# The River Thames - photos and stories



## Ponyutd (May 20, 2014)

Let's see your Thames views.





The 30's.




Turner. Houses of Parliament ablaze.


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## ringo (May 20, 2014)

Frost fairs - 1814


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## ringo (May 20, 2014)

Somerset House in 1817, showing how the Thames originally flowed directly past the building. Boats could go through the arches to a wharf inside the building to unload.





Building the road and present Embankment in the 1860s:


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## gosub (May 20, 2014)

upstream from Boulter's lock, best bit of the Thames Capability Brown in full effect


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## ruffneck23 (May 20, 2014)

i am currently 30 feet away from westminster bridge, i will photo the thames a little bit later and post up


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## RedDragon (May 20, 2014)




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## ringo (May 20, 2014)

Father Thames

Statue - Lechlade








Pollution:


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## boohoo (May 20, 2014)

A night time view...


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## goldenecitrone (May 20, 2014)

The Thames at Battersea. Whistler.


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## Ponyutd (May 20, 2014)

That's new to me....beautiful!


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## plurker (May 20, 2014)

John Virtue: Landscape Number 710 (larger pic on this link)






and London Bridge: I love the lights so I took a pic. No photoshopping, just a long exposure (12s iirc) and a tripod (tho it needs a crop)


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## ruffneck23 (May 20, 2014)

boohoo said:


> A night time view...


 
thats pretty much the view ive got from my hotel


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## Pickman's model (May 20, 2014)

the thames at gravesend


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## Bahnhof Strasse (May 20, 2014)




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## boohoo (May 20, 2014)

ruffneck23 said:


> thats pretty much the view ive got from my hotel


View from where I gave birth to my daughter (not that it helped in anyway!)


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## ruffneck23 (May 20, 2014)

ah , im across the road at the park plaza ( staying here yes, but also working   )


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## DotCommunist (May 20, 2014)

compared to the mighty Nene it is a mere stream- like a line of gnats wee next to the ganges


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## Bahnhof Strasse (May 20, 2014)

The source of the Thames...













The Thames Path sign only points one way







And here it is....






Proper waste of time going there.


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## clicker (May 20, 2014)

Dont say that  i am walking from the thames barrier to the source in chunks... got as far as henley-on-thames so far - love this river.


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## Bahnhof Strasse (May 20, 2014)

clicker said:


> Dont say that  i am walking from the thames barrier to the source in chunks... got as far as henley-on-thames so far - love this river.



There's rarely water at the source, just a dry hole (that I pee'd in). It was a right faff to get to with a baby buggy, so I suppose that put a downer on it...


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## clicker (May 20, 2014)

Bahnhof Strasse The final stretches look a right faff even without a buggy - not much public transport if any , how did you manage it?


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## clicker (May 20, 2014)

The Thames Barrier - Woolwich.


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## Bahnhof Strasse (May 20, 2014)

clicker said:


> Bahnhof Strasse The final stretches look a right faff even without a buggy - not much public transport if any , how did you manage it?



It was hard, hard to go over three styles and a rail line!


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## RedDragon (May 20, 2014)




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## Bahnhof Strasse (May 20, 2014)

clicker said:


> Dont say that  i am walking from the thames barrier to the source in chunks... got as far as henley-on-thames so far - love this river.




That's a cool thing your doing clicker 

When you went past Penton Hook Lock, did you cross over and walk around the Island by any chance?


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## wiskey (May 20, 2014)

I was going to post similarly dry photos of the source.


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## _pH_ (May 20, 2014)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> The source of the Thames...
> 
> And here it is....
> 
> ...


 
Is it cider by the time it gets to London?


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## ska invita (May 20, 2014)

ringo said:


> Pollution:


the vast majority of buildings along the main stretch of the thames were desinged to have their backs to the thames, mainly because it stank so much


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## ska invita (May 20, 2014)

i had a bit of a revelation after going on a boat party once...you head of out of London to the east and almost immediately the view of the riverbank is pretty much purely industrial...Greenwich provides a little break, but once you get past Greenwich its endlessly bleak - then eventually the boat turns around and you head back to London....the bleakness goes on and on and then just as you turn the the last bend, seemingly out of nowhere youre faced with this:






and that experience of coming in under Tower Bridge is like going through a front door into London proper - probably especially so when the bridge is drawn (looks a bit like a pair of opening doors even). Id always just thought of Tower Bridge as just another (over the top) London bridge, but in a way its Londons first bridge, and grand gate into London. In a way it even plays the defensive role of a door as it can stop any too large boats from coming in if not raised...


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## ska invita (May 20, 2014)

clicker said:


> Dont say that  i am walking from the thames barrier to the source in chunks... got as far as henley-on-thames so far - love this river.


ive done most of the river out east but i havent gone upstream at all...almost got the river boat up to Hampton Court last year but something came up...definitely going to do it this year....

is there a particularly good stretch that lends itself to biking anyone know?


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## Puddy_Tat (May 20, 2014)

Launch of HMS Alexander at Deptford in 1778, John Cleveley the Younger


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## clicker (May 20, 2014)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> That's a cool thing your doing clicker
> 
> When you went past Penton Hook Lock, did you cross over and walk around the Island by any chance?


Trying to place it - if it was between hampton Court and staines, nearer the Staines end, then no we didn't...it was getting dark by then. It rings a bell for an incident in a self cleaning toilet near the bank that decided to take on it's own agenda.


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## ska invita (May 20, 2014)




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## clicker (May 20, 2014)

ska invita said:


> ive done most of the river out east but i havent gone upstream at all...almost got the river boat up to Hampton Court last year but something came up...definitely going to do it this year....
> 
> is there a particularly good stretch that lends itself to biking anyone know?



Not really I must admit - the path gets narrower and very mud track like. I cycle around london but am walking the Thames path,  the bods who do try and navigate past the amblers make it a chore at times. I'd imagine on a weekday when there aren't loads of walkers and kids and dogs and buggies, you could get a stretch in - but it'd be stop/start/ring the bell the whole way.


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## Puddy_Tat (May 20, 2014)

Watergate Street steps, Deptford, 2011.  The Deptford Ferry ran from this point to a pier on West Ferry Road, Isle of Dogs until about WW2.

I really must get round to sorting out some more Deptford photos and putting them online...


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## clicker (May 20, 2014)

Greenwich


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## ska invita (May 20, 2014)

The walk around the Rotherithe curve is a nice/earie one - with plenty of pub action too


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## ska invita (May 20, 2014)

nice pic


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## Ponyutd (May 21, 2014)

ska invita said:


> ive done most of the river out east but i havent gone upstream at all...almost got the river boat up to Hampton Court last year but something came up...definitely going to do it this year....
> 
> is there a particularly good stretch that lends itself to biking anyone know?


I like the Maidenhead stretch for cycling....also Windsor. On a warm day it's fantastic, all smiley tourists around Windsor, and some huge fields to cycle through. I think I put some photo's up a few years back cycling around the Eton school cycling/running track when I went to Windsor.


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## fredfelt (May 21, 2014)

This is (one) of the Wittenham Clumps.






And this is a rather dull view of the river, taken by someone I was chatting to the other day!


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## Bahnhof Strasse (May 21, 2014)

clicker said:


> Trying to place it - if it was between hampton Court and staines, nearer the Staines end, then no we didn't...it was getting dark by then. It rings a bell for an incident in a self cleaning toilet near the bank that decided to take on it's own agenda.



As you walk upstream it's the last lock before Staines (no idea of any auto-lavs though, maybe in Staines?). It's, I think, the only lock that non-boat folk are allowed to cross. The island is the natural meander of the river, the lock cuts through the neck of it. The island has beaches that are good for swimming. It's also the natural course of the river, so you've missed a bit. So back to the barrier and start again, and this time do it properly 

(Desborough Island between Weybridge and Walton-on-Thames is the same deal, but with no lock; a man-made cut in a straight line created the island, so you need to walk round that too. It too has beaches if you fancy a dip.)


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## toblerone3 (May 21, 2014)

This one was taken on the Thames somewhere near Cricklade I think.


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## toblerone3 (May 21, 2014)

.dp


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## fredfelt (May 21, 2014)

ska invita said:


> ive done most of the river out east but i havent gone upstream at all...almost got the river boat up to Hampton Court last year but something came up...definitely going to do it this year....
> 
> is there a particularly good stretch that lends itself to biking anyone know?



You can easily take a day trip from London and take in a stretch in a day trip starting and finishing at different train stations.  There are several stops between Oxford and London which are on the Thames.  You'll need a sturdy bike to cycle the Thames Path and some stretches are bumpier than others.

Assuming you have a sturdy bike Oxford to Goring and Streatley would suit for a days cycle.  Even Oxford to Reading if you are on a mission!

Or to make it a bit shorter do Appleford to Goring and Streatley - Oxford to Abingdon along the Thames path is quite bumpy.  All of these places are on the same line - but you'll need to plan around trains for the smaller stations.

North of Oxford is also good for cycling - but the river starts to bend back on itself more so you may get frustrated about covering lots of distance but not going that far!

I know the river very well around this area through cycling, rowing, loafing, running, swimming, even through looking out of the window when it's flooded!


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## hipipol (May 21, 2014)

ska invita said:


> ive done most of the river out east but i havent gone upstream at all...almost got the river boat up to Hampton Court last year but something came up...definitely going to do it this year....
> 
> is there a particularly good stretch that lends itself to biking anyone know?


Get the overground or district line out to Kew - total arse of a job riding that far
bottom of the station rd, turn right - wall of the Gardens opposite you,  then right at ther river, then along the raised topathy thing - on your right will be Kew Gdns, then the Old Deer Park, opposite bank, Syon Park - there are Cranes nesting in the tall beeches, there young will be trying out their wings soon
Keep on going past the locks, could have a little stop at pub on the richmond river front then off again, under the bridge along the path, the water meadow on your right to wards Ham
You could also head a little inland and end up in Richmond Park or climb the hill and look down over the river, watch the day go by.....
The Roebuck on the Hill does a well nice sunday lunch
I once saw a Harrier like birdy take a rat there, fuckin ace, specially all the day trippers squealing!!!!


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## hipipol (May 21, 2014)

The real source, ie furthest from the sea of the Thames is at Seven Springs - though some idiot named it The Churn in some dim and distant time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Churn

Luckily the source of the Churn has a pub right next door!!!




http://www.pub-explorer.com/gloucs/pub/sevenspringscheltenham.htm
Its a Green King pub run as one of their Hungry Horse out of town eatry/pub - so ales for them as wants em

Directly across the road from said pub are some holiday let cottages
I hired one about 10 -11 years ago for a 4 day party, put a big soundsystem in and away we went
Was early early April, non of the others rented out, it was snowing so only the diehard or the mad were out there
Your choice as to which camp I fell in


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## Ponyutd (May 21, 2014)

fredfelt said:


> This is (one) of the Wittenham Clumps.
> 
> 
> 
> ...







Hardly dull...all it needed was a bit of light! Beautiful shimmering river,a meadow, a bridge, a hill in the background with a copse....marvellous!


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## Bahnhof Strasse (May 21, 2014)

hipipol said:


> The real source, ie furthest from the sea of the Thames is at Seven Springs - though some idiot named it The Churn in some dim and distant time
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Churn



The Churn's a tributary of the Thames, isn't it?


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## hipipol (May 21, 2014)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> The Churn's a tributary of the Thames, isn't it?


Technically yes
However it is as I said the furthest start point from the sea
Lived in Cheltenham for a number of years as I result I am firmly of the belief that Seven Springs is the TRUE source!!


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## Bahnhof Strasse (May 21, 2014)

hipipol said:


> Lived in Cheltenham for a number of years as I result I am firmly of the belief that Seven Springs is the TRUE source!!



Fair point.

I drank in the oldest pub in London last week 

Having been to the field that is supposed to be the source, dragging a baby in a buggy with us, I was berated all the way home as Frau Bahn was telling me the true source was in some wall somewhere that had water gushing out of it all year, but she can't remember where that was 

I guess the miserable field we went to is a contender, as that is where the Thames Path starts. But would be happy for it to include the Churn, as that would make it longer than the Severn and the Shannon, so yet another victory for the English over those Celtish barbarians.


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## Orang Utan (May 21, 2014)

Puddy_Tat said:


> Watergate Street steps, Deptford, 2011.  The Deptford Ferry ran from this point to a pier on West Ferry Road, Isle of Dogs until about WW2.
> 
> I really must get round to sorting out some more Deptford photos and putting them online...


Oh please do. There's a big redevelopment to the right of the pic now with some ugly brown decking facing the water. It's public at the moment. I hope it stays that way. Will take some pics


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## Puddy_Tat (May 21, 2014)

Orang Utan said:


> Oh please do. There's a big redevelopment to the right of the pic now with some ugly brown decking facing the water. It's public at the moment. I hope it stays that way. Will take some pics



Is that the thing being built inside what's left of Paynes Wharf?

This was taken in 2011


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## Orang Utan (May 21, 2014)

Yeah, it's called Paynes and Borthwick
http://www.paynesandborthwick.com


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## Puddy_Tat (May 21, 2014)

Orang Utan said:


> Yeah, it's called Paynes and Borthwick
> http://www.paynesandborthwick.com



I'm not sure I approve of the current trend of keeping the facade of a historic building and putting something completely unrelated inside it.

I took quite a lot of photos at Deptford riverfront at the Open House weekend last September - did Convoys Wharf and the Master Shipwrights House.  I really must sort them out and put them online.


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## Orang Utan (May 21, 2014)

I don't think anyone lives there yet. Punchdrunk staged a play there recently:
http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-...any-aims-to-create-17th-century-ve_33720.html


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## Treacle Toes (May 21, 2014)

Have I posted on this thread before? 

No, obviously, I haven't read the whole thread yet. 

Speaking as a Londoner, born and bred  the river is my favourite place...in town and out of town...I adore it. It has it all, London would never have existed without it. 

PS: An Uncle, once dived off one of the London bridges to raise money for charity. Nuts eh? Yeah he absolutely was.Yet everytime I cross a bridge over the Thames I fantasize about doing the same.  I will however choose my bridge well and it will probably be somewhere out there towards the mouth.


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## Bahnhof Strasse (May 21, 2014)

Desborough Island cut


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## Puddy_Tat (May 21, 2014)

Deptford Creek has cygnets 







from here


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## RoyReed (May 21, 2014)

I took this from Waterloo Bridge at about 4.30 in the morning in about 1985.


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## fredfelt (May 21, 2014)

Ponyutd said:


> Hardly dull...all it needed was a bit of light! Beautiful shimmering river,a meadow, a bridge, a hill in the background with a copse....marvellous!




Thanks!  It's a picture from my phone.

When I said it was dull I meant the other picture of the railway crossing which is a label from a beer called River Crossing.  The same brewery has a label which is a picture of Didcot power station - and they call be beer 'Power Station.  Great stuff!  

I'll miss the cooling towers of Didcot when they are taken down.


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## fredfelt (May 21, 2014)

This is Abingdon early one morning - a market town on the Thames.  It's another shot from a phone


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## fredfelt (May 21, 2014)

One more - Port Meadow.  On this stretch of river Charles Dodson took Alice and Olive on boat trips.  They'd go to the Church at Binsey where they'd find a treacle well.  

This spot is a five minute bike ride from the centre of Oxford.  Horses and cows graze on the meadow.  It's never been ploughed (I've no idea how that fact is known - but it's a known fact.).


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## Ponyutd (May 23, 2014)

Early pics of Thames on show at Museum of London


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## T & P (May 23, 2014)

I wish someone would answer (or at least give a sympathy post to) my highly intriguing question about the tidal Thames


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## Ponyutd (May 24, 2014)

Tis a good question indeed. Lots of variables to it...I know that much.


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## Ponyutd (May 26, 2014)




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## Maggot (May 26, 2014)

From the South Bank August 2011


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## ska invita (Aug 17, 2014)

Yesterday went for a bike  trip along the Thames path, heading west out of Kingston... took it pretty easy, 3 pub stops, but ended up going as far as Windsor (20 miles or so) - there were a couple of stretches that we had to go on the road/pavement but on the whole there were paths all the way, and it wasn't at all a pain with other people in the way - plenty of room for all. Pituresque views the whole way, really recommend it as a cheap day out - cheap apart from the train fair back from Windsor


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## Roadkill (Aug 17, 2014)

Ponyutd said:


>



I love Atkinson Grimshaw's cityscapes.  In a similar vein:






His romantic paintings are bloody awful, though.


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## Puddy_Tat (Aug 17, 2014)

Roadkill said:


> I love Atkinson Grimshaw's cityscapes.  In a similar vein:



I have a print of 'Liverpool Quay by Moonlight' on the wall.  I had forgotten who the artist was - thanks!

More here.  (there are some Hull ones as well)


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## Roadkill (Aug 17, 2014)

Puddy_Tat said:


> I have a print of 'Liverpool Quay by Moonlight' on the wall.  I had forgotten who the artist was - thanks!
> 
> More here.  (there are some Hull ones as well)



Indeed.  I have a print of this one on my living room wall:


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## Ponyutd (Aug 17, 2014)

Very busy fishing. Tiny little shard/sherd of pottery on the river.




This little bruiser was ready to have a go on the Thames.


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## MrSki (Aug 17, 2014)




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## Maggot (Aug 17, 2014)

ska invita said:


> Yesterday went for a bike  trip along the Thames path, heading west out of Kingston... took it pretty easy, 3 pub stops, but ended up going as far as Windsor (20 miles or so) - there were a couple of stretches that we had to go on the road/pavement but on the whole there were paths all the way, and it wasn't at all a pain with other people in the way - plenty of room for all. Pituresque views the whole way, really recommend it as a cheap day out - cheap apart from the train fair back from Windsor


I went the other way on Friday. We started at Dartford and cycled along the Darenth up to the Thames and then along the river. We finished at Rotherhithe. Lots of open spaces and industry, not as picturesque as yours, but very enjoyable still. We noticed the tide was very high, but hadn't realised how high until we stopped for a drink at the Mayflower.


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## ska invita (Aug 17, 2014)

is that a wave crashing over into the beer garden?


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## Maggot (Aug 17, 2014)

It was a wave coming up through the decking.


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## ska invita (Aug 17, 2014)

Maggot said:


> It was a wave coming up through the decking.


I know that spot, have sat there myself - thats pretty crazy. i did real tip it down the other day, with hail and the rest


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## Puddy_Tat (Aug 17, 2014)

Maggot said:


> It was a wave coming up through the decking.


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## Orang Utan (Aug 17, 2014)

Roadkill said:


> I love Atkinson Grimshaw's cityscapes.


coincidentally, I was just looking at his painting of Leeds Bridge today:



Not much has actually changed!


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## Pickman's model (Aug 17, 2014)

Maggot said:


> From the South Bank August 2011


your top picture accurate where crock of gold located


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## clicker (Aug 19, 2014)

Early August by Gabriel's wharf .


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## Dirty South (Aug 22, 2014)

From http://deserter.co.uk/2014/08/jazz-fags-beer-picnics/


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## ska invita (Aug 25, 2014)

View from the Angel in Rotherithe down river -painting by Whistler





the Angel still has that lovely little balcony overhanging the river


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## MAD-T-REX (Aug 27, 2014)

One from earlier in the summer (looking west from Blackfriars Bridge):


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## mod (Aug 28, 2014)

boohoo said:


> View from where I gave birth to my daughter (not that it helped in anyway!)



My daughter was born in St Thomas' too and that was exactly the view we had and what a wonderful setting for such a wonderful experience (maybe not the case for her mum, granted).


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Aug 28, 2014)

mod said:


> My daughter was born in St Thomas' too and that was exactly the view we had and what a wonderful setting for such a wonderful experience (maybe not the case for her mum, granted).



