The Embankment

The Embankment is Westminster's river frontage downstream from Westminster Bridge, and it is arguably one of the world's most handsome riverscapes. Sweeping for almost half a mile along the north bank of the river around a long right-hand curve, the Embankment is backed by the facades of some notable buildings - among them Portcullis House, the Ministry of Defence, the Adelphi, the Savoy and Somerset House. Much of the present embankment is of recent construction, the Thames having been forced into a narrower channel to accommodate both the road and London Underground's District Line, constructed around 1870.

Among the embankment's other features are the Victoria Embankment Gardens and Cleopatra's Needle, an Egyptian antiquity re-erected on the riverbank and claimed by some sources to represent the point from which all road distances to London are measured. It has a twin in Central Park, New York. The views across to the South Bank, nowadays enlivened by the London Eye, must not be forgotten. Hard by Portcullis House (a long overdue construction housing the offices of Members of Parliament) is Westimster Pier, from where riverbuses and pleasure craft can take you to such locations as Kew, Tower Bridge and Greenwich.

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Victoria Embankment from the Hungerford footbridge

Four views of the British Airways London Eye (aka the Millennium Wheel) and County Hall, on the opposite side of the Thames. (See the Lambeth page for more pictures of the London Eye).

Victoria Embankment Gardens and the Adelphi

Victoria Embankment Gardens

The Savoy

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This page last updated 16th March 2003