London – Illuminated River Bridges Walk

This post is just made up mostly of photos from a walk that I went on yesterday evening along the River Thames. It was expertly led by Licia, who I met on Des’s walk last week, and was on the theme of the Illuminated River Bridges project. There’s plenty of information about this whole project at https://illuminatedriver.london/, but in short, it’s an art installation along the river which currently covers nine bridges.

The nine bridges are London Bridge, Cannon Street Railway Bridge, Southwark Bridge, the Millennium Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, Golden Jubilee Footbridges, Westminster Bridge and Lambeth Bridges. There were plans to extend the project to Albert Bridge, Chelsea Bridge, Grosvenor Railway Bridge, Vauxhall Bridge and Tower Bridge, although these need further funding and that isn’t currently guaranteed.

Licia led five of us (there were some no-shows, a problem becoming ever more challenging for walk leaders up and down the country, but that’s a different matter) along the route, which ended just after Westminster Bridge. I never knew that Westminster Bridge is green and Lambeth Bridge is red to reflect the colours of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The temperature was just right (for me) and there was quite a relaxed atmosphere along the River Thames and along the South Bank. Other than for the most ill-placed adverts that I’ve seen, promoting Nissan and it was a huge block of light and noise (the advert, not the car).

We saw a seal merrily swimming along the Thames and it was nice to end the walk at the National Covid Memorial Wall, which is where I’ll receive my second vaccination in a few weeks (most precisely at St. Thomas Hospital which is above the wall, rather than at the wall itself). Des had led a walk that I went on last year which visited some of the other bridges in this project, so it was interesting to meander along this section of the Thames and it all went very quickly (the sign of Licia being a very good walk leader!) and I only got in the way about three times. The walk was free and was listed on Eventbrite, with future ones also being planned I think.

Anyway, all very lovely, and, as usual, click on any the photos to make them larger.