Oh, I've got a great sunset from St Thomas's


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## ska invita (Aug 31, 2014)

this was painted on the side of the 333 in shoreditch a couple of years back


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## Dr_Herbz (Aug 31, 2014)

Returning home...


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## clicker (Sep 1, 2014)




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## Puddy_Tat (Sep 3, 2014)

just a giant hippo floating up the river



(not my photo)


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## ska invita (Sep 4, 2014)

Seal population on the rise in Thames estuary
Numbers returning to natural level after centuries of culling for meat and fur, survey finds


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## plurker (Sep 4, 2014)

Puddy_Tat said:


> just a giant hippo floating up the river
> 
> 
> 
> (not my photo)



this is to do with Thames Festival, now rebranded as Totally Thames. 
Commissioned form Florentijn Hofman; who also did the giant duck


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## clicker (Sep 4, 2014)




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## clicker (Sep 15, 2014)

white hart pub - Barnes


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## Ponyutd (Oct 2, 2014)

It's nearly the Thames. Couldn't think where to put it.
(_The Londonist_)


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## hash tag (Oct 3, 2014)

Have always wondered why the shoes by Battersea Square, they have been there a long time and no one seems to know how or when they started
( I used to work with wrinklies right there ).


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## clicker (Oct 6, 2014)

Near Isleworth - allegedly Turner came here to paint.





Richmond.





House envy past Richmond.





Boat envy near Twickenham


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## Farmer Giles (Oct 10, 2014)

I pass this view every day on my way to work. View from Richmond Hill.


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## clicker (Oct 10, 2014)

teddington weir










Kingston ( probably waitrose then )


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## toblerone3 (Oct 10, 2014)

Boatyard on Eel Pie Island.


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## toblerone3 (Oct 10, 2014)

Morning light at Hammersmith Bridge


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## toblerone3 (Oct 10, 2014)

Bronze hinges at Twickenham Bridge


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## clicker (Oct 11, 2014)




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## not-bono-ever (Oct 19, 2014)

shitty phone camera pic


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## RoyReed (Oct 19, 2014)

City of London from Waterloo Bridge by RoyReed, on Flickr


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## clicker (Oct 19, 2014)

hampton court bridge










D'Oyly island owned by Richard D'Oyly Carte...he was the theatrical impresario who brought Gilbert and Sullivan together and produced their 13 operas.He also built the Savoy theatre to stage them and the Savoy Hotel.

He was born in 1844 and died in 1901.He may have started from humble beginnings but his entrepreneurial va va voom led him to buy this island and build this house.It is reached by the arched steel bridge..carefully locked.

You can imagine the debauchery and sodden opiate filled nights spent here.The ideal party house.
He had another London house in the Adelphi and was the first person to install a lift in his house.He also employed the artist Whistler to paint his walls.He was famous for a macabre sense of humour and theatre and kept a crocodile on this island....I love this house.


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## Bahnhof Strasse (Oct 20, 2014)

clicker said:


> hampton court bridge
> 
> 
> 
> ...



D'oyly island was recently on the market for £4m.

Mate of mine lives on it, (not in the house), but his boat is moored there, he's getting his marching orders soon.

The island was originally bought by him to make an out of London version of the Savoy, but he couldn't get a booze licence, so it became his private house.


edit, and that topiary, 1/2 way from Hampton Court to Walton is


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## Bahnhof Strasse (Oct 20, 2014)

Hey clicker , on your moochings did you notice this boat:







Moored on the Sunbury side of the river opposite Hurst Park. It was bought by Dave Gilmour and used for years as Pink Floyd's recording studio.


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## clicker (Oct 20, 2014)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> D'oyly island was recently on the market for £4m.
> 
> Mate of mine lives on it, (not in the house), but his boat is moored there, he's getting his marching orders soon.
> 
> ...


 ooh I have friend envy - what a bloody great place to live, didn't realise others lived on the island - just looked it up on the Right Move site , it's under offer . Did your friend have to access the island via that arched bridge or is there another way? The photos inside are a pleasure to see - would have lost the blue carpet on the stairs though. the view from the verandah is gorgeous.
I don't recall the Dave Gilmour studio - am sure I would have clicked it if i had ...will have a gander at my photos from that day.


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## Bahnhof Strasse (Oct 20, 2014)

Jim gets on to the island via the bridge, he has a key. As you face the bridge from the towpath, turn 180 degrees and that's the car park for the house too. The woman who lives in the house, and is selling, is quite nice and we've been inside, (I've been fascinated by the place since I was in my teens). When it came up for sale over a year ago I so badly wanted to win the lottery you've no idea 

But it seems the new owners will want the place to themselves, fair enough, but all the boat dwellers will have to go. At the moment the island generates about £80k per year in mooring fees, but I guess if you've got the dosh to buy the place you probably can manage without the £80k.


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## MrSki (Oct 20, 2014)

clicker said:


> ooh I have friend envy - what a bloody great place to live, didn't realise others lived on the island - just looked it up on the Right Move site , it's under offer . Did your friend have to access the island via that arched bridge or is there another way? The photos inside are a pleasure to see - would have lost the blue carpet on the stairs though. the view from the verandah is gorgeous.
> I don't recall the Dave Gilmour studio - am sure I would have clicked it if i had ...will have a gander at my photos from that day.


Just had a look at the photos. The Ballroom is stunning. £4 Million seems pretty cheap these days considering it has 13 bedrooms. I am going to buy a euromillions & cross me fingers.


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## Bahnhof Strasse (Oct 20, 2014)

MrSki said:


> Just had a look at the photos. The Ballroom is stunning. £4 Million seems pretty cheap these days considering it has 13 bedrooms. I am going to buy a euromillions & cross me fingers.



Plus it's a very private couple of acres of Weybridge, a town where 4 million gets you generally not very much at all.


----------



## Ponyutd (Oct 26, 2014)

*Sir William Davenant* ‏@SirWilliamD twitter
I give you workmen unloading bales of grass from barges on the Thames c.1938. The grass was used for banknotes.


----------



## clicker (Oct 27, 2014)




----------



## clicker (Oct 27, 2014)

best view of the wibbly wobbly, bar at top of the tate modern.


----------



## Minnie_the_Minx (Oct 31, 2014)




----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 2, 2014)

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/01/05/the-bridges-of-old-london/


----------



## fredfelt (Nov 3, 2014)

This from the banks of the Thames looking over to Port Meadow.






Maybe next year I'll get around to trying Paddleboarding


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 3, 2014)




----------



## Minnie_the_Minx (Nov 3, 2014)

Pickman's model said:


> View attachment 63312



What's that about then?


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 3, 2014)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> What's that about then?


it is a wooden hippo in the thames.


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 3, 2014)

Ponyutd said:


> It's nearly the Thames. Couldn't think where to put it.
> (_The Londonist_)


is this an example of the last thing someone saw before they died?


----------



## Minnie_the_Minx (Nov 3, 2014)

Pickman's model said:


> it is a wooden hippo in the thames.





Yes, I got that bit


----------



## ska invita (Nov 3, 2014)

Ponyutd said:


> http://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/01/05/the-bridges-of-old-london/


 





London Bridge, c. 1910


those arches look a bit treacherous for larger boats


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 3, 2014)

Quite right ska...that one looks like a gun on the deck!


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 3, 2014)

Pickman's model said:


> is this an example of the last thing someone saw before they died?


That or a smart arse photographer.


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 3, 2014)

I found something really odd and spooky on the river, who wants to see it?
Don't blame me (if I post it) if all your teeth fall out or you go grey overnight. I haven't shown a single soul....it's scary.


----------



## ska invita (Nov 3, 2014)

though the original london bridge was properly dangerous - many wouldnt dare go through the arches - narrow arches creating mini-rapids - to go through was known as shooting the bridge, supposedly. The bridge was "for wise men to pass over, and for fools to pass under."  Rev. John Ray, "Book of Proverbs", 1670, cited in Jackson, p.77

re wobbly bridge i really like the bit where it doubles over itself at the end


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 3, 2014)

Ponyutd said:


> I found something really odd and spooky on the river, who wants to see it?
> Don't blame me (if I post it) if all your teeth fall out or you go grey overnight. I haven't shown a single soul....it's scary.


Let's see it!


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 3, 2014)

it's locked up in the shed OU...I will put it up tomorrow. On your head be it


----------



## el-ahrairah (Nov 3, 2014)

Ponyutd said:


> it's locked up in the shed OU...I will put it up tomorrow. On your head be it



if i want to see it, can it be on OU's head as well, or do i have to risk my head too?


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 3, 2014)

Since I found it I haven't won the lottery or found huge piles of cash, it's cursed I tell ya!
I bare no responsibility for *anyone* who looks at it.


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 3, 2014)

It can't be any more disturbing than this thing that someone on Planet Caca found on a beach:


----------



## not-bono-ever (Nov 3, 2014)

lard?


----------



## Dr_Herbz (Nov 3, 2014)

not-bono-ever said:


> lard?


Nah, it's got a nipple and hair.


----------



## clicker (Nov 3, 2014)




----------



## clicker (Nov 3, 2014)

The Prospect of Whitby


----------



## clicker (Nov 3, 2014)




----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 4, 2014)

el-ahrairah said:


> if i want to see it, can it be on OU's head as well, or do i have to risk my head too?











Can't get bigger images


----------



## el-ahrairah (Nov 4, 2014)

well, i for one am terrified.


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 4, 2014)




----------



## agricola (Nov 4, 2014)

Ponyutd said:


> Can't get bigger images



Reminds me of the Dagenham Idol, a bit.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Nov 4, 2014)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> What's that about then?



ahem



Puddy_Tat said:


> just a giant hippo floating up the river
> 
> 
> 
> (not my photo)





plurker said:


> this is to do with Thames Festival, now rebranded as Totally Thames.
> 
> Commissioned form Florentijn Hofman; who also did the giant duck


----------



## clicker (Nov 4, 2014)

they've moved him to St Katherines Dock for a while, think he buggers off end of November-ish, I saw him last week.


----------



## TikkiB (Nov 4, 2014)

Ponyutd said:


> Can't get bigger images


What's it made off? Very intriguing.


----------



## Bungle73 (Nov 7, 2014)

ska invita said:


> though the original london bridge was properly dangerous - many wouldnt dare go through the arches - narrow arches creating mini-rapids - to go through was known as shooting the bridge, supposedly. The bridge was "for wise men to pass over, and for fools to pass under."  Rev. John Ray, "Book of Proverbs", 1670, cited in Jackson, p.77


The Medieval bridge wasn't the original.  There had been several bridges before that.


----------



## Bungle73 (Nov 7, 2014)

There are a few remnants of the medieval London Bridge scattered about, including a stone alcove in the grounds of Guy's Hospital: http://greatwen.com/2011/04/14/secret-london-finding-bits-of-lost-london-bridge/


----------



## MrSki (Nov 10, 2014)




----------



## hash tag (Nov 10, 2014)

Sorry, I know it's not quite the Thames, but certainly related. This was Sarfend on Saturday.

BTW those shoes on the bank at Battersea in an earlier post, does anyone know anything about why they might be there?


----------



## MrSki (Nov 10, 2014)

hash tag said:


> Sorry, I know it's not quite the Thames, but certainly related. This was Sarfend on Saturday.
> 
> BTW those shoes on the bank at Battersea in an earlier post, does anyone know anything about why they might be there?


Instead of tyres to stop moored boats banging against the wall.


----------



## hash tag (Nov 10, 2014)

I have never seen a boat moored by where some of those shoes are


----------



## MrSki (Nov 10, 2014)

hash tag said:


> I have never seen a boat moored by where some of those shoes are


It was a question on Robert Elms show once & that was the answer that was given.


----------



## MrSki (Nov 10, 2014)

hash tag said:


> I have never seen a boat moored by where some of those shoes are


Sorry. Ignore me it is not the picture I was thinking about.

This is the picture that was discussed.


----------



## story (Nov 10, 2014)

Ponyutd said:


>





I am very jealous. I love that and I wish I owned it. I wish I'd found it on the Thames and that it was now in my possession, not yours. You are a very lucky man. or woman.


----------



## Minnie_the_Minx (Nov 10, 2014)

hash tag said:


> Sorry, I know it's not quite the Thames, but certainly related. This was Sarfend on Saturday.
> 
> BTW those shoes on the bank at Battersea in an earlier post, does anyone know anything about why they might be there?



What part of Southend seafront is that?

(I do wish people would stop calling it Sarfend )


----------



## dlx1 (Nov 10, 2014)

Look the end by two loos right of the peir. 

Sarfend - Must be day trippers or London types. [emoji1]


----------



## Minnie_the_Minx (Nov 10, 2014)

dlx1 said:


> Look the end by two loos right of the peir.



Right of the Pier which way.  If standing looking at the sea and therefore Western Esplanade?


----------



## dlx1 (Nov 10, 2014)

Facing pier go right
Keep walk will have Rosie ice the a row of cafes. Other side of road

Yes right spelling 
famous Rossi's ice cream

look like it see rainln - spelling (guard rail) New link 
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s21suXV8GDYejc0EM969PVg!2e0

^ Street view


----------



## Minnie_the_Minx (Nov 10, 2014)

dlx1 said:


> Facing pier go right
> Keep walk will have Rosie ice the a row of cafes. Other side of road



So Western Esplanade then.  Have no idea what Rosie ice is (unless you're talking about the famous Rossi's ice cream!)


----------



## Minnie_the_Minx (Nov 10, 2014)

hash tag said:


> Sorry, I know it's not quite the Thames, but certainly related. This was Westcliff on Saturday.



corrected for you


----------



## hash tag (Nov 10, 2014)

Whoops, i stand corrected...i thought westcliff was a bit further on. For the record, we are townies who live a little further along on the river.


----------



## hash tag (Nov 10, 2014)

Mrski, you are right. Those shoes are a fraction to the west of the slipway by st marys. So, why are they there?


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 10, 2014)

TikkiB said:


> What's it made off? Very intriguing.


Sorry...just seen this, it's oak.


----------



## MrSki (Nov 10, 2014)

hash tag said:


> Mrski, you are right. Those shoes are a fraction to the west of the slipway by st marys. So, why are they there?


As far as I know, as I said above. Or looking at the picture, to stop the chains getting caught up or damaging any boat moored.


----------



## TikkiB (Nov 10, 2014)

Ponyutd said:


> Sorry...just seen this, it's oak.


I saw something that reminded me of this today as I was at a seminar at Museum of London Archaeological Service: a wooden doll that was dumped in a disused privy in Limehouse in 1850s. 

What's the bottom and back like ?


----------



## clicker (Nov 10, 2014)

hash tag said:


> BTW those shoes on the bank at Battersea in an earlier post, does anyone know anything about why they might be there?



if you mean the photo i took in battersea, then this boat was moored just next to them on the same day, so i imagine it is just to stop the boats knocking against the wall.

eta - hang on think you meant southend?


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 11, 2014)

TikkiB said:


> I saw something that reminded me of this today as I was at a seminar at Museum of London Archaeological Service: a wooden doll that was dumped in a disused privy in Limehouse in 1850s.
> 
> What's the bottom and back like


----------



## TikkiB (Nov 11, 2014)

Ah, the ones I saw were considerably chunkier, with flat backs, so no doesn't look like much of a match.  That pointy end is interesting though.  Maybe it's a test piece for a really shit whittler.


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 11, 2014)




----------



## Bungle73 (Nov 12, 2014)

Took this pano a few months ago from Tower Bridge, on a day out with my camera.




River Thames Panorama As Shot  From Tower Bridge by Graham West 2014, on Flickr


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 20, 2014)

http://www.theguardian.com/environm...how-london-looks-from-an-eagles-point-of-view


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 20, 2014)

Bungle73 said:


> Took this pano a few months ago from Tower Bridge, on a day out with my camera.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I really can't put my finger on why I think this a gr5eat photo....but it's a great photo.


----------



## Bungle73 (Nov 20, 2014)

Ponyutd said:


> I really can't put my finger on why I think this a gr5eat photo....but it's a great photo.


Thanks!


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 21, 2014)

The right bank of the Thames between Vauxhall and Lambeth Bridge




The same person 'Husky Fan' on twitter also found these carvings on the Thames....


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 30, 2014)

http://www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk/


----------



## Ponyutd (Dec 8, 2014)




----------



## Ponyutd (Jan 4, 2015)

Claude Monet. Quite beautiful.


----------



## Minnie_the_Minx (Jan 4, 2015)

Ponyutd said:


> The right bank of the Thames between Vauxhall and Lambeth Bridge
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I've got that top picture in a book somewhere (probably a book on Lambeth)


----------



## Ponyutd (Jan 4, 2015)

It's a fav of mine Minnie, can you remember the book title?


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jan 4, 2015)

Tilbury and the mighty River, as seen from Gravesend West Street






similar sort of thing, but later in the day (only about 5pm early December)


----------



## Minnie_the_Minx (Jan 4, 2015)

Ponyutd said:


> It's a fav of mine Minnie, can you remember the book title?



Not offhand and all my books are bagged up at the moment whilst painting/decorating.  I'm pretty sure it's in a book anyway, otherwise I've just seen it so many times on the internet, I just assume I have it 

Actually, I've got a feeling I may know which one it is, but I've temporarily forgotten name.  Will have to go into Amazon and see if I bought it there


----------



## Minnie_the_Minx (Jan 4, 2015)

Ponyutd 

Think it's this one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0752452177?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00


----------



## Ponyutd (Jan 5, 2015)

Thanks Minnie!


----------



## Ponyutd (Jan 25, 2015)

Tiny shard/sherd of pottery, only inch and a half across.









Anyone have any thoughts on this? Pottery, and hollow.
From the Thames Yesterday.


----------



## RubyToogood (Jan 25, 2015)

Ponyutd said:


> Anyone have any thoughts on this? Pottery, and hollow.
> From the Thames Yesterday.



Pilgrim flask? (Says she having googled and knowing nothing about it.)


----------



## RoyReed (Jan 25, 2015)

RubyToogood said:


> Pilgrim flask? (Says she having googled and knowing nothing about it.)


Possibly, but I can't see any obvious religious iconography on it. I'd definitely take that to the Museum of London and let them have a look at it.


----------



## Tankus (Jan 25, 2015)

Me too ...I knows squat .....but I like that !...worth a visit just to satisfy curiosity


----------



## Epona (Jan 25, 2015)

Ponyutd said:


> Tiny shard/sherd of pottery, only inch and a half across.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



The first image is stoneware, probably salt glaze, I would guess 17thC, (as it looks like a date stamp on it late 17th Century so I'm not doing rocket science or anything!) and probably part of a beer jug or similar? - iirc beer jugs and the like were often stamped with a date, but it is not really my era so I can't be 100% certain on anything more certain about its origins.  Certainly there was a lot of salt-glaze stoneware being produced around that era, in England (Staffordshire for example) and other places in Northern Europe.


----------



## Ponyutd (Jan 26, 2015)

Thanks Epona, the date is 1603. Would have loved to have the rest of it!


----------



## Epona (Jan 26, 2015)

Ponyutd said:


> Thanks Epona, the date is 1603. Would have loved to have the rest of it!



Ah OK, I was reading it as 1693


----------



## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Jan 26, 2015)

Its not a river as it is tidal up until teddington. London should be called london on sea.


----------



## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Jan 26, 2015)

ska invita said:


> i had a bit of a revelation after going on a boat party once...you head of out of London to the east and almost immediately the view of the riverbank is pretty much purely industrial...Greenwich provides a little break, but once you get past Greenwich its endlessly bleak - then eventually the boat turns around and you head back to London....the bleakness goes on and on and then just as you turn the the last bend, seemingly out of nowhere youre faced with this:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I've opened the bridge, and been in its counterweight rooms when it has opened. A bit frightening.


----------



## ska invita (Jan 26, 2015)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> Its not a river as it is tidal up until teddington. London should be called london on sea.


