THAMES – A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY FROM SOURCE TO SEA
Derek Pratt, £19.99; 978-0-7136-8832-0
Although there may be those who think of the Thames as London’s river, it stretches all the way from Gloucestershire to Canvey Island, and images of it are many and varied. Yes, the early Roman settlers made their way along the river from the estuary and stopped in Londinium, which developed into England’s major trading city, but as the very heart of an empire “upon which the sun never set”, the significance of this river should not be played down. It may not be as long or wide as the Nile or the Amazon, but it makes up for that with its diversity and history.
There are some stunning photographs in this book, some expected and others more off-the-wall: the sparkling source of the river, with its marker stone; the tranquility of the riverbank in Oxfordshire and Berkshire giving way to the dignified bustle of the Henley Regatta; the history of Hampton Court and Kingston (where seven Saxon kings were crowned) – and then the plaque at Teddington Lock marking the site of Monty Python’s Fish-Slapping Dance…
Entering the conurbation, we learn facts on matters as diverse the Boat Race, the Inner Temple roses, the sewage system, the Globe Theatre, decapitation and the Festival of Britain, all lavishly illustrated (except for the traitors’ heads, obviously) with pictures showing all manner of buildings, people and places.
Heading out to sea, there is a section on Grays and Thurrock, more usually associated with the M25 than anything more romantic, but the ancient church of St Clements – now cheek-by-jowl amongst the chemical plants - marked the site of a ferry used by pilgrims on their way to Canterbury and was more recently used as a location in Four Weddings and a Funeral. There is also a small picture of a memorial to TS Exmouth, a training ship until 1939: “Remembering the many boys who learned the ways of the sea aboard this ship and the officers who trained them”, at the bottom of which is inscribed “By Thames to all Peoples of the World” and this underlines the fact that the river’s importance extends that much further than just London town.