Thames River Routes: RB6

RB6 is the river bus route I use the most as the far west end is Putney. The full list of stops (west to east) is:

• Putney
• Wandsworth Riverside
• Plantation Wharf
• Chelsea Harbour
• Cadogan Square
• Battersea Power Station
• St George's Wharf
• Milbank
• Embankment
• Blackfriars
• Bankside
• London Bridge City 
• Canary Wharf 

As always the timetable is a mess in the sense that I can't find a single sailing that goes to all of those piers, there're always some that are missed off. For example:

• Non-peak hours, the route west ends at Battersea Power Station
• Non-peak hours, the route east ends at London Bridge
• Peak hours, the route misses out Bankside and Milbank
• etc.

The time I took it was peak hours so went the full route from Canary Wharf to Putney (on way back from the NMM conference on the history of navigation) but missed a few piers, which picked up when taking other routes.

The river east of Tower Bridge (above) is wide and sided by many warehouses turned into apartments plus famous pubs and the Thames Police and their museum (as visited many years ago):

The central section is chockablock with tourists top sights:

Note all photos taken with phone as main camera battery mysteriously died earlier.

I like to sit at the back outside when the weather is good and you have to choose which side to sit (unless you sit backwards and see both directions not so well). In this case I was on the north side so the pics are of that bank.

Alas Big Ben wasn't a great subject as currently undergoing restoration:

This photo also emphasises the way the Thames wiggles as it is clearly taken into the sun while on the "north side" of the boat: here the river actually runs south to north.

Further up pass the great development work at Battersea Power Station:

This is still work in progress but they have a lot of convincing to do as the general impression from locals is its aimed out non-resident non-doms wanting to park some money. The old Thames of Lots Road Power Station is also undergoing development:

Towards the end the river banks turn green and the river quieter:

The boat arrives at Putney at 18:30 having left Canary Wharf at 17:25, so that's just over an hour. In a rush a train/tube combo might be a little quicker but its definitely not as scenic.