Hermitage Riverside Gardens

Hermitage Riverside Gardens – the real treat of a city retreat.

Seems like there is an Hermitage in every city. The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Hermitage Village in Berkshire, etc. But London also has it’s own Hermitage, just right next to the Tower Bridge. Hermitage Riverside Memorial Garden, one of my favorite parks in riverside London. Green grass, clever gardening, with smooth monolith concrete and glass surrounding buildings.

Wendy Taylor’s cutout dove sculpture commemorates the civilians who died in the London blitz which commenced on 7 September 1940 and ended on 10 May 1941. London was initially bombed for 57 consecutive nights. And there is a Hermitage Community Moorings is a co-operative which owns and operates a mooring on the Thames at Hermitage Wharf, Wapping. The mooring provides berths for up to 20 vessels: enabling a mixture of live-aboard, recreational, and visitor use. Part of their ambition is to ensure traditional river craft (sailing barges, tugs and motor craft) to remain as part of the Wapping landscape for future generations.

Some people even live full time on those boats. You can guess which ones based on the houseboat gardens. Surprisingly, I was told that members of the Conservative Party, who live nearby, were against those historic moorings, as “the boats destroyed the river view”. Uh? When you are here, enjoying river panoramas, watching boats passing by, and locals walking their dogs or just enjoying a quick lunch break, it is difficult to imagine, that 150 years ago it was a dirty place called the Hermitage Coal Wharf, and a few years later – Steam Wharf.
Few celebrities are living in this development like Dame Helen Mirren. I saw Graham Norton, a popular chat show host, walking his 2 dogs.

After chilling in this park, I usually go to Dickens Inn Pub in St Katharine Dock, a few minutes walk away.
Great ales, good wines, expensive but nice pizzas, the rest of the food I wouldn’t recommend though, and great panoramas from the terrace or the beer garden.

The Dickens Inn
Marble Quay
St Katharines Way
London
E1W 1UH
http://www.dickensinn.co.uk/

written by neja on 2011-04-13 #places #park #people #buildings #water #memorial #sculpture #green #dogs #children #break #views #life #guide #location #escape #architecture #city #london #wharf #panoramas #hermitage #celebrities #travel-destination #lcg