Where to relax by the river

Floating on the Thames or relaxing right by it, there are few things more pleasurable in London than a drink by the river. Edward Sullivan shares his favourite places to watch the world go by.

The Tattershall Castle ***
Kings Reach, Victoria Embankment, SW1 (020-7839 6548).

Following a nine-month absence for a £4.75 million refurbishment - including having her bottom unbarnacled - the Tattershall Castle (the 1933 paddle steamer cum bar cum club) is now back on the Victoria Embankment, looking shipshape and ready for action. The occasional Monday night comedy club, which has attracted the likes of Mark Thomas and Graham Norton in the past, is once again proving to be a hit with comedy fans and there's a nightclub on Friday and Saturday nights.

The Captain Kidd **
108 Wapping High Street, E1 (020-7480 5759).

The Captain Kidd is a large and exuberant theme pub built on a magnificent site on the river at Wapping. The theme is, of course, Captain Kidd, the 17th-century privateersman. There's a ground-floor bar, and a more formal restaurant above that. Each floor has fine river views, though the big river terrace at the side has the best with Canary Wharf mistily downstream.

The Dove ****

19 Upper Mall, W6 (020-8748 5405).
The ever popular Dove has a dark, low-ceilinged, oak-beamed saloon bar, all black panelling, cushioned wall settles and coppertopped tables. Up a few steps in the bar are rooms serving food and rooms for eating in, and past them is the Dove of summertime - a veranda shaded by an old vine, a terrace overlooking the river, another terrace reached by a spiral staircase, sunny places, shady places and families of wild geese sailing by. The Dove has been a Fuller's house since 1796.

The White Swan ****

The Riverside, Twickenham, Middx (020-8892 2166).
The White Swan has been sitting pretty as a picture on the riverside since 1690. Food is served in the evenings from Monday to Thursday, with lunch served daily, including a barbecue at weekends. Outside it has terraces and balconies, crooked windows, a beer garden, hanging baskets and troughs of flowers - inside it's all old wood and real ale.

The Cutty Sark Tavern ***

Ballast Quay, SE10 (020-8858 3146).
The former Union Tavern, built in 1804, changed its name in 1954 to welcome the last of the great tea clippers to her new home in Greenwich. The Cutty Sark Tavern is still an amiable old dear, and the destination for many a riverbank walker. On warm days they'll sit on the river wall having a drink.

If not, they'll be in the bar with its old beams and comfortable wooden furniture.