Category: Updates

The Thames Super Sewer project work is now affecting the Thames Path around Vauxhall.

After Lambeth Bridge, the path follows the Albert Embankment where the road gradually leaves the riverside allowing the path to be separated from traffic by welcome grass.

However, where the path once went ahead between a building and the water there is now a diversion. Don’t go through the temporary barrier even if it is open – you won’t get far.

Turn inland by the building (number 93) to follow the Albert Embankment main road.

But a few yards beyond Cafe 89 (right) turn right into Lack’s Dock to return to the river and follow an enclosed path along the back (riverside) of the MI6 Vauxhall Cross building.

The tunnel under Vauxhall Bridge is now closed so climb the steps and go left to use the road crossing. On the far side of the bridge approach turn right and soon find a path on the left running down to the Thames Path on St George Wharf.

There is a further diversion a little further on at Nine Elms.

This is at Bourne Valley Wharf where the proposed Pimlico footbridge may land.

From here one must go inland and cross the Nine Elms Lane main road. At once turn right to continue upstream.

This may seem a long way from the river but there is a good view of the moat being dug for the new US Embassy.

Soon after Waitrose it is possible to go back to the opposite side of the main road by using a pedestrian crossing and return to the river by passing between tall buildings.

The Super Sewer work should be completed by 2023.

The Telegraph’s 20 Best Beer Gardens in London includes five by the River Thames.

The Gipsy Moth in Greenwich and The Ship at Wandsworth are on the Thames Path.

The three others on the list are The Gun at Coldharbour in Docklands, City Barge at Strand-on-the-Green and The White Swan at Twickenham.

The latter two are of course on the alternative left bank offered by the National Trial but not on the towpath.

Meanwhile a campaign to encourage pubs along the Thames to use more washable plastic glasses rather than single-use plastic glasses has been launched by Thames21, London’s waterways charity.

Plastic glasses are one of the top ten objects washed up on the Thames foreshore.

The Thames Friendly Pubs initiative has the backing of food expert and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

From Thursday 24 August to Saturday 26 August, during the Reading Festival, the Thames Path will be closed from 9pm to 6am between Caversham Bridge to Scours Lane near Tilehurst.

The festival is sold out so 100,000 people can now be expected to attend.

A temporary bridge has again been erected across the Thames near Scours Lane.

A bid to extend a private garden across the Thames riverside path at Wandsworth has been stopped by the planning authority

At present the path adjoining Wandsworth Park has no upstream exit so does not yet form part of the Thames Path.

However, it has long been London-wide policy to secure the riverside for public enjoyment where possible.

The decision by Wandsworth Council is being welcomed by the Friends of Wandsworth Park.

Request to make riverside path private

Tuesday 1 August is Lammas Day when when the first wheat from the harvest is made into a loaf to be the bread consecrated with the wine at a thanksgiving Mass.

Lammas comes from an Anglo Saxon word meaning loaf mass. The ancient custom predates the autumn harvest festival.

There will be the blessing of bread in Borough Market followed by a procession to nearby Southwark Cathedral where the bread will be offered at Mass and consecrated as the Body of Christ.

The Blessing of bread is at Bread Ahead in Cathedral Street at 12.15pm.

Upstream at Cricklade in Wiltshire the hay has been cut on North Meadow where Lammas Day marks the start of grazing. However, the town still observes the old calendar so the gate will not be opened until Old Lammas Day on 12 August.

This later date was when harvest was more likely to have started but this year walkers will find harvest already under way all along the river.

Staines-on-Thames recreation ground is Lammas land where the barons gathered in 1215 before meeting King John on Runnymede to secure Magna Carta.

The Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) is hoping to extend its protection of meadowland at Chimney which is midway between Newbridge and Tadpole Bridges.

The Trust wishes to buy the Duxford floodplain opposite Chimney and on the south side of the Shifford Lock Cut.

The land is downstream of Tenfoot Bridge with the Old Thames as its eastern boundary.

In the early days, the Thames Path followed the Old Thames to the ford at Duxford before passing through Duxford Farm and rejoining the towpath at Tenfoot Bridge.

In the 1980s the towpath alongside Chimney meadows was overgrown and rarely used.

