Teddington Lock and Weirs

This is a great place to cross the river if you are a pedestrian walking from Bushy Park to Richmond Park perhaps not a huge category of people. Still that’s how I came across it, and it was a pleasant surprise. The footbridge high across the river gives great views, though the cyclists insisting on riding over can be annoying. One way along the river you’ll see boats, if that’s what you are into. The other way is a set of weirs: a thundering, churning wall of water which is pretty spectacular. The Thames’s own mini-​Niagara. Halfway across the river the bridge stops off on a spit of an island, with moored boats and fishermen. There’s no paved path, but you can follow a soil path under a brick arch and along the top of the island up towards the weirs. The walkway along the weirs themselves is gated off, but you can get close enough to the roaring water to feel the spray.