A riverside walk to a famous old London pub: the Prospect of Whitby

From the green expanses of Greenwich to the ancient nooks of dockland, stories lurk around every corner of this Thames walk to a historic pub

What is the best view in London? It’s a tricky question. Perhaps it’s from the South Bank, with the gothic spires of the Houses of Parliament, a building whose beauty so nearly redeems its essential absurdity. For sunsets, it’s hard to match Frank’s Cafe in Peckham, the bar dropped on the roof of a multi-storey car park: every time I have been the sky has glowed orange, pink and violet, as bright and wild as the city beneath. To the question of what is the best view of London, there’s a clear answer: that from the hill at the top of Greenwich Park. Nowhere else captures the history, the beauty and the manic diversity of the greatest megacity of them all.

It’s a perfect spring day, sunny enough for shirtsleeves and sunglasses. I start from Blackheath, a village doing its best to hide in London. From the station, I nose up the hill towards the common, where square patches of grass are bleached yellow, remnants of some charming fete organised, presumably, by those living in the grand Georgian houses on its border. Children and dogs run wild to the horizon.