London Walk 4: York Watergate
Stranded gateway to the Thames by the, err, Strand.
(Photos/words © urban75, 20th January, 2007)

Now marooned some 150 yards from the River Thames it once served, the York Watergate was built in 1626 for George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham.

The gate served as the primary exit from the gardens belonging to the nearby York House, one of a number of mansions along the south side of The Strand (The Strand means 'shore of the river' and is a pre-Roman track).

With the construction of the Thames Embankment in 1864-70 by Sir Joseph Bazalgette, the gate ended up landlocked and after proposals to move it to the river front failed, the original steps were removed.



Ornate Italiante facade of the gate. The steps in the foreground would have gone down to the Thames.


View from Watergate Walk, down from The Strand.


The old gates leading to the Thames. You now have to walk across Victoria Embankment Gardens before you see any water!


Roof detail.



MORE VIEWS JULY 2007










HISTORICAL VIEWS


York Water Gate and the Adelphi from the River by Moonlight, circa 1850. [Original painting at the Museum of London].


Nelson's Funeral Procession on the Thames, 1806.

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