Full-On Tourist Day (Part 4) - Tuesday, 18 May 2010

The Queen’s Walk

I was pretty hungry and tired by the time I made it over to the Queen’s walk, so I  decided I’d sit out and have some lunch.  I stopped at a place called Giraffe, which advertised world music and food. Since it happened to be a lovely sunny day, I chose to eat outside and forego the music, but it was fine. Sitting in the sun, writing postcards, eating a delicious salad, and watching both tourist and local college grads go by was really fun.

The Queen’s Walk was built for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee (her 50^th birthday, I think). It’s a lovely redeveloped area that used to be unsightly and unused warehouses, wharves and docks. Now it houses the National Theatre (which does happen to be one of the ugliest buildings in the whole city—everyone says so, Barbara, not just me—and the London Film Centre, London Television Centre, and the OXO Tower.

There were more baby elephant statues at the Queen’s Walk. I think I’ll try to see them all, since I’m hitting most of the major tourist sights, and I think that’s where they’ve been put. I’ll look it up somewhere and find out how many there are and where they all are.

Baby Elephants (3) at the Queen’s Walk

The Queen’s Walk is on two levels, and the lower one had a fairly cool skate park for the local youths to use. They did their best to impress the tourists. This is one of the very few places I’ve seen graffiti in the whole city.

Skate Park on the Queen’s Walk

Graffitti at the Queen’s Walk Skate Park

The entire length of the Queen’s Walk area has gorgeous lampposts with dolphins/fish curling round the base and old-fashioned looking light globes.

Lamppost on the Queen’s Walk

Closeup of Lamppost Base

Gabriel’s Wharf

Near the end of the Queen’s Walk is a little area off to the side called Gabriel’s Wharf. At first I thought it was only restaurants, but it was cute so I wandered back in there. In addition to the food establishments were little crafts boutiques, with handmade jewelry, clothing, hats, scarves, etc. There was a wood carving place, too, and they had lots of rough-hewn statuary and furniture out in the middle of the square.

Wood Carvings in Gabriel’s Wharf Area

That whole area was really sweet, and I was glad I’d taken the time to pop in there.

The OXO Tower

Past Gabriel’s Wharf is the OXO Tower I mentioned before. It turns out that there are lots of design firms with offices in that building, and they all have glass walls so one can see them in action at their drafting tables, computers and phones. There are fabric design companies there, with samples hanging in plain view, architectural firms, etc. Up a the top of the tower is a restaurant and also a public viewing area outside. I went up there and saw some lovely views of the city across the river.

Lovely View Across the River from the OXO Tower

St. Paul’s Cathedral from the OXO Tower

While I was up there, a local guide brought in a group of tourists and told all kinds of stories: about the founder of the OXO company and how he designed the tower, about the great fire of London in 1666, etc. He had a dry wit that seemed to pass over the heads of most of his group. Maybe they weren’t native English speakers or maybe they just don’t get English humor, but I enjoyed it. I slipped out before they all headed down and went on my own way, happy to have picked up bits and pieces of free info.

Next post: The Embankment