Sandcastles and deck chairs beside the River Thames at the Tower of London

It is one of those odd things about growing old that you do begin to question your own memories.

I was telling a friend about building sandcastles beside the Thames in the shadow of Tower Bridge and because she was more than a little sceptical I did just begin to think that I had invented it.

But no I was right.  In 1934 1,500 barge loads of sand were deposited on the stretch of beach in front of the Tower.  It was such a success that during the first five years thousands flocked to sit on the sand beside the river.

By the 1950s when I too played there it was a little less attractive and you were likely to pull up some rather smelly things while building your sandcastles.

But it was still fun.

Sadly it closed in 1971 because it was thought the river was too polluted.

Now I have to say that this surprises me given that when I was growing up we were told that if you fell into the water it was an automatic stomach pump and a spell in hospital.

Twenty years earlier when the beach was opened children swam in the river, paddled in front of their parents and the only concern was if they got out of their depth.

All of which is a lead into the picture of the beech with the Tower behind it and a total absence of sand.

Location; London

Picture; The Tower from the River, from the series London Town and City, issued by Tuck & Sons, date unknown, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

The London of 1949

The Pool of London in 1909

This is the Pool of London in 1909.

Fifty years later given a few changes and a bit of bomb damage and it is pretty much as I remember it.

Fast forward another half century and I doubt that  either me or the photographer would recognise much beyond the bridge and the Tower.

All of which is not so much a trip down memory lane, but an introduction to some of the films I got for Christmas.

Of these it is Train of Events and Pool of London I want to write about.  Both were made in 1949 and are very much of the period.

The Thames, the cranes, ships and the Tower, 1909

Train of Events starred Jack Warner and was one of those disaster morality movies, where a collection of little dramas are acted out in advance of a train crash and yes the murderer and the thief do not survive the crash.

In Pool of London a fairly ordinary crime story is given bite with the exploration of one of the first inter racial relationships in a British film.

Both reveal a wonderful slice of London life on the edge of the 1950s.  Here are trams, bomb sites, the rather shabby side of a post war London and plenty of scenes now lost forever.

In that respect they are fascinating social commentaries and perfectly capture the period I grew up in.

The river was still a working river, Tower Bridge opened and closed regularly during the course of a day, the trains were all pulled by steam locomotives and there were references to rationing, shortages and the last war.

Trafalgar Square, 1955

Not that this is some rosy, cosy nostalgic trip.

The interiors of the houses remind me of how little there was in terms of affluence for most people, and there is that prevailing sense that this is still the era of make and mend.

It was also a time of blatant racial prejudice and intolerance towards “living over the brush” and one where some at least had not yet managed to forgive our former enemies.

So watching the two as I did yesterday was both a pleasure and a lesson in history.  I am too young to remember the old trams but here they were, along with some old 1949 television programmes and some fine scenes of the river, the city as well as Blackheath and Greenwich.

Now for a historian and a Londoner that can’t be bad.

Pictures; The Pool of London, 1909, from the series London, and Trafalgar Square, 1955 from the series London, both marketed by Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

Working the river

These will be the last pictures of that stretch of the Thames from London Bridge to Tower Bridge.

Over the last few days I have indulged myself with images of the Thames when it  was still worked with warehouses, cranes and manual labour serving the many ocean going ships that delivered their produce into the heart of the city.

Now I have never been one to indulge in nostalgia or sentimentality and working the river was a dangerous and hard occupation, but it provided a livelihood for thousands and brought the river alive.

But I shall stop before someone points out the downside of labouring long hours in a casual trade with the ever present danger of injury and a life shortened by the sheer physical demands of the job.


Pictures, from Tuck and Sons, 1902-3, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

When the Thames was still a working river

I am of that generation who remembers the River Thames as a working river and the Pool of London as a place full of ocean going ships.

In the 1950s the stretch of water from London Bridge to Tower Bridge was still full of warehouses and cranes.

Not that I want to slide into some nostalgic rosy picture of the past.

Working the river was hard and dangerous and the rewards were not always wonderful.

But that was just how it was and so over the never few days I want to reflect on that period with a series of picture postcards from Tuck and Sons.

This one dates from 1936 and is  special, because round about the same time that it was issued my dad bought a series of guide books to London which he used for work.

And there in the pages of the book was a very similar one to the image I have chosen.

Picture; River Thames showing Tower Bridge, 1936 from the series London, issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/