Updates

The river path in front of Trinity Hospital, on the east side of Greenwich, is due to close shortly. The river wall is being  rebuilt which means that the path may not reopen until next August. An interesting background to the diversion and what to see can be found on Peter Kent’s RiverWatch Returns site. Diversion […]

“Through the Thames below my London flat last week slid a repellent sight,” writes Matthew Parris in The Times this morning. “She resembled a giant, sleek, grey, metal-plastic kitchen device, about two houses long. Her decks were slits and her windows little black squares of darkened glass, for all the world like gun-emplacements.”

The St Saviour’s Dock footbridge is likely to be closed from Thursday 1 November. Closure was expected two weeks ago but the crossing has remained open. When the diversion comes into operation on or shortly after Thursday it will stay in place for  up to six months. The alternative route is: At the west end […]

The path from North Greenwich to Greenwich is back alongside the Thames. Walkers, having passed the O2 (Millennium Dome) and crossed Drawdock Road as it enters the water, can now stay alongside the river with only one brief natural break all the way to Greenwich. This month sees the end to a long period of […]

There is a diversion around St Saviour’s Dock near Tower Bridge from Monday 15 October. The half a  mile temporary route will enable work to take place on the dock footbridge which since 1995 has carried the riverside path over the inlet entrance.  This is also the mouth of the River Neckinger. The swing bridge, designed […]

A surprise at Nine Elms is not just the new American Embassy but a new Thames Walk Pavilion featuring a raised garden. Elm Quay has had a representation of Old Father Thames for thirty years. Now the big attraction is immediately downstream on Bourne Valley Wharf where the water tank pavilion, designed by the architects […]

A ferry is to be established at Runnymede to link the famous Magna Carta meadow with less well-known Ankerwycke Priory ruins on the left bank of the River Thames. A £1.6 million award from the National Lottery for the National Trust will also fund an improved Thames towpath alongside  Runnymede. The priory grounds include the […]

During the century Shepperton Ferry operator George Dunton ran a cafe at his boatyard on the left bank. So it is good to learn that the present operator Nauticalia has opened a cafe on the same boatyard site. The riverside coffee shop on the towpath serves tea, coffee and snacks from 9am to 5pm (Sundays open […]

Parliament is about to rise for the summer recess without having held its regatta. The All-Party Parliamentary Rowing Group says that the Parliamentary Charity Regatta is postponed until further notice due to the Super Sewer. Lack’s Drawdock on Albert Embankment near the Palace of Westminster is closed for Thames Tideway Tunnel, or Super Sewer, works […]

Musician Virginia Astley has revealed her other passion in a new book The English River: A journey down the Thames in poems & photographs. The poetry and the pictures are Virginia’s. Her home reach with family memories is Cleeve but for the book she has walked the river. The photographs are a delight as she visits […]