The Thames will have its lowest tide for five years on the morning of Wednesday 3 March.
Thames 21, London’s waterways charity, is organising a deep clean of the river bed. Volunteers are invited to put on old clothes and meet at the south end of Hammersmith Bridge at 11am. The event will be over by 1.30pm.
A pancake race was run along a stretch of the Thames Path today.
Southwark’s Shrove Tuesday race was in Montague Close where the national trail passes the cathedral.
See page 31.
News has reached me of improvements to the path between Islet Park House in Maidenhead and Cookham’s Mill Lane.
This comes from the Royal Borough of Maidenhead which has been responsible, with a Natural England grant, for widening the path and repairing the bank.
The erosion problems were mainly tackled early last year whilst the new stone surface and reduced gradient at bridges are more recent achievements.
I look forward to enjoying it shortly. Not all improvements are for the better but it is interesting that thought has been given to people with impaired mobility on this very attractive stretch with Cliveden views.
See page 100.
Paul Nash’s Wittenham Clumps painting is on the poster advertising the Paul Nash exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery. It’s also the cover picture for the catalogue.
This star picture, called Landscape of the Vernal Equinox, has been lent by the Queen. This is because the painting was purchased by the Queen Mother who hung it at Clarence House.
It was one of Paul Nash’s last works and was painted in 1943 from far away Boar’s Hill where he used binoculors.
He attempted the view 26 times so it’s interesting to find in the exhibition an early watercolour, dated about 1913, of Wittenham Clumps.
This first picture is painted from the other side when Nash stayed with his uncle at Sinodun House on the road out of Wallingford. This is appropriate for another name for the landmark is the Sinodun Hills.
At the time he wrote about the marvellous countryside with “grey hollowed hills crowned by old trees”.
The show has other early work clearly influenced by William Blake. There are also pictures of Swanage where he spent much time.
Paul Nash: The Elements continues at Dulwich Picture Gallery daily except Mondays; admission £9; until Sunday 9 May.
See page 154.
Clink Street, running under Cannon Street railway line bridge, used to be a delightful Dickensian road between warehouses. It may be too light soon.
The details are on the London SE1 website.
Although this stretch of the Thames Path, just west of Southwark Cathedral, is not alongside water it was thought to be an important part of the river experience in London when the national trail was planned in the 1980s.
This year is the 200th anniverary of Johan Zoffany’s death.
The artist, closely associated with the River Thames, died on 11 November 1810.
It seems that the bicentenary exhibition planned appropriately for Thames-side Tate Britain has been cancelled for fear that it will not attract enough people.
The Royal Academy of Arts has stepped in but cannot fit it in until 2012. Fortunately that will be the 250th anniversary of Zoffany’s arrival in England from Germany.
But this year there is publication of a book Johan Zoffany: Artist and Adventurer by Penelope Treadwell (PHP £50; paperback £30).
This seems expensive but the book is a delight and has 200 colour illustrations.
The author is an expert in her field and was fired to write the book by living in Zoffany’s riverside house at Strand-on-the-Green.
When Zoffany lived in Covent Garden he had a country home at Chiswick. Its church is depicted in The Sharp Family painted in 1779. The family are on the towpath opposite with the Thames and church seen to one side of the group.
He knew Hampton well and in 1762 had painted David Garrick and his wife taking tea by the river. He also depicted them outside the Shakespeare Temple, again with a river view.
The artist is most associated with Kew where he is buried in the churchyard on the green. His tomb looks out to the Thames and his house beyond at Strand-on-the-Green.
See pages 54, 55 & 68.
Southwark marks the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity not with a service or talk but an ecumenical walk.
It was a pleasure to join in visiting first St Hugh’s, Guy’s Chapel and La Salette Church near London Bridge. After walking along the river, and looking for the seal as we crossed St Saviour’s Dock, we were received at Dockhead Convent in Parker Row.
Here we saw its permanent exhibition about the convent, Dockhead and the sisters’ work with Florence Nightingale.
January is deep winter with no tourists so the landlord at The Angel was away. The temporary staff did a splendid job in producing fish and chips at short notice. The pub, where Whistler sketched the river from the back, is at the start of Bermondsey Wall West and a good place for lunch now that Surrey Docks Farm has closed its cafe.
We ended in Rotherhithe where Fr Mark Nicholls showed us round St Mary’s Church and pointed out that we had to climb steps because the floor is above flood level. This year is the 700th anniversary of the appointment of his predecessor, the first rector.
See page 25.
I sometimes mention Vincent Van Gogh teaching at Isleworth although this was only for a short time.
The Real Van Gogh exhibition opening at the Royal Academy of Arts on Saturday reminds us that the artist knew the river downstream at Lambeth and Westminster much better.
On display is a letter written in Paris in 1875 where he writes: “I crossed Westminster Bridge every morning and evening and know what it looks like when the sun’s setting behind Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, and what it’s like early in the morning, and in winter with snow and fog.”
He was recalling the previous year when he had spent twelve menths crossing the bridge daily on his way to work at an art dealer in Southampton Street off the Strand.
Van Gogh was living at first in Brixton and then in Kennington Road from where it was a short walk up Westminster Bridge Road.
In 1876 he was back in England teaching at Isleworth for a few months. In November he preached at Petersham Methodist Church which he sketched.
The exhibition’s full title is The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters so there are none of his English paintings as these do not feature in his letters. But this is a major show. I have never seen so many people at an RA press view.
There was even a media frenzy around his self portrait when members of the Van Gogh family appeared.
The souvenir shop is fun with mugs, bags, fridge magnets, trays and Oyster card wallets.
The exhibition runs daily from Saturday 23 January to Sunday 18 April.
Since Sunday there has been at least one seal in St Saviour’s Dock next to Butler’s Wharf.
Updates are appearing on the London SE1 website which has a picture.
See page 27.
Good news this week for lock keepers on the Thames which is good news for all of us who care about the river.
Over twenty lock keepers and their families will keep their riverside accommodation thanks to a deal negotiated by UNISON. Last May the Environment Agency had planned to sell the cottages.
“Having lock keepers living close to the water also means they can be first line of defence in case of flooding” says UNISON regional organiser Jeanette Roe.
“For the lock and weir keepers and their families, this is the news they have been waiting for.
“They have been on tenterhooks, facing the prospect of uprooting their families from homes they have lived in for up to thirty years. Now they can start the New Year knowing they can stay in their homes.
“The deal also gives lock and weir keepers improved job profiles and formal arrangements for their standby and call out duties.”
The plan to let the cottages as holiday homes was opposed by many including Reading MP and keen angler Martin Salter.
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