Christine Hoodith

Eight And A Half London Bridges

On a briskly cold January morning, fellow Blue Badge Tourist Guide Steven Szymanski inducted an enthusiastic group into his passion for bridges on a walk that took in Tower Bridge to Waterloo, via St Magnus Martyr, the Steelyard and Bankside. 

A strange new way of looking at London unfolded: the ten-minute journey of old when trains backed from Cannon Street to Charing Cross giving a working girl just enough time to make the rent; Joseph Cubitt’s “half bridge”, sandwiched between road and rail bridges at Blackfriars; how else would you test the correction of the Millennium Bridges “synchronized lateral excitation” other than by sending a Page 3 girl across it holding a plate of jelly? Wonderful stuff! We’re all Bridgemen now. 

View of Tower Bridge

View of London’s iconic Tower Bridge. Photo: ©ViewOnLondon/ PawelLibera.

Christine Hoodith

Careers in teaching, tourism and the theatre, together with a lively sense of fun, have helped equip me for the delights and challenges of guiding London. I enjoy walking, literature and food and love to combine these enthusiasms in my tours for visitors. I’m especially interested in introducing London…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may also like

5 Famous Cats in London

A themed walking tour for the family around London can be great fun with a Blue Badge Tourist Guide. Guides can use great creativity to design a tour to match your needs and interests as part of our Specialist Tours. Here is an example: Does your family love cats? Let’s go on a feline-themed walking tour in search of famous cats in London.

Read more

The Wonders of London’s Wimbledon Common

London is a series of villages and we Londoners are all villagers at heart, fiercely proud of our own corner of the city. I live in urban Islington but was born in leafy Wimbledon on the other side of London. Wimbledon Common was a frequent destination in my youth - for childhood rambles, winter snowballing, and teenage high-jinx. So, on the 150th anniversary of the Wimbledon Common’s 1871 creation, I re-visited this much-loved green space finding it much as I’d always remembered.

Read more