Updates

The idea of a new swing bridge for walkers and cyclists spanning the entrance to Deptford Creek has just been given planning permission. Although it appeared in the original plans for New Capital Quay its construction now seems to rely on additional storeys being added to the already very high blocks of flats. This new […]

A future stretch of the Thames Path is emerging at Deptford Creek where New Capital Quay is being redeveloped. Huge blocks of flats have replaced open ground which was once Phoenix Gas Works. The present route between Greenwich and Deptford is along the riverside for a short distance and then inland at Wood Wharf to […]

Oxfordshire County Council’s Countryside Access Team has received an Access Innovation Award for improvements to the highest bridleway on the Thame Path. A welcome flight of steps alongside a ramp were installed last year on the path from Whitchurch to Gatehampton. The problem was a worn path on a very steep slope just before Hartslock […]

Henley Royal Regatta runs from Wednesday 3 July to Sunday 7 July during which there will be a towpath diversion. The Royal Barge Gloriana, which was an attraction at the regatta last year, will be back in Henley on Monday 1 July. In the morning the barge will travel upstream from Henley to the nearby […]

Queen’s Swan Marker David Barber says that swans on the Thames have suffered from “mindless vandalism”. He told The Times: “It is most regrettable that swans and cygnets suffer serious injury or even death as a result of mindless vandalism, dog attacks and injuries sustained by ingesting or being caught in abandoned fishing tackle.” Swan […]

I have just visited Molesey Lock Cafe which has now been open for two weeks. The new cafe is being run by Ruth Knight who is a river user, a Dittons Skiff and Punting Club member, and had the idea for a cafe on the site for at least ten years. Walking east from Hampton […]

Those who are confused by the many changes on the Thames path between the O2 and Greenwich will be interested to learn that others seem to be in confusion. Peter Bill reports in the Evening Standard that the Thames Craft boatyard at Badcock’s Wharf alongside Lovell’s Wharf is in dispute with the luxury flat developers. The […]

Plans emerged today for a new Thames crossing in central London. It would be a pedestrian bridge with a garden linking the Victoria Embankment and the South Bank. The bridge could land opposite Arundel Street on the north side and the National Theatre on the south. Completion is suggested for 2016 when Mayor of London […]

Walton-on-Thames can now claim to have hosted the earliest recorded game of baseball. Proof that the game is English comes from baseball historian David Block who used a new search system to find the reference in a 1749 newspaper stored in the British Museum. The Prince of Wales and Lord Middlesex were among the players […]

John Inglis and Jill Sanders who live on Garrick’s Ait near Hampton are working on Thames panoramas old and new. First they are proposing to put online Samuel Leigh’s 1829 panorama of the Thames from London to Richmond. It was published for people to enjoy whilst being rowed on the river so few copies have survived […]