Get off the beaten track and imagine you are exploring a wooded and marshy coastline and visiting a cobbled fishing village, whilst catching sight of steel and glass skyscrapers on the horizon.

This tour explores the Rotherhithe peninsula, dotted with the interlocked docks and waterways of Surrey Commercial Docks. Learn about the history of the area when it was part of the “warehouse of the world” with goods arriving from as far away as Greenland, Canada and Russia. Today the docks have been redeveloped for housing, watersports and wildlife, with stunning views of the skyscrapers of London’s 2 financial centres; the City and Canary Wharf.

Historic Rotherhithe village was a shipbuilding centre in the 17th century, and it was from here that the Mayflower set sail to journey to the New World in 1620. It is also home to the Brunel Museum and the entrance shaft to the tunnel under the river Thames built by Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Here they pioneered tunnelling underwater and built the oldest underground structure in London’s Underground, itself the oldest underground system in the world. Our tour ends at a historic church with some very unusual memorials in its graveyard!

Meeting Time: at 5:45pm for a prompt start at 6pm
Meeting Place: entrance/exit to Surrey Quays Overground station on Lower Road, London, SE16 2UE
End: approx. 8:30pm at St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe (this is a short walk from Rotherhithe overground station)
Post-tour drinks: Caroline will not be booking a table for post-tour drinks, but there are a couple of pubs near the end of the tour which she can recommend