In this guide
The South Bank is the most-walked mile in London and most people do about a third of it. They come out at Waterloo, wander as far as the Tate, and turn back — which means they miss the half where the river gets interesting.
This is the whole stretch, west to east, from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge: eleven numbered stops, about 3km and two to three hours, entirely riverside and entirely flat. Almost all of it is free.
It is also the walk with the sharpest single trap in London. Borough Market is closed on Mondays, and it sits at stop nine of eleven — so a Monday walk arrives at the lunch stop and finds it shuttered.
For the wider area — the theatres, where to stay, the bits inland — see the South Bank area guide. This is the walking route version of it.
💡 The Short Version: Walk west to east, starting by crossing Westminster Bridge and finishing at Tower Bridge. Not on a Monday — Borough Market is shut. Tate Modern is free and open late on Fridays and Saturdays. The thing almost everyone misses is Leake Street, a legal graffiti tunnel five minutes off the route. And you cannot walk into the Globe without a ticket, whatever the guidebooks imply.
The route
Map of the walk, numbered in walking order
Loading the map…
Open the whole route in Google Maps → — all eleven stops in walking order, set to walking directions, which is the version to put on your phone.
| # | Stop | Cost | Open |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Westminster Bridge & the London Eye | Free to see | Always |
| 2 | County Hall | Ticket | Daily |
| 3 | Southbank Centre & the Undercroft | Free | Always |
| 4 | The book market | Free | Most days |
| 5 | National Theatre | Free | Mon–Sat only |
| 6 | Gabriel’s Wharf & the Oxo Tower | Free | Daily |
| 7 | Tate Modern | Free | Daily, late Fri–Sat |
| 8 | Millennium Bridge & the Globe | Bridge free | Globe by ticket only |
| 9 | Southwark Cathedral & Borough Market | Free | Market closed Mondays |
| 10 | HMS Belfast & Hay’s Galleria | Galleria free | Daily |
| 11 | Tower Bridge | Free to cross | Always |
| + | Leake Street graffiti tunnel | Free | Always |
1. Westminster Bridge and the London Eye
Start on the north bank and cross. You could come out at Waterloo and join the river directly, but Westminster Bridge is the better opening: you walk towards the Eye with the river opening up on both sides, and it costs nothing.
The London Eye is the one stop where the view of it beats the view from it — 135 metres, a full rotation in half an hour, and slots that book ahead and queue anyway. If you are going up something today, the free options later on this walk are better value.
2. County Hall
The heavy Edwardian building beside the Eye, and worth knowing about mainly so you can decide against it. Three paid attractions are stacked inside one building — the Sea Life aquarium, Shrek’s Adventure and the London Dungeon — and they are priced individually.
They are aimed squarely at families and they queue like it. If you are walking with children this is the natural stop; if you are not, it is four minutes of your day and no more.
Between the Bridges sits on the riverside here, and it is the answer to “where can we get a drink on this walk” — an open-air beer garden with street food units, cocktail bars and a covered stage, on the stretch of Queen’s Walk between Westminster and Hungerford bridges. Hot dogs, ice-cold drinks, big screens for the football.
Between the Bridges, on Queen’s Walk by the Eye. It is a seasonal operation — it reopens each year rather than trading straight through — so check it is on before planning a stop.
💡 The detour: Leake Street. Five minutes inland from here, under Waterloo station, is a road tunnel where spraying the walls is legal. It is free, open at all hours, and repainted so constantly that nobody has ever seen it twice. It is the most-missed thing on this stretch of river and it is worth the ten-minute round trip. See the section below.
3. Southbank Centre and the Undercroft
The concrete arts complex that everyone has an opinion about. The Royal Festival Hall is free to walk into, has free toilets, and its upper levels have seats and a view over the river — the best free indoor sit-down on the walk, which matters more than it sounds in February.
Underneath it is the Undercroft, London’s oldest skate spot, in continuous use since the early 1970s. It was slated for redevelopment in 2013, the skaters organised, and they won — the space is now protected. Free to watch, and it is one of the few genuinely unstaged things on a riverfront that is otherwise very managed.
4. The book market under Waterloo Bridge
Second-hand books on trestle tables, under the bridge, most days of the year. It has been there for decades and it is the only permanent outdoor book market in London.
It trades in most weather because the bridge is the roof. Prices are not jumble-sale cheap, but the stock is genuinely browsable rather than remaindered, and it is the most photographed thing on this stretch after the Eye.
5. The National Theatre
Brutalist, listed, and free to walk into. Denys Lasdun’s building divides people in exactly the way the Southbank Centre does, and the terraces are the reason to go in whatever you think of the concrete.
The exhibitions in the foyers are free, the riverside terrace garden is free, and the bookshop is one of the better ones in London. Forza Wine’s rooftop terrace on top of the building is the view stop — you are looking back west over the river.
