River Thames cruise
London 2011
Shad Thames. Charles Dickens set portions of Oliver Twist in an area east of Shad Thames, which was then called 'Jacob's Island'. Dickens was taken to this impoverisehed place by the river police. "...crazy wooden galleries common to the backs of half a dozen houses, with holes from which to look upon the slime beneath; windows, broken and patched, with poles thrust out, on which to dry the linen that is never there; rooms so small, so filthy, so confined, that the air would seem to be too tainted even for the dirt and squalor which they shelter; wooden chambers thrusting themselves out above the mud and threatening to fall into it - as some have done; dirt-besmeared walls and decaying foundations, every repulsive lineament of poverty, every loathsome indication of filth, rot, and garbage: all these ornament the banks of Jacob's Island. It was here that Bill Sikes had his den and fell and drowned in the mud.
Greenwich Power Station. Few of the original power stations remain. However, the Greenwich Generating Station is still available as a back-up electricity source for the London Underground. It was built in two stages between 1902 and 1910 for the London County Council to power the capital's tramways and tube railways, which were being electrified at that time.
Sad fate of the Royal Iris. Extract from The Wirral Globe 05.02.10.
'The sad fate of Mersey ferry The Royal Iris was underlined this week after a lifeboat crew was dispatched to the half-sunken vessel now moored up and derelict in the Thames. In her heyday, the Iris was famous for her party nights and saw performances by the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers.'
'The sad fate of Mersey ferry The Royal Iris was underlined this week after a lifeboat crew was dispatched to the half-sunken vessel now moored up and derelict in the Thames. In her heyday, the Iris was famous for her party nights and saw performances by the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers.'
Knight's vigil, the Thames Barrier, London. Always on guard, the Thames barrier has proved a succesful design alowing large ships access, so much so that the proposed barrier to be built around the Venitian lagoon to protect Venice will be of a similar design, so that large cruise ships may still pass through.
The Thames Barrier. Two of the sentinels, looking back towards the Dome, Isle of Dogs, City and central London.
The Millennium Dome, now the 02 arena. A view back from the dome towards Canary Wharf and the city of London