Tower Bridge to Albert Bridge

Today I had a break from routine. After a quick check on the Black Swan and his mate -- still nothing to see -- I took the Underground to Tower Hill, crossed the river at Tower Bridge, and walked up the south bank to Albert Bridge and home. 

At Tower Hill station part of the original Roman wall of Londinium can be seen, with courses of squared stone interspersed with thin Roman bricks. The upper part of the wall is medieval. The statue seems to be of the Emperor Augustus, who never set foot in Britain. His predecessor Julius paid a brief visit in 55BC, but it wasn't till AD43 that the country was colonised by Claudius.

There were no exotic birds, but plenty of Herring Gulls all along the way. One contemplated Tower Bridge.

Two bickered over food scraps from a riverside restaurant, and others mooched peacefully on the shore.

HMS Belfast, built in 1938 and preserved as a war memorial and visitor attraction, is moored near London Bridge. The new City skyline mixes incongruously with its superstructure. The large curvaceous building on the left, nicknamed the 'Walkie-Talkie', has its glass front covered with a louvred sunshield. This had to be added because the concave surface of glass focused the sun's rays on the street and burned parked cars.

The remains of the Great Hall of Winchester Palace in Southwark, built in the 12th century as a residence for the Bishop of Winchester. It was completely absorbed in later buildings and only exposed to view in the 19th century.

Greylag Geese swam briskly downstream against the incoming tide.

A pair of Mallards rested on riverside steps.

The south bank is lined with fine Victorian lamp posts wreathed in improbable dolphins.

You can get down to the shore in several places. A large chunk of driftwood made a foreground for a distant view of St Paul's Catherdral.

The memorial to the Special Operations Executive, topped with a bust of the heroic French agent Violette Szabo, who was captured in 1945. When tortured by the Gestapo she revealed nothing. Later she was executed at Ravensbrück concentration camp. In the background, part of Lambeth Palace, the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

 

A lion in the grass at the outflow of the Effra, one of the many hidden rivers of London.

The ubiquitous Egyptian Geese are quite at home on the river.

A curious sight: a small alder tree growing out of a rotten wooden post from a seed left by a bird. There are two trees here, both rooted in posts.

Tyburn House, a short way upsream from Vauxhall Bridge, is where the buried Tyburn river flows into the Thames. On its way from Hampstead it feeds the lakes in Regent's Park, the gardens of Buckingham Palace, and St James's Park.

Tideway Village at Nine Elms is a motley collection of houseboats of many origins now permanently moored.

Its ornaments include a fine bronze horse ...

... and a comic plastic macaw.

Seen from above at Chelsea Bridge, a Mallard drake resting on the shore.

The Westbourne river, whose valley was dammed to form the Serpentine, flows into the river upstream from Chelsea Bridge. It used to emerge through an arch, but the place is now an access point for the new giant sewer which runs along the river and its exit has been reduced to three little slots.

There is a large colony of Carrion Crows that divide their time between Battersea Park and the gardens of the Royal Hospital on the other bank of the Thames. They socialise on the edge of the river.

On a warm day one kept cool with a dip in the Thames.

A rugosa rose growing on the river wall at Battersea Park, also no doubt from a seed deposited by a bird.

Finally, home via Albert Bridge, pretty in ice cream colours but sadly weak. At the moment it's closed to motor traffic while it's strengthened for the umpteenth time. The notice 'All troops must break step when marching over this bridge' is famous, but whether the vibration would do much harm is questionable. Better, perhaps, to leave the matter in doubt.