KERB runs the food and drink out front, which makes this the second obvious stop for lunch after Borough. Picnic tables, deckchairs and a bar, all in the open.
⚠️ The building opens Monday to Saturday, 10am to 11pm — not Sundays. It is the second thing on this walk with a day-of-the-week problem, and unlike Borough Market it catches people who were not planning to go in.
6. Gabriel’s Wharf and the Oxo Tower
A small courtyard of independent shops, studios and food units on what was a derelict site until the 1980s. It is deliberately low-rent — the units are let cheaply to keep chains out — and it is the least corporate thing between here and Tower Bridge.
Next door is the Oxo Tower, whose lettered windows exist because 1930s regulations banned skyline advertising and the owners built the word into the structure instead. The public viewing gallery on the eighth floor is free, which almost nobody realises because the restaurant on the same floor is not.
Oxo Tower Wharf from the towpath. The designers’ studios behind those arches are free to walk into, and so is the eighth-floor gallery upstairs.
7. Tate Modern
A power station that became the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, and it is free.
The Turbine Hall is the room to see even if you skip everything else — 3,300 square metres of it, with a commissioned installation most of the year. The collection is free; only the temporary exhibitions are ticketed.
Open 10am to 6pm Sunday to Thursday, and 10am to 9pm on Friday and Saturday, which makes it the one stop on this walk that works as an evening plan.
The sign along the roofline says it: free and open to all. Only the temporary exhibitions are ticketed.
8. The Millennium Bridge and Shakespeare’s Globe
The Millennium Bridge is worth walking to the middle of and no further. It was built to frame St Paul’s, and that view — the dome sitting square at the end of the span — is the whole point of it. It famously wobbled on opening in 2000 and shut for two years to be fixed.
Next along the bank is Shakespeare’s Globe, a 1997 reconstruction of the 1599 theatre, built about 230 metres from the original site.
⚠️ You cannot walk into the Globe. The theatre opens for guided tours and performances only — the yard is not a public space you can wander into, whatever the photographs suggest. The shop and the Swan bar are open to anyone, and the exterior is free. The playing season runs roughly April to October; tours run year-round.
This is the view you get without a ticket, and it is free. The thatch is the only one in London — the roof is the reason the building needed a special dispensation to be built at all.
9. Southwark Cathedral and Borough Market
Southwark Cathedral is a thousand years of building on the site, free to enter, and almost always empty compared with the market forty metres away. Shakespeare’s brother is buried here.
And then Borough Market, which is the reason a lot of people do this walk at all.
⚠️ Borough Market is closed on Mondays. Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 9am–5pm, Sunday 10am–4pm. It sits at stop nine of eleven, so a Monday walk gets all the way here before finding out. Saturday afternoon is the other extreme — the market’s own guidance is that visitor numbers are high then.
Mid-afternoon on a Sunday and still this busy. The green ironwork is the 1850s market hall; the queue is for one of about a hundred traders.
10. HMS Belfast and Hay’s Galleria
HMS Belfast is a Second World War cruiser moored permanently in the Pool of London, and it is ticketed — but it is free to look at, and it is the thing that tells you the river was a working port until very recently.
Beside it, Hay’s Galleria is a covered Victorian dock with a glass roof, now shops and cafés around a strange kinetic sculpture of a ship. Free, covered and warm, which makes it the shelter stop if the weather turns in the last mile.
The warship and the banking towers in one frame, which is the Pool of London in a sentence. You do not need a ticket for this view.
11. Tower Bridge
Crossing it is free — the road and pavements are a public highway. What is ticketed is the high-level walkways with the glass floor, and the Victorian engine rooms that powered the bascules.
This is the end of the walk and the start of another one: cross the bridge and you are at the finish of our City of London route, which runs back inland to Bank.
The detour: Leake Street
Worth its own section because it is nothing like the rest of this walk.
Leake Street is a road tunnel under Waterloo station where graffiti is legal. Banksy started it with an exhibition in 2008 and it never stopped. Around 300 metres of tunnel, walls and ceiling, repainted continuously — some of it careful, most of it not, and none of it there next month.
Free, open at all hours, and about five minutes inland from stop 2. There are bars and food units in the arches off it now, which has made it less lawless than it was, but the tunnel itself is unchanged.
Go if you want the one part of this route that is not curated. Skip it if you are walking with small children in the evening — it is dark, loud and full of spray fumes.
Where to eat
Borough Market at stop nine is the obvious answer and the best one, on the six days it opens. Go for the stalls rather than the sit-down restaurants around it, and go before noon or after two.
If it is Monday, or you want something else:
- Gabriel’s Wharf (£–££) at stop six — small independent units rather than chains, and the least busy option on the route.