BBOWT has launched an appeal for £220,000 to be raised by 30 September to purchase the 113 acres which at present is unprotected.

 

Swan Upping, the annual census of the Thames’ swan population, is now underway.

Yesterday the Swan Uppers, Her Majesty’s and the Vinters’, arrived at Romney Lock below Windsor Castle and toasted the Queen.

The skiffs carrying the party will continue to move upstream all this week following this timetable:

Tuesday 18 July

Eton Bridge 08.45 – Departure point

Boveney Lock 09.45

Boulters Lock 13.00

Cookham Bridge 14.00

Marlow Lock 17.30

Wednesday 19 July

Marlow Bridge 09.00 – Departure point

Hurley Lock 10.30

Hambleden Lock 12.00

Henley Town 13.30

Marsh Lock 15.30

Shiplake Lock 17.00

Sonning Bridge 18.00

 

Thursday 20 July

Sonning 09.00 – Departure point

Caversham Lock 10.15

Mapledurham Lock 12.15

Goring Lock 17.00

Moulsford 18.00

 

Friday 21 July

Moulsford 09.00 – Departure point

Benson Lock 10.15

Clifton Hampden Bridge 13.00

Culham Lock 16.15

Abingdon Bridge 17.00

Today is the 300th anniversary of the Handel’s Water Music premiere.

Handel’s Water Music was composed for King George I’s progress up the Thames on Saturday evening 17 July 1717.

The King embarked on a borrowed City livery barge at Whitehall Steps, near the PS Tattershall Castle’s present mooring, at 8pm to be rowed  up to Chelsea.

It was a river party with George Frideric Handel and an orchestra on board.

The performance started as the barge was passing Lambeth Palace.

So the actual anniversary hour must be 7.15 BST.

Tonight, Monday 17 July 2017, there will be a re-enactment when a large party with a 12 piece baroque orchestra sets out on the Golden Jubilee party boat.

BBC Radio 4’s Front Row programme will be broadcasting live from the river at 7.15pm.

The King was so pleased with the new music that there were at least three encores 1717 as he was rowed to Lord Ranelagh’s Chelsea house for supper and back to Whitehall.

Nine Elms Bridge is a proposed foot crossing linking St George’s Square in Pimlico with Nine Elms. It would land on the right bank at a point near the new US Embassy.

During the last General Election Labour candidates on both sides of the river strongly opposed the bridge. Marsha de Cordova unexpectedly won Battersea whilst Ibrahim Dogus turned Westminster into a marginal seat.

As with the Garden Bridge there are fears that views and the sweep of open water will be compromised.

The Pimlico consultations are on Friday 30 June 2.30-6.30pm at St Saviour’s Church Hall in St George’s Square SW1 (about 350 yards from the site) and Saturday 1 July 10am-3pm at Pimlico Academy, Lupus Street SW1 (about a quarter of a mile from the site).

The Nine Elms consultations are a week later on Friday 7 July 2-7pm and Saturday 8 July 10am-3pm in Park Court Clubroom on the Doddington Estate off Battersea Park Road SW11 4LD (about a mile from the site).

 

The first Waterloo Bridge was opened 200 years ago on Wednesday 18 June by the Prince Regent.

The Georgian granite bridge was to have been called the Strand Bridge but after the Battle of Waterloo victory in 1815 it had to be Waterloo Bridge. The opening, in the presence of the Duke of Wellington, was on the second anniversary of the battle..

The Times reported that “the guards wore their new pantaloons”.

The bridge’s 200th anniversary has been marked on the day by the dedication of a bench in the churchyard of St John’s Waterloo.

The seat echoes the present crossing by Giles Gilbert Scott and has been designed by MSMR Architects, based in Waterloo’s Exton Street overlooking the churchyard.

It is their contribution to the bridge bicentenary and London Festival of Architecture 2017.

The long bench was dedicated on Sunday morning 18 June by the vicar of St John’s, Canon Giles Goddard, with the sprinkling of holy water before the start of the Flower Festival Sung Eucharist.

The singing of the first hymn Praise to the Lord, the almighty, the King of creation started outside with the congregation around the bench.

The Waterloo Festival continues to Sunday 25 June.