South Bank - London Bridge to Westminster - 1 hour

London's greatest walk - part 1.

This is the first of three walks, each of about an hour. The first walk starts at London Bridge Underground, zone 1, on the Northern and Jubilee Lines. Exit the station at the Tooley Street - Duke Street Hill exit. Cross the road by the pedestrian crossing to the art deco St Olaf's House and turn left towards Southwark Cathedral. The Southwark web site has a great deal of information about the building and its association with Shakespeare. We pause in the cathedral for a few minutes before joining the River Thames walkway past Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

The walk continues along the south bank past Bankside Gallery, Tate Modern, Doggett's Coat and Badge pub and several others with historical associations, to the South Bank arts centre - the Royal National Theatre, National Film Theatre, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Hayward Gallery and the Royal Festival Hall.

We get a good view of St Paul's Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge - known as the Wobbly Bridge by Londoners because of the 'lozenge-style oscillation' which forced its closure for damping soon after it was built. We go under several other landmark bridges and hear about their origins. We see Blackfriars, King's College London, the Inns of Court especially Middle and Inner Temples with the Temple Church and its link with Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.

Then there is Somerset House, Savoy Hotel, Ministry of Defence and the Victoria Embankment.

The walk continues past County Hall and the London Eye to Westminster Bridge, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Scotland Yard.

This part of the walk ends at Westminster Underground station on the Jubilee Line - a station of truly cathedral proportions, which is worth a visit in its own right.