Walking London: Barbican to Southbank

Start: Barbican Tube Station

This past Sunday was the first time in ages where I went on one of my rambling exploring days out.  Yes it’s been winter, and cold and grey but I usually manage to get around during the season.  Not the case this winter where I mostly stayed inside.

It feels good to finally feel the sun on my face and not only get out and about but want to get out and about.  The prospect of using my new lens was also an incentive to  haul my very heavy D-SLR out with me.

With flowers budding all over the place, longer days and even a few days where I wore sunnies (!) none of us can deny that Spring is knocking on the door.  I’m finally getting into using my twitter account more and seeing the point of it all (@blackbee223) over the past week or so and with that discovering so many new things to do around the city.

An image popped up in my feed advertising a free exhibition at Museum of London called Tattoo London.  I rustled together 2 friends to attend with me who ironically didn’t have any tattoos.  Off we went to the the exhibition which was very small but very good.

After the exhibition we decided to get out of the museum to bask in the sun.  A quick trip to Tescos for sustenance then we made out way to St Paul’s where we we ate a quick lunch on the steps while the church bells rang.

While sunny it was still very fresh out so we kept walking and crossed over the millennium bridge towards Tate Modern.

Bubbles! We all mused that if weren’t embarrassing we would have been right there with the kids running through the bubbles.

Remains of the old Blackfriars Railway Bridge

If you need a break in this walk you can pop into Tate Modern but as it was a Sunday and tourists and Londoners were out in full force we didn’t stop there.  We did however go into Bankside Gallery. It’s small and free to enter.  It was a nice and quiet break so if you’ve never been inside (like I had never been despite passing it countless time before) definitely go.

They run a scheme where if you want to acquire original art they allow you to spread the cost over 10 monthly payments.  There were  a lot of pieces that I would have loved to put up in my flat so I might stop in again to really search for a new piece of art.

Badge of the London Chatham and Dover Railway from the first Blackfriars Railway Bridge

I’ve taken so many pictures of this badge and I love it.  It’s so completely opulent.  We continued on down Bankside until we reached Gabriel’s Wharf and managed to catch this sand face below rapidly disappearing by the quick moving tide.

It became so mesmerizing that I had to stay and video it disappearing.  If you check out my Instagram you’ll see a small clip of the forehead collapsing.

Once we reached the Southbank we decided to end here and head our separate ways.  But you can stay on and have drinks, see skaters doing tricks in the undercroft or browse the book market.

We were out for about 4 hours but I estimate that if you did the walk beginning to end at a decent pace it would be 2 hours give or take.  I got a good dose of vitamin D but also picked up a cold that had me stay home ill on Tuesday.  Partly my fault as I wore a light jacket.

Still worth it.

End: Waterloo Station