Stead, I. M., Celtic Dragons from the River Thames (London, 1984)
Stout, Adam, Where Two Rivers Meet (Reading, 1994)
Stow, John, The Survey of London (London, 1912)
Tempest, Paul, Downstream to Greenwich (Greenwich, 1975)
Thacker, F. S., The Stripling Thames (London, 1909)
——, The Thames Highway, two volumes (London, 1914 and Kew, 1920)
Thames Journal: Journal of the River Thames Society
Thomas, Charles, Celtic Britain (London, 1986)
Thomas, Christopher (ed.), London’s Archaeological Secrets (London, 2003)
Thompson, A. G., Scrap Book of London River (London, 1937)
Thomson, T. R., A Short History of Cricklade (Minety, 1946)
Thorne, James, Rambles by Rivers (London, 1847)
Thurman, Christopher, London’s River (London, 2003)
Tilley, Christopher, A Phenomenology of Landscape (Oxford, 1994)
Tomlinson, H. M., London River (London, 1925)
Tuan, Yi-Fu, The Hydrologic Cycle and the Wisdom of God (Toronto, 1968)
Turner, James, The Politics of Landscape (Cambridge, Ma, 1979)
Vincent, J. E., The Story of the Thames (London, 1909)
Wack, H. W., In Thamesland (London, 1906)
Watson, Bruce, Brigham, Trevor and Dyson, Tony, London Bridge (London, 2001)
Waugh, Priscilla, Searching the Thames (London, 1999)
Webster, G., The Roman Invasion of Britain (London, 1980)
Weightman, Gavin, London River (London, 1990)
Wheeler, Alwyne, The Tidal Thames (London, 1979)
Williams, Alfred, Folk Songs of the Upper Thames (London, 1923)
——, Round About Middle Thames (Stroud, 1982)
——, Round About the Upper Thames (London, 1922)
Williams, J. and Brown, N., An Archaeological Research Framework for the Greater Thames Estuary (Chelmsford, 1999)
Wilson, D. G., The Making of the Middle Thames (Bourne End, 1977)
——, The Victorian Thames (Stroud, 1993)
Winbolt, S. E., Britain BC (London, 1943)
Wittfogel, K. A., Oriental Despotism (New Haven, 1957)
Wood, Michael, In Search of the Dark Ages (London, 1981)
Wright, Laura, Sources of London English (Oxford, 1996)
Wright, Patrick, The River (London, 1999)
Wykes, Alan, An Eye on the Thames (London, 1966)
Wyman, John, Lower Palaeolithic Archaeology in Britain (London, 1968)
Author’s Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my publishers for the initiation of this project. I must also thank my two researchers, Thomas Wright and Murrough O’Brien, for their indefatigable work. But my particular thanks must go to my two colleagues, Nicholas Robertson and Iain Johnston, who accompanied me on the pedestrian pilgrimage from source to sea and who also helped the conception and completion of this work.
Illustration Credits
The line drawings on the part titles are from The Book of the Thames from Its Rise to Its Fall by Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall (London, Virtue and Company, 1859)
SECTION ONE
The source of the Thames at Trewsbury Mead (Collections/Chris Cole)
Mammoth tooth found in the Thames (Museum of London/Bridgeman Art Library)
Prehistoric dagger and scabbard, c.550–450 BC, found in the Thames, probably at Mortlake (Museum of London/Bridgeman)
Bronze head of the Emperor Hadrian found in the Thames near London Bridge.
Hadrian visited London in AD 122 and this bust probably commemorates his visit (Museum of London)
Medieval pilgrim badges of saints. The badges signified that a traveller had completed a journey to a pilgrimage site or shrine. Many such badges have been found in the Thames (Museum of London/Heritage Images)
Ducking a Scold, 1812, by Thomas Rowlandson (Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, Lancashire/Bridgeman)
Angler on a riverbank, woodcut illustration to the Roxburgh Ballads, volume 7 (Mary Evans Picture Library)
From The Oarsman’s and Angler’s Map of the River Thames from its Source to London Bridge (London, 1893). The detail shows the stretch from Chertsey to Richmond.
