Every year on The Daily Constitutional, as the high season for visitors to London hots up, I spend August sharing a few archive posts. This year I'm reposting recommendations from our If You Do One Other Thing In London slot (a regular feature of our Saturday London Spy posts) and updated posts from the Best Museums In London series, in which the London Walks guides shared their best London museum tips.
If theres' a London Walks tour starting or ending nearby I'll add the details at the bottom of each post. I hope you find these posts helpful over the course of the summer.
Keep in touch - I'm not going into hiding! - I'll be posting throughout August and, of course, I'll see many of you "out there" on London Walks tours. All of our regular features – and some new ones, too – will return in September.
A.S-G London, August 2016
Cross the River #2: The Woolwich Ferry
Yesterday I suggested that you cross the Thames via the Emirates Airline, the cable car service serving the Docklands.
Today, we're going on the water via the Woowich Ferry.
Glamourous it is NOT, but I love it nonetheless. In fact, that's WHY I love it.
A fixture of London's transport scene since 1965, it is the unsung hero of river crossing.
Contrast is so often at the heart of London's appeal and the views upstream are vivid in this respect with the sugar refinery battling it out with modern-day Canary Wharf for precedence. The Thames Barrier stands on sentry duty in the foreground.The Woolwich Ferry is a free service and it carries around one million vehicles and over two million passengers a year.
It's rough and ready, far from chic. But the boatmen are always cheery (in my experience) and it's the London completist's last tick: if you've crossed all the bridges, used all the tunnels, this is a must.
It's not sponsored by a big company. It doesn't have reclining seats and a bar. But I still love the much-neglected Woolwich Ferry!
View Larger MapA London Walk costs £10 – £8 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.
