Across the water: Wapping, Rotherhithe and the old riverbanks facing the towers

The case for the older banks

Some guests stay on the estate once and never again. The glass, the security staff, the silence at weekends: it works for a week of meetings and feels like an airport terminal the rest of the time. Wapping and Rotherhithe are the answer we give most often. Both were dock communities, both saw their docks close around 1970, and both turned their warehouses into homes rather than knocking them down. What remains is brick, cobbles, river stairs and pubs that were already old when the docks were new.

Wapping lies on the north bank between Tower Bridge and Limehouse, in E1W. Rotherhithe faces it from the south bank, in SE16, on the loop of land that also holds Canada Water and Surrey Quays. From either, the towers are close enough to see and far enough to forget about.

Rotherhithe: the riverside hotel with its own ferry

The main hotel on this stretch is the DoubleTree by Hilton London Docklands Riverside on Rotherhithe Street, on the site of the old Nelson Dock shipyard. Many of its rooms face the river and look straight across at the estate. Its greatest asset is the pier: a short ferry runs from Nelson Dock to Canary Wharf Pier at Westferry Circus, so a guest can be at a dinner on the Wharf in the time it takes to cross the water.

Ferry times change with the season and the hour, and the last crossing matters on a late evening, so check it on the day. Once the boat has stopped, Canada Water station is a short cab or a longer walk away, and from there the Jubilee line reaches the Wharf in a single stop.

Rotherhithe once the sun goes down

The village streets upriver from the hotel are among the oldest on the south bank. The Mayflower, on Rotherhithe Street, stands close to where the Pilgrim ship of that name was moored before it sailed for America, and its captain is commemorated at St Mary's, the church across the lane. The Brunel Museum, in the engine house beside Rotherhithe station, tells the story of the Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel ever built beneath a navigable river, which still carries trains to Wapping on the opposite bank.

Further along the bank towards the hotel, the Thames Path passes converted granaries and a few surviving river stairs, and the view opens downstream. At night the estate appears as one lit mass across the water, doubled in the river. It is the view most people who work there never see.

An evening here is quiet and short on choice, and that is its charm: a riverside pub, a walk along the Thames Path with the Wharf lit across the water, and back to the hotel. Guests who want more take the ferry over for dinner and come back for the view.

Wapping: warehouses rather than hotels

Wapping has no large hotel of its own. Visitors who want to stay on this bank rent serviced apartments in the converted warehouses, which are plentiful and often keep the original beams, loading doors and a balcony over the water. The alternative is one of the hotels gathered around St Katharine Docks and Tower Hill at the western edge, ten or fifteen minutes away on foot.

The pubs are the reason people come. The Prospect of Whitby on Wapping Wall claims to be the oldest riverside tavern in London, with a flagstone floor, a pewter-topped bar and a terrace above the foreshore. The Town of Ramsgate, beside Wapping Old Stairs, is long and narrow, and local lore says a notorious judge was caught there in 1688 trying to slip away dressed as a sailor. The Captain Kidd borrows its name from the pirate hanged at nearby Execution Dock. None of them is grand. Every one of them has a window on the river.

Between the banks, and back to the Wharf

The two villages are joined by the oldest route under the river. The Overground runs from Wapping to Rotherhithe through the Brunels' tunnel: one stop, a couple of minutes. From Wapping, Shadwell is one stop north for the DLR to the Wharf; from Rotherhithe, Canada Water is one stop south for the Jubilee line.

By road, Wapping is close: the Limehouse Link tunnel brings it within a few minutes of the estate. Rotherhithe is further by car than it looks, because the road has to cross the river by the Rotherhithe Tunnel or a bridge upstream, and the tunnel is slow at peak times. After dark, the ferry and the Jubilee line usually beat the car.

Evenings we arrange on these banks

A river-view hotel room or apartment on either bank is treated like any other address: the desk checks the reservation name, then the building, then the room or flat number, and gives you an arrival time. Both villages sit in Zone 2, so travel is included. For warehouse flats, tell us which entrance to use. Several buildings share one street door, and a companion who already knows which bell to press arrives without a phone call from the pavement.

Three companions know these streets well. Patricia favours the Prospect of Whitby and a window table, and carries a paint box small enough for a coat pocket. Molly is the late one, happy to start at ten and already aware whether anything is on at Tobacco Dock. Bianka prefers a first glass beside the yachts at St Katharine Docks, and she makes a pasta supper feel like a family table. Patricia is on the auburn page; Molly and Bianka are among the brunettes.

The Wapping page lists the hotels at the Tower end and the nearest stations, and the Tower Bridge page covers the rooms a little further west. For a full night with the river at dusk and again at first light, see the overnight format, then send the details to booking.