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You get the best views of some of the capital’s most iconic architecture from the Thames. The two-and-a-half-hour boat trip is run by Open City, the organisation behind the annual London Open House weekend, which allows thousands of people to explore all sorts of places not normally open to the public. It’s part of a year-round programme of visits and tours in the company of experts who are passionate about architecture, and about encouraging Londoners not to take their city for granted but to give the built environment the attention it merits.
Starting from Festival Pier, beside the London Eye, the tour will first head upstream for a look at Battersea Power Station before doubling back on itself and travelling east towards Canary Wharf.
Architectural guide Benedict O’Looney will give voyagers the lowdown on Somerset House, designed in 1776 on the site of a Tudor palace by Sir William Chambers, Tate Modern (originally by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and more recently transformed by Herzog & de Meuron), The Shard, Norman Foster’s City Hall, Oxo Tower, the Allies and Morrison refurbishment of the Royal Festival Hall, Denys Lasdun’s National Theatre and many other buildings and bridges.
Mulled wine will be on sale during the voyage so you should be feeling festive as well as fascinated as you get learn all about the buildings that line the Thames.