please empty your brain below

That animated tide link is really cool. I could watch that over and over again.

From memory I recall steps just to the east of the millennium bridge on the north bank. I think there is a small beach there. I do remember sitting there with sandwiches and a cup of coffee looking up at the hoards of tourists crossing the bridge and think it was delightful that I was on my own yet only yards away from crowds of people most of whom were unaware of my presence.

I suspect one reason they are empty is that people do not realise that one is allowed to go down there. Most people are reluctant not to follow the crowd - a feeling of security on the basis of everyone else is doing it so it must be OK. Another is you often get your feet very wet and muddy. Most people in London tend not to be wearing suitable footwear.

Of no relevance to DG is the fact that if you are a dog owner you can safely let your dog off the lead despite being in the middle of a city.

A small stretch complete with artfully decaying boats in Greenwich about a mile West of the Dome.

Ah, NiC, one of my favourite stretches of decaying waterside. I've added it to the list.

I've seen beachcombers and sunbathers in front of the Ministry of Spies by Vauxhall Bridge

I was under the millenium bridge recently with my kids. I found some nice bits of pottery with are now in the bottom of my fish tank.

There was a old hand beachcombing down there. He said his best find was two gold rings lying next to each other. Bet there was a good story behind them getting there!

I was down on Bankside a few weeks ago one busy Saturday afternoon

http://bigblueballoon.net/bankside

A small stretch complete with artfully decaying boats in Greenwich about a mile West of the Dome.

It was a much better beach before the Dome redevelopment - bigger and easier to access. It's where John Prescott picked up a crab and called it Peter.

Hold on... got my east and west confused. What I'm talking about is about half a mile EAST of the Dome, between the Yuppie Village and Peartree Way/ Horn Lane.

What's *west* of the Dome, by Pipers Wharf, is bloody dangerous.

But there's a tiny stretch of beach at Highbridge Drawdock, where there's a little yacht club, (slightly west of the end of Hoskins Street) and another one right in front of the naval college.

03:34 GMT, time for an Antipodean comment.
Love those shots from the beach, made me think about parallel universes.

In the 1950s there was a real beach, right by Tower Bridge. The council dumped a load of sand there for poorer kids whose parents couldn't afford to take them to the seaside. I think they renewed it every year, and it was very popular. There still is sand just in from of the Tower - whether it's the remnants from the artificial beach, I dunno.

There are some stairs down to the river just around the corner from the Outdoor Activities centre at Shadwell (by the Prospect of Whitby pub).

That's my private beach, has been since I was a child and I love it - I get to stand on the foreshore and watch the river boats going by and school children canoeing...

It's secluded but not isolated - a great little place to watch the city's ebb and flow, especially over the last two decades (there were no towers at Canary Wharf when I first started going there).

Nice post. I wander up to the stretch by the Tate Modern most lunchtimes. NB The black rooks are actually crows - or maybe cormorants! Also, if you are lucky, the pigeons will fly into a panic after glimpsing a peregrine falcon flying down from the Tate tower. One lunch time I watched a gull tucking into a dead eel on the shore there.

way out west, there's a great stretch just before Barnes bridge. I picked up loads of old clay pipes on the shore when I was little and lived round there.

A book that I wrote in my head but never put on paper 'The Man From The Council' featured a love scene on of those beaches...enough said.











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