Peter Ackroyd's London A Biography is a fun book, but my favourite chapter is the opening one, where he paints a picture of London rising up from the sea... its a poetic idea but one i really like and think of on grey days

The whole first chapter is up here http://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/aug/29/firstchapters.highereducation

an extract:
"In the beginning was the sea. There was once a music-hall song entitled 'Why Can't We Have the Sea in London?', but the question is redundant; the site of the capital, fifty million years before, was covered by great waters.

The waters have not wholly departed, even yet, and there is evidence of their life in the weathered stones of London. The Portland stone of the Customs House and St Pancras Old Church has a diagonal bedding which reflects the currents of the ocean; there are ancient oyster shells within the texture of Mansion House and the British Museum. Seaweed can still be seen in the greyish marble of Waterloo Station, and the force of hurricanes may be detected in the 'chatter-marked' stone of pedestrian subways. In the fabric of Waterloo Bridge, the bed of the Upper Jurassic Sea can also be observed. The tides and storms are still all around us, therefore, and as Shelley wrote of London 'that great sea ... still howls on for more.'


----------



## T & P (Jan 27, 2015)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> Its not a river as it is tidal up until teddington. London should be called london on sea.


 It's certainly not a sea either. Estuary perhaps, though it is a bit of a stretch to call it even that once you reach Greenwich.


----------



## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Jan 27, 2015)

T & P said:


> It's certainly not a sea either. Estuary perhaps, though it is a bit of a stretch to call it even that once you reach Greenwich.


Well it is technically an estuary because it is inland but still tidal up until teddington though there are some fresh water fish a little before then.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 27, 2015)

Isn't an estuary part of a river?


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Jan 27, 2015)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> Well it is technically an estuary because it is inland but still tidal up until teddington though there are some fresh water fish a little before then.



There's fresh water fish much further down than Teddington, most are fine in brackish water. Staines used to be the highest tidal point until the canalisation of the Thames.

And OU is correct, an estuary is part of a river.

It is possible for a river to extend out in to the sea.


----------



## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Jan 27, 2015)

Orang Utan said:


> Isn't an estuary part of a river?


It's the transitional point of the river leading into the sea.
When a river becomes tidal and behaves like the sea but is still inland.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 27, 2015)

It looks like a river, so it is a river


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Jan 27, 2015)

Ponyutd said:


> Tiny shard/sherd of pottery, only inch and a half across.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Could that be a clay pipe? Shitloads of them in the Thames.


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Jan 27, 2015)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> It's the transitional point of the river leading into the sea.
> When a river becomes tidal and behaves like the sea but is still inland.



Technically it's a body of water that is subject to both maritime and riverine forces.


----------



## Ponyutd (Jan 27, 2015)

No @Banhof Strasse, it's a small pot. I have a feeling it maybe an Asian offering to one of their gods.


----------



## ska invita (Jan 27, 2015)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> It's the transitional point of the river leading into the sea.
> When a river becomes tidal and behaves like the sea but is still inland.


 
The London Delta (Blues)


----------



## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Jan 27, 2015)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> Technically it's a body of water that is subject to both maritime and riverine forces.


That's what I said diddle I? 
Apart from I don't think it has to be anymore river-like beyond being inland. An estuary can be affected by river and sea but stops being an estuary when it stops being tidal, and when it stops being inland at the other end. It can stop being affected by the river end (as the thames does) long before it becomes the sea.


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Jan 27, 2015)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> That's what I said diddle I?
> Apart from I don't think it has to be anymore river-like beyond being inland. An estuary can be affected by river and sea but stops being an estuary when it stops being tidal, and when it stops being inland at the other end. It can stop being affected by the river end (as the thames does) long before it becomes the sea.



No. The river affects it out to sea; look at it from the air and you'll see a brown slick heading out to sea, that's the river sediment which is a riverine effect.


----------



## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Jan 27, 2015)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> No. The river affects it out to sea; look at it from the air and you'll see a brown slick heading out to sea, that's the river sediment which is a riverine effect.


I will have to bow to your greater knowledge, as all I am only going on is what was told to me by the port of london (if I recall correctly) for a TV show (don't worry, that specific point was not in the show, just that it was tidal up until Teddington etc), though the definition of an estuary in general still stands.


----------



## Onket (Jan 27, 2015)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> No. The river affects it out to sea; look at it from the air and you'll see a brown slick heading out to sea, that's the river sediment which is a riverine effect.


It's a dirty old river, definitely!


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Jan 27, 2015)

Onket said:


> It's a dirty old river, definitely!



Must it keep rolling though?


----------



## MrSki (Jan 27, 2015)

Orang Utan said:


> It looks like a river, so it is a river


It certainly smells like a river.


----------



## Bungle73 (Jan 27, 2015)

Onket said:


> It's a dirty old river, definitely!


It's not actually.


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Jan 28, 2015)

Bungle73 said:


> It's not actually.



Depends on your definition of dirty. It is full of sediment, which is mud, which is dirt. It's no longer full of chemicals, but does regularly get filled with turds by Thames Water attempting to justify their super-sewer.


----------



## T & P (Jan 28, 2015)

IIRC David Walliams got a very nasty case of the trots when he ingested a bit of water while he was swimming the Thames for charity.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 28, 2015)

Ponyutd said:


> No @Banhof Strasse, it's a small pot. I have a feeling it maybe an Asian offering to one of their gods.



The shape and size reminds me of cosmetics bottles from 16th-17th century (also used for various anointing oils etc). Small enough to be portable.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 28, 2015)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> Depends on your definition of dirty. It is full of sediment, which is mud, which is dirt. It's no longer full of chemicals, but does regularly get filled with turds by Thames Water attempting to justify their super-sewer.



Although to be fair, the turd problem pre-dates any rabbit by TW about their "super-sewer". It's been a regular issue for at least the last 30 years (since inner London's population started growing again, and was an occasional problem during heavy rain long prior to the '80s.


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Jan 28, 2015)

ViolentPanda said:


> Although to be fair, the turd problem pre-dates any rabbit by TW about their "super-sewer". It's been a regular issue for at least the last 30 years (since inner London's population started growing again, and was an occasional problem during heavy rain long prior to the '80s.



It's been an issue since Bazzelgette, but I suspect TW has been dumping more frequently in recent years to make the populous cry out for their super sewer. No evidence for this of course, but they are a bunch of scumbag fuckers, so I'm content to go with my theory.


----------



## Ponyutd (Jan 29, 2015)

Celtic Horned Helmet found on the banks of the Thames, dated to c.150 BC 





Found near Waterloo bridge in 1868.


----------



## Roadkill (Jan 30, 2015)

Onket said:


> It's a dirty old river, definitely!



It's not perfect, but it's a whole lot better now than thirty or forty years ago, when there was a lot more untreated sewage going into it than now, and a lot more industry pumping chemicals into it.  Back then it was pretty much biologically dead, eels were about the only things that could live in it, and if you fell in it was a stomach-pump job.  Nowadays there's a salmon run, apparently.


----------



## Onket (Jan 30, 2015)

I was only trying to squeeze in some song lyrics, sorry.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 30, 2015)

Roadkill said:


> It's not perfect, but it's a whole lot better now than thirty or forty years ago, when there was a lot more untreated sewage going into it than now, and a lot more industry pumping chemicals into it.  Back then it was pretty much biologically dead, eels were about the only things that could live in it, and if you fell in it was a stomach-pump job.  Nowadays there's a salmon run, apparently.



Back when I was a kid in the '60s and '70s, the Wandle still had a fair amount of factories pissing into it, and kids were warned not to paddle in it (didn't really stop us, to be fair!) . Most of them were gone by the mid-eighties, though, except the Kenco coffee works.


----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 1, 2015)

Thames Water were £200,000 odd for a massive spill of chlorine in the Wandle 2007. The spill more or less killed off the local fish population.


----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 4, 2015)

Ponyutd said:


> Thames Water were *fined *£200,000 odd for a massive spill of chlorine in the Wandle 2007. The spill more or less killed off the local fish population.


----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 14, 2015)




----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 22, 2015)

Some goodies from the Thames on Saturday. A couple of nice fossils. A Chinese couple sitting on a bench on a piece of lead. A 17th century trade token.  A Victorian gaming piece and odds and sods. Some more bits in soak...all in all a most enjoyable way to spend a few hours.


----------



## Artaxerxes (Feb 23, 2015)

Ponyutd said:


> Some goodies from the Thames on Saturday. A couple of nice fossils. A Chinese couple sitting on a bench on a piece of lead. A 17th century trade token.  A Victorian gaming piece and odds and sods. Some more bits in soak...all in all a most enjoyable way to spend a few hours.



Nice, how does someone go about arranging a day or two mudlarking?


----------



## ringo (Feb 23, 2015)

That S R is a shoulder badge for the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) Regiment.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Feb 23, 2015)

ringo said:


> That S R is a shoulder badge for the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) Regiment.



or possibly Southern Railway?


----------



## ringo (Feb 23, 2015)

Hadn't thought of that, but looks the same as this one:

http://www.britishmilitarybadges.co...scottish-rifles-regiment-sr-shoulder-title-2/


----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 23, 2015)

Artaxerxes said:


> Nice, how does someone go about arranging a day or two mudlarking?


See Mrs Frans thread in Community...http://www.urban75.net/forums/threa...the-thames-outing.332501/page-2#post-13742421


----------



## RoyReed (Mar 7, 2015)

Two of the statues on Vauxhall Bridge - _'Architecture'_ by Frederick Pomeroy (holding a model of St Paul's Cathedral) and _'Fine Art'_ by Alfred Drury.




Statue on Vauxhall Bridge by RoyReed, on Flickr




Statue on Vauxhall Bridge by RoyReed, on Flickr


----------



## Ponyutd (Mar 23, 2015)

Sundays offerings.

Moroccan 4 falus bronze coin.

Sidi Mohhamed 1V


----------



## Ponyutd (Mar 23, 2015)




----------



## Puddy_Tat (Apr 3, 2015)

Battersea Bridge at Night, by John Atkinson Grimshaw


----------



## Artaxerxes (Apr 19, 2015)

Just back from a morning on the foreshore at Greenwich, was bloody freezing! Must be my old age... anyway signed up to another morning at Bank when hopefully I'll get some nicer finds


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Apr 21, 2015)

the new County Hall, 1922/3

and the River

and LCC trams 

(posted by rob baker on tweeter)


----------



## Roadkill (Apr 21, 2015)

Artaxerxes said:


> Just back from a morning on the foreshore at Greenwich, was bloody freezing! Must be my old age... anyway signed up to another morning at Bank when hopefully I'll get some nicer finds



Another interesting place to have a poke round on the foreshore would be Charlton.  A century or so ago there was a shipbreaker's yard there whose main business seems to have been breaking up old wooden warships, and I remember seeing pieces in the local paper about various bits of old ship turning up near the Thames Barrier.


----------



## Ponyutd (May 5, 2015)

Good morning London.


----------



## hash tag (May 9, 2015)

Ever find any guns when rooting about on the forshores?
I remember helping a clean up party, organised by Thames 21 I think it was. With the health and safety talk we were given lectures about finding guns. They reckoned they regularly find guns, possibly about 1 gun per clean up and sure enough someone found an old hand gun!


----------



## Ponyutd (May 9, 2015)

I have actually found two guns(parts of). Both hand guns and both in a poor condition. A friend of mine, after a very stormy night down at Wapping, found six guns all together. One modern with black tape around the handle, a sawn off shotgun and some older models. 

I seem to come across hand grenades a lot for some reason. The last one I found was below Vauxhall bridge. I reported it and they shut the bridge down....at rush hour!
The bomb disposal lot turned up and I showed them where I had left a marker.
Two of them walked down to the foreshore, one of them picked it up and carried it to their van where they put it a mini safe.


----------



## Maggot (May 10, 2015)

The Museum of London is doing an exhibition about swimming in the Thames and are looking for people's photos, stories etc.

http://blog.museumoflondon.org.uk/calling-thames-swimmers/


----------



## Artaxerxes (May 10, 2015)

Went again yesterday, mostly picked up bits of pots and found an intact pipe bowl, struggled to find one last time, its only a cheap one so I am in awe of the one someone else in the group found (theres always one... lucky bastards)


----------



## ska invita (May 12, 2015)

Artaxerxes said:


> Went again yesterday, mostly picked up bits of pots and found an intact pipe bowl, struggled to find one last time, its only a cheap one so I am in awe of the one someone else in the group found (theres always one... lucky bastards)



proper pirate shit!


----------



## clicker (May 24, 2015)

Tide Line art have a pop up museum bank hol monday outside cutty sark pub greenwich...can't do a link on my dumb phone... and swing Jazz from 7pm. Hundreds of mud larking finds.


----------



## Ponyutd (Jun 3, 2015)

Watercolour by Madge G. Smith-Raper.


----------



## Ponyutd (Jun 3, 2015)

clicker said:


> Tide Line art have a pop up museum bank hol monday outside cutty sark pub greenwich...can't do a link on my dumb phone... and swing Jazz from 7pm. Hundreds of mud larking finds.


Didn't see this post. That's Nicky White...she does amazing things with foreshore finds, very talented.


----------



## Ponyutd (Jun 18, 2015)

The Thames 10 0'clock this morning.


----------



## clicker (Jun 18, 2015)

Ponyutd said:


> Didn't see this post. That's Nicky White...she does amazing things with foreshore finds, very talented.


----------



## Ponyutd (Jul 11, 2015)

Look under the letter M in Lambeth...that's a bloke under there.
Don't ask!

L


----------



## existentialist (Jul 11, 2015)

Ulp! Rather him than me...

ETA: sectioned. I'd have to be, after that, too.


----------



## Ponyutd (Jul 12, 2015)

Wonder why they shut the Bridge though. Give them the slighest chance to do it, and they relish it.


----------



## existentialist (Jul 12, 2015)

Ponyutd said:


> Wonder why they shut the Bridge though. Give them the slighest chance to do it, and they relish it.


My guess is that it's probably more to do with keeping people away from the scene. Given the number of "Jump, you bastard" scenarios we've seen where people have been up on high buildings, etc., the emergency services probably took the wise decision to avoid the possibility of that even occurring. Not to mention the risk of accidents in the road from people slowing down to take a look, or even stopping to find out what is going on.

I shouldn't imagine the decision to close a major London bridge is one that anyone takes for fun...!


----------



## Ponyutd (Jul 14, 2015)

I found a grenade on the river 2 years ago near Vauxhall. I phoned the police at Wapping and they were on the scene pretty quick. After a few minutes the Old Bill were everywhere.

As the bomb disposal fella's turned up I showed them the marker I had put down, they told me to leave the foreshore.
When I got upstairs the bridge had been closed. Postman caught on the wrong side were moaning and a lot of traffic built up(rush hour). 

The bomb squad officer picked the grenade up, walked across the bridge and put it the back of a safe like metal box in a van and drove off.
You can't believe the traffic build up that day. Not sure the bridge needed shutting down to be honest.


----------



## existentialist (Jul 14, 2015)

Ponyutd said:


> I found a grenade on the river 2 years ago near Vauxhall. I phoned the police at Wapping and they were on the scene pretty quick. After a few minutes the Old Bill were everywhere.
> 
> As the bomb disposal fella's turned up I showed them the marker I had put down, they told me to leave the foreshore.
> When I got upstairs the bridge had been closed. Postman caught on the wrong side were moaning and a lot of traffic built up(rush hour).
> ...


Thing is, suppose the grenade had been live, and had exploded. OK, to be fair, a grenade isn't likely to be lethal over that big a distance, but I suspect they take the view that under no circumstances should the public be put at any risk whatsoever. If those precautions weren't taken, the grenade went off, and someone was injured, there would be a *lot* of inquiries, investigations, and second-guessing about why they didn't keep the public further back, so I suppose they aim very much to err on the side of caution.


----------



## Ponyutd (Jul 14, 2015)

Fair point.


----------



## Ponyutd (Jul 27, 2015)

Nothing to see here.


----------



## ska invita (Aug 21, 2015)

Marine mammals thriving in Thames
Ten years of public sightings show that large marine mammals are regularly found in the River Thames.

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has received records of 2,732 animals over that period.

Seals were the most common animal seen, with many spotted around London's Canary Wharf, probably because many people spot them from its skyscrapers.

In addition, the public reported 444 porpoises and dolphins on the river, and 49 whales.
more
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33996020


----------



## IC3D (Aug 21, 2015)

I followed a porpoise once going upstream on my bike at Richmond. Bloody thief.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Aug 28, 2015)

from tweeter today, posted by @london_mush


----------



## clicker (Sep 6, 2015)




----------



## RubyToogood (Sep 6, 2015)

clicker said:


> View attachment 76239 View attachment 76240 View attachment 76241


I've seen these but what are they actually in aid of?


----------



## clicker (Sep 6, 2015)

A pop up Jason Decaires Taylor installation warning of climate change...here until end of sept.


----------



## MrSki (Sep 6, 2015)

clicker said:


> A pop up Jason Decaires Taylor installation warning of climate change...here until end of sept.


Where is here?


----------



## clicker (Sep 6, 2015)

Just near vauxhall bridge on south bank. Submerged at high tide.


----------



## Artaxerxes (Sep 6, 2015)

clicker said:


> A pop up Jason Decaires Taylor installation warning of climate change...here until end of sept.



Climate change mutates horses?


----------



## clicker (Sep 7, 2015)




----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 2, 2016)

Right little 'erberts.


----------



## TikkiB (Feb 3, 2016)

Ponyutd said:


> Right little 'erberts.



when two worlds collide


----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 17, 2016)

The Thames  gave up a few of it treasures this week. A stirrup, two cracking beads, military badge, Victorian Edwardian and Georgian coins.  A silver hammered coin which looks like a Henry V111. Also some lead seals and bits. Also a nice clay bottle in soak for cleaning.


----------



## hash tag (Feb 18, 2016)

It must be amazing digging up little bits of history here and there; chuffed for you.
Reflecting on this great river and how underused it is, was this in yesterdays rag From freight to tourism to commuting: can the Thames rise again?

It would be good to see more life on the river.


----------



## Bungle73 (Feb 20, 2016)

Did an excellent Museum of London guided boat trip today: from Westminster Pier, west as far as Vauxhall Bridge (I think), then east as far as the O2, then back to Westminster Pier.



> *Tour the Thames: crime, death and myths
> Saturday 20 February, 1-4.30pm*
> Take a boat trip down the Thames and immerse yourself in the myths of the river and dark stories of crime and death from Execution Dock to the Great Stink. Join experts Scott Wood, author of ‘London Urban Legends: The Corpse on the Tube’ and a regular contributor to Londonist, and Julie Chandler, a Blue Badge Guide and founder of London Town Tours, as they narrate the stories of the river. The tour goes from Westminster Pier to the 02 and back again, passing by the famous landmarks of the city including London’s iconic bridges, the London Eye, the Tower of London, London’s Docklands and Greenwich.
> 
> - See more at: Tour the Thames



Free tea, coffee and biscuits too!  Plus other drinks you could purchase from the bar.

They've got another one in April with Shakespeare as the theme. But it's going to be a big hassle for me to get into London that day as there is a replacement bus service; and I'm going to have to deal with that the next day already, because I'm going to Brands Hatch.


----------



## clicker (Feb 20, 2016)

Mud, Flood And Blood: Photos Of London's River Thames 1895-2000  - Flashbak

Some cracking photos here...apols if already up.


----------



## newbie (Feb 20, 2016)

ska invita said:


> Marine mammals thriving in Thames
> Ten years of public sightings show that large marine mammals are regularly found in the River Thames.
> 
> The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has received records of 2,732 animals over that period.
> ...


never seen this thread before, I like the Thames, we've got the certificate from the Conservators for walking the length.