Radcot Bridge, the oldest bridge on the Thames (www.old-england.com)
Harleyford eel nets made from willow (www.old-england.com)
A weir-keeper and fisherman called Harper, Oxfordshire, 1900, photographed by Henry Taunt (English Heritage/Heritage Images)
Mapledurham mill. The mill is still working and producing stone-ground flour (www.old-england.com)
A traveller waits to be ferried across the Thames, woodcut illustration to the Roxburgh Ballads, volume 5 (Mary Evans Picture Library)
Cliveden ferry, Cliveden, 1885, photographed by Henry Taunt (English Heritage, National Monuments Record/Heritage Images)
SECTION TWO
Map of Chertsey Abbey, Surrey, fifteenth century, drawn to settle a dispute over pasture (The National Archives/Heritage Images)
Dorchester Abbey, Near Wallingford, Autumn Evening by Newton Bennett (Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Bridgeman)
The Tower of London, fifteenth-century manuscript illumination by French school, Ms Fr 2644 fol. 154v (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris/Bridgeman)
Lambeth Palace, seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, engraved by Johannes Kip after Leonard Knyff (Private Collection/Bridgeman)
Windsor Castle from the River Meadow on the Thames, c.1827–30 by William Daniell (Private Collection/Bridgeman)
Westminster from Lambeth, with the Ceremonial Barge of the Ironmongers’ Company, c.1745, by Samuel Scott (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection/Bridgeman)
Old London Bridge, c.1630 by Claude de Jongh. The view is framed by the turrets of the Tower of London on the left and the ancient tower of the Church of St. Mary Overy on the right (Private Collection/Bridgeman)
The Opening of New London Bridge, 1st August 1831 by English school. The bridge was opened by King William IV and Queen Adelaide during a river pageant (Science Museum, London/Bridgeman)
View of the Greenwich Railway Viaduct at Deptford, 1836, by G. F. Bragg (Guildhall Library, City of London/Bridgeman)
The Millennium Footbridge (Marc Atkins/Panoptika.net)
Doggett’s Co at and Badge Rowing Race, c.1820. From plate 13 of Fashion and Folly. The race is one of the world’s oldest rowing races, held annually along the Thames from London Bridge to Chelsea (Museum of London/Heritage Images)
Henley Regatta, c.1900. First held in 1839, the regatta has been held annually ever since, with the exception of the two World Wars (www.old-england.com)
Pleasure boats on the Thames below Whitchurch Lock, Pangbourne, 1907 (Mary Evans Picture Library)
The lock at Goring-on-Thames (www.old-england.com)
The Londoner’s Leisure—the Thames. 1926 poster by Gregory Brown produced by the Southern Railway to advertise their day trips along the Thames (Science and Society Picture Library)
SECTION THREE
Howland Great Wet Dock, Rotherhithe, 1717. Engraved by Johannes Kip after J. Badslade (City of London Libraries and Guildhall Art Gallery/Heritage Images)
Perry’s Dock at Blackwall, 1806, by Thomas Rowlandson. The dock was built in 1789 and was later incorporated into the East India Docks (Guildhall Library, City of London/Bridgeman)
A View of the East India Docks, 1808, by William Daniell (Guildhall Library, City of London/Bridgeman)
Wapping, Elevated View of the Dock, 1803 by Thomas and William Daniell (Guildhall Library, City of London/Bridgeman)
Inside the Docks engraving by Gustave Doré from London: A Pilgrimage by Gustave Doré and Blanchard Jerrold (1872)
Procession of the Cod Company from St. Giles’s to Billingsgate, 1810, by Thomas Rowlandson. Fishwives with baskets on their heads, and with the market behind them (British Museum/Bridgeman)
The Thames Tunnel built by Sir Marc Isambard Brunel. The print shows transverse and cr
oss sections of the tunnel and the tunneling shield used to excavate the tunnel (Science and Society Picture Library)
Faraday Giving his Card to Father Thames from Punch, 21 July 1855 (The Royal Institution, London/Bridgeman)
The Fleet Sewer, c. 1840 by English school (Guildhall Library, City of London/Bridgeman)
The Thames Embankment, 1867, plate from the Illustrated London News, volume 67/1. One of several plans for the Thames Embankment, drawn up by Sir Joseph Bazalgette (Science Museum Library/Science and Society )
A Smock Mill on the Thames by Peter de Wint. The name of this type of mill is said to derive from its likeness in shape to the linen smocks worn by British countrymen (Agnew’s London/Bridgeman)
A View of Goding’s New Lion Ale Brewery, Fowler’s Iron Works and Walker’s Shot Manufactory, Lambeth by Francis Calcraft Turner (Guildhall Library, City of London/ Bridgeman)
Unloading barrels at London docks, near Tower Bridge, c.1930s (NMPFT Daily Herald Archive/Science and Society)
Lots Road Power Station at night, 26 November 1931, photographed by George Woodbine. The power station opened in 1905 and supplied electricity to the London Underground until 2002 (NMPFT Daily Herald Archive/Science and Society)
The Thames Barrier, Woolwich (Marc Atkins/Panoptika.net)
Canary Wharf, London Docklands (Marc Atkins/Panoptika.net)
SECTION FOUR Kew Gardens: The Pagoda and Bridge, 1762, by Richard Wilson (Yale Center for British
Kew Gardens: The Pagoda and Bridge, 1762, by Richard Wilson (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection/Bridgeman)
Westminster Bridge, with the Lord Mayor’s Procession on the Thames, 1747, by Cana letto (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection/Bridgeman)
