London Marathon Route: The Course Mile by Mile
The London Marathon route mile by mile, from the three starts at Blackheath and Greenwich Park across Tower Bridge and Docklands to the finish on The Mall.
By CricketTaken EditorialPublished London Marathon22 min read
- Distance
- 26.2 miles (42.195km)
- Start lines
- Three, at Blackheath and Greenwich Park
- Where the starts merge
- Woolwich, just before mile 3
- Finish
- The Mall, since 1994
Twenty-six miles and 385 yards, from a patch of grass in south-east London to a red road in front of Buckingham Palace. The London Marathon route starts from three separate lines at Blackheath and the southern edge of Greenwich Park, heads east to Woolwich, then turns back west through Greenwich, Deptford and Bermondsey to cross Tower Bridge at about twelve and a half miles. It then swings east again round the Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf, returns along The Highway past the Tower of London, runs the length of the Victoria Embankment to Westminster, and finishes on The Mall.
That is the whole shape in one breath: a lopsided figure of eight laid across the Thames, almost entirely on the flat, with one river crossing. London Marathon Events has run the race over essentially this course for decades, adjusting the detail as the city has changed, and in 2027 it will be run on two consecutive days over the same route. What follows takes it a stretch at a time, with the mile points rounded the way the organisers publish them.
Miles 1 to 3: three starts and the drop to Woolwich
The race begins in three places. As the organisers have laid them out in recent editions, the Red start sits on Charlton Way at the southern edge of Greenwich Park, the Blue start on Blackheath along Shooters Hill Road, and the Green start close by in St John's Park. Which one a runner uses is printed on the race number, along with a wave, and how that allocation is made is the subject of our guide to the London Marathon start zones and waves.
All three routes head roughly east on separate roads. The organisers' course description says the runners from the three start lines meet for the first time just before the third mile marker, in Woolwich, near the Royal Artillery Barracks, about 4.5 kilometres from the start. From there the whole field is on one course.
The opening miles fall away gently. Blackheath is the highest ground on the course, and the road loses height through Charlton towards the river. It feels easy. It is meant to, and it is where a great many London marathons are spoiled, because the slight drop and the noise make a pace ten or fifteen seconds a mile quicker than planned feel effortless. Nobody notices it at mile two. Everyone notices it at mile twenty.
The first mile is not a mile of running
For a runner in a later wave, the first stretch can be as much shuffle as stride. The roads at the start are wide, the organisers describe the first three miles as wide roads and net downhill, but thousands of runners crossing a line in a few minutes fill even a dual carriageway. Weaving to find space costs distance and energy that will be wanted later. The road clears steadily once the starts merge.
Miles 4 to 9: Woolwich, the Cutty Sark and the first wall of noise
At Woolwich the course turns and runs back west, closer to the river, through Charlton and towards Greenwich. By mile four there is a single field, and it is moving at its settled pace. The organisers describe miles four to fourteen as relatively flat, with a small net fall still in it.
The approach to Greenwich is lined with people, and the noise grows with every street. Then comes the first of the London Marathon's great set pieces. Between miles six and seven, at about six and a half miles, the course loops around the Cutty Sark, the nineteenth-century tea clipper standing in its dry dock beside the Thames. The crowd here is deep, the road narrows round the ship, and for most runners it is the first time the whole scale of the day becomes audible. The spectator guide warns that Cutty Sark DLR station can have queues of up to 90 minutes.
Deptford and Surrey Quays
From Greenwich the route heads through Deptford, quieter by comparison and largely residential, and on towards Surrey Quays and Canada Water around mile nine. This is the stretch where the race settles. The first drinks stations have been passed, the excitement of the Cutty Sark has faded, and the runner who went out too fast begins, faintly, to know it.
The organisers' spectator guide describes the Rotherhithe peninsula, from mile nine to around mile eleven, as an enjoyable two-mile stretch with more room than the famous viewing points. The road winds around the peninsula's former docks before turning back inland.
Pacing the Greenwich section
The section from Woolwich to Deptford is the one most runners get wrong, and for a reason that has nothing to do with the road. The surface is good, the route is flat and the crowd at the Cutty Sark is loud enough to lift anyone. Heart rates climb with excitement as much as effort. Club coaches who have run London many times tend to give the same advice: check the watch against the mile markers at four, five and six, and if the splits are quicker than the plan, ease off before the ship rather than after it. Time banked here is almost always paid back with interest beyond mile twenty.
