on your own at which end you want to start.

The Route

The route runs from Piccadilly Circus to the Tower Bridge, all along the Thames and many more tourist attractions in London. As you can see the route is a total of 8.92km (5.54 miles).

Piccadilly Circus

So you’ll start at Piccadilly Circus, which is one of the most famous squares of London, so it had to be concluded in the route.

I planned on going here first, because it’s closest to our hostel, but I do know that Piccadilly Circus is actually a place you have to see when the sun has gone down, so that was why I didn’t know if we had to go here at first or maybe at the end. Well, nevermind, let’s move on.

Trafalgar Square

So from Piccadilly Circus you’ll walk 600 meters (0.4 miles) and then you reach Trafalgar Square, another famous square in London with the National Gallery in the background. The square is named after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, where the Royal Navy defeated the Franco-Spanish fleet of Napoleon.

Buckingham Palace

From Trafalgar Square, you can go onto the Mall, a long road that runs right up to Buckingham Palace. The Mall is around 1.3km (0.8 miles) long and along the way you can see parts of St. James’ Park and if you want you can even go walk in there.

Westminster Abbey, Palace of Westminster and the Big Ben

You’ll take the Birdcage Walk, which will take you right to Westminster Abbey, Palace of Westminster and the Big Ben. From Buckingham Palace to the Big Ben is a walk of 1.3km (0.8 miles).

So now you can say the hike is really starting. You’ll go across the Thames, right over the Westminster Bridge, which will give you a great capture of the Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben and now you’ll stay at this side of the Thames for a while.

You walk by the Thames until you reach the Millennium Bridge. This will be a hike of 2.8km (1.7 miles). You’ll take the Millennium Bridge and go to the other side of the Thames again.

St. Paul’s Cathedral

From the Millennium Bridge you can walk in a straight line right up to the St. Paul’s Cathedral. As you can see from the picture above, St. Paul’s Cathedral is even visible from the Millennium Bridge.

The Monument

From St. Paul’s Cathedral you walk Cannon Street until you reach the Monument. The Monument is a monument to commemorate the Great Fire of London in 1666. Its hight is 61 meters (202 feet), which is the exact distance from the Monument to Pudding Lane, where the fire began. You can even go up the Monument, which costs 4.50 pounds per adult (but prices differs for children, students and elderly), and you get a great view from London.

Tower of London

From the monument it’s only a 9 minutes walk (600 meters/0.4 miles) to the Tower of London.

The Tower of London of best known for its executions. Multiple people of high status have been executed here throughout history, for example Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell to name a few. Nowadays the Tower of London is best known for its location of the Crown Juwels.

Tower Bridge

From the Tower of London you can go right to the Tower Bridge, which is also your final destination 🙂 When you’ve walked all the way, you’ve walked a total of 8.92km (5.54 miles). It’s not that long right?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as I know, this route includes all the tourist attractions in London. The only few other things you might want to see the next day, are Hyde Park and Kensington Palace. And of course there are still a lot of other things to do in London, like the British Museum, Tate Modern and you can go shopping on Oxford Street.

Some additional ideas

So this friend where I’m going with and I are both huge Harry Potter fans, so we also want to go to Kings Cross and Leadenhall Market (where they shot Diagon Alley). It was kind of impossible to incorporate Kings Cross in the route, but I did manage to include Leadenhall Market.

Leadenhall Market is just above the Monument, so you have to add another 600 meters (0.4 miles) to the route.

My own experience

I haven’t walked this route yet, but I’m planning to in the second week of July. When I’ve done so I’ll post a blog about it and the link will be here 🙂

Anyway, I hope I can inspire you guys to walk this route and maybe I was just stupid for not googeling about a hike through London first and you’ve already walked this route or just another one that is similar to this one. So if you did, please tell me your experience 🙂