Wapping Old Stairs is a listed flight of stone steps on the south side of Wapping High Street, about 550 metres west of Wapping station. It is one of the few places left in central London where the Thames still comes right up to the street, and at low water you can stand on the gravel at the bottom. Three pubs within ten minutes of it hold a food hygiene rating of 5. Two others nearby hold a 1 and a 2, and are not named on this page.
Almost nobody comes here for the stairs. They are easy to walk past: a gap between two brick warehouses, a flagged passage a couple of metres wide, then steps going down out of sight. What makes them worth finding is that the passage and the steps are protected in their own right, under their own entry in the National Heritage List for England, and that they still do the job they were built for.
Our guide to Wapping and Rotherhithe covers the district and the crossing to the south bank. This page is about one set of steps and where to drink afterwards. The pub at the far end of the walk has a page of its own: see the Prospect of Whitby.
Wapping Old Stairs in brief
- What it is
- Stone flagged passage, steps and side wall down to the Thames foreshore
- Where
- South side of Wapping High Street, London E1W, immediately east of Wapping Pier Head
- Protection
- Grade II, list entry 1065803, first listed 27 September 1973
- Date
- Eighteenth century; the list entry allows that the steps themselves may be older
- Grid reference
- TQ 34590 80025
- Cost
- Nothing. There is no gate and no ticket
- From Wapping station
- 549 metres, 7 minutes on Transport for London's own walking measure
- Best hour
- The two hours either side of low water, if you want the foreshore
What the list entry actually says about the steps
Historic England's entry is four lines long and worth reading before you go, because it says what is protected and what is not: "C18 (Stairs maybe earlier). Stone flagged passage leading to Wapping Old Stairs, Stairs and stone wall at side of stairs."
Three things follow. The passage is part of what is protected, so the worn flags you walk over on the way down are listed fabric, not just the approach. The stone wall beside the steps is named separately, which is why it has not been rebuilt in brick like so much else here. And the eighteenth-century date belongs to the structure, not to the crossing point: the entry leaves the steps open to being older and does not try to settle it.
The entry also places the stairs in a group with the iron railings and paved roadway of Wapping Pier Head, the houses at 1 to 15 Wapping Pier Head, Oliver's Wharf, the surviving section of wall and entrance to the London Docks, and four bollards. That is the short walk in one sentence, and it is why the fifty metres either side of the stairs look older than the rest of the street.
Oliver's Wharf, the tall brick warehouse immediately east, is listed separately at grade II: mid to late nineteenth century, Gothic in style, stock brick with red brick and stone dressings, six storeys and six bays, with pointed arches to the top-floor windows. The list entry still calls it "now being converted to residential use", which dates the text rather than the building.
Photo: JRennocks · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
The other listed stairs on this reach, and how they differ
The 1973 listing round protected a whole series of river access points along this stretch of the north bank, and knowing which is which saves a pointless walk.
| Stairs | List entry | Grade | What the record says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alderman Stairs, east of St Katharine Docks | 1357873 | II | Listed with its gate piers |
| Wapping Old Stairs, Wapping High Street | 1065803 | II | Flagged passage, steps and side wall; C18 or earlier |
| King Henry's Stairs, Wapping High Street | 1065810 | II | The 1908 cast-iron lamp standard is the listed item, not the steps |
| Pelican Stairs, Wapping Wall | 1065814 | II | "Old wooden stairs to River Thames" beside the pub at number 57 |
| Shadwell Dock Stairs | 1065138 | II | Listed 1973 with the surrounding dock frontage |
| Ratcliffe Cross Stairs, Limehouse | 1241304 | II | The eastern end of the walk, past Shadwell Basin |
King Henry's Stairs is the one that catches people out. The listing there covers a tall painted cast-iron lamp standard of 1908 with floral and leaf decoration and an elaborate bracket, described as still in use, rather than the steps beside it. Pelican Stairs are wooden, not stone. Walking the lot takes about half an hour of the route described in our guide to the Thames Path and London's walking routes, which is diverted inland several times where a building blocks the frontage: the stairs are the only reliable way of seeing the water in between.
