Welcome to London x London’s Wapping Guide: your guide to the best bars, restaurants and things to do in this East London neighbourhood.
Wapping sits on the north bank of the Thames in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, between Tower Bridge and Shadwell, directly across the river from Rotherhithe.
Once a bustling dockyard, Wapping fell from grace after the docks closed, then found an entirely new life as a quiet, atmospheric stretch of the river.
These days it’s the kind of place you come for a pint in a centuries-old pub rather than to unload a ship.
Wapping was once a centre of maritime trade and naval authority on the Thames, a status that made it a Blitz target and left much of its original construction destroyed. After London’s commercial docks moved out of the city, it spent decades as a mostly forgotten stretch of empty warehouses.
Now those warehouses house lifestyle hubs like Tobacco Dock, and the riverside is lined with genuinely historic pubs and quiet walks instead.
Historic docklands, now quiet, riverside and atmospheric
