Tower Bridge Moorings

In amongst the hustle of London, if you know where to look, there are oasis of clam to be found. One of these is Tower Bridge Moorings.

Along the River Thames, through central London, there are several locations where vibrant communities of houseboats are moored together, living together. On the opposite North side of the river in Wapping can be found another floating community – Hermitage Moorings.

The Community

Tower Bridge Moorings is all the more delightful for having large, mature gardens and trees floating in dedicated barges. The houseboat community is just downstream (East) from Tower Bridge on the South side in Bermondsey.

Each family has its own barge and there are other community use barges. There is a social barge, a barge for the wheelie bins and one for bike storage.

The people living on the barges range from the very youngest to the oldest, with varied professional lives. Some of the barges sit on the river bed at low tide, otherwise they rock around with the passing river traffic

Visiting The Gardens

A couple of times a year the gardens are open to visitors, one of which is as part of London Gardens Weekend. Apart from these special events the gardens are closed to the public.

The gardens can still be enjoyed by viewing them from the river wall at Bermondsey Wall West and further down the river at East Lane, although the river wall is quite high at East Lane.

Photography

The best time to get pictures of Tower Bridge Moorings is when the sun is in the East (downriver) with a low tide. This allows Tower Bridge to be seen in the distance behind the barges. At high water the barges are too high up in front of you. Check the tides using the BBC website’s tide tables for the nearby Tower Pier.

These pictures where taken on 19th May 2018 during London Open Gardens weekend organised by the London Gardens Trust.

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