Anyone else taken a tumble down these steps on the southeast side of London Bridge? I was literally saying how dangerous they were as I fell.

Very steep with narrow wet steps made of slippery smooth granite at shifting oblique angles creating a weird optical illusion effect.

Be careful out there people, and use those hand rails!

by drcatf1sh

47 comments

  1. Thankfully never fallen up or down them, but I firmly agree that these are the worst stairs in all of London.

  2. We need more people to sue the local authority to have these ripped out and replaced with some safer steps. This Queens Walk section is lethal!

  3. This is real r/London shit. It’s scarred in all our brains. Bring these stairs up in conversation to anyone, everyone knows them and everyone *despises* them.

  5. I don’t understand why they’re diagonal. Worst stairs in London for certain.

  6. The stairs are lethal! I fell last Christmas and had a proper nasty bruise on my hip!

  7. Used to walk down these the office. My brain was tired before I’d even got to work as I’d be concentrating so hard to not slip or crab walk down.

  8. Never fallen there but I hate them all the same. I always think “why make steps like this?” Not to mention the proximity to the water gives me a bit of vertigo.

  10. Whoever designed these stairs should be lynched. These are well known as the worst steps in all of London, quite a feat really

  11. Should probably hold onto one of the FOUR available hand rails next time, chief…

  12. i’ve walked up these thinking they’re dangerous in the past, hope to heals quickly!

  13. I’m intrigued by the whole design process here. Surely you’re better off putting the bannisters at 90 degrees to the edge. What you lose it width you will make up in people being able to walk up them at normal speed

  14. I have gone up & down these stairs probably hundreds of times but I still look down carefully and double each step. Absolutely insane design decision by whoever thought them up.

  15. I’ve slipped/stumbled on those a few times, both drunk and sober. I have a bit of a love/hate thing for them. A grudging respect for the architect getting them through whatever sign offs needed and unleashed on the public!

  16. Never consciously thought about it but now that you mention it, they’re truly terrible and feel like a chore (at the very best) every time I’ve used them.

  19. As a dyspraxic with vertigo these are horrific. It feels like you’ve had three bottles of wine when you try to go down them, it’s taken me 10 minutes before! I’m very thankful they’re not on a regular route of mine or they’d definitely have put me in A&E by now.

  20. These stairs make me sick, I‘m sorry to see they‘ve claimed a victim..

  22. Always complained about these stairs. Not only are they diagonal, but they’re narrow as well as made of slippery material.

  24. Yup fell up these two weeks ago lol while thinking the same thing

  25. To be honest these really are terrible stairs, an architects brain fart

  26. I used to go jogging along this route, but I would slow down and navigate these like an elderly lady trying to traverse the Giant’s Causeway. I never slipped but they’re an absolute hazard.

  27. I can’t use them. As someone with wonky eyes and vertigo, they are impossible to look at while going down. And becuse of the angle, can’t even look ahead like I do with stairs normally

    Hate the things

  28. I was walking on this staircase a couple of weeks ago and was thinking who in the right mind would build something like this

  29. I ran down them for the first time on Wednesday. These steps are just illogical.

  30. It might sound hyperbolic, but I truly think these need to be knocked down and rebuild because all it takes is one person falling and hit in the back of their head which is very very easy when they’re wet for life to be lost as I fallen down them beforethe one time I went to hand them amazed with such health and safety laws in the UK that they are allowed to be open to the public

  31. Knew what steps this post was going to be about without looking at the photos.

  32. Went down these steps last weekend and they were just hideous in dry conditions, let alone icy ones – diagonal stairs that confuse the brain and imbedded muscle memory of how stairs work. How the hell they were approved for heavy public traffic I have no clue. So sorry you got hurt, OP. Please report it.

  33. Oh wow I haven’t lived in London for five years but I would walk the Southbank a few times a week and ALWAYS had near misses on those stairs. Can’t believe they haven’t fixed it!

  36. treacherous used to describe places around the cape of good hope during bad weather. oh how the mighty have fallen

  39. Might be the worst steps I have seen in England and I have lived on the top floor of a 16th century spiral staircase.

  42. Still no idea how they got away with these. The buildings not even that old I don’t think

  44. Whoever made to stairs needs to go back to school of architecture

  47. I’ve almost fall on that stairs 1 or 2 times,fucking hate those stairs

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