A Trip along the Thames on the regular Thames Clipper boat services.
Starting Point - Barking Riverside. Finishing Point - Putney. Distance - 20 Miles
Regular boat services operate on the River Thames in London between Putney and Barking Riverside. It's quite a journey with around two hours of sailing from one end to the other. The journey is split in to two routes, one to the Putney end and one from the Barking Riverside end with both routes overlapping in the central section to provide a more frequent service. A journey from one end to the other therefore requires a change of boats in the central section or Docklands region.
More information about the service including timetables and tickets can be found on the Thames Clippers website.
London was once the largest port in the UK with many ships docking on the Thames itself as if it were one vast dock. In the 1980s much of the traffic had gone the container ports at the Thames Estuary and redevelopment of the industrial areas around London began. This is still going on today and remnants of commercial shipping still survive amongst the modern developments.
I started at London Bridge City Pier and headed to Barking Riverside then from there to Putney. To keep things simple I have arranged all my photos in the Barking Riverside to Putney direction.
Below - Map of the service seen at Battersea Power Station Pier.
Below - Interior of one of the boats. All the facilities you would expect on some of the long journeys are there including a cafe / bar and toilets. The boats also have an outside seating area at the back of the boat.
Barking Riveside
Below - The entrance to Barking Creek is on the right of the picture. The remains of some of the piers to the left on the old map can be seen. These served the industries of Beckton, most notable of which was a huge gas works which would have produced gas from coal shipped here largely from Newcastle.
Below - The modern development spreading along the riverside. This is Beckton Riverside on part of the gasworks site.
Below - With all the development works around the Thames there is quite a bit of transportation of construction materials on the river.
Below - Around the entrance of Royal Albert Dock redevelopment can be seen. The docksides on the north side of the Thames and the Isle of Dock were the starting point of the Docklands development in the 1980s with the Docklands Light Railway built to connect the development sites with the City.
Woolwich (Royal Arsenal)
Below - On the south bank the military site of the Royal Arsenal is shown blank on the old map. Today it is no longer in military use and forms the Royal Artillery Quays residential development incorporating old and new buildings.
Below - On the north bank the old North Woolwich station building can be seen and to the right of it the remains of the Steam Boat Pier seen on old map. A remnant of the station remained in use until 2006 when it was closed for conversion in to the Elizabeth Line which now passes beneath the original station into a tunnel under the Thames. More information about the station can be seen on the Disused Stations website.
Below - Just west of the above photo, the old station can be seen again on the right of the modern much larger pier for the Woolwich Ferry.
Below - The Tate & Lyle sugar refinery, a surviving example of the large industrial sites that once lined the river.
Below - An industrial boat pier.
Below - The Thames Barrier
Royal Wharf
Below - The success of high rise development on the former docklands of the Isle of Dogs can be seen to the left. The pyramid top of Canary Wharf can be seen, the first of the tower blocks on the site and initially feared of becoming a white elephant is now dwarfed by some of the others.
Below - Opposite Royal Wharf Pier Tarmac, Cemex, Aggregate Industries and Day Aggregates have sites next to each other on the old Angerstein Wharf site. This still includes a couple of piers on to the river as well as a rail connection.
North Greenwich
Below - North Greenwich Pier and the cable car from Royal Docks.
Below - The North Greenwich Pier and the O2. Built as the Millenium Dome this too was feared it would become a white elephant but is now dwarfed by the development that has grown up arround it.
Below - The Cable Car heading off to the development around Royal Victoria Dock.
Below - A freight barge passing the riverside development.
Below - A Heidelberg Materials terminal.
Below - Morden Wharf. A shipyard can be seen on the left. The building on the right is now a bus garage.
Greenwich
Below - Greenwich Power station and its pier on the left. This historic site is still a functioning power station, a reserve power station for the London Underground that just sees occasional use. The old Naval College at Greenwich can be seen on the right.
Below - London's waste is often transported along the river. Here is one of the small terminals that load containerised rubbish on to barges.
Below - The old Royal Naval College at Greenwich.
Masthouse Terrace
Below - On the south bank opposite Masthouse Terrace Pier is Convoys Wharf, a site set to be redeveloped. This is on the site of a Foreign Cattle Market and animals would have been off loaded from ships on the piers here.
Below - Buildings of the Royal Victoria Yard on the left, a former Royal shipyard. Between the two sets of brick buildings are steps up from the river known as Queen's Stairs or Drake's Steps as it was here that Sir Francis Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I.
Greenland (Surray Quays)
On the south bank of the river was the Surrey Commercial Docks, a large docks complex that was redeveloped with low rise buildings before high rise buildings began to take over the docklands. Greenland Dock has been retained as a feature of the development and South Dock is now a marina but most of the docks have been filled.
Below - Passing another Clipper boat. The buildings are around the former entrance to Millwall Outer Dock. The dock survives behind the buildings and is used for water sports.
Below - The high rises build on the Isle of Dogs.
