South Bank Walks: From Palace to Station, Lost and Hidden Architecture

For this edition of our free South Bank Walks, we reprise our sold-out Open House Festival walking tour that explored South Bank's lost and hidden architecture.

North Lambeth was historically low-lying, marshy and liable to flooding, making it unsuitable for extensive building and only a few Medieval buildings survive. The area changed with the coming of the railway, with tracks elevated over the marshy via arches and connected to the new Waterloo Station completed in 1848.

In the wake of Waterloo Station's construction, churches, houses and places of entertainment were lost. However, in the 20th and 21st centuries these spaces were reborn and revealed again by a change of use and new purposes.

From the sites of old breweries and wharfs, hospitals, churches and theatres, this walk goes beyond South Bank's world-famous landmarks to reveal lost and hidden spaces that tell stories of the past and present and that also look forward to the future.

* Note all our South Bank Walks are free, although prior booking is required as space is limited!
** This extended walk starts at 11am and lasts approximately 2.5 hours.

Meeting point: The walk starts from the St Mary's Garden in front of the Garden Museum.