Walk 23: Putney to Tower Bridge – 15th May 2026

Another Friday, another walk along the Thames!

I came into this walk pretty exhausted. It had been a really busy 10 days but this stretch - or more specifically the path between Westminster and Tower Bridge - were my only reference points of the River Thames prior to running this project with Jonathan so I was keen to walk it now after seeing where it all started.

Luckily my train was running on time, Jonathan’s train arrived this week too so I met him at Euston before heading over to Putney on the tube to meet everyone at 10am.

The forecast had warned us to expect showers but it turned out to be a lovely day weather wise. There were 14 of us walking and we had the wonderful David leading, along with Lydia helping to make sure we didn’t lose any stragglers at the back. David and I had done some planning beforehand with dedicated stopping points and we planned to cross the river twice on our 9.5 mile walk.

We started with our usual orientation which is always one of the most important parts of the walk, to help the group build psychological safety with our usual set up. We welcomed a couple of new walkers including a four-legged friend on this stretch and the check-in question was themed around “transitions”. I mentioned how the project was initially set up to help those in career transitions receive some free outdoor coaching but the theme has become so much broader and this stretch of walk passed 10 bridges which also symbolise transition. I was increasingly aware of the transition I was now making as we neared the end of the project. So the check-in question was:

“What transition are you walking with today that you might be looking to nature / the walk to help you with?”

There were so many insightful answers to this prompt and I was struck by how many of our regular walkers mentioned how much they had got from coming on these walks and how much they could see they had changed since their first stretch with us. Due to my exhaustion and feelings about being close to the end of this project, when it came my turn to answer the prompt I had a lump in my throat and tears started, making it difficult for me to get my words out! I jokingly commented that I won’t be in any fit state to do coaching on the final leg and may in fact need a therapist! I was so moved by how much impact these walks had had on others as well as me and how much I will miss this wonderful community we had built along the river. After composing myself and noting that it was a bit chilly standing around, we started the walk.

The first stretch along the south bank, before we crossed over at Chelsea Bridge, was quite built up and we were expertly led by Lydia (as it is her home ground) through the residential streets for the first mile or so of the walk, stopping at Wandsworth Bridge to introduce the opportunity to connect through coaching conversations.

While we were still on this busy stretch, and I was coaching, we walked right alongside the London Heliport. I have never had to pause a coaching conversation before while we waited for a helicopter to take off but we were only a few metres away from the helipad, separated by a wire mesh fence and it was a different kind of sensory input than I am used to!

Despite this section feeling residential and urban, there were stretches where nature was very much present and drawing us in. Wandsworth Park with its beautiful London Plane trees lining the path with huge trunks, making me wonder what they have witnessed in their 200 or so years. The stretch also provided snippets of nature - the pale pink rose bush in full bloom hanging along a garden fence, the vibrant, cheerful poppies and ox-eye daisies along a barbed wire fence contrasting with the bright yellow “Danger of Death” sign, the gardens in Battersea Park and also the river, guiding us as always.

We stopped for lunch at Victoria Tower Gardens, at the foot of the Houses of Parliament, with Big Ben overlooking us on one side and us overlooking the river under the trees on the other. The sun was out and I think it’s one of the most memorable lunch spots we have had on the walk series so far. Everyone was relaxed and enjoying the day, the conversations and connections that the coaching space provides.

It felt like an important juncture in the walk too. I invited people to take the next part in silence if they wished to. We would be walking through the busy section past Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and over Westminster Bridge to meet at the London Eye back on the south side of the river.

This was an interesting part of the walk - less than 1km but the volume of people and sensory input had distinctly shifted more than on any other section so far. We were walking through crowds of people, negotiating tourists taking photos, the gold on the Elizabeth Tower glimmering in the sunlight, the small memorial along the path for Keith Palmer, the police officer who was fatally wounded in the March 2017 Westminster attack, barriers for crowd control, the smell of vape smoke blown into my face from the person I was walking behind in the crowd, cars honking, the toll of Big Ben as it turned 2pm, waiting for the traffic signal to grant us permission to cross the road, the smell of food from street vendors, the flashing lights and loud music from the bright pink tuk tuks emitting loud music as they passed with their flashing fairy lights and yet I took a moment on the bridge to notice the river - this vast, powerful, dominant body of water that all of this activity was built around. I had a flash of that little puddle in the field in Gloucestershire I met 16 months ago, with its clear drinkable water and gentle trickle, and how I had witnessed its evolution into this dominant life force nearly 200 miles along the way. I had another little lump in my throat and wondered what changes it might have seen in me over that time too.

When we reconvened as a group at the London Eye, it took us a while to gather everyone together again. I had envisaged that this side of the river with its wide footpath would be easier to navigate than the north side with its many roads but the sheer mass of people made it difficult to easily spot each other. We shared our reflections for the silent stretch we had just encountered. One person shared how they usually cycle that route on their commute and how different it felt to walk it, someone else commented on how they reflected on the history and the amount of historic conversations that would have happened over the years in the buildings we had just passed and how it had moved her, and others felt the visceral feeling of so many people and not enjoying it.

For the final stretch of the walk along the south bank I rescinded my offer of coaching because the idea of trying to hold a coaching space amongst those crowds was beyond my capability at that stage in the walk. There was the offer for people to take coaching cards or enjoy more conversations along the rest of the walk and reconvene at Tower Bridge.

Not much nature on this part at all but the pull of the river was strong, leading me to look across to the other side at the vantage point we had of St Paul’s Cathedral, the large buildings, Millennium and London Bridge, HMS Belfast, the Tower of London and then the beautiful Tower Bridge.

We checked out by revisiting our check-in question. By that point in the day I was feeling really exhausted and I can’t really remember everyone’s answers, including my own. There was a sense though that perhaps the next walk isn’t the end of the Source to Sea initiative and maybe it’s just the beginning. What might its legacy be “Beyond the Barrier”?

I was meeting a friend for dinner that evening and it took a while for me to feel like I could have a conversation with him, I was so done in. When I was fed and watered though I felt a bit more human before heading back to Euston for my train at 20:33. I was ready to just get home.

The gods had other plans though and a fire beside the track between Nuneaton and Tamworth meant that there were many cancellations and delays. My train was delayed and I finally arrived in Crewe and then home about half past midnight. I then promptly spent the rest of the weekend in bed.

I love these Source to Sea walks and I will genuinely miss them when they have finished but every now and then they take a small piece of me and it takes time to recover.

We only have 2 walks left until we reach the barrier, so if you'd like to join us on our Source to Sea journey, you can find the latest schedule and link to book here.