Author: Leigh Hatts

Sunday 1 May is May Day when the Deptford Jack in the Green will be seen on the Thames Path.

There the Jack, or the ‘Green Man’, is being dressed the night before from 8pm at The Dog & Bell in Prince Street which is also the Thames Path at the back of Convoys Wharf.

The traditional procession with music sets off from the pub on Sunday morning sometime after 11.30am. The route is at first inland along Stowage to cross Deptford Creek at the road swing bridge.

The Thames Path will be followed from the new Sail Loft pub (12.30pm) downstream to the Cutty Sark stopping for lunch at The Gypsy Moth pub (1.15pm).

This Saturday 23 April is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and the place to be is the Thames Path in London.

Next to the river on Bankside there is the Shakespeare’s Globe theatre and Southwark Cathedral where Shakespeare’s brother Edmund is buried between the choir stalls.

Over the weekend there will be 37 screens on the Thames Path between Potters Fields and Jubilee Gardens showing Shakespeare’s plays filmed where he imagined them.

The Duke of Edinburgh, a long supporter of the Globe rebuilding, will be at the cathedral at 11am on Saturday for a special service.

All tickets have gone but the cathedral will be open in the afternoon for viewing of the flowers at the memorial where the Shakespeare effigy holds rosemary ‘for remembrance’.

In the cathedral at 2.30pm Arthur Smith reveals the truth about Shakespeare’s first publishers and Jane and Rick Jones perform lute songs from the plays; admission free.

The Queen’s 90th birthday on Thursday 21 April will be marked along the Thames.

A 62 round gun salute will be fired across the Pool of London from the Tower of London at 1pm.

Her Majesty will be at Windsor Castle where she and Prince Philip are due to go into the town.

In the evening the Queen will light a beacon outside the castle. Soon after another will be llt at the Copper Horse at the end of Windsor Great Park’s Long Walk.

The 900 chain of beacons includes one on Wittenham Clumps near Dorchester which should be visible around 8.15pm not only from the River Thames below but as far away as Oxford.

The largest exhibition of prints by James McNeill Whistler can be seen at the Fine Art Gallery in Bond Street.

James McNeill Whistler Prints as expected includes a significant number of Thames scenes. Most are dated around 1859 and so there is Old Putney Bridge and Old Hungerford Bridge.

The view from Billingsgate Market shows Old London Bridge seen through a row of masts. The location is confirmed by Southwark Cathedral’s tower in the corner. Whistler who spent a lot of time on the south bank would have known it as just Southwark’s large parish church.

Two men sitting in The Angel pub on Bermondsey waterfront have sight of St Paul’s free of skyscrapers upstream.

Other surprises include a view from Chelsea across the water to Price’s candle factory at Battersea.

But Whister also visited the upper Thames. The Storm records driving rain at Mapledurham above Reading. He was on a camping trip and had rowed there from Sunbury with fellow painter and etcher Matthew White Ridley whose painting of the Pool of London is in the Tate collection.

This is an unusually rich exhibition and marks the Society’s 140 anniversary.

James McNeill Whistler Prints continues at the Fine Art Society, 148 New Bond Street
London W1S 2JT, until Thursday 28 April.

Paul Daniels has died at his Wargrave home.

He moved to the riverside village in 1998 and enjoyed a view across Shiplake as well as experiencing flooding.

He and his wife Debbie McGee both loved the Thames and faced the flooding with good humour.

The annual Universities Boat Race from Putney and Mortlake takes place on Easter Day afternoon 27 March.

On Good Friday afternoon 12.30pm to 3pm the river will be closed to navigation between Fulham Railway Bridge and Hammersmith Bridge to allow for rehearsals.

This year Easter Day is the first day of British Summer Time. The clocks go forward.

Expect to have to make a short diversion when walking upstream from Henley on Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 March.

A tree is bring felled where the towpath passes the Old House just before Marsh Lock.

The diversion is inland and across a car park to return down Mill Lane.

For more information and maps follow the link on the National Trail site.

The death has been announced of former MP Sir Anthony Durant at the age of 88.

Sir Anthony was President of the River Thames Society and  a supporter of inland waterways. He was a regular attender at the RTS annual meeting in Henley.

Having just failed to be selected for the parliamentary seat of Kingston-upon-Thames he appropriately became MP for upstream Reading.

A barge blocking navigation immediately upstream of Osney Bridge has been removed.

The narrowboat appears to have broken away from its mooring whilst there was strong current on Thursday afternoon. A forecast of heavy rain caused the Environment Agency to attempt early action.

When this proved difficult a slipway was built on the right bank and eventually the boat was hauled on to the bank more than 24 hours after the accident.

The Oxford Mail has pictures and the River Thames News has an updated report.

The Daily Telegraph has a ’53 free things to do around the world’ feature.

Walking the Thames Path makes it although only just being at number 53.

But at least it is there along with sitting on Rome’s Spanish Steps, wandering around Burano in Venice and seeing the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

Number 1 is a ride on New York’s Staten Island Ferry.