River Thames

Thames is a river in the southern part of the United Kingdom. The river is 334 km long, originates in the Cotswold uplands, flows within the London city limits and empties into the North Sea.

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Although the Thames is not the longest river in the country, it is best known for being associated with London. If you float on the river or walk along the waterfront, you get an amazing panorama of the capital city. In 1996, with the opening of the National Thames Path, it became possible to explore the Thames and its surroundings on foot, and river streetcar rides, with stops at major attractions, have always been a favorite pastime of Londoners and tourists alike.

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Traveling along the river

River streetcar routes start at Westminster Pier and go west to Kew or Hampton Court, or east to the Tower, Greenwich or the Thames Barrier. Riverboats plying central London from Westminster and Charing Cross docks are owned by different companies.

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Downstream from Hampton Court

After passing through central London, the river turns sharply from Sunbury Lock to the south and then north, forming a loop. At this point, Britain’s most celebrated Tudor palace, Hampton Court, stands on the left bank. This fine riverside mansion belonged to Cardinal Wolsey, who gave it to Henry VIII in 1528 in the vain hope of buying off a death sentence.

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Henry rebuilt the palace, decorating it with his initials intertwined with those of Anne Boleyn, his second wife. After her execution, the next four wives also lived here. The ghosts of the gentle Jane Seymour and the promiscuous Catherine Howard still haunt the place.

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From 1690, when William III of Orange and his wife Mary II Stuart came to the English throne, Hampton Court was rebuilt and expanded, and work continued under Queen Anne. Thanks to Christopher Wren, who led the work, Baroque elements were masterfully incorporated into Tudor architecture.

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The Thames then flows east past the sprawling Kingston-on-Thames on the right bank, past Ile Pye (“Eel Pie”) Island (a favorite picnic spot in the Victorian era and rock concerts in the 1960s), past the green fields surrounding Ham House. The building, built in 1610, has been superbly restored and leased to Lord Lauderdale along with the title of first Earl of Dysart as compensation for the humiliation he suffered as a child when he was a whipping boy for the prince who later became Charles I.

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Parks and Gardens

Following the course of the Thames, you will soon find yourself on the boundary of Richmond Park, located on the right bank. Richmond Park was royal hunting ground in the time of Charles I, and reddish-yellow deer still graze under the canopy of ancient oaks. The river then flows past Marble Hill House, a fine mansion on the left bank built between 1724- 1729. by Henrietta Howard, Duchess of Suffolk, with $12,000 received as a gift from her lover, a young prince who soon became King George II.

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Then to the right will be a view of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

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This is the model to which all botanical collections are held up as an example. The garden was laid out in 1759 on 3.5 hectares. The greenhouse and pagoda date from the period when the great botanist and polymath Joseph Banks was appointed director. He ordered the collection to be expanded with a vast array of exotic plants from around the world.

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Today, the botanic garden staff continue their research work, while visitors stroll through the 120 hectares of grounds, admiring the two remarkable 19th century buildings (the Palm Greenhouse for tropical plants and the Temperate House for plants from “temperate latitudes”). The Princess of Wales Greenhouse has recently been built, showing the distribution of plants by climate zone. Further along the left bank you see Syon House, the residence of the Dukes of Northumberland, built in the Tudor period on the site where a monastery used to stand. In the 1860s Robert Adam remodeled the interior in the neoclassical style.

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On the left bank stands Chizik House, famous for its columned portico. This example of the Palladian style was erected in the 1920s by the third Earl of Burlington as a country residence for works of art.

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Toward the city center

While on this stretch of the river, we can thank the people of the past for using their influence to keep the banks privately owned and the parks and gardens intact. But downstream more and more houses are springing up: first the pretty cottages of Chizik, and then, closer to Putney Bridge, the wharves, factories, and collectors. It is there that the annual “Rowing Race” between the teams of Oxford and Cambridge Universities takes place. The Thames then flows past Wandsworth, the vast Battersea Park and the huge chimneys of the power station at Battersea before turning north and flowing through the very heart of London.

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As you sail past the north bank of the Thames, you’ll see first the Tate-Britne Gallery, then the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, a 3,500-year-old obelisk from Heliopolis called Cleopatra’s Needle, and Victoria Embankment below Somerset House downriver. The building that once housed the Presidium of the Royal Academy of Arts is now home to the Courtauld Gallery. Here you can see a collection of paintings from the Italian Renaissance to the 20th century, including paintings by famous French artists such as Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Manet and Degas.

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As you approach Blackfriars Bridge, you can make out the highly recognizable dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral on the north side.

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Downstream from Westminster

Once you pass Westminster Bridge, the south bank opens up to the colorful County Hall, now home to the London Aquarium, Europe’s largest underwater world exhibition, and then the center of the South Bank, a complex of gray concrete boxes housing arts-related institutions: the Royal National Theatre, the Hayward Gallery, and the Royal Festival Hall.

