Author: Leigh Hatts

Convoys Wharf at Deptford is open on Saturday 21 September (11am-4pm) as part of Open House London. The site is the former Deptford Dockyard founded by Henry VIII and now due for redevelopment.

In a corner of the dockyard, at the end of Watergate Street, is The Master Shipwright’s House which is 500 years old this year. The building is open on both Saturday and Sunday (10am-1pm).

Convoys Wharf will have a pop-up cafe but the Dog and Bell is in nearby Prince Street. The pub on the Thames Path is in the just published Good Beer Guide.

A post box has appeared just above the water on the side of Sonning-on-Thames bridge.

It is a mystery to Royal Mail and villagers including Uri Geller.

A blue plaque in honour of boat builder Samuel Saunders of Saunders-Roe fame has been unveiled on the Royal Mail sorting office in Goring-on-Thames. The building, a former boathouse, is in the High Street at the end of the bridge.

He was born in The Swan at Streatley on the opposite bank  in 1857. His father Moses was the last ferryman and Samuel inherited the boat-building business. He moved to Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1901 only because he was building boats which were too fast for the Thames.

The Thames Festival starts today in central London and runs, for the first time, for ten days.

There are walks, displays, music and even short cruises with Andrew Motion and Dan Cruikshank.

Today sees the Great River Race crowding the Thames with craft from London to Ham and on Saturday 14 September there are barge-driving races between Westminster and Tower Bridge.

The focus is an open air cinema at the Samsung site, between the Oxo Tower and the National Theatre, where short river films can be viewed from deck chairs. You can enjoy a ride through the Pool of London from a life boat or sail down the estuary in a few minutes.

Most events including the cinema shows are free.

The Festival climax is not fireworks but something more ambitious: the floating 1513: A Ship’s Opera on Saturday 14 September. One act can be seen at 6.40pm off Trinity Buoy Wharf. The Thames Path by the O2 (Dome) should provide a good view. The climax is at dusk by Tower Bridge with light sound and noise.

With the start of the Thames Festival in London approaching this weekend walkers on the Thames Path may wish to look out for the Thames Relay.

A bottle of source water is being taken by walkers, swimmers and captains of various vessels down to the capital and out to the estuary.

Check the timetable here.

This month a new tea shop opened in Cookham High Street.

It’s on the south side of the street two doors from Stanley Spencer’s house.

Immediately next door is Infusions which has “home-cooked food to take away” and specialises in “hampers for boaters”.

A new tea shop is welcome news for walkers but not everyone is happy. Cockroaches have been posted through the door.

Villagers have rallied to support the shop run by Diane Bryant and Magda Wencel. Walkers may wish to drop in too.

Photographer Martin Sheen who ran the Thames Path at the end of June has just released some inspiring pictures taken along the way.

See the Martin Sheen website.

Last Sunday’s Countryfile began with ten minutes on Wittenham Clumps.

Julia Bradbury gives an update on the beech trees planted in about 1740 and reveals that new trees will be hornbeam. There is film of the fields being turned in wildflower meadows and a reminder that Paul Nash returned many times over 35 years to paint the two hills.

The programme remains available until Sunday 25 August.

Ten Church Delights in today’s Sunday Telegraph has Inglesham’s wall paintings at number 4.

Inglesham is where navigation ends and the Thames takes on an even more lonely but unspoilt feel like the little church.

Young’s recently reopened Wheatsheaf pub in Borough Market is ShortList magazine’s 2013 pub of the year.

The Thames Path touches the edge of Borough Market just after Southwark Cathedral which has its handy Refectory for refreshments.

More established as a stopping point on the Thames Path is The Ship (just after Wandsworth Bridge) which comes 10th. This is also a Young’s pub and takes its name from Sir Allen Young’s ship.