Budget · 3-hour walk · London
The South Bank in three hours
The river walk east from the Eye past the Globe and Borough Market to Tower Bridge.
The south bank between Westminster and Tower Bridge is a continuous pedestrian path, which is rarer in London than it sounds and makes this the one central walk you cannot get lost on. It is also the cheap half of the river: everything here except the Eye is free to look at, and Borough Market is the best lunch on any of these routes. Walk it west to east so the light is behind you and the bridge is the finish.
The route, stop by stop
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London Eye
Book a timed slot or skip it entirely — the queue without one eats the walk. The view is worth it once, mainly for how flat London turns out to be.
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Southbank Centre
The Royal Festival Hall foyer is free, warm, has a piano someone is usually playing, and is the standard Londoner's answer to rain. The book market under Waterloo Bridge is just past it.
15 min here Walk here → -
Shakespeare's Globe
The reconstruction stands about 200 metres from where the original burned down in 1613. Standing tickets in the yard are still the cheapest seat in London theatre and still get rained on.
25 min here Walk here → -
Borough Market
Closed Sundays and Mondays, heaving on Saturdays. Come hungry and buy from the traders at the back rather than the photogenic ones at the Southwark Street entrance.
30 min here Walk here → -
Tower Bridge
Not London Bridge, which is the plain one upstream that Americans are traditionally accused of buying. The glass floor in the high walkway is a separate ticket and mostly a gimmick.
25 min here Walk here →
More walks in London
British Museum · Russell Square · Charles Dickens Museum · St Pancras International · Granary Square
Cutty Sark · Painted Hall · Greenwich Market · Royal Observatory · General Wolfe statue
Old Spitalfields Market · Christ Church Spitalfields · Fournier Street · Brick Lane · Redchurch Street · Columbia Road Flower Market
Buckingham Palace · St James's Park · Fortnum & Mason · Burlington Arcade · Royal Academy of Arts · Savile Row · New Bond Street · Claridge's
Tower of London · St Dunstan-in-the-East · Sky Garden · Leadenhall Market · Royal Exchange · Guildhall · Postman's Park
Westminster Abbey · Houses of Parliament and Big Ben · Trafalgar Square · Covent Garden · St Paul's Cathedral · Millennium Bridge and Tate Modern
British Museum · Chinatown · Victoria and Albert Museum · Natural History Museum · Royal Albert Hall · Serpentine · Primrose Hill · Camden Market
Tower of London · Tower Bridge · Borough Market · Tate Modern · St Paul's Cathedral · Covent Garden · National Gallery · Houses of Parliament and Big Ben · London Eye
More in London
Every walking route in London, the full London guide for where to stay and what a day costs, or walks in other cities.