It was a special day to find this playing around on the south bank not far from the dome


----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 22, 2016)

Got the evil eye off of this fella Sunday morning on the Thames.


----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 22, 2016)

Then some back up arrived.


----------



## ska invita (Feb 22, 2016)

Ponyutd said:


> Got the evil eye off of this fella Sunday morning on the Thames.
> 
> View attachment 83781


egyptian goose i think
spectacular birds 
used to be rare ornamental birds but have spread a bit more widely


----------



## ringo (Feb 24, 2016)

Ponyutd said:


> The Thames  gave up a few of it treasures this week. A stirrup, two cracking beads, military badge, Victorian Edwardian and Georgian coins.  A silver hammered coin which looks like a Henry V111. Also some lead seals and bits. Also a nice clay bottle in soak for cleaning.



Great finds


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## Ponyutd (Mar 23, 2016)

Odd little thing picked up from the river Friday. 10 mm across and brass. 
If you know R.F. let him know I have it.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jun 15, 2016)

1951

from Rob Baker (@robnitm) on Twitter


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## Ponyutd (Sep 8, 2016)

Tiny lead soldier from the Thames, 20 m.m. tall. Thin as a penny coin.


----------



## Ponyutd (Sep 8, 2016)

Also this vase!? Chinese or Japanese, quite heavy. No idea of what it's made of. Museum of London will get it in December.


----------



## Ponyutd (Oct 18, 2016)

Rather nice from Twitter


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 21, 2016)

A boy swings out of a tree to poke a sleeping dog. Face plate of a little fruit knife. 
 
An old knife with a deer antler handle. Thames finds.


----------



## ringo (Nov 21, 2016)

Ponyutd said:


> Also this vase!? Chinese or Japanese, quite heavy. No idea of what it's made of. Museum of London will get it in December.


Bloody hell Ponyutd , thats the find of the century! Looks like its made of soapstone so that they could use that heavy relief carving. Show us a photo of the main picture so I can see more. 

The shape is very common in Chinese vases, but is so universal I've seen them from Japan too. The carving looks more Japanese. Any marks on the bottom? 

Museum of London might struggle with non-European wares like this, but if the pot man is called Nigel say hello from me. British Museum probably a better bet.


----------



## boohoo (Nov 21, 2016)

The first ten minutes of this is an excellent view of the river front on the south from Bankside power station along the south bank (derelict warehouses galore!)  (1983):

London's Screen Archives: The North Southwark Current

(editor a completely different bankside in 1983)


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 21, 2016)

boohoo said:


> The first ten minutes of this is an excellent view of the river front on the south from Bankside power station along the south bank (derelict warehouses galore!)  (1983):
> 
> London's Screen Archives: The North Southwark Current


Excellent post...ta!


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 22, 2016)

Nothing on the base RoyReed, only the marks on the top lip.


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 22, 2016)

tilbury fort recently


----------



## hash tag (Dec 5, 2016)

Hey, Ponyutd have you applied for your permit yet? Mudlarks on Thames told to get £32 permits to save heritage


----------



## Ponyutd (Dec 5, 2016)

I know both the people quoted in that article...and the mudlark who's pictured in it. Ted Sandling has a brilliant book out called London in Fragments A Mudlark's Treasures.
I'd love to know how they will enforce it hash tag?
I think my first three year permit was £30.


----------



## hash tag (Dec 5, 2016)




----------



## Ponyutd (Dec 5, 2016)

C'mon...get that boat out.


----------



## T & P (Jan 19, 2017)

I wonder how the WWII bomb that has just been found in the river by Westminster surfaced. Was there dredging being carried out in the area?

Waterloo and Westminster Bridges shut over 'WWII device' - BBC News

I'd love to see what kind shit sits at the bottom of the Thames alongside its course through London


----------



## hash tag (Jan 19, 2017)

It nearly got parliament and failed to explode 
St Tommy's opposite cop a few bombs.


----------



## fredfelt (Jan 20, 2017)

The Bridge you can see is at Days Lock, the other side of the Thames is Wittenham clumps.  It used to be a great spot for picnics, hosted 'The World Pooh Sticks competition', and on warmer days there are some great swimming spots near by.

That was up until a couple of months ago when some Ukipper fucker brought the land and enclosed it in razor wire.  The picture in the paper shows the 'after' view, taken looking from the bridge towards whereabouts I stood to take this picture.

Villagers fighting for freedom after former UKIP treasurer began fencing off countryside


----------



## hash tag (Jan 20, 2017)

I suspect that is destined for luxury homes, which to a point will still keep the area accessible.


----------



## fredfelt (Jan 20, 2017)

Looking down from the Clumps to the field pictured above.

As an aside, on the recent Black Mirror episode where there was a fight to death, this was the setting where a drone was was used to record a fight to the death.  Also Radiohead filmed a video of 'Faust Arp' from this spot.

It's around 15 / 20 miles North of here into Oxford if you walk the Thames Path.  Most of it open farm land.  Except, of course, the land which now belongs to Andrew Reid as razor wire ensures you don't deviate from the path any more.


----------



## not-bono-ever (Jan 20, 2017)




----------



## pinkmonkey (Jan 20, 2017)

fredfelt said:


> The Bridge you can see is at Days Lock, the other side of the Thames is Wittenham clumps.  It used to be a great spot for picnics, hosted 'The World Pooh Sticks competition', and on warmer days there are some great swimming spots near by.
> 
> That was up until a couple of months ago when some Ukipper fucker brought the land and enclosed it in razor wire.  The picture in the paper shows the 'after' view, taken looking from the bridge towards whereabouts I stood to take this picture.
> 
> ...



Thats one of my favourite mooring spots, love to walk up the clumps and then down through the woods. Also we have canoed the Thame


----------



## fredfelt (Jan 20, 2017)

pinkmonkey said:


> Thats one of my favourite mooring spots, love to walk up the clumps and then down through the woods. Also we have canoed the Thame



It is a lovely spot.  I lived close enough for this to be on a running route.  I have fond memories of picnics on the river, skinny dipping, and late night low key frivolity at the top of the clumps.  

I can't see how the barb wire fence, which now cuts the field in two, has any agricultural purpose.   It can't be long before someone heads there with some wire cutters.  He's surely milking the system in one way or another.


----------



## editor (Jan 20, 2017)

Only just seen this thread. Here's eme  dancing in the middle of the Thames!






(Photo taken close to the source of the Thames near Kemble in the Cotswolds)

Dancing in the middle of the River Thames


----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 16, 2017)

The treasure hunters of the River Thames - BBC News


----------



## Ponyutd (May 31, 2017)

Secrets of the Thames
The Battersea Sheild (number three) what a piece of work!


----------



## Ponyutd (Jun 14, 2017)

Huge piece of Coral from the Thames today. Brought back from the Caribbean as ballast.


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Jun 15, 2017)

Got anything for scale?


----------



## blossie33 (Jun 15, 2017)

Having seen those type of coral pieces in Queensland, I would guess it's not as large as the photo appears.
I expect they used lots of those pieces.


----------



## Ponyutd (Jun 15, 2017)

I say  a 'huge piece' because I've only ever picked up fragments. The 50 franc was from the same spot.


----------



## extra dry (Jun 17, 2017)

My uncle jumped in the Thames (claims he was drunk and showing off to impress mate), just up stream from Tower bridge, around1985  the river police pulled him out amd told he was first live one they had had for awhile. Since then he has had a few more atempts.


----------



## Ponyutd (Jun 23, 2017)

Found a wooden boat on the Thames this morning!


----------



## Chilli.s (Jun 23, 2017)

I so wanna dig that out.


----------



## Artaxerxes (Jun 24, 2017)

Ponyutd said:


> Found a wooden boat on the Thames this morning!View attachment 110013




Awesome, you tweeted MOLA?


----------



## Ponyutd (Jun 24, 2017)

Was going to show Kate at my next Museum of London appointment.


----------



## Ponyutd (Jun 26, 2017)

When Henry 1 established his Royal Menagerie, by courtesy of the gift of three lions, it stood in the grounds of the Tower of London for years, eventually moving over to Regents Park. 
The King of Norway around the mid twelve hundreds sent a white bear as a present.
The Privy purse is still in existence today states that the bear was giving four pence a day for it's upkeep.

It was also provided with a muzzle, an iron chain and  
"one long strong cord to hold him when fishing in the River Thames"


----------



## clicker (Jun 26, 2017)




----------



## agricola (Jul 6, 2017)

Been fascinated over the past week and a bit by Castles Shipbreakers, who had a yard festooned with old sailing ship figureheads at Baltic Wharf (next to the Northern end of Vauxhall Bridge):


----------



## Ponyutd (Jul 6, 2017)

Brilliant photos!
Garden Seats and logs


----------



## editor (Jul 7, 2017)

Some more pics: 





















The beauty of London at night: a summer stroll along the South Bank, July 2017


----------



## Ponyutd (Jul 17, 2017)

The second picture is quite rare you know!

That's the first time I've seen it without Phil the Eel on it. Phil can often be heard effing and blinding when driftwood catches his line, although I'm told he catches some good size eels from that spot.


----------



## Ponyutd (Aug 9, 2017)

Clipper boats to trial run to Gravesend. One hour and 10 minutes from Gravesend to Embankement.
Sounds like a good idea.
Get a boat to work - for free


----------



## ska invita (Aug 9, 2017)

Ponyutd said:


>


great map! nice to see south london at the top of the page and north london at the bottom! The correct perspective 


Ponyutd said:


> Clipper boats to trial run to Gravesend. One hour and 10 minutes from Gravesend to Embankement.
> Sounds like a good idea.
> Get a boat to work - for free





> *"There’s a lot happening in the Gravesend part of the River Thames* and it’s our ambition that we can do more in the future.


Drug deals? Dumping dead bodies?


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Sep 2, 2017)

bankside power station 1973

on tweeter today from Rob Baker (@robnitm) on Twitter


----------



## agricola (Sep 7, 2017)

Puddy_Tat said:


> bankside power station 1973
> 
> on tweeter today from Rob Baker (@robnitm) on Twitter



At that time the South Bank had Battersea Power Station, the Nine Elms Cold Store, the Island Block of County Hall and Bankside; perhaps everything looked bleak and sepia-toned back then?


----------



## hash tag (Sep 7, 2017)

If you can see it, I gather Battersea power station chimneys have now been fully restored As for Bankside, it's on the way down!


----------



## Ponyutd (Sep 8, 2017)

Turners Houses of Parliament painted 1835


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Oct 8, 2017)

battersea power station, 1964.

one of a set on flashbak recently


----------



## hash tag (Oct 10, 2017)

No swimming, there's a croc in the Thames!

Huge crocodile 'spotted' in the River Thames lurking among luxury houseboats


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Oct 10, 2017)

hash tag said:


> No swimming, there's a croc in the Thames!
> 
> Huge crocodile 'spotted' in the River Thames lurking among luxury houseboats






> It would be very unusual for a crocodile to be living in the River Thames



No shit.


----------



## Ponyutd (Oct 10, 2017)

It would be very unusual for a person to taken in by this.


----------



## TopCat (Oct 12, 2017)

I was kyaking on the Thames recently. Putney to Isleworth then back at night. Truely beautiful but dangerous at night. 
Kept going past Putney, got chased by the Port of London Authority and had to make a sharp exit just past Albert Bridge. I will ve sticking to the Thames above Putney from now on. The fines for being pissed, no licence, no lights etc were in the rens of thousands!


----------



## Pickman's model (Oct 12, 2017)

hash tag said:


> No swimming, there's a croc in the Thames!
> 
> Huge crocodile 'spotted' in the River Thames lurking among luxury houseboats


surely a pair of crocs


----------



## hash tag (Oct 12, 2017)

I thought crocs were loaners, certainly cold and heartless.


----------



## TopCat (Oct 14, 2017)

Near Putney.


----------



## TopCat (Oct 14, 2017)

dont know the artist.


----------



## TopCat (Oct 14, 2017)

Ponyutd said:


> Thames Water were £200,000 odd for a massive spill of chlorine in the Wandle 2007. The spill more or less killed off the local fish population.


The carp survived well and are very evident now. Rainbow trout are doing well. Lots of roach and dace.


----------



## RoyReed (Oct 14, 2017)

hash tag said:


> I thought crocs were loaners, certainly cold and heartless.


----------



## Ponyutd (Oct 14, 2017)

TopCat said:


> View attachment 117806
> dont know the artist.


Could be Whistler, The Thames set. Have a check later


----------



## hash tag (Oct 14, 2017)

There is a Statue of Whistler on the north side of battersea bridge. I think he was married in battersea church? Certainly a church nearby.


----------



## TopCat (Oct 14, 2017)

Off to The Thames at Richmond tomorrow. Bob down to Putney.


----------



## TopCat (Oct 15, 2017)

Got to Putney safe and sound. It' s the best fun in a decent inflatable Sea Kyak. You can pack it down and go to the pub when you want. We got to Putney with no bother. What fabulous weather. Food for the soul.


----------



## Ponyutd (Oct 16, 2017)

Excellent stuff T.C.


----------



## Ponyutd (Oct 20, 2017)

Had a lovely little traders token from the Thames, around 1650 "At the Dolphin"
Looks more like a crocodile!
On the obverse it says inner Temple.

Also kept this because of the finger marks on this spout.

Then realised it was superflous.


----------



## Ponyutd (Oct 25, 2017)




----------



## T & P (Oct 26, 2017)

TopCat said:


> I was kyaking on the Thames recently. Putney to Isleworth then back at night. Truely beautiful but dangerous at night.
> Kept going past Putney, got chased by the Port of London Authority and had to make a sharp exit just past Albert Bridge. I will ve sticking to the Thames above Putney from now on. The fines for being pissed, no licence, no lights etc were in the rens of thousands!


Do you need a licence for something as small as a kayak? Presumably not a licence showing proficiency but to do with paying taxes/ duties for using such a busy stretch of the river?

Even though I am unlikely to ever do it, I find the concept of not being allowed to navigate the river in London without a licence rather depressing.


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Oct 26, 2017)

T & P said:


> Do you need a licence for something as small as a kayak? Presumably not a licence showing proficiency but to do with paying taxes/ duties for using such a busy stretch of the river?
> 
> Even though I am unlikely to ever do it, I find the concept of not being allowed to navigate the river in London without a licence rather depressing.



When I was a kid you were supposed to have one for a canoe on the upper reaches of the Thames, was never enforced, but would imagine in these times and for an adult you would need one and it would be enforced...


----------



## TopCat (Oct 26, 2017)

Above Teddington ock you need a canal licence. Between Teddington and Putney you don' t need anything. 
Below Putney you need all manner of shit  

You have to be sober
no inflateable boats
boat must have lights
must notify PLA
Boat must have licence number displayed
The PLA are humourless bastards


----------



## friendofdorothy (Oct 26, 2017)

TopCat said:


> I was kyaking on the Thames recently. Putney to Isleworth then back at night. Truely beautiful but dangerous at night.
> Kept going past Putney, got chased by the Port of London Authority and had to make a sharp exit just past Albert Bridge. I will ve sticking to the Thames above Putney from now on. The fines for being pissed, no licence, no lights etc were in the rens of thousands!


Very dangerous. Fines could be the least of your problems, does no one recall the Marchioness?


----------



## Ponyutd (Oct 26, 2017)

I was on the second boat behind the Marchioness. The Hurlingham, the sister ship to the Mayflower Garden, was directly behind it. We were on the Mayflower and enjoying my birthday. 
The D.J. stopped the records and asked the crowd to see if we could spot anyone.
I'll never forget the banks and banks of blue flashing lights all down the side of the river. 
I cried like a baby when I got home and saw the death toll.


----------



## TopCat (Oct 26, 2017)

friendofdorothy said:


> Very dangerous. Fines could be the least of your problems, does no one recall the Marchioness?


I swam in The Thames at Chelsea before age 10. I will never forget The Marchonesse. Every time you see the chains on the embankment you remember. 
Still, its my river too.


----------



## pinkmonkey (Oct 26, 2017)

friendofdorothy said:


> Very dangerous. Fines could be the least of your problems, does no one recall the Marchioness?


My friend hit an unpowered boat that wasn't lit at 6.30am on (I think) Monday morning. Not sure what kind of boat he was steering at the time, probably a dutch barge and he had someone on watch on the bows, they didn't see her. Tis true that the PLA don't fuck about.


----------



## Bungle73 (Nov 1, 2017)

Did a walk from Westminster to Putney along the Thames Path today. Surprisingly, even though I've walk the central bit east from Westminster a lot, and I've also done the section from Putney to Hampton Court Palace a few times, I've never actually covered that part of the Thames. Lovely day for it too.

I was hoping cover the part by Chelsea Bridge and the rail bridge, which I see every time I catch a train from home into Victoria, but somehow I managed to skip that part following the diversion before Battersea Power Station, and didn't get back to the riverside until I got into Battersea Park.


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 1, 2017)

How long did that take you Bungle73 ?


----------



## Bungle73 (Nov 1, 2017)

Ponyutd said:


> How long did that take you Bungle73 ?


Just under 3 hours, with a few stops on benches for something to eat, or general breaks.


----------



## Bungle73 (Nov 6, 2017)

Did another walk along the Thames Path today. This time from Putney to Barnes Bridge along the north bank, across the bridge, and back along the south bank to Putney. It's a walk I always like to do in the late autumn/winter time - I've done it quite a few times. It's makes a nice walk for a crisp sunny day, like it was today. I also like to have a pitstop for lunch at one of the Riverside pubs at Hammersmith, and I usually sit outside.  This time it was at The Dove. I managed to grab a table on the upper balcony at the back, so I had a great view (see video below) to accompany my fish and chips. It was by far the best location I've found for an outside lunch in the area - I will try to get it again next time! Previously I've sat in the lower area, which has quite a restricted view, and also outside the Rutland Arms, further along the river, from where you have a good view of Hammersmit Bridge, but can't see the river at all because of a low wall.



Edit: The walk is from a book, which gives info about places you pass, but it's a tad out of date.


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 6, 2017)

That's the way to do it!
Nice little vid, low tide as well 0.2, for a few day's. What a cracker of a day for you.


----------



## Bungle73 (Nov 6, 2017)

Ponyutd said:


> That's the way to do it!
> Nice little vid, low tide as well 0.2, for a few day's. What a cracker of a day for you.


Thanks. I always pick a day like this to do it.  I originally took only a still, but then I thought a panning video would better show what I could see from where I was sitting.

There had obviously been some flooding at high tide, as when I got back to Putney, the pavement by the riverside was covered in wet sandy/muddy stuff.


----------



## Casual Observer (Nov 6, 2017)

Bungle73 said:


> Did another walk along the Thames Path today. This time from Putney to Barnes Bridge along the north bank, across the bridge, and back along the south bank to Putney. It's a walk I always like to do in the late autumn/winter time - I've done it quite a few times. It's makes a nice walk for a crisp sunny day, like it was today. I also like to have a pitstop for lunch at one of the Riverside pubs at Hammersmith, and I usually sit outside.  This time it was at The Dove. I managed to grab a table on the upper balcony at the back, so I had a great view (see video below) to accompany my fish and chips. It was by far the best location I've found for an outside lunch in the area - I will try to get it again next time! Previously I've sat in the lower area, which has quite a restricted view, and also outside the Rutland Arms, further along the river, from where you have a good view of Hammersmit Bridge, but can't see the river at all because of a low wall.
> 
> 
> 
> Edit: The walk is from a book, which gives info about places you pass, but it's a tad out of date.



I've done similar walks in the past (Clapham to Richmond and then back to Putney was my best effort). I mostly stay on the south side which has a more rural feel than the north side. Not many pubs right on the Thames on that stretch on the south side though. The Dove looks like a goodun so I might nip over there next time.


