Weightman G. London River. The Thames Story

London: Collins & Brown, 1990. — 162 p. — ISBN10: 1-85585-075-3.Sailors always called the Thames "London River'. For them it was a highway to one of the world's great cities and ports.
Dockland ended at London Bridge, and the river above it was another world. The great di\ide between the tidal Thames and the freshwater river above Teddington is still sharply defined today, though the old port has vanished and from its source to the sea the Thames has lost much of its social and economic value.
In this book, and the television series it accompanies, Gavin Weightman takes an historical trip along the length of the Thames to fathom its real significance, not only for Londoners but for all those whose past has been influenced by the river, and who enjov it now.
An understanding of the enormous importance of river trade, from hay and coal to gold and spices, has been lost in the age of the motorway, the lorry and the aeroplane. London River, richly illustrated with the work of painters and photographers, recaptures the vitality and significance of the river.
Whereas many books on the river are merely accounts of places of i.nterest along the Thames, the perspective of this book is from the river. It is about tides and trade, lightermen and dockers, bridges and ferries, frost fairs and regattas, fish and drinking water, and the danger of floods.
No other book on the river has this scope, or the ability to launch the reader with lively prose and the testimony of living memory on a journey of discovery which spans the centuries, from the Romans to the ruins of riverside wharves and the rise of a new riparian London in Docklands.