London's Thames
The River That Shaped a City and Its History
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Without the Thames, there would be no London or England. From earliest times, the city's needs--whether for stone, gold, or coal, for hay to feed livestock or food, wine and spices for human beings--were supplied from the river, as the fierce tides brought ships upstream or carried them down again. Only with the age of trunk road and rail did London's global importance as a port diminish. Even after that the tides continued to drive the great power stations.
Gavin Weightman's fascinating book London's Thames, a compendium of often surprising information, is the best possible introduction to the water and its ways, the buildings that line the banks, and the people who lived by the river, their customs and ancient knowledge. Everything is to be found here: trade and tide, lightermen, watermen and dockers, bridges, funnels and ferries, frost fairs and regattas, clear water, fish and wildlife, pollution and waste, fortification and defense. Above all, one feels the presence of the great waterway itself, a force of nature in our urban midst.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
There are many great cities situated on rivers, but none has been shaped so profoundly by its aquatic artery as London, or "London-on-Sea," as Weightman, a documentary filmmaker, author and expert on the city's history, wittily calls it. As he points out, the Thames is different from, say, the Seine, in that it is tidal in both directions, meaning that "a sailing ship could weigh anchor near the mouth of the Thames as the flood tide began, and for six hours it would be carried inland"; it could then "get a free ride back to sea on the ebb tide." For centuries, these powerful Thames tides helped the world's sailors provide an expanding London with the food and raw materials it craved. Given the modern predominance of the road and the airport, rivers may not be so important anymore to urban growth and commerce, but Weightman makes a persuasive case that the "strong brown God" (as T.S. Eliot dubbed it) continues to bestow on London its unique dynamism. Thanks to 25 concise chapters covering everything from the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race to sewers and bridges, Weightman's book makes an amiable companion for Londoners and tourists alike. B&w photos.