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After this begins Southwark, which not so long ago was a red light district. This was also the case in the time of Shakespeare, who was co-owner of the Globe Theater. The theater was located in an area of brothels, beer halls and bear baiting pits. Now the theater is restored: from May to September, right in the open air, it is staged plays of the Elizabethan era. There is also an exhibition about the reconstruction of the theater.

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Also worth seeing is the former Bankside Power Station, which is now home to the Tate Modern – contemporary art transferred here from the Tate Brithn Gallery. The Former Clink Prison Museum will introduce you to the gruesome atmosphere of prison life and sex crimes of the past. Southwark Cathedral, with its monument to Shakespeare, has very beautiful ancient choirs.

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To the Sea

On the north bank of the Thames, below London Bridge, the twin towers of Tower Bridge stand next to the grim, mighty Tower. This huge Gothic-style bridge was commissioned in 1894 to allow tall ships to pass up and down the river. The bridge is now drawn up several times a week.

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The Thames then skirts the postmodern architecture of the docks on the Isle of Dogs, and passes Greenwich to the south.

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Nearby in Grand Square stand the buildings of the Old Royal Naval School, founded by King William and Queen Mary, Behind the school’s buildings is the E-shaped National Maritime Museum building, which showcases the nation’s maritime history. It overlooks the green slope of Greenwich Park, home to the Old Royal Observatory, founded in 1675 to determine the exact longitude for every point on the globe. The yard is marked with the prime meridian. If you put one foot on one side of the marker and the other on the other, you will find yourself in both hemispheres at the same time. Every day at 1 p.m., the Greenwich Mean Time ball slides down the rod, marking the exact time.

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Next is the grand Millennium Ferris wheel, which was repeatedly attacked during construction in the late 1990s.

Finally, you’ll see the gleaming silver caps of the Thames Barrier, built in 1982 to protect London from flooding. Their lifting, done once a month, attracts many onlookers.

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The Thames to the west of London

In the Oxfordshire Lowlands south of Oxford, the Thames flows through Penburgh and Maypladurham. After passing the vicinity of Reading, it turns north to Henley-on-Thames, one of the most prosperous towns on the banks of the Thames. The interests of Henley’s residents are centered on the river, as it is here that the world-famous regatta is held in the first week of July.The tradition of boat racing dates back to 1829, when a rivalry between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge began. Since 1839, the races have been held annually. When Prince Albert became the patron of the regatta in 1851, it was granted royal status and is still regarded as such today.

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From Marlow to Cookham

The village of Hambleden, just off the A4155, has enough pretty, rose-dotted sandstone and brick cottages to satisfy any tourist with a camera. There is a large church, St. Mary’s, with exquisite stone carvings and a wonderfully beautiful font, apparently made long before the Norman invasion. After Hambleden the Thames turns east and flows past the weir, mill, lock and lock keeper’s cottage near Marlow, all of which are just begging to be photographed. A beautiful suspension bridge was erected near here in 1836. The Complite Engler (“Skilful Fisherman”) Inn, built in 1653, has a stained glass window with fishing scenes, erected in memory of the London merchant Isaac Walton, who liked to fish here and later wrote a book of stories called “The Skilful Fisherman.”

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The Thames flows past the village meadows of Burn End and reaches Cookham, where Her Royal Majesty’s Keeper of Swans does a bird count in July. On Cookham’s main street, the High Street, stands the old Baal and Dragon Inn and the Stanley Spencer Gallery, where you can see the unusual paintings of local artist Stanley Spencer (1891-1959). His distinctive style is well felt in a large unfinished painting, “Christ’s Sermon at the Cookham Regatta”, where Christ in a canotier makes a passionate speech to a crowd of entertaining people.

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Down the river to Winsdor

After Cookham, the Thames flows through coastal woodland and past the posh Cliveden House, where in the 1920s and 30s. 20th century the Cliveden group used to gather. As well as Lord and Lady Astor, it included extreme right-wing politicians intent on rearranging the world.

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Downstream is Boulter lock and the beautiful bridges at Maidenhead, then Bray and Monkey Island, where there is an inn decorated with images of monkeys. The Thames then flows past Eton and Winsdor and reaches Runnymede just before the M25 freeway and London proper.

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In Runnymede stands the Commonwealth Armed Forces Memorial, erected in 1953 to commemorate the 20,000 airmen who died in World War II, a neoclassical cathedral donated in 1957 by the American Bar Association in honor of the Great Charter of Liberties signed at Runnymede. It was the world’s first civil rights bill, imposed on King John by his own nobles in 1215

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Walk along the river

Walk along the east bank of the Thames downstream. From Henley Bridge, a lovely walking trail stretches for 9km. It passes Temple Island in the middle of the river, where an 18th century church stands.The path then leads to Hambleden Lock. You can cross the river on a narrow suspension bridge to a picturesque mill. From the lock the path turns south to Ascot and the delightful Flower Pot Inn, with its old-style bars and shady garden, then the path heads back through the woods southwest to Henley.

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