The Thames through London

There are various ways to orientate yourself through London - there is the tube, which is inaccurate but sufficient for casual visitors, there are the parks, which run down like a series of wedge-shaped steps through one side at least - Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, St James' Park. There is the AtoZ. Or there is the simple method I used when I was 19, which was not to bother about where I actually was since I could always pick up a bus back.

The most obvious landmark though is the Thames. You are either South of North of the river, and ancient boundaries invariably end at the river's edge. So Vauxhall is South to Pimlico's north, Ditto Putney and Fulham, Southwark and the City, Lambeth and Westminster.

So, in order to provide some idea of where the places on this blog actually are, and perhaps give people who haven't been an idea of the shape of London and where it sits, I've drawn this rough map.

Further west leads to Runnymede (Where the Magna Carta was signed) Windsor, Oxford, Shepperton Studios, Eton College, Henley Regatta, Kelmscott and the Cotswolds. Heading East you reach Herne Bay, Southend and the sea.