----------



## Bungle73 (Nov 6, 2017)

Casual Observer said:


> I've done similar walks in the past (Clapham to Richmond and then back to Putney was my best effort). I mostly stay on the south side which has a more rural feel than the north side. Not many pubs right on the Thames on that stretch on the south side though. The Dove looks like a goodun so I might nip over there next time.


Yeah, it's walk of two halves: a built-up first half, with some interesting buildings (and of course the pubs), and a second half that is completely different, as you say rural-like and more like a country track.

The Dove has quite a bit of history to it; it's 17th century. Charles II and Neil Gwynn are supposed to have cavorted there, and James Thomson wrote the words to Rule Britannia in a room upstairs. Next door was the home of the Doves Press and bookbindery, who one its founders was William Morris


----------



## Bungle73 (Nov 7, 2017)

I just saw, if you go onto Google Maps there is 360 degree image taken from where I was sitting.


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 11, 2017)

Hero teen saved young woman who waded waist deep into Thames

Fair play to the lad!


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Nov 19, 2017)

1951

on tweeter today from rob baker


----------



## Ponyutd (Dec 7, 2017)

Old Grimshaw knew his way around a canvas.


----------



## agricola (Dec 14, 2017)

a shame that the Doulton works on the South Bank didn't survive the war and post-war demolitions (except for one building):


















and bombed out:






(more info in a great article from the Herne Hill society here)


----------



## editor (Dec 14, 2017)

Ponyutd said:


> Old Grimshaw knew his way around a canvas.


He's one of my favourite artists.


----------



## Ponyutd (Dec 14, 2017)

They had an exhibition of his works at the Guildhall a few years back.
What a talent he was.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Dec 14, 2017)

i have a print of 'liverpool quay by moonlight' (this) on the wall


----------



## Ponyutd (Dec 14, 2017)




----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jan 14, 2018)

the original of this






is up for sale at sothebys soon 

(deptford - john cleveley the elder)

estimate price is up to 500,000 dollars



approximate view from same angle now here

master shipwright's house (left of picture) is still there


----------



## Ponyutd (Jan 14, 2018)

Thanks for that Puddy_Tat. Just had a quick look at Cleveley's works.




This fella disobeyed orders and set sail in bad weather to deliver a message to the British fleet. The ship he captained went down with all hands.

He was 17


----------



## Ponyutd (Jan 16, 2018)

Tuberculosis patients taking in the fresh air outside St Thomas's


----------



## Ponyutd (Jan 20, 2018)

Jetton from the 1600s, a gold pin, and a tiny 9 carat gold fox. 
These are a few of my favourite River Thames things


----------



## Ponyutd (Jan 27, 2018)

How much would you give to be able to walk round these docks.


----------



## not-bono-ever (Mar 22, 2018)

Have your say on proposals for a new river crossing between Rotherhithe and Canary Wharf              - Transport for London             - Citizen Space

Rotherhithe crossing options now online


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Apr 4, 2018)

the 'London Inheritance' blog has a selection from the Pool of London today - here

(this blogger is re-visiting locations photographed by his late father in the 40s and 50s)


----------



## RubyToogood (Apr 5, 2018)

not-bono-ever said:


> Have your say on proposals for a new river crossing between Rotherhithe and Canary Wharf			  - Transport for London			 - Citizen Space
> 
> Rotherhithe crossing options now online


Ooh I hope they do a bridge, that'd be well handy. Canary Wharf is an absolute bugger to get to.


----------



## TopCat (Jun 5, 2018)

Well my travels on the Thames (in my blow up boat) continue.

I have got my act a lot more ship shape.

All polarised sunnies, lanyard with BCU membership and a boyancy (sp)? aid. I look the part rather than piratical.

I have a few days off so was planning a jaunt on my own. Crew are great mind, however I look forward to not managing anyone other than myself.

Looking at the map this morning I thought "think big"!
So the plan is hump all my stuff Iron Man style via tube and coach to Oxford then head to London in the boat.

I will string up my camping hammock then wander the riverside meadows before knocking on those Country farm house doors I read about in The Famous Five for tomatoes and fresh goats.

I think I'm fully prepared. I'm excited in a way I don't usually feel before a holiday. No airport stress to worry about or girlfriends turning up a day late.

I aim to be back by Friday afternoon. We'll see...


----------



## Ponyutd (Jun 5, 2018)

"Throws hat in air."

Sounds fab!


----------



## Maggot (Jun 5, 2018)

TopCat said:


> Well my travels on the Thames (in my blow up boat) continue.
> 
> I have got my act a lot more ship shape.
> 
> ...


That deserves a thread of its own!

Good luck.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jun 5, 2018)

on Flickr yesterday - you can just about see the river in the background 



presume taken from up the tower at Southwark Cathedral.  Somewhere about 1933.


----------



## TopCat (Jun 7, 2018)

I am in my hammock at Pangbourne. Gone a long way in a day and a half. 
All good. Stunning scenery.


----------



## existentialist (Jun 8, 2018)

TopCat said:


> I am in my hammock at Pangbourne. Gone a long way in a day and a half.
> All good. Stunning scenery.


Pics or GTFO


----------



## TopCat (Jun 8, 2018)




----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jul 15, 2018)

'London Moonlight Over the Lower Pool' 1897 by John Stobart, 1988

only been issued as a limited edition print - a copy of that appears to go for over a thousand quid.


----------



## Maggot (Jul 15, 2018)

Puddy_Tat said:


> 'London Moonlight Over the Lower Pool' 1897 by John Stobart, 1988
> 
> only been issued as a limited edition print - a copy of that appears to go for over a thousand quid.



So it was painted in 1988, but set in 1897?


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jul 15, 2018)

Maggot said:


> So it was painted in 1988, but set in 1897?



yes.  more about john stobart here


----------



## Maggot (Jul 15, 2018)

Puddy_Tat said:


> yes.  more about john stobart here


Doesn't mention his haulage company.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jul 15, 2018)




----------



## pseudonarcissus (Jul 15, 2018)

Maggot said:


> So it was painted in 1988, but set in 1897?


Moonlight was certainly a lot brighter back in the day...lighter barges could go with and against the tide, full rigged ships could get under tower bridge...amazing picture..


----------



## Ponyutd (Jul 15, 2018)

*Found on the Thames. The Kingdom of the East Saxons, 'Female Centaur' type, *(c. A.D. 730 - c. A.D. 740), *Secondary Series, *Silver Sceat or Sceatta (Penny), 1.08g., *Series S, *possible mint sites at *Tilbury *(Essex) or* Royston *(Hetfordshire), winged centaur advancing left, with large breasts, looking right, _rev., _four wolf heads in a anti-clock-wise whirl.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jul 15, 2018)

pseudonarcissus said:


> Moonlight was certainly a lot brighter back in the day...lighter barges could go with and against the tide, full rigged ships could get under tower bridge...amazing picture..



sounds like someone needs a few points on his artistic licence...


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Jul 15, 2018)

Ponyutd said:


> View attachment 141283
> *Found on the Thames. The Kingdom of the East Saxons, 'Female Centaur' type, *(c. A.D. 730 - c. A.D. 740), *Secondary Series, *Silver Sceat or Sceatta (Penny), 1.08g., *Series S, *possible mint sites at *Tilbury *(Essex) or* Royston *(Hetfordshire), winged centaur advancing left, with large breasts, looking right, _rev., _four wolf heads in a anti-clock-wise whirl.



Wow!


----------



## Ponyutd (Sep 23, 2018)

Lovely dark black R Whites pop bottle. Never had one of these before.




Monkey Puzzle Tree fossil.
The Thames...the river that keeps on giving


----------



## hash tag (Sep 27, 2018)

It's a bit of a tangent I know, but folk may find this interesting; it is now on my list for next week

Secret Rivers


----------



## editor (Sep 27, 2018)

Puddy_Tat said:


> 'London Moonlight Over the Lower Pool' 1897 by John Stobart, 1988
> 
> only been issued as a limited edition print - a copy of that appears to go for over a thousand quid.


Very Atkinson Grimshaw-esque.  I like.


----------



## TopCat (Sep 28, 2018)

Out on Sunday in the blow up boat. Hope to deploy my Crayfish trap and get dinner.


----------



## not-bono-ever (Sep 28, 2018)

them yankee crayfish are a real problem - good luck catching loads


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Sep 30, 2018)

part of a collection taken on and around the Woolwich Ferry last week - the 1960s boats have another week left...


----------



## TopCat (Oct 2, 2018)

TopCat said:


> Out on Sunday in the blow up boat. Hope to deploy my Crayfish trap and get dinner.


Had a grand time in the thames mole and ember.


----------



## editor (Oct 5, 2018)

Seen on the Southbank











Art in dingy places: The joy of the Southbank floor mosaics


----------



## Ponyutd (Oct 9, 2018)

Found this oddity on the Thames today. Nailed to a sleeper.


----------



## Ponyutd (Oct 10, 2018)

Wrong section.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Oct 12, 2018)

Tower Bridge under construction, c. 1888

on tweeter today - Flashbak.com (@aflashbak) on Twitter


----------



## Mumbles274 (Oct 12, 2018)

This is so far the biggest carp ever caught from the Thames. 50lb12oz. It really is a unique fish, possible the most special fish caught in the UK ever. Not the biggest but a really amazing beast. It shows the Thames really is a mysterious river. This fish will probably never be seen again


----------



## Maggot (Oct 12, 2018)

Puddy_Tat said:


> Tower Bridge under construction, c. 1888
> 
> on tweeter today - Flashbak.com (@aflashbak) on Twitter


 Surely there was no colour photography in 1888?


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Oct 12, 2018)

Maggot said:


> Surely there was no colour photography in 1888?



sort of.

having said that, have found this elsewhere, and seems to be a black and white photo that has been colourised afterwards


----------



## editor (Oct 23, 2018)

Sunset pics 
















Jet trails, blue skies, skyscrapers and glass lamps: a South Bank sunset, autumn 2018


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 14, 2018)

Snaps Ahoy! Thames Lens 2018 winners have been announced


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Nov 14, 2018)

Ponyutd said:


> Snaps Ahoy! Thames Lens 2018 winners have been announced



i take it that one got the seal of approval?


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 19, 2018)




----------



## hash tag (Nov 19, 2018)

I'm not sure I want to watch that


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 19, 2018)

He gets picked up by the River police who were waiting for him to dive.


----------



## Artaxerxes (Nov 20, 2018)

Ponyutd said:


>




Is the numpty drunk?


----------



## Ponyutd (Nov 20, 2018)

No idea, dangerous stunt to try whatever he's up to.


----------



## Indeliblelink (Nov 20, 2018)

It was the anniversary of the SS Princess Alice disaster on the Thames a couple of months ago. I'd never heard of it before. 650 people died. 
Princess Alice disaster: The Thames' 650 forgotten dead
SS Princess Alice (1865) - Wikipedia


----------



## hippogriff (Nov 20, 2018)

Indeliblelink said:


> It was the anniversary of the SS Princess Alice disaster on the Thames a couple of months ago. I'd never heard of it before. 650 people died.
> Princess Alice disaster: The Thames' 650 forgotten dead
> SS Princess Alice (1865) - Wikipedia



One of my great-great-grandfathers died in the Princess Alice disaster


----------



## Ponyutd (Dec 4, 2018)

Tough as old boots: a Thames skeleton's durable footwear
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d80a...at&fit=max&s=4e8054f2148bd6b3c65b74d7f6ea64fb


----------



## Ponyutd (Dec 4, 2018)

Twitter. Beautiful.


----------



## TopCat (Dec 23, 2018)

Ponyutd said:


> No idea, dangerous stunt to try whatever he's up to.


During the 80's miners strike loads of pit workers were in London and scores jumped off that bridge again and again. Not that risky depending on the tides.


----------



## Ponyutd (Dec 24, 2018)

How did you know about this TopCat ? Were you there, any photos of this. Can't imagine what that would have looked like.
Must have caused a right old rumpus!?


----------



## TopCat (Dec 24, 2018)

I was there. Big rally on the south bank and hordes of pit workers pissed up in the sunshine jumping off the bridge.


----------



## Ponyutd (Dec 24, 2018)




----------



## editor (Jan 21, 2019)

A beautiful big Moon over the River Thames – in photos


----------



## Ponyutd (Jan 21, 2019)

That looks massive!


----------



## Ponyutd (Jan 23, 2019)

The Thames around the 1920's


----------



## Ponyutd (Jan 28, 2019)

Spot the ball on the Thames.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Feb 2, 2019)

from the bishopsgate institute archives, posted on teh tweeter today


----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 12, 2019)

Two trips to the Thames gave up these items. Worked Flint, coral bracelet, some Victorian and Georgian coins. An Irish silver hammered coin, a crushed copper finger ring and a Wolf Lauffer 1550 Jeton.


----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 16, 2019)

London Bridge.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Feb 19, 2019)

on teh tweeter today from @robnitm, photo by mary brown, 1973


----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 23, 2019)

The bridge doesn't go up and down on it's own you know.


----------



## Ponyutd (Mar 1, 2019)

Where else could you find a Bulgari silver ring and a Leavesden Asylum button next to each other?


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Mar 17, 2019)




----------



## hash tag (Jun 10, 2019)

Have just been to museum of London's secret rivers, yes it's recently opened. It's also free and really rather good. Lots of mudlarking stuff from the Thames. Well worthy of an hour or two of anyone's day.


----------



## hash tag (Jun 10, 2019)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> View attachment 54213



Seven arch bridge, south east London?



Bahnhof Strasse said:


> The source of the Thames...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Tony Robinson in television is walking the Thames, he has done source to oxford.  I've boated right up to Lechlade and walked estuary to Richmond, maybe beyond.


----------



## mod (Jun 10, 2019)

This is fantastic.


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Jun 10, 2019)

hash tag said:


> Seven arch bridge, south east London?



Sonning





> Tony Robinson in television is walking the Thames, he has done source to oxford.  I've boated right up to Lechlade and walked estuary to Richmond, maybe beyond.



Where's the Tony Robinson thing being shown?


----------



## hash tag (Jun 10, 2019)

Here you go The Thames: Britain's Great River With Tony Robinson - Channel 5

He covered source to Oxford in first hours episode....its changed since I was down there 
Alice Roberts also did her historic town things about Oxford recently


----------



## Ol Nick (Jun 10, 2019)

mod said:


> This is fantastic.



Thank you. That is brilliant. And knowing now which bits succeeded and which bits failed and how busy and popular all those places are today.  

I probably first walked down the South Bank in the mid-90s and it’s been fascinating to see how it’s changed since. And how it hasn’t. Is the Coin St cat park really that old??!?


----------



## blossie33 (Jun 10, 2019)

hash tag said:


> Have just been to museum of London's secret rivers, yes it's recently opened. It's also free and really rather good. Lots of mudlarking stuff from the Thames. Well worthy of an hour or two of anyone's day.



Where is that? 
Sounds great


----------



## Maggot (Jun 10, 2019)

blossie33 said:


> Where is that?
> Sounds great


Secret Rivers | Museum of London Docklands


----------



## blossie33 (Jun 10, 2019)

Maggot said:


> Secret Rivers | Museum of London Docklands



Thanks  I've never actually been in there - must go along and have a look.


----------



## hash tag (Jun 11, 2019)

Its a great museum, all free and well worth a couple of hours to visit.
It also has a very carefully narrated exhibition on slavery and a story of London.
It has a caff, but if you are in need of something a little stronger, the Spoons almost next door is good.


----------



## hash tag (Jun 11, 2019)

One of our favourite pieces yesterday was this little person





Nothing to do with the exhibition and I am sure I have mentioned this somewhere before. This is supposed to be the River Tyburn flowing through a shop
near Davis Street/Oxford Street. Not sure how factual this is


----------



## Artaxerxes (Jun 11, 2019)

Ol Nick said:


> Thank you. That is brilliant. And knowing now which bits succeeded and which bits failed and how busy and popular all those places are today.
> 
> I probably first walked down the South Bank in the mid-90s and it’s been fascinating to see how it’s changed since. And how it hasn’t. Is the Coin St cat park really that old??!?



One of the frustrating parts of the path for me is the fragmentation of it which I think is increasing? Love to walk along the river but then bam suddenly development, time for a detour.



Maggot said:


> Secret Rivers | Museum of London Docklands




On my list, should have time to go down soon 

Mudlarking is very popular right now which is amusing.


----------



## hash tag (Jun 11, 2019)

Since I moved here the path under Chelsea,  Ceremorne and Wadsworth bridges has opened up. I can't ever see the path opening up around Wadsworth waste station or the half dozen private houses just by Putney Bridge. Their gardens lead straight down to the river. Also a teeny bit more of the path is now open by Battersea power station, so there is some cheer.


----------



## TopCat (Jul 13, 2019)

Meant to be kyaking on the Thames today. Bessie mate is puking though. Antibiotic allergy agogo.  
Anyone fancy it? Teddington to Putney?


----------



## hash tag (Jul 13, 2019)

It's a beautiful day here next to Thames, but no ta, too busy and tour de france later.


----------



## TopCat (Jul 13, 2019)

hash tag said:


> It's a beautiful day here next to Thames, but no ta, too busy and tour de france later.


Well it was probably for the best. Me and mate both have some weird illness.  Not river fit at all.


----------



## TopCat (Jul 13, 2019)

Might go paddle in the Wandle.


----------



## TopCat (Jul 13, 2019)

In my bare feet.


----------



## hash tag (Jul 13, 2019)

Paddle in the Wandle? Did not know it was that accessible?
PS not far from you I guess Battersea Reach Summer Fair 2019 London @ CAKE-BOY

Not a lot of people know this; I live in spitting distance and I didnt.


----------



## TopCat (Jul 13, 2019)

hash tag said:


> Paddle in the Wandle? Did not know it was that accessible?


Not really for a kayak. Yes for foot paddle.


----------



## RubyToogood (Jul 13, 2019)

TopCat said:


> Not really for a kayak. Yes for foot paddle.


I have seen people kayaking down the Wandle. You have to go under the shopping centre at Wandsworth.


----------



## hash tag (Jul 13, 2019)

RubyToogood said:


> I have seen people kayaking down the Wandle. You have to go under the shopping centre at Wandsworth.


----------



## hash tag (Jul 13, 2019)

Just been out. As ever, the Thames is pretty empty with a very little swell.


----------



## Anju (Jul 17, 2019)

Sunrise from the Mayflower pub.


----------



## Lucy Fur (Jul 30, 2019)

Ponyutd said:


> View attachment 163335 Where else could you find a Bulgari silver ring and a Leavesden Asylum button next to each other?


Are you sure that's not a white gold ring, Bulgari don't seem to do much in the way of silver and that looks like this:


----------



## hash tag (Aug 12, 2019)

New, interesting sounding book out about mudlarking BBC Radio 4 - Mudlarking, by Lara Maiklem, Episode 1

An old article London's history in mud: the woman collecting what the Thames washes up


----------



## ringo (Aug 20, 2019)

hash tag said:


> New, interesting sounding book out about mudlarking BBC Radio 4 - Mudlarking, by Lara Maiklem, Episode 1
> 
> An old article London's history in mud: the woman collecting what the Thames washes up



https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mudlark-Maiklem-Lara/dp/1408889218/
Mate just sent me a link to the book


----------



## hash tag (Sep 2, 2019)

Some good news. Conservationists find more than 130 seals born in 'thriving' Thames


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Sep 8, 2019)

from rob baker on tweeter today







View from St Paul's Cathedral, 1973 - John H Hutchinson


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Oct 20, 2019)

on teh tweeter today






victoria embankment, 1929

(eta - following some discussion on tweeter, fairly sure that's blackfriars bridge in the background)


----------



## Chilli.s (Oct 20, 2019)

Lush!


----------



## Cloo (Oct 20, 2019)

Thames near Godstow, Oxford.  Summer 2018


----------



## clicker (Oct 20, 2019)

Stuck on a train outside Charing Cross.


