Riverside Palaces: A Guided Architectural Treasure Hunt

Come on a lively guided walk beside the Thames to trace the remnants of palaces and mansions of the rich and famous dating back hundreds of years. Our ‘Treasure Map’ is a printed scene of riverside Westminster dated 1751, and we walk near the river to find buildings and monuments from that time which can still be seen, and other grand homes which have been erected since then, telling the story of the Thames through its changing architecture and the developing use of London’s riverside over five centuries. We admire Queen Mary’s steps and the Archbishop of York’s gateway and (if we are lucky) peer into a ‘Roman’ bathroom and William Waldorf Astor’s windows. We hear about the ‘Great Stink’ and the transformational embankment project of Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Victorians. We see where one King lost his head and another lost his art collection. And on the way we also pass the homes of famous residents such as the diarist Samuel Pepys and actor-manager David Garrick, the first ‘terrace’ so-called, and Britain’s first purpose built civil servants’ offices.

The walk is led by Anthony Davis of Booksteps London Walks, who is a graduate of Oxford and London universities and a qualified Westminster guide with a special interest in eighteenth century architecture.