- Hay’s Galleria (££) at stop ten — covered, so it works in the rain, and it is the last chance before Tower Bridge.
- The Southbank Centre food market (£) behind the Royal Festival Hall — Friday to Sunday only, which makes it exactly the wrong answer on a Monday.
- Between the Bridges (££) by the Eye at stop one — open-air beer garden and street food units, and the drinks answer rather than the lunch one. Seasonal, so check it is running.
- Tower Bridge Collective (£–££) at the finish — thirteen independent kitchens over two floors, no chains, open 8am to 10.30pm every day. It opened in October 2025 in a converted office block a minute from the southern end of the bridge, and being open seven days makes it the strongest answer to a Monday on this whole route. Korean fried chicken, Palestinian musakhan, Eritrean and Ethiopian stews, Neapolitan pizza, and a children’s play area almost no food hall bothers with.
For the full picture — the chains that fill the gaps, and the restaurants worth booking — the area guide covers it.
The best day to go
Any day but Monday, and the reason is Borough Market.
| Day | What you get |
|---|---|
| Tue–Fri | Everything open. Borough at its most workable, and the quietest weekdays |
| Saturday | Borough at full tilt and very crowded. Tate open until 9pm |
| Sunday | Borough open until 4pm, National Theatre closed. Quietest riverside |
| Monday | Borough Market shut. Everything else runs. Plan lunch elsewhere |
What never closes: the river path itself, Westminster and Tower Bridges, the Undercroft, Leake Street, and the views. This walk works on a wet Monday in January — it just needs a different lunch.
💡 If you are buying a London Pass, this is the walk where it pays. Three of its inclusions sit on the route — the London Eye at stop one, the County Hall attractions at stop two and HMS Belfast at stop ten — plus Tower Bridge’s high walkways at the finish. Two of those in a day is roughly the break-even point. Our London Pass guide works through whether it is worth it for the way you actually travel.
On time of day: the light is behind you walking west to east in the morning and in your face in the afternoon, which is the argument for starting early. Tate Modern’s late opening on Friday and Saturday is the argument for the opposite.
Getting there and back
Start: Westminster (District, Circle, Jubilee) and cross the bridge, or Waterloo (Jubilee, Northern, Bakerloo, Waterloo & City, rail) and walk down. Finish: Tower Hill (District, Circle) over the bridge, or London Bridge (Jubilee, Northern, rail) from stop nine.
The route is flat, paved and step-free throughout, and it never leaves the river for more than a couple of minutes, so it is easy to cut short — London Bridge at stop nine is the natural halfway exit.
Walked east to west it works equally well and ends at Westminster, which is a better finish if you are heading on to Parliament or St James’s.
What to do with the rest of the day
- The South Bank area guide — the theatres, Lower Marsh, where to stay and what to book.
- The City of London walk — starts where this one finishes, on the other side of Tower Bridge.
- Walks along the Thames — six more river stretches, including the quiet ones east of here.
- Free things to do in London — nine of these eleven stops cost nothing.
Common questions
What is the best walking route along the South Bank?
Westminster to Tower Bridge, west to east, following the river the whole way. It is about 3km and takes two to three hours with stops. Start by crossing Westminster Bridge, which gives you the best first view of the walk, and finish at Tower Bridge rather than London Bridge — the last fifteen minutes past HMS Belfast and Hay's Galleria are worth the extra distance.
What day should I not walk the South Bank?
Monday, if Borough Market matters to you — it is closed all day. The market runs Tuesday to Friday 10am to 5pm, Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday 10am to 4pm. The National Theatre is also closed on Sundays. Everything else on this route runs seven days.
Is the South Bank walk free?
The walk itself is free and so are most of the stops: Tate Modern, the Southbank Centre, the National Theatre's exhibitions and terrace, the book market, Leake Street's graffiti tunnel, Southwark Cathedral, Hay's Galleria and crossing Tower Bridge. The London Eye, the County Hall attractions, HMS Belfast, the Globe's tours and Tower Bridge's high walkways are the ticketed ones, and you can skip all of them.
Can you go inside Shakespeare's Globe without a ticket?
No. The theatre opens for guided tours and performances only, so you cannot simply walk in and look at the yard. The shop on New Globe Walk and the Swan bar and restaurant are open to anyone, and the exterior is free to photograph — which is what most people on this walk actually do.
How long does the South Bank walk take?
Two to three hours at a walking pace with short stops, covering roughly 3km from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge. Add an hour if you go into Tate Modern properly and most of a morning if you do the London Eye, which books slots and queues.
Where is the graffiti tunnel on the South Bank?
Leake Street, a road tunnel under Waterloo station where spraying the walls is legal. It runs off York Road about five minutes from the London Eye, it is free, it is open at all hours, and the walls are repainted constantly so it is never the same twice. It is the single most-missed thing on this stretch of river.