Abingdon, Oxfordshire, c.1805, by Joseph Mallord William Turner (Agnew’s, London/ Bridgeman)
Rain, Steam and Speed—the Great Western Railway, painted before 1844, by Joseph Mallord William Turner (National Gallery, London/Bridgeman)
Willows Beside a Stream, 1805, by Joseph Mallord William Turner (Tate, London, 2007)
Water Willow, 1871, by Dante Charles Gabriel Rossetti. The painting is a portrait of Jane Morris, wife of William Morris and shows Kelmscott Manor in the background (Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Memorial Bridgeman)
Grey and Silver: The Thames by James Abbott McNeill Whistler (Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow/Bridgeman)
The Little Pool, etching by James Abbott McNeill Whistler (Leeds Museums and Galleries/Bridgeman)
“Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” from The Poems of Thomas Gray, published in 1797–98 and illustrated by William Blake (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection/Bridgeman)
Baptism, 1952, by Stanley Spencer (Private Collection/Bridgeman/Estate of Stanley Spencer/DACS, 2007)
The River: David Copperfield and Mr. Peggotty rescue Martha from the river, illustration by Phiz from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Bird of Prey: the opening scene from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, illustration by Marcus Stone
Tom and the Dragonflies, illustration by Warwick Goble from The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley (Mary Evans Picture Library)
Alice and the Pool of Tears, illustration by John Tenniel from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Mary Evans Picture Library)
Illustration for Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome by Randolph Caldecott in The Graphic (Mary Evans Picture Library)
Ratty and Mole, illustration by Arthur Rackham from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (Mary Evans Picture Library)
Barrage Balloons Outside a British Port by Eric Ravilious (Leeds Museums and Galleries/Bridgeman)
Hadleigh Castle: the mouth of the Thames—morning after a stormy night, 1829, by John Constable (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection/Bridgeman)
ON THE JACKET
Thames ferryman, woodcut illustration to The Bagford Ballads, 1680 (Mary Evans Picture Library)
A Most Certain, Strange and True Discovery of a Witch, 1643 engraving, by English school (The Bridgeman Art Library)
ON THE CASE FRONT
A View of the Fireworks and Illuminations at his grace the Duke of Richmond’s at Whitehall and on the River Thames, on Monday 15th May 1749, colored engraving, by English school (The Bridgeman Art Library) Photograph of the London Eye (Silvia Otte/Getty Images)
SPINE:
A bridge near Lechlade, Glouchestershire. From Picturesque Views on the River Thames, 1799, by Samuel Ireland (Science and Society Picture Library) View of London and the Thames, by Giovanni Antonio Canaletto (National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic; Bridgeman-Giraudon/Art Resource, NY)
BACK:
View of London Bridge, c. 1632, oil on panel, by Claude de Jongh (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund/The Bridgeman Art Library England: Richmond Hill on the Prince Regent’s Birthday by Joseph Mallord William Turner. Exhibited 1819. Oil on canvas, 180.0 x 334.6 cm. (Clore Collection, Tate Gallery, London/Art Resource, NY)
A Note About the Author
PETER ACKROYD is the author of London: The Biography, Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination, and Shakespeare: The Biography; acclaimed biographies of T. S. Eliot, Dickens, Blake, and Sir Thomas More; several successful novels; and the series Ackroyd’s Brief Lives. He has won the Whitbread Book Award for Biography, the Royal Society of Literature’s William Heinemann Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, and the South Bank Award for Literature. He lives in London.
Also by Peter Ackroyd
FICTION
The Great Fire of London
The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde
Hawksmoor
Chatterton
First Light
English Music
The House of Doctor Dee
Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem
Milton in America
The Plato Papers
The Clerkenwell Tales
The Lambs of London
The Fall of Troy
NONFICTION
Dressing Up: Transvestism and Drag: The History of an Obsession
London: The Biography
Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination
BIOGRAPHY
Ezra Pound and His World
T. S. Eliot
Dickens
Blake
The Life of Thomas More
Shakespeare: The Biography
ACKROYD’S BRIEF LIVES
Chaucer
J. M. W. Turner
Newton
Poe
POETRY
Ouch!
The Diversions of Purley and Other Poems
CRITICISM
Notes for a New Culture
The Collection: Journalism, Reviews, Essays, Short Stories, Lectures edited by Thomas Wright
Copyright © 2007 by Peter Ackroyd
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States by Nan A. Talese, an imprint of The Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.nanatalese.com
Originally published in Great Britain as Thames: Sacred River by Chatto & Windus, London, in 2007.
DOUBLEDAY is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.
Maps by Reginald Piggott
Picture research by Lily Richards
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ackroyd, Peter, 1949–
Thames: the biography / Peter Ackroyd. —1st ed. in the U.S. of America
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Thames River (England)—History. 2. London (England)—History. I. Title.
DA670.T2A316 2008.
942.2—dc22
2008002864
eISBN: 978-0-385-52847-4
v3.0
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