There is also the matter of the bends. The loop around the Cutty Sark is tight by marathon standards, and the turns through Greenwich town centre come in quick succession. Taking them wide in a crowd adds metres that a runner never sees on the map.
Miles 10 to 13: Bermondsey, Tower Bridge and halfway
Rotherhithe gives way to Jamaica Road, the long straight through Bermondsey at around mile eleven and a half. The crowds thicken again here, and the buildings close in. Then the course turns right, and there it is.
Tower Bridge comes at roughly twelve and a half miles. Runners cross from south to north, the bridge's towers overhead, the river on both sides and the City ahead. It is the image the television coverage returns to every year, and for many runners the moment they remember most clearly. The organisers' spectator guide marks it at mile thirteen as a viewing point and tells people to arrive early, because the bridge approaches fill fast.
Halfway, and the runners coming the other way
Off the bridge the course turns right, east, towards The Highway, and the halfway point falls on that road at 13.1 miles. This is one of the most demoralising and most fascinating parts of the course. On the opposite carriageway, faster runners are coming back the other way at around mile twenty-two. A runner at halfway can see people nine miles further on, and for the elite runners at the very front, the eastbound carriageway is still empty.
The Highway is crossed twice, once in each direction, and the spectator guide notes that it lets people see runners at both mile fourteen and mile twenty-two from the same pavement.
Miles 14 to 21: Limehouse, the Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf
From The Highway the route passes through Wapping and Limehouse, including the narrow riverside streets around Narrow Street, before heading south onto the Isle of Dogs. The island is a loop: down the western side along Westferry Road, round the southern tip past Mudchute, and up into the towers of Canary Wharf around miles eighteen and nineteen.
This is where races are lost. The famous landmarks are behind and the finish is still a long way off. The crowds on the island were thin in the race's early years; they are much fuller now, but there are quieter stretches, and the course turns more often here than anywhere else. A runner who started too fast feels it on the Isle of Dogs. A runner who paced sensibly often finds this is where they start passing people.
Mudchute and the southern tip of the island
The southern end of the Isle of Dogs is the quietest part of the second half. The route passes the green space of Mudchute, with its city farm, and the houses of Cubitt Town, and the crowd is made up of residents on doorsteps and families who have walked out from the estates. It is a strange interlude after Tower Bridge. Some runners value the quiet, because it lets them settle into rhythm and take stock. Others find it the hardest place to keep going, because there is nothing to distract them from the distance still to run.
Somewhere around here most runners pass the twenty-mile point of their training. Long runs in a marathon plan usually stop at twenty or twenty-two miles, so the miles round the island are the first that many people have never run before.
Why watches lose their signal at Canary Wharf
Runners routinely complain that their GPS watch goes wrong in Docklands. The cause is the estate itself. Tall towers of glass and steel reflect and block satellite signals, and parts of the route pass beneath buildings and under walkways where the signal is lost altogether. A watch may record a sudden burst of impossible pace, add a few hundred metres, or drop distance. The mile markers on the road are the reliable guide, and experienced London runners pace from them through this stretch.
Poplar and back towards Limehouse
From Canary Wharf the route swings through Poplar and turns back west, returning towards Limehouse at around mile twenty-one. In recent editions the organisers have staged Rainbow Row here, on Butcher Row in Limehouse, a stretch of road given over to music and colour just past mile twenty-one. The spectator guide warns that Limehouse station can have queues of up to 90 minutes.
| Mile (approx.) | Place | What runners meet |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 3 | Blackheath, Greenwich Park, Charlton | Three starts, a gentle descent, the field merging in Woolwich |
| 6.5 | Cutty Sark, Greenwich | A loop round the ship and the first deep crowds |
| 9 to 11 | Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe | A winding stretch around the old docks |
| 11.5 | Jamaica Road, Bermondsey | A long straight with a big crowd |
| 12.5 | Tower Bridge | The single river crossing |
| 13.1 | The Highway | Halfway, with faster runners passing the other way |
| 15 to 19 | Isle of Dogs, Mudchute, Canary Wharf | The loop round the island and the towers |
| 21 | Limehouse | The return west and Rainbow Row |
| 23 | Tower Hill | The Tower of London, on the way back into the City |
| 24 to 25 | Blackfriars underpass, Victoria Embankment | The river on the left and the long run to Westminster |
| 26 to 26.2 | Westminster, Birdcage Walk, The Mall | Big Ben, the palace and the finish |
Miles 22 to 25: The Highway again, the Tower and the Embankment
Back onto The Highway, now running west, with runners on the other carriageway still heading out towards the island. Around mile twenty-three the course passes the Tower of London at Tower Hill. For many years this section crossed cobbles near the Tower and St Katharine Docks, which runners disliked intensely. The organisers carpeted them, and in 2005 the route was diverted away from the cobbled stretch altogether.