Going down: what the tide allows and what the law allows
These are two separate questions and people confuse them. The tide decides whether there is anything to stand on. The law decides what you may do once you are there.
On the tide, the National Tidal and Sea Level Facility publishes high and low water times for London Bridge for the next 28 days, and the Port of London Authority publishes a full annual table. Use the London Bridge times for Wapping. The authority issued a correction to its 2026 tables during the year, so make sure you have the corrected version rather than a printed original.
On the law, going down to look is allowed. Searching, scraping, metal detecting and digging are not, anywhere between Teddington and the Thames Barrier, without a permit from the Port of London Authority. There are 4,000 standard permits and 50 creative permits, the waiting list passed 10,000 people and registrations are suspended, and nobody under 12 can hold one. Our page on mudlarking on the Thames foreshore sets out the scheme and the safety rules.
A closed set of stairs is not a theoretical problem on this river. The Port of London Authority has shut foreshore access at Church Stairs in Rotherhithe, on the opposite bank, until further notice on safety grounds. Whichever steps you go down, look at how you are getting back up before the water starts moving, and do not rely on the next flight being open.
The three pubs we can name, with their ratings
Every pub on this page was checked on the Food Standards Agency's register before it was written. We do not name anywhere rated below 3, and on this particular stretch of Wapping that rules out more than usual. The inspection dates are printed so you can judge how current the rating is.
| Pub | Address | Hygiene rating | Last inspected | From Wapping station |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Captain Kidd | 108 Wapping High Street, E1W 2NE | 5 | 8 August 2025 | 176 m, 2 minutes |
| Turner's Old Star | 14 Watts Street, E1W 2QG | 5 | 2 July 2026 | 722 m, 9 minutes |
| The Dockers Inn | 97 Wapping Lane, E1W 2RW | 5 | 22 July 2025 | 787 m, 10 minutes |
Captain Kidd is the closest thing to a garden on this bank: a courtyard behind a converted warehouse with the river beyond it, and the best of the three if the weather holds. It is also the least historic of the three buildings, and is not listed. It stands a couple of doors from King Henry's Wharves.
Turner's Old Star, in a side street one block inland, is the one locals send you to. The pub's own account is that J. M. W. Turner inherited two cottages here, converted them into a tavern and installed Sophia Booth as its proprietor, and that the house was renamed after him in 1987 following a refurbishment; the pub gives its own date as 1830. None of that can be checked against the statutory record, because the building is not listed, so treat the Turner story as the pub's claim rather than an established fact. What is verifiable is the rating, the address and that it keeps cask ale under the Cask Marque scheme. It has a large garden, part of it roofed, and it shows sport on screens, which is either the point or the reason to go elsewhere.
The Dockers Inn on Wapping Lane is the newest and plainest of the three, and the one to use if you want a pub rather than an outing: on the street where Wapping does its shopping, next to a fish bar and a supermarket. If you are unsure how ordering works in a British pub, our guide to pub etiquette for visitors covers it, and what a pint costs in London gives the range to expect out here rather than in the centre.
Two pubs on this walk that we leave out
Within four hundred metres of Wapping Old Stairs there are two more pubs, both of which appear in print and online guides to the area, and neither of which we will name. One holds a food hygiene rating of 2 from an inspection in February 2025. The other holds a 1 from an inspection in July 2026, which means the inspector found that major improvement was necessary.
We write for visitors who cannot come back next week, so a caveat is not good enough and the name does not go on the page. Both ratings are public: you can look up any address on the Food Standards Agency's site, which gives the trading name, the rating and the date of the last visit, and most premises display the green and black sticker at the door. That is an argument for checking rather than against the walk, and it is why our round-up of riverside pubs on the Thames and our list of London's historic pubs are re-checked each round.
What else you pass between the station and the stairs
Four things on the 550 metres from the station to the stairs are easy to miss.
- The station entrance itself is listed. Entry 1065802 protects Brunel's tunnel entrance and the stairways from platform to street, and nothing else about the building. The tunnel below is covered by our page on the Brunel Museum and the Thames Tunnel.
- King Henry's Wharves, a first-half nineteenth-century block of brown brick with a hipped slate roof, five storeys and ten bays, iron hoists beside the loading doors and a large wall-mounted lattice-jibbed crane still in place on the river front.
