Glossary An explanation of 18 terms used on the today

Ait An ait is a small island in the Thames (pronounced Eight). This photo is of Ravens Ait at Kingston upon Thames. To reach the island people have to use a small ferry from Queens Promenade in Surbiton.

! Canal A canal is a man-made straight stretch of water, easier to navigate than a tidal river. Usually has locks to control the depth of the water and to allow boats to go up hills in stages. This photo is the canal at .

! Downstream / Upstream Downstream is going down the Thames (Eastwards) towards the sea and upstream the opposite direction (Westwards) going up the River towards the (source) start of the Thames near ! Cirencester. This photo is of the Thames at Canary Wharf Estuary / mouth The Thames gets wider and wider as it gets nearer to the sea, like a mouth opening wider and wider. To the East of London on the North bank of the estuary is Essex and Kent is on the opposite side, South of the estuary. This photo is of Rainham Marshes, the eastern most part of London on ! the River Thames. The tall office blocks at Canary Wharfe can be seen in the distance.

!1 Thames in London Glossary High Tide / Low Tide Downstream of Richmond Lock the River Thames is completely Tidal, the level of water rises and falls every day. It can be confusing when the tide is coming in as the water appears to flowing upstream (westwards) and downstream (eastwards) when the tide if going out. Parts of the river bed are revealed in some places at low tide, such as the old barge beds in this photo near . ! Hithe or Hythe A hithe is a small inlet from the river, often used to allow more boats to be unloaded. This is Queenshithe, opposite the Tate Modern. Further downstream is .

! Isthmuth The land inside the U of a meander is an Isthmus. Bow Creek Ecology Park, in Canning Town, sits right in the middle of the meanders of Bow Creek. Sometimes a river cuts through a neck of an Isthmus at times of ! floods and creates a new channel, leaving the remaining meander cut off in an Ox-bow lake. Lock Locks and weirs control the depth of water in a non-tidal section of a river allows boats easy navigation. This photo is of the double lock at Teddington. The lock can be filled with water or emptied to allow boats to change height.

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!2 Thames in London Glossary !Meander When a river is mature and gets near to the sea the drop in height is small and the river starts to get lazy, making big S shapes. This painting of East India Docks (British Library) from 1820 shows very clearly the both the big meanders and the isthmus of Bow Creek as it meets the Thames. The site of the Ecology Park (see Isthmus photo) is in the centre of the U shape in the bottom left of the painting. ! !Outfall The Victorians built large pipes to take sewage away from London out East to Beckton and Crossness where the Northern and Southern Outfalls emptied the raw sewage into the Thames Estuary. At low tide the Southern Outfall can be ! seen at Crossness. The sewage is now treated. !Pool of London The Pool of London was the heart of the trade on the Thames from Roman Times. Boats unloaded and loaded cargo either at wharfs at the side of the river or into smaller barges when moored in the middle of the river. It is the stretch downstream of London Bridge, most boats could not get through the bridge until is was rebuilt in 1836. ! !Tidal / non-tidal Below Richmond the Thames is fully tidal with high and low tides. This is very obvious in some places like Isleworth, only about a mile downstream from Richmond Lock with the river bed exposed at low tide.

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!3 Thames in London Glossary The tidal section of the Thames below Teddington Lock is called The Tideway. This photo is of The Tideway at Putney, where the University Boat Race starts every March, about 100m upstream of Putney Bridge.

! Towpat h Towpaths were built at the side of rivers and canals from 17 Century onwards for horses to tow cargo boats. Today the Thames Towpath is used by many people walking, running and cycling.

! !Tributary A smaller river which flows into a bigger river, like the River Thames is called a tributary. This is the River Brent which flows into the Thames at Brent Dock, opposite Kew Gardens. Some tributaries, like the River Fleet, were covered over and became sewers.

! !Upper Thames The river upstream of Teddington Lock is called the Upper Thames. It is not tidal and is much calmer then the Tideway below Teddington Lock. This photo is of Garrick’s Temple at Hampton. !

!4 Thames in London Glossary !Watermen Waterman ferried people both across and up and down the river in small boats. They were the taxi’s of their day up to the 19 century, when more bridges were built. Today the City Clipper, which runs a fast boat up and down the river from Westminster to Greenwich, still provides jobs ! for watermen but is more like a large bus than a taxi. Weir Locks and weirs control the depth of water in a non-tidal section of a river to allow boats easy navigation. The Thames is non- tidal upstream of the weir and partially tidal from Teddington down to the half weir and lock at Richmond. It is fully tidal downstream of Richmond. This photo is of the weir at Teddington ! Wet Docks As the Pool of London became more crowded Wet Docks started being built downstream. These had lock gates and quays where boats could load and unload without being affected by low or high tide. The water in wet docks was always the same. ! Wharf or Quays A wharf, or sometimes called a Quay, was where a ship or a barge would tie up to unload its cargo. This is Walbrook Wharfe, next to Cannon Street Railway Bridge, one of the few wharfs left in Central London. It exports rubbish from the and other central boroughs further down the river to a power station where the rubbish is burnt to generate electricity. ! !

!5 Thames in London Glossary !6 Thames in London Glossary