Walked — July/August 2019
This route starts by going through Embankment Gardens; it then follows the Thames Path as far as Limehouse. Barking is reached via the Limehouse Cut and the Greenway, and an alternation of streetscape and parkland leads to the M25. The original idea was to end the route at Tilbury, thus corresponding with the other eastern route which arrives across the river at Gravesend. However, there is really no connection to the national network of paths (except by taking the ferry to Gravesend), and the England Coast Path will not arrive in style here for some years. The full route, therefore, continues to Southend-on-Sea, using what is becoming known as the Thames Estuary Path as far as Benfleet, then through Hadleigh Park to finish along the shore path from Leigh-on-Sea to Southend-on-Sea. The total distance is not quite 100km, with a little under 580m ascent, but with the likelihood of connection distances (notably for Stanford-le-Hope), the walker is almost certain to top 100km.
| 1: Trafalgar Square to Wapping — 5.81km; 64m ascent Riverside walking from Hungerford Bridge to Wapping. | Map Directions |
| 2: Wapping to Barking — 13.44km; 85m ascent River, canal, and Greenway, and a few streets in Barking. | Map Directions |
| 3: Barking to Elm Park — 10.43km; 32m ascent Streets alternate with parkland | Map Directions |
| 4: Elm Park to Pilgrims Lane — 12.28km; 67m ascent Mainly rural, with some narrow lanes. | Map Directions |
| 5: Pilgrims Lane to Tilbury — 10.18km; 45m ascent Mainly suburban streets, with small areas of parkland. | Map Directions |
| 6: Tilbury to Mucking — 13.79km; 38m ascent Solitude all the way from Tilbury fort. | Map Directions |
| 7: Mucking to Pitsea — 13.82km; 92m ascent Except for Corringham and Fobbing, large skies and solitude | Map Directions |
| 8: Pitsea to Benfleet — 6.11km; 33m ascent Flat marshland walking, with streets at Benfleet. | Map Directions |
| 9: Benfleet to Southend-on-Sea — 12.01km; 128m ascent Hadleigh Marsh, then the water’s edge | Map Directions |
Disclaimer and advisory notices
Note that lwalks.london can accept no responsibility for content on an external site or in an external publication, nor for any action by an external site which renders our content or link outdated or unworkable. Furthermore, lwalks.london retains the liberty to unlink external content at any time if the content loses relevance to the linking page(s).
Images used on the lwalks.london site are either owned by lwalks.london, or are subject to a licence-to-use held by lwalks.london. These images must not be further used by any third party without the explicit permission of lwalks.london, or of the original image licensor. A small number of images are in the public domain.
Routes are to be followed entirely at the walker’s own risk: lwalks.london can take no responsibility for any inconvenience, damage, loss or injury caused by attempting to follow a route, which is no more than a mere suggestion of a possible enterprise.
We should be happy to learn of any changes to the line of a walk and/or its attendant facilities, or to consider an image which you own for inclusion on the site, lwalks.london thus being granted a free and non-exclusive licence to use the image anywhere on its site. Please contact us.
Lwalks.London 