From Tower Hill the route follows Lower Thames Street and Upper Thames Street west through the City. This is where the course drops into the Blackfriars underpass, and the short climb out of it is one of the few rises a runner notices all day. Late in a marathon, a rise of a few metres is felt more than any hill earlier on.
The Victoria Embankment
Out of the underpass comes the Embankment, running beside the river from Blackfriars to Westminster. It is long and straight, the crowds are huge, and the river is on the left. The London Eye appears across the water. Big Ben is visible ahead for a long time before it arrives, which can be encouraging or cruel depending on how the legs are holding up.
A judgement worth stating plainly: the Embankment is where a good London marathon is confirmed rather than won. The runner who has something left at mile twenty-four makes up minutes here. The runner who does not will find it the longest mile and a half of their life.
The last 1.2 miles: Westminster, Birdcage Walk and The Mall
At the end of the Embankment the course reaches Westminster, with the Houses of Parliament and the clock tower above. Runners turn past Parliament Square and onto Birdcage Walk, the tree-lined road running alongside St James's Park towards Buckingham Palace.
Along Birdcage Walk the signs begin. They count down the final distance in metres, and for years one of them has carried the old imperial figure of 385 yards to go, a reminder of the odd distance the marathon inherited from the 1908 London Olympics. At the end of Birdcage Walk the course turns in front of Buckingham Palace, swings around the Victoria Memorial and runs onto The Mall, the long red road leading to the finish gantry beside St James's Palace.
The final straight
The Mall is wide, straight and lined with grandstands near the finish, and it feels far longer than the few hundred metres it is. The finish gantry is visible from the moment runners swing round the Victoria Memorial, and the clock above it shows the gun time, not the runner's own. For anyone who started in a later wave the figure on the clock is not their time, and it is worth knowing that before the last straight rather than discovering it with alarm. The chip reads the true time from the mat at the start line to the mat at the finish.
Photographers line the final stretch. The organisers' official photographs are taken here, which is why so many finishers suddenly stand up straight in the last hundred metres.
After the line
Finishers walk on along The Mall to collect their medal, then their kit bags, and on to the meet-and-greet area at Horse Guards Avenue in Whitehall, where the spectator guide lists meeting points labelled A to Z. The organisers suggest runners will arrive there about 30 minutes after finishing. For the 2027 Sunday race the organisers have also published a secondary finish line in Green Park for the latest finishers.
| Edition or period | Where the race finished | Why it changed |
|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Constitution Hill | The first race |
| 1982 to 1993 | Westminster Bridge | The original finish moved because of construction work |
| 1994 onwards | The Mall | The current finish beside St James's Palace |
| 2020 | The Mall, elite race only | A closed loop around St James's Park because of the pandemic |
| 2027 | The Mall on both days | The same route on Saturday and Sunday for the one-off two-day edition |
The profile: why the course is both quick and record-eligible
Is the London Marathon course flat? For practical purposes, yes. The highest point is at the start on Blackheath, the road loses height over the first three miles towards Woolwich, and from there to the finish it runs close to river level. The few rises that runners notice are short: the approach to Tower Bridge, the ramps out of underpasses at Canary Wharf and Blackfriars, and the occasional bridge over dock entrances in Docklands and Rotherhithe.
Flat courses produce fast times, and London's record shows it. Paula Radcliffe ran 2:15:25 here in 2003, which stood as the women's world record for sixteen years and was still the women's course record after the 2026 race. Kelvin Kiptum lowered the men's course record to 2:01:25 in 2023, and Sabastian Sawe took it under two hours with 1:59:30 in 2026. Peres Jepchirchir ran 2:16:16 in 2024 for a women-only world record. Those are times at the dates given, and the course records move; the full list sits in our guide to London Marathon course records.
The record-eligibility conditions
A fast course is not automatically a record-eligible one. World Athletics sets two conditions for a road course to count for records. The overall drop from start to finish must not exceed one in a thousand, which is 42 metres over a marathon. And the straight-line distance between start and finish must not exceed half the race distance, so that a following wind cannot carry runners the whole way. London meets both: the start on Blackheath is higher than the finish but within the limit, and the figure-of-eight shape keeps the start and finish relatively close.
