Despite all the Doctors that have come since, the monsters, companions and hundreds of episodes, the two most iconic images from the entire history of
Doctor Who remain the Daleks gliding across Westminster Bridge (1964), and the Cybermen marching down the steps of St Paul's Cathedral (1968).
Of course, we never actually see the Dalek photograph reproduced exactly within the broadcast episode. We only get a low shot of them on the bridge, taken from the footpath beneath, which isn't even a close-up.
As for the Cybermen... Truth is that it wasn't until Death in Heaven that Cybermen were seen to walk down the steps of St Paul's. What they did in The Invasion was to walk down a set of steps on a hill opposite the cathedral. These steps no longer exist, as the area of St. Peter's Hill has been heavily landscaped and there is now a more gentle slope leading down to the Millennium Bridge over the Thames.
What can still be seen, looking very much like it did in 1968, is the junction of Knightrider Street with the Hill. Douglas Camfield got some lovely low angle shots of the Cybermen at this corner.
What follows are some other Doctor Who locations which can be visited over the course of a single day's walk.
I managed two lengthy walks on my last visit to the city - a zig-zagging one through the City of London itself, and one along the south bank of the Thames (this walk).
In both instances, I began at Tower Hill.
Dominated by the Tower of London - UNIT's HQ between The Christmas Invasion and The Zygon Inversion - the First, Third and Eleventh Doctors all referred to unseen incarcerations here.
These were during the reigns of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I / James I (Raleigh was locked up by both) and Charles II.
Summer 2024 prices are just short of £35 for an adult, but you can see a lot just from walking around the peripheral public areas, including a view of Traitors Gate.
From the Tower, walk along the river towards the iconic bridge named for its proximity and cross to the south bank. On descending to the riverside walk, turn left - to the east.
You are immediately into the old warehouse district of Shad Thames. Very much gentrified since its appearance in Resurrection of the Daleks, when Lytton and his fake policemen gunned down escaped prisoners and random passers-by. Walk a short distance along the street and you come to Butler's Wharf. First seen on the opposite side of the river in the opening episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, there is a wide passage, marked with cast iron pillars, through to the riverside.
This marks the TARDIS landing site, and scene for many publicity photographs of the cast with the Daleks. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are seen walking through the passage onto Shad Thames after first arriving.
Opposite this location is St Katherine's Dock, where the Robomen were filmed back in 1964. The marina there was used for scenes in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, including the Doctor and Litefoot in the rowing boat looking for the sewer entrance.
You could therefore take this in before crossing Tower Bridge. We now retrace our steps back to Tower Bridge and continue along the river walk to the west.
You'll shortly come to HMS Belfast, which is actually another Doctor Who location. Not from the TV show, or any of its televised spin-offs, however. It was instead used for the filming on the unofficial production Shakedown, in which it played a spaceship boarded by Sontarans seeking a Rutan enemy. The cast included Sophie Aldred and Carole Ann Ford, and the video was written by Terrance Dicks - later expanded by him as a Virgin New Adventures novel incorporating the Seventh Doctor.
(£28 per adult if you want to go aboard for a closer look).
Continue your walk, leaving the riverside briefly to pass through Hays Galleria but rejoining it at London Bridge. You'll shortly see two locations - one seen in the series and one whose interior was "faked" by using another ecclesiastical building closer to South Wales.
Dominating the skyline near London Bridge is the Shard. This building was central to the events of The Bells of Saint John. Miss Kizlet had her HQ here, under the control of the Great Intelligence, and the Doctor rode his anti-grav motorbike up the side of it. Borough High Street and St Thomas Street were also used for this filming.
In the foreground above is Southwark Cathedral - setting for the climax to The Lazarus Experiment. The cathedral does appear briefly in the distance in early scenes as the Professor describes his WWII childhood experiences, but the interior was all filmed at Wells.
The cathedral is well worth a visit. There is a memorial to Shakespeare here (he was a local for a time), but the guides were unable to tell me where his brother Edmund is interred.
If you haven't eaten yet, just behind the cathedral is Borough Market, which has an incredible range of international foodstuffs on offer. Badly crowded at times.
