The Course For the 1997 Flora London Marathon, the course remains unchanged from 1996. All runners will set off from Blackheath and Greenwich. The course takes the runners by the Woolwich Artillery Barracks and on past the famous Cutty Sark in Greenwich (shown above mile marker 7 on the map below). Just after eight miles the runners will enter the Surrey Quays area for the first time as they make their way to Tower Bridge (after mile marker 12). Having crossed Tower Bridge the runners make their way towards the Isle of Dogs, passing Canary Wharf (after mile marker 16), one of Europe's tallest buildings towering 800ft above the City. From here the runners pass through the rest of the Isle of Dogs, making their way back along Narrow Street to St Katherine's Dock (alongside Tower Bridge) and then pass in front of The Tower of London (near Tower Hill). The course follows the River Thames to Parliament Square, into Birdcage Walk, and finishes in The Mall with Buckingham Palace as a spectacular backdrop.