Boston, by contrast, fails both conditions, which is why times run there are not ratified as world records however fast they are.
What the profile means for a pacing plan
The shape of the course suggests a plan, and it is not an even one. The first three miles are downhill and give time for nothing. A runner who sticks to target pace here is working slightly less hard than the splits suggest, and that is the right outcome: the descent should save energy, not bank minutes. From Woolwich to Tower Bridge the road is level and the crowds are thick, which makes it the easiest stretch to run evenly. The island loop has the most corners and the most broken rhythm. The Embankment is flat and straight, with nothing to stop a runner who has kept something back from running the final miles as quickly as the first.
The wind matters more than the gradient. The course runs east and then west and then east again, so a breeze that helps on one stretch hinders on the next. The Embankment is exposed to the river, and a westerly or south-westerly there in the closing miles is a common complaint. Running in a group, where possible, makes a measurable difference. The elite pacemakers exist for exactly this reason.
Temperature is the other variable. London in late April can be cold and wet or unseasonably warm, and on the hottest editions the organisers have added extra water and showers along the route. A runner should plan the race pace for the day's weather, not for the course's reputation.
- 26.2Miles from start to finish
- 3Separate start lines
- 10Water stations
- 4Lucozade Sport stations
Distance as measured for the course; stations as listed in London Marathon Events' course information for recent editions, which can change.
The blue line and why watches read long
Painted down the middle of the road, sometimes on one side, sometimes the other, is a thin blue line. It marks the measured route: the shortest path a runner could legally take through every bend from start to finish.
The course is measured the way all certified road courses are, with a calibrated bicycle ridden along that shortest possible route, a set distance from the kerb at every corner. The measurers then add a short course prevention factor of one part in a thousand, so the certified course is never shorter than 42.195 kilometres even after small measuring errors. The method is set out in our guide to how a marathon course is measured.
Following the line in a crowd
The elite runners can follow the blue line almost exactly. A runner in the mass field cannot. Bends are taken wide because the inside is crowded, the road is crossed to reach a drinks table or a friend at the barrier, and runners weave around slower people. Each of those adds a few metres. Over twenty-six miles the extras add up, and most runners in the middle of the field cover more than 26.2 miles. The added distance varies from a few hundred metres to well over half a mile.
What the extra distance costs
A little arithmetic shows why it is worth caring about. A runner who covers one per cent more than the certified course runs about a quarter of a mile extra, roughly 420 metres. At five-hour marathon pace, a little under eleven and a half minutes a mile, that is about three minutes added to the finishing time. For a runner aiming to break a round number, three minutes is the difference between success and a near miss, and none of it shows on the official result as anything but a slower time.
The cheapest saving is on the corners. Runners who look ahead and drift towards the inside of a bend early, where the crowd allows, recover much of the distance without any extra effort. Running the blue line through the long straights matters far less, because a straight road is the same length on either side.
GPS adds error of its own. Satellite positioning is imprecise between buildings and in underpasses, and the Docklands towers are notorious. A watch that reads 26.6 or 26.8 miles at the finish is not proof that the course was long. It is a record of a runner's actual path plus the watch's own uncertainty. The official result is based on the certified course.
Drinks, timing mats and other fixtures along the route
The detail changes from edition to edition, and the event guide sent to runners each spring is the authority. The general arrangement, as given on the organisers' course page for recent editions, runs like this.
Mile and kilometre markers. Both are shown along the course. Runners from Europe and the many who train in kilometres can pace from either.
Water. The course information for recent editions lists water stations every three miles from mile three to mile twelve, then every two miles from mile twelve to mile twenty-four. That is ten stations, with the closer spacing in the second half when runners need them more. Water is handed out in bottles, and the stretch after each station is littered with discarded ones, which is worth watching for underfoot.
Sports drink. The same information lists Lucozade Sport at miles seven, fifteen, twenty-one and twenty-three.
Toilets. Provided at the start, at every mile from mile one to mile twenty-four, and at the finish.
Timing mats. Laid at the start lines, at regular intervals along the course and at the finish. They read the chip in the race number, and their splits feed the tracking app used by families and friends. A missing split on the tracker usually means a mat did not read the chip, not that a runner has stopped.
First aid. Medical stations are spread along the full length of the course, and the event guide marks their positions.
Some editions have added showers or mist stations on warm days, and gel stations have moved between editions. The organisers print the current positions in the event guide.
Watching it: the best places to stand and how to reach them
The London Marathon is free to watch, and the spectator guide published by the organisers names the places where most people go.
