Chelsea war museum, and the London wall – accessible options

I visited the war museum in Chelsea today. It is just by Chelsea hospital where the Chelsea pensioners live, in Royal Hospital road. An incredibly good few hours spent taking in a lot of war history all tastefully set out in exhibitions over several floors.

The facilities are excellent, and as it is a new building, it has a nice restaurant, lifts, lots of toilets, and very friendly staff. It is all free, although you do need to book an entry slot online, but I doubt you will struggle to find one available.

My journey there was quite eventful, but that home was worth a mention first. I struggle with walking for vast distances, and tend to cramp up after a number of steps, so any easy trip home from the other side of London is always welcome; and trust me, this is worth keeping a note of.

Outside the war museum is the 170 bus stop, this bus takes you directly to Victoria station, great. Victoria has lots of options, I chose to use the circle line and head back to Tower Hill. There was a lift in the station, although I am not sure it was working, but it only involved a few steps.

The train takes you to Tower hill where there is a lift to get back to ground level, but I now needed to get onto the c2c back towards Upminster. The obvious option is Fenchurch street, but this does involve climbing a considerable number of stairs, and then guessing which platform is needed, etc.

BUT, if you take the alternative option to walk a similar distance to the Tower Gateway, there is an escalator which takes you up to the trains, and two stops along the line is Limehouse, on the c2c. Brilliant. There is a small lift down from the DLR at Limehouse, and a lift back up to the c2c platforms, and then you wait for the correct train. Trust me, this information is gold dust when your legs are aching.

The trip to the museum was slightly more interesting, and a bit silly at times, but don’t follow all of my examples. I was quite early, so I stoppd off at Fenchurch street, and exited by the fron entrance, thus avoiding any stairs, except their escalator was broken.

Fenchurch station and stairs with the escalator broken, pathetic in May 2021

Fortunately for those unable to use the stairs, there is one lift in the station.

Moving on to my reason for visiting, and the Roman London wall! I wanted to trace how the London wall all joins up either side of Fenchurch street, and exiting from here brings you into Crosswall, and a short walk and under the bridge gets you underneath the station to the visible sections of the wall. I then revisited my steps to the Crosswall and nimber one America square, up Vine street, and if you follow this to the closed end of this street, it brings you to the back entrance of the Three Tuns.. I then walked south and to the front entrance of this pub, after passing the Dame College (previously John Cass). Here is a picture putting some of this in perspective.

And looking forward to the next big step in this puzzle, by facing 180 degrees in the opposite direction is St Botolph without. This would be outside the wall (without), and therefore the wall, and probably the Aldgate would be in the square to its left.