- The police station between them, which the wharves' list entry dismisses in passing as "the intervening unlisted Police Station is not obstrusive". It is the Thames river police base, and not open to visitors.
- Tobacco Dock's Skin Floor, north of the High Street, listed at grade I as "a warehouse (Skin Floor) including vaults extending under Wapping Lane" — the highest grade on the walk, and rarely mentioned.
Getting here, and the honest travel times
Wapping station, on the Windrush line of the London Overground, is the only sensible way in. It is neither large nor step-free, and our guide to the DLR and the London Overground explains how the line fits the rest of the network. Turn right out of the station and walk west along Wapping High Street.
Transport for London's journey planner measures the walk at 549 metres and 7 minutes. Coming in from Tower Bridge instead takes 1,471 metres and about 20 minutes, a better arrival if you have the time, because it brings you past St Katharine Docks and Alderman Stairs. Buses do not help: the High Street is narrow and the routes run inland. Going on afterwards, London Museum Docklands is free and twenty minutes east, the indoor answer if the weather turns.
When to come, and when the walk is a waste
Come between about 11am and 4pm on a weekday if you want the street to yourself, or on a Sunday morning if you want it genuinely empty. The pubs fill from Friday evening, and the courtyard at Captain Kidd is full on the first warm Saturday of the year, as our guide to London's beer gardens notes of every riverside garden in the city.
Two conditions make it a poor visit. High water, when there is nothing at the foot of the stairs but moving water and the lower steps are wet. And heavy rain: there is no shelter between the warehouses, almost no shops, and nothing to duck into for the length of the walk. Allow an hour and a half for the stairs, the frontage and one pub; three if you are going on to Wapping Wall and back.
Frequently asked questions
Can you walk down Wapping Old Stairs?
Yes. There is no gate, no charge and no restriction on going down to look, and the flagged passage is open from Wapping High Street at all times. Whether there is anything to stand on at the bottom depends on the tide, and the lower steps are slippery with algae because they are under water twice a day.
Are Wapping Old Stairs listed?
Yes. They are listed at grade II under entry number 1065803 in the National Heritage List for England, first listed on 27 September 1973. The protection covers the stone flagged passage from Wapping High Street, the steps themselves and the stone wall at the side of the steps.
How old are Wapping Old Stairs?
The statutory description gives the structure as eighteenth century and adds that the stairs themselves may be earlier. That is as far as the official record goes, and no more precise date can be supported. River stairs at this point are much older than the present stonework, because the crossing point mattered long before anyone recorded who built the steps.
Which pub is closest to Wapping Old Stairs?
Of the pubs we are able to name, Captain Kidd at 108 Wapping High Street is nearest, 176 metres from Wapping station and a few minutes' walk east of the stairs. It holds a food hygiene rating of 5 from an inspection on 8 August 2025. Two closer pubs hold ratings below 3 and are not named here.
Do I need a permit to go on the Thames foreshore at Wapping?
Not to walk down and look. You do need a Port of London Authority foreshore permit to search, scrape, metal detect or dig anywhere between Teddington and the Thames Barrier, and the waiting list for those permits is currently suspended after passing 10,000 names. Nobody under the age of 12 may hold one.
Sources
- Historic England - Wapping Old Stairs, list entry 1065803 (checked September 2026)
- Historic England - Lamp Standard at King Henry's Stairs, list entry 1065810 (checked September 2026)
- Historic England - Oliver's Wharf, list entry 1065806 (checked September 2026)
- Historic England - Warehouse (Skin Floor), Tobacco Dock, list entry 1065827 (checked September 2026)
- Food Standards Agency - food hygiene ratings for Captain Kidd, 108 Wapping High Street; Turner's Old Star, 14 Watts Street; and The Dockers Inn, 97 Wapping Lane (checked September 2026)
- Port of London Authority - Thames foreshore permits (checked September 2026)
- Port of London Authority - Tide Tables and Port Information 2026 (checked September 2026)
- National Tidal and Sea Level Facility - high and low water predictions, London Bridge (checked September 2026)