Last week I wrote about the London Marathon route
south of the river. This post continues the course for the second half of the race.
Once runners have crossed the Thames from south to north via Tower Bridge, they turn right, heading towards a circuit of the Docklands. Sadly I haven’t nearly enough time to go into all the stories connected to this area of London, let’s just say it’s one of the most intriguing parts of the Capital.
First up is The Highway, formerly the Ratcliff Highway, which takes runners into Wapping. Historically this road is known for two high profile murders in December 1811. First a young linen draper and his family were killed in their own home. Then, less than two weeks later, the landlord of the Kings Arms on what is now Garnet Street, along with his wife and a servant, were murdered in the pub.
What shocked people the most was that both attacks happened after the buildings had been locked and shuttered for the night, suggesting whoever carried them out had been hiding inside the properties.
A lodger at the nearby Pear Tree pub in Wapping became the principal suspect for the first murder. John Williams hung himself in prison while awaiting trial. The Kings Arms attack remained unsolved.
The Ratcliff Highway Murders became a subject for national fascination thanks to the burgeoning newspaper industry, ironic then that the area would become infamous for the somewhat messy move by News International from Fleet Street to their new Wapping printing plant in 1986, with the Highway being a focal point for protestors to meet. 6000 members of the National Union of Journalists went on strike, protesting against the relocation and the threat to their jobs News Internationals plans posed.
The marathon continues into Limehouse, once the location of Chinatown, populated by people working in the shipping trade who came to London on boats carrying opium and tea. After the area was devastated during World War 2, many from the Chinese community moved to Soho.
Those that have run the London Marathon over a number of years tell me that this part of the route has improved enormously. A decade ago this section of the course was like a ghost town compared to the vibrant atmosphere south of the river or in the last few miles in Central London. With the regeneration of the docklands comes an increase in the amount of residencial properties on this part of the course, meaning there is little let up in the numbers out to support the runners.
The route through the Isle of Dogs takes the marathon through Mudchute, which takes it’s name, predictably enough, from being the location for the dumping of mud and silt dredged to create Millwall Docks in the 1860s. The fertile nature of the land led to it becoming a wildlife park and adventure sports spot. A sailing and water sports centre is based at Millwall dock and one of London’s
inner city farms can be found here.
If you want the definition of successful Docklands regeneration, you only need to take a look at the
My Canary Warf website. After there, the tour of this part of London ends with Poplar, before the route of the Marathon heads back toward Tower Bridge and the City along Commercial Road. Having worked in Whitechapel for nearly two years, this section of the course is familiar ground to me. Were you to take a right at Aldgate East tube onto Whitechapel High Street, you’d soon come to my favourite pub in these parts called The White Heart. A little rough round the edges perhaps, but the food is good and people watchers can observe a varied mix of clientele, with city workers mixing with students from London Met, traditional cockney folk and scene types that have strayed from, or are on their way to nearby Shoreditch. The alley way next to the White Heart is part of the
Jack the Ripper walk, and a short distance further on, past the Whitechapel Art Gallery is a left turn taking you to Brick Lane where another collide of cultures can be found, those come for a vibrant music and art scene mingling with the large Bangladeshi community that has made Brick Lane the curry capital of London.
Given that by now we’re a good distance into the race, the thought of what delights lay to my right is not what I’ll need, so getting back on track, runners continue back to Tower Bridge, passing under it to follow the river along Lower and Upper Thames Street, with the City of London on the right.
Many an ancient tradition is retained in the square mile, my favourite being Beating the Bounds, which still takes place at All Hallows in the City of London on Ascension Day.
Beating the Bounds is an ancient custom still observed in many English parishes. Its roots go back to mediaeval times when parishes reaffirmed the edge of their land by walking round them during Rogation Week, stopping to beat each boundary mark with sticks, praying for protection and blessings for the land. Rogation Day, for those who didn’t pay attention during R.E class, ahem, was traditionally a period of four days of Solemn procession to invoke God’s mercy, and is the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Day.
The All Hallows' Beating Party is made up of students from St Dunstan's College Catford, who return to their roots in the parish of St Dunstan-in-the-East to take an active part in the ceremony. The south boundary of the parish is mid-stream of the Thames and the Beating Party, together with the clergy and the Masters of the Livery Companies associated with the parish, board a boat which takes them out onto the river where one of the students beats that boundary mark.
Excitingly, every third year the ceremony includes a 'confrontation' with the Resident Governor and Yeomen Warders of HM Tower of London at the boundary mark shared by the Tower and the Church. During the middle ages the divide was always in dispute, and this meeting commemorates a rather feisty occasion in 1698 when a riot took place between the people of the Tower and those of the parish.
I include this story since the Beating the Bounds tradition also exists in South West London, where every summer members of the Stragglers complete a full circuit of Bushy Park (about seven miles), marking their territory by stopping for a pint at seven pubs along the route - the church would be so proud!
The final part of the London Marathon takes in the Embankment, past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, onto Birdcage Walk and The Mall, finishing in front of St James’ Palace. By this point, I imagine most runners couldn’t give a stuff about the history of the place, they just want to cross the finish line and find a pub. Although not on the marathon route itself, my personal recommendation would be the
Porterhouse in Covent Garden. The tired brain might find the vast choice of foreign beers on offer a little too much to handle though.
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