The Thames Riverside Is About to Get a Whole Lot Fancier

It’s got charisma, but London’s Thames riverside has never quite managed the elegance of the Seine quays of Paris. Lined with old warehouses, power stations and factories and slicked with a fluctuating rim of tidal sludge, London’s waterfront developed its character at a time when people cared about unloading coal, not strolling under trees. For centuries, the river even formed a grimy cordon sanitaire between the respectable and disreputable parts of the city, the banks and palaces of the north bank turning their backs to the brothels, theaters, factories and tanneries on the south.

That industrial, maritime past has long gone, of course, and in recent decades the southern riverside has taken over as London’s main outdoor living room, housing its best arts center, most popular art gallery, biggest new tourist attraction and busiest gourmet food market. The embankment is packed on weekends and waterside apartments invariably have don’t-even-think-about it price tags.