Author: Leigh Hatts

I have just visited Molesey Lock Cafe which has now been open for two weeks.

The new cafe is being run by Ruth Knight who is a river user, a Dittons Skiff and Punting Club member, and had the idea for a cafe on the site for at least ten years.

Walking east from Hampton Court Bridge you soon find the Thames Path passing between the lock (right) and the cafe (left).

There is a garden with shelter for bad weather. The menu includes hot and cold drinks, homemade cakes, sandwiches and ice cream.

This facility on the towpath is perfect for walkers and is open daily 9am to 6pm until the end of September.

The further surprise is that the Environment Agency hopes to open more cafes at locks along the River Thames. Goring could be next which will be handy since the tea shop by the bridge is only open on weekdays and even then closes at 5pm just as you want tea.

Those who are confused by the many changes on the Thames path between the O2 and Greenwich will be interested to learn that others seem to be in confusion.

Peter Bill reports in the Evening Standard that the Thames Craft boatyard at Badcock’s Wharf alongside Lovell’s Wharf is in dispute with the luxury flat developers.

The plan is, or was, for the boatyard to move downstream to Bay Wharf.

There is more background on the very informative 853 blog.

Plans emerged today for a new Thames crossing in central London.

It would be a pedestrian bridge with a garden linking the Victoria Embankment and the South Bank. The bridge could land opposite Arundel Street on the north side and the National Theatre on the south.

Completion is suggested for 2016 when Mayor of London Boris Johnson steps down.

The London SE1 website has the first details and pictures.

Walton-on-Thames can now claim to have hosted the earliest recorded game of baseball.

Proof that the game is English comes from baseball historian David Block who used a new search system to find the reference in a 1749 newspaper stored in the British Museum.

The Prince of Wales and Lord Middlesex were among the players enjoying “bass-ball”.

The site is Ashley Park Avenue which is turning off the road approaching Walton Bridge.

The discovery was mentioned last week on BBC SouthToday and has now appeared in several papers including the Daily Mail.

John Inglis and Jill Sanders who live on Garrick’s Ait near Hampton are working on Thames panoramas old and new.

First they are proposing to put online Samuel Leigh’s 1829 panorama of the Thames from London to Richmond. It was published for people to enjoy whilst being rowed on the river so few copies have survived in tact.

As a film maker John is well placed to also make a new photographic version which will start at Tower Bridge and go upstream as far as Hampton Court.

Jill is a journalist from the Kingston area and her former colleague June Sampson has been taking to the couple for the Surrey Comet.

Greenwich’s tourist information centre has won a Gold Award in the Visit England Awards for Excellence 2013.

This is the highest accolade which Visit England can bestow.

Staff at the centre speak over ten different languages.

The Greenwich TIC is the first one which walkers come upon on their walk upstream.

It allows local history publications to have a place on its shelves and also carries vital information on places beyond Greenwich which are reached later on the walk.

This award is good news since some councils, including Southwark, have closed their TICs.

The presentation was made by Penelope, Viscountess Cobham, Chairman of VisitEngland, who enjoys a view of the Thames path from her central London home.

Prince Charles today announced that Chimney Meadows has been designated Oxfordshire’s Coronation Meadow.

There is one in every county although more are due to follow by being seeded from these first ones which mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation.

Thames Path runs through lonely Chimney-on-Thames which lies between Newbridge and Lechlade.

Within living memory the meadows, one of the largest areas of unimproved meadowland in England and rich in wild flowers, were managed by two sisters who did not care for visitors or walkers. The area is now in the care of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

St Bride’s Church has a wedding cake steeple but at present it is covered up.

The church is seen from Bankside and the South Bank.

A new landmark has appeared in the river at Limehouse.

It’s life-size metal figure of a man from Antony Gormley’s Another Time series and stands on a mooring post near the shore.

The residents of Narrow Street on the north bank have the best view.

The man, who at high tide today did not disappear, could be thought on occasion to be standing or walking on water.

The best view from the Thames Path on the Rotherhithe bank is at Pageants Stairs  near Lavender Dock entrance. The figure is seen just downstream from The Grapes pub opposite.

Eel Pie Island is holding its Summer Open Studios on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 June 11am-6pm.

This is an opportunity to explore the island, which has a boatyard, and to buy original artwork directly from the resident artists. Credit cards are not accepted.

Access is from the Twickenham bank and not the towpath.