The Cutty Sark, mile 6.5. Greenwich town centre has the loudest crowd of the first half. Cutty Sark DLR station is warned as extremely busy, with queues up to 90 minutes at peak times. The guide suggests walking in from Deptford or Greenwich stations instead.
Canada Water, mile 9. A busy Jubilee line and Overground interchange; the spectator guide suggests considering alternative stations.
Bermondsey, mile 11.5. The Jubilee line station is very busy; the guide suggests walking from London Bridge instead.
Tower Bridge, mile 13. Arrive early. The bridge approaches are among the most crowded points on the route.
Canary Wharf, miles 18 and 19. The guide warns that Canary Wharf Underground station and the area around it will be extremely busy, and points spectators to the Elizabeth line or the DLR, with Crossharbour or South Quay for the miles nearby. This is one of the best spots for seeing runners at the point where they are suffering most.
Limehouse, mile 21. The station can have queues up to 90 minutes.
Tower Hill, mile 23. Tower Hill station is extremely busy.
Westminster, mile 26. In recent editions Westminster station has been exit-only from early morning to the evening, and the guide points people to Charing Cross, Piccadilly Circus, Victoria or Waterloo.
Where the course cannot be crossed
Spectators should assume they cannot cross the course on foot except at designated points, which the organisers publish each year. The Isle of Dogs is particularly awkward: the course loops round it, so anyone on the island during the race has limited ways off. Watching at two points is possible and many families manage three, but only by using the Underground and DLR to jump ahead of the runners rather than walking across the course.
A three-point day on the Jubilee line
One line of the Underground does most of the work for spectators. The Jubilee line serves Canada Water at mile nine, Bermondsey at mile eleven and a half, Canary Wharf at miles eighteen and nineteen and Westminster at mile twenty-six. A family supporting a runner can see them three times with a single line and no crossing of the course, as long as they move promptly.
Take a runner aiming for four and a half hours, a little over ten minutes a mile. They reach mile nine roughly an hour and a half after crossing the start line, Canary Wharf a little over three hours in and Westminster close to four and a half. Those gaps leave enough time to travel between points, even on a crowded day, and the tracking app tells supporters when the runner passes each timing mat. The weakness is the final stop. Westminster station has been exit-only on race day in recent editions, so a supporter can arrive there by Jubilee line but must leave the area by another station, and anyone who wants to meet the runner at Horse Guards afterwards should plan that walk too.
The guide lists five barrier-free viewing areas with accessible toilets: Cutty Sark, Canary Wharf, Rainbow Row, Tower Hill and the Victoria Embankment.
How the London Marathon route has changed since 1981
The first race, on 29 March 1981, finished on Constitution Hill beside Buckingham Palace. From 1982 the finish moved to Westminster Bridge because of construction work, and runners finished there for twelve editions. In 1994 the finish moved to The Mall, where it has stayed. The story of how the event grew around those changes is told in our history of the London Marathon.
Docklands
The biggest change happened around the route rather than to it. When the race began, the Isle of Dogs was a stretch of closed docks and derelict warehouses, and the course ran through an area many Londoners never visited. As Canary Wharf was built through the late 1980s and 1990s, the route was adjusted to the new roads, and the estate became one of its best-known sections. A runner from 1981 would recognise the shape of the island loop but very little of what lines it.
The Tower cobbles
For years the course crossed cobbles near the Tower of London, around mile twenty-two. Organisers laid carpet over them, but runners still complained, and in 2005 the route was diverted away from the cobbled stretch and St Katharine Docks onto a flat stretch of The Highway. The same year the loop of the Isle of Dogs was switched from clockwise to anti-clockwise, which is the direction it still runs.
The 2020 race
In October 2020 the elite races were held without the mass field on a closed loop around St James's Park, taking in The Mall, Birdcage Walk and the front of Buckingham Palace. Each lap was 2.15 kilometres, and the marathon was 19.6 laps. The mass event that year was run virtually, with entrants covering the distance wherever they were. The normal route returned in 2021.
The 2021 waves and the 2027 Double
From 2021 the mass field started in timed waves instead of a single gun, which changed how the opening miles feel without changing the route itself. For 2027 the race will be held on two days, Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 April, and the organisers have confirmed the route will be the same on both. Elite athletes compete on the same roads as everyone else, as do the wheelchair racers, whose separate race is covered in our guide to the London Marathon wheelchair race. For other big-city road races in this country, our Manchester Marathon route guide covers the flattest alternative, and there is more road running on our athletics pages and the England hub.