----------



## clicker (Oct 22, 2019)

Near Hampton Court.


----------



## pogofish (Oct 24, 2019)

Does the estuary side of Sheerness count?

Just learned about this place - a pub, part of which is built from barrels of solidified cement from a shipwreck:

Ship-on-Shore-Sheerness.html


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jan 4, 2020)

1841 photo, looking towards westminster abbey / bridge (the houses of parliament largely absent following the 1834 fire)






taken from Cecil Street (now under where the Shell-Mex building is)

on teh tweeter today


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jan 6, 2020)

on flickr today



bus (some time in the 1930s) emerging from the north end of the blackwall tunnel.

the north end portal (of what's now the northbound tunnel) is still there, but not that obvious, and i've probably only ever seen it in my rear view mirrors.

double deck buses ran both ways through what's now the northbound tunnel until about 1967 (when the new - now southbound - tunnel was then used two-way for a year or so while the old tunnel was modified to be the northbound tunnel - the road surface was raised a bit and the pavements done away with, to make the roadway a bit wider - i'm told it was a bit tight when two buses met)


----------



## existentialist (Jan 6, 2020)

Puddy_Tat said:


> on flickr today
> 
> 
> 
> ...



IIRC, the Blackwall Tunnel buses had special tyres with reinforced sidewalls, because there was a tendency for them to brush up against the quite high kerbs in the tunnel, and they got through normal tyres a bit quickly.

ETA: reference here


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jan 6, 2020)

existentialist said:


> IIRC, the Blackwall Tunnel buses had special tyres with reinforced sidewalls, because there was a tendency for them to brush up against the quite high kerbs in the tunnel, and they got through normal tyres a bit quickly.
> 
> ETA: reference here



yes, likewise the rotherhithe tunnel buses (both routes ran from the same garage in Poplar - Athol Street until 1961 then the former trolleybus depot up the road)



route 82 was withdrawn in 1968, but i have conducted an RT on a service through the rotherhithe tunnel - it was a one-off for a special event some time in the late 80s (i can't remember exactly what or when now) 

there was a (midi) bus route through the tunnel from 1988 to 2006 but i think any sort of bus would be ruled out by the current width restrictions


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jan 19, 2020)

on flickr today - PLA's plan of the thames from 1960 (this shows the western end, there's a link in the comments to the eastern end)


----------



## clicker (Jan 21, 2020)




----------



## TopCat (Jan 21, 2020)

existentialist said:


> IIRC, the Blackwall Tunnel buses had special tyres with reinforced sidewalls, because there was a tendency for them to brush up against the quite high kerbs in the tunnel, and they got through normal tyres a bit quickly.
> 
> ETA: reference here


Not many know that. Are you a bus enthusiast?


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jan 25, 2020)

the anchor brewery, bankside, early 80s

one of a set of photos taken round the south and north banks that's on the spitalfields life blog today


----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 2, 2020)

A Celtic British Potin coin. Around 50 b.c. from the Thames.


----------



## BCBlues (Feb 2, 2020)

Had a stroll from Hammersmith  to Putney Bridge last week. Pics ain't great but it was very murky that day, the river still looks great though even on the dreariest days.

I had to come off the walk at Craven Cottage which is being rectified I do believe. I cut through the park then and headed for the Wetherspoons under those shiny blue flats.
That is some pub, I bet it gets rammed in.the summer.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Feb 4, 2020)

on tweeter today


----------



## Ponyutd (Feb 7, 2020)

Pilgrim Badges (parts of) from the river. All recorded with P.a.s. around 1200 to 1500.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Mar 8, 2020)

existentialist said:


> IIRC, the Blackwall Tunnel buses had special tyres with reinforced sidewalls, because there was a tendency for them to brush up against the quite high kerbs in the tunnel, and they got through normal tyres a bit quickly.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Mar 8, 2020)

on tweeter today


----------



## Ponyutd (Mar 9, 2020)

What a great shot of a bygone age


----------



## Ponyutd (Mar 19, 2020)

I saw this sticking out of the mud on the Thames.

I thought it looked quite devilish


----------



## Ponyutd (Mar 19, 2020)

Then I turned it around....

Same piece of wood.


----------



## Chilli.s (Mar 19, 2020)

It looks like you may have freed some kind of curse from the muds of the river.


----------



## BCBlues (Mar 19, 2020)

Ponyutd said:


> I saw this sticking out of the mud on the Thames.
> View attachment 202353
> I thought it looked quite devilish



That would make a great walking stick handle


----------



## Ponyutd (Mar 27, 2020)

Rotherhithe after the Thames burst it's banks. 1928


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Mar 30, 2020)

on tweeter today






horse and kitty in 'multi storey stables' on the south bank.

must be at one of the wharves around where the 'founders arms' and 'falcon point' are now

1950s OS map here


----------



## Ponyutd (Apr 6, 2020)

Cheer up everyone, even Elizabeth looks cheesed off. 
Here's some cash from the Thames for you.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Apr 19, 2020)

on tweeter today






taken 1868


----------



## RubyToogood (Apr 19, 2020)

For comparison:


----------



## clicker (May 2, 2020)

Quiz: 40 Fiendish Questions About The Thames
					

How well do you really know the river?




					londonist.com
				



Some interesting bits in here...if the link works .


----------



## circleline (May 3, 2020)

Oh, Bankside!  When I was ill, about this time last year, the Open Gardens event (personal interest, Bankside) was a special and hopeful beacon in my recovery. 

Now as a special and hopeful beacon in universal recovery..


----------



## Puddy_Tat (May 14, 2020)

on tweeter today


----------



## Ponyutd (May 15, 2020)

The fella' bottom far left...he's at it!


----------



## Puddy_Tat (May 18, 2020)

on tweeter today


----------



## Puddy_Tat (May 30, 2020)




----------



## clicker (Jul 30, 2020)

Wall to wall sunshine and no tourists   .


----------



## Sprocket. (Jul 31, 2020)

I saw this thread for the first time today. Some of the photographs, paintings and illustrations are incredible.


----------



## Artaxerxes (Jul 31, 2020)

Really want to risk mudlarking in this weather tbh. No tourists on the foreshore.


----------



## Doodler (Aug 5, 2020)

What it sounds like inside Tower Bridge when the road sections are raised.


----------



## RoyReed (Aug 6, 2020)

Doodler said:


> What it sounds like inside Tower Bridge when the road sections are raised.


I've been down there when this happens - it's quite a scarey experience.


----------



## Doodler (Aug 6, 2020)

RoyReed said:


> I've been down there when this happens - it's quite a scarey experience.



There's a safety trough to lie down in if you get caught in there but still not keen on the idea.


----------



## TopCat (Aug 6, 2020)

I'm going swimming and a bit of fishing on the Thames at Teddington on Sat. Should be lush.


----------



## Ponyutd (Aug 7, 2020)

Thats the spirit


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Aug 7, 2020)

In this hot weather if you want a decent swimming spot that's an easy train ride from London (plus 25 minute stroll): Google Maps


----------



## TopCat (Aug 9, 2020)

I was meant to go kayaking and swimming on the Thames yesterday. Ut was though far too hot to lug my boat and tat across London to Teddington via public transport. 

It was frustrating as the Thames at Deptford is less than a mile away from home. I have seen too many semi submerged boat ripping lumps of lumber and steel to go boating there though. 

I settled on exploring Deptford Creek with a pal with a view to doing some fishing. Deptford Creek is the section that flows into the Thames near Greenwich. It is fed by the River Quaggy and River Ravensbourne. 

Much of the riverbank is inaccessible which is a shame. Industrial buildings and their radical artist tenants hide access for plebs. 

We settled on fishing off alongside the famous lifting rail bridge. This is truly an epic piece of engineering with a great history. 


			Redirect Notice
		


My pal caught a large eel and we saw a large seal, famous in the area. Their presence might be why I drew a blank but no matter. 

It was too murky for swimming but I was tempted. A nice day out.


----------



## agricola (Aug 10, 2020)

Talking of seals, for the first time I can remember I saw one today (well it was either that or a small porpoise) almost mid-channel by Battersea Power Station.


----------



## RubyToogood (Aug 10, 2020)

agricola said:


> Talking of seals, for the first time I can remember I saw one today (well it was either that or a small porpoise) almost mid-channel by Battersea Power Station.


I've always wanted to see a seal in the Thames and I never have.


----------



## agricola (Aug 11, 2020)

RubyToogood said:


> I've always wanted to see a seal in the Thames and I never have.



They do seem to be rare things to see - thats the first one I have seen in twenty years or so living down here.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Aug 17, 2020)




----------



## pseudonarcissus (Aug 17, 2020)

RubyToogood said:


> I've always wanted to see a seal in the Thames and I never have.


Early morning combined with a low tide at Greenwich Peninsular (Just upstream from the dome) and you’ll almost certainly catch some Sunning themselves on the sand bank


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 17, 2020)

Ponyutd said:


> Rotherhithe after the Thames burst it's banks. 1928


London, the venice of the north


----------



## Doodler (Aug 17, 2020)

Thames mud at the Wennington Marshes.


----------



## agricola (Aug 23, 2020)

Found this on the foreshore just in front of the Oxo Tower this afternoon.  







.... if that does read _Hancock & Co, Buckley, Hawarden_ then my dad worked there for nearly twenty years (albeit long after it had stopped being Hancock's).


----------



## Doodler (Sep 1, 2020)

Photos taken some years ago of grafitti along the wall at Tilbury B power station by the estuary. The graffiti probably date to the early 1980s.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Sep 2, 2020)

on tweeter today


----------



## toblerone3 (Sep 2, 2020)

Walked from Swinford Bridge to Newbridge (10.7 miles including the walk to the bus at Southmoor) along the Thames on Saturday having lunch at Bablock Hythe. The first time I did this was with my walking friends in 2008. This time with my partner and a 3 year old toddler. A very fine stretch of the river. photos coming.


----------



## not-bono-ever (Sep 15, 2020)

Result of a Big fire in Crayford overnight


----------



## Ponyutd (Sep 19, 2020)

I was told to take it easy over the weekend..So I went down the Thames. A little silver ring and this


----------



## agricola (Sep 19, 2020)

Ponyutd said:


> I was told to take it easy over the weekend..So I went down the Thames. A little silver ring and this View attachment 230924



"ankh-er found in Thames"


I'll get my own coat


----------



## Ponyutd (Sep 19, 2020)

agricola said:


> "ankh-er found in Thames"
> 
> 
> I'll get my own coat


----------



## Shellee (Sep 20, 2020)

I took this from the Shard, gawd it makes me homesick.


----------



## Ponyutd (Sep 20, 2020)

Where was you born...the Space station😁


----------



## RubyToogood (Sep 20, 2020)

Ponyutd said:


> I was told to take it easy over the weekend..So I went down the Thames. A little silver ring and this View attachment 230924


Is that actually Egyptian? Any idea of its history?


----------



## Ponyutd (Sep 20, 2020)

No idea at all. I know it washed up that morning
 I have emailed a mate, waiting for a reply


----------



## RubyToogood (Sep 20, 2020)

Ponyutd said:


> No idea at all. I know it washed up that morning
> I have emailed a mate, waiting for a reply


It looks pretty much identical to this one: RARE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ANTIQUE ANKH KEY Of Life 1517-1219 BC  | eBay


----------



## RubyToogood (Sep 20, 2020)

And indeed this one: RARE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ANTIQUE ANKH KEY Of Life  1427-1325 BC  | eBay

The first one, suspiciously so.


----------



## Ponyutd (Sep 20, 2020)

Yes it does. Not that rare then🤪


----------



## Ponyutd (Sep 20, 2020)

That's a shame. Looking of forward to giving it Museum of London


----------



## Mumbles274 (Oct 9, 2020)

Just watched this on YouTube and thought it might be of interest. Some nice views of the river and bridges etc


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Dec 9, 2020)

happened across a film of the woolwich ferry in 1961 (a year or two before the paddle steamers were replaced by the diesel boats that lasted until a couple of years ago)


----------



## BCBlues (Dec 9, 2020)

Puddy_Tat said:


> happened across a film of the woolwich ferry in 1961 (a year or two before the paddle steamers were replaced by the diesel boats that lasted until a couple of years ago)




That's a great bit of film. Some lovely old cars and trucks in there too.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Feb 23, 2021)

not mine - tim dunn on tweeter


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Mar 13, 2021)




----------



## TopCat (Mar 13, 2021)

Puddy_Tat said:


>



Never seen a pic before. Well done.


----------



## editor (Mar 14, 2021)

Some recent pics















						The River Thames in spring: the beach, shadows and reflections – in photos
					

London has some magnificent walks, and after a long winter in lockdown, a bracing walk along the banks of the Thames can do wonders for the soul. Here’s a set of photos from a recent short wa…




					www.urban75.org


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Mar 14, 2021)

Puddy_Tat said:


>




Never heard of it before, photo by Fox Talbot no less


----------



## editor (Mar 14, 2021)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> Never heard of it before, photo by Fox Talbot no less


Bits of it live on:





> Although that original suspension bridge was only around for 15 years before being demolished, its heritage still lives on – as the original brick piers are still there – still supporting the railway -  and the suspension chains were re-used in Bristol’s Clifton Suspension Bridge.







__





						The Original Hungerford Bridge - ianVisits
					

When the Millennium (aka, Wobbly) Bridge was opened by the Tate Modern, it was heralded as marvel partly for its construction, but also for being devoted solely to pedestrians. This was not the first pedestrian only bridge over the Thames…Read more ›



					www.ianvisits.co.uk


----------



## BCBlues (Mar 14, 2021)

editor said:


> Some recent pics
> 
> View attachment 258682
> 
> ...



It's great to see St Pauls Cathedral standing proud on that bottom pic


----------



## Artaxerxes (Mar 23, 2021)

This has really pissed me off.









						Freddie the Thames seal put down by vets after dog attack
					

Seal pup who had taken up residence last month near Hammersmith Bridge was mauled on Sunday




					www.theguardian.com


----------



## TopCat (Mar 23, 2021)

Artaxerxes said:


> This has really pissed me off.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Shit news.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Mar 25, 2021)

on tweeter today -


----------



## T & P (Mar 26, 2021)

Puddy_Tat said:


> on tweeter today -


My, how has the City of London's skyline changed... 

On that note, which was the tallest skyscrapper in the City prior to Tower 42? Does anyone know?


----------



## souljacker (Mar 26, 2021)

T & P said:


> My, how has the City of London's skyline changed...
> 
> On that note, which was the tallest skyscrapper in the City prior to Tower 42? Does anyone know?



It was the first skyscraper I think. Tallest before that was the PO Tower.


----------



## editor (Mar 26, 2021)

souljacker said:


> It was the first skyscraper I think. Tallest before that was the PO Tower.


It was St Paul's Cathedral until it was overtaken in 1963 by the Millbank Tower at 118 metres,  which in turn was overtaken by the BT Tower which topped out just one year later in 1964 at 177 metres...









						List of tallest buildings and structures in London - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org


----------



## toblerone3 (Mar 26, 2021)

View from Greenwich Obervatory 1953 and 2019. There are a lot more towers.


*1953*






*2019*


----------



## clicker (Mar 26, 2021)




----------



## clicker (Mar 26, 2021)




----------



## teuchter (Mar 26, 2021)

I have been quite enjoying the river with virtually no traffic on it, during the lockdowns. I'd not want it to be like that for ever, but it makes it quite serene and it feels quite different.


----------



## clicker (Mar 26, 2021)

teuchter said:


> I have been quite enjoying the river with virtually no traffic on it, during the lockdowns. I'd not want it to be like that for ever, but it makes it quite serene and it feels quite different.



Really still.


----------



## gosub (Apr 4, 2021)




----------



## TopCat (Apr 5, 2021)

gosub said:


>



Enjoying watching this.


----------



## Ponyutd (Apr 6, 2021)

Attach files


----------



## T & P (Apr 7, 2021)

This is news to me... So the Thames Clipper services that have always formed part of the TFL network are now being shared (or perhaps taken over) by Uber??



			https://www.uber.com/gb/en/u/uberboat/


----------



## Pickman's model (Apr 7, 2021)

Saw a kestrel in erith the other day


----------



## skyscraper101 (Apr 7, 2021)

T & P said:


> This is news to me... So the Thames Clipper services that have always formed part of the TFL network are now being shared (or perhaps taken over) by Uber??
> 
> 
> 
> https://www.uber.com/gb/en/u/uberboat/



Not much has changed. You can still use them exactly as before - it’s more about sponsorship than anything. Instead of the MBNA clippers it’s now Uber. You can still tap on and off as before with contactless card.

What would be really dope is if you could see where the boat actually was on a live map (a la UberX) within the app because their timetabling is all over the place and the display boards are next to useless at Blackfriars.


----------



## Artaxerxes (Apr 7, 2021)

T & P said:


> This is news to me... So the Thames Clipper services that have always formed part of the TFL network are now being shared (or perhaps taken over) by Uber??
> 
> 
> 
> https://www.uber.com/gb/en/u/uberboat/



I think its just bookable via Uber services looking at the various disclaimers but fuck knows how this works.

edit: Ah here we go, useful info from Diamond Geezer.





__





						diamond geezer
					






					diamondgeezer.blogspot.com
				






> Earlier this the week Uber announced it would be sponsoring Thames Clippers. It's not buying them, it's not calling them U-Boats, it's not making them turn up on demand and it's not stopping anyone else from turning up and using them. It _is_ getting naming rights and adding riverboats to the Uber app. The service's new name will be "Uber Boat by Thames Clippers", a mouthful only upright brandingfolk will employ.


----------



## Pickman's model (Apr 7, 2021)

editor said:


> It was St Paul's Cathedral until it was overtaken in 1963 by the Millbank Tower at 118 metres,  which in turn was overtaken by the BT Tower which topped out just one year later in 1964 at 177 metres...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


To give an idea of how tall st paul's is, if you go into the vestibule of st michael's in highgate village there's a line on the wall which is the same height as the top of the cathedral


----------



## T & P (Apr 7, 2021)

Artaxerxes said:


> I think its just bookable via Uber services looking at the various disclaimers but fuck knows how this works.
> 
> edit: Ah here we go, useful info from Diamond Geezer.
> 
> ...


I think U-boats would be an ace new name for them


----------



## skyscraper101 (Apr 7, 2021)

A video what I made this morning from the train of the sunrise over the Thames.

View attachment trim.4B26212A-46AA-4459-B789-A812166DD49C.MOV


----------



## teuchter (Apr 7, 2021)

skyscraper101 said:


> A video what I made this morning from the train of the sunrise over the Thames.
> 
> View attachment 262161




I've never been sure that any actual humans really use Cannon Street station.


----------



## skyscraper101 (Apr 7, 2021)

teuchter said:


> I've never been sure that any actual humans really use Cannon Street station.



I do it quite regularly as I need to get to Bank from Waterloo so I go via Waterloo East and London Bridge.


----------



## editor (Apr 16, 2021)

Had a lovely walk earlier this week 













__





						In photos: a short and easy London riverside walk – Putney Bridge to Barnes Bridge - urban75: art, photos, walks
					

Around 6.5k/4 miles in length, this is a lovely short walk along the banks of the River Thames from Putney Bridge to Barnes Bridge in south west London. It's a fairly short trip from Brixton (tube to Vauxhall, train to Putney) with the river a short five minute stroll down from the railway...




					www.urban75.org


----------



## RubyToogood (Apr 16, 2021)

Pickman's model said:


> To give an idea of how tall st paul's is, if you go into the vestibule of st michael's in highgate village there's a line on the wall which is the same height as the top of the cathedral


That is a good fact. I've just looked up the height of St Paul's and the height above sea level of Crystal Palace (my hood) and they are about the same, assuming St P's is not much above sea level.


