Memories of that other Thames ……

 I don’t know if cargo ships still berth along my bit of the River at Greenwich.

But someone will know, and I hope will tell me.

I left London in 1969 and while I still came home for holidays my visits to this bit of where I grew up became less and less.

But back in the late 1970s I did wander the water with a camera and recorded what I saw.

To some they will be dismal, and grimy but they were my part of London.

What strikes me about the berthed ship is how deep the inside compared to the men.

It’s a silly observation given that the hold had to store heaps of things, but it reminds me of just how different the Thames at Greenwich was five decades ago.

The image is one that sat as a collection of negatives in our cellar for 40 odd years, and only recently has come out of the shadows as I digitalize those pictures.

And Peter from Greenwich added "Good evening Andrew, I always enjoy your pictures of the grimy industrial part of my hometown. 

The coaster on the mud at Lovells was one of the first of a type designed with elevating wheelhouses and masts ets to work upstream on the Rhine and other European rivers. The depth of the hold would have probably been around 4 metres".

Location; The River Thames

Pictures; waiting to load, the Thames, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

  

Walking the River ......... by the Cutty Sark

A short series taken from one day when I walked along the River.

Back then the Thames was still a place to to earn a wage and watch as ships, and barges plied their way on the water.*

Location; the Thames

Picture; the River in 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The lost Eltham, Greenwich, and Woolwich pictures, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20lost%20Eltham%20and%20Woolwich%20pictures

Walking the River ......... the scenic route

A short series taken from one day when I walked along the River.

Back then the Thames was still a place to to earn a wage and watch as ships, and barges plied the way on the water.*

Location; the Thames, Greenwich





Picture; the River in 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson



*The lost Eltham and Woolwich pictures, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20lost%20Eltham%20and%20Woolwich%20pictures

Walking the River ....... the Power Station

A short series taken from one day when I walked along the River.

Back then the Thames was still a place to to earn a wage and watch as ships, and barges plied the way on the water.*

Location; the Thames







Picture; the River in 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The lost Eltham and Woolwich pictures, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20lost%20Eltham%20and%20Woolwich%20pictures

Walking the River ......... more men at work

A short series taken from one day when I walked along the River.

Back then the Thames was still a place to to earn a wage and watch  ships, and barges as they plied their way on the water.*

Location; the Thames




Picture; the River in 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The lost Eltham and Woolwich pictures, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20lost%20Eltham%20and%20Woolwich%20pictures

Looking east along the River …………. past a forest of cranes

This is the view from London Bridge that I remember.

And it was a scene I thought was lost forever, leaving me just a memory of that forest of cranes, and ships that had crossed the oceans to unload goods as varied as fruit, ball bearings and much more.

Now I know there are heaps of pictures of the Thames when it was a busy industrial waterway, but not this view, which was one I saw, as I walked over London Bridge in the late 1950s and 60s.

I regularly travelled up from Peckham and later Well Hall on the train, alighting at London Bridge Railway Station, and by degree making my way over the river, down those stairs at the northern end of the bridge and then along Lower Thames Street, past Billingsgate Market to the Tower of London.

It was a Saturday trip I did quite frequently, almost always on my own, with the aim of submerging myself in the history of this bit of London.

The Tower was always the object of the trip, but there was always so much to see, and in the case of the old Peak Freens factory to smell as well.

And to this day, the equally powerful smell of the fish market bounces back from my memory and reminds me of the image of bits of abandoned ice and fish bits which lay in the gutter before they were cleared away.

On the odd occasion I get home, and equally rarer moment that I retrace my steps over the river at London Bridge, that old scene of the warehouses, ships and cranes is difficult to recreate.

So, I was pleased that John King shared his picture of the Thames from the bridge which he took in 1968, and its companion taken over 40 years later.

Together they encapsulate the changes which have taken place along the river.

And here I am the first to say I don’t do nostalgia.  The Thames could be a cruel place, and those who made their livelihood along it, did back breaking and dangerous work, often for a pittance, while life in the terraced houses and tenements behind the warehouses could be a constant struggle to make a home clean, and safe in buildings which were long past their sell by date.

But given all of that, I miss that view, east over the water to Tower Bridge and the docks.

Location; London

Pictures; the River Thames, 1968 and 2011, from the collection of John King

Walking the River ......... men at walk

A short series taken from one day when I walked along the River.

Back then the Thames was still a place to to earn a wage and watch as ships, and other vessels plied their way on the water.*

Location; the Thames





Picture; the River in 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The lost Eltham and Woolwich pictures, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20lost%20Eltham%20and%20Woolwich%20pictures