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The Thames sundial trail in London, England |
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The tour starts in Parliament Square (tube station: Westminster). Parliament Square has Big Ben near its north-east corner, and the Houses of Parliament (including the very ancient Westminster Hall) along the east side. On the south side is the great bulk of Westminster Abbey, and in front of it, the small church of St. Margaret's Westminster.
St Margaret's has four sundials , designed by C. St.J. Daniel, on its tower, and is a very good illustration of how the appearance of a vertical sundial depends on the direction in which the wall is facing. . The sundial on the south face has the gnomon (which casts the shadow) slanting out from sundial at the angle of the co-latitude (so that the gnomon points at the Celestial Pole, and is thus parallel with the axis of the earth), and the hour lines fanning out from the base of the gnomon. You can see that the hour lines are symmetrical about the vertical 12 o'clock line. This shows that this sundial is pointing due south. The gnomons on the east and west faces also have to point directly at the Celestial Pole, and thus be parallel to the gnomon on the south-facing dial. The only way this can be done is by having the gnomon standing out from the surface of the dial. The hour lines are parallel lines marked on the dialplate. The east-facing dial records the morning hours, up to solar noon, and the west-facing dial records the afternoon hours. There is also a north-facing dial. Its gnomon points in the same direction as the others, towards the Celestial Pole, which means that it projects upwards from the dialplate. This dial records only the hours between 6 pm and 6 am, so that it is only operational in the summer months. 
For the next sundial, take the tube from Westminster to Blackfriars, three
stations along the eastbound District line. Walk towards Blackfriars Bridge,
and, just before you get over the river, take the staircase down to the
riverside walkway, which is called Pauls Walk. Walk downstream along Pauls
Walk until you get to the City of London Boys School and the new Millennium
footbridge. Just outside the school is a polar sundial designed by
Piers Nicholson, and mounted on a plinth of exactly 2000 blue engineering
bricks. The sundial was built by the Royal Engineers and presented to
the Corporation of London by the Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers
in December 1999. The badges of the three organisations are engraved with
an inscription on the stainless steel gnomon, which has a matt dialplate
marked in Roman numerals for winter time and in Arabic numerals for summer
time. There is more information about this sundial here
Map 
The next sundial is outside Tower Hill tube station, and you can get there by tube from Blackfriars. If it is a fine day, (and after it is re-opened sometime in 2002) you could walk over the Millennium footbridge, past the new Tate Modern art gallery, and continue along the south bank riverside walk, making diversions if you like to see the Globe Theatre or Southwark Cathedral.. Ignore Southwark and London Bridges, and cross back to the north bank at Tower Bridge. As you cross the river, the Tower of London will be on your left, and behind it, further away from the river, is Tower Hill station. This has a large horizontal sundial in a small courtyard outside the Tube station. The Tower Hill Dial is also part of the City of London sundial trail, another trail worth following and you might like to join it here. 
To reach the last sundial on the tour at St Katherine's Dock, make for the approach road to Tower Bridge, and find the small service road on the downstream side which leads down to the St. Katherine's Hotel. On the far side of the hotel on the riverbank is a large equatorial dial.  If you are visiting the Dome, you can see another of the Tylers and Bricklayers Sundials near the Millennium Village on the east side of the Greenwich peninsula.
Map
If you have more time, it is worth making a trip to Greenwich, which can be reached either by river or on the Jubilee Line. The river trip is far better scenically, but takes quite a bit longer. Greenwich has the new Millennium Dome as well as the superb National Maritime Museum and Queen's House. The Cutty Sark, one of the most famous of the tea clippers, is also moored here. There is another of polar sundials, similar to the Blackfriars one described above, near the Millennium Village on the Greenwich Peninsula. And, outside the tearoom of the National Maritime Museum, is (in our opinion) the best modern sundial in England, the superb dolphin sundial designed by C St J Daniel. If you have enjoyed following this trail, you would also enjoy the City of London sundial trail which will take you to many interest corners of the City, the heart of London |
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