The streets between the market and Waterloo East station were used extensively in Remembrance of the Daleks for battle scenes between the rival factions.
There's more Shakespeare shortly, but first we go along Clink Street - named for the old prison associated with the palace of the Bishop of Winchester, and which itself has come to used as popular slang for a jail. This narrow street was used as another location for The Talons of Weng-Chiang, including the TARDIS landing site and several incidents between the Doctor, Leela and the Tong members. It is right at the corner where the museum now stands that the Doctor was only narrowly missed by an axe.
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre follows once you've passed under Southwark Bridge. A recreation of the Tudor Bankside theatre, it was the brainchild of US actor / director Sam Wanamaker - father of Lady Cassandra actress Zoe. The theatre allowed location filming for The Shakespeare Code, since the setting was the original building which was located only a short distance away.
A number of Doctor Who guests stars have trodden the boards here. My first ever visit was to see a Marlowe play rather than one by the Bard of Avon - Doctor Faustus - in which Arthur Darvill portrayed Mephistopheles, between the two halves of Series 6 of Doctor Who.
Right next door to the Globe is a range of very old houses (early 18th Century), including the narrow Cardinal Cap Alley. These buildings also feature in The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
They lie between the theatre and the old Bankside power station which now hosts Tate Modern.
In front is the pedestrian Millennium Bridge - which can take you up to Knightrider Street and St Paul's Cathedral where we began as a short north bank detour, should you wish.
From Tate Modern, continue westwards along the river walk and you will shortly come to a more modern theatrical district.
This next area is where the post-war Festival of Britain had stood. It is now the site of the National Theatre, the National Film Theatre / BFI, and the Royal Festival Hall.
The brutalist concrete complex was deemed futuristic enough for it to be used as 26th Century Earth in Frontier in Space. Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning told many convention tales of filming around the area one Sunday morning with Draconians and Ogrons, scaring the homeless people sleeping rough there.
Nowadays there's a popular skateboarding zone plus an outdoor book and art print market.
At the moment, there is an odd Malpha-like sculpture outside the Royal Festival Hall...
You'll then come to the very busy area at the foot of the London Eye - used by the Nestene Consciousness as a transmitter to activate Autons and other plastic weaponry in Rose.
We have now reached one of the most iconic landmarks of London. As already mentioned, Daleks zoomed across Westminster Bridge, and the Ninth Doctor and Rose also ran across it in Rose.
Big Ben was hit by a Slitheen spaceship in Aliens of London, whilst a Dalek saucer easily passed overhead in The Dalek Invasion of Earth.
Cross over to the western side of the bridge and you'll see the steps which the Dalek considered during the scenes of Barbara, Jenny and Dortmun traversing London, and the stretch of embankment it glided along. It's a popular location for taking pictures of Big Ben, so always busy. On the left is St Thomas' Hospital - which played the part of the Royal Hope Hospital in
Smith and Jones.
After you've perhaps taken a detour over the bridge to see Big Ben closer up, come back to the southern embankment and continue westwards towards Vauxhall.
At Lambeth Bridge, the view towards the Houses of Parliament might look a little more familiar to Doctor Who fans if the skies were full of airships. This was the scene of the TARDIS landing site in The Rise of the Cybermen / Age of Steel.
Lambeth Palace is just across the road.
On the north side of the river we can see two large office buildings. One of these posed as Thames House - arrival place for the 456 species in Torchwood: Children of Earth. This was the real HQ for MI5 between 1934 - 39. The MI6 HQ you will also pass as you approach Vauxhall, recognisable from the James Bond films (until its destruction during the Daniel Craig era).
As I was staying in the Victoria area, I elected to end my walk at Vauxhall, where you can either walk across the river and up Vauxhall Bridge Road, or jump on the tube. The last Doctor Who landmark on this outing is Millbank Tower. This was the London HQ for Tobias Vaughn's International Electromatics in The Invasion - which brings us nicely full circle...
I did see some other locations on my travels, though dotted around rather than in a manner that could be grouped together as a walk. There are two story-specific walks which are fairly central and which I plan to do on my next visit - based on The War Machines and Invasion of the Dinosaurs.
