Thames Landscape Strategy - Hampton to Kew -

Arcadian Diary - December 2006

I hope that you all enjoyed last months ‘draw off’. For those that don’t know, the draw off is an annual event that takes place each November between Teddington and Richmond Locks. At this time the river is allowed to drain naturally at low tide revealing much more foreshore than is normally seen.

As usual there was great excitement over the period. Each year the sheer number of people who visit the river to see the exceptional low tides demonstrates just how many people are hungry to learn more about the River Thames. This year, visitors were not disappointed – it was a spectacular draw off. The summer drought made for a particularly empty river, although this came to an abrupt end following the late November storms, causing the river to rise over night by more than one metre (and it still hasn’t gone down!).

The draw-off brings people down to the river for many different reasons. It may be in the hope of finding long lost treasures revealed by the low waters or it may be to watch the wildlife feeding on the exposed gravel. My favourite pastime is eel hunting. This year, we ventured out with some friends and their children. It is amazing how long one can keep a five year old boy completely absorbed simply by turning over stones on the river bottom searching for the slippery eel, and this year there was no shortage of them. At one point we had collected over 30 – wiggling in the water at the bottom of our bucket before letting them free (some of our party were from the Marine Conservation Society so no harm came to any of the eels collected). There was one great moment as we lifted up a huge slab of concrete that revealed over 50 eels sheltering from the low tide. These immediately slithered in almost every direction away from the upturned stone. This was a very exciting spectacle even to a 37 year old like me, so you can only imagine the delight of our friend’s child at this magical sight.

This said there was a more serious side to our eel-hunting mission – it was all part of a survey being carried out during November to find out what exactly lives at the bottom of the Thames. Firstly we found hundreds of eels on the Surrey bank (Ham and Richmond) and not one on the Middlesex side (Twickenham) – any ideas, as I am lost? Also there were lots of large eels (some two feet long) but the number of small elvers was worryingly low. Whilst I am no expert this cannot be good for the future population. The decline is generally thought to be caused by sewage pollution which is yet another reason to do something about the storm drains that spill their filth into our river.

Education about the river is so important if we are to conserve the wonderful natural asset that flows through the heart of London. This was given a big boost last month with the announcement by Richmond upon Thames Council that there is to be a new River Centre at Twickenham.

There are other water based education centres along the Thames notably at Chiswick Pier, Deptford, Henley on Thames and the floating River Thames Discovery Centre at Richmond. Each of these has its own special function based on the needs of their local river. The River and Rowing Museum at Henley for example is (surprisingly enough) based around rowing whilst the Ahoy! Centre at Deptford is a base for local watersports particularly sailing. The River Centre at Twickenham is to be quite different from all of these and really does fill a need for such a facility along our stretch of the river.

The centre came about following a succession of failed planning applications for the Twickenham Riverside site. After the last application fell through in 2002 it was decided to open up a competition to local organisations for a public benefit building on part of the redundant swimming pool area owned by the Council. The competition was launched in 2003 and six different organisations put forward proposals. Last month the results were announced and the Environment Trust for Richmond upon Thames – Twickenham Riverside Centre were the winners.

The proposal is for a community based building promoting the use of the river. It will be open to members of the public of all ages and backgrounds and available to any organisation, charity or business who are environment or river based.

The building will be fully accessible and include exhibition and office space for local environmental and rivery societies. Importantly, it will be a sustainable building meaning that it is to be constructed with the environment very much in mind in terms of energy and water saving devices. It is planned to have a pontoon associated with the centre so that visiting boats can moor and people visiting the facility can access the river by boat.

Undoubtedly the most prestigious boat to be housed in the centre is HM The Queen’s Royal Thames Barge ‘The Jubilant’, based at Richmond. The Twickenham Riverside Centre will provide winter quarters for the Jubilant. During the summer months the ‘shallop’ as it is known will be used by local schoolchildren, people with disabilities and disadvantaged kids from all across London. This is an important use for the Centre as at the moment the boat has no permanent home. It will also restore a traditional river related use back to the Embankment in Twickenham. The centre will also provide training in carpentry skills based around traditional boat building techniques for young people currently excluded from society.

The main purpose of the centre however, will be for local people to gain ‘hands-on’ experience of the river environment and ecology either in one of the proposed classrooms, on the foreshore or out on a boat. A number of different organisations have expressed an interest in helping to run the centre including the Thames Explorer Trust, the River Thames Boat Project and the Richmond Environment Network who plan to make the building their permanent home. Working alongside BTCV, the centre will become the base for the training of environmental volunteers in the area. Without this work much of the management of the open spaces we all cherish would simply not happen. Their role is so important.

The Twickenham River Centre will be such an asset for our stretch of the river. The Environment Trust is now busy putting its project team together and raising the funding needed to fit out the building which will form part of the development of the riverside site and if all goes to plan the centre will be open in about four years – a very exciting prospect for the river.

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