----------



## clicker (May 6, 2021)

Before the hail storm.  Downstream.

Upstream.  Got soaked.


----------



## clicker (May 9, 2021)

A still evening.


----------



## editor (May 18, 2021)

South Bank photos 






























						South Bank abstract – reflections, rain, lights and the London Eye
					

Yesterday, we dodged the heavy rainstorms and took a walk along the South Bank, capturing this set of images from the rain-soaked pavements.



					www.brixtonbuzz.com


----------



## Doodler (May 18, 2021)

Things found on the foreshore surface near Wapping Stairs.



Reclusive community of boat dwellers in a creek on the Swanscombe Peninsula. In the distance is the Procter & Gamble factory in Thurrock.


----------



## TopCat (Jun 13, 2021)

Off out with my inflatable kayak today. It’s a welcome milestone as only now am I strong enough after illness to carry it across town. 

I’m going to Teddington and head into town. Me and a pal. Two boats and a hangover. Maybe two hangovers.


----------



## TopCat (Jun 13, 2021)

Fucks sake. Mate went to a Brockwell Park yesterday and likely got hammered. Wake up!


----------



## A380 (Jun 13, 2021)

gosub said:


>



Slight derailment but over the last month or so I’ve developed a bit of an obsession for the Rank Organisation’s ‘Look at Life’ series from the 59s and 60s they all seem to be on YouTube ….


----------



## blossie33 (Jun 13, 2021)

They're great aren't they - although I didn't appreciate them when I was a child and they came on at the cinema when you waiting just to see the main film!


----------



## TopCat (Jun 13, 2021)

Well pal has got his sorry arse into gear so today’s trip is on!


----------



## TopCat (Jun 13, 2021)

Paddled to Richmond with a bit of swimming. Lovely day!


----------



## TopCat (Jun 13, 2021)




----------



## Anju (Jun 13, 2021)

Lovely afternoon walking from Deptford through Greenwich. Couple of beers and a smoke on the beach.


----------



## editor (Aug 6, 2021)

A walk along the south bank










						The River Thames at low tide: mudlarkers, sunbathers and bridges – 30 photos - urban75: art, photos, walks
					

Large expanses of rocks, pebbles and bijou sandy beaches are exposed at low tide on the River Thames, and this is when you'll see some people mudlarking - a phrase used to describe anyone poking around in the mud for items of value. These day people are more interested in finding old pipes, bits of




					www.urban75.org
				





A walk along the north bank








A walk along the foreshore The north bank of the Thames at low tide: bridges, chains, nets and some mudlarking


----------



## RubyToogood (Aug 6, 2021)

Anju said:


> View attachment 273359


What's this building? It reminds me a bit of Strawberry Hill. Gothic I guess.


----------



## pseudonarcissus (Aug 6, 2021)

RubyToogood said:


> What's this building? It reminds me a bit of Strawberry Hill. Gothic I guess.


Trinity Hospital, Greenwich. It owns a lot of land in the area. It’s some sort of charitable foundation like an alms house.
The story is that they had an orchard on the left of the photo that they let the omnibus company graze their horses on. After 25 years of free use, or whatever, London Transport claimed title and built the powerstation. The power station is back-up power for the tube.


----------



## Anju (Aug 6, 2021)

RubyToogood said:


> What's this building? It reminds me a bit of Strawberry Hill. Gothic I guess.





pseudonarcissus said:


> Trinity Hospital, Greenwich. It owns a lot of land in the area. It’s some sort of charitable foundation like an alms house.
> The story is that they had an orchard on the left of the photo that they let the omnibus company graze their horses on. After 25 years of free use, or whatever, London Transport claimed title and built the powerstation. The power station is back-up power for the tube.



Yes, it was built around 500 years ago to house 20 Greenwich male residents who had financial difficulties. 

Looks like they had lovely garden as well.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Aug 6, 2021)

pseudonarcissus said:


> The story is that they had an orchard on the left of the photo that they let the omnibus company graze their horses on. After 25 years of free use, or whatever, London Transport claimed title and built the powerstation. The power station is back-up power for the tube.



I'm not quite sure about all that...

The site was a reasonably substantial depot / stables of the Pimlico, Peckham and Greenwich Street Tramways Company (later merged in to the London Tramways Company) opened in 1871.

The power station was built c. 1905 by the London County Council Tramways, after they took over the private sector tram operators and started electrifying the network.

1890s OS map here

But yes, since LT abandoned its trams and trolleybuses, it became secondary power station for the Underground (at that time Lots Road power station was still in business) and is now back-up power.


----------



## pseudonarcissus (Aug 6, 2021)

Puddy_Tat said:


> I'm not quite sure about all that...


OK, so it might not be a TRUE story, but I like it


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Aug 6, 2021)




----------



## Puddy_Tat (Aug 9, 2021)




----------



## teuchter (Sep 2, 2021)




----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Sep 2, 2021)

This thing briefly operated from Tower Bridge to Ostend, was very expensive to use the Thames though so it moved to Ramsgate, used it twice from there to Belgium, was a very nice ride.


----------



## TopCat (Sep 2, 2021)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> This thing briefly operated from Tower Bridge to Ostend, was very expensive to use the Thames though so it moved to Ramsgate, used it twice from there to Belgium, was a very nice ride.
> 
> View attachment 286327View attachment 286328


Fun in a swell that.


----------



## Maggot (Sep 3, 2021)

Currently on the quiet bit of the Thames in Oxfordshire on pinkmonkey and eljugs boat. It's quite lovely.


----------



## bimble (Sep 3, 2021)

The maker of these mudlarking notebooks is an old friend & one of the best people you could ever meet. Now goes by johnny mudlark. He doesn’t have a smartphone & doesnt do internet and now his drawings are getting seen by lots of people anyway.
currently some are on show inside southward cathedral. I only know cos he sent me a postcard.








						LARKING: The Thames and Beyond - Southwark Cathedral
					

An exhibition to celebrate the release of A Field Guide to Larking by Lara Maiklem, author of the bestselling Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames




					cathedral.southwark.anglican.org
				




This makes me very happy.









						Thames Festival Trust - Foragers of the Foreshore - Thames Festival Trust
					

MUDLARK | Noun – a person who gains a livelihood by searching for iron, coal, old ropes etc. in mud or low tide. Dig deep into the history of mudlarking with Thames Festival Trust.




					thamesfestivaltrust.org


----------



## hash tag (Sep 3, 2021)

In case you missed it 





hash tag said:


> This saturday Thames Festival Trust - Mudlarking Exhibition @ Cutler's Hall @ Totally Thames 2021 - Thames Festival Trust


----------



## T & P (Sep 3, 2021)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> This thing briefly operated from Tower Bridge to Ostend, was very expensive to use the Thames though so it moved to Ramsgate, used it twice from there to Belgium, was a very nice ride.
> 
> View attachment 286327View attachment 286328


Was it a case of the Thames route not being profitable enough, or the boat type being charged higher fees than traditional ones?


----------



## teuchter (Sep 3, 2021)

T & P said:


> Was it a case of the Thames route not being profitable enough, or the boat type being charged higher fees than traditional ones?












						Soviet fleet on the Thames (Part 1) - London Reconnections
					

The leading source for independent news and analysis about transport in London and beyond. Award-winning coverage of transport infrastructure and politics alongside stories about the history of the Capital's transport networks.




					www.londonreconnections.com
				













						Capitalist hydrofoils strike back! (Part 2) - London Reconnections
					

The leading source for independent news and analysis about transport in London and beyond. Award-winning coverage of transport infrastructure and politics alongside stories about the history of the Capital's transport networks.




					www.londonreconnections.com


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Sep 3, 2021)

T & P said:


> Was it a case of the Thames route not being profitable enough, or the boat type being charged higher fees than traditional ones?




Dunno, I think they had to pay the Port of London some fees which were quite a bit more than Ramsgate (and Dover; one of my trips on it was from Dover, not two from Ramsgate, I now recall), and maybe the extra fuel and time it took vs the coastal ports just didn't make it work.


----------



## TopCat (Sep 3, 2021)

Maggot said:


> Currently on the quiet bit of the Thames in Oxfordshire on pinkmonkey and eljugs boat. It's quite lovely.
> 
> View attachment 286489View attachment 286490View attachment 286491


I have fond memories of that boat on the upper Thames with the delightful hosts. All the best to you all x


----------



## teuchter (Sep 6, 2021)

Today i had a picnic lunch by the Thames in Gloucestershire. It was rubbish - just look at the state of it.


----------



## hash tag (Sep 6, 2021)

Couldn't you have driven to somewhere a little prettier?


----------



## Sasaferrato (Sep 6, 2021)

Guy feeding birds just down from


----------



## TopCat (Sep 6, 2021)

hash tag said:


> Couldn't you have driven to somewhere a little prettier?


He loves it.


----------



## teuchter (Sep 28, 2021)

Just came across this.


----------



## TopCat (Sep 28, 2021)

RIP Pony xxx


----------



## hash tag (Oct 1, 2021)

Very sad and so easily avoided River Thames: Mounds of wet wipes reshaping waterway


----------



## blossie33 (Oct 1, 2021)

Very sad indeed    I'm afraid there are some people that just don't care, no matter how much these problems are publicised.


----------



## bimble (Oct 1, 2021)

Previously mentioned friend came to visit & brought one of his mudlarking diaries, whole book when closed is the same size as an iPhone,
I find them crazy beautiful. 
All are acrylic paintings of objects he’s found in the Thames mud. Every page includes a painting true to size of an old pin, of which there are so many, dating from when they were hand made, mostly he said by children.


----------



## teuchter (Oct 1, 2021)

hash tag said:


> Very sad and so easily avoided River Thames: Mounds of wet wipes reshaping waterway


Hopefully this will at least stop becoming an increasing problem once the new super sewer is in operation, and stuff doesn't overflow into the Thames any more.


----------



## Supine (Oct 2, 2021)

Parked my boat near tower bridge for the weekend


----------



## Chilli.s (Oct 2, 2021)

sorry but that is a pugly boat


----------



## Supine (Oct 2, 2021)

Chilli.s said:


> sorry but that is a pugly boat



And the fuel ain’t cheap


----------



## hash tag (Oct 2, 2021)

You mean you can get fuel 🙄


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Oct 2, 2021)

on flickr today

westminster bridge, some time during (or possibly just after) the 1939-45 war

building on the left was St Thomas Hospital - it was bombed badly in september 1940 (more here)


----------



## Spymaster (Dec 7, 2021)

Just watched a nice American doc on National Geographic.

A Chicago metal-detectorist spent some time searching the Thames foreshores in Central London, with the local mudlarks. It was very nicely done. This bloke has found loads of seriously valuable stuff in America, including platinum, diamond, and gold jewellery; but all relatively modern stuff. Basically recently lost property. He was genuinely thrilled by the financially modest, but historically rich finds he made in London, like 300 year old pipes and coins, a piece of chain-mail, and a Victorian shoe. He seemed like a decent bloke and gave full props to the London mudlarks who welcomed him warmly and showed him the ropes.

Very enjoyable.


----------



## Maggot (Dec 7, 2021)

Spymaster said:


> Just watched a nice American doc on National Geographic.
> 
> A Chicago metal-detectorist spent some time searching the Thames foreshores in Central London, with the local mudlarks. It was very nicely done. This bloke has found loads of seriously valuable stuff in America, including platinum, diamond, and gold jewellery; but all relatively modern stuff. Basically recently lost property. He was genuinely thrilled by the financially modest, but historically rich finds he made in London, like 300 year old pipes and coins, a piece of chain-mail, and a Victorian shoe. He seemed like a decent bloke too, and gave full props to the London mudlarks who welcomed him warmly, and showed him the ropes.
> 
> Very enjoyable.


Fascinating, but useless without the name of the documentary.


----------



## Spymaster (Dec 7, 2021)

Maggot said:


> Fascinating, but useless without the name of the documentary.



Fair do's. 

Not sure how useful this'll be or when it'll be on next, but it was this:  Thames Treasure Hunters | Radio Times


----------



## MrSki (Dec 7, 2021)

Spymaster said:


> Fair do's.
> 
> Not sure how useful this'll be or when it'll be on next, but it was this:  Thames Treasure Hunters | Radio Times


Tis available on a number of streaming services.


----------



## Maggot (Dec 22, 2021)

On Tweeter today. Docklands before the skyscrapers.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Dec 22, 2021)

Maggot said:


> On Tweeter today. Docklands before the skyscrapers.





looks pretty much mid 80s - docklands light railway (in its original toy train set mode) looks under construction (started construction 1985, opened 1987), brunswick wharf power station still there (demolished 1988-9) and what's now known as north greenwich a contaminated wasteland...


----------



## Biddlybee (Dec 22, 2021)

bimble said:


> Previously mentioned friend came to visit & brought one of his mudlarking diaries, whole book when closed is the same size as an iPhone,
> I find them crazy beautiful.
> All are acrylic paintings of objects he’s found in the Thames mud. Every page includes a painting true to size of an old pin, of which there are so many, dating from when they were hand made, mostly he said by children.
> 
> ...


That is a thing of beauty!


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Dec 22, 2021)

Maggot said:


> View attachment 302368
> On Tweeter today. Docklands before the skyscrapers.



Screen shot of Google Earth now from about the same angle


----------



## MrSki (Dec 22, 2021)

The Long Good Friday.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Dec 27, 2021)




----------



## teuchter (Jan 7, 2022)

Last summer, I went down the Thames from Battersea to Greenwich by kayak, at night.
You can do that with these guys... recommended




__





						Kayaking on the London's River Thames with experienced guides
					






					londonkayakcompany.com


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Jan 7, 2022)

bimble said:


> Previously mentioned friend came to visit & brought one of his mudlarking diaries, whole book when closed is the same size as an iPhone,
> I find them crazy beautiful.
> All are acrylic paintings of objects he’s found in the Thames mud. Every page includes a painting true to size of an old pin, of which there are so many, dating from when they were hand made, mostly he said by children.
> 
> ...





Butt-duster?


----------



## bimble (Jan 7, 2022)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> Butt-duster?
> View attachment 304934


Good but no, that'll be the handle of the monogram seal, the bit you hold when you're stamping your wax onto your very important documents, as clearly indicated in the book silly.
BTW, his paintings are now published as illustrations in this very nice book.


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Jan 7, 2022)

bimble said:


> Good but no, that'll be the handle of the monogram seal, the bit you hold when you're stamping your wax onto your very important documents, as clearly indicated in the book silly.
> BTW, his paintings are now published as illustrations in this very nice book.




stamping your wax 

Euphemism


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jan 30, 2022)




----------



## friendofdorothy (Feb 8, 2022)

just came across this by accident - bigging up London and the GLC.  
River Cruise, 1983​**


----------



## blossie33 (Feb 8, 2022)

Rather different views along the Thames now! I like their absence of comment on the Houses of Parliament


----------



## friendofdorothy (Feb 8, 2022)

blossie33 said:


> Rather different views along the Thames now! I like their absence of comment on the Houses of Parliament


 I think what they said is 'westminster the seat of national and local govt'


----------



## T & P (Feb 9, 2022)

I took the clipper service from Battersea Power Station to Greenwich the other day. Once it went past Tower Bridge that thing went flying! Those fuckers can go fast


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Feb 9, 2022)

T & P said:


> I took the clipper service from Battersea Power Station to Greenwich the other day. Once it went past Tower Bridge that thing went flying! Those fuckers can go fast



The serve beers too


----------



## petee (Feb 13, 2022)

perhaps of interest to yiz









						The 5,000-year-old human bone found in the River Thames
					

Graphic designer Simon Hunt had gone out for a morning row when he made the surprising discovery.



					www.bbc.com


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Feb 19, 2022)

on flickr today



view of east greenwich / greenwich peninsula / what's now known as north greenwich*, looking north, when there was a bloody great gasworks not a big plastic tent thingy

(* - most confusing, as the bottom end of the isle of dogs was known as 'north greenwich' at one time like north woolwich still is - although don't think it was ever officially part of kent / greenwich the way north woolwich was


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Feb 20, 2022)




----------



## existentialist (Feb 20, 2022)

So you don't have to... Salt print - Wikipedia


----------



## mx wcfc (Feb 21, 2022)

Seal basking outside the House of Commons, apparently.......


----------



## RoyReed (Feb 22, 2022)

mx wcfc said:


> Seal basking outside the House of Commons, apparently.......
> 
> View attachment 311345


It's the Privy Seal.


----------



## hash tag (Feb 22, 2022)

Worried about a seal I saw on the Thames a while back, we made enquiries and it turns out they are very common








						The UK’s River Thames has come back to life – with a seal population to prove it
					

In the 1950s, the Thames was so polluted it was declared biologically dead. But today it’s thriving – and a recent count of baby seals shows how far it has come.




					www.weforum.org


----------



## RubyToogood (Feb 23, 2022)

So jel. I've always wanted to see a seal. I used to work by the river and I was always keeping an eye out but nothing.


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Feb 23, 2022)

RubyToogood said:


> So jel. I've always wanted to see a seal. I used to work by the river and I was always keeping an eye out but nothing.




They stink.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Mar 19, 2022)

greenwich peninsula (what's now 'north greenwich') 1986

from a series of 'then and now' on a london inheritance blog


----------



## clicker (Mar 20, 2022)




----------



## Puddy_Tat (Apr 14, 2022)

taken from the woolwich ferry, late afternoon a few weeks ago


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Apr 24, 2022)

more from teh tweeter


----------



## Epona (Apr 26, 2022)

Not quite the Thames, this is the River Lea near where it enters Bow Creek from which it flows into the Thames.

Beautiful day today.  The crow was wanting my lunch.


----------



## BCBlues (Apr 26, 2022)

Epona said:


> Not quite the Thames, this is the River Lea near where it enters Bow Creek from which it flows into the Thames.
> 
> Beautiful day today.  The crow was wanting my lunch.
> 
> ...



Dont be mean. Share your lunch   
Nice pics


----------



## blossie33 (Apr 26, 2022)

Epona said:


> Not quite the Thames, this is the River Lea near where it enters Bow Creek from which it flows into the Thames.
> 
> Beautiful day today.  The crow was wanting my lunch.
> 
> ...


Is that near Three Mills?
Quite scary the amount of building going on in that area now!


----------



## hash tag (Apr 26, 2022)

Epona said:


> Not quite the Thames, this is the River Lea near where it enters Bow Creek from which it flows into the Thames.
> 
> Beautiful day today.  The crow was wanting my lunch.
> 
> ...


I'm sure a seagull would not have waited to be asked to share your lunch.


----------



## hash tag (Apr 26, 2022)

I had this little fella for company with my lunch today out on a common ( not mine )


----------



## Epona (Apr 26, 2022)

blossie33 said:


> Is that near Three Mills?
> Quite scary the amount of building going on in that area now!



About halfway between Three Mills and the Thames, so right where the Lea turns into Bow Creek.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Apr 27, 2022)

Epona said:


> About halfway between Three Mills and the Thames, so right where the Lea turns into Bow Creek.
> 
> View attachment 320257



down a bit from bow locks (which is a real place but can lead to misunderstandings)


----------



## TopCat (May 14, 2022)

Kayaking on the tidal Thames today. Putney to Isleworth and back. Should be good.


----------



## TopCat (May 14, 2022)

I'm staying relatively sober today. I have a lot more respect for the tidal Thames after working on the river last year. I had to do a load of safety stuff and know the grisly reality of making mistakes. That said it's looking perfect and I am with another person . Low tide at 10:00 at Putney, go on the up tide, it's beautiful going past Kew Gardens and Syon Park. Then lunch and pint in the London Apprentice and float back on the ebb tide. 
Really looking forward to it. Everyone is so nice on the river.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jun 1, 2022)

it's next to the river...

battersea power station when there was only half of it


----------



## Epona (Jun 2, 2022)

Thought this would be most likely to interest people on this thread - Thames21 have published a list of events in celebration of London Rivers Week which takes place in July - guided walks, river cleanups, removing damaging invasive plant species etc.









