Evening Walk - The London Wall (Tower Hill to Blackfriars or Circular)

Length: 4.5 km (2.8 mi) or 6.8 km (4.2 mi) for the Circular Walk Options

Ascent/Descent: negligible

Net Walking Time: ca. 1 ½ or 2 hours  

 

Meet at 18.30 outside Tower Hill Underground Station’s Main Exit, facing Trinity Square.

 

This highly interesting walk follows as closely as possible the course of the London Wall as it would have run during Roman times around the settlement of Londinium, starting at the (medieval) fortress of the Tower of London and leading through the modern-day City of London past the sites of the former city gates to the westerly wall end at modern Blackfriars. 

It also passes the site of the much older first Roman Fort (built AD 120) at the north westerly corner of the city, whose walls were later incorporated into the Wall (built ca. AD 190-230).Street levels would have been up to 7 metres lower than today, so many remaining parts of the Wall are now hidden from view in the basements of buildings or under roads, but the route still passes a surprisingly large number of publicly accessible exposed sections of the Wall above ground (plus one section below ground on an optional extension). 

Wall parts as seen today have been much altered during the Middle Ages and some of the info panels or the walk directions point out these alterations. The route initially closely follows a signed London Wall Walk established by the Museum of London in 1984 for the section from the Tower to the Museum and passes the remaining info panels from that time plus several modern-day replacement panels.

At the end of the 3^rd century, following a series of raids by Saxon pirates, an additional riverside wall along the Thames was added, but no evidence of it survives today. Nevertheless, two options are described to make this a circular walk, either along the modern-day waterfront or along the line of the Roman Era waterfront, which ran further inland.

Walk Options:

Dropout points are aplenty along the route at tube stations or bus stops. 

An Extension leads to a large section of the Wall in the underground London Wall Car Park (320m each-way). 

The route can be made into a circular walk by following a choice of routes back to the Tower, both add 2.3 km to the route:

· The Thames Path along the modern-day waterfront (including several small diversions around river fronting residential or office buildings); 

· A meandering route following as close as sensible the line of the Roman era waterfront.

Refreshments: Plenty, both en route and at the end of all walk options. Check the pdf for details.

For walk directions, maps, height profiles, photos and gpx/kml files click here. T=short.47