Time required: 3-3½ hours

The tour starts at Tower Hill underground station (Circle and District Lines, zone 1). From there we walk down to the St Katherine's Dock (next to Tower Bridge), which opened in 1828 and is now a marina. Here the two-thousand-year history of the Port of London and the redevelopment of its facilities in the last 40 years is introduced and illustrated.

We then take the Docklands Light Railway for a scenic ride to Custom House station (zone 3) in the Royal Docks complex, passing Canary Wharf, the East India Docks and the O2 Millennium Dome. On arrival we climb to a high-level pedestrian bridge for a 360 degree panorama taking in the ExCeL exhibition centre, the University of East London campus, London City Airport, the Britannia "urban village" and other landmarks. This vantage point is also used to explain the progress being made on the construction of new stadia and other facilities for the London 2012 Olympic games, most of which are in or near Docklands. Mention is also made of plans for the redevelopment of the area further to the East, known as the Thames Gateway.

From Custom House we take the DLR and the Jubilee Line (changing at Canning Town) to Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs, the new financial district where about 90,000 are employed. Here we take a walk around the 40-hectare site to see not only the Manhattan-style architecture but also the surviving 200-year-old warehouses and the new underground shopping malls. The area contains a variety of restaurants, cafés and sandwich bars.