Wapping was the dock worker's neighbourhood before it was anything else, and before that it was where pirates were hanged at the low-water mark and left through three tides. The Prospect of Whitby has been a riverside pub since 1520 — longer than almost any other building in London. Samuel Pepys drank there; Turner painted from the terrace.
Wapping High Street is almost entirely converted Victorian warehouse now, and the cobbles and loading bays have been preserved in a way that's either heritage or developer's prop depending on your mood. Either way the Thames path is quiet, and the view east toward Limehouse at low tide — the beach visible, the mudlarkers working — is one of London's more meditative stretches.
