Tales of the Riverbank (Monday 21 September 2009)

The Thames Path makes quite a few appearances in these blogs and this week’s entry is just one long unashamed fan letter to the 180+ mile National Trail. I live near the river (not on it but less than five minutes away) and walk along its banks a lot. By their nature National Trails are suited to long-distance journeys but the Thames Path provides countless opportunities for shorter trips. You’ve got easy going and level walks that pass by all manner of attractions – natural, cultural, historical, industrial, sporting and architectural.

I’m no botanist but I like looking at the flora as much as the next man as I stroll along. The banks near Teddington lock are packed out with a pretty pink flower. After a bit of poking about on the internet and asking folk, I understand that this is Himalayan Balsam. (There’s probably an ‘app’ on iphones that enables you to identify invasive foreign plants that are destroying our natural habitat but I haven’t discovered it yet.) Prettier than Japanese Knotweed and a relation to good old Busy Lizzie, your Policeman’s Helmet (another quaint name) tolerates low light levels and – in turn – tends to shade out other vegetation, impoverishing habitats. The seed pods open explosively when ripe, shooting their seeds up to 7m (22ft) away. Each plant can produce up to 800 seeds. (Insert your own helmet joke here.) The main method of control, and usually the most appropriate, is pulling or cutting plants before they flower and set seed. Conservation authorities regularly organise ‘balsam bashing’ work parties to clear the weed from marshland and riverbanks.

Further down the river you come to Eel Pie Island – famous these days as home to inventor Trevor Baylis – but where sheds, boat-houses and picket-fenced gardens now line the water’s edge, the grand Eel Pie Island Hotel once stood. Charles Dickens described the tea dances held there in the 1820s, and back in the early 1960s bands like the Who and Rolling Stones began their musical journeys here that included counter-culture, drugs, arrests, knighthoods and establishment. There’s a very nice display board explaining all this now.

Talking of music, who remembers music journalist Steven ‘Seething’ Wells? Well Seething Wells is actually a place by the river just outside Kingston near Surbiton. These days it’s your normal combination of marinas and wildfowl spots, but it used to be a water treatment works. It was one of your standard Victorian marvels of engineering that they seemed to throw up every other day in the 1850s.

These first three spots form a pretty good circular walk for me (and one I do quite often) but the last location is down near Kew Gardens. It’s a little bit of riverside art work tucked away on the south bank on a stretch of the river called Kewside. Loads of people think this sort of stuff is vandalism but I love it. And it’s pretty appropriate for Ramblers ‘cos this Monty Python sketch still does untold damage when any form of government gives consideration to walking as a form of sustainable transport. Go on, just imagine Boris Johnson doing the Ministry of Silly Walks.

Still don’t let this put you off – get yourself down to the Thames Path over the next couple of months and see what you find. The last blog paid homage to Sir Lawrence Chubb for all his sterling efforts in securing our right to walk on Hampstead Heath. The fact we can walk the length of the Thames is due in most part to one man: David Sharpe. He’s still up and about walking round London and you could do worse than buy a copy of his book, The Thames Path, before you go.

More information
Buy a copy of The Thames Path by David Sharpe here: http://www.ramblers.org.uk/info/publications/bookshop.htm

Useful links:
o The Ramblers  http://www.ramblers.org.uk/
o Ordnance Survey  http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/
o Himalayan Balsam  http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/himalbals.htm
o Eel Pie Island  http://www.iorr.org/talk/read.php?1,1049503
o Trevor Baylis  http://www.trevorbaylisbrands.com/
o Steven Wells  http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/29/obituary-steven-wells
o Seething Wells  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seething_Wells

Listen to:
The Jam – Tales From The Riverbank – Remixed Alternate Version
Steve Hackett – Tales of the Riverbank
Lightning Seeds – Tales of the Riverbank
Donovan – To Try for the Sun
Lindsey Buckingham – Try for the Sun

Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM5PjQW16r0
http://www.talesoftheriverbank.co.uk/trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqhlQfXUk7w