On the north side of the Victoria Embankment Gardens is Watergate Walk which is a public right of way running from the southern end of Villiers Street along the side of Victoria Embankment Gardens to the southern end of York Buildings.

It goes past the old York Watergate which was the riverside entrance to the Duke of Buckingham's mansion before the Embankment was constructed.

Rudyard Kipling lived here from 1889 to 1891 and wrote the partly autobiographical novel The Light That Failed, which contains references to this area.

Kipling remarks that "From my desk I could look out of my window through the fanlight of Gatti's Music-Hall entrance, across the street, almost on to its stage. The Charing Cross trains rumbled through my dreams on one side, the boom of the Strand on the other, while, before my windows, Father Thames under the Shot tower walked up and down with his traffic.".

The northern end of Villiers Street near the main entrance to Charing Cross Station and the Charing Cross Hotel. The glass sided footbridge is part of the hotel.

Immediately behind us is the Strand and on the corner with the red shop is the start of York Place (Of Alley).