The Thames Path by Leigh Hatts

Sunday was a wonderful sunny day in London which made the annual blessing the river such a enjoyable occasion.

By tradition the clergy and congregations of Southwark Cathedral and the City’s St Magnus the Martyr met in the middle of London Bridge with the Bishop of Woolwich presiding.

It is always a surprise, although it should not be, to hear the prayers for those who have died in the river during the past year. We prayed also for those who work on the river including the lifeboat crews. 

This year was special as it was the first event on London Bridge during its 800th anniversary year. A London Bridge Fair and Sheep Drive is planned for Saturday 28 March. 

See pages 30-31.

There is good news from the Environment Agency which has announced that it will not be selling Thames’ lock cottages.

The quango claims to have “listened carefully” to objections and to recognise that “flood risk” requires lock keepers to be resident along the river.

It now has made a commitment to ensure that there is a resident lock keeper at each of the 45 locks along the Thames.  

There are however still plans to sell five relief cottages which are not on the river but the EA has guaranteed that no lock and weir staff will be made homeless or redundant. 

An all-party campaign opposed the plan to sell the cottages and make lock keepers commute. Reading Labour MP Martin Salter says: “This is fantastic news for everybody who cares about the future of the River Thames.” Conservative MP for Esher & Walton said is was a “victory for common sense”.

Kew Gardens is 250 years old next year and it may be worth celebrating on the very first day of 2009.

Princess Augusta started the botanic garden in 1759.

Most walkers on the Thames Path do not now break off to visit the gardens, however tempting, as the admission price is a staggering £13. Many of us remember when it was a nominal one penny.

However, on New Year’s Day, Thursday 1 January, admission will be free. And the ice rink will still be open. Gates open at 9.30am.

See page 56.

News of the very severe fire at Garrick’s Villa in Hampton is a shock. 

Famous actor Richard Garrick bought the house in 1754 and twenty years later employed Robert Adam to make major alterations. 

The fire could be seen from the towpath on the opposite bank at midday today.

The grounds are divided by the road so the riverside Garrick’s Shakespeare Temple, which the actor built in 1755 as a tribute to William Shakepeare, is safe.

It’s good to hear that nobody has been hurt. Let’s hope that enough of the building is left to allow for a restoration.  

See page 68.

The Good Pub Guide 2009 published this week highlights as always some Thames pubs.

The Baskerville Arms at Shiplake is in the Oxford chapter along with, much further upstream, The Trout at Godstow. This has become expensive and rather too upmarket inrecent years although it is very good to see that bar food is available all day.

In Gloucestershire it is depressing to read that anyone dining outside at Ewen’s Wild Duck must leave their credit card behind the bar.

The best pub is at the end of the Thames Path. This is the Tunnel House at Coates near the source which is described as an “eccentric bow-fronted stone house”. It sounds unchanged and as good as ever and deserves its mention.

The Good Pub Guide 2009, edited by Alisdair Aird and Fiona Stapley, is published by Ebury (£15.99).

A London to sea Thames Estuary Path is now government policy. 

The Thames Gateway Parklands Vision was launched this week by architect Sir Terry Farrell, the Government’s Parklands design champion, at the Thames Gateway Green Forum.

Speaking alongside Sir Terry at the Royal Horticulural Hall, Housing Minister Iain Wright said that urban parks, marshlands, waterways and green spaces will be as integral as housing, jobs and commerce in the Thames Gateway of the future. 

A Thames Estuary Path, a continuous link on both banks of the estuary from the Isle of Dogs to the coastal path network, exists in places as the Parklands Vision document published last Thursday acknowledges. 

It seems realistic when it suggests that “there are some unavoidable obstructions in some locations along the water’s edge. It is essential that diversions away from the river are of the highest possible quality”.

One interesting passage reads: “Hinterland connections could function as alternative routes in the event of unusually high tides.” 

The Thames Path National Trail has already been unofficially extended east on the south side as far as Erith. The very last stretch to Margate in Kent exists as the Saxon Shore Way.

In 1980, when I was asked by Thames Water to start work on a Thames Path feasibility study, the London end was to be Westminster Bridge. This was soon extended to  the Barrier. 

In my report, eventually published by the Countryside Commission in 1984, I suggested that “the Walk could be extended downstream to Essex and Kent”. Nearly thirty years later it’s good to see the full route now being seriously discussed. 

The main aim should be to achieve the easier southern route.

Demolition has begun on  Chambers Wharf ready for a new development which will restore the riverside path along Bermondsey Wall.

Chambers Wharf lies between Rotherhithe and St Saviour’s Dock near Tower Bridge. At present walkers have to divert along Chambers Street at the back . 

On Wednesday Simon Hughes, Liberal Democrat MP for Southwark North and Bermondsey, joined representatives from property development company St Martin’s on the four acre site to mark the official start of the first phase of work. 

The present cold store has recently been used for document storage. The major residential scheme will provide 200 affordable homes.

See page 26.

“The presence of lock-keepers’ homes along the River Thames has made a huge contribution to improving safety and reducing crime, vandalism and antisocial behaviour along the riverside” says Reading West MP Martin Salter.

Writing in Thames Guardian, the journal of the River Thames Society, the MP backs the lock-keepers’ campaign to able to contue living in their lock cottages. The Environment Agency has announced plans to sell or rent 22 of the Thames’ 57 lock cottages.

Mr Salter, who represents a riverside constituency, lists the lock-keeper’s important duties as he sees them:

“* Ensuring safe passage of vessels – miscalculation in the packing of locks can result in injury and/or damage to property.

* Monitoring weir and water levels – the constant observation of water levels at the lock sites ensures that any necessary adjustment to the weirs can be undertaken with the minimum of time delays to avoid flooding.

* Providing information – the lock-keeper is the source of information for both the boating and general public.

* Checking licences – the appropriate licence, of which there are many, must be issued to any unlicensed craft.”

Many walkers having found lock-keepers helpful with advice, information and even a cup of tea will agree with Mr Salter. 

The new chairman of the Agency is former cabinet minister Chris Smith.

A new bridge has been built over the River Thames to take thousands of visitors to the Reading Festival. 

The temporary structure, made out of the stage used for Madonna’s tour, has just been completed upstream of Caversham Bridge. 

In recent years young campers on the Mapledurham side have had to queue for a ferry to reach the festival site by the towpath on the Reading bank. 

Youngsters using one of the camping areas at the Reading Festival have had to queue in recent years to take a boat to and from the main site. Festival director Melvin Benn has wanted to build a crossing for some years.

“It’s a dream come true” he said yesterday after inspecting the £1m bridge which opens tomorrow for the use of festival goers only.

The bridge will be dismantled later this month and re-erected next year.

Faith In The Frame, a new 10 part series for ITV1, is being launched with a programme devoted to Stanley Spencer’s painting The Resurrection in Cookham Churchyard.

The first programme goes out on Sunday evening 31 August and sees Melvyn Bragg chair a 30 minute discussion with novelist Howard Jacobson, art expert Tim Marlow and former Bishop of Oxford Richard Harries who had Cookham in his diocese.

The painting, completed after three years of work in 1927, shows part of the churchyard through which the Thames Path now runs. Included is the kissing-gate leading back to the towpath.

It is interesting that a work by a Cookham resident, who loved the river, ranks in this series alongside paintings by Bosch, Chagall, Botticelli and Bruegal.

See page 103.