						<a href="https://www.thames21.org.uk/events/">Putting Healthy Rivers at the Heart of the Community</a> › London Rivers Week 2022 – Thames21
					






					www.thames21.org.uk
				




(I'll also try to remember to post about it separately nearer the time!)


----------



## steeplejack (Jun 3, 2022)

Flying boats on the Thames (a fairly common sight until the late forties, some visible even in early eighties):











From top; a Fairey Seaplane full of newspapers, bound for Kent, c. 1911; Alan Cobham lands his "Gypsy Moth" seaplane in 1926 after a 27,000 mile round trip to Australia; Short Calcutta of Imperial Airways on the Thames in 1928; BOAC Short Solent by Tower Bridge, early 1950s; the last Short Sandringham by HMS Belfast, 1984.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jun 8, 2022)

london bridge, 1957 - looks like morning rush hour, as most people are walking north across the bridge.

from teh tweeter.


----------



## Bahnhof Strasse (Jun 9, 2022)

Puddy_Tat said:


> london bridge, 1957 - looks like morning rush hour, as most people are walking north across the bridge.
> 
> from teh tweeter.


 

Cranes that far upstream, never knew that.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jun 9, 2022)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> Cranes that far upstream, never knew that.



the thames was pretty much industrial at least as far west as putney.

1950s OS map here (based on putney, you can move it around)


----------



## T & P (Jun 13, 2022)

steeplejack said:


> Flying boats on the Thames (a fairly common sight until the late forties, some visible even in early eighties):
> 
> View attachment 325395
> View attachment 325396
> ...


I wonder if they had to raise Tower Bridge to let that last couple of fellas sail through. Which would be somewhat ironic.


----------



## steeplejack (Jun 13, 2022)

T & P said:


> I wonder if they had to raise Tower Bridge to let that last couple of fellas sail through. Which would be somewhat ironic.



They did indeed: this is the Short Solent from my post above with Tower Bridge raised:


----------



## steeplejack (Jun 13, 2022)

Also a gratuitous picture of the Solent’s military ancestor, the Short Sunderland, parked up on the Thames for the Festival of Britain:


----------



## editor (Jun 13, 2022)

steeplejack said:


> They did indeed: this is the Short Solent from my post above with Tower Bridge raised:
> 
> 
> View attachment 327050


Weird how that sort of looks old and futuristic at the same time!


----------



## blossie33 (Jun 17, 2022)

A cruise ship coming up the Thames to Tower Bridge tomorrow, Saturday 18th if anyone's interested and in the area ...








						Cruise ship to pass through Tower Bridge
					

A note that a large cruise ship, the Silver Wind will pass through Tower Bridge today.




					www.ianvisits.co.uk


----------



## surreybrowncap (Jun 17, 2022)

blossie33 said:


> A cruise ship coming up the Thames to Tower Bridge tomorrow, Saturday 18th if anyone's interested and in the area ...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


With a bit of luck I may be cycling back around that that time through that area.
Really to see Tower Bridge being raised - quite a sight...


----------



## editor (Jun 17, 2022)

Look at this monstrosity parked up by City Hall


----------



## A380 (Jun 17, 2022)

editor said:


> Look at this monstrosity parked up by City Hall
> 
> View attachment 327642
> 
> View attachment 327643


What an example of where you can get with honest hard work, or something...

There's never a Tigerfish around when you need one.


----------



## surreybrowncap (Jun 17, 2022)

editor said:


> Look at this monstrosity parked up by City Hall
> 
> View attachment 327642
> 
> View attachment 327643


Sadiq Khan's plan to beat tube strike next week...


----------



## editor (Jun 17, 2022)

Well, this was nice  















						In photos: All aboard the Fabio and Grooverider drum & bass boat trip along the River Thames!
					

Yesterday we joined a select group of partygoers and enjoyed a trip along the River Thames accompanied by banging tunes from two of the greatest DnB DJs, Fabio and Grooverider.



					www.brixtonbuzz.com


----------



## blossie33 (Jun 17, 2022)

editor said:


> Well, this was nice
> 
> View attachment 327686
> 
> ...


Great stuff!
I remember seeing them in the dance tent at Glastonbury some years ago


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jun 26, 2022)

came up on teh tweeter


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jul 2, 2022)




----------



## brogdale (Jul 9, 2022)

Went as far North as it's possible to go in South London today:



We had our foil-wrapped sarnies by the main outfall apron of the Crossness sewage works looking over to Ford's Dagenham plant; who says I don't know how to show a girl a good time?

Started round at Erith; in all my 40 years living in London this was my first visit...liked the pier with it's glorious views down to the Dartford crossing.



Well impressed that my poo from Wallington gets all the way up to Crossness!


----------



## ska invita (Jul 9, 2022)

brogdale said:


> Went as far North as it's possible to go in South London today:
> 
> View attachment 331438
> 
> ...


Did the erith to greenwich path earlier this year...let's face it it's grim. Barely a pub on the way, stopped at the shittest zero windows pub in thamesmead struggled to find anything else. Any psychogeographic romantisization is     just bleak-porn. Imo.

Did see a young couple kissing by bazelgettes sewer works which was kind of sweet..


----------



## brogdale (Jul 9, 2022)

ska invita said:


> Did the erith to greenwich path earlier this year...let's face it it's grim. Barely a pub on the way, stopped at the shittest zero windows pub in thamesmead struggled to find anything else. Any psychogeographic romantisization is     just bleak-porn. Imo.
> 
> Did see a young couple kissing by bazelgettes sewer works which was kind of sweet..


Well...depends what you’re after, I suppose. Personally, I like seeing the ostensibly “grim” bits of the river where the important stuff happens and the infrastructure is on view. The pub issue doesn’t bother me much as I don’t drink until after 5 anyway. Each to their own, eh?


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jul 9, 2022)

brogdale said:


> Started round at Erith;



did you visit the fish roundabout?


----------



## ska invita (Jul 9, 2022)

brogdale said:


> Well...depends what you’re after, I suppose. Personally, I like seeing the ostensibly “grim” bits of the river where the important stuff happens and the infrastructure is on view. The pub issue doesn’t bother me much as I don’t drink until after 5 anyway. Each to their own, eh?


sorry appreciate my post came across grumpy...its just surprising to me how little riverside life there is on miles and miles of the thames path out east...i know its always been a sewer but it really needs a bit of reclaiming


----------



## ska invita (Jul 9, 2022)

talking of east thames i read this last year








						The Way to the Sea
					

Caroline Crampton was born on the Thames Estuary to parents who had sailed there from South Africa in the early 1980s. Having grown up wi...



					www.goodreads.com
				



i cant recommend it, its pretty annoying IMO, but i find most books about London are, so not that unusual maybe.  however it is focussed on this unloved bit of the thames out to the Isle of Grain, and so appeals anyway if you are drawn to this bit of the river
i just wish this bit of the thames was better than it is...it shouldnt take much to make it more accessible to locals

a couple of photos from last trip







ETA:
goodreads has lots of 5 star reviews of that book - i agree with this though:



cynical fist bump


----------



## brogdale (Jul 9, 2022)

Puddy_Tat said:


> did you visit the fish roundabout?


Yep, on way from station to pier👍


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jul 9, 2022)

erith has a sort of edge of the world feel to it.

the town centre was comprehensively buggered in the mid 60s (one of the first acts of the new london borough of bexley when erith borough got merged in to it) - akin to the most concretey bits of thamesmead

that got swept away maybe 10 - 20 years ago


----------



## ska invita (Jul 9, 2022)

ive got a friend who lives in erith - its incredible how dreary it is tbh
also you have to watch which way the wind blows or else you get a nose full of stink from one of the sewage works

theres quite a good walk of nature reserve to the east between erith and the dartford crossing -a mixture of beautiful marshland and industrial silos on the horizons

Dartford Creek Barrier is a highlight of sorts


----------



## Maggot (Jul 10, 2022)

Did a bike ride from Dartford to Bermondsey once, along the river. It's a good way to do it as you can get more of a variety in scenery, and can go to nicer pubs. 

If you get the chance to visit the original Crossness Pumping Station, it's quite beautiful. 





						HOME | Crossness Engines
					

Built by Sir Joseph Bazalgette for London's sewage system and opened in 1865, Crossness Pumping Station is a Grade 1 Listed building and features some of the most spectacular ornamental Victorian cast ironwork found in the world today.




					www.crossness.org.uk


----------



## brogdale (Jul 10, 2022)

Maggot said:


> Did a bike ride from Dartford to Bermondsey once, along the river. It's a good way to do it as you can get more of a variety in scenery, and can go to nicer pubs.
> 
> If you get the chance to visit the original Crossness Pumping Station, it's quite beautiful.
> 
> ...


Yes, we went pass the old pumping station yesterday and resolved to go back for one of the open days; magnificent victorian architecture.


----------



## ska invita (Jul 10, 2022)

On Minster beach today, isle of sheppey....made me think, 1 where does the Thames officially stop and the sea begin, and also 2 which is the nearest "proper" beach to London (hard to define what counts as proper, but I think we know what we mean)?


----------



## TopCat (Jul 10, 2022)

Canvey Island is where it blurs.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jul 10, 2022)

ska invita said:


> On Minster beach today, isle of sheppey....made me think, 1 where does the Thames officially stop and the sea begin, and also 2 which is the nearest "proper" beach to London (hard to define what counts as proper, but I think we know what we mean)?



there are stones marking the limit of the thames  









						Crow Stone, London Stone and an Estuary Airport - A London Inheritance
					

The London Stone at Yantlet Creek and the Crow Stone at Southend form a boundary of the City of London's historical authority on the River Thames



					alondoninheritance.com


----------



## brogdale (Jul 10, 2022)

ska invita said:


> On Minster beach today, isle of sheppey....made me think, 1 where does the Thames officially stop and the sea begin, and also 2 which is the nearest "proper" beach to London (hard to define what counts as proper, but I think we know what we mean)?


The arbitrary line of demarcation is between the Crow & London stones respectively on the Essex coast at Southend and Yantlet creek on the Isle of Grain. So, today on Minster beach, you were officially in the sea!


----------



## brogdale (Jul 10, 2022)

TopCat said:


> Canvey Island is where it blurs.


Oil City Confidential; close.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jul 10, 2022)

and i think all hallows on sea claims to be the closest seaside to london

had the 1939 war not happened, it might be a major resort









						Allhallows, Kent - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org


----------



## brogdale (Jul 10, 2022)

Puddy_Tat said:


> and i think all hallows on sea claims to be the closest seaside to london
> 
> had the 1939 war not happened, it might be a major resort
> 
> ...


I bet Canvey would challenge that!


----------



## brogdale (Jul 10, 2022)

brogdale said:


> The arbitrary line of demarcation is between the Crow & London stones respectively on the Essex coast at Southend and Yantlet creek on the Isle of Grain. So, today on Minster beach, you were officially in the sea!
> 
> View attachment 331606


If I were to be able to choose the arbitrary line between estuary and sea I'd put it more between Sheerness and Shoebury ness myself.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jul 10, 2022)

brogdale said:


> I bet Canvey would challenge that!



may depend on whether you measure by road, rail, or as the crow seagull flies...


----------



## brogdale (Jul 10, 2022)

Puddy_Tat said:


> may depend on whether you measure by road, rail, or as the crow seagull flies...


Well...obviously by helicopter; that's how the billionaire pleasure seekers would make their way to either Canvey or Allhallows!


----------



## teuchter (Jul 11, 2022)

If a "proper" beach means one where you'd actually want to hang out and where you might want to go into the water, and if "closest" is measured by "quickest time to get there on public transport from south London" then investigations carried out be me in the past have determined Whitstable as the one on the south side and Chalkwell (Southend-on-sea) on the north side.


----------



## ska invita (Jul 11, 2022)

teuchter said:


> If a "proper" beach means one where you'd actually want to hang out and where you might want to go into the water, and if "closest" is measured by "quickest time to get there on public transport from south London" then investigations carried out be me in the past have determined Whitstable as the one on the south side and Chalkwell (Southend-on-sea) on the north side.


not sure about train times but on the south bank Sheerness/Minster (essentially two ends of the same beach) is geographically closer, and quicker in a car - the far end of Minster is the nicest bit of the stretch

North coast Chalkwell looks like a big proper beach, though on the map there is a little thing called Thorney Bay Beach on Canvey that does look proper and accessible (as opposed to something like Egypt Bay Beach on the south, which is inaccessible) and is closer

Sheerness does have a station, but I cant see one near Thorney


----------



## teuchter (Jul 11, 2022)

ska invita said:


> not sure about train times but on the south bank Sheerness/Minster (essentially two ends of the same beach) is geographically closer, and quicker in a car - the far end of Minster is the nicest bit of the stretch
> 
> North coast Chalkwell looks like a big proper beach, though on the map there is a little thing called Thorney Bay Beach on Canvey that does look proper and accessible (as opposed to something like Egypt Bay Beach on the south, which is inaccessible) and is closer
> 
> Sheerness does have a station, but I cant see one near Thorney


By train Denmark Hill to Whitstable is about 1hr30 (with one change). Sheerness is an additional change and about 1hr44.

Loughborough Junction to Chalkwell is a little more than 1hr30. 

No station on Canvey Island so I think you'd need to go to Benfleet and get a bus which would end up taking longer. Never actually tried this though - should perhaps give it a go.

Back on the Kent side it's a shame the branch line to Allhallows on the Isle of Grain didn't survive.


----------



## ska invita (Jul 11, 2022)

Btw East end of Minster beach at low tide you get this string of 'ten' ship wrecks... Suggestion is they've been deliberately wrecked, ive not searched more deeply on it.. They look cool though


----------



## Chilli.s (Jul 11, 2022)

And round the corner on the Medway theres a German submarine wreck, amongst others


----------



## toblerone3 (Jul 11, 2022)

Puddy_Tat said:


> erith has a sort of edge of the world feel to it.
> 
> the town centre was comprehensively buggered in the mid 60s (one of the first acts of the new london borough of bexley when erith borough got merged in to it) - akin to the most concretey bits of thamesmead
> 
> that got swept away maybe 10 - 20 years ago



The heathland on the top of the hill at Erith is beautiful I find.


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## Puddy_Tat (Jul 11, 2022)

erith past and present-ish



they have drawn a veil over the bloody awful 1960s town centre, which lasted about 40 years

this (not mine) from 1979


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## Puddy_Tat (Jul 18, 2022)

taken by my great uncle - c 1950


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## Sasaferrato (Jul 19, 2022)

Puddy_Tat said:


> taken by my great uncle - c 1950




Look at the air quality, or lack thereof.


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## Puddy_Tat (Jul 19, 2022)

Sasaferrato said:


> Look at the air quality, or lack thereof.



the water quality would have been a bit dubious as well...


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## Sasaferrato (Jul 19, 2022)

Puddy_Tat said:


> the water quality would have been a bit dubious as well...



Yep, that would still have been lead pipe days.

1984 I stayed in the Union Jack Club in London for a month whilst working at Barts. I managed to get on the roof of the UJC to take photos, when I got them developed, I took them back, as I thought they had been badly processed, only to be told the murkiness was what passed for air in London.

Scroll forward to 2019.







There is no doubt that the LEZ has helped air quality.


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## Bahnhof Strasse (Aug 2, 2022)

Wapping cannabis march, 1941





Or might be the blitz…


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## clicker (Aug 23, 2022)




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## Epona (Aug 23, 2022)

I forgot I took these the other day, these are some views of the Thames at Trinity Buoy Wharf







And the lighthouse (which I already posted on the lighthouse thread, but it works here too!)


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## cesare (Aug 23, 2022)

brogdale said:


> Went as far North as it's possible to go in South London today:
> 
> View attachment 331438
> 
> ...


The Crossness works are amazingly beautiful. They have open days at least monthly when you can get to see the Victorian works plus beautiful tiles etc 

There's also the opportunity to see what's being done with the steam train (RANG) railway. There's also amazing walks around the area including a lake with jetties, willows and water fowl. 

True, not much in the way of pubs for those that value pubs.


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## Sasaferrato (Sep 5, 2022)

From the other day.


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## editor (Sep 6, 2022)

Low tide at Bankside, ten mins ago.


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## existentialist (Sep 6, 2022)

editor said:


> View attachment 341309
> 
> Low tide at Bankside, ten mins ago.


Don't go and make me take a photo of *my* estuary!


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## T & P (Oct 6, 2022)

By happy coincidence I snapped this large group of swans last Sunday at what turns out to be the same spot- there were more out of shot.



I’m used to seeing swans at much more tranquil waters, and even on the Thames itself on the much calmer areas upriver, but I don’t recall seeing them very often as far downstream as central London. If I were a swan I’d certainly fuck off a few miles westwards. Even still-tidal areas such as Barnes and Kingston are a lot more sedated than at this spot.


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## Sasaferrato (Oct 6, 2022)

I like the Thames. I always spend a bit of time sitting at the river watching the traffic up and down.

The sight of a seagull drifting upstream is bizarre, on another occasion, the incoming tide and the outgoing river were in equilibrium, and the seagull stayed on the spot.  This was at Waterloo Bridge.


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## RubyToogood (Oct 6, 2022)

T & P said:


> By happy coincidence I snapped this large group of swans last Sunday at what turns out to be the same spot- there were more out of shot.
> 
> View attachment 346070
> 
> I’m used to seeing swans at much more tranquil waters, and even on the Thames itself on the much calmer areas upriver, but I don’t recall seeing them very often as far downstream as central London. If I were a swan I’d certainly fuck off a few miles westwards. Even still-tidal areas such as Barnes and Kingston are a lot more sedated than at this spot.


I too have a photo of swans at Bankside. I was a bit surprised to see them there too actually. This was a few weeks ago.


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## TopCat (Oct 7, 2022)

The tidal Thames is teeming with fish.


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## Puddy_Tat (Oct 8, 2022)

two things (not mine) from the interwebs today



and some photos from 1960s Billingsgate






						Around Billingsgate | Spitalfields Life
					






					spitalfieldslife.com


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## clicker (Oct 21, 2022)

An Anthony Gormley near the O2.



The cable car.


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## Puddy_Tat (Nov 5, 2022)

not mine, but came up on tweeter


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## Artaxerxes (Nov 5, 2022)

Puddy_Tat said:


> not mine, but came up on tweeter





Disco Elysium quote that


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## Puddy_Tat (Nov 12, 2022)

two from yesterday - i was in woolwich, and it occurred to me that i'd never ventured in to what was the arsenal grounds (it was all gated and heavily guarded when i was a kitten)

two from near woolwich arsenal pier


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## Puddy_Tat (Dec 3, 2022)

on teh tweeter today,

blackfriars bridge, c. 1910


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## Puddy_Tat (Dec 7, 2022)

the river is sort of incidental to this one but - 







mid 1980s

source


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## T & P (Dec 7, 2022)

Fun fact. Despite what the law says, you can watch football whilst drinking your beer at The Valley. The area immediately behind the large stand on the left of the image is now part of the stadium's footprint, and when I went there last year as an away supporter, you could just pop outside for a beer and a fag at half time, and watch the action when it resumed standing next to the stand


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## Epona (Dec 20, 2022)

Some "Not the Thames" pictures - not sure where else to put these though.
This is the River Lea at Bow Creek not far from where it meets the Thames - last Friday when there was snow on the ground.


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## not-bono-ever (Dec 21, 2022)

Why am I up so fuckin early ?


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## not henry (Dec 21, 2022)

not-bono-ever said:


> Why am I up so fuckin early ?
> 
> View attachment 356563


It's the most wonderful time of the year


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