Author: Leigh Hatts

Should you stay in a comfortable hotel or the nearest bed and breakfast when walking the Thames Path?

There is a trend for people to want luxury after a long day of walking although walking need not always be a hardship.

Thanks to a surprise win in a Britain magazine competition I have just spent two nights in the four star Richmond Hill Hotel. It has been an interesting experience.

The great attraction of the Thames Path is that it is a flat waterside route except for one diversion up a hill west of Reading.

So does the walker want a hotel at the top of the hill when the Thames Path is below with the river?

The Richmond Hill Hotel stands across the road from a glorious view up the Thames. This is the view reproduced by many artists including Constable and Turner. Sir Joshua Reynolds enjoyed the view daily from his home opposite the hotel. Richmond in the USA, the capital of Virginia, owes its name to this view seen by a tobacco farmer who was reminded of the River James.

It’s England’s only view to be protected by an Act of Parliament so stepping out to see this view is a good start to the day you are due to start walking out of (or into) Greater London.

Opposite the hotel a path runs alongside Wick House, Reynolds home, and down steep Petersham Common towards the Thames. But if a steep climb up on your arrival seems too much after a long walk there is always a very handy and frequent bus 371 from Richmond Station which takes you up the back of the hill.

I often say never swim in the river even on a hot day. It is too dangerous. The hotel has a swimming pool which is open in the evening and before breakfast.

A man has been saved by Chiswick RNLI lifeboat crew who pulled him from the River Thames at Battersea where he was clinging onto a houseboat mooring chain.

The lifeboat was led by a beam from a police helicopter to the man who was placed on board and handed to ambulance staff waiting on the slipway by St Mary’s Church.

The man’s injuries are not thought to be life threatening.

The film from on board can be seen here.

A bottle filled with water from near the Thames source is making its way downstream as part of the Totally Thames programme.

Totally Thames is the rebranded and much extended annual Thames Festival.

The journey started last Sunday 17 August.

This bank holiday weekend 23-25 August the bottle travels from Benson Lock to Henley.

On Saturday swimmers are taking the bottle from Benson to Goring.

On Sunday rowers are responsible for getting the bottle to Caversham.

On Bank Holiday Monday it’s in the hands of traditional boat owners who will deliver the bottle to the River & Rowing Museum for safekeeping overnight.

The bottle reaches London at the end of the month.

Next Wednesday 20 August those who died in the Marchioness tragedy will be remembered during the services at Southwark  Cathedral. It will be 25 years since the early morning accident on the River Thames.

The cathedral, which is a short distance downstream from the scene of the collision, has the memorial just inside the main door.

Today, as a result of a recommendation following the inquests, the RNLI has a lifeboat station at Waterloo Bridge. It is the busiest  in the country.

Today’s Telegraph Magazine has a good profile of the service run by donations and mainly volunteers.

This week has seen a glimpse of the future. A ribbon across a kissing gate on Mucking Marshes was cut on Thursday marking the ‘opening’ of the Thames Estuary Path.

The route is about 30 miles long starting at Southend and ending at Tilbury Ferry. Two sections are awaiting confirmation and fencing.

The ceremony was on the west bank of Mucking Creek and a short walk from a new visitor centre on the Thameside Nature Park Reserve. The Cory Environmental Visitor Centre has not only toilets, a bookshop and a cafe but a flat roof allowing walkers to enjoy panoramic views down the estuary and across to Kent. The high ground of Mucking Marshes is the result of the dumping in the 20th century of London’s rubbish.

Now the swooping sea gulls are out numbered by the return of other birds. This year the blackberries are ripening early.

At Mucking, the estuary path runs briefly by the shoreline before crossing Mucking Creek and heading for the redundant Mucking Church on the way to Tilbury Fort.

The Thames Estuary Path leaflet lacks detail and to me remains confusing even when read alongside an OS map. There is still a lot of work to do and the new signage needs enhancing.

But there is enough to see which raises a real possibility that the start of the Thames Path could one day be in Southend. Whatever the problems in Essex there are many more on right bank – the Kent side.

Tilbury Ferry carries you across the River Thames to Gravesend from where the Thames Path could continue upstream towards Erith. The biggest investment will be a footbridge at the mouth of the River Darent.

Rolf Harris moved to Bray because it reminded him of his “river’s-edge home in Perth” Australia.

Early this morning, Friday 4 July, he left by boat on his way to downstream Southwark Crown Court where he was due to be sentenced.

This weekend the Queen’s row barge Gloriana is travelling upstream from St Katharine’s Dock to Henley for next week’s regatta.

She will be at Bray on Sunday night ready to arrive at Henley on Monday.

The Secretary of State for Transport has upheld the approval for a pedestrian/cycle bridge across the River Thames at Reading.

The controversial scheme involves building the crossing between Reading Bridge and Fry’s Island. It will link Christchurch Meadows on the left bank with the towpath on the right, the town side.

In April there was concern raised about felling 30 year old trees on the meadows and  a Green councillor raised objections.

The Thames Path will gain little except more local walkers enjoying a circular walk from Caversham.

The Trout Inn at Tadpole is included in The Times 50 Best Pubs For Summer.

The pub, much changed since the 1980s, now charges from £130 for  a double room bed and breakfast. Being a remote area some walkers might be tempted. A pint of bitter is £3.60.

Kate Ashbrook has produced the best report I have seen on the situation at Maidenhead where the council intends not only revoking its own decision to reopen the towpath but also reducing green open space.

There is also a link to a petition.

‘Thames Path – with no view of the river’ by Kate Ashbrook can be read here.