Canary Wharf
Below - The Rotherhithe Ferry docking at Canary Wharf Pier.
Below - Wapping Wharf and Wapping Pier on the north bank with some of the original features of the riverside warehouses.
Below - The Heritage Community Moorings on the north bank with several preserved vintage boats.
Below- Thames Marine Services fueling pier.
Below - Butler's Wharf on the south bank with a paddle steamer moored alongside.
Below - Tower Bridge
Below - The Tower of London. The river entrance at Traitors Gate can be seen on the left.
Tower Millenium Pier
Below - The Tower Bridge and Tower Millenium Pier.
Below - The HMS Belfast, now a museum.
Below - Maintenance barges on the north bank with Custom House behind. Several customs house buildings have occupied the area going back to medieval times, records show a building to handle the duties paid on exported wool from Wool Quay in 1377. Several buildings have been built over the centuries due to expansion and a number of fires including the Great Fire of London. In more recent years it served as a tax office until the work was recently moved out of London.
To the left of the Custom House building ifs the Victorian Billingsgate Fish Market, now an events venue.
London Bridge City
Below - One of the Thames Clipper boats stopped at London Bridge City pier. London Bridge can be seen behind.
Below - A Thames Clipper passing Custom House.
Below - HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge seen from London Bridge City Pier.
Below - London Bridge City Pier.
Below - The 1973 London Bridge, the latest in a long line of bridges to have crossed the Thames here since Roman times.
Below - View of London Bridge from the west. The current bridge has much wider arches than its predecessors. The medieval bridge famously had a haphazard arrangement of houses and shops built on it until they were removed in 1761 following fires and collapses.
London Bridge is considered to be the western edge of the "Pool of London" so west of here the characteristic changes from former dockland to the administrative centre. London Bridge was until Victorian times the eastern most bridge and previously had much narrower arches restricting boat access to smaller craft. West of here with only small boats in use many more bridges were built.
Below - Cannon Street Railway Bridge.
Below - Southwark Bridge
Bankside
Below- The Millennium Bridge seen from Bankside Pier with St Paul's Cathedral behind it.
Blackfriers
Below - The bridge carrying Blackfriers station over the river. The original Blackfriers Bridge station was on the south bank and after delays in the bridge construction St Paul's station opened on the north bank. Blackfriers Bridge station closed in 1885 (though former entrance ways to it can be seen on the railway bridges) and St Paul's was renamed Blackfriers in 1937. The tracks were soon widened with a second bridge alongside but the original bridge was condemned and removed in 1985 leaving just the pillars of the original bridge. Today the station is on the bridge itself with entrances on both sides of the river.
Embankment
The north bank is manmade around Embankment. The area was prone to silting up and at times of the day would look like mudflats. The Embankment was developed with parks to become a popular attraction.
Below - A Cruise Pier and Cleopatra's Needle, an Egyptian obelisk gifted to the United Kingdom, one of a pair with the other in New York City.
Below - Embankment Pier
London Eye (Waterloo)
London Eye (Waterloo) and Westminster piers sit opposite each other on the south and north banks of the river.
Below - The London Eye.
Westminster
Below - The Elizabeth Tower (often called Big Ben but that is just the bell inside it), the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge.
Below - Lambeth Bridge
Millbank
Below - A boat at Millbank Millenium Pier.
Vauxhall (St George Wharf)
Below - Vauxhall Bridge and the M16 Intelligence Service offices. Vauxhall (St George Wharf) pier is on the right.
Battersea Power Station
Below - Battersea Power Station, now a retail development. Less glamorous the Cringle Dock Solid Waste Transfer station can be seen to the left of the former power station. Here waste is loaded for transport on barges.
I have previously had an explore of Battersea Power station looking at the former power station buildings. Unfortunately the power station doesn't show on the above old map and there weren't more recent maps on the National Library of Scotland website showing it.
Below - The Coaling Jetty where coal barges were unloaded using two cranes that survived until the recent redevelopment of the power station.
Battersea Power Station is as far west as the boats from Barking Riverside go so I changed boats here for one that would have started from North Greenwich and would continue to Putney.
Below - My boat for Putney approaching Battersea Power Station Pier. The former power station Coaling Jetty can be seen on the right.
Below - The Grosvenor Bridge, shown on the old map as Victoria Bridge, taking the railway lines in to Victoria station, the chimney to the left of it is the former Chelsea Waterworks chimney.
Cardogan
Below - The Albert Bridge.
Chelsea Harbour
Chelsea Harbour Pier is next to the entrance to the former Chelsea Basin, part of which survives as a marina with the former railway goods yards around it redeveloped.
With the light gone I had very few photos from the last stretch of the journey to Putney.
St Mary's Wandsworth and Wandsworth Riverside Quarter
Putney
The journey ends at Putney Pier, just west of Putney Bridge.
Below - Putney Bridge seen from the entrance to Putney Pier.
