Missing the River Thames

I am back with pictures of the Tall Ships Festival in Greenwich in 2014.

My friend Bernard took a series of pictures of the ships as they made their way up the Thames and later as they settled for the night.

And they make me homesick. All of which is silly because I left Eltham over 40 years ago and I am very comfortable with Manchester.

But I never quite loose that feeling that comes from being beside or on the river.

I guess it is a mix of different things.

It starts with the sheer expanse of the water, and that distinctive smell but it is also the stories which you know are part of it.

I am old enough to remember the Thames as a working place full of barges, tramp steamers and all manner of smaller craft.

As a kid I played alongside the shoreline, picking up the debris which was left at low tide, getting filthy dirty from the oily mud deposits and more than once being chased off by a bargee.

Then later as a teenager I can remember sitting on the low wall in front of the Cutty Sark pub on warm quiet summer’s evening listening as the swell from a passing boat banged the barges together.

So yes the Thames continues to work its spell on me and with it these pictures by Bernard.

If I can’t be there then this is not a bad way to remember it.

Location; Greenwich London

Pictures; the Tall Ship Festival at Greenwich, September 2014, from the collection of Bernard Major