Walking with family: Embankment to Gabriel's Wharf... and beyond

Saturday June 13, 2026.

Partly cloudy with a high of 22°C (71.6°F).

Today marks the official birthday of His Majesty King Charles III, which involves the Trooping of the Colour parade, a 41-gun salute and a flypast by the Royal Air Force. It was the latter that my uncle Martin and I headed off to London to see.

Martin picked me up and we took the short drive to Croxley station, where we boarded a Metropolitan line train that would only take us to Harrow-on-the-Hill station, as engineering works had overrun.

Arriving at Harrow-on-the-Hill station, at 09;40, we made our way down the stairs from the platform and used the subway to reach Platform 2, where we would catch a National Rail Chiltern Flyer to Marylebone station. There was a wait of about 30 minutes, but at least we pretty much guaranteed a space on the train, unlike those waiting for the Metropolitan trains to start running again at around 10:30.

Sure enough we were soon aboard our train, speeding towards Marylebone station, where we disembarked and headed down to the Bakerloo line trains, which we took to Embankment station.

Leaving Embankment station we crossed Victoria Embankment and headed east, following the River Thames, until we reached Bazalgette Embankment. Here we explored one of London's newest public realms, which is built above one of the bore holes of the Tideway Tunnel. It was fairly empty with a few people sitting in some of the various seating areas, enjoying the morning sun, while a few skateboarders were practising their tricks a little further on. But it is always nice to get up close to the Lion heads that have always been out of reach.

We explored the area before continuing along the River Thames, passing beneath both Blackfriars Bridge and the Blackfriars Rail Bridge, until we reached the London MillenniuM Footbridge. I stopped every now-and-again to take some photos of the latest work by 'The Chewing Gum Man', Ben Wilson. He paints chewing gum that people tread into the footbridge into miniature works of art. We used this bridge to cross to the Tate Modern, where we stopped for a coffee at 'The Corner at Tate Modern'.

Suitably refuelled we continued our walk by heading west, passing beneath the Blackfriars Rail Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge, and onto The Queen's Walk. By now the River Thames was rushing in, covering the last of the small pieces of dry beaches, catching a few people unawares.

We stopped for a break, taking a seat in the shade of the small green space next to Gabriel's Wharf, before exploring the small garden attached to it. We then made our way through the small garden to Upper Ground, before heading back towards the river via Gabriel's Wharf.

Usually I watch the flypast from Waterloo Bridge, but we thought that we may get a better view from Gabriel's Pier, so we headed towards the end of the jetty. It was here that we discovered that Gabriel's Pier has been renamed to Granddad Pier. A few other people joined us along the pier, many of whom were tourists who had no idea what was to happen in a few minutes.

At 12:57 we spotted the first wave of the flypast, three Chinooks, approaching from behind St Paul's Cathedral. This was followed by a DC-3 Douglas Dakota from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, an Embraer Phenom with two Texans, an Airbus A400M, a C-17 Globemaster, an Airbus A330 Voyager with two Typhoons, a P-8 Poseidon, an RC-135 Rivet Joint (Airseeker), and then four Eurofighter Typhoons. The flypast concluded with nine Red Arrows, accompanied by four F-35B Lightnings, changing their white smoke to the traditional red, white and blue after they cleared St Paul's Cathedral. It was a spectacular sight and our perspective from the pier was better than we had hoped.

With the flypast over we headed back along The Queen's Walk towards Blackfriars Bridge, which we crossed, and headed east along Queen Victoria Street. Passing BT Baynard House we noticed an intriguing 'totem', so we climbed the stairs to get a closer look and take some photos. This piece is entitled 'Seven Ages of Man' and was designed by Richard Kindersley. It is cast aluminium, seven metres (23 feet) in height and shows the seven ages of man from William Shakespeare's 'As You Like It'.

Continuing on we turned down Cannon Street, stopping to look at the 'London Stone', before moving on to East Cheap where I took a photo of The Shard along St Mary at Hill, before we moved on to Great Tower Street and Byward Street.

Here we crossed Trinity Square and entered Trinity Square Gardens, as Martin wanted to visit the site of the Tower Hill Scaffold, where many people were executed across the centuries. We then took a walk through the Tower Hill Memorial Gardens which lists the names of Mercantile Marine casualties from WWI and WWII, on stone and bronze memorials.

On leaving the gardens we headed up to the Tower Hill Sundial, with its select history of London engraved around it. This sundial was commissioned by London Underground and was unveiled in August 1992. 

From here we descended the stairs so that we could visit the statue of the Roman Emperor Trajan and a part of the Londinium Roman Wall. We had to wait as many people were examining the statue as part of a 'London Treasure Hunt'. Eventually I managed to take a photo of Martin with the Emperor, before we headed back to Trinity Square.

We then visited the old Port of London Authority building, which is now the Four Seasons Hotel London at Tower Bridge, so that we could see one of the 'Liberty Boundary Markers' that surround the Tower of London.

From here we headed along Muscovy Street, where I took some photos of the old Mark Lane station entrance, before we turned north up Seething Lane and popped into St Olave Churchyard. From here Hart Street took us to Mark Lane and Fenchurch Street, where we stopped for a rest in Fen Court Garden beside the 'Cain Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery'.

We then continued up Fen Court to Fenchurch Avenue and north onto Lime Street and then St Mary Axe, where we stopped to take some photos of 'The Gherkin'. We then continued along St Mary Axe and joined Beavis Marks, before turning up Goring Street and then Houndsditch, which we followed to Aldgate Square, Aldgate High Street and Aldgate station.

Here we passed through the ticket barriers, descended the stairs and boarded an Uxbridge-bound train, alighting at Baker Street. Arriving at Baker Street, at Platform 2, we bought some drinks and snacks and then climbed more stairs and down another flight, boarding the Watford-bound train on Platform 4 with seconds to spare.

It was a fantastic day out with great company, seeing some new places while revisiting familiar locations, but still learning new things.

Distance travelled:

• Bus - 0.0 miles (0.0 kms)
• Cable Car - 0.0 miles (0.0 kms)
• Car - 2.8 miles (4.50 kms)
• DLR - 0.0 miles (0.0 kms)
• Ferry - 0.0 miles (0.0 kms)
• Overground - 0.0 miles (0.0 kms)
• River Boat - 0.0 miles (0.0 kms)
• Taxi - 0.0 miles (0.0 kms)
• Train - 8.6 miles (13.84 kms) (Chiltern Flyer)
• Tram - 0.0 miles (0.0 kms)
• Underground - 29.4 miles (47.31 kms)
• Walking - 6.6 miles (10.62 kms)